Review of last recipe (photo above) - A big disappointment ... I thought freshly baked bread ...ah..., but it was just okay.  Even though there was parmesan and thyme in it, I really didn't taste any particular flavoring.

TODAY'S RECIPE - CHICKEN DRUMSTICKS WITH TARRAGON
                                            AND SHALLOT BUTTER


Serves 4

8 drumsticks (about 2 lbs)
4 tbsp unsalted butter

Tarragon Shallot Mixture
1 tbsp dried tarragon
1 tbsp minced shallots
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 egg yolk

2 tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup white vermouth
3/4 cup heavy cream

Rinse the drumsticks lightly and pat dry.  On the bottom, flatten surface of each drumstick and make a 2" vertical cut right beside the bone.  Using the tip of the knife, scrape a little along the side of the bone to make a small pocket about 1/2" deep and 1 1/2-2" long.  Mix the minced shallots, dried tarragon, salt and pepper.  Cut the butter into eight pieces.  Stuff the pocket of each drumstick with some of the tarragon-shallot mixture and a pat of butter.

Heat a saute pan and add the oil.  Heat the oil to approximately 375 degrees and place the drumsticks, pocket side up, in the pan.  Fry the drumsticks over high heat until golden.  Turn the legs over and add the vermouth.  Cover and reduce the heat to low.  Cook for 20-25 minutes or until the drumsticks are cooked and tender.

Uncover the pan and transfer the drumsticks, stuffed side down, on a serving platter, arranging them like the spokes of a wheel with the tips out towards the edge.  Cover to keep warm.

Turn the heat up under the saute pan and cook the sauce about 3 minutes, reducing it to a coating consistency.  Using a whisk, lightly beat the egg yolk and heavy cream together.  Slowly add 1/4 of the hot reduced sauce to the cream mixture, whisking continuously.  Add the egg yolk-cream mixture to the pan and slowly heat, mixing continuously, until the sauce is thick.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Pour sauce over drumsticks and serve.

Review of last recipe (photo above) - My sauce verte was lumpy, and not emulsified enough, but was SO GOOD anyway!  This would be great with the addition of other seafood and/or salmon.  My re-engineering of the recipe was a success!

TODAY'S RECIPE - LITTLE BRAIDED HERB BREADS
I'm not much of a bread baker, but here goes!

Makes 6 loaves, each 4 servings

1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
3 pkg active dry yeast
about 6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
6 tbsp butter
3 eggs
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tsp thyme leaves

About 4 1/2 hours before serving or 1 day ahead:

In a large bowl, combine sugar, salt, yeast, and 2 cups flour.  In a saucepan over low heat, combine milk, water, and butter until very warm (120-130 degrees).

With mixer at low speed, gradually beat liquid into dry ingredients until just blended.  Increase speed to medium; beat 2 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula.  Beat in eggs, parmesan cheese, thyme and 1 cup flour to make a thick batter, and continue beating 2 minutes, scraping bowl often.  With wooden spoon, stir in 3 cups flour to make a soft dough.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic; about 10 minutes, working in more flour while kneading (about 1/2 cup).  Shape dough into a ball and place in greased large bowl, turning dough over so that the top is greased.  Cover with towel and let rise in a warm place (80-85 degrees), away from draft, until doubled; about 1 hour (dough is doubled when two fingers pressed lightly into dough leaves a dent).

Grease six 5 1/4" x 3 1/4" loaf pans.  When dough is ready, punch down and turn onto lightly floured surface; cover with bowl and let rest for 15 minutes for easier shaping.

Cut dough into 9 equal pieces.  With floured hands, roll one dough piece into an 18" rope.  Repeat with 2 more dough pieces.   Place 3 ropes side by side and loosely braid, beginning in the middle and working toward each end.  The braid should be about 12" long.  Cut braid crosswise in half.  Pinch cut end and tuck ends under to seal to make two small braided loaves.  Place each loaf, seam-side down, in a prepared pan.  Repeat with remaining dough.  Cover with towel and let rise in warm place until doubled; about 30 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bake for 15 minutes or until golden and loaves sound hollow when lightly tapped with fingers.  Remove from pans immediately, and cool on wire racks.

Review of last recipe (photo above) - When I quickly read the ingredients to buy for this recipe, I thought it was a recipe using chicken breasts, which is what I bought; not a whole chicken.  I used scallions and kept them in the sauce, and forgot that I had no white bread with which I would have normally made the breadcrumbs out of, and ended up defrosting a hamburger roll from the freezer to use (hence the larger than normal breadcrumbs).  But ... this was really delicious!  Another dijon chicken recipe to keep!

TODAY'S RECIPE - MUSSELS WITH SAUCE VERTE
I can say that I'm getting tired of mussels.  After reading over the recipe, there are so many things I don't like about it.  It only uses 18 mussels; meaning 3 mussels per serving as an appetizer  (that's not enough).  Also, the mussels should be kept on the half shell and sauced, and then the mussels in their shells placed atop dressed pasta salad.  To me, that is strange, so I am adapting this to be a mussel pasta salad, since all the ingredients will end up together anyways.  I normally would not do this, but I'm taking the liberty here.

Serves 2-4

I plan to buy a bag of mussels .. usually 4 lbs.

Sauce Verte:
1 cup mayo
1/2 cup chopped spinach
1/3 cup chopped parsley
1/3 cup chopped watercress
1 tbsp snipped fresh chives
1 tbsp snipped fresh dill
2 tsp dried tarragon leaves
1 tbsp lemon juice
dash of salt

1/2 cup water
1/2 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 lb medium shells or other pasta
1/2 cup Italian-style dressing

Make the sauce verte by combining all the ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Turn into a small bowl and refrigerate, covered.  Makes 1 1/4 cups.

Debeard mussels and rinse in cold water.  Place in a large skillet and add 1/2 cup water and garlic.  Cook covered over high heat for 5-8 minutes.  Shake skillet frequently so mussels will cook uniformly.

With slotted spoon, remove mussels to dish.  When cool enough to handle, remove mussels and place in a bowl.  Refrigerate covered for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, cook pasta al dente and drain.  Toss with Italian dressing and refrigerate 1 hour.

Add mussels to the pasta and add sauce verte to taste.

Review of last recipe (photo above) - My buttercream came out nasty looking, and this dessert really was a project, so I wouldn't make it again.  It was quite decadent and maybe abit too rich for me; one-half of a serving would have been enough, but I had a whole one (much to my dismay afterwards).

TODAY'S RECIPE - CHICKEN DIJON
This was from a series called Fast French.

Serves 4

1 - 3 1/2 lb chicken, split with backbone removed
1/2 tsp pepper
salt
2 tbsp plus 1/2 tsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp bread crumbs
Sauce:
3 tbsp dry white wine
1 tbsp sliced shallots or scallions
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp cornstarch, mixed with 1 tsp water
1 tsp coarse-grained mustard

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Season insides of chicken with pepper and 1/4 tsp salt.  Place chicken on an oiled baking pan, skin up and brush with 2 tbsp dijon mustard.  Bake 15 minutes.  Mix butter and crumbs and pat onto chicken.  Raise temperature to 425 degrees and bake chicken 5 minutes more, until crumbs are brown.  Put chicken on a serving platter and cover loosely with foil until sauce is ready.

Sauce:  Boil wine and shallots in a small stainless saucepan over high heat until liquid has almost completely evaporated.  Add cream and cornstarch mixture; whisk until boiling.  Strain out shallots.  Bring sauce back to a boil and whisk in coarse mustard, 1/8 tsp salt and remaining 1/2 tsp dijon mustard.  Serve sauce separately.   

Review of last recipe (photo above) - Really good ... I can see this as a make ahead and baking right before serving.  A couple of points:  I didn't soak the mussels, and could that be why opening them raw was really almost impossible and so time consuming.  After using an oyster knife on two of them, I decided to steam the rest for 1 minute so that most the the shells would be popped open and the mussels were only slightly cooked.  There was no difference in eating the two that had started in the oven as raw vs. slightly cooked.  I didn't have anisette and not crazy about the flavor, so I omitted it.  A little Cholula as my hot sauce made these divine.  And, as far as the portion, I bought my usual 5 lbs of Maine mussels (the mussels were larger this week), and I would think that amount would be more appropriate for four servings as a sit-down appetizer than a mere 1 1/2 lbs.  This would work really well as one of many appetizers at a cocktail party since they can be made ahead.  Also, I only used 2/3 of the filling; and that was for the 5 lbs. of  mussels, so I'm not sure why so much needed to be made in the recipe.  Cut down appropriately.

TODAY'S RECIPE - BOMBE ABBEY WITH RASPBERRY BUTTERCREAM
Another gem from Family Circle ... or what I hope will be a gem ... it certainly sounds delicious!

Serves 10

1 frozen pound cake (10 3/4 oz), thawed
1 pkg (10 oz) frozen raspberries, thawed, drained with the syrup reserved
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
5 squares (1 oz each) semisweet chocolate, melted
1 tbsp dark rum
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 egg
1 cup heavy cream
Chocolate Ganache (recipe follows)
Raspberry Buttercream (recipe follows)

Cut pound cake horizontally into 6 even slices.  Cut ten 3 1/4" circles from 5 of the layers.  Wrap and reserve.  Cut ten 2" circles from the remaining layer and scraps.

Reserve 10 raspberries for garnish.  Place remaining drained raspberries into bowl and puree with electric mixer.

Beat butter in medium sized mixing bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Beat in chocolate and rum until well mixed.  Mix in confectioners' sugar, and beat in egg until well blended and glossy.  Whip cream in medium sized bowl until stiff peaks form.  Stir about 1/4 of the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture to lighten.  Fold in remaining whipped cream until very well blended. 

Set 10 foil cupcake liners in medium sized muffin pan cups.  Spray with no-stick vegetable cooking spray.

Spoon a little of the chocolate mousse mixture into each cupcake liner.  Spoon 1 tsp of the raspberry puree on top, cover with the 2: cake round.  Spoon remaining chocolate mixture into liners to fill and smooth tops.  Cover and refrigerate 4-6 hours, or until firm.

Place the 3 1/4" cake round on wire racks.  Peel off foil liners from each chocolate mousse.  Invert onto cake rounds.  Pour Chocolate Ganache over each dessert to completely cover mousse and cake.  Pipe Raspberry Buttercream around the bottom of each mousse and pipe a rosette on top of each and garnish with a whole raspberry.

Chocolate Ganache:  Stir together 10 squares (1 oz each) semisweet chocolate melted with 1/3 cup heavy cream until well blended.  Gradually mix in about 3 tbsp vegetable oil to make a good pouring consistency.

Raspberry Buttercream:  Beat together 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) softened unsalted butter with 2 tbsp confectioners' sugar and 1 tbsp raspberry syrup (drained from the frozen raspberries) in a small bowl and, with an electric mixer, mix until well blended.

Review of last recipe (photo above)  - Really delicious!

TODAY'S RECIPE - MUSSELS ROCKEFELLER
This should actually have been in the appetizer section.

Serves 4 (as an appetizer)

4 cups loosely packed, washed spinach leaves
1 cup coarsely chopped celery
4 scallions
4 tbsp butter
1 cup bread crumbs
2 anchovy fillets, mashed
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp anisette
1 - 1 1/2 lbs mussels, scrubbed, debearded and soaked
lemon wedges
tabasco sauce

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Chop the spinach, celery and scallions together very finely in a food processor.  They should measure 2 cups.

Saute the vegetables in the butter.  Add the bread crumbs, mashed anchovies, pepper and anisette. Remove the pan from the heat.

Open the mussels and remove the top shells.  Spread about 1 tbsp of the vegetable mixture on each mussel.  Place them on a wire rack over a baking sheet and bake them for 10-15 minutes or until the mussels bubble freely.

Serve the mussels very hot with lemon wedges and tabasco sauce.

Review of last recipe (photo above) - Kinda scary ... the custard was not set enough so I couldn't take a good single serving picture.  This isn't representative as the chocolate layer is rather thin (half of the dark portion is actually crust), and the vanilla custard/meringue layer should have been taller.  I used graham crackers for the crust instead of gingersnaps so my crust wasn't as firm.  It was really tasty, but not something I would feel comfortable making for guests.

TODAY'S RECIPE - CHICKEN CHEESE ROLLS
A Women's Day Magazine Silver Spoon Award winning recipe ...

Serves 6

3 large chicken breasts, boned and split
8 oz whipped cream cheese with chives, divided
1 tbsp butter, divided
6 slices bacon

Place split breasts between waxed paper and pound to 1/2" thickness.  Spread each with about 3 tbsp cream cheese mixture and dot with 1/2 tsp butter.  Fold ends over filling (some will ooze out during baking).  Wrap 1 slice of bacon around each roll. 

Place seam side down in shallow baking pan.  Bake on top rack in 400 degree oven for 40 minutes or until chicken is tender and juices run clear when meat is pierced.  Broil about 5 minutes or until bacon is crisp and golden.

Nutritional Information:  400 calories, 40 G protein, 1 G carbohydrates, 24 G fat, 54 mg cholesterol, 194 mg sodium