Benedictine

Do you know about Benedictine spread? It's a delicious cucumber and cream cheese spread. It was invented in Louisville by a prominent caterer named Jennie Benedict. She was Louisville's foremost caterer at the turn of the 20th century, and Benedictine spread is her most well-known recipe. She also published a cookbook of her recipes in 1904, which she called The Blue Ribbon Cookbook. It was out of print for many years, but was recently reprinted, and I received a copy of it for Christmas last year. Many of the recipes are, well...strange. There's a whole chapter on "Sick Room Cookery," foods meant to help speed the recovery from illness. I haven't made many things from this cookbook, but I did decide to try one of the many Benedictine recipes that have been included. "Miss Jennie" didn't include her own recipe for Benedictine in any of her cookbooks, but many local restarauteurs included theirs in the newest reprint of The Blue Ribbon Cookbook. The one I tried comes from Lilly's restaraunt in Louisville.

My sister Allison loves Benedictine just as much as I do, so I decided to make her a batch of Benedictine to have for her lunch this week. Why? No reason, really. I just love her! I hope she enjoys it. I tasted it, and it's pretty darn good. I'll have to try some of the other recipes as well. Cucumbers have been on sale lately...grab a couple and make a batch of Benedictine!

Lilly's Benedictine
Kathy Cary, owner of Lilly's Restaurant in Louisville

8 oz. cream cheese

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and finely chopped

2 Tbs. red onion, finely chopped

1/4 tsp. kosher salt

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1 Tbs. fresh dill, finely chopped

Bring cream cheese to room temperature. Add other ingredients and mix well.

Vote Early...Vote Often

I need your help again! This week, I'm giving The Best Foodie Foto contest another go, and I'd really appreciate your vote! These are the pictures that I've entered into the contest. Let's review...
This is a slice of the Creamiest Lime Cream Meringue pie that I made for this past week's Tuesdays with Dorie event. Delicious!

Here's a photo of the pie before I cut into it. It was not only my first cream pie, but also my first meringue! Woo hoo...another culinary fear conquered!

And here are those yummy Glazed Peanut Butter Bars that I took to the Louden family reunion last Sunday. Peanut buttery goodness! Mmmm...

So, in order to vote, all you have to do is visit Hey, What's for Dinner, Mom?. Look for the photo that you think is the best "foodie foto", and leave a comment with the picture number. Hopefully you'll vote for one of my pictures. I think you can vote more than once, too! The voting will begin sometime tomorrow afternoon and will continue to Monday evening. Please stop by and cast your vote! Thanks a bunch!

Southwestern Chicken Roll-ups

Sometimes, you have high hopes for a recipe, and then you're disappointed with the final result. That's what happened with these Southwestern Chicken Roll-ups.
A couple of weeks ago, David and I went to our local library, which is brand-spankin' new and supremely awesome. David found a couple of Louis L'Amour books he hadn't read (which is unbelievable), and I found a couple of cookbooks. One of them was the 2005 Cooking Light Cookbook, which apparently has every recipe that Cooking Light printed in 2005. I thought this sounded good, so I decided to give it a try.
It's very simple, really. You take some chicken breasts, cream cheese, salsa, and cilantro and roll it all up. Then you dredge it in breadcrumbs and bake it. My review: meh. They were more like cream cheese-cilantro roll ups. The "Southwest" was unnoticeable. They were fine, don't get me wrong, but nothing that I'd rave over. I want to try to make them again, to jazz up the flavors. I'll put the recipe below, but I'd like to hear from you guys! What would you do differently? I think I definitely need to use some salsa that's got more "kick" than the mild stuff we keep here. Help me out...what changes would you make to the Southwestern Chicken Roll-ups?

Southwestern Chicken Roll-Ups

Cooking Light

6 (6-oz) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

6 Tbs. Neufchatel cheese (reduced-fat cream cheese)

6 Tbs. picante sauce

6 cilantro sprigs

6 Tbs. Italian-seasoned bread crumbs (I just dumped some out and rolled the chicken in it)

Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Top each breast half with 1 tablespoon cheese, 1 tablespoon picante sauce, and 1 cilantro sprig. Roll up jelly-roll fashion, beginning at narrow end (I used a toothpick to keep them rolled up).

Dredge chicken rolls in breadcrumbs. Place rolls, seam sides down, on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray; lightly coat rolls with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until chicken is done.

TWD: Creamiest Lime Cream Meringue Pie

Behold, my first meringue pie! Why, oh why, have I spent so many years afraid to make cream pies with meringues?!Linda, of The Tender Crumb, is responsible for this week's pick...the one that busted me out of my no-cream/meringue pie rut. Thank you, Linda! I had huge expectations to live up to on this one, because David's grandmother, Mama, is the Lemon Meringue Pie Queen. She makes lemon meringue pies on a pretty regular basis, and they are good! I wasn't sure if my pie would compare...but David said it was just as good as Mama's lemon meringue pie! Wow!
Mom and Chet (and David, of course) were the lucky taste-testers on this TWD assignment. Chet (the family chef) was very interested to hear that lime juice was used instead of water in the recipe. He said that all of the lemon meringue pies he'd made in the past called for water. I wouldn't know...I've never made one! I'll admit that I was intimidated by this recipe and nearly wimped out. Any time a recipe calls for the use of a candy thermometer and a specific temperature, I freak out. I don't know why...I've never had a bad result. I think I just equate a candy thermometer with some fancy technique. I did use the "supercharge" method to make the cream...I'm a very impatient person, and I couldn't begin to imagine whisking the mixture for 10 minutes. No way. My mixture turned to cream in a matter of a few minutes! I'm still trying not to think about the amount of butter that was blended into the mixture...good grief! But the results were delicious! I do wish I had used a little more ginger; I didn't really taste it much in the finished product. I really enjoyed the tart, zippy taste of the limes. I'll make this one again! If you want to try this super-refreshing pie, you can get the recipe at The Tender Crumb!

Glazed Peanut Butter Bars

This afternoon, David and I went to a family reunion. Of course, my contribution was a dessert. Yesterday I found this recipe for Glazed Peanut Butter Bars in an old issue of Taste of Home Magazine. I wanted a recipe that would make a nice-sized amount of servings, and this fit the bill. It filled a half-sheet pan, which made lots of tasty little bars! I had almost all of the ingredients on hand, which was a bonus!
The bars were nice and chewy, which I enjoyed. The recipe didn't call for the mini-chocolate chips, but I thought adding them would be the right thing to do!

Glazed Peanut Butter Bars

Adapted from a recipe in Taste of Home Magazine, courtesy of Janis Luedtke

For the Bars:

3/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 tsp. water

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 quick-cooking oats

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

For the Glaze:

1 1/4 cups milk chocolate chips

1/2 cup butterscotch chips

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, peanut butter, sugars, and water. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture.

Spread into a greased 15x10x1-inch baking pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 18-22 minutes, or until lightly browned.

For glaze, in a microwave safe bowl, melt chips and peanut butter; pour over warm bars and spread evenly. Cool completely on a wire rack before cutting. Yield: 4 dozen

Grilled Nectarines

Growing up, we never really had dessert after dinner at our house. Dessert was a real treat, and it usually went along with a special occasion, like a birthday or something like that. When I went away to college (at Lindsey Wilson College, in Columbia, KY), our dining center was (and still is) amazing. The food was (and still is) delicious! There was always a huge buffet of desserts available after every meal, so it became a habit to get dessert after lunch and dinner. It was a bad habit. When I graduated and moved into my own apartment, I broke that habit, mostly because I just didn't keep a lot of sweet stuff, so it wasn't available. Then, a few years later, I started working for Cedar Lake, and dessert was provided to our clients after every lunch...so I got back into the dessert habit again! I don't work for Cedar Lake anymore, but the habit has gotten much harder to break. Still, after every meal I eat (except breakfast), I think to myself, "Now I need a little something sweet." Today after lunch, I felt that way, but I made a healthy little dessert for David and me.

Since it's late summer, stone fruits are in season, so I picked up a couple of nectarines during my last shopping trip. I've seen people everywhere grilling stone fruits of all kinds, so I thought I ought to jump on the bandwagon and see what the fuss is about!
Grilled stonefruit (nectarines, in this case) is amazing. It's so simple...I just sprinkled a little brown sugar on the flesh side and laid it on a well-greased grill pan for a couple of minutes, until it got a few little grill marks (not as dramatic as I had hoped for, though). I added a little vanilla yogurt and a drizzle of honey, and it was as good as an ice cream sundae...no kidding! The sweetness of the nectarines just seemed to be intensified by the grilling. It was a simple, delicious little dessert that took no time to prepare. If you've got a fridge full of stonefruit, you need to give this a try! Yum!

TWD: Applesauce Spice Bars

Thank goodness we had another easy TWD assignment this week! I love a good baking challenge, but not during my busiest work time of the year. I work for Lindsey Wilson College's School of Professional Counseling, and we're in the last week before our Fall semester begins...so needless to say...life is crazy! But thank goodness for Karen, of Something Sweet by Karen, for choosing a delicious and simple recipe.
I was just telling David the other day that I'm tired of summer and ready for fall. I can only take so much heat and humidity before I start dreaming of crisp breezes, the smell of leaves burning, the softness of cozy sweaters, and the smells of autumn baking. This recipe was perfect for satisfying my fall yearnings! Apples, brown sugar, spices...all of the hallmarks of a fall comfort food recipe are here! Dorie's Applesauce Spice Bars were wonderful, and they couldn't have been more simple to prepare. The recipe calls for unsweetened applesauce in the batter, and I didn't have any on hand. However, I did have some homemade applesauce that I decided to use. Since it was sweetened, I cut back on the brown sugar a little...but not enough. These turned out a little too sweet for me, but delicious nonetheless!
If you're pining away for fall and need a little "pick-me-up" this week, you can grab this recipe from Karen's cute little website, Something Sweet by Karen. Enjoy!