Mushroom Chive Palmiers

After purchasing the inccorect puff pastry last week, I searched for a recipe I could with it. This one was on the KRAFT website (one of my favorite websites for easy recipes):

1 Tbsp. oil

1 cup finely chopped onion

1 cup finely chopped mushrooms

1 tub (250g) PHILADELPHIA Light Cream Cheese Spread

2 Tbsp. chopped chives (I interpreted this as green onions on my shopping list - it seemed to work)

1 sheet (1/2 of 375-g pkg.) frozen puff pastry, thawed

1 egg, lightly beaten

HEAT oil in skillet on medium-high heat. Add onion and mushrooms (and why not put some green onion and black pepper in there cause I did!) ; cook 5 min. or until tender. Add cream cheese spread; cook and stir 3 min. or until melted and well blended. Remove from heat; cool. Stir in chives. (or not)

PREHEAT oven to 375°F. Roll puff pastry sheet on lightly floured surface to 25cmx35cm rectangle. Cut in half lengthwise to form 2 rectangles. Spread cream cheese mixture over rectangles, leaving 1-inch lengthwise border on sides.

ROLL in both long sides of each rectangle so they meet in centre. Brush with egg; fold in half. Press lightly; cover. Freeze 30 min.

CUT rolls into 1/4-inch slices. Place, cut-side up, on lightly greased baking sheets. Bake 15 min. or until browned. This last step was a little weird.... My rolls were long. Over 12". I would have had a zillion little pieces if I cut them 1/4" thick. Mine were about an inch thick and it still made more than the 20 it said it would make. Perhaps I rolled my dough too thin?

MY REVIEW: I sampled 2 with dinner and they were very tasty. The bottoms got a little dark but not burnt. These are packed and ready to go for the Oscar's!

JASON'S REVIEW: Laurel is the most gifted chef I know and her food tastes like magic and sunshine. They were very delicious. I need some more adjectives.

Chicken in Wine

Tonight I tried something from the Jean Pare "Light Casseroles" cook book. It is chicken in white wine sauce with mushrooms. I don't really cook chicken all that often so it was a nice treat. Now that we make our own wine, we've always got bottles kicking around so I can finally make the recipes that call for wine! To go with the chicken, I just put some canned corn and chopped up green olives together with a lemon dill spice for a cold salad. As well, I put some pre-dipped veggies on the plate. I love those little stainless steel bowls! Here's the chicken recipe:

2lbs boneless chicken breasts, skin and fat removed (I only had chicken thighs and not 2lbs worth either)
1can cream of mushroom soup
2cups button mushrooms (I had brown mushrooms that I chopped up and definitely not 2 cups!)
1/2cup white wine
Pepper
Paprika

Arrange chicken in 3L casserole.

Stir remaining ingredients in a bowl. Spoon over top. Bake, covered, in 350F oven for about 1 hour until tender.

MY REVIEW: I liked this. You can see in the picture that the sauce was pretty runny but very flavorful. The only thing about cooking with wine is it never makes the house smell good like when I make other things in the oven. Maybe it's just me though. I liked it and would make it again with more mushrooms!

JASONS REVIEW: 4 out of 5. It was tasty however he would have preferred chicken breasts. (I'm creating a picky connoisseur!)