This is a great recipe to warm you up on a cold day, modified from its original version in Cooking Light magazine.

1 cup apple cider
1/4 cup chopped fresh sage
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper, divided
4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup uncooked orzo
2 1/2 to 3 (14.5 oz) cans low-sodium chicken broth, divided
1/2 cup minced onion
2 celery ribs, chopped
1/2 cup dry or semi-dry white wine
1/2 shredded parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375F

Combine apple cider, sage, oil, salt and 1/2 tsp pepper in a shallow dish. Add chicken and coat well, turning in liquid several times. Bake 25-30 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.

Cook orzo in 2 cans of chicken broth until tender. Drain and set aside, reserving cooked broth. Add enough uncooked broth to equal 1 3/4 cups.

Saute onion, garlic, and celery in a skillet coated in cooking spray until tender. Add reserved chicken broth and white wine; cook, stirring often, 5 minutes or until liquid is reduced to 1/2 cup. Stir in orzo, parmesan cheese and remaining 1/2 tsp pepper. Cook, stirring often, until thoroughly heated. Serve immediately with chicken.

Garnish with fresh sage sprigs as desired.

Another option:

Cut chicken into 1-inch pieces and marinate in cider-sage mixture for 2 hours, turning occasionally. Remove chicken and discard marinade. Brown chicken in a large nonstick skillet coated in cooking spray over high heat until done. Remove from skillet and keep warm.

Prepare orzo as directed above. Add chicken to skillet with parmesan cheese and pepper. Stir well and serve in bowls.

After a long week of working 10 hour days, plus having to work a half day on Saturday, I thought my mom deserved a home-cooked meal. I’ve been wanting to try this recipe for awhile now, so I made Apricot Chicken with some Onion Mashed Potatoes, a variation of the Garlic Mashed Potatoes from Lipton Recipe Secrets (see posting on October 27th, 2006). The combination was great with plenty of leftovers for next week when she’s back on overtime!

Apricot Chicken

8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 package Lipton Recipe Secrets Onion Soup Mix
1 bottle (8 oz) Russian OR Spicy-Sweet French dressing (Wishbone)
1 jar (13 oz) apricot preserves

Preheat oven to 400F and grease a large baking pan.

Combine soup mix, dressing and preserves in a large bowl. Arrange chicken on prepared baking pan and cover in apricot mixture.

Bake uncovered for 30-35 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.

Onion Mashed Potatoes

6 medium red-skinned potatoes
1 package Lipton Recipe Secrets Onion Soup Mix
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 milk

Wash and cut potatoes (peel only if desired) into a large pot of water. Bring to a boil and let simmer 20-30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Mash potatoes with soup mix, butter, and milk, mixing well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper as desired.

Serve this meal with some seasoned veggies, a good choice is Green Giant’s new frozen veggies that cook in the microwave. These have some great varieties, like Tuscan Seasoned Vegetables or Herb & Garlic Broccoli and Carrots. Quick, easy to make, and tastes great!

Inspired by the recipe “Alessandro Giuntoli’s Pasta With Red Wine.”

1 lb spaghetti
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp basil
1 bottle dry red table wine
fresh ground black pepper
1 tbsp butter

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Place oil, garlic and basil in a large, deep skillet. When water begins to boil, add salt and pasta then turn heat under skillet to high. Cook pasta as usual, stirring. As soon as garlic begins to brown, sprinkle with pepper and add about 2 cups of wine (3/4 of the bottle), bring to a boil and maintain there (garlic will look bright pink at first, but don’t panic).

When pasta beings to bend, after about 5 minutes of cooking, drain it and add it to simmering wine mixture. Cook, stirring frequently to coat pasta, adding wine a little at a time if the mixture starts to dry out completely.

Test pasta every couple minutes. When it is done, tender but with a little bite to it, stir in the butter and turn off the heat. Pour into a warmed bowl.

Extra Credit: saute sliced mushrooms in remaining 1/4 bottle of wine and 1 tbsp of butter.

This is a quick and easy meal I found in a magazine I just happened to grab at the checkout counter. It’s actually pretty fun to make (though I’m not sure if it counts as “cooking”).

1 box packaged macaroni & cheese dinner (such as Kraft)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 jar or can (approx 14 oz) pizza sauce
40 pepperoni slices
1 1/2 to 2 cups mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 2 to 3 quart baking pan.

Prepare macaroni & cheese dinner according to packaged directions. Fold in eggs and spread into prepared baking pan.

Top macaroni evenly with pizza sauce the place pepperoni slices in an even layer. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese until covered.

Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes or until bubbly and cheese starts to brown lightly. Let sit five minutes before serving.

Serve with garlic bread.

Optional: while dinner is baking, saute some mushrooms, peppers or other favorite pizza toppings to serve along side.

The appeal of this dish is that it takes only 5 ingredients (though if you count the butter and milk you need to make the mac & cheese, it’s actually 7). The flavor of the mac & cheese seemed to get lost after baking, on the next attempt I may try Velveeta Shells ‘n Cheese since it has a stronger flavor.

From Mario Batali of Food Network’s Iron Chef, this is a recipe James made for me for my birthday. He found it in Maxim magazine under the title “Six Ingredients to Seduction” (subtitle: cook her pants off). All eye rolling aside, this was a very tasty dish and it was quite sweet of him to make me dinner. All by himself. Well, almost…I supervised.

4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp hot chili flakes (or red pepper flakes)
1 lb heirloom tomatoes, chopped in 1/2 inch cubes, with all the juices
12 basil leaves, torn in half
1/2 lb spaghetti

Boil six quarts of water with 2 tbsp salt. Meanwhile, heat a 10- to 12-inch saute pan over medium heat and add the oil, garlic, and chili flakes. Cook until garlic is golden brown, about one minute.

Dump tomatoes in saute pan and bring to a splashy boil (about five minutes). Remove from heat, season with salt and pepper, and set aside.

Drop the pasta into the boiling water and cook one minute less than the package instructions suggest. Drain the pasta in a colander, toss into the pan with the tomato mixture, and place over medium-high heat.

Toss for 30 seconds, add basil, and toss again. Pour into a warmed salad bowl. Grate Parmigiano-Reggiano to taste, dim the lights, and serve with two forks.