Adapted from Gabi Moskowitz

Ingredients:

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts OR 6 drumsticks w/skin
• 1/2 cup Pom 100% pomegranate juice
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/8 cup honey
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
• salt and pepper to taste
• toasted sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a zip-lock bag, combine pomegranate juice, balsamic vinegar, honey, brown sugar, thyme, salt and pepper. Stir until honey and sugar dissolves.

Place chicken pieces in the zip-lock bag. Press air out of bag and seal. Move bag around to ensure marinade disperses. Refrigerate bag for 30 minutes or overnight.

Remove chicken from bag and place in a large glass baking dish, spacing chicken evenly. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until chicken is tender but fully-cooked.

While chicken cooks, carefully pour remaining marinade from bag into a small saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil (Important: to kill bacteria), then lower heat to medium-low and simmer for 12-15 minutes until marinade is thick and syrupy. If it does not get syrupy, stir 1 teaspoon of cornstarch into a tablespoon or two of cold water and stir it into the marinade. Simmer until thickened. Remove from heat and carefully fish out thyme stems if you used fresh thyme.

Once chicken has finished baking, brush glaze over each piece. Sprinkle generously with toasted sesame seeds and serve.

• 1 quart cream
• 1 quart half-and-half
• 1/8-1/4 teaspoon tartaric acid (not cream of tartar)

You can find the tartaric acid at brewing supply stores or specialty cheese making supply stores.

1. Heat cream and half-and-half to 185°F-205°F but no hotter.
2. Start with 1/4 teaspoon tartaric acid and stir for several minutes. The mixture will slowly thicken and resemble a thinner version of cream-of-wheat. Tiny curds will also begin to form. If the cream does not coagulate, add an 1/8 teaspoon more of the tartaric acid and stir for another 5 minutes. Be careful not to add too much tartaric acid or a grainy texture will result, probably no more than 3/4 teaspoon. Be patient and keep stirring.
3. Line a colander with a double layer of high quality cheesecloth (not the kind you buy at Safeway or Fred Meyers, you can find it at kitchen supply stores). Pour the curd into the colander and drain for 1 hour for a traditional mascarpone texture. Drain for up to 12 hours in a refrigerator for a whipped cream cheese texture. Place the cheese in a covered container and keep up to 1 week.

3 eggs, separated
2 cups mascarpone at room temperature
1 T vanilla sugar
(note: you can make your own vanilla sugar by placing one vanilla bean into
a jar of sugar- let sit for at least a week, you can also choose to just use regular or no sugar here)
¾ cup cold, very strong black coffee
¾ cup kahlua or other coffee-flavored liquor, or rum
1 large package of ladyfingers (18-20)
Unsweetened cocoa powder

1. Put egg whites into a mixing bowl and whisk until they form medium stiff peaks.
2. Combine mascarpone, egg yolks and sugar in another bowl.
3. Fold the egg whites into the mascarpone mixture.
4. Put a few spoonfuls of the mix at the bottom of your serving pan and spread out evenly (a 9×9 glass dish works about right for this)
5. Pour the coffee and the liquor into a shallow dish and stir to combine.
6. Dip the first layer of lady fingers quickly (they don’t need to be soaked through) and place on top of the mascarpone in the serving pan next to each other. Tiramisu is sort of like lasagna so basically make a layer of soaked cookies.
7. Spoon ½ of what you have left of the cheese mix on top of the cookies and spread evenly.
8. Make another layer of cookies soaking these ones a bit longer (remember, the liquid goes to the bottom, thus no need to soak the bottom layer for too long. Your cookies should never be falling apart on you or you’ve soaked them too much).
9. Cover this layer with the cheese mix and dust with the cocoa powder. Cover and let sit in the fridge overnight. Don’t serve immediately, the cookies need time to soften. Wait at least 10-12 hours before serving.

Ingredients:
4 bunches spinach (blanched and squeezed dry; or 4 boxes frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry)
1 cup herbs (such as parsley, dill and mint; chopped) [used 1 cup chopped fresh parsley]
1 bunch green onions (sliced)
1 cup feta (crumbled)
1 cup ricotta [or 1 cup cottage cheese]
3 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
3 cups mozzarella (grated)
1/2 pound lasagne noodles (cooked)

Directions:
1. Mix the spinach, herbs, green onions, feta, ricotta and eggs.
2. Place a layer of the lasagne noodles in the bottom of your 9×13 inch baking dish.
3. Top with half of the spinach mixture and 1/3 of the mozzarella.
4. Top with another layer of noodles.
5. Top with the remaining spinach mixture and 1/3 of the mozzarella.
6. Top with another layer of noodles followed by the remaining mozzarella. [or add 10 minutes before lasagna is done]
7. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until bubbling on the sides and golden brown on top, about 30-45 minutes.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Makes 16 empanadas, with some leftover filling (good for taco filling!)

Dough:*
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

½ cup whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons salt
2 sticks (1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 large eggs
2/3 cup cold water
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar

Filling:
3 whole chicken legs, including thighs (2 to 2 1/4 lb total)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 large onions, halved lengthwise, then cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-wide strips
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 Turkish bay leaves or 1 California
1/3 cup finely diced Spanish chorizo (cured spiced pork sausage; 1 1/2 oz; casings discarded if desired)
1/2 teaspoon Spanish smoked paprika (not hot)
1/4 cup chopped pitted green olives
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth

Egg Wash:
1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon water

Make Dough: Sift flour with salt into a large bowl and blend in butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal with some (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Beat together egg, water, and vinegar in a small bowl with a fork. Add to flour mixture, stirring with fork until just incorporated. Turn out mixture onto a lightly floured surface and gather together, then knead gently with heel of your hand once or twice, just enough to bring dough together. You can also do this in a large bowl. Form dough into two flat rectangles and chill them, each wrapped in plastic wrap, at least 1 hour. Dough can be chilled up to 6 hours total.

Make Filling: Pat chicken dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then brown chicken, turning over once, about 6 minutes total, and transfer to a plate. Sauté onions, garlic, and bay leaves in fat remaining in skillet, stirring frequently, until onions are softened, 4 to 5 minutes.

Add chorizo and paprika and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add olives, wine, and broth and bring to a boil, stirring and scraping up any brown bits. Return chicken to skillet along with any juices accumulated on plate, then reduce heat to moderately low and simmer chicken, covered, turning over once, until tender, 25 to 30 minutes total.

Transfer chicken to a clean plate. (Sauce in skillet should be the consistency of heavy cream; if it’s not, briskly simmer until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.) When chicken is cool enough to handle, discard skin and bones and coarsely chop meat. Stir chicken into sauce and discard bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper, then cool filling, uncovered, about 30 minutes.

Form Empanadas: Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 400°F. Divide first dough and half of second dough into 18 equal pieces and form each into a disk. (The remaining dough can be stored in the freezer for future use.) Keeping remaining pieces covered, roll out 1 piece on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 5-inch round (about 1/8 inch thick).

Spoon about 2 tablespoons filling onto center and fold dough in half, enclosing filling. Press edges together to seal, then crimp decoratively with your fingers or tines of a fork. Transfer empanada to a baking sheet. Make 15 more empanadas in same manner, arranging on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets.

Lightly brush empanadas with some of egg wash turning sheets around halfway through baking, until golden, about 25 minutes. Transfer empanadas to a rack to cool at least 5 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.