Making Blueberry Pie

This video on making blueberry pie is from the Boston Globe's food section on Wednesday November 14, 2007. I know blueberries are out of season but you can still buy them in your local grocery store to make this pie. I suggest going to Whole Foods which has a very good produce section. Having a blueberry pie for your Thanksgiving dessert is an excellent edition to the feast that everyone will enjoy!

Pasta with Meat Sauce

I decided I wanted to make a pasta dish so I looked around my refrigerator to see what I had and this is the meal that I came up with. It was actually really good! Here are the directions for the recipe.
Ingredients:
2 Boneless Chicken Breasts
One Box of Barilla Whole Grain Penne Pasta
One Jar of Classico Spicy Tomato& Pesto Sauce
One Onion
Cracked Green Olives
Salt
Pepper



First cut the excess fat off the chicken breasts and then lightly coat them with salt and pepper to add flavor. Next cut the chicken into small bite-size pieces.



Place a tiny amount of olive oil into a frying pan. Add just enough so the chicken will not stick to the pan. Place the chicken pieces into the frying pan and cook until they are tender.





Follow the directions on the back of the Barilla package to cook the pasta. Boil water in a pot and then add the contents of the package to the boiling water and cook uncovered for approximately ten minutes. When done drain the water from the pot.



Next chop up a large slice of onion (about a quarter of the onion)into tiny pieces. Put the pasta sauce in a frying pan to heat and add in the sliced onions and stir slowly until the pasta sauce begins to boil. Remove from the heat.





Finally, place the penne pasta on a plate. Add the sauce and chicken over top and put two or three green olives on top for extra taste. Bon appetit!

Phantom Gourmet- Great 8- Boston Restaurant Legends

Here is a YouTube video clip about Boston's eight greatest restaurants according to the television show Phantom. Learn about Galleria Umberto, Locke-Ober, Kelly's Roast Beef, Union Oyster House, Modern Pastry, Christo's, Durgin-Park, and Legal Sea Foods.

The Cheesecake Factory

The Cheesecake Factory is a chain restaurant and has locations all over the country, but that does not diminish the quality of their food. The amazing thing about this restaurant is that the main meals are as good as their desserts. The first time I went to one of their restaurants I was in Washington, D.C. and I fell in love with the food immediately, so when I arrived in Boston for college I was pleased to find out they had a location in the Prudential Center as well. Here are some dishes that I have tried and I think everyone will like: Pasta Da Vinci-"Sauteed Chicken, Mushrooms, Onions and Garlic in a Delicious Madeira Wine Sauce Tossed with Penne Pasta and Parmesan," Cajun Jambalaya Pasta-"Shrimp and Chicken Sauteed with Onions, Tomato and Peppers in a Very Spicy Cajun Sauce. All on top of Fresh Linguini," and finally Shepard'S Pie- "Ground Beef, Mushrooms, Carrots, Peas, Zucchini and Onions in a Delicious Sauce Covered with Mashed Potatoes and Parmesan Cheese."


However, the Cheesecake Factory, as the name implies, is the most famous for their desserts and of course their cheesecake. When I was a little girl I once had a piece of cheesecake, and it must have been pretty horrible because I decided from that moment on that I hated all cheesecake and refused to touch the stuff for years. I credit this restaurant for helping me to overcome this experience and revealing my new love for this dessert. They have some of the best cheesecake around. Here are some examples of a few flavors I have tried: White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle- "Creamy Cheesecake Swirled with White Chocolate and Raspberry," Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake- "Layers of Flourless Godiva Chocolate Cake, Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake and Chocolate Mousse," Adam's Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple- "Creamy Cheesecake Swirled with Caramel, Peanut Butter, Butterfingers and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups," Chocolate Oreo Mudslide Cheesecake- "Chocolate Oreos Baked in our Creamy Chocolate Cheesecake with a Chocolate-Almond Brownie Crust," Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie-Dough- "Chocolate Cheesecake Loaded with Peanut Butter Cookie Dough and Topped with Chocolate." Okay, so that is a little more than a few flavors, that is about half the menu. Clearly, I love their cheesecake and you will too! Here is their website to check if they have a location near you (the descriptions above were taken from the restaurant's menu). The Cheesecake Factory

10 Minute Cooking School: Puerco Pibil

I found this video on YouTube that I thought was a really good and entertaining cooking video made by filmaker Robert Rodriguez. In the clip Rodriguez teaches you how to make the Mexican dish, Puerco Pibil, and also provides some useful tips about learning to cook in general. On the plus side, girls will especially enjoy this video because he mixes it with images of Johnny Depp from the movie "Once Upon a Time in Mexico." That note aside, Puerco Pibil sounds delicious!

Somerville's High School Restaurant

My friend recently sent me this article and I thought I would share it with you, because I think it is really cool that high school students are running a restaurant. Looking back, I wish my high school had the vision to do something like this. Who knows I might have been a chief! Here is a clip from the article in Boston Now...

"Call it an exceptional vocational program and call it Somerville High School's best kept secret. Both can be used to describe the student-run Ray Izzo Highland Restaurant (81 Highland Ave.), which was started 24 years ago as part of the culinary arts division for the Center for Career and Technical Education at SHS.
In the classroom, students are taught various cooking methods and baking. Then, they apply their skills to the restaurant under teacher supervision.
"People have no idea how wonderful these kids cook," culinary arts teacher Sandy Zenga says."

For the rest of the article check out this link...http://www.bostonnow.com/news/local/2007/11/02/finding-a-recipe-for-success.

Gramma's Fried Chicken

I used my Gramma's recipe to make this fried chicken, but added a little twist of my own to the recipe. There are probably a million ways to make fried chicken (especially in the South) so experiment with it and make some variations of your own.

Ingredients:

2 Boneless Chicken Breasts

3 Eggs
Flour

Breadcrumbs

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Spices (Whatever you like on your chicken)

First prepare your dipping plates for the fried chicken. Put flour on one plate.

Scramble three eggs in a bowl until they are evenly blended.

Place the breadcrumbs on a plate and add spices to the breadcrumbs. Mix the two together. I did not have any spices of my own in my apartment, so I used my roommate's Indian spices. This is pretty unusual for fried chicken and I suggest you use garlic powder or other more traditional mixed spices to add to the breadcrumbs. My Gramma actually does not add any spices at all and just relies on the breadcrumbs, but I think the extra flavor gives the dish a bit more of a kick. The choice is up to you.

Next lightly coat the chicken in salt and pepper and then slice up the chicken into small chunks. I prefer to slice it up because it is easier to cook the chicken evenly this way but, if you want one big piece of fried chicken then use a meat tenderizer to even out the thickness of the chicken. If you do not have a meat tenderizer then the back of a frying pan will work just as well. It's a little bit crude but it gets the job done as my Gramma once told me.

Then follow these three steps for each piece of chicken.

1. Dip each chicken piece in flour, evenly coating the chicken on all sides.

2. Then place the chicken in the egg dish, covering the entire piece.

3. Finally, roll the chicken in the breadcrumbs, evenly coating it.

In a frying pan add olive oil until it is a little less than once centimeter deep in the pan. Turn the stove on at low heat. Wait until the olive oil begins to boil slightly and then add the prepared chicken pieces. One way to test if the olive oil is ready, is to dip a piece of bread into the oil and see if little bubbles appear around the edges of the bread.

Cook the chicken thoroughly by continually flipping over the pieces so they do not burn. The breadcrumbs should be a rich brown color when the chicken is ready to be removed from the pan. To double check that the chicken has cooked through completely poke a few pieces with a fork or cut a piece or two in half in the frying pan to check for pink spots. If the fork goes through the chicken smoothly it is cooked, if it does not give it another few minutes to cook.

Lay the cooked pieces on a plate with paper towels on top of the plate to sap off the extra olive oil from the chicken. Wait a few minutes for the chicken to cool.

Put the fried chicken on a plate and add ketchup and you're done! Enjoy!