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Hi, I hope you're all in a kind of festive mood today and well are sort of in the mood for having company because you know, I told you that today we were going to have a real company dinner, partly something that I started yesterday, partly something

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that I started day before yesterday. Remember the avocado ring that I made Wednesday? I've unfolded that I'm going to garnish it and oh at all kinds of good things to it for the starter for a company dinner. And then yesterday I made the creole cake and

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today of course it's cold and ready to be frosted and I'll fill and frost that. And then for a main course for company dinner. And this is really wonderful because you know, so often you want to have something that's real special for guests but you don't

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want to be in the kitchen at the last minute. So this is a chicken casserole. It's one that my family just loves. And of course I do too. And it's something that you can prepare Practically 90% in the morning, practically everything can be done ahead. And

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you can even have your dishes washed up your kitchen all clean and everything in the casserole just ready to put in the oven when your guests ring the front doorbell is necessary. So you start out well, I'll tell you a little bit later what I started

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out with. But right now I'm going to season these quartered broilers and I'm just going to use salt and pepper with these today because I have some other seasoning in with the giblets that are cooking. So quite a bit of salt and not too very much

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pepper because there's quite a bit of subtle seasoning in this. And fresh herbs and dried herbs too. And you probably notice that I'm not turning the chicken in flour flower comes much later on in this and it goes in to cook with the sauce rather than

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on the chickens when they're going to be browned. Now I've seasoned the two quartered broilers and these chickens should be about, oh let's say about £2.5 each, so that you will have a piece that's not too dinky when you serve a quarter and I'd figure to

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serve about six people with this. Ordinarily I give you menus before, but I don't think that the Children in the family would eat more than one quarter of a £2.5 chicken. So let's figure the adults would eat two quarters and the Children one quarter each. And

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I think that would about work out right now, this is just salt and pepper and then you brown these and don't forget to brown your chicken's skin side down and I'm going to brown them in some very hot, very brown butter or margarine. The point is

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that if you have your butter or margarine hot first like this and brown you'll be able to brown your chicken so much more quickly then if you have them, if you put them into a pan with just melted butter or margarine because this way they'll brown

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in about one half of the time. Now I have six of those in there. I think that's about all the room. I'm going to have, I should have really a 12 inch pan for that and that's a 10 inch one. But maybe we can put the

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other quarter in later. That should be about right now. You'll notice that the skin side is down and that's because the skin side browns much more readily, much more quickly and looks much nicer. But you must be sure. Just take a look there and see how

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much of the margarine is good and brown in the bottom. And you can hear the chicken sizzling and that's all right. And then turn it to about medium heat so that it browns well, but doesn't burn or blister. And then over here in case you're wondering

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what's in this other sauce pan. This is where I've been cooking the chicken giblets and mushroom stems. Now, I started out with two cups of water and for the last 30 minutes, 35 minutes, I guess I've been cooking the chicken giblets, the gizzard, the heart and

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the livers with the mushroom stems and those have been seasoned with salt and pepper and a half of an onion and some parsley. And of course that means that this is very well seasoned with fresh herbs. So what I'm going to do now, in fact, I

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think I'll get away from where this sizzling is going on and I'm going to strain the giblet broth and take out the giblets and please remember that your fresh herbs, your onions and parsley are herbs even though you're using them fresh. And after a while I'll

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add a little bit of dried herb to this too. But first of all, to remind you about the amount. Now, I started out with two cups of water, boiled the giblets and mushroom stems, but I want to have only a couple of quarter or a cup

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and a half left. So when you boil these, you boil them uncovered. I just put the cover on now simply to hold the giblets back and then you can see the mushroom stems looks kind of uneven very often. Of course you use the whole mushrooms in

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a recipe, but in this particular one you want all the extra flavor from the mushroom stems. So if you'll just take out the giblets now and this is one of the cases in which you don't keep the mushroom stems, you've taken all the good flavor out

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of them. But you do keep the giblets and of course they've been cooked just long enough to be tender. So then if you want you can keep your giblets and serve them separately sometime. Maybe with rice. What I'm gonna do today is to chop them up,

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not fine, quite course. In fact chop them up so that I can put them into the casserole along with the chicken so that you have a not only the giblet broth, but the nice chunky nous of the giblets right along with the chicken casserole and that's

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about as coarse as you want to chop them about like that. You could just cut them if you wish. But this is about a good size. Now the jib, what brought is going to be used of course, uh in the sauce for the chicken. So if

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you'll just set that aside, you can leave it hot and we'll add that after a while, after the chickens are brown, that's about the third step. But practically all of these steps can be done in the morning. And the only thing that you have to wait

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to do at dinner time is actually to put your casserole into the oven. Now, let's see about the chicken. See how their brownies, mm they are a real nice red brown and that's the way they should be, but don't let them blister, that's fine somehow or

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other. It always seems that the drumsticks get browner than anything else. But the breast seems to be browning pretty well in here too. Now, after you turn them that second side, see the skin side, as I told you browns very quickly. The second side won't brown

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quite that quickly. So while that is browning, you can get something else done giblets are chopped and let's see I have the casserole here. I think I'll put the giblets right in there and that'll be something that I won't forget to do later on. This is

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a two quart casserole by the way and I think we'll need every bit of that size now. The next thing, since this is a chicken casserole with olives and mushrooms, I'm going to use the mushroom caps now and you know, every now and then I've reminded

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you about the easiest and I think the best way of cleaning mushrooms and that is to, well I was gonna say soak, but you don't actually soak them. You put them into cold salt water for a little while and after you do that, you'll find that

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the uh grit or the sand that's in the mushrooms will go right down to the bottom of the bowl. Well that's fine because you don't want to eat the grit. And of course, lots of people say, well You spoil the flavor of the mushrooms if you

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soak them. Well, you don't have to soak them for a long time. Just 10 or 15 minutes. And the cold saltwater will really loosen that amount of grit. Then you have the mushroom caps here. And of course these are just snapped off of the stems that

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were cooked and then you cut mushrooms, you slice them lengthwise, you slice them the way that they grow and incidentally, that's kind of a good rule to remember about most vegetables because, well, carrots, for instance, if you slice them lengthwise, parents are along celled vegetable and

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if you slice them the way they grow, you save more of the nutritive value. I don't know why that is, but it's true because I have the national nutrition councils a word for it. So I know that that is the proper accepted method. And incidentally, the

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mushrooms always look much nicer if they're sliced this way rather than crosswise. Now, I have half a pound of mushrooms here and sliced half of them. I think I'll slice the others. And maybe while I do that, I could give you a suggestion about a real

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quick and easy way of serving baked filet of sole with mushrooms. Now, a very good way would be to have some Captain's choice filet of sole on hand because that is real fine frozen seafood. And of course Captain's choice in the filet of soul, such as

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I have here and that. I use just the other day is perfectly delicious and it's all clean and ready to cook. So you might use some sliced mushrooms like this with it And a little bit of butter and a little bit of lemon and just bake

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it for about 20 minutes. You can thaw it out a little bit first or you can just put it in the oven frozen and give it about 30 minutes Now. Captain's choice, of course doesn't come just with filet of sole. You have a real wide variety.

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Oh, just any number of perfectly fine frozen seafoods in the Captain's Choice line Now, it's all very good. It's all fresh frozen and it's about the biggest assortment that you could possibly find in frozen seafood. It's the widest line of any brand. And you can buy

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it at Safeway by the way. And then if you want some real good ideas about different things to do with frozen seafood. How about sending in for the recipe book that the Captain's Choice people offer to you? That is a very nice little book and it

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has lots of good suggestions, menu suggestions and lots of definite recipes and they're from all over the country seafood from all the famous places. Now my mushrooms are sliced. Let's see about the chicken here. I think that's about brown on the next side. Yeah, that's brown

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enough. And I can just hear somebody saying, well that chicken isn't cooked of course it's not cooked. It's going to finish cooking in the casserole. But you take it out of the pan now so that you can get to the next step which is sauteing the

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mushrooms. See it is nice and brown and then it'll finish cooking in a 375 oven a little bit later on now for the for so taking the mushrooms. Usually you have to add a little bit more butter or margarine in your pen because the chicken is

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absorbed quite a lot of it. So today I'll add oh enough to melt into the pan pretty well and enough to keep the mushrooms from burning. Of course now just scoop the mushrooms off into the pan and that is very definitely right to use the same

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pan because you know how often you have good drippings in the pan and you certainly don't want to lose them. Well you have the drippings from chicken here and you're going to cook the mushrooms in the same pan, be adding the olives and the other things

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in later on, so that you have all those good assortments of flavors in this one pan and then of course you can do that. Well that famous old french habit or a method of rinsing out your pants with broth, which I'm going to do today or

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once in a while with water so that you're getting every bit of the good brown flavor that's in the bottom of the pan there. Now at this point you so take your mushrooms until they begin to brown a bit, they don't have to be a real

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dark brown. And of course these are cultivated mushrooms so that when you're using the cultivated mushrooms, you know, they're a good deal whiter than the field mushrooms. And if you're going to use steel mushrooms for this then of course they'll get dark very quickly, but they

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also will be a little bit more watery. So if you're using field mushrooms, don't put the extra butter or margarine in the pan to brown them. Only do that with your cultivated ones. So with the recipe that I'm sending out to you this week, I just

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didn't even mention adding more margarine because it depends on the type of mushrooms. Now, these are browning pretty nicely by the way, I left some of them the caps that are about that size hole, because the little ones, I think it's kind of nice to leave

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undisturbed. And then the great big ones you slice. Now they have to be loose enough in the pan so that you can do this, you don't want them to stick because at this point I'm going to Sprinkle them with flour and then I'll be adding the

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giblet broth. Now, see I wonder if those are brown enough. I think I'll add my flower here and then the giblet brought very slowly. Now you Sprinkle three tablespoons of flour over the mushrooms, Three stamp tablespoons, don't make it too thick, and then mix that, turn

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down your heat a little bit and just mix them around so that you're flour is absorbed by the butter or margarine that's clinging to the mushrooms. That's pretty important to do that because, you know, there's nothing worse than having a sauce that has lumps in it

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and this eventually is going to be a sauce for the chicken, it's sort of a sauce and mushrooms and vegetables, everything all together. But you have to be very sure that that flour is absorbed and that you don't see any little specks of it and then

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let that cook just a little bit so you won't have any raw flavor of flour. I think perhaps while I do that and while it's while the flower is browning a little bit with the mushrooms, I want to tell you about that new, very easily browned

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product and very easily prepared product. And that is the new Swifts brown and serve sausage. You know, it's very difficult not to say you only cook these three or four minutes, but you don't you don't cook them at all. They were already cooked. They've been cooked

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by infrared method and that means they're cooked from the inside out. So all you have to do is to heat them up and brown them. And that is something that really is a great pleasure because you know how often you think of having sausage for breakfast

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And you think, Oh dear, I don't want to spend 20 minutes getting it ready for breakfast and I don't want to take the time to pour off drippings and what am I going to do with what's left over? Maybe I'm gonna have fat left over and

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I have no way of using it up right now and I'll have to put it away and store it. But you don't have to worry about that anymore at all because with Swift's new brown and serve sausage, you don't have any fat that you have to

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put away and keep because the sausages have already been cooked. So if you buy a pound of sausages, you really do have a pound, You have nothing that you have to throw away or a store and not only that, but you don't have to spend the

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20 minutes. It takes about four minutes to heat and brown. You're Swift's new brown and serve sausage and it is really a perfectly wonderful way of buying sausage. It's quick. It's easy and of course, because it's Swift, you know, it's going to taste very good. Besides

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the fact that it saves you so much time and it really is economical when you figure that you don't have to worry about what am I going to do with the leftover drippings? Now? My mushrooms and the flowers are nice and brown. I think what we'll

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do now is to add the giblet broth and add it a little at a time. And again, you do that so that you won't have any lumps forming, Put about a quarter of a cup in and mix this very well. Now, you know, I seasoned the

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chickens with salt and pepper. I haven't seasoned the mushrooms at all yet. But I did season the giblet broth. So I'm not going to add, but just a little bit of salt to the mushrooms because the giblet broth had salt and pepper and onion and parsley.

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So we'll add just enough salt to take care of the mushrooms in the flour. And then as you add the rest of the giblet broth a little at a time, I'm going to add a little bit of basil to this. Now we have the fresh herbs,

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we have the uh, fresh onion and parsley and how about just a pinch or maybe a quarter of a cup of the dried basil. Now this isn't the really powdered, it's just the dried. So if you just put on the palm of your hand and then

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take the heel of the other hand and do like that and just let it go right down into your mushrooms, that will give you the equivalent of about a quarter of a teaspoon, which is what you want. Now, this is beginning to thicken very nicely. Uh,

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this whole part of the preparation of this dish, I guess takes about 15 minutes. And then the baking time depends on the size of the chickens. Yeah. Uh, if you'll put your casserole in a 3 75 oven and bake this about 40 minutes with a cover.

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Now, that's another thing you want to be careful of, if you're using field mushrooms instead of cultivated during the baking time, you might want to take a look and see if you're The sauce around the chicken is getting soupy because if it is, you'll want to

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take the cover off with cultivated mushrooms. You never have to think about that. Of course. So I did say on the recipe cover the casserole and bake at 375, about 40 minutes now I have the rest of the giblet broth to go in there and it

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takes one and 1/4 to 1.5 cups and then basil is in And you add at this .1 half can of chopped ripe olives. You know, I think I'm going to revise the name of this dish. It seems to me, instead of just calling it chicken casserole,

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I should call it California chicken casserole because I have California chopped ripe olives in here and I'm gonna be using California sherry wine And I guess maybe we'll change it, we'll call it California chicken casserole. I never know what to call all these casseroles. Anyway, I

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have chicken casserole 123478 and so on. How after your olives are blended in there. He would scrape your pan. Very well remember that you have drippings from, oh from the chicken and the mushrooms and now the broth in here. So you pour this over the chicken

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in your casserole and be sure to scrape the pan and you remember I told you about rinsing your pan and of course that doesn't apply just to chicken, it applies to practically anything that you want a good pan gravy with, take a little bit of the

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broth that's left. Or if you have none, you can take a little water and then just swirl this around in your pan so that you have every bit of that nice brown going into the casserole instead of going down the drain of the sink. Yeah, I

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think that just about does it and then mix that just a little bit so that it goes over the chicken and that your mushrooms go down a bit. And remember the giblets are in the bottom of the casserole now, and if you want you can keep

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those out separately and put them in with rice. As a matter of fact, rice is very good served with this dish. Then now comes the sherry and this is 1/4 cup of sherry wine and just pour that so that it's carried down evenly. The reason that

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I don't put it in the pan first and then pour it over is that some of it cooks away. And since I'm only using a quarter of a cup, I might as well leave it there and then put the top on your casserole and bake this

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At 3 75. About 40 minutes. Now we have Just a guess 40 minutes today. But I did want to tell you again about the part that you can do in the morning on that. Now, everything that I've done so far, you could do in the morning.

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Then of course you can do all your cleaning up. You clean up your pan and the sauce pan that you cooked the giblets in the frying pan, you're measuring cups, everything and then at dinner time, all you have to do is just put the casserole in

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the oven and bake it. But if you're doing that then allow an hour. Because during the day you would have put your casserole probably into the refrigerator, certainly into a cooler. Probably the refrigerator and it would have cooled off So that you'll have to give it

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a 15 or 20 minute period to heat through before it actually starts to cook. So if you're doing it this way all at once, you bake it for 40 minutes. If you're doing all this preliminary preparation in the morning and just letting the casserole stay in

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the refrigerator all day, then bake in an hour now. Let's see. I have to get back to well, some things that I did yesterday and the day before, I suppose I get back to the cake first and we get the cake frosted and ready to serve

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and then go back to the salad after a while and for that cake. Well, I'm just gonna, I told you this was a real party menu today. So we're gonna have everything that's party ish. We have a party ish cake that I'll frost in a very

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short while. But I think that something we should have with it is a dish that is so absolutely perfect for parties and yet so inexpensive that is just marvelous to know about. This is borden's chocolate glacier freeze and it is something very special. I don't think

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that I have ever tasted a dessert with a finer chocolate flavor than this. It is absolutely super in flavor. It looks good and it tastes even better. It's borden's glacier freeze and it is something really super. You know, when you talk about a company dessert, you

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kind of think of something expensive as a rule and may be very rich. Well this is extremely delicious. It's really tops in flavor, but it has wonderful advantages besides that because it's very easy on your waistline and very easy on your pocketbook. In other words, it's

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low in fat and low in calories even though it's very high in flavor. Now, what kind of combination could you possibly want than that? Something that oh, that just tickles your taste buds. That's really a wonderful flavor. And at the same time is so very well,

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just kind of spares your waistline and your pocketbook, easy on the budget, easy on the waistline and just wonderful to eat. Now borders glacier freeze comes this way, which is even less expensive than any other way. It's in the economical half gallon size and the chocolate

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is so wonderful that I have never really tasted a finer flavor, high in nutrition low in fat and calories and just perfect for your pocketbook. And is there anybody who isn't watching the budget in the pocketbook these days? I think you'll find too that those of

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you who like chocolate and I guess there are very few people who don't, we'll find it really perfect chocolate flavor in this Jack. I think it's your turn to have Some place your freeze today. How about it? You can have that serving and I'll put the

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rest back in the refrigerator and then everybody else can share this at 1:00. Mhm. Now, for the frosting on the creole cake, you know that cake was made with parts coffee and part chocolate. So I thought I'd be kind of a good idea to use a

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coffee frosting on it. And I have some hot water here and I'm just gonna make coffee the easy way, of course, by dissolving some instant coffee in. Oh, let's see. I guess about, oh, a half a cup, No quarter of a cup of hot water. But

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I'm gonna keep the hot water handy because there are times when you need just a little bit more. So we have some good strong coffee there. You know, I told you yesterday when you are using coffee as a flavoring in cake or in frosting like today,

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you make it much stronger than you would if you were using it as a beverage. So instead of using the amount that you ordinarily would in a cup, you'd use the amount that you ordinarily would in a half a cup so that you have a good

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strong coffee flavor. Now in here, I have 1/3 cup of soft margarine and Remember 1/3 cup is 2/3 of a cube. So I've had this at room temperature as you can see it's got nice and soft and I'm going to use two cups of powdered sugar

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and this 1/4 cup of the very hot coffee. And I'm gonna add those alternately. And I know very often people like to just put in the powdered sugar with the butter and margarine all by itself. But if you do that it takes you much longer of

00:25:11.230 - 00:25:28.880

course it takes a lot more effort to and you know, I believe in doing things the easiest way possible because I think that there's a very definite relationship between efficiency and laziness. I mean some people call it lazy and some people call it efficient, but certainly

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if you can do a frosting or anything else an easier way and have the same results, why not do it? So I put about a quarter of the amount of powdered sugar in here and then just as that begins to blend in to the soft butter

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and margin. And remember it should be soft or you'll have an awful time getting your sugar in, then put a little of your hot coffee and when I say a little, that's just what I mean, because if you put too much then you'll have the margarine

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melting and that we certainly don't want. So put enough in so that you can whip it like this and then add some more of your powdered sugar. Now, usually four installments is just right for this. I have two cups of powdered sugar And the 4th of

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a cup of hot strong coffee and you can see how quickly the powdered sugar goes in when you help it along a little bit with the hot liquid. Now the creole cake had chocolate dissolved in coffee in the layers themselves. But I thought it might be

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kind of nice instead of having a combination chocolate and coffee frosting to have the plain coffee frosting and just have the chocolate glacier freeze and the chocolate part in the cake. Now this certainly doesn't take as long as doing it with all powdered sugar and none

00:26:53.320 - 00:27:09.310

of the liquid. So try it that way. Just alternate auditions instead of putting all your sugar in and working hard to do it. The only thing to be careful of is don't add too much of the liquid right away. Now that's good and smooth. I have

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one more thing to put into this, but we'll add a little bit of the coffee first and what I'm putting in is another of those leftover egg yolks. Remember on monday I did the meringue nests that took four egg whites. So of course they had four

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yolks left over. And I used one yolk yesterday in the lobster thermidor. And I have another yoke that I'll use now in the frosting. And this gives you a very creamy, a little bit different frosting when you add your one egg yolk. So just put that

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in and you don't have to be careful because the mixture is cold of course, and then whip it in and then you have a quite a rich and yet rather delicate type of frosting for the cake. Now this frosting can stand before you put it on.

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I'm gonna let it stand just a couple of minutes here and then spread it on the cake. In fact not even a couple of minutes. Just long enough so that I can get the cake out and ready to frost for you. And this is a very

00:28:09.330 - 00:28:24.380

easy frosting to use to. Now I baked this creole cake in nine inch layer pan, You can do it in 8" ones and you get higher layers. This is just the way that my family likes it because then we spread the frosting all over and we

00:28:24.380 - 00:28:41.090

have a little bit bigger proportion of frosting. Now I have the one layer turned upside down on the cake here and here's the way you do your second layer. You want to be very sure that you don't have the bottom of the layer on this cake

00:28:41.090 - 00:28:54.620

rack. And you want to be very sure that you don't pick it up with two hands. So here's the way you do it. You put your filling on first, the top of this layer is at the bottom of the cake pan is on the cake pan.

00:28:54.910 - 00:29:07.510

The bottom of the layer is what you see here. Now you spread your filling. And of course that you don't have to be nearly as careful with as you do when you're putting the frosting on. And then when you put your second layer over it, don't

00:29:07.510 - 00:29:21.860

pick it up with two hands, but put the flat of your hand over it this way, turn it take off your cake rack and then very gently and carefully put it on top and then you see it's perfectly level. And remember I told you yesterday about

00:29:22.240 - 00:29:39.150

putting that little depression in the middle of each layers so that they'd come up nice. And even and that's just exactly what has happened. You have good even layers. So that when you put your frosting on and whether you're putting it in the middle or whether

00:29:39.150 - 00:29:53.740

you're putting it on the top like this, you'll find that you won't have a hump in the middle of your cake. And this time since the frosting is such a real nice contrast in color to the cake, I'm not going to frost the sides. I think

00:29:53.740 - 00:30:05.110

the last time I showed you about frosting a cake on the sides and then the top. But this is such a lovely color contrast. We're gonna leave most of the frosting on the top and then just show you about putting a little all kind of an

00:30:05.120 - 00:30:21.560

extra party touch on it after you spread it and that. Oh, that's half the fun of cooking is just thinking up new ways of putting little finishing touches on things. You can even use the same frosting about 25 different times. And if you put it on,

00:30:21.560 - 00:30:35.260

so it looks different, it just gives you a little bit of a lift each time. Now this way, let it go just to the edge but not over and get it smooth. And then if you'll take your spatula and I'm using a little narrow in this

00:30:35.260 - 00:30:54.130

time and just run it down this way the brits of the spatula, and then turn your cake and run it down this way on the sharp side. That way you get a very pretty design in your cake. Does that show up? All right, Jack, can you

00:30:54.130 - 00:31:07.470

see that? And it gives you a very quick and easy one. Now, I've done that for you before with chocolate frosting and I've done it I think with a white frosting. But this one looks so pretty on the chocolate cake. I thought I'd show you that

00:31:07.470 - 00:31:21.890

one again today. It's lots of fun to do. It's easy and it's very effective. It looks oh, it looks so fancy. So it took a lot of effort and it doesn't really take any at all. Now I have, I'll go back another day. This is back

00:31:21.900 - 00:31:36.130

to Wednesday's avocado ring and since I showed you how to unmold the ring, just, oh I think it was last week when we had a different one, I thought I'd unmold this ahead and garnish it for you today. One thing that I wanted to remind you

00:31:36.130 - 00:31:48.900

about in unfolding a ring is to use warm water not hot when you put the mold in and when you do that of course you'll be able to get your mold out nicely without having it melt. And oh yes, another thing I want to tell you

00:31:48.900 - 00:32:02.860

about before I start dressing that up. Um I want to tell you about two things. In fact I have something cooking over here that I've forgotten to tell you about and that's the string beans for the salad and they're just about done. I'm just going to

00:32:02.870 - 00:32:14.710

take them away from the heat and show them to you in a little little while. But I wanted to give you a reminder about the spice, very cinnamon spiced prunes that I made. Oh I think I did them here a couple of weeks ago and you

00:32:14.710 - 00:32:26.270

remember I told you they kept very well in the refrigerator. We'll look at that bowl. Now, those have been in the refrigerator, We started with a bowl about this big and each day we've eaten a few of them or use them along with parts of our

00:32:26.270 - 00:32:39.810

meal. And we still have a few of the very delicious spiced prunes left now. You know, prunes are really the most versatile type of fruit, the prune bars that I made the other day and that prune cake that I made a while ago.