Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Inauguration Menu Remix & Ex Pats throwing a party!

No A-list celebrities here in Mexico but the Ex Patriot community partied & celebrated as the United States had the 44th President sworn into office. Anytime, in any country there is a peaceful transition of power it should be cause for celebration & joy. Politics & cultural differences aside there were 5 nations represented at the fun event hosted at Tresa Arami's home. The food, beverages & company was truly outstanding. I took a Lemon Dried Cherry Cake as well as some Star Sugar Cookies decorated with blue royal frosting & blue sugar crystals. **late night cookie decorating is horrible on Mexican tiled floors, those sugar crystals seem to have multiplied!

The official Inaugural menu was published this week & the 2009 Presidential Inauguration Luncheon Menu included a recipe for Herb Roasted Pheasant with Wild Rice Stuffing. To see the menu, china & related items go here~http://inaugural.senate.gov/While most of us don't have Pheasant close at hand chicken breast is a suitable substitute. Not wanting to stuff the breast with the pulverized tenderloin mixture (on the official menu)I made an adjustment in that area. The size of a Pheasant breast would warrant a modest addition of protein but chicken breast is much more substantial & held very well with the rice mixture minus the extra tenderloin. I'll admit my version is more of an "average Joe" recipe. I've also included the cake recipe I baked in the "American Star" Bundt cake pan. Buen Provecho!

I leave you with these words from Inauguration Day poet, Elizabeth Alexander. "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."
Tomorrow morning in Washington D.C. the real work begins~





















Herb Roasted Chicken with Wild Rice Stuffing (*No pheasant here)
Yield: 4 portions
Ingredients
5 Chicken breast, boneless, skinless, cut small pocket in side of breast for stuffing
½ cup Olive oil with chopped rosemary, thyme and sage *1 round Tbsp each herb
1 cup Wild rice, long grain mixture
2 cups Chicken stock or canned chicken broth
2 Carrots, diced
½ Onion, diced
½ cup Dried apricot, small diced
1 cup dried bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
1 Tablespoon Salt and pepper mix
2 Tablespoons Garlic, roasted
Directions
1. Boil the rice with the chicken stock, cook until soft and most of the liquid is gone.
2. Add the onion, carrot, garlic and apricot. Cook until the vegetables are soft and all liquid has been absorbed. Refrigerate rice mixture until cool.
3. When rice is cool, add bread crumbs & 1 egg to the rice until well mixed. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper and return to refrigerator until ready to stuff.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
5. Make 5 small football shaped patties of the rice mix, stuff inside the chicken breast, being careful not to over stuff. Rub herb/oil mixture on top & season with salt and pepper. Place the chicken in a roasting pan and then in a preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes. (test chicken to make certain juices run clear & chicken is done) Remove from oven and cover with lid or foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Lemon Dried Cherry Cake
3 sticks butter, softened
3 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice*
3/4 cup chopped, dried cherries

heat oven 325* Grease & flour bundt cake pan, set aside. In lg. bowl beat eggs & sugar until light & fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. In medium bowl sift together flour, baking powder & salt. Add flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning & ending with flour mixture. Stir in vanilla & lemon juice, fold in cherries. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 325* for 1 hour 10 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes in pan. Remove from pan & cool, glaze or sprinkle with powdered sugar. *In Mexico real lemon juice is hard to locate so I used lime juice. This was still very nice. This recipe came with the Nordic Ware American Star Bundt Pan.

23 comments:

Nancy Durant said...

Maybe instead of Herb Chicken you could call it Herb-ert Walker Chicken?
Now what to call your dessert?
Yum!

Dee said...

Nancy~you do crack me up! Too funny.

Shayne said...

it is nice to know that the expats hang out together and celebrate great things like US change of power.

In 9 days I become and expat to Mexico City area...getting nervous to tell the truth.

Dee said...

Shayne~as you come to Mexico as an Ex Patriot make certain you join the "Newcomers" Ex patriot group there. It is very large & active. It will give you a group of people who have resources as well as people of similar backgrounds & experience.

Unknown said...

I like your remix...it was truly a day to celebrate wasn't it?! I was glued to the TV watching every moment.
I was looking at your blog and you have some good recipes...feast for the eyes! I would like to invite you to share your recipes and tips with us at Foodista.com. It's a cooking encyclopedia filled with recipes, cooking techniques and more from around the world.
We also have small embeddable widgets that can help you build traffic from Foodista-related pages. Check it out here. Thanks!

Chef E said...

Dee- I did not even get that festive...hubby has one of those last minute business trips and meeting in NYC, so I made soup! I am having tests, so the waiting game for now...

My son has now informed me that since he has learned Spanish, and his new English professor taught school in South American, he wants to possibly pursue a career in that, and what is so funny is I also went to college for ESL, but got pregnant and my daughter situation did not allow me to leave the country, so this will be interesting watching my son's career path...maybe I will be visiting you one day!

Dee said...

Desmone007~I will check it out, thank you so much for checking out the blog. Internet food writing is so exciting.
Chef E~come on down, the weather is warm & the food is warmer:) Funny how we get to see our kids develop & make those educational choices & enjoy those opportunities. I have done some ESL tutoring, we live in a small world these days. Feel better my friend.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a great celebration menu! My daughter was demanding dessert yesterday and I didn't make any - she would have loved your delicious cake :)

Karen said...

Thanks for visiting my blog! I love the dried cherry cake and especially the apricot nectar cake - what a beautiful pan those were made in!

Joie de vivre said...

It sounds like it was a wonderful time! I'm so glad to see your cake. I've often seen those Bundt pans and every time I wonder if the cake sticks in the points. Obviously it doesn't!

Unknown said...

Dee , yes writing about food is very exciting...but it makes me so hungry too! Hope to see you soon on Foodista...

Kiezie said...

What a wonderful and colorful celebration! It all looks (and sounds) so delicious!! Thank you for such a nice post. I really enjoyed reading it!

*Kimmie* said...

What a fabulous celebration - looks delicious!

Hornsfan said...

Love Nancy's joke ---- I also love what you posted, I really want to try the cake and the chicken and your cookies turned out very pretty!

Abby said...

Yeah - I thought the menu was interesting, but I don't think I'll be trying the pheasant anytime, either!

The Food Librarian said...

What a great gathering of friends and expats! All the food looks delicious!

Sweet Cheeks said...

You got to love a cake with three sticks of butter...yumm.

mendytexas said...

I'd love to make that cake! I have a few of those pretty bundt pans...need to use them more often!
:)mendy

Shayne said...

how would I find an ex-pat group? yahoo groups?

Shayne

Selba said...

What a nice celebration :)

The food looks so yummy...

Dee said...

Shayne, here is the link~http://www.newcomers.org.mx/
Thanks so much foodie friends. This was a fun gathering. Living outside the US means we gather together when an event like this can bring us all together!

Unknown said...

Your blog is terrific! One detail, though--it's expatriates, not ex-patriots. Expatriates means living outside their country of origin; ex-patriots means former patriots! Unless, of course, I missed your point and you meant former patriots!

Have you read Mexico Cooks!? I think you'd like it a lot. Morelia-based, it covers a lot of culinary and cultural information in Mexico. It's a culinary travelogue, a feast for palate, mind, and spirit.

Cristina
Mexico Cooks!
http://www.mexicocooks.typepad.com

Dee said...

Patalarga~the group we have here is truly a combination of persons who live here & have done so for decades in some cases (a few former patriots), some are Expats from various countries & I myself will be here till the rotation home. I personally am proud & glad to call myself an American. So glad you mentioned the other blogs. Thanks for stopping by.