September | 2010 | Regular Cooks

CIMG2103 — Tracy and her mom, Paula, and sister, Ashley

When I started this blog, I knew people would have to let me watch them cook and I’d probably get to eat some good meals. But, here in the south, the cooking turns into a party….every time! And today was no different.

I had met Tracy at a previous luncheon where I had watched her younger sister, Ashley, make Yakisoba. I liked Tracy immediately. She is very fun to be around, has a great style about her and is very knowledgable about food. That day I learned she was trying to follow a gluten free diet. She recently discovered she was gluten intolerant. After she informed us about it, about half of us in the room thought that maybe we were too! Anyway, I thought a gluten free blog entry was in order.

Tracy grew up in Elizabeth City, but moved to the DC/Baltimore area many years ago. When she came back into town to visiting her parents, she invited me to come and watch her make a main dish she prepares on a regular basis. She didn’t even have a name for it. She told me her uncle worked for the airlines and they served this dish to the first class passengers. So, it now has a name: Tracy’s First Class Chicken.

You can’t get much easier than wrapping a chicken breast around a hunk of cream cheese and wrapping the entire thing in bacon. But, Lord have mercy, it is simply moist and delicious. I cannot wait to cater my daughter’s wedding now. Or better yet, have Tracy do it!

It was clear when I was observing Tracy that she has some serious cooking skills. Her knife skills are excellent and her way with food was very natural. She informed me that she took half of a culinary course a few years back, but never finished. I’ll tell you, the time was not wasted. She is fun to watch.

Tracy had already “tourned” the potatoes for her rosemary potatoes before I had gotten there. I’m glad she did. Tourne is a french style of cutting potatoes and it is time consuming, but it’s the perfect shape for roasting. You can make about 6-8 small football shaped potatoes out of one regular potato. If you are super curious about this, here’s a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2LMzr2VPRY. I was impressed.

Tracy also served a red pepper and mushroom garnish for the chicken, a mandarin salad with poppy seed dressing and also a side of roasted asparagus. And creme brulee for dessert. I had completely forgotten that this was a gluten-free meal.

This is an excellent combination of foods; perfect for company or a large crowd. All which can be made ahead of time, so you can visit with your company prior to dinner. You will really impress your guests if you can get the tourne technique down. Goat cheese could also be used in place of cream cheese and add herbs if you so desire.

By the way, the party was fabulous and good food is always an excuse to drink wine in the middle of the day!!

Tracy’s First Class Chicken

Layout a chicken breast and cut a hunk (about an ounce) of cream cheese and put it in the middle of the chicken breast.

Wrap the breast around the cheese. Completely wrap the chicken breast with the cheese in it with bacon. About five slices per large breast. Wrap in all different directions. This will hold the breast of chicken closed.

Place on a rack over a pan so that juices can drain. Bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. Aren’t these cute?

For a garnish, thinly slice red pepper. Combine in a pan with mushrooms and olive oil. Saute for 10 minutes.

Serve with chicken.

Roasted Rosemary Tourne Potatoes

Tourne 2 or 3 potatoes into about 24 pieces. Place in an iron skillet.

Chop garlic. Chop a couple of springs of fresh rosemary. Chop a couple of springs of fresh rosemary.

Drizzle potatoes with about a Tbsp of olive oil and mix garlic and rosemary into potatoes and oil. Add salt and pepper.

Bake at 400 until they are nicely browned.

You can bake the chicken and the potatoes at the same time.

Roasted Asparagus

Cut off tough ends of asparagus and put on a roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix and roast at 400 for about 10-15 min depending on size. Chopped shallots could be added if you have one on hand.

Mandarin Orange Salad

Tracy combined 2 Tbsp of wine vinegar, 1 tsp of Dijon mustard, 1/2 tsp salt, a pinch of cayanne, 1 Tbsp Honey, 6 Tbsp Olive Oil, 1 1/2 tsp of poppy seeds. Mix with a wisk.

Slice 1/2 red onion.

Put a container of baby romaine, or similar salad green in a large bowl. Top with onions and an 11 oz can of drained Mandarin oranges.

Creme Brulee

Since creme brulee needs to be made ahead of time and chilled, Tracy had already done that.. She used a basic recipe from the internet.

Sprinkle with a combination of brown and regular sugar. Place under broiler for 2 minutes or until browned. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Until last Saturday, I didn’t know what Colcannon was. I was given the ingredients and a recipe and was told to make it. This is not a family recipe or some comfort food my kids will remember. In fact, they’ve never had it. It’s because of my unexpected guests that I chose to blog about it.

Colcannon is generally made with kale or cabbage, mashed potatoes, butter and milk, and is an Irish dish that is served on Halloween with coins hidden in it for the kids. It’s also served on St. Paddy’s Day. Now, I don’t have an Irish bone in my body (English through and through), but you can’t go wrong with mashed potatoes, no matter what’s in them.

Two weeks ago, the woman who rented our beach house in Carova, NC had to leave because her dog became seriously ill. We were very upset for her and the dog, but we took the opportunity to go down and perform some much needed maintenance and spend a few days looking at the ocean. We rent our house out from Sunday to Sunday (www.breaknwind.com) and it’s always booked, so we hardly get to use it during the season.

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My oldest friend (lol, I’ve known her since I was 5), GeGe, and her mom “Grammy King” came too, and as always, GeGe overbuys food (aka food hoarder) and brought way too much. And, of course, chaos follows her as usual. She had to leave the next morning because her daughter went into labor six weeks early and she had to get to Pittsburgh. Grammy King stayed with me. This baby, Kaiden Michael, is just the first of the unexpected guests that arrived too early that week.

So, on that Saturday morning I planned to have hamburgers for dinner, put them on the counter to defrost and we all went to the beach. It was a gorgeous day. We stayed out there for hours, having Lane move the umbrella every hour or so for Grammy and I as the tide went down. Lane went back up to the beach house and shortly came back with two people I didn’t recognize behind him. I told Grammy, “Lane is with two people”. She says, maybe they are his friends. I said, “Lane doesn’t have two friends”. Anyway we laughed, but I had already figured out in my mind who they were.

They introduced themselves, and sure enough, they were the renters for Sunday that showed up a day early. Lane found them in our house roaming around, looking at our luggage and cell phones and unmade beds and began to get scared that someone might come out with a shotgun if they didn’t get out. They called my cell phone and it rang on the table. At this point, they still hadn’t figured out what the deal was.

Lane, thinking that they are some sort of maintenance people, said, “Who are you?” and the guy says, “I’m Mr. Grimm. I rented this house.” Lane tells them it’s a Sunday to Sunday rental and after they looked at their paperwork, they realized their mistake. They had been on the road for two days to get there. They were so excited to arrive they left a day early. Lane told them they could stay, but would have to check it out with me. That’s when he brought them to the beach. I told them there was no chance they’d get a hotel for only one night on a Saturday anywhere near there and that they’d have to stay with us and join us for dinner.

I made my way back to the house and decided that maybe I’d make the Colcannon and a spiral ham that GeGe brought, so I looked at the recipe. I decided to make a few changes. Between the Colcannon, the wine and the laughter, we became quick friends and have a great story to tell for years to come.

Colcannon for Unexpected Guests

Wash about 2 lbs of unpeeled, red potatoes and cut them into large chunks. Put them in boiling water with a generous amount of salt for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute 1/2 a large onion and salt and pepper in 2 Tbsp on butter and a Tbsp of olive oil until soft, about 10 minutes.

Add 3/4 head diced cabbage and more salt and pepper and cook until soft. I used shredded because Trader Joe’s didn’t have a head of cabbage, so I was forced to buy the bagged shredded. Ideally, I’d prefer if the cabbage and the onions were about the same size. That way Grammy King can’t tell there’s onion in the dish. She thinks she’s allergic. hehe

Melt 6 Tbsp on butter on low heat and keep warm.

Shred some Irish Dubliner cheese. You can get it in your fancy cheese section. It’s pretty common. It typically comes in a 7 oz. block, so use it all if you want. There’s never such a thing as too much cheese in my opinion.

Also, if you have it, chop about 4 green onion tops.

When the potatoes are done, drain and put back into the pot. Mash with a fork and add some salt and pepper, 3/4 cup of milk and a giant spoonful of sour cream.