Thanksgiving 2014 - Perry's Ice Cream Pie

Thanksgiving week is upon us! I thought that instead of bombarding you with dozens of pumpkin/stuffing/turkey recipes this year, I would give you a single, delicious one. Inspired by my favorite hometown ice cream brand - Perry's Ice Cream!

I'm sure you've all been seeing images of the snowstorm that hit Buffalo, New York last week. Houses buried under five feet of snow, snow drifts up and over cars, highways closed, grocery stores cleared out, people building beer fridges out of the snow, etc, etc, etc. I'm proud to hail from that part of the world and I'm all too familiar with that type of weather. Don't worry about Buffalo. They generally dig out in a day and carry on with their business.

Even with all that snow, Perry's Ice Cream continued churning and making tasty flavors for their local fans. (I'm loving the looks of this chocolate cookies and cream they just created!) Each fall, Perry's comes out with a few limited edition flavors. This year I was lucky enough to receive two containers of their new Maple Cheesecake ice cream!

I promptly ate one of the containers. If you are in the WNY region, be sure to pick up a container of this stuff. The cheesecake flavor is really mild and disappears behind the maple. It's not just maple, there's ribbons of maple crunch running through the ice cream.

The second container was set aside for my "Friendsgiving" this past weekend. I decided that in addition to the traditional pumpkin pie, I would make an ice cream pie. It's an incredibly easy pie to make. Just put together your favorite cookie crust, I made the Momofuku Milk oatmeal cookie crust, and top it with the ice cream! Freeze until solid and serve with some whipped cream.

When given the two options of pumpkin pie and Maple cheesecake ice cream pie, what do you think my friends chose? I'll let the entire pumpkin pie in my fridge answer that question.

Not in a Perry's region? This ice cream pie would also be amazing with butter pecan or toffee-flavored ice creams. Just keep it simple and you'll have a tasty Thanksgiving dessert in no time!

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored by Perry's Ice Cream. I am a member of their Inside Scoopers program and via this relationship they occasionally send me their new flavors. I receive no financial compensation for these posts and all opinions are my own. That being said, I've been eating Perry's Ice Cream since I was a little girl. It is awesome.

CTB 2014 - Giada's Family Dinners

We officially moved into our new house two months ago. It is only now that I've started cooking dinner. It's been a combination of laziness (after hours of renovating, take-out is awfully convenient) and kitchen inaccessibility (I literally couldn't get into my kitchen). What did I make for my inaugural recipe? No, it was not this chicken. I actually made oatmeal. In the slow cooker. Totally a low energy input meal.

I actually made this chicken at the old apartment, I just haven't had a moment to post it yet! Sorry for the fake out. I will be cooking a full Thanksgiving dinner this coming weekend and really giving my kitchen a run-in. Until then, it's been pretty easy recipes coming out of the kitchen - baked chicken tenders, soup, risotto. We are planning a major kitchen reno after the New Year and I don't want to make too much of a mess before then!

Even though I made this chicken dish at the old apartment, that doesn't mean it wasn't tasty! If you are looking for a quick and easy chicken dish, this one will fit the bill. This is definitely not a healthy chicken dish, what with all of the heavy cream, but we can pretend, because it sits on a bed of spinach.

This recipe comes from my collection of cookbooks. I realize that I have totally failed at cooking something from each cookbook this year. That is, unless I cook two recipes each day, until the end of the year. Not gonna happen.  Perhaps this challenge will continue into next year. Or maybe I'll just replace it with something else entirely. Something a little bit more creative...

One Year Ago: Apple-Cinnamon Dulce de Leche Sweet Rolls
Two Years Ago: Cinnamon-Walnut Butter & White chocolate peanut butter
Three Years Ago: Tomato and White Bean Soup
Four Years Ago: Stuffing Cupcakes

Chicken Florentine

Adapted from Giada's Family Dinners

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, butterflied in two
Salt and pepper
All-purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 large shallot
2 teaspoons minced garlic
3/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 (10-ounce) package, frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 tablespoon flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Coat in flour, shake off excess.  Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil. Cook chicken until golden brown, about 5 minutes per side.

In another large skilled, melt butter over medium heat. Add shallot and garlic and cook until shallots are translucent.  Add white wine and stir, scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Raise heat to medium-high and reduce volume by half. Add heavy cream and continue to reduce again by half.

Microwave spinach for 1 minute, stir, microwave 1 minute more. Add spinach to a serving bowl, top with chicken, pour sauce over top. Sprinkle the whole dish with parsley and serve.

LUSH Giveaway at WITC this week!

I'm almost ready for the holidays! To get into the spirit, I stopped by LUSH and stocked up on all sorts of holiday goodies. Be sure to swing by my lifestyle blog - Wilde in the City - for a chance to win this adorable gift box from LUSH!!!

Click here to visit WITC and enter to win!