Carbonara

This recipe is a favorite with our two youngest especially. I've done some tinkering to make the traditional recipe a little more friendly for those of us watching fat intake.

1 package turkey bacon
1 1/4 cup light cream
1 cup (or more) freshly grated parmesan
4 eggs
pepper
thin spaghetti noodles

Slice the turkey bacon into small peices and fry in a large pan until "crisp" in a little olive oil. Set aside on a paper towel to drain.

Boil a large pot of water. When boiling, remove lid and add 1 tbsp salt and spaghetti noodles. Cook pasta with lid off according to package directions until al dente.

While pasta is cooking, whisk together cream, eggs and pepper. Add grated parmesan and crisp bacon.

Drain pasta and immediately pour into pan used for turkey bacon. Turn on the heat to medium(low) and pour egg mixture over spaghetti. Cook, stirring constantly, until sauce begins to thicken, careful not to cook eggs into "scrambled eggs." This should take anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes.

Serve with extra parmesan and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Slow Cooker Chicken Cordon Blue

I'll admit, I was sceptical when I saw the recipe in my new cookbook, Put a Lid On It . Not only was I sceptical, I was also a little confused as there were no pictures, diagrams or illustrations to guide me. And how could one tablespoon of liquid ever be enough to cook all that meat in?

Nevertheless, I gave it a try, and all of us were happy with the results. I think it is at its best right at four hours, but we had to keep it on the warm setting for a few hours before everyone had a chance to eat, so it was a little on the dry side. There was lots of tasty "sauce" to ladle over the chicken to reinject some moisture.

3 boneless chicken breasts
9 slices of ham (preferable about 10x20 cm)
9 slices swiss cheese
1 Tbsp white wine
cooking spray

Coat the inside of the slow cooker with cooking spray. Pour white wine into the bottom of cooker.

Trim the excess fat off the chicken breasts. Lay eat piece between two pieces of parchment paper and gently pound with a meat mallet until about 1/4 inch thick. Lightly sprinkle each piece with salt and pepper. Cut each breast into three strips.

Take a slice of ham and lay it down on your work surface so that the short edge of the rectangle is at the "bottom" Place a slice of cheese on top of the ham, and a piece of chicken on top of the cheese. Roll up tightly and fasten with a toothpick. Place in the cooker. Continue until you have nine rolls. Rolls may be place on top of each other if you run out of space.

Cook on low for 3-4 hours, until chicken is cooked through. Leave lid on to preserve moisture.

These are "inside out" but I think the ham on the outside keeps the chicken from becoming too dry (at least that's my guess). We had it with rice, green beans and salad.

Nutrition Labels

This article on the front page of the paper caught my eye this morning. It tells of a grocery store chain that

"developed a system called Guiding Stars that rated the nutritional value of nearly all the food and drinks at its stores from zero to three stars. Of the 27,000 products that were plugged into Hannaford’s formula, 77 percent received no stars, including many, if not most, of the processed foods that advertise themselves as good for you. These included V8 vegetable juice (too much sodium), Campbell’s Healthy Request Tomato soup (ditto), most Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice frozen dinners (ditto) and nearly all yogurt with fruit (too much sugar). Whole milk? Too much fat — no stars. Predictably, most fruits and vegetables did earn three stars, as did things like salmon and Post Grape-Nuts cereal."

I would appreciate having that kind of system in place at my grocery store. I don't always look at all the different factors on the labels, until I'm home and start thinking about it. I noticed yesterday, after doing our weekly shopping that the beef broth has 99% fat free prominently displayed on the box. In smaller, much harder to read print underneath that, it says, "See side panel for sodium content." Hmm... what does that tell me? High sodium content maybe?

As I've written about here before, I've been giving some thought to transfats and sodium content in food, and even before reading today's NYT I was reaching the conclusion that home-made-from-scratch really is best, both taste-wise and nutritionally. It seems to be a dying skill though as many recipes call for a can of this and a package of that, and most of my acquaintances don't even cook that way on a daily basis, opting for prepared meals (or at least semi-prepared) instead.

I do believe that most things can be made from scratch with just a little added planning and preparation, but then I've been cooking mostly from scratch for years out of necessity while living in Japan. The quesion is, where does one draw the line? I'm not about to spend half a day making chicken or beef broth to freeze, especially when I don't have a deep freezer to put it in. I'm going to have to give this some more thought and pay more attention to the labels before I reach a conclusion on convenience vs health vs taste vs time management.

All I know now is that I can not trust the front packaging of most products - I must read labels and make informed decisions!