Archive for April, 2009
Barefoot Bloggers: Chinese Chicken Salad…
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the April recipes to try for the Barefoot Bloggers was the Barefoot Contessa’s Chinese Chicken Salad. I know I know – it’s the end of the month but it is done. I am regaining my cooking mojo and, thankfully, this recipe made me think quick on my feet.
I’ve noticed with the Food Network, sometimes it’s like recipe roulette when they post the recipes. As I was using my blackberry for cooking instructions, I didn’t have the ability to check the comments. What I can say is that the dressing was WAY too salty. I had to improvise and get something to counteract all the salt so I added more honey. That seemed to help but it still was missing some “umph” so, spotting some limes nearby I added that and it “didn’t suck” as I so elequently put it. It wasn’t super stellar either. I’ll try it on my work guinea buddies tomorrow and see their opinion and report back.
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Recipe courtesy of Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa Parties!
Ingredients
- 4 split chicken breasts (bone-in, skin-on)
- Good olive oil
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 pound asparagus, ends removed, and cut in thirds diagonally
- 1 red bell pepper, cored and seeded
- 2 scallions (white and green parts), sliced diagonally
- 1 tablespoon white sesame seeds, toasted
For the dressing:
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup good apple cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 1/2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
- 1/2 tablespoon honey
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon peeled, grated fresh ginger
- 1/2 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted
- 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
- 1 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Place the chicken breasts on a sheet pan and rub with the skin with olive oil. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is just cooked. Set aside until cool enough to handle. Remove the meat from the bones, discard the skin, and shred the chicken in large bite-sized pieces.
Blanch the asparagus in a pot of boiling salted water for 3 to 5 minutes until crisp-tender. Plunge into ice water to stop the cooking. Drain. Cut the peppers in strips about the size of the asparagus pieces. Combine the cut chicken, asparagus, and peppers in a large bowl.
Whisk together all of the ingredients for the dressing and pour over the chicken and vegetables. Add the scallions and sesame seeds and season to taste. Serve cold or at room temperature.
Book Signing Alert: Giada de Laurentiis in Pasadena, CA – May 2nd.
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Don’t miss my book signing at the William Sonoma in Pasadena, CA. The store is located in The Commons at 142 S Lake Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101. Make sure to purchase a ticket in advance by calling (626) 795-5045. Hope to see you then!!!
If anyone goes, make sure to tell us how it went!
Barefoot Bloggers – Croque Monsieur
Posted by: | CommentsLife has been kickin’ me in the butt so hard that I haven’t had the energy to even call for takeout. The thought of getting home at 8ish, walking and feeding the furbabies and then trying to make dinner just had me thinking “sandwich” but, it was Thursday – time for a Barefoot Blogger challenge. The latest challenge was Croque Monsieur, a classic french sandwich. When I was trying to explain it earlier to someone, they were like “But it’s ham and cheese – how hard can that be?”
I have to confess - making my own cheese sauce scared the living daylights out of me. I had visions of screwing it up so horribly that I was tempted to say “enough” and wuss out. I’m so glad I didn’t. This was a recipe that I have wanted to try since I saw her do it on a past episode but, like I said above, the bechamel sauce was something I thought was beyond me.
Guess what – not to toot my own horn but I rocked that sauce! And, now that I’ve tried this and accomplished it, I’ll be trying to make more dishes and not be so scared. I cut the recipe in half and that worked out fine. It still made alot but hello – leftovers!
This recipe will be added to the tried & true arsenal as well. Give it a shot – you won’t be disappointed. Much thanks to the Barefoot Bloggers and Kathy of All Food Considered for putting forth this challenge and helping this gal come out of her culinary shell.
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Recipe courtesy of Ina Garten, 2004 – Barefoot In Paris
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan and add the flour all at once, stirring with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes. Slowly pour the hot milk into the butter–flour mixture and cook, whisking constantly, until the sauce is thickened. Off the heat add the salt, pepper, nutmeg, 1/2 cup grated Gruyere, and the Parmesan and set aside.
To toast the bread, place the slices on 2 baking sheets and bake for 5 minutes. Turn each slice and bake for another 2 minutes, until toasted.
Lightly brush half the toasted breads with mustard, add a slice of ham to each, and sprinkle with half the remaining Gruyere. Top with another piece of toasted bread. Slather the tops with the cheese sauce, sprinkle with the remaining Gruyere, and bake the sandwiches for 5 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the topping is bubbly and lightly browned. Serve hot.
**Note: The pic of the Croque Monsieur made CinS wonky last night and had to be removed. Will reload at a later time. Tried to post it last night but that also crashed the site. Egads!**
Reason Why You Should Make Friends With Salespeople…
Posted by: | CommentsI always say when something stinks, I’m going to tell you and when something is amazing, I’m REALLY going to tell you. I may be tough but I only expect good customer service. Above average customer service really makes me take notice.
Here’s why I advocate being friendly with salespeople in your favorite stores – they will alert you to some good deals coming up, they will take care of you and other perks. I have stores I go to time and time again in Orlando – especially when it comes to all things kitchen and entertaining. At the top of my list, of course, is the Le Creuset outlet at the Prime Outlets.
Greg and his staff always take care of me. They know that I obsess over everything Caribbean Le Creuset and a couple weeks ago I got a call from one of his top salespeople going “Lys, we just got in the Le Creuset soup pot in Caribbean and we’re holding it for you if you want to drop by.” Can I tell you at the first opportunity, I flew to the outlets and didn’t make my usual rounds to Saks Off Fifth, Neimans or Stuart Weitzman – it was straight to LE CREUSET to see the latest addition to my household. And, mind you – I’ve had my eye on it for a bit since I saw it at Sur La Table a few months ago. (Sidenote – hello - Williams Sonoma – When are you going to *ahem* start carrying Caribbean? Seriously – love that color!) Not to mention, hello – the outlet had it on SALE! Double score. Let’s just hope the outlet gets more Caribbean because I still have a couple more things I need for my kitchen *cough* wide oval dutch oven *cough*
Ahhh – isn’t she lovely? Almost as lovely as my new Loubous but that’s another post for another blog on another day…
Much thanks to Greg and his staff at the Prime Outlets in Orlando. I can’t recommend a better store for all things Le Creuset.
Tried & True: Giada’s Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes
Posted by: | CommentsPancakes and I don’t really get along, primarily due to an incident at St. Helwigs in the first grade. We had pancakes every. single. Wednesday and, ever since then if I even saw pancakes, I’d run in the other direction. Thankfully my parents only had me there at the school for a year but you can only imagine how horrid they must have been to form such an aversion to all things pancake. I would try pancakes occasionally after but still it would conjure the memories from the first grade and I just couldn’t eat another bite.
Now that I’ve disclosed history of my hatred of all things pancake (except for my Bampa’s fritters) you can tell that it takes a heck of a recipe for me to add it to Tried & True, right?
Well, I have to thank Everyday Italian for this amazing Blueberry Ricotta Pancake recipe . It’s light, full of flavor, simple and the homemade syrup takes it to a whole new level. You might want to try this on a lazy weekend morning – it will be a hit.
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Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes
Recipe courtesy of Giada de Laurentiis, FoodNetwork.com
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I also added a splash to the syrup)
- 2 cups pancake and waffle mix
- 1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese (I went with fat free and couldn’t taste the difference)
- 2/3 cup frozen blueberries (I used fresh and, quite frankly, it worked out much better)
- Melted butter
Directions
- For the Syrup
- Stir 1/3 cup of water, sugar and a dash of vanilla in a small saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes.
- Stir in the honey.
- Set aside and keep the honey syrup warm.
-For the Pancakes
- Using a rubber spatula, stir the remaining 1 2/3 cups of water and vanilla in a large bowl.
- Add the pancake mix and stir just until moistened but still lumpy.
- Stir in the ricotta into the pancake mixture, then stir gently to incorporate the ricotta but maintain a lumpy batter.
- Fold in the blueberries.
- Heat a griddle over medium heat.
- Brush with the melted butter.
- Working in batches, spoon 1/4 cup of batter onto the griddle for each pancake.
- Cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side.
- Serve with the honey syrup.
