summer chicken, veggie and mango salad

OK, sometimes you take a gamble with dinner and lose. I once decided it was better to toss an entire corningware dish than to attempt to pry of the lid, burned on by starch. I was never able to open that dish to find out if the chicken finished cooking, but the pizza we finally at at 9pm was delicious.

Other times you take a gamble with dinner and score. This was one of those times. I made lemon cilantro dressing for my salad for lunch, but on the salad it was only so-so. For dinner, I had leftover skewers that my family loved, but not as many as we would need. I did have some potatoes for filler, but re-heated chicken and potatoes just didn't sound good. And so this salad was born, with the dressing to coat it. Even picky Lizzie ate it.

Oh, and I'm working on a lettuce-based salad that would be perfect with the lemon cilantro dressing - new salad recipe coming soon!

perfect chicken skewers

Perfect for a potluck, a picnic, or hosting a summer BBQ, these skewers are full of flavor and don't need any extra dressing up. The flavor of the marinade doesn't overpower the dish, yet brings plenty of tenderness and spunk. This is meant to make lots -enough for a fun summer chicken salad that I'll post soon.

garlic lemon chicken

Whew! THAT was a doozy. Two weeks of multiple people having multiple ear & strep infections, plus grading final exams & research papers - ughh! But all horrible things must come to an end, and so I'm finally alive & cooking again!!!

My first day back on the job yielded my favorite version of lemon chicken - heavy on the lemon & garlic, no sweetener, no capers. Perfection. I used cooking sherry, but a dry white wine would work, too. Serve with grilled veggies - it's filling enough without a starchy side. But if you absolutely must, it'd be amazing with orzo pasta.

PS-check out the new cooking times! Personally, I like it best when the time is listed in prep time (how long am I gonna be on my feet getting things ready?) and total cooking time (if I have to do stuff on the stove before it goes in the oven, I want to gauge the whole thing up front). Keep in mind that BOTH times are for a relatively seasoned home cook - those who know their way around their kitchen & have a general understanding of how dishes turn out, but who lack the ability to chop an onion in 3 seconds while simultaneously juggling knives behind their backs. If you're a kitchen almost-virgin, start out by doubling the prep time, just to be safe. Hope it helps you plan/envision/not begrudge me.

tgif lunches - caramel apple snack

Empty cupboards either drive one to the store or to creativity. My budget generally demands that I respond with creativity. This snack isn't really anything new: apple slices, caramel, and chopped pecans (or any other kind of nuts). But have you put it in your kids' lunchbox yet? I hadn't.

When Pink asked for a snack and our cupboards looked like Old Mother Hubbard's, I found a jar of caramel sauce and an apple (do you ever buy caramel for a recipe and then have it sit in your fridge, untouched, til you can't even remember what you bought it for? not me...). Dishing it, though, I realized that with an itty bitty container for the caramel & nuts, I could easily send her to school with this. Or I could make it for myself for lunch.

Not exactly rocket science here, friends. But it still makes for an awfully exciting lunch, even if the lunch just started off as ham 'n cheese.

And now from Pink: appel slices caramel and pecans. it was delicious i just loved it deeeelicious. 1 spoon caramel abatot (*about*)   7pecans and 8 appel slices. :)

Perfect Guacamole

Per.Fect. So much so, that I'm actually starting to crave it at 8am as I type this post, even before breakfast. The flavors pack a punch, but they're nicely balanced. A bit more work than Easy Guac, it's totally worth it on a day when you've got lots of fresh ingredients going anyway, like if you're making Street Tacos.

beer glazed pork chops

You're welcome for this recipe. While it's a bit of a travesty to pour a perfectly good beer into a pot for cooking on a hot summer day while the smoke & aroma of pork on the barbie fill the air, this glaze is completely worth it. Not that I wouldn't recommend poppin' a couple tops while dinner's on the grill. Or with dinner. Heck, have 'em after. And this works perfectly for grilled chicken, too.

One word of caution: I used an amber bock that we really like to drink, and the flavor of the beer came through perfectly. I'd skip lighter beers and use an amber or stout, and go for one that you actually enjoy drinking. As the saying goes, "If you wouldn't drink it, you shouldn't cook with it."

Oh, and one more word of caution: the glaze goes from almost perfectly-reduced to burned in about 2.7 seconds. So once it gets close, just park yourself next to the stove and pay attention. Trust me on this.

tuesday tidbits - grilling

I'm not sure what it is about the grill that intimidates so many, but it seems like we are quick to confess our grilling inadequacies and then give up altogether. And yet, we long to grill all sorts of things.

We've lived in 2 upstairs apartments that had no a/c, with concrete block walls and no attic to deter any of the heat. I learned a long time ago how NOT to use the oven OR the stove, out of a desire to sleep in a room that was lower than 100 degrees. We've made all sorts of things on the grill - from pizza to enchiladas, burgers to brownies. And we've learned some tips along the way. Here are some tips on grilling meat. Tips on grilling seafood & stove-top-type food will come later on.

ultimate burgers

May gray left, and it's been warm & toasty by dinner time, which means one thing - lots and lots and lots of grilling! To kick off the start of summer, this week is all about the grill. First, the ultimate burgers. A bit of seasoning with some Worcestershire sauce, cheese on top, and bacon. If I hadn't just finished this for dinner, I'd be drooling over my computer.

Regular burger buns are fine, but an open-faced burger on toasted bread, with mixed greens, feels like an urban grill with white linens and industrial decor and funky plates and mango iced tea. Right?

baked french toast - mother's day brunch finale

The piece de resistance for any brunch, but especially for a brunch that maman doesn't have to make herself.

When I was a kid, about 12 years old, we visited my mom's high school best friend (the same friend whose mom made this taco casserole). She baked the tastiest breakfast dish I'd ever had. I asked my mom if we could have the recipe and make it at home, and she flatly said something to the effect of, "I can't stand my eggs any way other than scrambled really well, and because this french toast has eggs in it, they might not get done all the way and might not be completely dry, and there might be a teeny, tiny drop of not-quite-done egg, and that would scare me and gross me out. So, no, you may not make this at home." Ok, she was nicer than that. But not by much.

However, somehow that recipe ended up in my mom's recipe box and I rediscovered the bliss of nutrient-bare french bread laden with eggs & milk, and gooey with caramelized sugar, butter & corn starch. And my holiday mornings became much better because of it.

*This must be MADE IN ADVANCE - prepare it the night before

mother's day brunch - grilled salmon

To round out the brunch, I'm all about some seafood of some sort. And since crab is a bit out of reach for our humble budget, we more often opt for salmon (also out of our humble budget, but not by as much).

This recipe already made an appearance here, but it's truly worth showing you again. The glaze will be a perfect sweet-savory to compliment the savory eggs and the over-the-top sweetness of tomorrow's centerpiece for the meal.

Here it is again: grilled salmon recipe