Appetizer: Bleu Cheese Pinecone

Mrs. Glade asked me to cater a dinner party for 20+ guests at her home tonight.We planned a very fall-like meal, comprised of some of the dishes that I've made in the past that she and her husband particularly enjoyed. I mixed in a couple of new items, as well. On the menu:

Pistachio-Covered Cheese Log
Blue Cheese Pinecone
Green Salad
Braised Brisket with Cranberries
Rice Pilaf with Vermicelli
My Mom's Apple Crisp with Vanilla Ice Cream


The Bleu Cheese Pinecone was one of the items that was new for me. I wanted to do something to complement the pistachio-covered cheese log, which is made with cheddar. I found this recipe on a women's ministry web site and it is super easy. They suggest shaping the cheese mixture into a pinecone. I went the classic route and just shaped it into a ball. The almond-covered ball and the pistachio-covered log looked very nice together!

The Rice Pilaf with Vermicelli was another new-to-me recipe. I thought it would pair nicely with the brisket, since the brisket is very flavorful and a bit tart. My mom always adds vermicelli or another similar pasta to her rice, so I am used to making rice with pasta. But unlike my mom's recipe, this one adds onions and cooks in chicken broth instead of water. It, too, was very easy. It serves four, so I used three pots and did a double batch in each one. I'll definitely make it again some time for me and Mr. Fritz.

Dinner Tonight: Chicken with Easy Peanut Sauce

Another night, another oooold recipe that I've finally gotten around to trying. This time, it's Jean Carper's recipe for Chicken with Easy Peanut Sauce. Mr. Fritz and I both liked this a lot, and since it lived up to it's "easy" title, I definitely plan to make it again.

Jean calls for grilling chicken breasts for 7 minutes. We don't have a grill, so I threaded bite-sized pieces of chicken onto four metal skewers and broiled them for around 8 minutes, turning each skewer once mid-way through cooking them. While they were broiling, I made the peanut sauce - you just put peanut butter, garlic, a bit of soy sauce, and some chicken broth into a bowl and nuke it for three minutes.


I plated the chicken with steamed pea pods and basmati rice and served the peanut sauce in a ramekin on the side. It made for a nice looking plate and each element was really good both individually and collectively. And considering there were four components to the meal, cleanup was still pretty quick.

Dinner tonight... Parmesan-Carrot Risotto and Peach-Pecan Chicken

When I saw the recipe for Parmesan-Carrot Risotto in the January/February issue of Everyday Food, I was surprised to see that they'd substituted regular rice for arborio rice and thought to myself, well, I'll just make it with arborio rice anyway. I had to laugh, then, when I opened my pantry tonight and realized that I am somehow out of arborio rice altogether and as a result, had to go with plain rice after all. In any case, this recipe was more flavorful than I thought it would be, in the best way possible. The toughest part about making it is grating the carrots (I used a box grater. Next time, I might be tempted to just go all out and grate them in my food processor. There's nothing fun about grating carrots on a box grater. Nothing.). The second toughest part is hanging around the stove long enough to keep stirring and stirring and stirring until the rice absorbs all of the chicken broth. But in the end it was worth it, as it yielded a really hearty, tasty dish. I think I still prefer using real arborio rice for risotto, but it's nice to know that I can approximate it with regular rice if the need arises.


I paired it with roasted chicken breast that I braised in Paula Deen-brand Peach Pecan Dressing that I received in my Christmas stocking at Mr. Fritz's house this year. I put the chicken in a heavy baking dish (which, coincidentally, was given to me by The Original Mrs. Fritz for Christmas last year), spread a few tablespoons of the dressing on top, and put it in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. It came out nice and moist and the dressing made for a great glaze as it cooked down. Super easy! And I still have lots of the dressing left over, so I'll be able to experiment with using it in other ways.