Caviar Pie

Don’t be put off by the name of this appetizer.  Although the words caviar and pie may seem incongruous, in this case they meld beautifully together.  Think elegance and home-cooking goodness, joined in the best kind of edible yin-and-yang.  The recipe comes form my friend Jamie, who in turn got it from her mother.  

The elegant, colorful layers display at the beginning only on the outside of the pie.  But as you cut into it, they show all the way through.  The presentation is lovely, but that's only part of the package here.  In each small bite of pie, you get tastes of each layer that are distinct, complementary, and addictively combined all at the same time.   

I worried momentarily about overselling this dish.  Then I remembered Saturday night when I brought it to a potluck.  I couldn’t get any good pictures because of the crowd around it.  In a flash the pie was gone, and all I had was an empty plate and friends asking me for the recipe.

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Slow Cooker (Crock Pot) Chicken

For our second “slow cooker support group” dinner, Aviva and I decided to do chicken.  With a recipe from one of her readers in hand, we expanded the support group to include Colleen, and set off on another culinary adventure. 

Directions from original recipe (paraphrased) 

• Mix a bunch of spices 
• Throw them on a roasting chicken 
• Put it in a plastic bag and refrigerate overnight
• Put chopped onion on the bottom of the slow cooker 
• Take chicken out of bag and move it to slow cooker 
• Let it cook for a few hours, then eat it 

I played with the recipe (a lot), but kept the basic concept of dry cooking a whole chicken rubbed with spices.  Amazingly, you do not add any liquid, yet at the end, the chicken and spices produce a small, but lovely bit of broth to spoon over the dish when you serve it.

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Easy weekday chicken - a template, not just a recipe

Everyone who eats chicken should have a simple and quick chicken dish that they can whip up on a weekday.  Although I call it a recipe because I’ve given the detailed directions, it’s really a template because there are probably infinite ways you can vary the basic cooking techniques to come up with your own version.

This recipe works for me on so many levels (besides how simple and easy it is to make):  

• it incorporates vegetables, so it’s really a 1 dish meal that only needs a starch and salad; 
• it uses only 1 pan, which makes the person who cleans up your mess (maybe you) very happy;
• it has sauce, so it’s moist;
• it’s incredibly adaptable – you can make it as long as you have chicken, chicken broth, cooking oil, some vegetables and an herb or two; and 
• it’s great reheated the next day, so you can make it ahead of time, or enjoy the leftovers.

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