A book sale and Dijon chicken

Book sale:
We cherish some sales as remarkable and incredibly fantastic. One among them is the book exhibition. I am not a great fan of novels, but love to read on various culture, cuisines , arts etc. I have a good collection of folk tales and comics in our house in India but never thought of experiencing one here till I saw a pamphlet on the side-walk.

Various books we bought from the sale. That is the brown bag I mentioned here.

Some months ago, we went to a book sale conducted by the public library of Piscataway, NJ. They called it as the 'brown bag sale'. I hope this is common in many parts of the country. The sale was on some marked books aimed at removing the clutter, it seems. They sold big brown paper bag for $5 and people were allowed to fill the bag with the books they wish. It was much beneficial for both the ends and I could see happy faces all over the hall. That was like cherry picking for the book worms and thrillers were sold the best. I was surprised at their cook book collection as well as the arts side. While hubby was browsing the mystery novels, I gathered some nice books on cooking, quilting etc. Look at the treasure I got:)

Wow! what a catch for $5.

Dijon Chicken:
Then I tried a simple recipe, Dijon chicken from the book 'Hooray for chicken', by Family Living magazine. All the ingredients are very common except the dijon mustard. So I bought it from Shoprite and prepared this dish along with pasta. It was a big hit.
If you cannot get dijon mustard, please see the guidelines to make one. I prefer wine-less dijon mustard, so look for the ingredients before buying, if you have any preference. (Vinegar is substituted for wine in  my pack).

Dijon chicken served with pasta.

Ingredients:

chicken boneless / breast - 1 lb
Dijon mustard - 3 tbsp
(its a sauce available in supermarkets)
butter - 5 tbsp
garlic powder - 1 tbsp
onion - 1 (crushed)
salt - to taste
black / white pepper powder - 2 tbsp

Method:

wash and clean the chicken breasts (approximately 4).
I cut it into 3 inch size pieces. But the original version calls for using the whole big pieces.
Mix Dijon mustard sauce, butter, salt, pepper, onion, garlic.
Add to chicken and marinate for 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 deg.
Grease a baking pan.
Place the chicken pieces separately in a baking pan and bake for 1 hour.
Broil to get the red color.
Garnish with parsley. (I didn't have parsley, so I left it).

Serving suggestions:

Generally they use big pieces of chicken for this recipe, but I chopped mine for more marinated effect.
Makes a good side dish for pasta.

Pumpkin corn soup

The colorful autumn season and pumpkin are inseparable. To welcome this season I am publishing a post lying on my draft for a long time. This pumpkin soup is a pureed version of soup with sweet corn to munch on. I personally love this soup very much during cold weather, when we get pumpkin in abundance.

I coined this recipe after tasting it in a friend's home. I was much attracted to this colorful soup topped with a chunk of sweet corn. Its purely inspired by Archana's mom's lovely pumpkin soup.
Thanks Nalini Aunty!

Her procedure doesn't call for any apple. But I add tart apples for a more sharp taste. So it is optional to add apples here.

Ingredients:

Sweet pumpkin - 1 cup (chopped)
(1 long piece is enough)
Any tart apple - 1/2 cup
Sweet corn - 1/4 cup
Sweet corn cob (boiled and sliced) - 1 or 2
onion - 1/2
black pepper - 1 tsp
cumin - 1 tsp
green chillies - 1
butter - 1 tbsp
salt - to taste

Method:

Heat butter in a wok. Saute the sliced onion till it wilts. Take out and add the pumpkin, apple, chilly and saute in the remaining grease. Let it cook a little.

Let cool and puree them in a blener with salt, pepper, cumin, chilly and sauteed onion. Transfer it to the wok and add a cup of water to get a thick soup consistency.
Add the corn kernel and cook well.
Switch off after raw smell vanishes.

Separately cook the corn cob and slice it to 3 inch pieces. Add them to the soup.

Serve the soup in a bowl topped with a piece of corn cob.

Pumpkin corn soup is ready!

Serving suggestions:

Makes 3 servings.
Adding apples is not a must.