Ingredients: 1 large chicken breast, diced 1 T chopped onion ½ green pepper, chopped salt, pepper, onion powder, nutmeg to taste 2 cloves garlic, sliced or crushed jalapeno pepper, chopped (optional) Sauce 4 oz cream cheese 2 T heavy cream 2 T butter 1 T cheese Whiz pimento flavor Enchiladas 2 eggs 2 T heavy cream ½ t salt 1 t baking powder 1 sachet sweetener 2 t oil How to Prepare: Saute chicken in olive oil/butter mix [...]

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Chicken marsala is one of those Americanized Italian dishes that seems to be a standard in many a home cook's repertoire. It consists of flour-coated thin chicken breast cutlets, cooked with a Marsala wine reduction and usually mushrooms as well. This recipe for chicken marsala is one of my father's favorites. It doesn't use mushrooms, though you could certainly include them, and gets much of its flavor from pancetta, an Italian version of bacon, that is salt-cured not smoked. It takes all of maybe 30 minutes to prepare, so it's perfect for a midweek dinner. Dad sometimes substitutes bacon for the pancetta (gasp!); according to him, "one can't live on pancetta alone." And he sometimes switches out the Marsala for dry vermouth.

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Tonight is the night for ghosts, ghouls and goblins to walk among us.  Most of them will be after your candy supplies, and hopefully the gremlins will stay out of your kitchen.  Just remember not to feed any cute lil’ critters after midnight!

For me, the end of the day ushers in thoughts of the Thanksgiving Holiday to come. In that bent I will be posting a collection of the best holiday recipes I’ve been ble to find, as well as a few that have been tried and true staples on my holiday table for years.

Most of what I’ll be posting are updated versions of some holiday classics, from appetizers to the dreaded Green Bean Casserole…  (Now that’s a Halloween-ish thought.  It gives me shivers every time!  Scary!)   some I just can’t bear the thought of messing with, so they will be presented as my family has always made them. (Let’s face it, you don’t mess with perfection!)

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I'm squeaking this meringue recipe in under the gun, hoping that it's not too late for at least a few of you to try for Halloween. Going along with the spirit of the season, I piped meringue into tiny ghost shapes. Looking through my oven's window, the baking sheet looks like it is housing a tiny ghost army. If you aren't into ghosts and ghouls - no problem, the great thing about this recipe/technique is that you can shape the meringue into any form you can dream up. If you don't get around to trying it now, check back later in the year, and use the same approach to create edible trees or candy cane shapes.

If you've never attempted to make meringues, you should. I know that beating egg whites and using a pastry bag all in the span of one recipe might seem a bit too fussy for some of you, but I'll play devil's advocate and say that on the flip side we are only talking about a tiny ingredient list. In my mind, a bit of fuss on the production end of things offsets the ingredient scavenger hunt that can go along with more elaborate baking recipes. For this meringue recipe all you need is egg whites, salt, cream of tarter, and powdered sugar. And a couple silver sprinkles (or dabs of chocolate or seeds) for the eyes. But the real payoff is in the process. There are few things more satisfying to me in the culinary realm than watching a couple sudsy looking egg-whites turn into elegantly structured, glossy, bright-white meringue.

Feel free to double the recipe if you like, though two egg white make a nice amount of meringue. Have fun!

(Click through to site to see recipe)