Cook. Craft. Enjoy.

Two More Picnic Recipes

Yesterday I shared with you the Bean & Tomato salad (yum!) and today I'll let you know what else we had for our dinner (and dessert too.. but I think I'll save that for tomorrow ...)

The protein of the dinner was Maple-Mustard Baked Chicken which I thought was just "okay" (everyone ate it though so it wasn't bad).  I'm not going to post the recipe, but if you're interested, click on the link above.

Basically it's chicken that you marinate in a Dijon mustard/maple syrup/thyme marinade, coat with fresh bread crumbs and then bake.  I used skinless, boneless chicken breasts whereas the recipe calls for bone-in chicken but I can't imagine that would make that big of a difference.  Oh, and that cup of orange next to the chicken?  Liam got a cookbook for his birthday that uses silicone cupcake cups to make different things -- one of the recipes was to make baked risotto and he decided we had to have that too.  Came out pretty good for baked rice.

The other recipe that I tried was for Country Potato Salad and it was a winner.  I was very leary of using buttermilk to coat the potatoes as the dressing but honestly it worked out great.  (In fact I made my brother taste it before I poured the buttermilk over the potatoes -- he declared it edible so we were safe.)  He took some of the leftovers home and said it tasted even better the next day (whereas he thought the bean and tomato salad really didn't).

Perfect Picnic Salad

Last week my August issue of Eating Well magazine came in the mail and like usual I set it aside to look at later.  Most of the time I don't find recipes to make out of magazines because either (1) what I would like, I know no one else in the house would eat or (2) the recipes are too time consuming and ingredient laden for the perceived results.  This month's issues, however, caught my eye on several recipes.  Saturday, when my brother came over, I made 3 of them and I think this one was my (and my brother's) favorite (I'll share the other 2 recipes with you tomorrow).

The article the recipe came from is all about eating locally and celebrating the bounty of the harvest.  Unfortunately living in the desert we have little bounty but for a little while we could pretend to be elsewhere where we might see something else grow besides cactus.  (In all fairness a few things grow here -- mainly apples -- but I'd really love to live close enough to enjoy local produce.)

The title of the recipe is Bean and Tomato Salad with Honey Vinaigrette.  I think next time I would add more green beans but otherwise it was great.  My brother said he thought that without the fresh basil it would just be "okay" but with it it pushes it over the edge to "great".  Leftovers the next day I added some tuna and it made a wonderful light lunch.

PPN: Sesame Chicken Pasta Salad

Do you have one of those recipes that everyone just loves and you find yourself falling back to?  For me this was my go to recipe when we would have playgroup and it always got rave reviews.  Unfortunately since the kids are older and no longer "into" playgroups I don't make it nearly often enough.

Don doesn't care for the taste of cilantro or sesame so this is just an "eh" for him.  The kids?  Well, if you've been reading this blog for any length of time you know that they really like basic food and this wouldn't appeal to them.  Last weekend, however, I decided to make a batch and eat it for lunch during the week and I'm so glad I did.

Usually I add some carrots into the salad and sliced avocado on top of the served salad but this was good just as written.  The dressing I always cut down on the oil slightly and mix in some sesame seeds (white and black).  And because it's a pasta salad, I get to submit it to Ruth's Presto Pasta Night over at her blog Once Upon a Feast.  Head over there on Friday and see what other lovely creations everyone has cooked up!

Turkey Burgers and Salad

While I really used to look forward to making my weekly menu, lately nothing (and I mean NOTHING) sounds good and it's becoming increasingly harder and harder to figure out what I'm going to make for dinner.  Yesterday I spent about an hour searching online through recipes and still only ended up with dinners through Sunday night (sigh).  I hope my menu making skills will come back to me soon -- I'm tired of scrambling for what we're going to eat!

For last night I decided on turkey burgers and a salad.  Relatively easy and when I make grilled chicken for Liam along side of it, something everyone will eat.  I opted for this recipe from Food Network for an Asian style turkey burger though had to make some substitutions (basically didn't use their glaze and had to leave out the cilantro since my grocery store didn't have any).  I'll let you go over to get the recipe if you'd like -- it was good, but not a "oh goodness, let's have this again" type meal. 

The salad, however, was surprisingly good.  It also come from Food Network but this time from Rachael Ray.   I was worried that the salad dressing would just be, well, yuck, but I have to say I'd have it again.  Just the right amount of sweet/savory (with the addition of lots of pepper) and it worked really well with the burgers.  If you get a chance, give it a try!

Baked Buffalo Chicken and Slaw

This past weekend I picked up a copy of Rachael Ray's new book, Just in Time.  It's basically the same formula of her other books but with additional recipes for 15 minute "quick" meals and 60 minute "slow" meals.  Glancing through it I found several recipes right off that I wanted to try.  One, the baked Buffalo chicken, I threw together last night and tonight I plan on trying another one  (more about that tomorrow after the fact).

The baked Buffalo chicken was categorized as a 60 minute meal but in reality with the changes I made it was done in a little over a half hour.  My biggest change was to portion size -- her recipe for 4 called for 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts PLUS 4 chicken drumsticks.  I opted for 5 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves for the 5 of us.  I also cut down on the butter and used preshredded cole slaw mix instead of cutting it myself.

How did it come out?  I was expecting a little more flavor from the chicken but all in all not too bad.  Adrienne thought it was too spicy and Don and Travis ate it so I guess that means they thought it was okay.  I've been going through an anti-chicken phase for a little while so it's possible my so-so reaction to it was from that.  The slaw, though, was really good.   For being so simple the flavors blended well together and it would be something I'd make again.

Travis's Turn

First up, I need to post a photo of Travis with his hair cut --

a week ago his hair was down to his shoulders and about halfway over his eyes. I think it looks much better now. He's not thrilled with it, but it was a good compromise for us.

Anyway. he told me yesterday that he wanted a turn to make dinner and actually chose something relatively easy -- chicken wings and cole slaw. 

The chicken wings I helped him do our normal grill them until done and then douse them with a mixture of Frank's hot sauce, melted butter and seasoned salt.  The cole slaw?  He chose Tyler Florence's cole slaw recipe that's posted on Food Network.  He did a great job putting it all together, but I have to say there was way too much lemon flavor and I think if we use this recipe again we'd cut it down at least half maybe more.  Sorry about the lousy photo, but I didn't think to add any color to it and it's awfully white.

What else did we do today?  We finally got the kids a trampoline so Don spent a good 5 hours putting the sucker together.  It was well worth it, though, and they had a great time playing in it until dinner was ready.  I know they were missing our old trampoline since we moved and when it's not 110 degrees out there they use it quite a bit.  Honestly it's used more for playing Pokemon than any kind of gymnastics type thing, but fun all the same.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll get some photos.

Black Bean Salad

This weekend went by much faster than I would have liked, but at least we ended it last night with a delicious dinner.  I tried out Ina Garten's recipes for Blue Cheese Burgers and Guacamole Salad.  Both were winners -- in fact, Travis ended up eating another of the burgers tonight for dinner.

The salad benefited from the addition of cilantro but otherwise I kept her ingredients the same.  (She says she doesn't like cilantro so no wonder she wouldn't put it in there.)  I love all the fresh ingredients and this is perfect for Sweetnick's ARF/5-a-day for this week.  Click on the links above to be taken to the recipes.

PPN: Tomato, Basil & Mozzarella Pasta Salad

It's hard to believe 25 weeks ago was the first Presto Pasta Night over at Ruth's wonderful blog Once Upon a Feast.  There have been many weeks where I was not able to participate but I'm hoping that will be behind me now as we slowly get settled into the new house.  I'm amazed that Ruth has been able to keep it up with her moving cities and houses.  I'm so glad she has, though, because there's always a great variety of ideas and wonderful photographs.

Yesterday at Whole Foods (love, love, love that store!) I bought a pint of yellow tomatoes, some basil and some baby Mozzarella balls.  I was planning to make them into a simple salad but decided not only that but to add pasta as well to make it my submission this week.  It was wonderful to have a light, fresh salad as our days continue to be brutally hot.  (Today my van told me it was 111.)

I used the dressing from an old Cooking Live episode and it's a keeper.  Boy, I really miss the old Food Network when it was all about the food and cooking.

Purple Potato Salad

Posting will be sporatic at best over the next 2 weeks ... I'm taking Adrienne and Liam down to California for a vacation (Travis to meet us this weekend after summer school is over with).   I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to getting out of this heat and spending some time with 2 of my favorite people.

In anticipation of us leaving, I made Travis a batch of Chocolate Chip Muffins.  This time I substituted fat free milk (3/4 cup) and fat free vanilla flavored half and half (1/2 cup) for the buttermilk as well as melting all the chocolate and adding a few extra chocolate chips at the end.  I won't say they turned out better this way, but they certainly came out delicious. 

I also cooked a pretty decent dinner for us last night.  Trader Joe's has pre marinated tri-tip roasts and I grilled one of those along with making some corn on the cob and purple potato salad.  I found this recipe on Food Network's site and it was really good.  I'm not usually a big dill fan, but it wasn't too overpowering this time so it was okay.

Beans, Pasta and Chicken Wings

The birthday party yesterday was a raving success and the girls actually got some sleep so it's all good.  Today I took Adrienne to spend her Toys R Us gift card that her friend gave her and tonight I need to wrap the couple of presents I bought her.  She wants Panda Express for dinner tomorrow night so I guess that means I won't need to cook dinner.  I will, however, make her a cake so hopefully I'll have a good recipe to share.

I'm a little overwhelmed right now with all that's going on with the house -- just thinking about moving all our stuff is daunting and I better get started on it or we won't be out in time.  :-)  Hopefully this week we can find a house we like in the price range we're willing to pay and I won't have to worry about us being homeless at the end of the summer.

To alleviate my stress today I did some cooking.  Earlier in the day I made a fantastic 3 bean salad using up what we had in the house.  I know it would look better with kidney beans but the pinto ones had to do.  Most recipes call for canned green beans but I substituted steamed fresh ones.  Tastes much better I think.  All the healthiness of this salad makes it a perfect submission for Sweetnick's ARF/5-a-day.  A great way to get us to cook (and eat) healthier.  Check out the submissions on Tuesday.

I also made some pasta salad from All Recipes (recipe can be found here) -- it was one on my home page this morning as having a fabulous review.  I thought it was a little dry and kind of bland but with some extra seasoning it would be good.  The only meat I have in the house right now is chicken wings so I BBQ'd them and then tossed them with hot wing sauce (butter, Frank's hot sauce and some dry ranch seasoning mix).  I wasn't in the mood for the chicken wings so I ended up not eating them but this is one of Travis' favorite meals and he ate enough for all of us.

Three-Bean Salad
(courtesy of The American Century Cookbook by Jean Anderson)

• 1 (15-ounce) can cut green beans (I used 2 cups of fresh steamed green beans)
• 1 (15-ounce) can cut yellow wax beans or garbanzo beans (I used the garbanzo)
• 1 (15-ounce) can red kidney beans (I used pinto)
• 1 small green bell pepper, cored, seeded and finely chopped (omitted)
• 1 small yellow onion, peeled and finely chopped (I used 1/2 a red onion)
• Dressing
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup white vinegar (I used 1/2 cup)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1. Dump beans into large colander and rinse well under cold running water.  Drain well, then place in large bowl (not metal).  Add green pepper and onion and mix gently.
2. Whisk together all dressing ingredients, pour over salad and mix gently.
3. Cover salad and marinate in refrigerator at least 24 hours.  Mix gently once again.
4. To serve, lift salad with slotted spoon to individual plates.