Marinated cheese appetizer

Say cheese! Whether sliced into wedges with crackers or whipped into dips, cheese makes an admirable base for appetizers. This week we’ll focus on cheese appetizers as we count down the holiday month.

First up, an easy make-ahead dish that goes well served with crackers or bread toasts to sop up the yummy marinade. Everyone always asks for the recipe, which is ridiculously easy. Only caveat: You have to start this recipe at least the day before.

Marinated cheese

Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens, Dec. 2006.

Ingredients

1 pound cheese, cut into half-inch cubes (a mix of mozzarella, Monterey Jack, provolone, Colby or cheddar works well)

½ cup good quality olive oil (the oil makes a big difference in how well this turns out, so don’t cheap out)

¼ cup fresh lemon juice (ditto with the lemon juice; skip the green bottle for this one)

Zest of 1 lemon

3 garlic cloves, sliced

½ teaspoon fennel seeds

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

½ teaspoon mustard seeds

¼ teaspoon cracked black pepper

Method

Place cheese in a bowl. Combine oil, lemon juice and zest, garlic, seeds and pepper. Whisk to combine. Toss with cheese. Cover and marinate in refrigerator for at least a day in advance and up to several. The flavors need time to sink in; otherwise it’s just nicely flavored oil with cheese that’s just cheese. Bring to room temperature before serving so the olive oil won’t be congealed.

Note: While I use a mix of seeds to flavor this, just one variety works OK too; just use 1 teaspoon of one kind of seed if you prefer.

Parsnip apple soup

If you’re a parsnip novice, this is a good break-in recipe that exploits their inherent sweetness.

Parsnip apple soup

From “The Cafe Brenda Cookbook” by Brenda Langton

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter

2 medium onions, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

3 cups peeled, chopped parsnips

1 large tart apple chopped, about 2 cups

4½ cups broth

¼ teaspoon white pepper

½ cup half and half

Method

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Saute onions until nearly translucent. Stir in garlic. Cook for another minute. Add parsnip and apple, cook for another 5 minutes. Add broth. Simmer, covered, over low heat for about 30 minutes until vegetables are tender. Add pepper and salt to taste. Whisk in half and half. Transfer to food processor and puree until smooth, or use a stick blender. Serves 6.

Brussels sprouts with bacon, bourbon and honey mustard

Among the many things I'm thankful for today, not being on a long car trip on iffy roads is high up there. We were scheduled spend the day with family, and while it would have been nice to see them, the very colorful weather map showing blue, pink, green and yellow all clustered along our path gave us pause. Watching the snowfall from inside the house was a much better plan.

That of course meant Plan B in the kitchen, since obviously I didn't have a turkey thawing just in case and no grocery stores are open in Minnesota on food holidays. But a nice roast chicken was a lovely substitute, and I had some cranberries on hand to make my favorite chutney. Because it was just the two of us to please, I opted to try a new recipe for Brussels sprouts. This was one of a slew of recipes compiled into an over-the-top all Bourbon-laced Thanksgiving menu (thanks for sharing, Rebekah), and it seemed just the antidote needed.

Brussels sprouts with bacon, bourbon and mustard

From gardenandgun.com

Ingredients

1 pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved lengthwise

4 slices slab bacon, but into small chunks

¼ cup bourbon

1 tablespoon honey mustard

Method

Cook bacon in a skillet until crispy. Remove from pan. In rendered fat, brown Brussels sprouts. Add a small amount of water, cover and cook until sprouts are nearly as tender as you want. Mix bourbon and honey. Add to pan. Toss to combine and cook uncovered until sprouts are tender and sauce has formed. Season with salt and pepper.

Rating: Really? With bacon AND bourbon? How can it not be tasty? I barely waited long enough to take the photo before we gobbled them up.

Root vegetable soups

It's turned colder, and it's time to deploy root vegetables. To use up the rutabagas and sweet potatoes I bought from the market, I turn to this duo of soups, one called autumn soup and one called winter soup. In whatever order you eat them, they're tasty.
 

Autumn soup with crispy bacon

Via Epicurious.com, from “Cooking 1-2-3” by Rozanne Gold

Ingredients

1½ pounds sweet potatoes or yams

1 large rutabaga, about 1½ pounds

6 slices bacon, divided

5 cups water or more

1 teaspoon salt

12 black peppercorns

Method

Chop three bacon slices. Heat in large saucepan over medium heat until it’s released its fat, but hasn’t started to crisp up. Add sweet potatoes and rutabagas. Toss to coat. Add water, salt and pepper. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes or until vegetables are soft. Whir in food processor or with stick blender until smooth.

Cook remaining slices of bacon. Serve as garnish. Makes 6 hearty servings.

Winter vegetable soup

From Epicurious.com

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

1 Granny Smith or other tart apple, peeled, cored and chopped

1 cup peeled and chopped rutabaga (or you could use turnips, but I don't know why you would)

1 cup peeled, seeded and chopped butternut squash

1 cup peeled and chopped carrot

1 cup peeled and chopped sweet potato or yam

5 cups broth

¼ cup maple syrup

Cayenne pepper

Method

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium low heat. Cook onion until translucent. Add apple and remaining vegetables. Season with salt and cook about 5 minutes. Add stock, bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer, covered, until vegetables, a good half hour or more. Add syrup and cayenne pepper to taste. Puree in food processor or with stick blender until very smooth.

Rating: Both of these are tasty, filling soups. The only clear-cut winner is the diner. The winter soup has more complexity of flavor, perhaps, and of the two, I'd be more likely to serve that one to guests simply because of it's richer color and smoother consistency. But the autumn soup, with its smoky bacon notes and thick heartiness, is a top rib-sticking choice on a cold day.

Chicken with lemon shallot cream sauce

Chicken with shallots

Adapted from “How Easy Is That?” by Ina Garten. Can you tell how much I love this cookbook?

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup white wine

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

¼ cup finely chopped shallots

3 tablespoons cream

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

4 tablespoons butter

Method

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large, oven-safe skillet or roasting pan, heat oil over medium high heat. Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Place in pan and sear well on both sides. Transfer pan to the oven for 12 to 15 minutes.

Remove chicken from pan and set aside, covered with foil. Place pan back on stove top over medium high heat. Add wine, lemon juice and shallots, scrapping in pan juices. Cook until only a few tablespoons remain. Add the cream, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and swirl in butter until melted. Serve chicken topped with sauce.

Rating: I've made lots of recipes along these lines, but then again, there's a reason for that. Hard to go wrong with that ingredient list, and this recipe does just fine, with a nice lemon tang. Chicken breasts can be easy to dry out, but this stayed juicy despite my opting (incomprehensibly for me) to swap in skinless breasts for the skin-on variety originally called for.

Chicken broccoli salad with mustard-wine dressing

I’m blessed with a superabundance of cooked chicken in the house as a byproduct of all that broth making I keep evangelizing about. So I’ll never pass up another potential new recipe for using some of the excess.

If you aren’t afflicted with this oversupply, the meat off a rotisserie chicken would work. Otherwise, the original recipe called for roasting 2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (rubbed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper) for 35 to 40 minutes at 350 and then deboning them.

Mustard chicken salad

Adapted from “How Easy Is That?” by Ina Garten

Ingredients

4 cups cooked chicken

2 cups broccoli florets, steamed

¾ cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon white wine (or tarragon vinegar)

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1½ tablespoons grainy mustard

1 tablespoon minced fresh tarragon leaves

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

Method

Put chicken and broccoli in a bowl. Mix mayonnaise, wine, mustards and tarragon. Toss dressing with chicken mixture. Fold in tomatoes. Chill at least an hour to let flavors blend.

Rating: This one definitely works. Slightly tempted to try adding lemon zest next time, but definitely a perfectly fine, fast way to get a weekend lunch on the table.

Food oddity of the day: News broke that Oreo cookie fans are now able to customize packages of Oreos online. I was intrigued by this until I visited the site (www.shop.oreo.com if you can't look away) and discovered that it's just the packaging you can personalize, which while OK-ish, isn't quite what I'd envisioned. That naturally led me on a quest to compare Oreo-type recipes online, and inevitably led me to this site where you can order your own customized cookie stamps (http://mycookiestamp.com), which strikes me as a stellar idea. But what to have it say? So many options....