I have a couple stacked up.. I got busy last week.

O.k.. this giveaway is for a copy of the Flexitarian Diet: The Mostly Vegetarian Way to Lose Weight, Eat Healthier, Prevent Disease, and Add Years to Your Life.

This is what Amazon says :

“The Flexitarian Diet” is the first book to describe what is potentially the next big diet and nutritional movement - ‘flexitarianism’. The concept has grown so popular that “Bon Apetit” selected ‘flexitarian’ as a hot trend for 2010. A flexitarian diet is part-time vegetarianism but, as the name suggests, flexitarianism is also about flexibility! a healthy, guided, customizable, appetizing, and family-friendly flexibility. “The Flexitarian Diet” begins with a quiz examining three nutrition factors: food preferences and aversions; whether the reader’s current diet is likely to cause shortfalls or overloads in particular nutrients; and, which food habits they most want to change. The answers point to best starting point for that reader.

There will be FIVE winners. Yep… I have five copies at my disposal.   Sooo… if you have been thinking of healthier eating..now may be the time!

Rules for enetering:

1. Leave a comment
2. Follow me on twitter - leave a comment telling me you did
3. Blog the contest and link to it and leave a comment
   
4. Sign up for the rss feed and leave a comment
   

Each person can only win one book. Contest will start today and end on Friday July 23 at 12 noon. Good luck!

Disclaimer: This cookbook is being supplied by the publisher. No money changed hands, I am not endorsing this cookbook. This giveaway is provided as a fun service to my readers.

Coq au vin  is a classic dish; chicken and wine. Call me pathetic if you want to but I get tired of coq au vin and a little bored. I mean, you can certainly vary the wines and it is good…but…

So I wanted to make coq au vin a little different. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I just knew I was going to do something.

I used Chardonnay for the wine rather than the more traditional red wine. That didn’t quite do it for me so I finished the final reduction with some heavy cream. Was it incredible? Yeah. It was. Tender with the fruity wine flavor in every bite, smooth, creamy mouth feel from the cream. Added bonus?

The cream pulls all the flavors together in a subtle blend. Fantastic. You can forgo the 24 hour marinating time and just cook everything but the marinating time adds so much flavor that you should try to take the time to do it.

Ready?

Creamy Coq au vin Blanc

• 8 chicken breasts, cut in chinks
• 4 cups chardonnay
• 1 onion
• 2 stalks celery
• 2 carrots
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled but left whole
• 2 bay leaves
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Day One-

1. Place the chicken breast in a ziploc bag. Add 1 cup of the wine, the bay leaf, 1 clove of the garlic, the salt, and pepper.
2. Refrigerate overnight.

Day Two

1. Put about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy pan
2. Add chopped onion, carrot, and celery and saute slowly until tender. Stir often
3. Once the mirepoix (carrots, onion, and celery) is tender add remaining wine, garlic, and chicken
4. Simmer, covered, for 2 hours
5. Remove cover and remove the chicken and vegetables; bring the remaining liquid to a boil and reduce by half
6. Slowly stir in cream and add chicken and vegatables back in
7. Simmer for 20 minutes, uncovered.. You can simmer a little longer for a thicker sauce

Serves 8

Consider adding button mushrooms if you like. This sauce was amazing. I want to make this again, real soon.

image:Marye Audet

Pot roast has to be one of those comfort foods that everyone loves. It isn’t exactly luxurious or gourmet but it is very, very good…if it is done right.

The first thing required for a good pot roast is a good cut of meat. It is a mistake to get the absolutely cheapest hunk of beef that you can find. Pot roast can be made of a less expensive cut of meat but in order for it to have amazing flavor it still needs to be a quality piece of meat. Organic grass fed, black angus…. go for the best you can afford. You will reap the benefit of more flavor, more tenderness, and more servings since you will have less waste. Plan on 2 generous servings per pound of meat.

Be sure to get the meat out of the fridge and allow it to stand at room temperature for about a half hour. This will help it to cook more evenly. Put your kosher  salt/pepper/turbinado sugar/herb mixture on the meat and rub it in.  During the time the meat is coming to room temperature the flavors will be being absorbed by the meat.

O.k..once you know how to caramelize the pot roast you are well on your way to a perfect pot roast. I like to use a flavored oil to sear the meat and caramelize it. One of my favorites for pot roast is to sear in a white truffle oil to give just a hint of mushroom flavor, but you can use a basil oil, chipotle oil, or garlic oil. Using a heavy pot will make the whole thing cook more evenly which means more tender, more flavorful meat.

Once you have the  meat seared and caramelized you will want to add :

• 2 onions, peeled and cut in fourths
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled. By leaving them whole the flavor will be more delicate
• 4 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 4 stalks of celery, left whole
• Liquid to come about 1/4 way up the meat - the liquid can be red wine, beer, water, beef broth or V-8. You can even do a combination of several of those.

Now, bring the liquid to a simmer and put the cover on the pot. Leave simmering until the meat is fork tender. Yeah, you can use a crockpot but I like doing this on the stove better. I just think the finished meat has a better texture. This is going to take about four hours.

You can either serve the juice thickened or au jus. If you want to thicken it that is easily done. Just remove the meat and vegetables, add three tablespoons of cornstarch (organic, please) and stir until the juice thickens. You can also puree the vegetables into the juice to thicken it.

Hey, pot roast is nothing if it isn’t versatile!

Try this. You are going to love it. Serve with some garlic smashed potatoes and maybe a salad and you are good to go!

image:marye audet

I used to really struggle with getting a good, golden brown sear on my roasts. I tried everything from butter to oil, heavier pans to higher cooking temperatures.

What finally worked for me was a simple procedure. Rather than just adding my salt and pepper and spices to the meat before I seared it… well I added a tablespoon or two (depending on the sized of the roast) of turbinado sugar. Regular sugar won’t work with this. You need the big crystals that the turbinado sugar offers. They react with the heat differently than the regular sugar. It doesn’t really add a sweet flavor but the flavor of the meat changes in an incredible way.

Just rub all sides of the meat with the salt, pepper, turbinado sugar, and any chipotle or other spice you will be using on it. Meanwhile heat about 3 tablespoons of  olive oil in a heavy pan until the oil almost ripples. Add the meat and sear quickly on all sides, without burning. You will end up with something like this -

You can see how the sugar helped the roast get a nice crust on it. I made pot roast out of this (recipe a little later) and the broth was just beautiful.

If you have a method you love then use it but if you are looking for a great way to add flavor, color, and complete awesomeness to your pot roast this is seriously it.

image: marye audet

These are not the pork chips of my childhood. I don’t know how your mom made pork chops but mine made them so that they were dry and chewy and somewhat like boiled shoe leather. Not great.
After I moved out I really never thought about making pork chops. I am not a big meat eater anyway and they just didn’t seem worth the expense to me. Then one day I saw some really yummy looking, thick pork chops…and I thought, “Why not?”

I am so glad that I did. I have learned to love pork chops with all kinds of sauces and all kinds of rubs.

When you make this recipe you will want to sear the pork chops on each side in a grill pan and then brush them with the glaze. Bake them until almost done and then let them stand for five minutes or so to finish reaching optimum temperature. These are great with sauteed apples, onions, or whatever.

It is certainly a hearty cold weather dish. I served it with couscous (recipe coming up soon) and apples. You can use Calvados in the glaze, as a matter of fact, with really good results.

Give it a try. I think you will want to add it to your favorite meals category. I know I did.

Pork with Mustard Maple Glaze

• Thick cut pork chops, enough for everyone
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup rum or apple cider
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 375F
• Mix the Balsamic, maple syrup and mustard and simmer until reduced and thickened. Whisk in rum and cook for 2 minutes.
• Coat a grill pan with oil and sear the pork on each side until you have good grill marks.
• Place the pork on a pan. Brush with glaze.
• Bake until pork reaches and internal temperature of 150F.
• Cover and allow to stand for five minutes or so.
• Garnish with green onions and serve.