Peanut Butter Biscotti

Have I told you this one? That earlier this year, we crossed our 10,000th recipe professionally developed? And I'm talking about the ones for pay. You get to see a lot of the ones Bruce makes up on the fly right here on this blog.

Needless to say, I can't remember them all. Sometimes, someone will say, "Oh, I made your. . . ." My eyes glaze over. Because I'm scared I won't remember. And so will look like an idiot. Instead of looking like an overworked food writer. Which is much the same thing.

But some recipes I remember well. Like these biscotti. I've been meaning to get back to this recipe for years.

When we were writing our peanut butter tome--yes, we have a whole book on peanut butter which you can see here--I wanted to come up with biscotti in which peanut butter replaces any other fat (except for the fat in the eggs). You understand, when I say "I wanted to come up with biscotti," I mean that I wanted Bruce to come up with biscotti. Hey, somebody has to be the idea man. It's a tough job. Especially for an overworked food writer who often looks like an idiot.

This recipe is the result. I finally got back to it a couple of weeks ago to take to a dinner party as a house gift--and it was like meeting an old friend. Peanut butter, dried fruit (like the jelly in a PB&J), lots and lots of crunch. I DID have a pretty good idea. You might like these, too, especially for the holidays.

So let's get to it.

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Pickle Brined Chicken Breasts

What's that, you ask? Some lurid bit of recipe testing gone terribly wrong? What's left after the liposuction? Last year's gefilte fish?

Um, no. Those are chicken breasts in pickle brine. In other words, a quick and easy solution to the problem of boring and overcooked boneless skinless cutlets. (Oh, that nasty sharding! Oh, that tasteless nothingness!)

I was going to blog a lovely Arabic rice pilaf today. It'll have to wait until next week. Instead, I'm giving props to Bruce for this one. Necessity is not the only mother of invention. Laziness bears children, too.

Last night, he made boneless skinless chicken breasts for dinner. In case you don't know, they are my least favorite food, period, hands down, no questions, get out of Dodge, pull out my teeth and call me gummy. I find them pointless. I whine in their very presence.

So he came up with a pretty ingenious solution. Mostly to shut me up. But also to make them better. Ready?

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Pork Chops With Balsamic Onions

Have I got news for you! It's official: our book, COOKING KNOW-HOW, won the "best in the world" Gourmand Award for "easy recipes" at the Paris cookbook show.

We're both a little dumbfounded. I mean, we love that book, but it's a geeky thing, all about the science and art of cooking. In it, we deconstruct sixty-four dishes, then build them back up, explaining the why and wherefore of every step.

We wanted to write it for years--and are so glad we got to. But are now a little befuddled that our baby beat out forty-four (!) other books, each of which had won the best-in-their-own-country award, for the final, ultimate, crazy "best in the world" award.

I hear the actual award itself is some gorgeous, gaudy monument. And our house needs a gaudy monument!

So in the spirit of winning a frickin' global award for "easy recipes," I thought I'd offer this recipe today, one I'd been saving back for a while, one that's quite easy--and ever so delicious: a seared pork chop with a lip-smacking balsamic onion sauce.

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