"The Polenta exploded"

Ok, ok...so the polenta didn't exactly "explode" but that's what it looked like happened on my stove. Boo! I got the water, milk and salt to a boil and was gradually stirring in the cornmeal when BAM the whole mess is boiling over and the stove is absolutely covered in cornmeal. (Mom...if you're reading this: I already cleaned up and you'd never ever know it happened! LOL) So, after a few choice words that only seem to pop out of my mouth in the kitchen and while dealing with scalding hot cornmeal/milk/mush I took the pan to a different burner and kept obediently whisking away. It was either that or clean up what I could right away and possibly ruin the entire dish. Sigh....at least the end result was yummy!

        Balsamic Glazed Chicken Drumettes with Spinach Cheese Polenta

I got these two recipes from an awesome blog "Lick My Spoon" I had never had polenta before but had seen it in various cookbooks that I own. The god honest definition of polenta is "a thick mush made of cornmeal boiled in water or stock" Is it just me or does food described as mush tend to sound unappealing? But it was something new and different so I went ahead with it. And I really, really liked it! I don't think I could eat a ton of it, or very often but this was an excellent introduction to polenta. The spinach and melted gruyere were amazing together!

The chicken glaze is definitely a keeper as well! Honey, brown sugar, soy sauce, Balsamic Vinegar, garlic and rosemary make up the marinade which you also use as a basting glaze throughout the cooking. Very sticky and messy but oh so delicious! Please check this blog out!!

                             Cat Cora's Italian Cream Cake

For dessert I did Cat Cora's Italian Cream Cake and WOW.....I mean W-O-W. It is amazing! It is a bit more involved than a normal cake but nothing I (or anyone else for that matter) couldn't handle. It was, if you can believe it, the first time I ever "whipped egg whites and sugar until stiff peaks form" And let me tell you-that's a whole lot of whipping! I felt so goofy and proud when the stiff peaks did appear though. I was TOTALLY showing off to Chip like I was hot stuff. The only thing I would do differently next time is let the cakes cool longer. The frosting in between the layers got a little runny. This morning though (no I didn't eat cake for breakfast! I sent all the leftovers with Chip to work) the layers and frosting were set quite nicely. So super rich and yummy-this will be a nice cake to pull out for special occasions :)

Here are the links!


http://lickmyspoon.com/recipes/the-chicken-or-the-egg/

http://www1.macys.com/campaign/cc/recipe145.jsp