Tried and True: Chicken Cheddar Pot Pie

October 20, 2011 By 3 Comments
ChickenCheddarPotPie-Final

Pot Pies were always in my house grow­ing up and, when I first started cook­ing, I did what I learned from grow­ing up – I bought them and just heated them up. When I started cook­ing, you could NOT get me to even ATTEMPT to make a pie, let alone a chicken pot pie. Want to know why – because mak­ing a crust scares the stilet­tos off of me. Remem­ber the Great Crust Deba­cle of last Thanks­giv­ing.. because I do. And, in my defense, Sunny Ander­son said that it was fine to use a store bought crust for chicken pot pie on the Nate Show – and when Sunny speaks, I listen.

There was a recipe for Chicken Ched­dar Pot Pie in a recent issue of Taste of Home that was per­fect so I took the plunge. I had every inten­tion of attempt­ing to make the crust – but then fear took over (see above) and I went to my backup that I bought – just in case – my fave Pills­bury Pie Crust. I also played with the recipe a bit, includ­ing mush­rooms in the mix.  I adore Aleppo chili and add it to many of my dishes but you can eas­ily sub­sti­tute a pinch of cayenne. I made the poul­try sea­son­ing and added that to a fresh rotis­serie chicken and, at the end I was so thank­ful for that pinch of nut­meg in the sea­son­ing mix.

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Filed Under: Baking In Stilettos, Cooking In Stilettos, Recipe, Sunny Anderson, Tried and True Tagged With: , , , ,

Food Network New York City Wine and Food Festival Is Just Around The Corner

September 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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NYCWFF2011Logo 300x152 Food Network New York City Wine and Food Festival Is Just Around The Corner

I was look­ing at my cal­en­dar the other day and noticed that the Food Net­work New York City Wine & Food Fes­ti­val is com­ing up fast. I seri­ously don’t know where the time went. One minute we were at SOBE, the next the Atlantic City Wine & Food Fes­ti­val sip­ping on some Bour­bon Cider cock­tails and now I have some seri­ous wardrobe plan­ning for NYCWFF. There’s some­thing about being in New York City dur­ing the crisp fall months – it’s pure magic from the minute you arrive.

Food Net­work New York City Wine & Food Fes­ti­val   kicks off Sep­tem­ber 29, 2011 through Octo­ber 2, 2011 and is one of my favorite events for fall. We’re talk­ing social­iz­ing with fel­low food­ies, learn­ing tips and tricks from Food Network/Cooking Chan­nel chefs, amaz­ing nib­bles and sips and some seri­ously cool expe­ri­ences.  Last year was two jam packed days of demos, pan­els, milling through the enor­mous Grand Tast­ing tent, a mas­ter cook­ing class with Alex Guar­naschelli, Chelsea Mar­ket shop­ping (oh the cook­books I brought home – my poor book­shelf!).  Not to men­tion, I quickly learned the 10 Com­mand­ments for attend­ing NYCWFF which I will be fol­low­ing reli­giously!   NYCWFF was one of my high­lights of 2010.

There are still tick­ets on sale for the 2011 NYCWFF and this time they are hold­ing the demos at the Tast­ing Tents instead of indi­vid­ual venues.  Basi­cally, you get to attend the demos, sam­ple var­i­ous dishes and cock­tails all for one low price. Check out the lineup for Sunday’s demos at the Grand Tasting: Alton Brown, Bobby Flay, Sunny Ander­son, Anne Bur­rell, Anthony Bour­dain, and on and on and on. Yes, I know – it’s the price of a pair of Tory Burch flats but trust me when I say it’s WELL WORTH IT!

Plus, only at NYCWFF will you get to go bowl­ing with Chef Anne Bur­rell, tour the Chelsea Mar­ket after dark with Emeril, nosh on stone crab from Miami’s George’s Stone Crab with Claire Robin­son, cock­tails and caviar with the Cook­ing Channel’s Debi Mazar and Gabriele Cor­cos and no Food Net­work fes­ti­val would be com­plete with the Neelys’ brunch.

OK – so with that said, who’s going? It’s going to be an amaz­ing time – Lee Schrager and Food Net­work throw one heck of a party with mem­o­ries that will last a lifetime!

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Filed Under: Alex Guarnaschelli, Anthony Bourdain, Bobby Flay, Claire Robinson, Cooking Channel, Culinary Events, Emeril, Food Network, Sunny Anderson, The Neelys, Travel Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Tried and True: Sunny Anderson’s Grapefruit Grilled Chicken

September 2, 2011 By 1 Comment
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As we say farewell to sum­mer and greet autumn (and all things pump­kin, stews and more) with open arms, I couldn’t for­get to spot­light a recipe that has quickly become a tried and true favorite in the house­hold – Sunny Anderson’s Grape­fruit Grilled Chicken.

I must con­fess that grape­fruit and I have never been close – truth­fully, I really never gave grape­fruit a chance. I remem­ber hav­ing it as a child and I hated it with a pas­sion that was way more than the detest that I had for pan­cakes thanks to St. Hel­wigs.  How­ever, Sunny has never steered me wrong when it came to a recipe and, after food blog­ging for a few years now, well – why not open my mind a lit­tle more, right? Well, one evening I went to the store, picked up a cou­ple of grape­fruits and decided to brave the fla­vors. I rea­soned – if I didn’t like it still, well then – I’d order take out and call it a day. Take out was never called that evening and this recipe has hit tried and true sta­tus and will be made often.  While my grape­fruit sec­tion­ing skill was a bit “off” and left a lot to be desired, the fla­vor was spec­tac­u­lar and, per­haps, I need to give grape­fruit another chance.  Din­ner was served with Baked Shroom Rice for one heck of a mem­o­rable meal.

What ingre­di­ent or food that makes you shake your head, put up your hands and back away?  Do Tell!

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Cocktails ‘N Stilettos — Bourbon Cider Twist

August 23, 2011 By 3 Comments
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A few weeks ago, I went to the Atlantic City Wine & Food Fes­ti­val for Sunny Anderson’s Sun­set Slid­ers event. It was a gor­geous evening pool­side on the rooftop deck of Cae­sars with a per­fect shore breeze and var­i­ous nib­bles and cock­tails to try. I had a blast catch­ing up with One Curly Fry’s Jen, Megan from This Girl Can Eat and, of course, Ms. Sunny and was intrigued with this Bour­bon Cider Twist cock­tail which was one of the fea­tured cock­tails.  Now – let me state for the record that I don’t drink bour­bon often. I cook with it more than sip it. I’m more of a rum gal, but man did this cock­tail make a con­vert out of me.

This week, Sunny show­cased the cock­tail on a recent ep of Cook­ing for Real and I had to try it. It’s no big secret that things at home with the munchkin have been quite “inter­est­ing” to say the least and I’ve been feel­ing more like a vet tech than I should. How­ever, after com­ing home last night to one of Wiggy’s famous “tem­per tantrums” where he decided that a pair of slip­pers should meet their demise, I knew a cock­tail was in order.

I grabbed the Mak­ers’ Mark, some cider and some lime and *poof* this worked out won­der­fully. I have to con­fess, I added more cider than required because I clearly haven’t built up my bour­bon tol­er­ance. This is a PERFECT fall cock­tail and will be one that I use for enter­tain­ing as well.  The pug, of course, hears “APPLES” and then decided that it was time to be BFFs yet again (not that he can have them, but he still tries).

Bour­bon Cider Twist
5.0 from 1 reviews
Print
Recipe type: Cock­tail
Author: Adapted from Sunny Ander­son
Serves: 4–6
Ingre­di­ents
  • 4 cups apple cider
  • 1 cup bourbon
  • 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
  • Lime wedges, for garnish
  • Optional: Ice for serving
Direc­tions
  1. Add the apple cider, bour­bon, and the lime juice to a pitcher and stir.
  2. You could pour over ice if you like (I, how­ever, pre­ferred no ice).
  3. Serve with a lime wedge and enjoy!
Google Recipe View Micro­for­mat­ting by Easy Recipe

Wiggy shows his ‘tude by keep­ing his back to me

BourbonCider Wiggs 1 300x199 Cocktails N Stilettos Bourbon Cider Twist
Fine then – gather the ingredients

BourbonCider Ingredients 300x199 Cocktails N Stilettos Bourbon Cider Twist
Time to add the Bourbon

BourbonCider Pour 300x199 Cocktails N Stilettos Bourbon Cider Twist
Ahhhh – the final product!

BourbonCider Final 300x199 Cocktails N Stilettos Bourbon Cider Twist

Did some­one say Bourbon?

BourbonCider Wiggs 2 300x199 Cocktails N Stilettos Bourbon Cider Twist

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Filed Under: Cocktails, Cocktails 'N Stilettos, Recipe, Sous Pug, Sunny Anderson, Tried and True Tagged With: , , , , ,

Tried and True: Southern Meatballs

August 9, 2011 By 2 Comments
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There’s some­thing to be said about retro. Retro is com­fort­ing, brings warm and fuzzy mem­o­ries of sim­pler times where we weren’t freak­ing out about “Is my cell on? How many calo­ries are in that? What the heck – I have 20bizillion things on my to-do list! Where the heck is my Star­bucks?!?” and so on.

We’ve had a bit of an 80s revival here in Philly – with the Dancin’ On Air marathon and other things that are being buzzed about – and, let me tell you, the kids notice. My dear friend Heather (aka the ORIGINAL “Pick­les” – take that Snooki!) recently had a 12th birth­day party for her daugh­ter Felic­i­tie. Felic­i­tie is a great kid, super smart and def­i­nitely a mini-Pickles. Plus, she’s quite the chef in train­ing. I wouldn’t be sur­prised if she puts some of the Food Net­work peeps on notice and takes over their shows.  Well, Felic­i­tie isn’t one to just have any ol’ birth­day party – she wanted it “80′s Themed” and the kids were to be decked out in their 80s best. I saw more neon and high hair that imme­di­ately made us flash back to our days on set, Aquanet and all.

Nettie’s Cre­ations made an amaz­ing Blue Vel­vet Zebra cake, and, as I had told Heather I would be more than happy to put my cook­ing stilet­tos to work, I was stumped as to what to make. I already planned on mak­ing my fave Spicy Smoky S’mores Bars  as well as Sunny Anderson’s Fire­cracker Cole Slaw (which, btw – HUGE hit – HUGE!).  Since this was going to be a retro themed party, I decided to throw cau­tion to the wind and break out one of the recipes that I learned in Florida which is always a crowd pleaser – South­ern Meat­balls or, as some peo­ple call them in hush tones, “Grape Jelly Meat­balls“. Yes, you heard that right – Grape Jelly is the secret ingre­di­ent. How­ever, I have to say, I’ve made it with my fave Williams Sonoma Cran­berry rel­ish and it comes out just as fabu. You can also jazz it up with spices to suit your palate.  It’s pretty much one of those dump, stir and set the slow cooker recipes and, yes I cheat – I used FROZEN meat­balls and peo­ple were none the wiser. Just don’t divulge the meat­ball secret and peo­ple will think you slaved for hours.

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Filed Under: Anne Thornton, Cooking In Stilettos, Entertaining In Stilettos, Philly, Recipe, Sunny Anderson, Tried and True Tagged With: , , , , ,

Sunny Anderson Showcases Fab 4th of July Sides On GMA

June 30, 2011 By 1 Comment

With the 4th of July fast approach­ing, Food Network’s  Sunny Ander­son show­cased some del­ish side dishes on Good Morn­ing Amer­ica this morn­ing, includ­ing her Easy Baked Beans, Sum­mer Corn Salad and a creamy Potato and Pro­sciutto Salad.   Well, that corn salad will be on the menu this week­end and, pos­si­bly, the baked beans. While the Bare­foot Con­tessa had a good recipe for baked beans, I have to con­fess, it seemed some­what daunt­ing to this gal.  Sunny’s recipe seems super sim­ple and won’t have me grab­bing mul­ti­ple ingre­di­ents, soak­ing beans for hours all while stum­bling over the Sous Pug who will camp his happy behind by the stove hop­ing for a piece of bacon to fall.

Oh – before I for­get – DVR Alert! Sunny’s All Amer­i­can Cel­e­bra­tion will be air­ing on Sat­ur­day morn­ing at 10 a.m.  and July 4th at 6 p.m. on the Food Net­work.  Check out the descrip­tion from Food Network:

Sunny Ander­son shows us that behind every great sol­dier is a good meal! It’s a very spe­cial per­sonal and patri­otic jour­ney for Sunny as she trav­els to Ft. Bragg, North Car­olina and Fort Lee, Vir­ginia to look back on her time in the mil­i­tary, cel­e­brate our men and women in uni­form, recon­nect with her active duty fam­ily mem­bers, and show us why food is often the glue that holds mil­i­tary fam­i­lies together.

Way to go Sunny!

What’s on your menu for the 4th of July?

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Filed Under: Food Network, Holiday, Sunny Anderson, TV, Video Tagged With: , , , ,

10 Fave Tried and True Recipes

June 2, 2011 By 3 Comments
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Where did the time go?  It seems like it was just yes­ter­day I was chat­ting with every­one but with Wiggs’ med­ical drama, it took it’s toll on not only him, but also moi and my writ­ing.  Good thing the Sous­Pug finally got a clean bill of health from the vet and he is heal­ing up nicely.

I was chat­ting with SL and told him my predica­ment – namely I have been cook­ing way more for the Sous­Pug than for me – Wiggs is on a home cooked spe­cialty diet and I’m eat­ing take-out.  How does that hap­pen?  I can’t cook dou­ble batches for him and I as his food has to have absolutely no sea­son­ing at all and it takes bland to a whole new level.  Plus – his diet pretty much con­sists of poached chicken, rice, some pasta, bananas and melon and don’t even get me started on his new “chicken stock” that has to be home­made and not store-bought.

So, I’m slowly inch­ing back into the prover­bial blog­ging pool and, at SL’s sug­ges­tion, I’m going to give you guys my absolute fave 10 tried and true recipes (in no par­tic­u­lar order) that I have made over the years since I started Cook­ing In Stilettos..

SunnyAndersons ShepardPie thumb 10 Fave Tried and True Recipes

WatermelonRicottaSalataSalad thumb 10 Fave Tried and True Recipes

 

BlueberryBlueCheeseChicken thumb 10 Fave Tried and True Recipes

 

ApricotChicken Final thumb 10 Fave Tried and True Recipes

 

CitrusSalmon Final thumb 10 Fave Tried and True Recipes

 

  • My home­made iced chai tea has helped cut down on the Starhell, I mean Star­bucks runs.  Now, if only I could learn how to make the per­fect cup of joe, I’d be all set… any tips?

Chai Final thumb 10 Fave Tried and True Recipes

 

  • Want a really good side dish – well this roasted poblano rice will put some spice in your sum­mer.  I often serve it with some grilled chicken or slow cooker pulled pork and it always gar­ners raves.

MV PoblanoCornRice Final thumb 10 Fave Tried and True Recipes

 

AT Smores Final thumb 10 Fave Tried and True Recipes

 

BlueberryRicottaIceCream Final thumb 10 Fave Tried and True Recipes

 

GdL EggsOverCiabatta Final thumb 10 Fave Tried and True Recipes

As with all my fave tried and trues, you can always reach them by using the recipe tab above. 

What are some of your fave tried & true recipes – share the links in the comments!

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Filed Under: Anne Thornton, Brunch, Candice Kumai, Entree, Giada de Laurentiis, Recipe, Sous Pug, Sunny Anderson, Tried and True Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,
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