Ok, made up my own recipe last night and it was FANTASTIC if I do say so myself.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 boneless chicken breasts
• Leftover spiral ham (sliced thinner) or 8 slices thin-sliced deli ham
• 4 slices of Provolone or Swiss (I used provolone b/c I didn’t have swiss)
• 1 cup flavored salad croutons (I used garlic flavored)
• Handful of almonds
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 beaten egg

Cheesy Marsala Mushroom Sauce:

• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 shallot finely chopped
• 8 oz. fresh sliced button mushrooms
• 1-2 tablespoons flour or corn starch
• 1/4 cup marsala wine
• 1 cup milk or half and half
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

Pound the chicken flat with a mallet between two sheets of cellophane. Put croutons, almonds and parmesan cheese in a food processor and pulse into fine crumbs. Lay ham slices on top of each flattened chicken. Add a slice of cheese and roll up. Secure with toothpicks. Dredge in egg and roll in crumbs. Place all four chicken breasts on baking sheet coated with cooking spray seam side down. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until no longer pink.

With 10 minutes left on the chicken, heat the oil in a pan on medium high heat. Add shallots and mushrooms and saute until shallots soften (about 2 minutes). Add marsala wine and continue cooking until mushrooms begin to sweat. Add flour or corn starch and stir. Cook for one minute more then add milk a little at time stirring constantly. When combined, stir in  parmesan cheese. Lower heat to medium and cook until thick and bubbly. Remove chicken from oven, plate and pour mushroom sauce over chicken.

This was so good my kids liked it even without the mushroom sauce. You can also make it without the mushrooms, by just using the marsala and cheese. Joe said I could definitely make that again. Great way to use up the leftover Christmas ham! I also made a ham and cheese quiche and ham sandwiches. I still have half a bag of ham left and another whole bag in the freezer! I have ham coming out my ears! LOL

Love you,
Danielle Fenning
Cooking with Brandy’s Sweet Sister!

If you Host a Show in February you can earn 60% OFF one of these fantastic Stoneware Host Favorites…

#1371 Large Round Stone with with Handles – $32.00

#1445 Large Bar Pan – $34.00

#1350 Rectangle Stone – $28.00

But be sure to spread the wealth! Your guests have a great opportunity to earn free rewards. When guests order $60 or more they can choose one kitchen essential FREE!

I know most of you think that you can’t find the time for hosting an event BUT having a Pampered Chef Show is SO simple. Your job is easy: invite your favorite people to your home to hang out and eat free food. That’s it! As a consultant I work with you to choose a recipe. I then prepare all the materials, groceries and amazing kitchen products and bring them to your home. I even bring my own table to cook on if necessary.

You and your friends can snack and enjoy watching me cook like an Iron Chef while giggling at my witty report. Then you can enjoy the prepared dinner or dessert and pick out your favorite items. Remember there are always birthdays and holidays that you can get prepared for early. I then provide a full service checkout.

I guarantee that a few hours out of your night will certainly be an exciting, fun and strangely relaxing time for you and your friends. And who doesn’t love to eat? Hey I can always make something with chocolate! So please, take a look at your calendar and pick a date this month of when you want to hang out with your best friends and eat free, Delicious food!

Visit My Website

Brandy Pate
Pampered Chef Consultant
Birmingham, AL
brandy@cookingwithbrandy.com
www.PamperedChef.biz/CookingBrandy
(205) 706-9145

Brandy Pate presenting Delicia Poole with her Birthday Cupcake

Earlier this month my friend and coworker, Delicia, was celebrating her birthday.  She had mentioned that she was interested in hosting a Pampered Chef Cooking Show, so I suggested that we have a Pampered Chef Birthday Bash at the office.  We invited everyone from the office to enjoy a free lunch and watch a short presentation of a Pampered Chef recipe. 

It was a pretty simple affair.  A few friends of Delicia’s volunteered to bring in snacks, drinks, etc. Liz brought in samples of some Pampered Chef sauces including the Raspberry Habanero Sauce and the Spicy Pineapple-Rum Sauce. Since we chose a Mexican theme, I made enough Easy Chicken Fajitas and Cheesy Chicken Tortilla Soup for everyone the evening before the party. The day of, we set up the room with  food on one side of the room and my Pampered Chef presentation table on the other.  At lunch time, the ladies (and a few men) in the office joined us in the conference room to eat and watched as I quickly made the same Chicken Fajitas in the Deep Covered Baker (#3300) cooked in the microwave. 

I spent Saturday, October 30th at the Oak Mountain Elementary School’s Fall Fun Festival.  They had tons of families there participating in games and crafts. Jim ‘N Nick’s was serving pulled pork sandwiches and chicken fingers, which were delicious.  Zoey and Adam were able to come up for a short while to have lunch and play some games. 

I met some great ladies in the vendor hall that all shared similar stories to mine. Some of them had day jobs or were hard-working at-home moms that ran these independent businesses for extra cash, community, and fun.  When I first arrived, I realized that I had forgotten to bring my table.  This lovely woman next to me offered to let me borrow an extra table she had in her car. Throughout the day I learned that her name was Katie DeSocio with Silpada and is super nice.  She had a ton of discontinued jewelry marked down and I wanted to take one of every piece home. If you love Silpada high-end, hand-made jewelry, you should definitely check her out.

I also met another very talented “new friend”, Nancy Pierce with Creative Memories. Since my sister and I have a history with digital scrapbooking, Nancy and I had a lot to talk about. We shared past and present projects and creative memories scrapbooking ideas.  She was really interesting and knowledgeable about the product. I saw that she had some Disney products at the table and I couldn’t resist. I am really looking forward to creating some new albums and maybe a few cards and calendars for gifts this Christmas.

All-in-all the day was great for meeting new people but, unfortunately I didn’t get any shows booked. I did hold a raffle for a $25 Pampered Chef gift card and some nice women left me their contact information. I do need one additional show booked before November 24th to hit my four show goal.  I would have counted yesterday as a show, but I didn’t receive any sales. If you or anyone you know is interested in hosting a Cooking Show or having a simple Catalog Show in your office, I would really love to do that for you. Feel free to contact me any time.

My new venture is well under way and I have been a busy bee preparing for my upcoming Pampered Chef Cooking Shows.  I think I have most of my paperwork, cooking supplies, and other materials ready for this coming Wednesday. That’s right, my first actual Cooking Show is November 3rd for my dear friend Courtney.  I am excited, nervous, and anxious but all in a good way.

I will be making the Antipasti Pull-Apart Pizza from The Pampered Chef® Season’s Best™ Recipe Collection (Fall/Winter 2010).  The cookbook describes the recipe as “A fun twist on pizza, this appetizer features all the flavors of an antipasti platter over a crust of bite-size pieces of French bread.” I made it a few weeks ago for a baby shower at the office. I am sure it will be better this time because I’ll actually have an oven instead of the office toaster oven. If you would like to see the recipe made, you can watch the video here or better yet, see it LIVE! In Courtney’s Living Room.

For those of you who will be attending Courtney’s Cooking Show, you can visit my personalized Pampered Chef Web site now and take a look around at the products you will see displayed at the party.  Simply CLICK HERE and you can begin shopping the catalog.  Remember if you spend $60 or more at the show or online you get the Adjustable Measuring Spoons for FREE!  Also in November, our cooking show guests can SAVE 20% on our Cookie Press. See product information below.

#GV78 Adjustable Measuring Spoon - FREE Adjustable Measuring Spoons to November Guests with purchase of $60 or more! – $0.00
Their streamlined modern design is perfectly sized for spice containers. Adjustable sliders create a seal for dry and liquid ingredients, and are removable for easy cleaning. Grooved thumbprints help you move the sliders back and forth for accurate measuring. Set of two: 1/8 tsp.-1 tsp., 1 tsp.-1 tbsp.
Dishwasher-safe.

#GV79 Cookie Press – Save 20% on our Cookie Press – $23.60
Make cookies or rice potatoes with a simple twist! Our rotating press is easier to use than the typical ratchet style. The barrel lets you see exactly how much dough is left, and its generous size means less refills are needed. Includes 10 metal disks — nine for cookies and one for ricing. Dishwasher-safe.

For those of you invited to the event, I really hope you can make it and enjoy the evening with friends and loved one’s while tasting some delicious food.  I hope to make the event an enjoyable and educational experience for everyone. I truly appreciate everyone’s support and encouragement and I hope I can make all of you proud.

I am happy to say that you can get Cooking with Brandy on the go.  I am now on Facebook, Twitter and Linked In.  We also have an RSS feed set up.  Please join me online or on  your mobile device for fun tips, tricks, recipes and reviews.  And talk it up a bit. I love to hear what all of you are up to in the culinary world.  Thanks for all your support. 

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So I have decided to devote some time to my passion for cooking in a serious way.  I decided to become a Pampered Chef consultant.  I have been doing catering and writing on my blog, twitter, Facebook etc. but I have been missing out on cooking for people. And yes, I cook for my husband and baby every day but I mean for people that don’t live in my house  People that love food but don’t really think they can do it in their own homes. I want to have the opportunity to make people happy with a delicious plate of food while teaching them that it is simple to have these types of meals in their own home.  I have contemplated going to culinary school or running a full time catering business but I honesty don’t want to have a job/hobby that takes up so much of my time. Working 70 hours a week never really appealed to me. Especially, when I already have a full time job at a publishing company and a two year old baby girl at home.  I want to still LOVE cooking at the end of the day. That is why I chose Pampered Chef. 

I can have the hours I want, book as many shows as I feel I can handle and still have the benefits of sharing my passion for food with those I love.  I had my director, Brandi Osbourn at my house last Thursday for a cooking show along with a few close friends. She talked and cooked in the living room while we all devoured the appetizers I had laid out.  I sat there commenting, laughing, testing and tasting and I had the best time.  I had been thinking about becoming a consultant for a while but I hadn’t committed.  Then someone complained about chicken tenders and how they don’t like the tendon that runs down the middle.  Without missing a beat, I explained in 30 seconds how to get rid of that tough tendon and still have your chicken tender fully in tact. Let’s face it, I love to cook and I am full of weird cooking knowledge from extensive hours of Food Network TV watching.  My girlfriend pat me on the back and called me the “food guru”.  I thought, you know what, let’s give it a shot, I can do this.  I love food and I was a theater major – cooking in front of people should be a breeze.

That evening I told Brandi I wanted to join her team and I signed up for Pampered Chef. Then comes the hard part.  Now I have to book shows.  I am not a pushy salesman. I try to ask friends and family but I don’t want to guilt anyone into anything.  I want them to want to do a show and not feel obligated out of blood relation or friendship.  My tactic is to spoil people with food.  For those of you who know me, I can cook.  I am sure that I have fed you something in the past that you thought wasn’t that bad, right? So, here is my proposition, invite some friends over (remind them to bring their wallets please) and let me come cook for you.  No obligation to buy anything, but believe me, won’t be able to resist.  Remember, what your friends buy all goes to helping you get free stuff.  That’s a bonus, right?  Pampered Chef has a fantastic Host Reward Program set up to reward you for hosting a cooking party.  If you host a show in the month of October, you as the host save 60% on cookware.  That is a great deal for their cookware because it is a great quality product with a lifetime guarantee.  I have two pieces of Pampered Chef cookware, a sauté and a sauce pan that I bought in 2002 and they are still my “go to” pieces in the kitchen.

This is my first month so I need to be able to book at least four shows in the next few weeks. I am counting on each of you to help me get those shows completed as well as get some experience with cooking in front of people I know.  Brandi says she has done this for over five years and still gets nervous each time.  I am good with scripts but improv was never my forte. I am hoping that the spirit of Julia Childs or Jennifer Paterson fills my heart and I do a great job for you!  Please find some time in your busy schedule and book a show for me.  I would love to share some good times and delicious food with each of you.

To book a Pampered Chef cooking show or catalog show, please email at brandy@cookingwithbrandy.com or call me at the number below.

Brandy Pate

brandy@cookingwithbrandy.com

205-706-9175 (mobile)

Birmingham, Alabama

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We visited Disney this summer and during our trip we were able to enjoy a meal at the Crystal Palace. Adam and I worked our way through the beautiful buffet enjoying items such as Moroccan couscous salad, black bean & mango salad, Roasted garlic mashed potatoes, BBQ Pork Tenderloin, Curry Stir Fry Noodles, Citrus Marinated Flank Steak, Wild mushroom & chicken pasta, Cinnamon & lemon basmati rice, Thai curry mussels, Fruit & vegetable tofu curry, Atlantic salmon, Rotisserie chicken, and New England clam chowder. Some of our favorites were the Atlantic Salmon with Cinnamon & Lemon Basmati Rice. While we ate, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore came around to visit the little ones.

When we returned home, I wanted to commemorate a wonderful vacation by recreating the dish. I made the side dish by rinsing one cup of basmati rice a few times until the water was no longer merky. Add the rice to a steel-bottomed pot with two cups of water with a tablespoon of margarine and a pinch of salt, cover and cook over medium-high heat. When the water comes to a boil, reduce the water to low and add 1 teaspoon of lemon zest and a stick of cinnamon and cover again. Cook the rice for approximately 18 minutes.

Meanwhile, to prepare the salmon, preheat your oven to 325 degrees and lay out two pieces of parchment paper or aluminum foil crisscrossed on your work station. Lay one salmon steak inside with skin side down. Season with salt, fresh ground pepper, a tablespoon of butter and a squeeze of lemon juice. Pulling up corner to corner, match up the corners and wrap up the aluminum foil making a pouch. Continue this until all the salmon steaks are seasoned and wrapped up in their little purses. Place the little handbags on a baking sheet and cook in the oven for 25 minutes.

While the salmon and rice are cooking, you can make the pesto. Combine 2/3 cup firmly packed basil leaves, a pinch of salt, 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 2 garlic cloves, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest.

Layer the cooked rice on the bottom and add the salmon once it is firm to the touch. I removed the skin from mine before I served it. Top the salmon with pesto and add a sprinkle of parmesan cheese and a little lemon zest for garnish.

My dish may not have been Disney specific but I am sure that Mickey and Minnie wouldn’t mind nibbling off my plate.

I am perched atop a high-top at the obviously popular Feast Restaurant & Bar in downtown Chicago. Though headed to an Italian restaurant recommended by the concierge, the outdoor seating and clientele caught my eye. Besides I am having pizza tonight.

They have a breakfast lunch and dinner menu. It is 1:30 and they are still serving breakfast — yeah! Full wine menu and a 22 seat bar with two small flat screen TVs for your sport watching enjoyment. The decor is modern in design with warm apricot walls and toasted wood finish. Out my window I see at least a dozen tables with comfortable-looking faux wicker chairs. One of the enticing features is the neighboring deli called The Goddess and Grocer.

I chose the Eggs Portobello but they were sold out. I switched to the Crab Benedict described as “two poached eggs and crab cakes over jalapeño-cheddar corn bread with chipotle hollandaise + feast potatoes $13.50.” My food arrives and it’s a good looking plate of food. The potatoes are crunchy but needed to be warmer. The crab cakes are delicate and flavorful. The cornbread underneath is moist and has a little bite with the jalapeño. I would preferthe egg be cooked a little more but it is white and fluffy I just don’t care for eggs where the whites run clear. They were close but they needed a few more seconds. Texturally I would have liked the crab cake to have a more crisp exterior to provide a textural contrast in the bite. It wasn’t till my second crab cake that I even noticed their were capers. The second cake was more enjoyable and I could feel more of the jalepeno heat on my lips. Proportionally I didn’t need this many potatoes but I suppose I would prefer more than not enough.

The dish was good not great. Let’s put it this way, I haven’t eaten anything all day and I didn’t finish my plate. So it didn’t blow me out of the water. I am sure it would be better in the am when everything is fresh. I did like my waiter though. He was quiet and friendly. He kept my coffee full and even made me one to go. Thanks Boomer. I also like that there are grown up smoothies on their menu with different types of vodka. It seems interesting. All-in-All I give it a 3 out of 5. It was definitely worth the price and and easy to get in and out of. I can see why the locals like to pop in here to eat.

feast restaurant & bar
25 E. Delaware Place
Chicago. IL 60611
Ph: 312.337.4001
Fx: 312.896.2590