Holly's Monday Night Chicken Salad Sammiches

Start by taking the chicken out of the fridge. You know, leftover from when you made roasted chicken on Saturday night. Yeah that one. The one you should have dealt with on Sunday but were "too busy" napping to get around to.

So, take that out, and pull all the rest of the meat from the bones. Put the bones in the freezer for chicken soup later, because you're certainly not making chicken stock right now. Put half of the chicken meat in the freezer too, so that you can use it for soup once you're done cooking the carcass for stock. Now chop the rest of the chicken.

Chop a stalk of celery and dump it on top of the chicken. Throw the rest of the celery away as it appears to be perhaps growing something un-celery like.

Add some dried cranberries because they are really good in chicken salad. Also add some chopped pecans because you saw them in the freezer when you put the chicken bits in there and you thought they might be a good crunchy compliment to the cranberries.

Put a spoonful of mayo on top, and some mustard. Season with some curry powder. Stir it up. Taste it, and use more curry powder. Maaaaaaybe a little more than that. Hmmm. Add more mustard, that will give it more tang. Eh, good enough at this point, you *are* hungry you know.



Now toast some potato bread slices, and wash a few romaine lettuce leaves. On one slice of toast spread a little mayo and mustard, but not too much. Put the lettuce on that side. On the other slice of bread spread the chicken salad. Put sammich together, and cut each in half for ease of snarfling. (notice that snarfling does not anger the spell check gods like your original version of the word "spoonfull" does) Serve with baby carrots, and some music. The Decemberists are a good compliment to this meal, or perhaps even Ben Folds Five.

A Delicious Day

This was definitely a food and friends kind of weekend. Please ignore the fact that I mentioned I can't say no to social engagements in my last post. *ahem* But we're not going to talk about that! We're going to talk about food.

We had a couple of friends from LA area staying in San Diego this weekend, and invited them over for dinner on Saturday night. For some reason I felt like planning a large meal, with many steps. And I totally cooked the hell out of it, and it came out wonderfully, and I was not even stressed. How did I accomplish this great feat? Planning, my friends. Careful planning. And a good healthy dose of not caring too much if dinner ended up being late.

First thing in the morning I made some bread dough. I had found this recipe online and had been wanting to try it, so I figured today would be a good day for that. The recipe makes several loafs worth of bread dough, then you keep the unused portions in the fridge for up to two weeks, pulling out a hunk and baking it when you need it. I thought this sounded like a wonderful way to have fresh bread pretty much whenever you want, so I was totally itching to try it. Here's the link to the article about the bread:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx

It's a long article, but really explains the whys and wherefores about the bread, gives you a breakdown of exactly how to handle the recipe, and then not only gives you the basic recipe but several other things you can do with it. Homemade pizza crust is on the top of my list for next time. Yum! Anyways, I followed the basic recipe, let the dough rise for a couple of hours, then put in the fridge for a few more hours. During that time I didn't really have to do anything with the bread, so I got busy doing other things, like going for a run, taking a shower, cleaning up the apartment with J, and grocery shopping.

Next step in the dinner plan was the chicken prep. Got a whole chicken to roast, cleaned it up (like you do) and set it in the roasting pan. Put a cut up half an onion and a small cut up lime inside the cavity. Washed and cut up some potatoes, and surrounded the chicken with those plus baby carrots. Drizzled the chicken and veggies in olive oil, then coated the "Simon & Garfunkel" chicken in a spice combination of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Well, I would have used parsley but it turned out I couldn't find any in my pantry, so I used marjoram instead. Then I dusted the veggies with the same spice combo, and gave everything a sprinkling of lemon pepper. Then I put the roasting pan into the fridge to wait until I was ready to cook it.

At that point, time to start the bread. I pulled out a couple of grapefruit sized balls of dough to make two loaves. The dough is really wet. I mean, really really wet. You must use a LOT of flour to coat your hands to get this to work. I placed the balls onto a wood cutting board coated in flour to rest for 45 minutes. At that point, on to the next part of dinner, which involved dates. Specifically, pitting several dates. 24, I think I pitted. It didn't actually take as long as I thought it would, which was nice.

Oh, another thing I had been doing all day long was cleaning up after myself as I went. This is a handy trick that I have only started doing in the last couple of years. But it means you don't have a huge amount of dishes piled up in your sink and making things difficult in the kitchen. And with our kitchen, that's a problem. I am currently in the smallest kitchen I have ever been in, and it's hard to maneuver when there are dirty dishes everywhere. But what's nice about doing dishes as you go is that not only does it save you space, it also doesn't really take that much time to handle just a few dishes. It takes a lot longer to handle them all at once in the end when you're tired and sad. So don't let that be you!

At this point the oven is preheated, there is a hot baking stone in the center rack, there is a boiler pan in the bottom for the cup of water, and the bread has rested and is ready to bake. I popped it in, put a cup of hot water in the pan below, and closed the oven door. Half hour later I had DElicious homemade bread. Of course, during that time I was not wasting time, but instead making a little cheese plate to go with the fresh bread. Bread comes out, chicken goes in, pan comes out and gets washed and tinfoiled, and switched to bacon wrapped date duty! This is just as easy as it sounds. Take pitted dates, wrap them in bacon. Secure them with toothpicks or skewers. Bake on a foil lined pan for about 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees. I drizzled a touch of honey over them once I pulled them from the oven, and they were seriously amazing. And guests will be quite impressed.

Whilst the chicken was still doing its thing in the oven, I grated up some zucchini for the Magic Zucchini recipe. I would post it here, but it's from friends of ours and I'll have to ask permission for it first. I let the zucchini drain while gabbing and hanging out, and then started cooking it so it woud be done with the chicken. And the voila, roast chicken, root veggies, and magic zucchini were all served to delighted guests, and the world was saved once more by good food and smart preparation.

The Resolution Post

I'm not a big fan of the New Year's Resolution. It seems a bit hollow to me - most people don't keep them longer than a month or so, and then are back to whatever bad habit they were trying to break in the first place. I feel like if you're going to want to improve your life, why wait until the first of the year? Why not make an effort to change every day? Or every week? Or even month?

Yet I can understand the urge. It feels like a milestone, like a new beginning. Out with the old, in with the new! And the beginning of a year really is a great opportunity to look back on the previous one, and see where you've come from, and think about where you want to go.

Last year I didn't make any resolutions, but I did have a couple of goals in mind for 2008. My goals were to have more free time, and less stuff. I think I did a pretty good job on the less stuff front - I didn't accumulate too much over the year, and I did a good job of getting rid of a lot. More free time worked for a while, but it's very hard for me to say NO to social engagements. I love my friends, and love planning things. So I could definitely do better in that department.

This year I'd like to be healthier. I think that encompasses a lot without being as strict as setting an actual resolution. I know I need to be working on my two previous goals - and I think both of those things would make me a (mentally) healthier and happier person. I need to exercise more, and I need to eat better. I want to create less waste, and take better care of the earth. Most importantly, I want to take better care of myself, in a variety of ways.

But this is a lifelong process, not one that should only last a few months, or even just a year. I feel like we should resolve to not make resolutions anymore, but gradual lifestyle changes. Doesn't sound as snappy, however. I probably need to put some marketing spin on it to actually catch on.

One of Those People

Last week I had a hankering for some homemade chicken soup. I had some veggies in the crisper that were decidedly not crisp, which means they were perfect for stock flavoring. So I dug into my freezer for the chicken carcass I'd been saving for making stock, and threw it in a pot with lots of water, some limp carrots, celery, and green onions. And just to be different I threw in a hunk of fresh peeled fresh ginger. You know, since it was there. Added some seasonings and garlic, and simmered for a long long time. Tasted the broth - way too spicy! Too much pepper and ginger!

I didn't want to toss it immediately, so i just pulled all the solids out of it, picked the bones clean and put the meat back in the broth. Dumped it all into a bowl and stuck it in the fridge for inspiration to strike, all the while hoping that the fridge would mellow out the flavors rather than intensify them.

Fast forward two days, when I feel like I really need to either do something with the stock, or let it go entirely. I figured, what the heck, I'll try it. Time to pull the stock out, skim off all the fat, and return to the stove. I started heating it up and hoping for the best. I added one cup of veggie broth, to hopefully mellow it out even further. It was tasting good, so I started making chicken soup. Now, I've always wanted to be one of Those People who can work without a recipe. Chicken soup can't be hard, I thought. I'll just add some veggies and noodles and go!

So I did!

First I added a couple stalks of celery, chopped up. Then carrots, then a yellow bell pepper. Added the noodles, and when they were almost done I added a couple of green onions and some chopped fresh spinach. And voila, I had tasty and homemade chicken soup!



Looks like I am, in fact, one of Those People.

A very muffin New Year!

So they say that the way you spend your New Year's Day will determine your course for the year.

If so, then that means in 2009 I will be fiscally responsible, surrounded by loved ones, snuggled by cats, and I will bake a lot of tasty treats. I think that would be a great year!

To start the year off right, I made Banana Nut Muffins. This recipe is basically the Banana Walnut Muffin recipe from the Williams-Sonoma Muffins cookbook, with minor variations. Strangely, it makes only 10 muffins. But as my friend Helena said, "These are the best banana nut muffins I have ever had!" Which is high praise indeed.



Banana Nut Muffins
1 ½ cups flour
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup nuts, coarsely chopped (I used pecans for this batch, but walnuts are also tasty)
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon (My secret ingredient!)
½ cup oil (The original recipe called for walnut, which I never have. I use canola, or grapeseed, which is a lovely light tasting oil great for baking)
1 egg
1 ¼ cups bananas (2-3), mashed
3 tablespoons buttermilk (Who has 3 tbsp of buttermilk just laying about? I do not. Use sour cream, or plain yogurt, or milk with lemon juice)

Preheat oven to 375. Grease 10 standard muffin cups, fill unused cups one-third full with water to prevent warping. (I use a baking stone muffin pan, which is the best thing ever. No need to fill the empty cups with water if you use a stone, but greasing the others is absolutely necessary.)

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Secret ingredient also goes here. (I have recently fioud that sifting makes everything so much better. Especially if one is using baking soda or baking powder that may be a little old and clumpy. Sifting is your friend, you should really try it.) Stir in the sugar and nuts.

In another bowl, whisk together oil, egg, mashed bananas and buttermilk until blended. (You can add a teaspoon or so of vanilla here if you like. Yum!)

Combine wet and dry ingredients and beat well until evenly combined and creamy.

Spoon batter into each muffin cup, filling it level with the rim of the cup.

Bake until golden, dry, and springy to the touch, 20-25 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Unmold the muffins. Serve them warm or at room temperature, with butter.



Perhaps a muffin tradition is born? We'll find out next year!