Search Results for: rosemary

Daring Bakers: Focaccia

Pretty much every Daring Bakers Challenge I have ever done has been done frantically, a day or two before the posting date.  This time was different.  Almost 2 weeks ago I made my first herbed focaccia loaf.  But I only took a picture of the finished product, and only with my iphone.  I told myself I’d make another one and take good photos.  I wound up making three more, but didn’t manage to take any good photos.  Of any of them.  Here is the problem, well problems really.  3 kids under 5, an inability to plan ahead, and the worst, bad light.  Each time I made bread it was to serve with dinner which meant I was finishing up the bread right about the time the light in my kitchen was blue and my kids were screaming for something.  Any of you who have ever been around kids between the hours of 5 and 8pm know exactly what I am talking about.

But there is a bright side!  This recipe is wonderful…easy, delicious and with lots of options to make it simple or to add special toppings.

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For the month of April Rachael of pizzarossa and Sawsan of Chef in Disguise took us on a trip to Italy. They challenged us to try our hands at making focaccia from scratch.

The herbed focaccia recipe I made three times.  Once sprinkled with salt, olive oil and fresh rosemary, the second time topped with sliced tomatoes, olive oil, salt and rosemary.  And most recently I made individual ones with sundried tomatoes and parmesan.

My favorite was the second, the one with sliced tomatoes.  The sundried tomatoes I added at the beginning of baking and so they got a little too charred.  I think you could easily chop them up and add them to the dough for something really great.  But the fresh tomatoes won for me.  I think maybe because this was the closest one to being pizza!

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I tried the Focaccia di Recco, but couldn’t find the right cheese, so it wasn’t quite right.  The recipe calls for Stracchino cheese, but I used shredded mozzarella with just OK results.  If I ever see it on a menu or in a bakery somewhere I am going to have to try it.  It sounds incredible.  Melty cheese sandwihed between thin layers of dough.  Yum.

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If you’ve ever thought about making focaccia but bought a loaf at the market instead because you thought it was too hard, let me encourage you to try this recipe.  You may never go back to store bought!

Herbed Focaccia

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups milk, warmed to about 110°F
  • 1 teaspoon white sugar
  • 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
  • 2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1 pinch ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1¼ cups milk
  • 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
  • Olive oil and kosher salt for sprinkling on top
  • Toppings: fresh rosemary, freshly grated parmesan, sliced tomatoes, olives, sundried tomatoes, onions, etc.

Directions

  1. Whisk together warm milk, sugar and yeast in a small bowl.  Let rest until foamy.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer combine flour and all the spices.  Mix in the cheese, vegetable oil and yeast mixture.
  3. Using a dough hook, mix dough on medium speed for 3-5 minutes until smooth and elastic.
  4. Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in size, between 1 and 2 hours.
  5. Preheat oven to 450F.  Turn dough out onto a sheet of parchment paper.  Shape into a rectangle or circle, or divide into 4 circles for individual breads.  Press all over with your finger tips, then drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and place toppings.  Let rest for 10 minutes.
  6. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.  Drizzle with a bit more oil, sprinkle with more salt if desired and top with some fresh grated Parmesan.  Cool for a few minutes before slicing and serving.

 

Hazelnut, Panko and Parmesan Crusted Chicken

Recently I’ve been in a bit of a rut when it comes to dinner.  When that happens I fall back on old recipes that can feed us for the better half of the week so I can cook less often or I really push for eating dinner out or ordering in.  This chicken dish was just what I needed, a quick a delicious dinner.  It’s simple, doesn’t have a lot of ingredients and is a lot more exciting than your typical crusted, baked chicken.

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The hazelnuts are a really nice surprise here and pair well with the rosemary and parmesan.  Coating the chicken with the mayo and mustard keeps the chicken moist.  Pounding the chicken out thin helps it to bake evenly without getting dry, a problem I often have with baked chicken.

Skinning the hazelnuts is by far the most time consuming (and frustrating! and messy!) part of this meal.  After toasting them for a few minutes in a 375 degree oven, place them in a large, clean dish towel and rub them together, pound them on the counter, etc to get the skins off.  Don’t worry if you don’t get all the skin off of every nut, though.  Your store sells blanched hazelnuts?!  By all means use those!  And send me some!  I am not a fan of skinning hazelnuts, and would love a little shortcut there.

I served this with steamed green beans and mashed sweet potatoes.  It made for a lovely, colorful and tasty plate of food and a meal I’d definitely like to have again.

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Hazelnut, Panko and Parmesan Crusted Chicken

From Fine Cooking

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

  • 3-4 chicken breasts (about 1 1/4 pounds), pounded thin
  • 2/3 cup panko bread crumbs
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1.75 ounces (about 1/3 cup) toasted, skinned hazelnuts, finely chopped
  • 1/3 cup finely grated parmesan
  • 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
  • salt and pepper
  • cooking spray

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 425°F.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil, then place a wire rack on top and spray with cooking spray.  Set aside.
  2. Heat a small skillet over medium heat.  Melt butter, then add in panko.  Stir and toss until panko begins to toast and become golden.
  3. Combine toasted panko with hazelnuts, parmesan, rosemary, garlic powder, 3/4 teaspoon of salt and a few grinds of pepper.
  4. Combine mayo and mustard in a shallow dish.
  5. Coat each chicken breast on both sides with mayo mixture then with panko mixture.
  6. Place on the wire rack and spray lightly with cooking spray.  Cook for 12-15 minutes.

Fall Vegetable Tart with Goat Cheese and Prosciutto

Fall is coming! Here in Southeast Texas we enjoyed a “cold front” this past weekend.  The mornings were slightly chilly and the days incredibly pleasant.  This week it’s humid and hot again.  But the promise of cooler weather is near.  And cooler weather means comfort food and cute coats and sweaters for my kids.

This fall tart recipe comes from the latest issue of Fine Cooking which I received last week and I’ve already made this twice.  I can see it appearing in our dinner rotation many more times in the coming months.  I love roasted vegetables.  I love goat cheese.  I love savory pie crust.  And so naturally, I love this tart.  It is incredible.

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You can make this from start to finish in a couple of hours, or you can make the vegetables ahead of time and simply assemble and bake the tart when you’re ready.  I’ve done it both ways now.

The combination of vegetables (butternut squash, carrot, cauliflower and red bell pepper) is great.  The recipe calls for leeks, but I decided to use a yellow onion instead.  I didn’t make a great grocery list and ended up using my only onion in another dish so I left out the onion entirely.  The tart didn’t suffer a bit.  The measurements in the recipe below are from the magazine, but I didn’t really measure.  I’m sure I used a bit more, maybe heaping amounts of those listed here.

After roasting the vegetables you mix in a bunch of chopped proscuitto.  That’s magic right there.  Magic.

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The dough is simply flour, butter, cream cheese and a pinch of salt.  It comes together in a food processor in no time and doesn’t need to be chilled before being rolled out.  However, this means you absolutely must roll it out onto parchment paper.  I made the mistake of rolling it out on the counter the first time and won’t do that again.  Since this is a rustic tart you don’t need to worry too much about how neat the edges of your dough are.

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After you roll out your dough you spread some softened goat cheese on it.  Again, there’s magic happening in your kitchen right about now.  Be sure the goat cheese is room temperature or it will pull too much on the dough and rip it.  I know from experience.

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On top of the cheese goes the vegetables.

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Fold up the edges, brush with a beaten egg and bake.  I baked mine on a pizza stone the second time with great results, but a cookie sheet works well, too.

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After cooling for a few minutes, slice and serve and enjoy.  It’s so amazing warm, but I ate a slice cold from the fridge as I was running out the door at lunchtime and it was still delicious.  As far as reheating goes you need to be prepared for a slightly soggy bottom crust.  But again, still delicious.  If you’re serving this to at least 4 people you probably won’t need to worry about leftovers, though.

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Fall Vegetable Tart with Goat Cheese and Prosciuttio

From Fine Cooking

Ingredients

Dough

  • 6 ounces (1 1/3 cups) flour
  • 6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) cold butter cut into chunks
  • 6 ounces cold cream cheese (low fat is fine) cut into chunks
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 beaten egg for egg wash

Filling

  • olive oil
  • 1 1/2 cups butternut squash cut into 1/2 inch cubes
  • 3/4 cup sliced carrots (1/2 inch thick half moons)
  • 3/4 cup sliced leek (optional)
  • 3/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
  • 3/4 cup chopped cauliflower
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
  • 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
  • kosher salt and pepper
  • 4 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, cut in to bite sized pieces
  • 4 ounces goat cheese, room temperature

Directions

Filling

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
  2. Toss the vegetables together with rosemary, thyme 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.
  3. Transfer to a 9×13 pan, cover tightly with foil and roast for 30-40 minutes until just fork tender.
  4. Let cool for 10-15 minutes then add in the prosciutto.

Dough

  1. Put flour, butter, cream cheese and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the dough just begins to come together.
  2. Place a large piece of parchment on the counter and sprinkle with a little flour.  Turn dough out onto the parchment and bring together with your hands, sprinkling with more flour if needed.
  3. Roll dough out onto the parchment into a roughly 16-inch round.

Assemble

  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  2. Transfer parchment to a cookie sheet or pizza stone and trim any excess parchment that hangs off the sheet or stone.
  3. Spread goat cheese onto the dough leaving a 1 1/2 inch border.
  4. Pile vegetable evenly on top of the goat cheese.
  5. Fold edges of the dough over the vegetables, then brush with beaten egg.
  6. Bake for 35-45 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

 

Bacon, Potato & Blue Cheese Tart

A good friend of mine made this when we met up for a playdate at her house a while back.  I say “a while back” because it feels like just a few months ago but I think it might have been over a year ago, which reminds me just how quickly a year goes by.  I can’t believe it’s almost 2014.

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Candace paired this rich and savory tart with a spinach salad loaded with berries, which made for a well balanced lunch.  I’m still amazed that she fixed this lunch for us since she’d recently had a baby.  My meal of choice when having people over for a playdate is Chick-fil-A…or goldfish and raisins.

The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen and is something I can definitely see myself making again, especially for a lunch or brunch.  It’s impressive but not too time or skill intensive.  It’s also fine served room temp, so you can make it hours ahead or even the day before and re-warm it.  I added bacon to the original recipe because I don’t see anything wrong with adding bacon to pretty much everything.  Maybe my new motto for 2014 will be, “Put some bacon on it!” inspired by Portlandia… But of course it’s amazing without the bacon and fits into a vegetarian diet that way.

Other than the bacon, the rest of the recipe is unchanged.  You can use a tart pan or pie plate for this.  I had planned to use a tart pan because it’s just prettier than a pie plate.  Something about that fancy fluted edge.  But the dough recipe provided wouldn’t fit in my 10 inch tart pan, so I used a 9-inch pie plate.  Thankfully the lovely filling makes up for the unimpressive pie plate.  The dough wasn’t impossible to work with, but it was a little crumbly so I had to do some patching up in places.  It was delicious and not hard to whip up in the food processor, so I’d definitely recommend it over a store bought crust.

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Ingredients

If you don’t like blue cheese you probably haven’t read to this point in the blog post, and if for some reason you have I can pretty much guarantee that you won’t be a fan of this tart.  Which makes me sad, because it’s delicious…if you like blue cheese.  I think you could use goat cheese, but haven’t tried it so I’m not sure how that will effect the final product.  Let me know how it turns out if you try it!

A few tips:

  • Refrigerate your crust before filling to minimize shrinking during baking.
  • For making ahead, you can prep everything, store it in the fridge and assemble right before baking.
  • If using bacon, this cold oven method of cooking it has become my new favorite.  No greasy pan to clean and your house won’t smell like bacon for days.
  • Make sure to let the tart cool or otherwise the filling won’t have time to thicken and could be runny.

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Pre-baked Tart

Bacon, Potato & Blue Cheese Tart

From Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

Tart

  • 1 Savory Tart Shell, recipe below, in a 9-inch tart or pie pan and ready to use
  • 1 pound small red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/4-inch slices
  • 4-8 slices of good bacon, cooked and crumbled
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 1/4 pound blue cheese, crumbled (about 3/4 cup)
  • 1 tablespoons finely chopped thyme and rosemary
  • Fine sea salt for sprinkling

Tart Shell

  • 1 and 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 6 tablespoons butter, diced
  • 1 large egg

Directions

For Tart Shell

  1. Combine flour, cornstarch and salt in the bowl of your food processor.  Pulse a few times to combine.
  2. Add in butter chunks and pulse until butter is in pea sized pieces.
  3. Add egg and pulse until dough comes together.  It will still be slightly crumbly.
  4. Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it a few times so that it comes together.  Flatten into a disk.
  5. Roll out into a 12 inch circle then transfer to your 9-inch tart pan or pie plate.  Press out any air bubbles and trim or crimp edges as desired.  Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before filling.

For Filling

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F
  2. Cook potatoes in a medium sized saucepan, just covered in water, over medium heat.  Simmer until tender, 8-10 minutes.  Remove from the water and drain.  Lay the slices out on a clean dishtowel and gently pat dry with another clean towel or paper towels.
  3. Arrange potatoes in concentric circles on the bottom of the crust, overlapping slightly, covering the crust entirely.
  4. Sprinkle cheese over potatoes, followed by bacon and herbs.
  5. Whisk egg and cream in small bowl and pour over everything.
  6. Sprinkle with sea salt.
  7. Bake tart for 45 to 50 minutes until bubbly and browned.  Cool on wire rack.  Serve the tart warm, room temp or cold.

Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs

Balls of meat stuffed with cheese and covered in a chunky marinara sauce?!  I am all in.  And I’m not sure if it’s being pregnant or the change in the seasons, or maybe both, but this kind of meal is right up my alley right now.

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These meatballs are total comfort food and will leave you full and happy.  Just like food should when it’s cold out.  Who in their right mind is eating salad right now, anyway?  I guess maybe I should be…but instead I’m eating meatballs, pasta and rosemary rolls.  And I’m ok with that.

Like most meatballs you will end up with a mess in your kitchen.  BUT you can form the meatballs ahead of time, refrigerate them, clean up that round of dishes, then fry and bake them for dinner that night, or even the next day.  You can probably get away with not frying them at all and just putting them straight into the oven.  Maybe just add 10-15 extra minutes, especially if you’ve refrigerated them.  Regardless of the mess you make though, they are definitely worth it!

You have a few options with these meatballs.  Pair with some spaghetti or other pasta (I made this spaghetti with simple garlic sauce and thought it was a nice combination) or load them onto some substantial crusty bread for meatball subs or sandwiches.  One of the greatest things about these meatballs is that both of my kids LOVED them!  So not only did Ben and I eat 2 dinners with them, but the kids had at least 4 meals of meatballs and ate them up.  Carson asked for more!  Rarely do they eat the food we do and enjoy it.  This is definitely going into my kid friendly meal file.

One tool I use for cookies and meatballs and to get them to be uniform in size is a scoop like this.  I have a small one (about 1 inch in diameter) and a larger one that is closer to 2 inches.  It’s something I’d recommend you have in your kitchen if you do much cooking and baking.  Get a sturdy one.   It will be worth the money, work better and last longer than the cheaper ones will.

The original recipe simmers the meatballs in the sauce in the same pan they are cooked in.  I finished them off in the oven and the only thing that wasn’t great about that was that some of the cheese escaped, which in the end was not a big deal.  There was still plenty of cheese inside the meatballs!  No need to worry.  Enjoy!

Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs

Adapted slightly from Just a Pinch

Makes 24-30 meatballs depending on size

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground sirloin (90/10)
  • 1 pound ground sweet Italian turkey sausage (or mild or hot)
  • 1 1/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs
  • 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/2 small white onion, diced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 8 ounces mozzarella cheese, cut into 27 cubes (or how ever many meat balls you get)
  • olive oil
  • flour
  • 1 jar simple marinara sauce

Directions

  1. Mix meat, breadcrumbs, seasonings, onion, garlic, eggs and milk.  Clean hands are the best tool for the job, but a spoon or spatula is fine.  Mix until everything is combined but not overly mixed.
  2. Divide into balls of equal size, 1 1/2 to 2 inches.  Place on a foil lined baking sheet, then take each meatball and press one cube of cheese into the center and form the meat around the cheese so that it is sealed.  Place back on the foil lined baking sheet.  At this point you can cover and refrigerate the meatballs for later.
  3. Preheat oven to 350°F and heat a drizzle of oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Put 1/2 cup of flour into a bowl.  Dredge each meatball lightly in flour, then place in the pan.  Repeat until pan is full but not overly crowded.  Cook for a minute or so on each side (I know this is hard to do with a round shape, but it’s not super important to get every bit of it cooked just the same.  Just make sure the majority of the meatball is browned.)  Be careful not to burn them.  If they’re browning too much, turn down the heat.  As the meatballs finish, move them to a 9×13 inch pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.  Repeat with the remaining meatballs until they’ve all been browned, adding more oil if needed.
  4. Pour the entire jar of marinara sauce over the meatballs.  Add about 1/4 cup of water to the jar, screw on the cap, shake it up and pour it over the meatballs also.  Spread it out as evenly as you can.  Put into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes (a little longer is you did not fry the meatballs or if they were refrigerated).  Cut open a meatball to be sure they’re cooked thoroughly, there shouldn’t be much if any pink.
  5. Enjoy on top of pasta, or on some nice crusty bread.

What I Want Wednesday

Have I really been this neglectful to my blog?  2 weeks without a post?  I am a terrible person and I promise to be better.  Things have been a little crazy around here getting our house ready to sell.  My house has never looked better!  We are leaving Amarillo and moving to Houston once we sell this lovely little place.  I have mixed emotions about the move.  It is bittersweet.

I am by no means a gardener, but I’ve been attempting to learn more about plants and gardening since having a yard I can work in.  If you’ve been to my house and seen my yard you are currently thinking, “She was working on that yard?”  Did I say I was successful?  Anyway, I really do want to be a good gardener.  I want to grow vegetables that I can cook with, and flowers that I can cut and arrange in a vase in my house, I want to sit and have a cup of coffee out among my lush and flourishing foliage.  But I should be realistic, I am no Ina Garten, and I live in Texas.

One of the things I really, really want is a functional herb garden.  I have managed to grow rosemary and so I never have to buy it from the grocery store.  I just head out back and snip a few sprigs.  It makes me happy.  Basil?  No luck.  Mint? I have some out back, and it’s doing well so far.  We shall see.  In my dream herb garden I want these.

Isn’t this a lovely idea?  Fresh herbs are such a great ingredient and garnish to savory and sweet things, and they are even greater when you can have the satisfaction of getting them from your own yard!  Here is a how-to from Bunny Hill Blog on making your own.  I may try this myself when we get to our new home…whenever and wherever that is.  I saw some already made on this Etsy page.  That may end up being the route I go if I get too lazy to search for old spoons, hammer them flat and then stamp them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Craisy” Oatmeal Cookies

Oatmeal, cranberry, coconut & rosemary cookies…but that is just too much to type as a blog post title.

I don’t like the “Craisy” title either, but that is how they’re described by Guy Fieri, the creator of these cookies.  “Craisy” because of the use of dried cranberries or “craisins”, and also “crazy” because of the use of rosemary.  I happen to love rosemary in desserts, these cookies are spectacular and quite good for the holidays.  But the idea of this savory herb in a sweet might put some people off.  Do not be frightened!  The rosemary is a welcome ingredient in these cookies.

This cookie recipe arrived in my inbox the other day as Day 12 of the “12 Days of Cookies” from the Food Network.  And instead of deleting it after deciding I had no interest in wasting precious time and energy in baking them (like I have with the other 11 recipes) I clicked on the title and was redirected to the recipe on foodtv.com.  I had all the ingredients…even the fresh rosemary thanks to the robust rosemary plants in the backyard that have withstood not only the freezing temperatures, my lack of care for most plants in my yard, and the dog.  I took the butter and eggs out of the fridge with the intention of making them in the next couple of hours.  Eight hours later, once the baby gave me a good chunk of free time and the electrician had completed his work on our house I got around to making the dough, and 2 hours after that I got around to baking them.  I am so very glad I did.

I love oatmeal cookies of any type.  I love coconut in just about anything.  I love the tartness that cranberries add to baked goods.  And, as you know by now, I love rosemary.  It is therefore no surprise that I loved these cookies.  My only issue with them was temperature and baking time.  I baked my first couple batches at the recommended 350 for 10 minutes.  I hardly ever bake cookies the full time the first time around.  I check them a bit earlier to make sure they do not brown too quickly.  After 10 minutes the cookies were pretty dark, so I took them out.  The next batch I did for 8 minutes, and they had gooey centers, but dark bottoms.  So, I turned the oven down to 325 and baked the cookies for about 10 minutes.  This seemed to yield the best results.  Your oven might so something different, so you might need to mess around with the time a bit.  But even over baked, these cookies are tasty. (more…)

Apple & Almond Chicken Salad

Few things are better than a really delicious chicken salad on some really delicious bread.  This chicken salad is really delicious.

I have been convicted lately to use my cookbooks more.  I am often reminded of my dad saying to me and my sisters when I lived at home, “Why are you looking on the internet for a recipe?  You’ve got a whole bookcase full of cookbooks right here!”.  He only said it once, but he had a good point that has obviously stuck with me.  While I do still find myself browsing recipes on food sites, I am making an effort to use my cookbooks more and it is really paying off.

This chicken salad recipe is from Rebecca Rather’s cookbook and is one of my favorites.  I have made and have blogged about many of them, and have yet to be disappointed.  I often focus on her sweet treats, but decided to delve into another section of the cookbook this weekend.

I do prefer to use homemade items instead of store bought most of the time, but not for this recipe.  Rather instructs you to make your own mayonnaise.  This, I am sure, it spectacular.  She also includes a few ways to spice up your homemade mayo that make it extra special.  She suggests curry powder, saffron, garlic, chives or rosemary.  With the egg fiasco going on, and this whole pregnancy thing I’ve got going on, I figured raw eggs would not be the best choice for me…so I used store bought mayo.  I recently bought a bottle of Kraft Olive Oil mayonnaise that I used here, and I really liked it.

Other than my laziness in the mayo department, I made minor changes to this recipe.  My changes are shown in the recipe below.  The only thing I left out completely was 1/4 cup finely diced red onion.  I didn’t have one, so I just used 5 chopped green onions.  I also added the fresh tarragon.  Central Market sells a lovely tarragon chicken salad, so that was my inspiration.

I served this chicken salad on ciabatta rolls with lettuce and tomato.  I ate some leftover today on a bed of lettuce.  The almonds still had some texture, so two days in the fridge will not turn your almonds into mush.  Enjoy!

Apple & Almond Chicken Salad

Adapted from The Pastry Queen

Ingredients

  • 2-3 cups chopped cooked chicken
  • 1 Granny Smith apple, cored and diced
  • 2-3 stalks of celery, diced
  • 4-5 green onions, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
  • 1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
  • 1/2 to 3/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 cup slivered blanched almonds, toasted
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Combine the chicken, apple, celery, green onion, parsley and tarragon in a large bowl.  Mix until well combined.
  2. Add in the mayonnaise, salt and pepper and stir until thoroughly mixed.
  3. Add the almonds right before you plan to serve the salad so the almonds stay crunchy.
  4. Serve on bread, rolls, croissants, crackers or salad greens.

Baked in Brooklyn

Sarah and I are in Brooklyn…finally.  I won’t go into too much detail because it will just get me worked up, but it was a bit of a nightmare.  Cancelled flights, 180 people on stand-by, an unplanned night in Dallas, a 6:40 am flight the next day, lost baggage, horribly unhelpful  AA baggage people, and now items are mysteriously missing out of my suitcase.  This was not the best travel experience.

Thankfully, we are here now and having a great time visiting my sister Lisa, my brother-in-law Randy and our 10 week old niece Maren.  Isn’t she amazingly cute?  She has the most rockin’ hair I have ever seen.  She is a whopping 9 pounds now, and quite fun to be around.

This morning while driving around Brooklyn we stopped in Baked, a bakery in Red Hook, to pick up some goodies.  Here is a link to their site.  Sarah had heard of their salted brownies; caramel and fleur-de-sel in a chocolate-y brownie.  I’d read that they also had incredible whoopie pies.

The bakery is a little funky and very cool.  The door is orange with an animal antler handle.  Inside the decor consists of white deer heads on the walls, orange details and warm wooden tables and wood grain walls and tables.  A crystal chandelier hangs above the counter to soften the manliness of the place.

Unfortunately the salted caramel brownie that we came here for was not on the menu today.  However, Sarah and I are not quitters, and we will not give up just because of a slight disappointment.  So we chose an assortment of treats to sample and share with each other.

Here is a tray of most of the goodies. Clockwise from top left are the s’more nut bar, rosemary apricot bar, oatmeal cookie, chocolate cookie, chocolate whoopie pie with vanilla cream filling, and mini Red Velvet cupcake.  Not pictured but very delicious are the banana whoopie pie, lemon pistachio vegan cookie and the Brewer’s brownie made with brewers malt.

S’more Nut Bar:  A slightly sweet graham cracker base with a chocolate and marshmallow center and peanut top.  The chocolate is thick, ganache-like and incredibly rich.  I would have enjoyed more marshmallow pieces in this bar, but it was still very good.

Rosemary Apricot Bar:  This was one of my favorites.  I usually do not like apricot, but with the rich buttery bottom layer and the nutty streusal topping I was a total fan.  The rosemary adds such a great savory flavor to the sweetness of the rest of the ingredients.  It reminds me of these rosemary pecan cookies which I LOVE with a passion and cannot stop eating when I make them.

Oatmeal Cookie:  Another favorite packed full of oatmeal, coconut, dried cherries, pecans and white chocolate.  I might try to recreate these at home.

Chocolate Cloud Cookie:  Dense, chocolate goodness.

Whoopie Pie:  A softer version of an Oreo and so much tastier.  Rich and yummy chocolate cookie encasing light fluffy vanilla cream filling.  Tasty.

Mini Red Velvet:  An adorable treat with a perfect dollop of cream cheese frosting.  This a perfect single serving cupcake.

Dinner Rush: Greek Burgers with Tomato Jam

Over the past few week we have eaten burgers more than once a week.  I know.  Not exactly health food.  We did make them ourselves and tried some pretty different combinations of flavors.  These Greek burgers were the first in our series of burgers, and I thought they were delicious.  I love feta cheese, so the presence of that ingredient alone in the meat mixture had be smitten even while the meat was raw, but don’t worry, I did not do any taste testing until after they were cooked.

greekburger1

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