As a special thank you for all your support over the last year-and-a-half, we’re giving away a Nespresso espresso machine, a Cuisinart food processor, and a Vita-Mix blender this month! Details are here.

We’re giving away one prize each week. The first week, Lara from Good Cook Doris won the Nespresso espresso machine. Last week, Elle from Elle’s New England Kitchen won the Cuisinart.

This week marks the final week of our giveaways, and the prize is a Vita-Mix blender. (That’s right: the mother of all blenders.)

I should just say: I don’t even have one of these. It took all of my restraint to not have this prize go, um, missing.

This week’s prize is a Vita-Mix blender

Here’s the deal.

This week’s contest is open between Monday, December 14 and midnight (EST), Friday, December 18. During that time, you can enter to win a Vita-Mix 5200 in black. Estimated value: $565.

Here’s the Vita-Mix, sitting in his box on my counter, just waiting to be shipped to one lucky winner.

One winner will be announced on Saturday, December 19.

A big thanks to the good folks at Vita-Mix, who kindly donated this prize!

How to enter

We’re in the middle of planning out the next few months of recipes. What better place to start than with reader requests?

So, to enter this contest, please leave a comment on this post answering the following question:

What’s the most memorable thing you ever ate?

Write as much as you like (we like stories here at The Mouse House).

That’s it. (No really, that’s it!)

The rules

• You must enter a valid e-mail address on the comment form. (That’s how we’ll contact you if you win.)
• Only one entry per person.
• This contest is open to U.S. residents only.
• Deadline for entries is Midnight (EST) on December 18, 2009.

One winner will be chosen at random on Saturday, December 19, 2009. The winner will receive one Vita-Mix 5200. Read the official rules here.

Have you seen our new holiday cookbook?

These are exciting times here at The Mouse House! We wanted to be sure you knew about our new cookbook, A Holiday Feast!

The book is available as a printed book. (Buying one won’t improve your chances of winning, but we think it’ll make a great holiday gift for all those foodies in your life!)

It’s also available as an eBook. And because we’re so full of holiday cheer here at The Mouse House, we’re giving it away for free all month! Download your copy here.

Good luck!

If you’re on Twitter and want to help us spread the word, you can find us @thehungrymouse. You can also join us on our Facebook fan page for exclusive content and tons of links to interesting food articles.

Happy holidays!

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I said it the other day: I have gardening on the brain.

Now, being summer, we eat a lot of avocado-based stuff at The Mouse House. Guacamole. Avocado salad. You get the picture. Which means that we wind up with a lot of avocado pits rolling around in the kitchen.

Did you know that if you plant those pits, you can actually grow your own avocado tree at home? Even though trees rooted like this rarely bear fruit without help (more on that in a little bit), it’s still a ton of fun to plant your own tree and watch it grow.

And if you have kids, this is a great project. Here are detailed instructions for how to root and plant a tree from an avocado pit. All you need is an avocado, a little water and a few toothpicks, a sunny window, and a whole lot of patience.

Avocado trees grow best in warm, sunny places, but you can keep one quite successfully for many years in the right indoor environment. They can grow to between 20 and 40 feet, but are quite happy if you keep them pruned indoors.

I’ve managed to grow several trees over the years just like this. I usually wind up giving the saplings to folks as presents.

Here are two that I grew a few years ago, when I had a large rooftop garden. I started them on my windowsill in the winter, then moved them outside when the weather got warmer. (They’re the two in front.)

Not every pit is guaranteed to root, so you may want to try two or three pits at once, just in case.

Equipment List

1 avocado pit
4 toothpicks
1 small glass or ceramic dish, about the size of a custard cup

Yields: 1 avocado tree sapling, with patience and a little luck

How to remove the avocado pit

In case you aren’t sure how, here’s how to remove the pit from an avocado.

Cut a full circle longways around the avocado. Twist it apart.

The two halves should separate neatly.

Whack the pit with a sharp, heavy knife so that the blade bites into the pit just a little bit.

Twist the blade and the pit will come right out.

Do something really yummy with the avocado…

…then clean off your pit. Scrape off any avocado that’s still stuck to the pit.

Rinse it off under cold water, then wipe it off. You want to be sure you’ve removed all the avocado. The pit is going to be sitting in water for a few weeks, so you don’t want anything funky to start growing in it.

When you root the pit, you want to do it pointy side up. The stem and leaves will sprout out the top. And the root will push its way out the bottom.

Stick toothpicks into your avocado pit

Grab your toothpicks.

Push one toothpick into the side of the avocado pit. You want to get it in far enough so that you can pick the pit up by the toothpick.

Do this with the other 3 toothpicks. You want them evenly spaced out, like this:

Keep the avocado pit well watered

Place the avocado pit over your dish, so the toothpicks are resting on the rim of the dish and the pit is suspended over the center.

If it’s not sitting well, wiggle your toothpicks around a little so they’re tilted up slightly, like this:

Fill the dish with water so that the avocado pit is about halfway submersed.

Change the water every day or two, so that the pit is constantly sitting in water.

Keep your avocado pit on a sunny windowsill

Set the dish on a sunny windowsill. Keep an eye on it, and replenish the water frequently.

Remember: Until you plant your avocado sapling in soil, you need to keeping the pit in water at all times. No water, no tree.

How long does it take for an avocado pit to root?

For the first few weeks, your pit won’t really do much. It will just sit there, looking very much the same as the day that you first propped it up. You may start to despair. After all, you’ve been changing the water for days, so, what gives?

Well, Nature, as they say, takes her sweet time.

Then, after about three weeks or so, the top of the pit should begin to split open. (Nature is also kind of imprecise…this can take up to six weeks to happen.)

Over the next few weeks, a stem will shoot up, the first leaves will begin to grow, and roots will begin to force their way out of the bottom. In a few more weeks, you should see more leaves.

The whole process will generally take about 3 months, give or take.

When to plant your avocado seedling

When your tree is maybe 7-8 inches tall, nip off the top few leaves. (That’s right…pinch them off. It will encourage growth and help the tree branch out.)

Grab a 10-inch pot with a saucer and at least one drainage hole in the bottom. Fill it about an inch from the top with potting soil.

Dig a shallow hole in the center of the soil (just deep enough so half the pit is covered). Nestle the bottom of your avocado sapling in it, root-side down.

Cover the pit halfway with soil, so half the pit is still exposed. Press down firmly on the soil to secure it. It should be standing up straight, at attention.

Pour a little water into the pot gently, because the soil hasn’t settled yet. And…you did it! Set your tree in a sunny window. Keep it watered, and watch it grow!

Tips for caring for your avocado tree

Where should I keep my avocado tree?
Avocado trees like warm, sunny spots. If your tree doesn’t get enough light, it will get leggy (i.e. all stem, few leaves). Depending on where you live, you should be able to keep your tree outside in a sunny spot. If the temperature ever drops below about 45 degrees F, bring it back inside.

How often should I water my avocado tree?
Water it enough to keep the soil moist, but not muddy. You never want your tree sitting in a puddle of water once you’ve potted it.

If your leaves start to turn yellow, it’s a sure sign it’s getting too much water. If this happens, stop watering it for a few days until the soil dries out a little.

Should I ever pinch off any leaves?
Yes. When your tree is about 7-8 inches tall and ready for potting, pinch off the top few leaves. This will encourage your tree to branch out and be nice and bushy.

Will my avocado tree bear fruit?
Now, if you grow an avocado tree, it’s unlikely that it will ever bear fruit.

From what I’ve gathered from my (admittedly uncomprehensive and unscientific) research, you need to graft a piece of a fruit-bearing tree on to your seedling. I’m an avid and enthusiastic kitchen gardener, but sadly my botanical knowledge ends there.

If anyone knows more about this, by all means, pipe up!

Send me your pictures!

Like I said, this food project is a ton of fun—especially with kids.

Let me know if you give this a whirl! If you send me your pictures, I’ll post them up here—along with a note—so folks can share your experience. (Who knows? Maybe we’ll grow an online avocado grove…)

Happy gardening!

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These chicken fingers are fast food, Mouse-House style. They’re the perfect thing to make when you Just Need To Eat, Like Now (a fairly common occurrence at our place these days, given that we just moved). The dish is really versatile—and easy to throw together on the fly. It’s one of the things I like to whip up when friends pop over unexpectedly.

In terms of prep, these chicken fingers only take a few minutes to put together. Drop a few handfuls of fresh basil leaves onto your chicken tenders. Then wrap a slice of prosciutto around each. Fifteen minutes in the oven, and the prosciutto is nicely crisped, and the chicken is cooked through and juicy as can be.

About buying prosciutto

Now, I almost always have a little prosciutto in the house. If that sounds like a cost-prohibitive practice in this crappy economy, hear me out.

Most big American delis will sell two basic kinds of prosciutto: domestic and imported.

Now the imported stuff—real prosciutto de Parma—is great, but it’s expensive. We generally save it for occasions when we want to enjoy its rich, buttery texture uncooked on its own, or wrapped simply around ripe slices of fig or melon.

When we use prosciutto to cook, however, we generally get the domestic kind, which is much cheaper. (Our butcher, McKinnon’s, carries the stuff for $5.99 a pound, which is much better than the $17.99 price that its imported cousin commands.)

Any kind of prolonged cooking generally toughens up the tender slices of salty pig, so domestic is just fine for cooking in my book. In the case of these chicken fingers, it gives the chicken a sort of unsmoked, paper-thin, bacon-y wrapper.

I also only really buy a half pound at a time, to ensure that it doesn’t dry out before we use it up. To me, that’s short money for a really flavorful ingredient.

As fancy as you want to be

To serve this as part of a more elegant dinner, get a little fancy with how you arrange the herbs under the prosciutto. It’s fairly translucent when cooked, which means that the herbs will show through.

While we’re on the topic of fresh herbs

Indulge me for a minute.

People never believe me when I say this the first time, but: I love to garden. (Maybe it’s because I’ve lived in the city for so long. But it’s true. I love to garden.) I love to dig and get messy. I especially love to plant things that I can cook or eat—which makes all the sense in the world, I know.

For this recipe, I used basil that I have growing in my new container garden on our back deck.

Since we get a ton more sun at our new place in Salem, one of the first things I did was plant a kitchen container garden. (OK, we’re not planning on eating the cacti…) It was right up there with making strawberry ice cream. It was just something that I had an inexplicable and urgent need to do. Before we finished unpacking. Before we totally explored our new hood. (And of course, completely vexing The Angry Chef yet again.)

Whenever I’ve been able to—and even when I wasn’t supposed to—I’ve planted a large kitchen garden. Sometime, ask me about the years I spent living on the top floor of an old movie theater, where I planted a secret garden on the roof, complete with pink flamingos and an embarrassing expanse of astroturf.

Hands down, I love to play in the dirt. And when you cook a lot, nothing beats just walking outside and snipping off whatever you need for dinner.

Oh, if you can make it out, there’s a baby fig tree nestled in one of the pots in the center. I’ll be writing more about that little guy soon. I bought him at the farmer’s market here in Salem, and the guy who sold him to me promised that he’d bear figs next year. I’m not sure I’m entirely convinced it will work, but I’m going to try my best. Stay tuned for that.

Serving suggestions for chicken fingers

I usually whack them into nibble-sized pieces and serve them on a platter as an appetizer. I don’t bother getting fancy with the presentation. You can also serve them whole, with a side of rice and a big, crunchy salad. Or on a bulkie roll topped with fresh tomato sauce and sprinkled with grated Parmesan and sliced provolone.

You can also replace the basil with sage. Or fresh garlic, sliced paper thin. Or cilantro. Or sliced apples. You get the picture.

A note on portion sizes and recipe scaling

I find myself saying this a lot lately: This recipe is more method than actual recipe. It’s one of those recipes that works just as well for one chicken finger as it does for one hundred—which makes it easy to feed the crowd you have on hand.

One chicken finger = one piece of chicken, two or three basil leaves (depending on their size), and one piece of prosciutto.

Scale away! I’ve done the recipe below to feed about 4 as a main course.

Prosciutto and Basil Wrapped Chicken Fingers

12 chicken tenders (or chicken breast sliced into strips)
12 slices prosciutto
about 24 basil leaves
kosher salt
freshly cracked black pepper
olive oil

Serves about 4 as a main course, or 10-12 as an appetizer, depending on how you slice them up.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and set it aside.

Wrap the chicken in prosciutto

Grab your chicken tenders. If you like, you can also slice up larger chicken breasts into tender-sized strips. Totally up to you.

Put a few basil leaves on top of the chicken. Use enough basil to cover the chicken (so that each bite has a piece of the herb).

Grab a piece of prosciutto. Starting at one end of the chicken tender, wrap the prosciutto around the chicken, keeping the basil leaves in place, so it looks like a little mummy.

Don’t worry if some of the basil peeps through. You’re not going for perfection here. (That will happen by itself in the oven.)

Set the wrapped-up chicken on your prepared sheet pan. If the ends of the prosciutto are peeking out, tuck them under the chicken. I don’t bother toothpicking them. They stay together just fine.

Repeat with the rest of your chicken tenders.

Drizzle a little olive oil on each piece of chicken. Then sprinkle with a little kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

Pop the pan into your pre-heated 425-degree oven. Bake for about 15 minutes.

Fifteen minutes should be long enough to cook most chicken tenders. (If you cut your own, and they’re on the thick side, cut into one to be sure.)

They’re done when the chicken juices run clear and the prosciutto is nice and crisp.

(That little one there is for the dog.)

If you’re a meat thermometer type of person, you’re aiming for 165 degrees.

Serve and enjoy! They also reheat really well, and are great at room temperature—or even cold.

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Despite being plagued by the dreaded Tomato Horn Worm (if you’ve ever grown tomatoes, you know how horrifying these beasts are), this summer has been a remarkably good one for my vegetable garden.

Like a lot of the country, Boston’s had a silly amount of rain this season. In fact, as I sat down to write just now, the sky darkened and it started to thunder.

My herbs (except the mint) aren’t looking too hot, but the veggies are positively thriving. I’ll definitely expand my veggie patch next year. I’d like to see if I could grow some heirloom varieties from seed.

Here’s what we picked this weekend.

These are Health Kick Tomatoes, which seem to be a cross between a plum tomato and something rounder, like a beefsteak. I’ll report in when they ripen and we taste them.

Here’s the rest of the produce. From left to right: Kentucky mint (awesome for mint juleps), Husky Cherry Tomatoes and Health Kick Tomatoes, hot peppers (green and red), and eggplant-colored bell peppers.

Anyone feel like a salad?

***
Copyright 2008 The Hungry Mouse™/Jessica B. Konopa. All rights reserved.

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Husky Cherry Tomatoes. I’ll definitely plant these again. They’re by far the sturdiest and lushest tomato plants I’ve ever had.

Health Kick Tomatoes. I haven’t tried this variant before, but the first fruit looks really promising. I think they’re some kind of cross between a plum and a beefsteak.

***
Copyright 2008 The Hungry Mouse™/Jessica B. Konopa. All rights reserved.

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