Little Missy's Holiday Life Style

Martha's Chicken Tortilla Soup*

So many of us are weighing in on Holiday entertaining, that Little Missy has pulled together a few tips for you too!  Straight from Palo Alto, the heart of Silicon Valley, where Little Missy grew up!  Food is the essence of holidays, and sometimes all we want is a good chicken soup.  Here is the recipe for Martha's Chicken Tortilla Soup.  When friends come to visit Little Missy, they always perk up when they hear Martha is cooking (rather than Little Missy, I'm sad to say).  The picture is not actually Martha's soup.  I got it from the Internet!

Martha's Chicken Tortilla Soup

You will need:

5 small whole, skinned and boned chicken breasts

2 onions

2 cloves garlic

6 ripe tomatoes

1/4 cup fresh cilantro

1 bay leaf

1 lemon

salt and pepper

First, boil chicken and 1/2 onion in water with garlic and salt for about 15 minutes.

Second, chop garlic and put into a skillet with oil of your choice.  Add remaining onion and tomatoes that you have chopped and sauté for 2 minutes.  Add a quart of chicken stock.

Third, cut boiled chicken into small pieces and put into skillet with chopped cilantro, 1 bay leaf and salt and cook at high heat for 10-15 minutes. Discard bay leaf and turn off heat. 

Garnish with tortilla strips that you have cut into thin slices and baked in a 400 degree oven until they are crisp, and diced avocado.  Add lemon juice.

And as for complicated guacamole, forget it!  True guacamole is simple.  But first I must relate a story of a very ambitious woman from a town in New Jersey, who was trying very hard to impress Little Missy with her culinary abilities (I'm not the right person for this trick--respectful of great cooks though I may be).  She brought over to my house her idea of the perfect guacamole--she was going to teach me how to make it!  She brought over at least 12 ingredients and some kind of special hand held food blender.  She was so proud of herself I didn't have the heart to tell her so was way off base!  That food blender is a dust catcher in one of my kitchen drawers!

Martha's Guacamole

2 avocados

juice of 1 lemon

some cilantro to taste

salt

Mash these up in a bowl and you will have the perfect guacamole.  If you are in California, only buy Casa Sanchez Thin and Light Delgados corn tortilla chips, nothing else.  The wrong chip can ruin the best guacamole!  I've seen this happen dozens of times!  Only Casa Sanchez!

That's it for Little Missy's food tips!  I'm not Julia Child, and if someone wants to come over and roast a chicken I am always very happy to set a beautiful table.  Which brings us to Little Missy's Holiday Table Tops!

When I first was married a million years ago back in the 70's, I found myself in the unique position of being hostess to my parents for the first Christmas ever!  Prior to that fateful Christmas, my mother had always been the hostess (with the mostess, I might add).  I sought to stand out, to be different from my mother.  And though I had beautiful linens and access to lovely flowers, I set a bare table with terra clay potted narcissus as centerpieces.  My holiday table looked like a page out of Simple Living.  It was really quite dismal.  My mother showed me once again her grace.  "Your table is beautiful," she said.  I wonder what she really thought. Now I bring out the antique Portuguese lace table clothes and the silver.  More is more!

Themes and Variations

I like a gold, ivory and evergreen holiday.  That means spraying magnolia leaves gold and arranging them together with white French tulips and evergreen bows.  It means ivory pleated French wired ribbon.  It means pine cones.  It means cut crystal and silver vases and containers.  It means Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and music boxes.  I like the smell of pine, as long as it is not overbearing.  Little Missy always makes Christmas sugar cookies in the shapes of stars, trees, doves, and ginger men and women.  There is always Champagne in the fridge.

Little Missy's Anise Christmas Cookies

Cream 1 cup butter and 3/4 cup sugar until fluffy.  Beat in 1 already lightly beaten egg, and 1 1/2 teaspoons anise seed.  In a bowl, sift 1 1/2 cup white flour and 1 1/2 whole wheat flour, 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt and stir into butter mixture.  Add 1/4 cup brandy (a good one).  Roll out dough and cut with cookie cutters.  Sprinkle with cinnamon or coloured sugars.  Bake 10-12 minutes in a pre-heated 350 oven.

And remember to tell the people who mean the most to you how much you love them!

*Not Martha Stewart!