Mom's Shower Chicken Salad Jazzed up My way with Homemade Potato Chips

I had potatoes in my pantry that were about to sprout eyes. I never get through a 10 lb bag fast enough. Anyway. So I had potatoes. I made potato salad last week did not want to make french fries just for lunch so I made potato chips for dinner. The girls love the potato chips so do their dad. What to make with them though. Hmmm.


My Mommy has this chicken salad recipe she got from her friend's Grandma Mrs. Schroll. I have always  called it "Shower Salad" because she made it for my bridal shower, and both my baby showers. She makes it for other women's showers too. And it is very good but boring. ( No offense Ma!) So I made my own version a couple of years ago and I love it! I hope you will too. It has so many uses. You can make it and serve it cold for hot summer days or as a yummy warm sandwich . It is great comfort food. You can make a reduced calorie version and make lettuce wraps out of it. Gluten free Friends. Just use Gluten Free Bread. Bring it to picnics, eat it at home or bring it to a "shower".

Homemade Potato Chips

Equipment- A Mandoline, a dutch oven or deep pan, a fryer/candy thermometer , lots of paper towels, a glass or metal big mixing bowl. A bowl of ice cold water, A Spider Strainer. (see my side page on kitchen gadgets)

6-8 small russet potatoes or 3-5 large.

2 quarts of oil peanut or canola are best

A roll of paper towels

Salt and Pepper 

You can use Parmesan, Garlic Powder, Paprika, Cayenne Sugar. GO WILD. Make awesome chips. I am going to make more I will add to this when I have some great flavors to share.

Using a mandoline slice potatoes as thin as you can. Use the guard unless you are trained. I do not want you to lose a finger by slicing it off and a mandoline is very dangerous with out the guard.You should be able to almost see through the potato slices. Put them in a bowl of cold water so they do not oxidize and turn brown. Pour oil in dutch oven and turn heat on med heat. Using thermometer watch the oil until it gets to 400*. Pat the chips dry! Do not EVER put wet anything into hot oil. You will get burned. In batches add the chips to the hot oil. Let fry until golden brown. Using the Spider Strainer, keep chips separated. Line the mixing bowl (not plastic it will melt) with 3 paper towels. Put the cooked chips on the paper towel. Season right away. Add three more paper towels and add chips to oil. Repeat til done.

You want to separate the chips in layers so that the oil from each batch does not leak on to the batch before. Same with the salt. And you want to season the chips right after they come out of the oil. They are the most vulnerable and take the seasoning the best then. You need to do them in batches so the oil does not cool down to much. The chips do not stick and you do not make the oil bubble over. They cook more evenly in batches of about a cup full of chips at a time.

Mom's Shower Chicken Salad All Jazzed Up

Equipment- knife, cutting board, mixing bowl

3 cups chicken cooked/diced

1 cup seedless red grapes halved

3 stalks of celery roughly chopped

1 cup of apples* small dice

½ cup mayo

½ cup Greek Yogurt**

2-3 pinches of sugar

½ cup roasted almonds

Tbsp of Lemon Juice

I used a nice artisan loaf of bread. Nice little potato buns are great, white bread wheat bread. Bread is just great! 

For low fat. Use fat free mayo and fat free plain yogurt. Use lettuce and make a Chicken Lettuce wrap.

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Serve how you like. ***

* I used Pink Ladies. They are nice and tart/sweet. Sweet Red, Fuji, any good sweet apple works do not use a very tart apple.

**Remember I am not a huge mayo fan so I cut it with Greek Yogurt. You can use a whole cup of mayo.

***If you want it hot!

Preheat oven to 350*

Add ½ cup of mayo so the salad does not dry out.

Mix together in an oven proof dish. Top with grated parmesan cheese if you want too. Put in oven for 30-45 minutes. Until bubble and starting to be nice and golden.

Rustic Pomodoro Pasta

Everyone loves pasta. And this recipe is sure to please all pasta lovers. It is so simple to make. You can serve it hot or cold. And you can pretty much use any type of pasta that you want.  And the best part is that it is very healthy for you! Next time you want pasta turn to this recipe instead of the alfredo sauce. Pomodoro is a type of italian sauce. And mine is Rustic because it is chopped up and not simmered down into a sauce sauce.

Rustic Pomodoro Pasta

Equipment- pot for pasta, colander, knife, cutting board, skillet, and pepper mill


1 lb pasta cooked, drained (I used a tri colored spaghetti from a special Italian Market... So much better then boxed pasta.)
6-8 Roma Tomatoes roughly chopped
5 garlic cloves finely chopped
1 large shallot chopped
2 turns* of Olive Oil Extra Virgin
1 turn* of Balsamic Vinegar
10 -12 basil leaves chiffonade**  or chopped 
Salt  to season
Fresh Cracked Pepper
* a turn is around the outside of a skillet or pan that is about 16" 1 time. Not coating the bottom.
** chiffonade is a technique where you stack the basil leaves on each other, roll them length  wise like you would a cigar  and then thinly cut across the roll (WITH A VERY SHARP KNIFE. If you use  a dull knife on basil you will bruise it and make it icky) Cutting them that way makes pretty little ribbons!


Combine the tomatoes, garlic, shallots and basil in a pan. Use your 2 turns of olive oil in the pan.  Season with salt. Saute on medium heat for 5-7 minutes. Use turn of balsamic. Combine the completed Pomodoro sauce with the pasta.  Top with cracked pepper. I love it cold but you can keep the pasta hot and do it that way too.


Buon appetito!

Stuffed Portobello Mushroom Burgers (Or Hold the Burger!)

My family likes to have hamburgers. I love a medium rare piece of meat. I would love to devour a great hamburger. I make great hamburger but I have not been able to eat one since I was 5 years old. I have tried. (Hot dogs, sausages and any ground meat). So I generally make either salmon burgers or tuna burgers when they are going to have their burgers. It has been really cold and even snowy this May and they wanted burgers . So I made them on my Food Network Grill in the house. I wanted something a little different and so I made a stuffed Portobello Mushroom Burger.

Stuffed Portobello Mushroom Burger 

or 

Hold the Burger

Equipment - knife, cutting board, cookie sheet or oven proof baking pan.

2 Portobello Mushroom Caps (wiped clean with wet paper towel. Don't emerse in water)

4-6 Tbsp Pico De Gallo (store bought or Homemade )

2-4 Tbsp Feta Cheese

2-4 Tbsp Goat Cheese

Salt and Pepper to taste

Your favorite Toppings. These are mine.

2 pieces of Swiss Cheese (Burger- a cheese you love)

2 slices of Tomato (Burger)

Alfa Sprouts (Burger)

2 of your favorite buns (Burger)

Preheat Oven to 450*

Place mushroom caps face up in baking pan. Place half the pico in each cap. Half of the cheese in each cap. (Depending on the size. You do not want the caps over flowing. Season with Salt and Pepper. Add your slice of cheese on top (optional) Throw it in the oven for about 25-30 minutes. Until Caps are cooked and tender and cheese is nice and melty.

Build your burger if that is what you want. Or Hold the Burger and eat the cap! To make it low fat.. Double the pico and hold the cheese!

Home Made Mayonnaise and the Potato Salad I put it in!

I decided I wanted to make homemade mayonnaise for the Potato Salad I was making. I am not a mayo fan most of the time. I have not found a jar mayo that I like. Restaurants sometimes nail it.  So MAYO! I thought maybe if I do it I might like it more? I attempted to make it from scratch... I am not gonna lie. It took me 4 tries to make it.... It is not easy. In Culinary school , classically trained Chefs learn to make mayonnaise by hand with a metal bowl and a whisk. I have a 6 inch plate and 14 screws in my right arm so I find whisking like a mad chef kind of painful. I used a blender.  Mayonnaise is an emulsion.  

The definition is kind of hard to break down so I am going to quote from my bible. The New Food Lover's Companion . This book is invaluable. It has no recipes. It is a collection of food definitions and referencing tools. I have read it from cover to cover. Remember I have not been to school, but I do not want to just know how to cook I want to know the science and the intellectual side of food like Alton Brown from the Food Network. I call him the P.h. D of the Culinary world. So anyway emulsion.

emulsion (ih-MUHL-shuhn) A mixture of one liquid with another with which it cannot normally combine smoothly --oil and water  being the classic example. Emulsifying is done by slowly (sometimes drop -by- drop) adding one ingredient to another while at the same time mixing rapidly. This disperses and suspends minute droplets of one liquid through the other. Emulsified mixtures are usually thick an satiny in texture. Mayonnaise (an uncooked combination of oil, egg yolks, and vinegar or lemon juice) and HOLLANDAISE (a cooked mixture of butter, egg yolks and vinegar or lemon juice) are two of the best known emulsions.¹

Basically if you just take oil, egg yolks and vinegar throw them in a dish and stir. They wont mix. 

Mayonnaise

Equipment- A blender (or mixing bowl and whisk)

2 large egg yolks
½ tsp of fine salt

½ tsp dry mustard

2 pinches of sugar

1 ½ tbsp lemon juice

1 cup of oil (corn or safflower oil are best. I used Extra Virgin Olive Oil . It is what I had)

Put egg yolks, the dry ingredients, and half the lemon juice in the blender. Turn the blender on.

Through the opening in the top SLOWLY drop by drop add the oil. Once you start to see it emulsify into a mayo . Start to add the oil faster and then add the lemon juice. Do not over mix.

Remember I had to do it a few times because I put the oil in to fast. Use with in a day of making. They say you can keep it longer but it is raw egg yolks. If you want to make more then about a cup to 1 ½ cups just do it one part at a time. If you double the recipe it might not work. Also make sure you use FRESH eggs A or AA eggs. Raw eggs can make you sick.

Potato Salad

Equipment- knife, chopping board, mixing bowl, spatula and measuring cups/spoons

6 cups of potatoes boiled/diced

10 strips bacon cooked/chopped
¾ cups of mayo

3-4 pinches of sugar

2 tbsp of  apple cider vinegar

½ cup shredded parmesan

3 hard boiled eggs chopped

½ cup of chives finely chopped

Just mix all the ingredients in a bowl and stir well. 

¹ Ron and Sharon Tyler Herbst, The New: Food Lover's Companion (Barron's Educational Series, Inc. 2007) 240

Royal Heart Shaped Pancakes with Chocolate Chips, Strawberry Purée and Cocacchino Whip Cream for the Princesses.

Isabelle's best friend Kelly slept over last night and I promised them I would wake up early and make them breakfast. I wanted to make it fun because this was my daughters first sleep over.  

So I made them heart shaped chocolate chip pancakes with a strawberry purée. To add a little fun I topped it with a homemade whipped cream flavored with Cocachino powder.  Now before I give you the recipe. You need to know that this breakfast takes organization and good multi tasking skills.  

You should make the whip cream first. Which you can always do the night before. 

Make the Purée so it can simmer for a bit

Then make the pancakes.

Homemade Whip Cream (make your own flavor)

Equipment- Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer or a Whisk and Metal Bowl.

Regular Whipped Cream so the Base:

1 cup cold heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)

(add your ingredient for your flavor here)

mine- 2 tbsp Cocachino powder

Put the ingredients in to the mixer. Turn the mixer on medium to medium high. Watch it as it whips. It will start to turn the consistency of whipped cream. You want to whip it until it has medium peaks (hold the beater up and the whip cream will hold a peak). As long as you watch it the whole time you will do fine . Just stop the mixer when you see that it has the consistency of whipped cream. (If you over mix it, it will turn into butter. Under mix it and it will be watery and fall apart.) Keep it chilled to you need it.

Customizing your flavor.     

(Cocachino is a specialty Cocoa powder I bought at Market Spice at Pike Place in Seattle it is a cinnamony light chocolaty Cocoa powder. It is different and good. If you want to borrow it let me know.

Put the ingredient or ingredients needed for your flavor in before you mix and VWALA! Your own fancy gourmet whipped cream!


Cinnamon - 1 tsp of cinnamon

Vanilla - 1 tsp pure vanilla extract.

Rum- 1 tbsp Dark Rum

Coconut- 1/4 cup coconut milk, 1 tsp Coconut Rum, Lightly Toasted Sweetened coconut flakes to garnish.

Cocoa - 1 tbsp of Cocoa powder


If you think of any other flavors let me know and I can test it and figure out what you need to make it.

Strawberry Purée

Equipment- Utility Knife and cutting board, food processor or blender, small sauce pan

1 pint of Strawberries (stems removed and quartered)

1/4 cup of sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

Place quartered strawberries in food processor. Purée. Place strawberry purée in the sauce pan mix in sugar and lemon juice simmer for 10 minutes.

Heart Shaped Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Equipment- measuring spoons, measuring cups,  whisk, two small bowls, 1 large bowl, 1 rubber spatula, large flat spatula, a flat top griddle or a large pan, a ladle, and a heart shaped cookie cutter.

2 cups flour

5 tbsp sugar
3 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup milk
3 large eggs separated (yokes/ whites)
4 tbsp of melted butter
Cooking spray
3/4 cup of chocolate chips


Heat up griddle if you're using one.


Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl mix milk egg yokes and melted butter together. Add flour mixture and whisk until smooth (no lumps)
Beat egg whites until they are stiff. Gently fold into batter. 
Mix in chocolate chips


Ladle 1/4 cup batter circles on to sprayed griddle or pan. 2-3 minutes on each side. Until golden brown.
Use cookie cutter to make heart shape. Put left overs in a bowl to eat.


For regular pancakes just ditch the chocolate chips.

Soups Dejour I mean Galore.

Tuesday it was a blustery cold cloud day. I had leeks, onions, and potatoes that I needed to use or they were going to go bad. So I decided it was soup day. Soup is very easy to make, it is cheap and it freezes well.  A couple of times I year, I have soup day where I make 2-3 different types of soup and then jar it and freeze it for later. I made two different soups. Potato Leek Soup and French Onion Soup.


Let's start with the Potato Leek Soup. In order to do that let's talk about leeks.

                                    
 

Leeks are a member of both the garlic and onion family. They were originally found in Mediterranean countries. They have a milder and more subtle flavor then that of an onion or garlic yet it does have onion like under tones.  Leeks can be used as a substitute to onions in most dishes. The dark green part is generally used in stocks as well as to wrap different things in. The light green/white stalk is the edible part and can be boiled, fried, and eaten raw. They make great side dishes like creamed leeks or leeks and potatoes. Many uses for them. I love leeks.

Leeks have to be cleaned very well. They are full of gritty sand and dirt... 

To clean them whole. Grab the green leaves hold them together and quarter then just to the stalk. Spread them apart. Run them under cold water shuffling the leaves to get all of the dirt out.

I always slice mine then clean them :

Slice the root off of the leek. Thinly slice the leek up until you reach half way through the light green portion. Throw the green away. Place the slice leeks into a colander and place in the sink. Sift leeks in the running water with your hands separating them in to individual circles. Once you can see they are completely rinsed. Pat them dry.

Potato Leek Soup

Equipment: 6 quart sauce pan or a dutch oven, Immersion hand blender or regular blender, Utility Knife and cutting board, colander, Potato Peeler, and Spatula.

1 bunch of leeks (greens discarded, light green/ white stalk sliced very thin and cleaned well)

5 medium russet potatoes (peeled and medium dice)

5 tbsp unsalted butter

6 cups of Chicken or Vegetable stock (1.5 quarts) (see my page on how to make stocks)

1 cup heavy cream

Kosher Salt

Garnish- Handful of chopped chives, 4 or 5 pieces of bacon crumbled, Cracked Black Pepper . (mild shredded cheddar if ya like cheese)

Place sauce pan or dutch oven on stove top. Melt the butter. Add the leeks with a good pinch of salt. Cook on med/low heat for 25 minutes or until leeks are tender. Stir every few minutes.

Add the stock and potatoes. Turn up the heat to med/high. Bring stock to a boil. Reduce heat to med/low. Simmer until potatoes are soft about 45 minutes. Turn heat off

Now there are two different things you can do next. It depends what type of soup that you want .

For a more hearty and rustic soup- remove half of the soup and place it in a bowl. Use the immersion hand blender (or pour the rest into the regular blender) and puree until soup is nice and smooth. Then add the rest of the soup back in to the pan. Mix in the heavy cream.

For a creamy soup- place the immersion hand blender in the pan and blend all of the soup until smooth. (pour all of the soup in batched into the blender and blend) Mix in heavy cream.

Garnish with the bacon, chives and pepper. 

Serve immediately or wait and serve it cold. The cold version is traditionally called Vichyssoise (Vee-SHE-swahz).

French Onion Soup

            

Equipment: 6 quart sauce pan or dutch oven, 8-16 oz souffle dishes (or oven proof bowls), Utility Knife and cutting board. Spice bag or cheese cloth, cookie sheet and aluminum foil.

5 large sweet onions quartered and sliced thin

2 cloves of garlic minced

6 cups of Beef Stock (1.5 quarts)(see my page on Beef and Chicken Stock)

2 tbsp flour

1/4 cup dry white wine or cooking wine

5 sprigs of fresh Thyme

1 Bay Leaf

Olive Oil

Kosher Salt

Garnish- 1 loaf of crusty bread like a french baguette. 2 cups of shredded Gruyere Cheese (or just use swiss to save money)

Place saute pan on stove top. Drizzle with olive oil. Saute onions and garlic on medium/low heat until onions are tender and yellow. Use a pinch or two of kosher salt and sprinkle the flour on the onions. Cook for another 8- 10 minutes. Until flour is browned.

Place the Thyme and Bay Leaf in the spice bag or cheese cloth.

Add beef stock and wine to the pan. Bring to a boil. Add spice bag. Reduce heat, cover and let simmer for 20 minutes.

Turn Broiler on high

Slice bread into 1/2 inch slices. Butter them and place them on the cookie sheet. Broil until golden brown 1-3 minutes. (keep an eye on them) Transfer them to a plate.

Cover the cookie sheet with foil. Place souffle cups or bowls on the cookie sheet. Ladle soup into the bowls. Place a slice of toasted bread on top of soup and cover with the cheese.  Broil for 5-6 minutes. Until the cheese is browning. (always watch things in the broiler they can burn fast)

Enjoy!

S'more's The Disney Way

One of my favorite places to eat when we would go to Disney World in Orlando was the 50s Prime Time Cafe at MGM Studios. You  walk through the front door right in to the 50's. Each table is surrounded by its own 50's style kitchen with a black and white TV. It plays the Mickey Mouse Club. Your  server was either Ma or Pop and they  greet you as Hey Kids! They serve all sorts of comfort foods like pot roast and meat loaf but all I remember is the dessert. 





Equipment- A cookie Sheet
The 50s Prime Time Cafe S'Mores!
(serves 4-6)


16 graham cracker squares
16 large marshmallows
3 regular size Hershey's Chocolate Bars
Hershey's chocolate syrup to drizzle

Turn Oven on Broil High


Place graham crackers on cookie sheet. Place two rectangles of Hershey bar on each graham cracker square.
Put in oven for 1-2 minutes make sure you watch don't let the chocolate melt to much.
Take out of oven. Place marshmallow on each square.
Put back oven for 30-50 seconds . Until a char forms on the marshmallow. Watch! It will burn fast.
Drizzle Chocolate Sauce all over as much or as little as you want!


Enjoy! If you have a torch you can always just use the torch to melt the chocolate and to get a good sear on the marshmallow if you do not want to use the broiler. That is how a real foodie does it!

Cilantro Lime Flank Steak with Lyonnaise Potatoes and Orange Green Beans

Cilantro Lime Marinated Flank Steak
I really wish I could take credit for the flank steak but it is from Costco. It would be very easy to prepare on your own though.  It is an awesome way to get a great beef fix with out shelling out a lot of money. Flank Steak is usually a tough piece of meat but when you marinate it for a couple of days, it tenderizes the meat. The marinade for this has lime juice, rice wine vinegar, chopped garlic, red pepper, sugar, salt and cilantro. The acidity helps break down the meat making it so tender. Never listen to the directions. If you cook it for 30 minutes it will be shoe leather. I cook mine for about 15-17 minutes until it is rare on the verge of med rare. You always want to pull your meat about 5 degrees cooler then you want it because you have to let the meat rest for 5 minutes and it will continue to cook. Never just cut into a piece of meat. Let it rest 5 minutes or when you cut into it you will lose all of the juices. Always cut flank steak against the grain.


Equipment- A Chefs Knife and Cutting board and a Mandolin (w/ a guard if you have one). Saute Pan, a good baking sheet that is deep or a casserole dish.


Lyonnaise Potatoes (the french and gourmet way to say sliced potatoes with onions and butter)
(serves 2 adults and 2 children so add more potatoes per person 1 1/2 med potato or 1 large per adult and half an onion each adult)


6 medium to Large Potatoes. I like to use Russet. Sliced thin about 1/2 inch thick**
2 medium Onions julienne (cut onion in halves the quarter then quarter again til  thin strips)
Half stick of  Butter (or Butter sub. or your potatoes will be so dry) Cut into pads and then 4th'd
Salt to season
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (just to to keep onions from sticking)


Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Cut up onions and throw them in a saute pan with a splash of Extra Virgin Olive Oil . Saute Onions until caramelized 8-10 minutes. 

Slice up Potatoes. While your slicing them throw a baking sheet or casserole dish in the oven with 3 pads of butter . Let it melt. Layer your first row of potatoes onto the pan.  Layer with onions and salt. Add a few small squares of the quartered butter. Layer another layer of potatoes. Add onions. Repeat until done. Put in oven for 45 minutes or until potatoes are golden.*

* to speed up the process you can precook the potatoes in the microwave or boil them. Then they will only take 15 minutes in the oven. I am impatient. Just do not over cook them . It will dry them out.

* *A mandolin is a great tool to have it can cut all sorts of veggies uniformly and much faster then you can with a knife. They usually come with different blades to do different cuts like a waffle blade, julienne blade straight blade. But you have to be very careful and always use the guard. Don't play super chef and do it like you see professionals do because you will cut a finger off I promise =).       




Equipment Saute pan, Knife and cutting board.


Orange Green Beans


1 lb of green beans 
2 oranges quartered
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (if not using a non stick pan)
Salt to Season


Throw green beans in a pan. Salt . Saute them until they begin to cook. Juice Oranges over the green beans letting the orange meat fall into green beans. Cook for 10-12 minutes.


You can add a good Orange Vinegar or Olive Oil to add more flavor . Or orange juice.  Seseame Seeds work well for flavor too. It gives the beans a good flavor with out adding a lot of fat or calories like butter would.

That was dinner this evening. If you have any questions let me know! I only ate the onions on the potatoes because  I am watching calories. These pictures were taken with my phone I apologize for the quality of the pictures!