Time in the kitchen...

Spending time in the kitchen is something I'd been missing out on a bit lately. Yesterday I spent the afternoon there, making some good soup, brewing tea, making baked apples and Russian tea cakes. Since my own computer is down at present I have had more limited time to sit at the computer and write but took this opportunity to do so this morning before I have to think of anything else to share what I made yesterday with you. Soup is a soul warmer, there is nothing more soothing than a cup or bowl of good homemade soup.

Here are a few snapshots of what my afternoon/evening in the kitchen looked like:

veggies for the soup...

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Finely chopped nut meats for the tea cakes...

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And of course the cookies...

How's that for time well spent in the kitchen? The soup was delicious, especially when accompanied by some toasted Jewish Rye bread. Fancy a bowl?

Soup and bread...yum!

Enjoy!

Inventive...

Nadia's Lime-Herbed Chicken

I recently acquired a little publication from my local Publix grocery store that the chain publishes called Publix Grape: Everyday Pleasures of Wine and Food on my last visit and was delighted to find a few of my favorite food bloggers mentioned in this particular issue. Among them is my favorite David Lebovitz who lives in Paris and always has the most amazing photos on his blog. He and the countless other food bloggers and chefs I follow are the ones who have inspired me to continue cooking and creating. I've been working on my own original recipes lately and am in love with one recipe I developed using chicken thighs and every herb in our ever expanding little apartment style herb-garden.

It is a joy to be able to see those little plants every day and to pick them to incorporate into my meals and recipes. My favorites are definitely the sweet basil and rosemary (I think the Italian blood that courses through my veins comes out quite potently in my cooking). The recipe I developed still needs a working title but for now we are calling it Nadia's Lime-Herbed Chicken. I hope to come up with something a bit more original in the coming days but for now that will suffice. Flavor is key in this recipe and the pairing of lime with herbs in the roux that the chicken is coated with gives it a subtle hint of the Mediterranean. The aroma of it all is delectable. Soon I will share the recipe with you but for now...enjoy the photo.

Butter...

There is something about butter that makes everything taste good. Sometimes I put an enormous amount of butter on my toast just because it tastes so good. I tend to cook a lot with butter. I often fry my eggs in it or sautee my vegetables in a combination of butter and olive oil. I ALWAYS bake with butter when a recipe calls for it. Margarine never enters the picture. To me, margarine is the devil when it comes to cooking, baking and eating. Others will beg to differ, I'm sure, but it is in my humble opinion that butter is close to divinity. Can you imagine a beurre blanc made with margarine? Positively sacrilegious. I'll always prefer butter.

"Eat butter first, and eat it last, and live till a hundred years be past."

Old Dutch proverb

Cookies made with butter...