This dish cooks up as quickly as the recipe reads. There is some time involved to marinade and skewer, but that can all be done in advance. Once the chicken is skewered it can be layered on a tray and frozen for any busy weeknight.

Serve these on a bed or rice (start the rice before you put the chicken on the grill or use a pre-cooked packet of rice that cooks in the microwave in 90 seconds), with some steamed or stir-fried vegetables on the side. There are some great varieties of frozen stir-fried vegetables that can be flavored with some ginger, garlic and a bit of the teriyaki marinade that you thin down with vegetable stock of water; for an even simpler side, dress the heated vegetables (either steamed or stir-fried) with some Asian sesame dressing and a sprinkling of sesame seeds once you take them off the heat.

Chicken Yakitori

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, sliced

½ cup teriyaki marinade

2 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled

2 Tbsp grated fresh ginger

1 tsp sugar

Combine teriyaki marinade, garlic, ginger, and sugar in medium bowl (or sipper lock bag), add chicken, cover, and marinade for 3 hours or overnight.

Soak 16 bamboo skewers or grease metal skewers with a paper towel dipped in oil.

Skewer chicken.

Cook chicken on grill or in broiler until chicken is cooked through. If using bamboo skewers, you may also cook in batches in oiled grill pan on stove top (metal skewers will be too long for grill pan).

Serve with dipping sauce (recipe below), rice and steamed or stir-fried vegetables.

Dipping Sauce

¼ cup Soy Sauce (may use low sodium)

1 ½ Tbsp mild sweet chili sauce

1 green onion, sliced

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and serve alongside the Yakitori. This dipping sauce also works well for steamed dumplings.

A wonderful friend gave me a bag of cookbooks. These were mostly locally published and organizational cookbooks, the fun kind that groups use as fund raisers.

While all of them were fun, one stood out for a few reasons. It was full of names people that I knew or had heard of, it had fun recipes, and it was a local time capsule with ads of businesses that remain and business that are no longer here.

Because I am a nerd, I had wondered for years what the 63 in 634 translated to when we dialed with letters and numbers. I had assumed that it was MEherrin 4, and the ads in this cookbook proved that assumption correct.

The book, Our Favorite Recipes, by members of the Junior Woman’s Club of Emporia, Virginia, looks to have been published in the late 1960s. I plan on using a few of the recipes from this book, with the first being Betsy Kirkland’s Grasshopper Pie.

Betsy Kirkland’s Grasshopper Pie

Crush oreo cookies, add melted butter, line pan with crust and bake at 350 degrees for a few minutes. Melt marshmallows, milk, ½ cup cream in double boiler, cool. Whip ½ cup cream. Add crème de menthe and crème de cocoa. Fold into marshmallow mixture. Pour into crust, shave bitter chocolate over and top, and freeze.

This classic salad dressing could not be easier. Really.

I know people that hear or read the word vinaigrette and panic. They say that they cannot make French food; French cuisine is just too difficult. Yes, some French food is incredibly detailed and time consuming. Some recipes take days to prepare. This recipe is not one of them.

Don’t be tempted to skip the mustard. Dijon Mustard is traditional only partly for flavor. The important role that the mustard plays here is in the emulsification process. Vinegar and Oil do not play well together, the mustard is the playground monitor; without it all you will have is a bowl of oil with some vinegar, shallots and chives floating on top. Be sure to get Dijon Mustard for this, it doesn’t have to be super expensive for this, store brand will usually do. Bright yellow American Mustard will emulsify your dressing, but it will taste awful (trust me, I have done it. It was bad).

Just a quick note on properly dressing a salad: with this dressing (as with all dressings) it is important not to overdress your salad. The typical way to dress a salad with vinaigrette is to make the dressing in the salad bowl and then to cross your salad serving utensils in the bowl, above the dressing; the salad greens are placed on the crossed salad forks. At dinner time, the salad forks are taken out from under the greens, which fall into the dressing and are tossed, leaving any excess dressing in the bottom of the bowl (the host/hostess gets to snack on that excess dressing in the bottom of the bowl with the leftover bread while they are cleaning up).

This recipe makes an amount of dressing that is too large for the traditional method of dressing a salad, unless you are making a very large salad, so unless you are making a salad for 6-8 people, add one or two tablespoons of dressing per serving of greens, depending on your taste. One tablespoon is enough for me, but other folks may like more dressing.

Any of you that enjoy cooking have seen versions of this dressing made on TV, and they all put the salt in the oil. Here’s the thing-salt does not dissolve in oil (that is why Priests used carry anointing oil in little containers of salt; in the oil the salt does not dissolve and in the salt the oil does not leak). Mix the initial salt with the vinegar, you may season again once the dressing is complete if you need to.

Classic French Vinaigrette

2 tbsp red wine or sherry vinegar
¼ tsp salt
1 small shallot, peeled and minced
1 tbsp Dijon Mustard
6 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
6 sprigs chives, minced
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Combine the vinegar and salt in a glass (or other non-reactive) bowl and whisk until the salt has completely dissolved.

Add the shallot and Dijon mustard, whisk to combine. Drizzle in the oil in a slow, steady stream (a squeeze bottle works well for this) while constantly whisking. Continue whisking until combined and the dressing thickens to your desired texture.

Add the black pepper, chive and whisk to combine.

Taste with a piece of the greens you wish to dress. Adjust last and pepper if needed

Transfer into a Mason jar or other glass container with a lid and let sit for 1 hour at room temperature before serving. Store in the refrigerator but bring to room temperature before using.

The last Coronation of a British Monarch took place sixty-nine years ago today. Elizabeth II, though, had been Queen since the death of her father, George VI on February 6, 1952.

Many of us are now familiar with the story thanks to The Crown on NETFLIX.

Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume created this dish for the Coronation Banquet and it can still be found all over Great Britain.

With the exception of the Greek yogurt, this is the original recipe. I have suggested swapping the whipped cream for something else as Greek yogurt or sour cream will hold better; whipped cream has a tendency to weep a bit and deflate.

Pair this salad with crispy sesame breadsticks, sesame crackers or top with sesame croutons.

Add first six ingredients to a medium bowl, wisk well and set aside.

Coat a large non-stick skillet with cooking spray (or brush with a thin layer of neutral oil) and place over medium heat. Add chicken and spoon two tablespoons of the dressing mixture over the chicken. Cook five minutes, turn and add two more tablespoons of the dressing mixture on the second side. Cook until done (165 degrees F). Remove to a platter and cool slightly.

Remove skillet from heat and stir in 4 teaspoons soy sauce into the drippings in the skillet, set aside.

Slice chicken breasts thinly, set aside.

Divide salad greens among 4 plates, Divide orange slices and pepper strips on top of greens. Combine pan drippings with dressing to taste and drizzle 3 tablespoons over each plate of greens. Top each plate with one chicken breast and drizzle with one more table spoon of the dressing.