Batter-Splattered

macaroni with grilled chicken salad

Well. Really, it's penne with chicken salad but I heard through the grapevine that some guy is trying to revive the word 'macaroni' and I thought I'd try it on for size, and humor him all at the same time. He's also trying to revive the 'cents' key. As in:

¢

He dreams big.

My husband and I wolfed down a big bowl of this salad. Probably because it tastes like summer, what with the grilled chicken and all the fresh and crunchy vegetables -- red onion, celery, and a red bell pepper that cost me $3.50. I'm still not convinced it was worth it. Although it was a pretty nice looking and very tasty pepper. Firm skin, for once. Usually the ones we get here in Alaska have the wrinkly skin of an 80-year old, but only on one side. The other side is smooth as a baby's butt, as if someone smeared age renewal cream with alpha-hydroxy acid on one side but not the other as an experiment to see if that hope in a bottle is really working. Why experiment with your face. Grab a pepper.

I thought for sure the husband wouldn't like it because it tasted so fresh and healthy. His tongue and the rest of his body are, as near as I can tell, allergic to nutritious food. Except for the rare dish, nutrition revolts him. Even apples would be better wrapped in bacon, in his opinion. But wait a minute. That would be my opinion too.

But wonders never cease because he had two big bowls of this, probably because it  has lots of noodles -- his word for pasta.

Pasta.

Macaroni.

Noodles.

The choices are endless.

I doubled the dressing on my version because some of the people who reviewed the original said it was a little dressing-less. I don't like dry macaroni so I decided to err on the side of wetness and double up the dressing ingredients. My version:

Penne and Grilled Chicken Salad

Serves 8 to 10

2 whole skinless boneless chicken breasts, halved (about 1 1/2 pounds)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 pound ziti or other tubular pasta
2 large red bell peppers, cut into 1/2-inch dice
2 1/2 cups thinly sliced celery
1 red onion, chopped (about 1 1/4 cups)
1 1/4 cups Kalamata or other brine-cured black olives, pitted and sliced thin
1/4 cup minced fresh dill
6 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
4 tablespoons Dijon-style mustard
1 1/3 cup olive oil

In an oiled ridged grill pan heated over moderately high heat or on a rack set 4 to 6 inches over glowing coals grill the chicken breasts for 8 to 10 minutes on each side, or until they are springy to the touch, and transfer them to a dish. Sprinkle the chicken with the lemon juice and let it cool. In a kettle of boiling salted water boil the ziti until it is tender. In a colander refresh the ziti under cold water and drain it well.

In a large bowl toss together the ziti, the bell peppers, the celery, the onion, the olives, and the dill. Remove the chicken from the dish, reserving the juices, slice it thin, and add it to the ziti salad. To the juices in the dish add the vinegar, the mayonnaise, the mustard, and salt and black pepper to taste, whisk the mixture well, and add the oil in a stream, whisking until the dressing is emulsified. Add the dressing to the salad, toss the salad well, and season it with salt and black pepper. 

turkey chowder with pancetta and crimini

I forgot to tell you about Memorial Day. It seems so long ago, but humor me.

You'd think someone with a food blog would get all seasonal and haul out the grill and the bratwurst and the steaks and the fruity pies, but oh no not me.

I eschewed the outdoors and the sunshine and instead hauled a turkey out of the freezer and roasted it up. I don't know what came over me. It just happened. Unorthodox, I know. But we did eat the chowder while sitting in the late evening sunshine on the back porch and I did do lots of gardening both while the turkey was roasting and the next day while the chowder was, er, chowdering.

TWO turkeys have been taking up valuable space in my freezers ever since Thanksgiving of last year, when the local grocery store gives you a free turkey everytime you spend $50. Awesome. Who could turn that down?

But once the holidays are over it takes awhile to be in the mood for turkey again. For me, it's about -- oh, let's see -- FIVE months before I can look at a 15-pound turkey again. And plus, it was cheap. These criminal gasoline prices have really put a crimp in my food budget. I really only had to fork over dough for the pancetta for this recipe. Everything else was nice and inexpensive.

I kept it simple. No stuffing. No pies. Just the turkey and some mashed potatoes with gravy (also very frugal eating).

What I was really looking forward to was making things with the leftovers.

Like this recipe for turkey chowder with wild rice, pancetta, and crimini mushrooms. Except I used brown rice rather than wild because it would have taken an hour alone to cook up the wild rice, on top of the chowder prep time and cooking time, and geez, it seems to me like turkey leftover recipes oughta cook up in two shakes of a turkey's tailfeathers.

Refer to the original recipe if you want to get all fancy and use wild rice and make your own turkey stock. I'm too lazy for such things. What follows is my simpler version of the recipe.

It turned out beautifully:

Turkey Chowder with Pancetta and Crimini

Makes 8 main course servings

For extra flavor, add leftover (plain) gravy or stuffing to the soup. If using stuffing, stir in one to two cups half an hour before the end of the cooking time. If using gravy, add it just before the soup's done.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 3-ounce packages sliced
pancetta (Italian bacon), diced
12 ounces crimini (baby bella) mushrooms, sliced (about 5 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup ( 1/2 stick) butter
2 carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, chopped
1/2 cup chopped shallots
1/3 cup all purpose flour
10 cups turkey stock or chicken broth

3/4 cup brown rice (I used Uncle Ben's quick cooking)
1 teaspoon fresh or dried crushed rosemary
2 to 4 cups chopped cooked turkey meat (reserved from carcass)
1 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Chopped fresh Italian parsley

Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add pancetta and cook until browned, stirring often, about 8 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer pancetta to paper towels to drain. Add mushrooms to pot and cook until beginning to brown, about 8 minutes. Transfer to medium bowl. Add butter to same pot. Add carrots and celery. Cover; cook until vegetables begin to soften, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add shallots; stir until soft, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle flour over and stir 1 minute. Return mushrooms to pot. Mix in broth, rice and rosemary; bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium-low, partially cover, and simmer 15 minutes.

Add pancetta, turkey meat, and corn to soup. Simmer until rice is tender. Stir in cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Divide soup among bowls, sprinkle with parsley, and serve.

grilled chicken and shrimp kebabs with lemon and garlic

 

I wanted a super-summery recipe for Friday night and boy, did I ever find it. And not just super-summery, but super-easy too.

You thread some shrimp (deveined but still in the shell) and some chicken tenders onto skewers, drizzle the works with olive oil, lemon juice and peel, minced garlic, and salt and pepper. Let it all soak in. Then throw them on the grill and in minutes I was at the table, half-listening to the husband bitch and moan about having to work too hard because he had to peel the shrimp.

"Why didn't you do this first?... I need more napkins... this is too much work..."

I barely listened I was so busy ripping those shells off and digging in. I did look over at him a time or two to silently critique his shrimp-peeling technique. Or I should say, his lack there-of. He obviously grew up in Idaho where the shrimp are few and far between. Who peels shrimp with a fork?

The original recipe tells you to lay these on a bed of baby lettuces, and it has some side recipes for chipotle aioli and tomato-avocado salsa, which I'm sure are wonderful, but I didn't bother with all that. I just served the kebabs alongside a nice salad of spring greens, peas, blue cheese, and walnuts.

Grilled Shrimp and Chicken with Lemon and Garlic

Serves six

24 uncooked large shrimp, unpeeled, deveined (thawed if frozen)
12 chicken tenders
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons finely grated lemon peel
2 garlic cloves, minced
2/3 cup olive oil

Thread 4 shrimp on each of 6 metal skewers; place on rimmed baking sheet. Loosely thread 2 chicken tenders on each of 6 metal skewers; place on another rimmed baking sheet. Whisk lemon juice, lemon peel, and garlic in medium bowl; slowly whisk in oil. Season marinade with salt and pepper. Pour marinade over skewers, dividing equally.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Arrange lettuces on large platter. Grill chicken until cooked through, about 5 minutes per side. Grill shrimp until pink on outside and opaque in center, about 4 minutes per side. Remove kebabs from grill and serve. 

hutch heaven / salsa chicken

Here's one of my favorite thrift store scores yet:

It's an old light green hutch I found this weekend at a local thrift shop. It's revolutionized the kitchen / dining room / living room in the new house (you can see it from all rooms). As soon as I got it inside and in its corner, I packed it full of teacups and saucers and teapots and things. The drawers and cabinets are still empty but not for long.

Now to paint those matte white walls in a complementary color. Any suggestions?

I also got some wooden chairs to replace those metal ones you see above -- my husband has hated those metal chairs since the day I brought them home. The wooden ones need some work -- sanding, recovering the cushions, etc. I'll be sure to post a photo when they're done.

I had visitors today for lunch. LOOK:

That's Chai the beagle, totally focused on the Yummy Chummies being handed out by Angie to the pups in an effort to get them all to SIT for a split second, just long enough to take this photo:

For lunch, we (the people, not the dogs) had my favorite new easy dinner. Take some frozen chicken breast tenderloins, place them in a baking dish, pour a nice mango peach salsa over them (Costco has a nice one), and bake until the chicken is just cooked.

Once you're done digging into the chicken, you can scoop up the rest of the warm salsa with chips.

It's so good, and so easy you don't even need a recipe.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

 

The translation for chicken cordon bleu / blue ribbon chicken posted at All Recipes* has me snickering over a story my friend told me about her appearance on this show. The camera crew filmed her at her home in Baton Rouge and made her stand around her house saying 'things I would never, ever say on television.' Such as stiffly announcing to a national audience: "Baton Rouge means RED STICK." Thankfully, they didn't actually bring along a red stick for her to hold up for the camera although I'm a little surprised they didn't think of it.

This is another one of All Recipes' top 20 best-rated dishes (I thought I'd make my way through the list). And I have to tell you: ordinarily, if I lay eyes on a recipe that includes chicken bouillon cubes in the list of ingredients, I usually go looking for a different recipe. I don't know why. It brings out the food snob in me. And I'm not much of a food snob. But the bouillon seems like cheating to me. Like adding more than one kind of cream-of-something soup. Or a packet of dry onion soup mix. Too many mystery ingredients lurk in those cubes and cans and packets.

But I decided to give this a try because I just found some all-natural chicken bouillon in the natural foods section of my grocery store. And boy, am I ever glad I did because these were really, really tasty. There's a decadent white wine creamy saucy gravy included in the recipe and the searing-and-simmering combination of cooking on the stovetop had these cooked to perfection. The perfect thing to haul the big blue dutch oven out of the cupboard for.

There's still one breast left in the fridge and I kept waking up last night thinking about it.

The original recipe is here and it calls for 6 breasts. I cut it down to two breasts but made a full recipe of the sauce. Any of you health nut alarmists out there who are reeling back in horror at the fatteningness of so much delicious decadence, all I have to say to you is: come on, live a little! Go ahead and indulge. You can have oatmeal for breakfast tomorrow and carrot sticks for lunch to make up for it.

Here's my version:

Chicken Cordon Bleu

2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts

4 slices of swiss cheese

2 slices ham

1 T flour

1/4 heaping teaspoon paprika

2 T butter

2/3 c dry white wine

1 t chicken bouillon

1 T cornstarch

1 c heavy whipping cream

Pound chicken breasts to a somewhat even thickness using a mallet and covering the breast with saran wrap. Layer each breast (the rough side) with slices of swiss cheese and ham. Roll not too tightly and secure with toothpicks. Mix flour and paprika in a shallow bowl and coat the chicken with the mixture.

Heat butter in a heavy dutch oven or skillet over medium-high heat and brown chicken on all sides. I got mine to a nice dark brown. Remove breasts to a plate. Add wine and bouillon to the pan and mix together, deglazing the pan / scraping up all the bits.

Reduce heat to low, return breasts to pan, cover and simmer for 30 minutes until chicken is cooked thru (I sliced one of mine in half to make sure it was done). Remove chicken to plates and keep warm.

Blend the cornstarch and cream in a small bowl and then whisk slowly into pan. Cook and stir until thickened. Serve chicken with sauce poured over it.

*"'Cordon Bleu' is a French term, literally translated as 'blue ribbon', that originally referred to an award for culinary excellence given to women cooks!

Smothered Chicken -- a reason to exercise

As I was telling one of my readers Val the other day in my comments section (if ever there was a person who needs a blog, it's Val -- she's a hoot. Hey Val!), I will gladly hike miles uphill if it means I can come home and indulge in delicious food without doubling my size.

The other day that's exactly what I did (hiking, not doubling). And I did it all for a heaping bowl of Smothered Chicken. Here are scenes from my hike which, as you will see, was hardly a chore when surrounded by so much beauty:

A word to the wise: if you ever get a chance to eat one of these, DON'T DO IT:

They're soapberries (at least I think they are) and my berry book says they're edible 'but not preferred.' Whatever could they mean by 'not preferred,' I wondered to myself. So, ever the adventurous eater, I popped one in my mouth. Big mistake. They tasted like a combination of stink bug and soap. I couldn't spit it out fast enough. But aren't they pretty?

Juniper berries:

Eklutna Lake in all it's glacier-y glory:

Highbush cranberries:

We also found a fully-loaded bush of late-season red currants. They were ice-cold and their juice was a bit slushy with frostiness. We scarfed down handfuls of them. So GOOD.

See the sun's rays filtering lightly through the thin clouds?:

It was absolutely gorgeous that day. And we hiked up and up and up. I slept really well that night and my legs ached for days afterward.

But now, enough about me and my hike. How about that smothered chicken...

Smothered Chicken is the second recipe I've tried out of my new favorite library cookbook, Back to the Table by Art Smith. Art calls this dish 'an icon of Southern cooking... it is the perfect comfort food.'

I would agree with him on that. It was wonderful to come home to these leftovers after that hike.

There's chicken, turkey sausage, a brothy sauce, and you can serve it over rice or mashed potatoes. It's an excellent choice for this time of year. Hearty and warming and wholesome. I made the recipe as written with a whole chicken cut into parts, just for the sake of accuracy. Next time, I'm going to use boneless, skinless thighs as I'm somewhat averse to picking meat off bones -- I'm funny that way.

Here's the recipe:

Smothered Chicken

Serves four

5 T vegetable oil

Four-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces, skin removed

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/3 c all-pupose flour

3 fresh turkey sausages, casings removed (8 oz.)

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

1 small green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

2 c chicken broth

1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped

Chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Cooked white rice or mashed potatoes on the side

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until very hot. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Place flour in a shallow bowl and roll chicken in flour to coat, shaking off any excess. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the flour for later. In batches, cook the chicken, turning occasionally, until browned on all sides, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat in the skillet. Add onion, celery, and bell pepper to the skillet. Cook, stirring often, until the vegetables are browned, about 8 minutes. Sprinkle with the reserved flour, mix well, and cook until the flour is browned, about 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in the broth, and return the chicken and sausage to the skillet. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cover. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the chicken shows no sign of pink when pierced in the thickest part, about 40 minutes. During the last 5 minutes, sprinkle the tomato on top.

Transfer the chicken to a deep platter. Skim the fat off the surface of the sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste. At this point, I stirred in a couple more tablespoons of flour to make the sauce more like a gravy. Pour sauce over chicken and sprinkle with parsley.

Serve with rice or mashed potatoes.