Chicken Kiev in the works

People, have you ever had real Chicken Kiev? It is just show-stoppingly magnificent. That's the upside. The downside is that it's an extremely labor-intensive dish. Make the compound butter, chill it. Prepare the chicken breasts, stuff them with said butter, chill them. Make some breadcrumbs, toast them, toss them, cool them. Dip the chicken presents in three different bowls, and cook for 45 minutes. So, I don't make this very often, but when I do, I make extras because the pre-cooked chickens freeze beautifully. And then when you savor your first bite, you just want to die it's so good. The compound butter is redolent of the shallots and tarragon with which it's infused and the egg-flour-breadcrumb topping is perfection. Will post a pic when they come out of the oven as well as the recipe.

Rice dressing

Mixed with brown rice for the kids' dinner, and the meat mixture which I froze on its own. Jack said, "this is awesome; let's have it at Thanksgiving and Christmas too."

Thanksgiving "stuffing" #1

Growing up in Louisiana, we never ate stuffing at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Ours was called dressing, and there were two main types: cornbread and rice. For both, you cook ground beef (although I like my cornbread dressing made with ground turkey) with the trinity -chopped and sautéed bell peppers, onions and celery- plus garlic, salt and pepper, and then combine with cooked rice or crumbled cornbread. Stir in some broth, heat until warm through and voila. They are distinctly Southern, and our holiday table wouldn't be complete without either. Another nice aspect of them is that they can be made ahead and frozen. So today I plan to make a rice dressing, the favored one of T and the boys. Pic and recipe later.