3/15/2007 - SybDive has MOVED!!!

Hi, everyone! 

It was such a shock when I checked SybDive earlier in the week and discovered that more than half of the over a hundred entries were gone.  It was such a blow for me.  Imagine: the blog host goes down for maintenance over the weekend and goes back online with most of your stuff gone. 

As a result, I went scouting out for a new host for Sybaritic Diversions and was lucky enough to find one.  So now, you can read my foodie posts at http://sybdive.wordpress.com/, the new home for SybDive. 

I want to thank everyone who's been reading my posts here at Bloxster for the past year or so and I hope to hear from you at the new site!  See you there!

3/7/2007 - Saturday Night Chicken

This was a dish I pretty much threw together on a Saturday night.  It's rather simple and very good.  It's supposed to be my take on a classic recipe for chicken Marengo, only I didn't have some of the ingredients on hand.

Cube three chicken breasts; sprinkle over a bit of salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning.  Set aside.  Saute four cloves' worth of minced garlic and one finely chopped red onion in two tablespoons of olive oil.  Add one diced eggplant and stir-fry for two minutes.  Add the cubed chicken and cook till no hint of pink remains.  Pour in a cup and a half of water, one chicken broth cube, and one small can/pouch of tomato sauce.  Bring to a boil, then lower the heat.  Simmer for ten minutes.  Add quartered button mushrooms and sliced red and/or green olives.  Cook for another five minutes, then remove from heat.

Serve with rice or pasta.  This also makes a wonderful sandwich filling if you'd rather have chicken than beef in your sloppy Joes.

1/16/2007 - Fruity Comfort

Bread pudding is one of those classic dishes you either love or loathe from square one.  While some people think it's a most comforting dessert (or snack or breakfast dish), there are a number of people who think of it as just an ersatz way of getting rid of a ton of leftover bread before it goes moldy.

The people in the latter category have obviously never eaten bread pudding the way my mother makes it: so deliciously sweet, tender yet firm to the bite, all cinnamony and raisiny at the same time.  Seriously, it's just plain fabulous! 

However, with Mom so busy with her work with the Mother Butler Guild, she hasn't exactly had the time to transform all the frozen bread (bought and stashed into the deep freeze over the Holidays for the express purpose of making pudding) into a treat worthy of a king.  Since I was stuck at home with a bad chill yesterday, I decided to warm up my sickly constitution by making it myself.  Boy, it turned out exquisite!

The recipe I used yesterday is actually a variation of the Italian bread pudding recipe found in Penny Stevens's cookbook Italian.  It's a dessert made beautifully rich by the addition of cream and apples, but mine has the added charm of cinnamon syrup, pineapple tidbits, raisins, and almonds.  Try it for yourself; it's so comforting that it can help you shake off a bad case of the chills or even the blues.

Midge's Italianate Bread Pudding

• 2 dozen stale pan de sal or 2 stale loaves, sliced or cubed
• 2 apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped
• 1 small can pineapple tidbits, drained
• 100 grams granulated sugar, halved
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup butter
• 300mL milk
• 250mL all-purpose cream
• 1 small box raisins
• 1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 cup flaked almonds

In a bowl, sprinkle 50 grams of sugar over the apples, pineapple, and raisins.  Mix thoroughly and set aside. 

Whisk together eggs and cream; set aside.  In a heat-proof bowl, melt the butter into the milk (1 minute and 30 seconds on HIGH in the microwave); whisk carefully into the egg and cream mixture.  Add the remaining 50 grams of sugar and whisk until well combined.

In a buttered rectangular baking dish, spread a layer of the cinnamon-fruit mixture.  Top with a layer of bread, pressing down to pack it in.  Spread the remaining fruit over the bread layer and top with more bread.  Drizzle the syrupy residue from the fruit over the bread.  Pour the cream-custard over the layers, making sure to cover everything.  Sprinkle top with flaked almonds and more raisins.  Leave to soak for ten minutes.  Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees / Gas Mark 4.

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes.  It tastes fabulous alone, but a scoop of ice cream (either plain vanilla or Arce Dairy's Almond and Chips) adds a little extra oomph to it.