cookin'

Yes, I know I told you I put away all of my cold weather recipes, but dangit, it's cold again. So last night I made one of our favorites-Ina Garten's Chicken Stew with Biscuits. You can find it here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_23471,00.html

I went to Widmers and got fresh chicken breasts and roasted them like she says too, they made the house smell delish. But I took a couple of shortcuts-using frozen chopped onions (because I love how much time they save me) and using Grands Biscuits instead of making my own, because I just wasn't in the mood for biscuit rollin' yesterday. It still turned out:

So we each had a hearty helpin' of home cookin'. And it warmed our tummies as well as my heart. And since I had the oven on anyway, and I had an extra puff pastry crust left over from the weekend's cooking extravaganza, I whipped up this:

Almond Pear Tart

1 sheet thawed puff pastry

1/3 c. sliced almonds

3 Tbsp. packed brown sugar

3 med size firm ripe pears

1 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cold

Preheat oven to 400, roll pastry out on a lightly greased baking sheet into a 12" square. Fold over the edges 1/2" to form a border, prick pastry with fork, and stick it in the freezer for a bit. In a food processor or blender, combine the nuts and brown sugar until fine. Sprinkle half the mixture over the pastry crust. Combine the rest of the mix with the cold butter, and reserve. Slice the pears thinly, and arrange in overlapping rows to cover the pastry. Sprinkle the reserved nut mixture over the top, throw it in the oven for 20 min or so until it is golden, puffy, and the pears are tender. Serve warm, with a little vanilla bean ice cream or fresh whip cream You can substitute apples for the pears, if you are so inclined. Totally yummy.

Sorry, we ate it too fast to take a picture....