Classic Chicken Salad

I am not sure if this truly qualifies as a "recipe" but I wanted to share it nonetheless, because I find the perfect chicken salad elusive, well I did, until now! I mentioned the fabulousness of having roast chicken in the fridge, and this is another example of why it is so great. Nothing out of a can or a grocery deli case can compare to this kind of homemade salad. Chunky and fresh tasting, a perfect melding of savory flavors. Feel free to dress it up with unconventional add ins- grapes, walnuts, raisins, but keep in mind, the classic version is something special in and of itself.

Start with 1 roasted chicken breast, cut into medium dice. For those of you playing along at home that don't want to heat up your oven, try a rotisserie chicken. If you are going to use the whole chicken, double the other ingredients. To the chicken add half of a large, sweet onion and 2 ribs of celery, both also diced. I like the onion chopped a little smaller than the chicken dice. To this add a generous grinding of black pepper and salt, about a half teaspoon of each. Also add 2-3 rounded tablespoons of mayonnaise, and 1 heaping teaspoon of Dijon mustard. Mix to combine.
Finally, a sprinkling of finely chopped flat leaf parsley is the perfect finishing touch. You get the beautiful color and the zing! of the parsley brings all the flavors together.
Serve this over a classic green salad made of green leaf lettuce, purple cabbage, shredded carrot, tomatoes and a simple dressing. Skip any dressings that are mayo-based, you don't need it with the richness of the chicken salad. Like I said, feel free to mix it up, but always know that you can come back to this simple combination for success every time.

Giada's Marinara

This is my favorite marinara to have on hand. I really like the basic tomato sauce that I made for you using fresh tomatoes, but this is classic red sauce. It is so much better than that stuff out of the jar, and rightfully so. All this goodness goes in there, and then you simmer for an hour. It sounds like a commitment, but honestly, you get so many things done in your kitchen or elsewhere during that time, it goes by so quickly. Plus your house smells like your Italian Grandma has been at work all day in there, so what's not to love?

This is from Giada's first (and best, in my opinion) book called Everyday Italian, just like her show. If you don't have it yet, it is a great addition to your collection. I thumbed through her new book at Costco and had to exercise extreme willpower not to buy it, her books are lovely and well written, and they don't include many weird, obscure ingredients that you have to search around for. Also, maybe most importantly, she doesn't waste your time or effort on some step that isn't worth it. So, the next time you reach for the Prego or Ragu, waltz your cart a little further down the aisle and grab two cans of crushed tomatoes and head over to the produce section for the few other things that make this sauce so great. You'll be glad you did!

Start with 2 small onions, chopped into medium dice. I opt for sweet yellow onions these days, but anything would work. I usually blend my sauce at the end, but if you wanted to leave this chunky, purple onions would be awfully pretty.
Into the pot with a little olive oil covering the bottom of the pan. I think she calls for 1/2 cup in the recipe, but I've never used that much. I didn't measure this last time, but I recall 1/3 being plenty. You just don't want your onions getting too brown, this isn't the time for that yummy caramelization that we were going for with the chicken tacos. (As much as I do love that!)While the onions cook, chop 2 carrots and 2 ribs of celery. Once the onions are translucent, add these to the pot.
In they go...While these cook, open up your tomatoes. I really like the San Marzano brand, which are imported from Italy. They seem to just be different than American tomatoes, but your sauce will blow you out of the water either way. Make sure you pick crushed, not diced or whole. 2 28 ounce cans should do it, but always feel free to add more, if you like.
There, once your vegetables have softened, it is time for the tomatoes. Just pour them in and reduce the heat and let it go for an hour.
Soon it will be bubbly and will thicken a bit. You don't really have to stir as long as you keep the heat pretty low for the hour. She recommends including a couple bay leaves during this time, and discarding them afterwards, but I usually skip that step. Once your sauce is cooked, let it cool uncovered on the stove or counter top for a little while before trying to handle it. It keeps beautifully in the freezer, and this is probably double what you need for a good pasta recipe. Use it in lasagna, spaghetti with meatballs, or whatever strikes your fancy.

David Lebovitz' Cheesecake Brownies

So, just when I thought I had tried all the fabulous brownie variations, this one came along and totally caught me by surprise. I thought I had tried or thought of all the worthy brownie swirls- the favorites as of late being Dulce de Leche and peanut butter. This one is right up there with the others, though, and a great brownie base recipe from scratch which are hard to find. I usually think that making brownies from scratch is a waste of time, seing as the mixes are so good. If it ain't broke, don't make it more complicated, right? Well this one is straightforward and really yummy. I am sure that I will revisit this in some other variations in the near future. I have been brining the Dulce de Leche brownies into work so much that last Friday on the tour of our new building, a couple people had this comment about the oven in our much improved kitchen space: "Hey, maybe we can put Meagan's desk in here so she has easy access to bake us things!" Now that would be trouble!! Hope you had a great weekend. This recipe goes quickly, so don't be daunted to make it on a weeknight! :)

Start by making the cheesecake topping. Soften 8 ounces of cream cheese (I used the reduced fat variety called neufchatel) and add 1 egg yolk at room temperature, a splash of vanilla and 5 tablespoons of sugar.
Blend until mixed. Set aside while you make the brownie batter. Chop 4 ounces of semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (I used 3 semisweet baking squares and one unsweeted square) and add 6 tablespoons of butter, cut into pieces. Melt over low heat, stirring continuously with a silicon spatula.
As the chocolate and the butter melt, they will mix together. Make sure all chunks are fully melted before removing from the heat.
Just like this:
In the same pan, add the sugar and stir to incorporate. Then add the eggs, at room temperature. If you are anxious to make these and don't want to have to wait for your eggs to warm up, place them in a bowl of warm-ish tap water for a few minutes. They should be perfect after a little while. You don't want them to be cold, because as you add them to the warm ingredients, you don't want to cook the eggs. I am pretty sure that scrambled eggs are probably not one of the brownie add ins we want to try!

Bake at 350 degrees in the middle of the oven for about 35 minutes. Cool and cut into squares. Enjoy, another great brownie idea!

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2008/10/cheesecake_brownies.html

Walnut and Other Oils

Okay, so I thought that you might think I am a little crazy to mention the walnut oil in the last post, but I did some more research and I thought you might be interested. Turns out the La Tourangelle website is pretty information packed. I learned some facts about the quality of their products and the health benefits of adding some different kinds of oil to your diet. So, even though this probably isn't a long post, I figured it was worth passing along. When you get delicious and nutritious together, it is worth a listen! The next oil on my to-buy list is the Roasted Hazelnut Oil, for a couple reasons. 1. there is a recipe that I have been wanting to try that calls for it, and 2. it just sounds fantastic, does it not?!

So these oils are great for you health wise because they are rich in omegas, 3, 6 and 9; depending on the variety you choose. Also, with different heats, different oils work better. Grapeseed is suitable for very high heat cooking like sauteing and grilling. I went to a seminar where the instructor explained that cooking at high heats with olive oil completely changes the chemical composition, thereby rendering its positive health benefits null. I have no scientific proof to confirm this, but it makes sense to me. I am swayed to agree with her because we know that cooking meats on the grill until charred creates a known carcinogen. It is recommended that if any of your meat gets too black it is best to cut that part away and just not eat it. Cooking at high heats with olive oil can cause it to smoke or burn. This probably explains why it isn't a good idea to use it for these methods. I wouldn't change my habits 100%, I will always have olive oil on hand and I'll continue to use it on the stove, but it is good to know and a good excuse to try some other options!

Another health reason why trying some of these other oils is a great idea is that they substitute for butter, and not just in cooking. There are recipes on La Tourangelle's site for all sorts of vegetables served after steaming with a little of their nut oils and vinegar, or a grate of parmesan cheese. If your oil tastes great on it's own, you will probably be more likely to use it instead of butter in these dishes. Automtaically you'll increase your intake of good saturated fats and decrease the bad ones. Not that I don't love butter, but change is good!

Finally, I have found that once I have these oils on hand (and I do keep them in the fridge) I find uses for them that I never would have thought of in the aisle at the grocery store. I used the walnut oil the other day to grease a pan for banana bread. A much better option than butter or oilve oil due to the heat of the oven, and the bread turned out perfectly. And if the flavor came through, it complimented rather than detracted from my final product. I have also found that in pestos, vinegarettes, drizzled on fresh vegetables, anything where the oil is a star, these shine brightly. So check out your options and splurge the next time you come across these in the baking aisle. You won't be disappointed!

Recommended: Grapeseed oil for the grill and sauteeing (not cold items, such as salad dressings). Walnut oil for anything and everything under 485 degrees F. I will update once I try the Hazelnut oil, it's on my shopping list!

Chicken Tacos with Caramelized Onions

Sometimes you gotta mix it up. I made roasted chicken breasts the other night because I really like having them on hand during the week. They are a total time saver when you are making lunches because the chicken is perfectly cooked and you just shred what you are going to eat and make a salad to go underneath. Shredded chicken is also great to go in all sorts of entrees- and I find that by just removing the process of cooking the chicken gives me time to be more experimental with the other ingredients.

Like these onions. Seriously, to die for. I used sweet yellow onions, sliced thin. I heated a bit of walnut oil in my trusty small not non-stick pan. The walnut oil is so tasty and good for a little hotter cooking than olive, but you could sub in olive oil for sure. Keep an eye out at the store for the walnut oil, I promise your salad dressings alone will make it worth it. To the onions, add 1/2 tsp salt and freshly ground pepper, and 1 tsp of brown sugar, packed. The trick to perfect caramelization is to leave the pan alone. You can focus on the other things while the onions are cooking. I chopped purple cabbage, tomatoes, and shredded sharp cheddar for our toppings. I would have loved to have added an avocado to this combination, but I didn't have one on hand.
After a couple minutes, stir the onions and start adding the shredded chicken. You are aiming for a deep caramel color in the onions, and the flavor will come together and meld with the chicken. There is really no reason to add anything else at this point except salt and pepper to taste. For a real treat, bring the heat up to medium high right before serving and squeeze a quarter of a lemon or half of a lime's juice over the mixture.
We finished our tacos with black beans (recommended- Bush's seasoned recipe), the three toppings mentioned above, a dollop of sour cream, and a splash of green tabasco. YUM.

Where were we?

I think we were discussing fruit sugars, or other sugar substitutes. Which I am still really interested in and I think we could explore that topic in a lot of depth. Unfortunately, I am more excited about some other things right now, so we'll get back to that one soon.

Gosh, where has the cooking gone? Don't you miss it? Well, I haven't stopped, but I did stop or significantly decrease the pictures of the stuff I have been making lately. I have been enjoying my kitchen and there have been successes (white bread that turned out great!) and failures (white bread that turned out really yummy, but looked funny), and then a lot of old standbys. I made lasagna about a week ago, I made biscotti the other night, I've been savoring the end of summer tomatoes in a simple salad, sliced with lemon olive oil, salt, pepper, and shavings of romano cheese. We had chicken picatta, mushroom risotto and spinach salads last night, and it has all been wonderful. I am sorry that I haven't shared these, I just needed to cook without thinking for a while. Please share the comfort foods you make when you don't want to think about it- sometimes those simple things are the best.

Okay, before there is a riot from all this teasing and no pictures, I do have something fun to share. Hope you enjoy...

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake:

http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/08/chocolate-peanut-butter-cake/

Before you start thinking that you have to have an excuse to make this cake, you totally don't. I promise that your co-workers won't object! The cake is a one-bowl process, as you can see, I didn't even use my stand mixer. I was a little disappointed because I never like to over bake things, but then my cakes shrunk a bit, so I would keep them in the oven for the full time. The recipe gives a range, and I always check at the front end, but these could have used the extra 5 minutes. It's a sour cream based cake, which in my experience is always yummy and rich, but can benefit from a little longer in the oven without drying out. As a warning (which really shouldn't be a surprise), this cake is ultra rich.

Whipping the cream cheese, sugar, and butter for the PB frosting. I usually put my frostings in the fridge for a couple minutes before I start actually frosting the cake. It seems like that helps everything come together. I was worried that this might not be enough frosting, but there were leftovers (darn...).
This cookbook has been fun, most recipes are 3 layers of 8 inch round cakes. It's nice though, because unlike 2 9 inch layers that you have to slice, these you just layer one on top of the other. It keeps the layers nice and even, but still makes the cake fun and tall with no shortage of icing. Lots of the cakes in the book have a different filling or icing for in between the layers than on top, or unique topping and decorating ideas. It's a fun book to just look through, if nothing else!
Once you have frosted the cake, return it to the fridge to set, and then make the chocolate peanut butter glaze. Ummm, yea, that's what I said. Seriously, this was the best part of the cake in my opinion and I hopefully will find another place to use this in the future.
Once the glaze is finished, pour it over the top and spread it with a cake frosting spatula allowing it to drip down the sides. (In an oh-so-temptingly way, of course!) I recommend making the cakes 1-2 days ahead, wrapping them tightly and storing them in the fridge or freezer once completely cooled. Then make the frosting and assemble the night before your event so that everything has 1 full night in the fridge to stay together. Then drive very carefully to work the next day to share with your coworkers! It will be worth the effort.

Lan Kwai Fong

Ahh the trendiness! So this is where they have been hiding it! You knew it when you saw these people... prim and proper for the most part, but maybe rocking some seriously adorable wedges, or just a hint of some crazy eyeliner, and that's not even talking about the boys! Oh the boys in Hong Kong are sooo fashionable. Chris and I were rather impressed. The attention to detail and the hair. Oh the hair. I'm telling you it was a sight to be seen. I know it isn't fair for me to talk about it and not provide examples, but I was in a foreign country and I did not want to get in a scuffle over taking someone's photograph. Teased, tousled, feathered- these guys were peacocks. It was rather impressive. So anyway, underneath their prim demeanor, I knew they were hiding this fun loving side somewhere close by. The neon lights are super big in HK, but by far the coolest example was the Coach Store on Queens' Road and D'Aguilar. Of course, I didn't find this until Chris and I went there together, so I didn't do any shopping, but it was really fun just to walk around and take it in.

This is where we found the best food- our favorite restaurant was appropriately named California, which apparently vaulted this area to its current status of hip nightlife hangout. I had the "Best Burger" which was a perfect patty, juicy with the normal fixings, but also included a portabello mushroom and garlic mayo. I had to cut it in half just to be able to lift this thing, and as the sign of great food- it was still steaming when I started in on the second half. We shared Thai crab cakes to start, which were so cute. They served them on little chinese soup spoons- you know the kind you get with your wonton soup? It went ginger/wasabi cream at the bottom of the spoon, then this tiny crab cake, topped with ginger, a teeny slice of cucumber (think the size of a dime in diameter), some pickled red cabbage and black and white sesame seeds. It was to die for. Chris had the coolest meal too- pecan and Parmesan crusted pork chops with apple-studded mashed potatoes. The presentation of everything was great, the food was innovative and delicious the service was attentive (for the first time) and we were the only ones eating dinner. Hah! We were like the early bird special people! We were eating at 8:30 at night and you would have thought we were nuts! There were lots of other people in the place, but they were at the bar, not the restaurant... which wasn't much of a division, just a small step up to the 'dining' area, and there were maybe 10 tables in the dining section. But it was okay, we were starving and the food was fantastic. We finished with crepes Suzette filled with bananas, grand marnier, and topped with orange slices and this coconut gelato. Even Chris, who I have never seen eat coconut willingly gave it a try. I think we both had to admit it complimented the dessert. HK is funny though. We wandered down this street because I wanted to have a looksee, and at the Tsui Wah Restaurant (the large pink neon sign) there was stuff hanging in the window that you really didn't need to see. Luckily we had already eaten! We headed to another place the next night that was an italian restaurant. It was also great, but not as cool as California. Then again... few things are.
But Hong Kong is definitely not short on the cool factor, for sure. Just check out the boys.