Chicken for Christmas

Garlic Ginger Chix, originally uploaded by passitonplates.

Our extended family is getting together tomorrow to do Christmas.

We'll all gather at my local sister's house and the crowd will include both sisters, spouses, kids, dad and his S.O. (our kinda-step-mom, of sorts) and the three of us.
Rachel called and got Caesar invited, too, so he's already had his bath.

Because the family Christmas is tomorrow, I spent some time tonight making Dad's gift. He likes food gifts, and this year, instead of buying him food he could buy for himself, I decided to give him a food he would not otherwise have.

I seasoned and vac sealed 6 individual chix breasts, two of each variety. This one is the Garlic Ginger chicken and the seasoning includes a little granulated onion, smoked paprika, black pepper, garlic, and ginger of course, and oh darnit I forgot to add cumin.

Oh well, it'll taste just fine.

We call our food vacuum sealer "The Food Sucker." This was my first time using Frank's food sucker and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Chicken Provencal, originally uploaded by passitonplates.

This is the Chix Provencal, with a classic French combination of herbs, cracked black peppercorns, and a slice of dried black truffle. (The orange arrow points to the truffle on one of the breasts.)

I have a good friend who is a professional mycologist (mushroom hunter.) Every now and then we're lucky enough to get a few of the highly sought-after black truffles and Oregon white truffles. Just a sliver transforms a dish, and the little slice of black truffle on these chicken breasts will turn them into an amazing meal.

Enchilada Chicken, originally uploaded by passitonplates.

This seasoning blend includes everything I throw in the pan when I make Chix Enchiladas: Oregano, onion, garlic, chili powder, cracked black pepper, lots of cumin, lime juice, and bay leaf.

I left the salt out of everything because Dad is on a low salt diet. That's another big advantage to making my own seasoning mix: total control over added sodium.

Six Vac-sealed Seasoned Chix Breasts, originally uploaded by passitonplates.

This is the neatest homemade gift I think I have given in a long time.

I bet Dad will love it.

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Recipe Roundup Giveaway!

It's the Pass It On Plates' first ever

Recipe Round Up!

One of the most frequently asked questions we get when people have Pass It On Plates is:

"What should I put on my plate?"

Be our Guest Blogger on our Plate Diaries blog - submit your favorite recipe post.

We're doing a recipe round up to gather recipe posts from people who want to be a Guest Blogger at our Plate Diaries blog at http://passitonplates.blogspot.com/.

The Giveaway runs Nov 22-29 and there will be two kinds of winners. Everyone who enters will become a guest blogger with the post they used to enter the Giveaway. One person's name will be drawn to win a beautiful cookbook with color pictures of each recipe.

Rules:

1. Enter with a link to your recipe blog post.

2. The recipe post must include at least one picture.

3. The recipe must be for something that could be given away on a Pass It On Plate.
4. The recipe post can be from any date, so you can enter an older post if you want.
5. Entries not following the first three rules will be disqualified.
6. One recipe per person, please.
Note: If your recipe needs to be modified to meet the criteria in #3, please mention that in your entry. If you're not sure about #3, you can check out our FAQ to learn more about Pass It On Plates.

Dates:
Giveaway starts at 12:01am PST on Saturday November 22, 2008 and ends 11:59pm PST on Saturday November 29, 2008.
Winner will be announced December 1, 2008.

So what do you get?

We actually have two kinds of winners. Everyone becomes a Guest Blogger with the post used to enter the Giveaway. In addition, one lucky person's name will be drawn to get an extra treat.

What's the extra treat that one person gets?
If your name is drawn, we'll swap recipes with you - This is a beautiful cookbook with some fantastic recipes and great food gifting ideas. Recipes range from sweet treats to savory relishes and easy snacky foods you can whip up in no time.

Gifts from the Kitchen, originally uploaded by passitonplates.

Gifts from the kitchen recipe, originally uploaded by passitonplates.

Everyone gets to be a Guest Blogger?
Yeah - That's the cool part. Since we need to publish a new recipe per week, every entry will be published on our Plate Diaries, giving you full credit and linking back to your site. It's a win-win. Even if you don't win the cookbook, you still get a bump in your Technorati rank and the potential for more traffic to your site. When the giveaway is over, we'll go through all the entries and schedule them into the Plate Diaries. We'll let you know when your post is scheduled to be republished. If you would like to see one of our guest blog posts, you can check out Deaf Chef at Large's recipe for Apple Crostata With Cheddar Cheese.

By entering this Giveaway, you are agreeing to let us republish your entire recipe post with pictures on our Plate Diaries site at http://passitonplates.blogspot.com/. This post will also include a link back to your site where it was originally published and an invitation to our visitors to check out your site for more recipes.

Remember - enter with a link to the recipe post, not a link to your entire site.
If your link just goes to your entire site we won't know which recipe you're entering and you won't qualify.

Get a free Pass It On Plates mug!

PIOP mug, originally uploaded by passitonplates.

Send us:

• a picture of your Pass It On Plate loaded with cookies or any other treat,
  
• and include your recipe with it
  

and we'll send you a free mug and your choice of gourmet cocoa or gourmet coffee!

Email your photos and recipes to:
pam [at] passitonplates.com

Your photo and recipe will be featured in the Plate Diary blog as the recipe of the week! For an example, check out Andi's Andes cookies.

(Offer good while supplies last)

And the winner is...

Andi! She won the drawing for July's Flying Plate promo and has a free Pass It On Plate heading her way.

And just to get the rest of you excited about this contest, Andi earned two contest entries using the same plate. She earned her two entries when she emailed us a picture of the plate. Take a look here.

On top of that, she sent us a picture of the plate loaded with some very addictive Andes Candies cookies and shared her recipe with us. For that, she gets a free mug. Yeah, a free mug, with either gourmet cocoa or coffee. (I'm betting she'll choose the gourmet cocoa.) Details about the free mug are in the sidebar of Plate Diaries and we'll tell you more about that tomorrow.

By the way Andi, YOU are just plain awesome!

(Um, Andi, did you want to leave a plate diary entry, too? Since it's now August, this will earn you one entry in the August contest.)


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Chai Tea and Date Bread

Simple and delicious. Try it with other tea flavors.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup chopped dates
1 1/4 c boiling water poured over 3 chai tea bags, steeped 2-3 minutes (to make strong tea)
2 Tbsp butter
1 beaten egg
2 c all purpose flour, sifted
1/3 c sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 325F, grease bread pan.

In a large bowl, pour the tea over the dates, add butter, and stir to combine. Let sit approx 15 minutes or until room temperature.

Stir in the beaten egg. Add the dry ingredients at once, stirring just until combined. Pour into greased bread pan and bake 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out dry.

Let cool to room temperature. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, then refrigerate overnight before slicing.

White Truffle Cheese Dip

Ginny just posted this recipe on her plate diary and we have to say it looks heavenly. We suspect this would be equally good as a spread in a roast beef sandwich, too. If you visit TruffleZone, please let them know you heard about them from us.
- Pam at Pass It On Plates


Here's Ginny's recipe for the cheese dip:
1 block of cream cheese, softened
3 cloves of garlic, pressed
1 shallot, minced
3 white truffles, finely minced
salt, pepper, and rice vinegar to taste

Mix everything together, adjust seasoning (I like my dip heavy on the black pepper, garlic, and truffle) and let it sit for a couple hours in the fridge. I put it in a dish lined with plastic wrap and unmolded it on the plate. It's really good with Stacy's pita chips. (Hopefully the movie we plan to watch will be just as good!)

You can get the white truffles at www.trufflezone.com They're not that outrageously expensive and soooo worth it. The TruffleZone people have been at the Beaverton farmers market in the past, and I'm hoping they'll be there again this year.
-Ginny