Mustard chicken, my man cookies, whole wheat banana bread

My Man Cookies

1 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 scant teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
2 cups quick oats
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup coconut
(option: 1 cup butterscotch chips)

Oven 350

Cream together 1 cup shortening, 1 cup white sugar, and 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar. Add 2 eggs. Beat until light and fluffy. Add: 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 1 scant teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix again. Add: 2 cups sifted flour. Mix until just combined. Fold in: 2 cups quick oats, 1 cup chopped pecans, 1 cup flaked sweetened coconut, (Optional 1 cup butterscotch chips).

Roll into balls. Bake on lightly greased or lined cookie sheet until lightly brown on top, 7-10 minutes. Cool slightly before removing from pan.



Whole Wheat Banana Bread
1 ¾ cup soft wheat flour (sift out some bran with a strainer if you grind it yourself). (You can also use whole hard wheat flour (white or red), or a mixture of white flour and whole wheat flour.)
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed ripe banana
1/3 cup shortening or butter
2 tablespoons milk
2 eggs
1 cup chopped nuts
1 cup chocolate chips

Mix 1 cup flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add banana, shortening and milk. Beat on low, then high for 2 minutes. Add eggs and rest of flour. Mix again, then add nuts and chocolate chips. Pour into 8x4x2 loaf pan, cook 55-60 minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on rack. Wrap in plastic wrap overnight to keep it from falling apart when you cut it.



Mustard Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
olive oil
salt and pepper
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons dijon mustard
1/3 cup breadcrumbs (I like Italian seasoned)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
3/4 cup homemade or low-sodium chicken stock
1/2 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven 375. Rub chicken with olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Sear quickly over medium high heat, then remove to oven safe dish.

Mix mustard and butter. Spread 3/4 of it onto chicken. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and thyme. Bake until internal temperature is 165 degrees.

While chicken is cooking, reduce chicken stock by half over medium heat. Add reserved mustard/butter mixture and heavy cream, continue reducing over low heat until creamy. Serve over chicken.

Chicken Marinade

1 cup olive oil
1.5 cups soy sauce


1/3 cup brown sugar
3 cloves garlic
4 tbsp. mustard

Poke holes in chicken breasts and marinade for at least 3 hours. Grill.
I'm still trying to get the ratios right. Let me know how it turns out!

Kelly's Coconut Pecan Brown Butter Cake with Brown Butter Frosting.

Stop being a wuss, and eat your butter.

Did you see the time Kelly (of Regis and Kelly) dressed up as Paula Deen for Halloween? You probly didn't, because Regis and Kelly can be very annoying, and you might have turned them off, say, ten years ago. But maybe it was Kathie Lee who was around ten years ago? Well, never mind, cause she was even more annoying. (But now she's back on TV, and every time I flip past, she and Hoda are drinking wine or talking about drinking wine, at 10 o'clock in the morning, and chatting about not eating or not getting plastic surgery. Is a good argument for getting cable TV.)

Which reminds me, I almost called the cable company this week and begged them to hook me up because I just couldn't face the fall season with no CBS, but then Jake went into the attic and fiddled with the antenna, so now I'm back in the game, watching inappropriate shows that waste my life. (At least I'm self-aware).

(I really liked Running Wilde last night.)

But somehow I've gone off-topic before I even got on topic. My topic is butter.

So, it was Halloween, and the Kelly Ripa/Paula was faking a southern accent and saying something like I love me some butter kebabs. (She's waving around a cube of butter impaled on a skewer.) I like to wash down my butter kebabs with a nice cup of warm oil, or put the butter kebab between two doughnuts for a tasty treat. I'd show you the clip, but it's full of Regis cussing it up as Gordon Ramsay. And just because I watch inappropriate TV doesn't mean you do, too.

So on Sunday, when I made this cake, I was channeling Kelly-as-Paula. And as we all know, Paula makes delicious food (I don't fully trust the dishes made by skinny little Giada, who obviously spends more time on the treadmill and buying supportive cleavage-enhancing under-fashions than browning her butter.

No, that's not a figure of speech.

I asked my Mom what sort of birthday cake she wanted, and she told me coconut or chocolate with brown butter frosting. So I made a little of both. In one 9x13 pan. And if I do say so myself, the results were quite good.

Kelly's Coconut Pecan Brown Butter Cake with Brown Butter Frosting.

Ingredients:

Cake

2 1/2 cups flour

1 2/3 cups sugar

2 sticks butter (unsalted), browned and cooled to nearly solid in freezer of refrigerator.

1 cup plus 2 tbsp buttermilk (or add 1 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice 1 cup plus 1 tbsp milk and let   stand for 10 minutes)

4 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

1.5 cups chopped pecans

1.5 cups sweetened flaked coconut

Frosting

1 stick unsalted butter, browned and cooled

3 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla

3-5 tbsp milk or cream

pinch salt

Directions:

Melt butter (I used two separate small saucepans, one with two sticks of butter for the cake, one with one stick, for the frosting) over low to medium heat, stirring nearly constantly. The butter will foam up, and become clear, then start to turn color. Once it starts to turn (about 5 minutes, depending on heat), watch it very carefully, because it will burn quickly. When it is a light to medium brown, take it off the heat and put it in the freezer or the refrigerator to re-solidify.

After the butter is cooled, mix all cake ingredients (better if they are at room temperature) in mixer bowl (except coconut and pecans) with paddle attachment on low speed until combined. Then beat on high until well mixed. Add coconut and pecans.

Pour into a greased 9x13 baking dish. Bake 35-45 minutes at 350 degrees. Check the center with a toothpick. The cake is done when the toothpick comes out almost clean. The center will continue to cook as it cools. Don't over-bake or it will be dry!

To make frosting, beat cooled brown butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Add milk or cream a little at a time, until the frosting reaches a spreadable consistency.

Frost cooled cake! Eat it!

It is even better than a butter kebab and doughnut sandwich!

Now, go make it for yourself.

I will not listen to you whine about your lactose intolerance or your vegan ways.

Butter is delicious!

Oh. And Joey is six months old today!

(He gets no cake.)

Chicken and rice casserole

Just my notes on the old standby. I like more rice and veggies, and not so much soup.

4 chicken breasts
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 1 /4 cups rice
2 cans milk
3/4 of an onion
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
Thyme, pepper and Johnny's garlic salt to taste.

Brown chicken and set aside. Saute chopped onion, celery and carrot in a little butter.  Pour into 9x13 pan. Whisk milk and soup together and pour into 9x13 pan. Add rice and seasoning. Bake at 350 degrees convection for 15 minutes, then add browned chicken to the top and bake about 30 minutes more, until chicken is 170 degrees internal temp and rice is soft.