Chicken and Sweet Potato Soup

This was a simple and hearty recipe from Clean Eating magazine, which is my current favorite source for recipes, along with Cooking Light. I do think Cooking Light tends to be a bit more reasonable, in terms of not going off the deep end eliminating every bit of sugar and salt. The idea of "clean eating" is to reduce or eliminate processed carbohydrates and refined sugar, and focusing on sweeteners with a low glycemic index. I have been eating this way for some time, and I didn't realize that the method had a name. I was thrilled to see a magazine all about a movement that I didn't even know existed, except in my house.

Most of the ingredients are "whole foods" - as close to their original form as possible. I don't tend to take things as far as they do - if a recipe calls for a teaspoon of Sucanat, well... I'm gonna grab the sugar, or a little honey. The fact that it is low-sugar is good enough for me. I've also found that most of their recipes really lack seasoning. I sometimes add more cumin, coriander, whatever I think might work, and I NEVER pay attention to how much salt and pepper they call for. I just taste it and add until I'm happy. I do like that they have a lot of meat recipes, for when I want that.

This is a not-great picture of their sweet potato, kale, mushroom and chicken soup. The recipe isn't on their site yet, but basically you bring chicken stock to a boil, then bring down to a simmer, and peeled and cubed sweet potatoes, wait ten minutes, then add cubed chicken, chopped kale, and baby bello mushrooms, and cook until all are tender. Serve with parmesan cheese on top, and a pinch of nutmeg. I would say I liked it, but it didn't re-heat as well as I'd expect a soup to (I think some of them get better with time). Very hearty and healthy, though.

Chicken Meatball Pasta

Grilled veggie and chicken meatball pasta... hope the kids will eat it!

Across the Lincoln Highway: Mill Race Inn and Galena Steak House

Another exciting chapter in our journey along the Lincoln Highway awaits! Try not to piddle.

So we left off in Geneva at the Geneva Ale House. The next day, we went back to Geneva, and ate alongside the river at the Mill Race Inn, which I've already posted about, in honor of its unfortunate closing shortly after we ate there. Hope it was nothing we said.

We hung out for the better part of the day in downtown Geneva, looking in the shops and touring through the courthouse. We got back on the road towards DeKalb, stopping at a marker and gazebo at Kishwaukee College in Malta, also the site of a "seedling mile" along the road. We pushed on through DeKalb, stopping at the historic Egyptian Theatre. We got a lucky break, just as we did in Joliet at the Rialto, and saw that it was unlocked. It was open because workers were putting the haunted house together inside. We got lots of pictures of the theatre under refurbishment, and also rubber "corpses." Sneaky!

I'm skipping a lot of our touristy photos (a LOT, so be grateful, dammit), but I had to include a couple. Because nothing gets the appetite working like a deathmask/dead body theme. Welcome.

We also arrived at the Ellwood mansion, too late, sadly, to take the official tour, but we enjoyed the museum nonetheless. It's a mansion built on the fortune made by the man who invested in barbed wire, and I'd really like to return and see the whole interior one day. There was also another original Lincoln marker on the grounds. We had thought about staying in DeKalb for the night, but walking along the main drag, DeKalb started to seem... seedy. Sorry, De. It's a university town, and the feeling, for us, just wasn't great at that moment as the sun was setting. Maybe it was the haunted house that did it, but I started to feel like the tattooed vampires were about to come out, and we were in for a "Lost Boys" type of scenario. We decided to drive until we found a place a bit more charming, and a bit less scummy. This may or may not have been the best decision.

We drove into the unknown, and outside Rochelle, we pulled into a truck stop to figure out our next move. It was night by this point. There was, I'm sure, a perfectly good Holiday Inn Express in there. I tried to hop online through the truck stop's connection in the parking lot, to see if I could score anything last minute through Priceline. It was somewhere around this time that my first ever, bona fide panic attack began.

I can't say I began to scream hysterically or anything so much fun as that. And it had nothing to do with being in unfamiliar surroundings. I've been flying without a parent since I was 15 years old, including solo to Europe when I was under 21. I love adventure. And though I've parasailed, power-hanglided, repelled off of cliffs, and had drinks with strange Europeans, I was totally convinced that I had made a terrible mistake in being in central Illinois at that moment. Even with all my experiences on a farm growing up, I just hadn't banked on the God-forsaken feeling of central Illinois at night. What were we doing out here? What was I doing with our vacation time? Why were we away from our children, just to stay in some mediocre mid-scale motels with no charm, and no luxury either? What the hell was that trucker chewing on??

My husband stayed completely calm and retained his sense of humor. He suggested that we just continue driving, though I was convinced that we would somehow drop off the face of the planet, drifting in outer space with no gasoline and nothing to eat. I wanted to turn tail and run back to Geneva, but we continued on through Rochelle, where I took this picture of a marker at a really charming, preserved filling station.

I wish I could say it got better after that, but the conditions actually got worse for a while. Just a little tip for the Lincoln Highway: if you have the option of taking the official route, as opposed to the "historic route" in the middle of the night, CHOOSE THE OFFICIAL ROUTE. We ended up on a gravel road for 20 minutes, submerged in total country blackness, while I shouted on the cell phone to my mother-in-law that she could stop laughing already, and kiss my children goodbye for me, because they would find my husband and I in two days with his arm partially gnawed off, after I attempted to eat him to survive.

We made it into Dixon. It didn't seem that there would be anywhere open to eat. We found a hotel off of Bloody Gulch Road (you can't make this stuff up, folks) which I took to be a poor omen. My worst fear at this point was not that we would starve, but that we would have to settle for Pizza Hut hot wings. This was NOT the plan. I was promised experiences with charm! Okay, no one promised me that, but that was the plan! I wanted actual cooking, not the thawing of something that came out of a bag.

We consulted our list of eateries, and found the Galena Steak House. I got out of the car, and approached a man in a grey suit who had just hung up his cell phone outside the restaurant. (Okay, he may have still been on the phone, but I was in a small panic. I mean, here is Galena's website. Look at this place! I figured smoking was still very much allowed inside any place with so much exterior paneling, and I didn't feel good about the prospective cleanliness). "Is this place any good?" I asked him. "Where are you from?" he countered. I told him what suburb we live in. He barked a laugh. "No! No it isn't!" he concluded. "You'll be quite used to food that's better than this. But at this time of night (it was after 10 pm), it's probably your best shot at anything that's open." Good enough for me. Husband parked, I gave up, and we went in, getting seated near the gentleman in the suit and his party. (Remember him, he'll come up again later.)

Fortunately for everyone, the restaurant was much better (in my humble opinion) than he suggested it would be. Our waitress was named Marilyn, I believe, and she was incredibly friendly and earthy. You know, a "lifer": the best kind of server you can get. Every dinner at the Galena comes with the buffet, which has salads (and I mean, the kind with meat in them as well as vegetables), and soup.  Chris had some very good, hearty meat ravioli.

I don't know if you're familiar with my quest for the best chicken finger on the planet, but there it was in front of me, in the middle of Dixon, in the middle of the night. You will never have a better hand-cut, hand-dipped battered chicken tender than the one at Galena Steak House, which leads me to believe that it is most likely fried in beef lard. Even the dipping sauce was perfect.

My meal, because the folks at Galena want to make sure you have enough to eat, came with a baked potato with butter and sour cream. We also ordered dessert! Which was very good, with chocolate, caramel and pecans.

So with two iced teas, two entrees, two salad bars with soup, and dessert, here is our bill:

Yep. Just over thirty bucks. We were awash in fullness, charm, experience and gratitude, and we tipped Marilyn twenty bucks for saving our lives. I wish I had gotten her picture.

Stay tuned for our exciting final chapter, including a day in Dixon, a meal over the state line, and the return of the suited gentleman...

Game Day, and We Don't Care

BBQ chicken goat cheese pizza for the Superbowl, cuz we're a bunch of snobby a-holes. Here's the link if you wanna make it.

Cameron's Chicken Dip

Superbowl week! Time to post some high-fat snack ideas. Also, I'm more or less on a diet, so I'm basically determined to ruin everyone else's. (I just have a food blog. I never said I was a good person.)

You might remember that my friend Brooke introduced me to artichoke dip my freshman year in college. Cameron's chicken enchilada dip is like that SNL Elvis sketch: "just like that... 'cept diff'rent." This dip is crazy good and highly addictive. Cam brought this dip to my friend Jenny's party, and he made the mistake of getting up to get the bag of chips. When he came back, it was GONE. No joke. (It was an awkward moment, as we sat there with full mouths and teaspoons, and Cam standing there with mouth agape). By the way, the guy in the back is Cameron, called "the Wookie" fondly by his, ahem, shorter friends.

(And much love to Mrs., and the Little Wookies). Here's the original recipe from allrecipes.com, and be sure to read Cameron and my notes at the end before making:

Original Recipe (Allrecipes.Com):

Ingredients:
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (8 ounce) jar mayonnaise
1 (8 ounce) package shredded Cheddar cheese
1 (4 ounce) can diced green chile peppers
1 jalapeño pepper, finely diced

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Place chicken breast halves on a medium baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven 20 minutes, or until no longer pink. Remove from heat, cool and shred. Place shredded chicken in a medium bowl, and mix in cream cheese, mayonnaise, Cheddar cheese, green chile peppers and jalapeño pepper. Transfer the chicken mixture to a medium baking dish. Bake uncovered in the preheated oven 30 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown.

Cam's dip ALWAYS turned out noticeably better than mine, so I suggest you follow his alterations to the letter is you want the maximum yumminess! So here are the notes from Cam:

• "Always use either the Philly's neufchatel or the full-fat cream cheese, and usually the Hellman's canola mayo."
• "I do the chicken breasts in the crockpot for (2 hours on high, or 4-6 hours on low) with tequila and lime juice just to about cover the breasts, and Adobo spices and usually some garlic powder (or some other mexicany spice combination, I've done chili powder, paprika & cumin before, really, I think as long as there's some cumin from some source you are good to go) and just shred it with a fork in the pot."

• "I use the Mexican blend cheese in the 2.5 pound bag from Costco or shredded habañero cheddar (I think Cabot is the brand, its at Costco also). I use pickled jalapeño instead of fresh jalapeño, and tailor the amount to the spiciness I want (about 1 spoonful for mild dip (Cam's real word here: "weaksauce"), and about 4 or 5 coupled with the habañero cheddar for the mouf-burner)."

Okay, so here are my notes. Essentially, they are to dry all the chicken and diced peppers on a clean towel before adding. I've had real problems with overly wet ingredients - I'm talking DRY. I also like to add the cheeses and mayo slowly, so that it doesn't come out too wet/mayonnaise-y. However, you should taste the final mix before it goes into the oven. It may need more seasoning. I also prefer to use (despite the photo) a more oval/oblong pan, so that it bakes in a thinner layer, and you get more of the crusty top surface area, since it is the best part. And again, don't use low-fat anything.

Hope I haven't made it sound too difficult... It's actually really easy, just kinda one of those that comes out great, but you might want to play with it a little.

Miss you like crazy, Wookies!

Beata's Hoot Owl Cutlets

These are bad. BA-A-A-AA-D. But they are so good, you know? (I sound like a guy in a leather beret from a 1980 cop movie explaining to the uptight lead, "Naw, man. Bad means GOOD.") These are definitely in that "meat candy" category: sweet and savory, and fried and cheesy. In short, the perfect food.



Remember the meat-a-riffic baby shower that I went to for my friend Beata? Well, here is yet another entry on something fun she had there. She made these breaded cutlets from pork, but I used chicken (pounded out). I asked her how she got such a great breaded crust, and she said she double-coated them in Italian breadcrumb. So that's flour, then beaten egg, then breadcrumb, then egg again, then breadcrumb. Then she fried them, and put pineapple slices on top, and American cheese and put them under the broiler for a minute or two. Is she brilliant, or what?

She didn't call them "hoot owls," but that's what they looked like to me. (Now you know what you're bringing to your next Harry Potter party.)



I'm not usually an American cheese fan, but it just seemed right on these. They have that feel of a recipe you'd get from a 1950s cookbook, called "Luau Chicken" or "Hula Pork," where a ring of canned pineapple counts as an exotic ingredient from the south Pacific. And you just need American cheese for that.

These take a TON of breadcrumb, and I can only eat about half of one at a sitting. Which is probably advisable, since I don't want to know how much fat is in one of these. I'm calling it special occasion food, when you're "feelin' kinda cutlet." Or maybe when one of the kids gets glasses, and needs a little giggle!

Slow Cooker Spicy Chicken and Rice

Okay, my posts have gotten a bit shorter. But there's a good reason for that. My time has gotten shorter, too! And I figure if my time is shorter, then other people are probably short on time, too. Since, you know, I only have the one kid, and/or I don't work full time. So hopefully other people will be interested in dinners that are as fast as I'd like them to be. And if not, have you read dooce.com lately?



Oh, and sorry about the lousy picture. Again: time crunch.

First you drop four to six chicken breasts into the slow cooker. Or hell, just use two, I don't care. Sometimes you get through those giant Costco packages of chicken and all you have are two left over. Or maybe you just bought two, and that's a little bit sad and lonely for you, but I'm not here to make you feel worse. (But really, you should make more and plan for leftovers. I'm not your mother but I'm just sayin'.) I was about to add "then lightly season the chicken," but who am I kidding? I didn't do that.

Then you drop a can or two of cream of mushroom (or cream of anything) soup on top. Also add wild or brown rice, and enough liquid to cook the rice (I like to use chicken broth). Cook it for six hours or so, and the chicken will break apart easily with two forks, so you can s-to-the-hred it. Then add a liberal amount of hot sauce (I like Red Hot), and some salsa, and stir it again.

This can be eaten with a salad or veggie on the side, but it's also really good inside tortillas with taco fixings.



The best part about this dinner is this: not only did you barely cook today, but you don't have to cook tomorrow, either!

Battle Potato

My good (well, she's "great," actually) friend Ann has a sister who is battling MS. Every year Ann joins in the fight against the disease by captaining a team for the MS Walk (to hear Ann and her sister Maggie's story or to make a donation at any time, go here.) As a "thank you" to her friends and donors, she threw a party this year and called it "Battle Potato," in the style of Iron Chef on the Food Network. In case you're the last person on the planet not to see the show, everyone was to bring a dish with potato as an ingredient. Then the guests vote on their favorite, and the winner jumps on his or her cutting board, and shouts "IN YOUR FACE. FOR MS RESEARCH" at all the other guests, while brandishing a butcher knife. And now (it must be said), "Allez cuisine!"

Ann decorated the place all purty with potato centerpieces.



The guests who cooked were given numbered cards to place by their dishes, for the vote later on.



One gi-normous nerd brought a title card for her dish, and pinned her number to the card with an Idaho potato button that she just happened to have brought. Who's the geek?



My card reads, "Twice-baked ranch potatoes with scratch chicken BBQ." Poor Ann had other guests asking her, "where's my title card?" And she had to keep saying, "Uh, she made that." Well, you know what? You could have made your own, too. Don't hate the player.

There were more dishes than I imagined would be there. Curry salad, egg pie, thai dishes, and au gratin. I began to sweat. And eat. Eat and sweat.



I really, really enjoyed the food. When I saw the potato desserts, I knew it was over. There were chocolate-dipped chips, and cream-cheese frosted potato spice cake. There were DOUGHNUTS. How do you compete with that? Might as well just fill my plate.



Some folks got in a time-crunch, and were still courteous enough to go and get what people really like, and then arrange it artfully on a plate. Thanks Abby! Truthfully, I probably had more of the fries than anything else... So now I was contending with food science. You can't argue with years of testing for aroma and "mouth feel."



Or, have some red wine.



Then, form a totem pole, because it mocks both ancient Native American customs as well as your own ridiculously short stature. Everyone wins!



After eating, we all were to vote once for "Best Tasting," and once for "Most Creative." Ann had potato-shaped ballots to write the numbers on, and Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head receptacles to put them in. Aw, shmoosh.



And when the votes were tallied, my friends Anna and Adam won for "Most Creative" for their chocolate-dipped chips, and I won for "Best Tasting." Yay! I think it is POSSIBLE that some people pitied the sad girl who made the title card... Or as Jason ribbed me (who baked the cake at #6), he was pretty sure some of his votes got construed as my #9. Also possible. But Jeff said, "I counted those votes. I know my sixes from my nines." What's an election without controversy?

My prize was a colander, filled with everything needed to make a pasta dinner. Which is crazy, because that's exactly what I gave Ann as a wedding gift about a decade ago, only with a double-boiler instead of the colander. So now, I'm pretty sure I owe her a wedding gift. Still, I'm stoked because I can really use that colander!



I can't wait until this party goes again next year. And if I win again, I'll try to be more careful brandishing that butcher knife. (Sorry honey - but you were already missing most of your hair anyway, right?) Thanks for the party, Ann. It was awesome.

Here's my recipe for the potatoes, only this time, I added Hidden Valley Ranch Dip mix to the potato mixture. I also refrigerated the baked potatoes overnight in their foil, and they were a lot easier to scoop out the next day.

BBQ Chicken Pizza and Twice-Baked Potatoes

I know I've shared my recipe for BBQ chicken in the crockpot before, but oh lord, I'm getting good at this.



It's finally got that dark mahogany color and smoky flavor that I want it to have. Here's the new and improved recipe:

two cups of ketchup
one cup of mustard, any kind
two capfuls of liquid smoke
about a quarter to a half cup of molasses
one cup of packed brown sugar
as much Red Hot sauce as you think you’ll like
one dark beer, or a couple of shots bourbon for a thicker sauce
half a medium onion, diced finely
two cloves diced garlic
a heavy shake of cumin (don’t be shy) and a shake of coriander
salt and pepper (plenty of black pepper)
two small cans of tomato paste (this is the new part - my sauce was coming out too runny)

(This is the same recipe that I printed here for the beef ribs. You can really plunge any meat ya like into this sauce, and it'll come out tasty. Or in a pinch, use shoe leather.) In this case, I put two packages of chicken into it, and cooked it for six hours. When the chicken shreds very easily with a fork, shred it all up right there in the Crockpot. This recipe makes a ton of chicken. I freeze half for another time. You can use some in tacos, on buns as sandwiches, or on a pizza (great with goat cheese and thinly sliced red onions, and more cheddar on top).



I decided some would be great on top of some twice-baked potatoes. So I made up a recipe for those, and it came out great. First, bake four potatoes. Use the big brown russet or baking potatoes for this. Scrub them, pierce them with a fork in several places, salt them liberally and put a dab of butter on top of them inside some foil. Wrap them up and bake them for about an hour to 75 minutes at 400 degrees. (I've read some recipes since that insist you don't use the foil - I'll try this next time. But I didn't want the skins to shrivel, and they didn't doing this with the foil.) When they come out, vent them a little and let them cool until you can handle them. Then scoop out most of the insides into a bowl, leaving about a half-inch of flesh. You can't really scoop all of it out, because then the skin will be too thin.

To the potato flesh, add one brick of cream cheese (light is fine). Sauté one diced half-onion and one clove of crushed garlic in a little oil, and add that to the mixture, plus a little salt. Mix, and put the mixture back in the potatoes (I had returned them to the foil I used before). Then top with cheddar, and bake at 375 degrees for about fifteen minutes.



You can top them with bacon or anything else you like. I put the BBQ chicken on top, along with scallions and light sour cream (hey, every little bit helps.)



They were mounded so high, we ended up just eating a half at a time, so it made lots of nice leftovers.

Hey, love BBQ, bacon, swearing and hardened arteries? You have to check out this post on my brother's blog (he's the funny one in the family.) But don't go if you don't like the swearing. As a matter of fact, what are you still reading my goddamn blog for?

Roast Chicken with Gravy and Mediterranean Stuffing

What a fancy title! For what will probably be one of my shortest posts ever...

I was in the mood for some thanksgiving-style turkey and stuffing one day, but I also had sort of a salt/savory craving. Also, I felt inordinately lazy (yes, I was pregnant.)



I had some pre-made "Mediterranean salad": the kind you find in the deli section at Jewel, near the hummus and pre-made meals. It had beans, couscous, carrots, parsley and other grains and seasonings in a vinaigrette dressing. I mixed up some Stouffer's stuffing, and added the bean salad to it. I also added some pitted and diced calamata olives to it. Voila! Mediterranean-style stuffing.

I continued on my cheating bender and purchased a rotisserie chicken. I made gravy by using the drippings in the bottom of the container. I added them to a pan, then sprinkled on flour to make a roux, and added chicken broth and seasoning until I liked the taste.



Scratched that itch, and with as little energy expended as a football-viewing couch potato might use to scratch his expanding midsection.

Open-Faced Chicken Cordon Bleu with Dill and Wine Sauce

Okay, if my efforts hit the mark, that sounds fancy - but it only took me about twenty minutes to make this dish.

I started with some pre-pounded chicken breasts (the Perdue Fit & Easy). I browned them (and cooked them through, because really, they're so thin) in a pan with a little olive oil, and seasoned them with salt and pepper. Then I removed them to a cookie sheet on some aluminum foil, and made the sauce in the same pan.

I started with a roux, with just a little butter and some flour added to the pan until it is combined (when it balls up and smells a little nutty. Can't wait to see what searches bring up THAT phrase).



Then I added some wine (nothing measured, of course), about enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Remember the salmon with dill sauce? Well, I had some leftover sauce, and I added it to the pan (or you could just add butter, dill, sour cream or milk, lemon juice and chicken stock to taste). If your sauce is too thick, you can thin it out with some chicken stock. If it is too thin, you can put some flour in a Pyrex cup, add some of the warm sauce (a few tablespoons) to the mix, whisk it, then add that back to the pan. But let your sauce come to a full, gentle boil before you judge the thickness: that's when the flour roux really kicks in.

Separately, I put the chicken breasts in the oven with some prosciutto and sliced ham (you can use either, I just happened to have both since we'd had company that week, and I was stocked up on pork products. Because when you come to my house? You generally get meat). Then I topped it with swiss cheese and melted it all together. You can do this while you're making the sauce, if you're super efficient.



Take the chicken out of the oven, pour the sauce on top and serve with asparagus and French bread. Why? Because it's "Frenchy." (Then, if you're a fan of "Better Off Dead," you can serve it at your holiday dinner with "Franch fries... AND, Franch dressing... AND, Franch bread. AND, to drink... PERU!")

The Bun I've Been Cookin'

Here's where I've been... I had the baby at the end of September. Her name is Ruby, and she is perfect. (The best thing I ever made, ha ha ha.)



I personally have been on Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating since she was born, which is actually pretty good. It was a good time to do it, since I haven't had the time or the energy to cook. Still, this way I've lost some of the weight and avoided the temptation to go the fast food route. Chris has been cooking for himself, and I must say he's been doing a fine job of it. Check out the side-by-side comparison. Here is one of my Seattle meals, which was decent (chicken breast on a bagel, plus kiwi fruit):



And here is the sandwich that Chris made for himself:



I'd have to go with his, wouldn't you? Anyway, I'm coming up on week five on the diet (I can't believe she is that old already), and it may be my last. I'm already down 25 pounds (though most of that was fluid and a baby who was nearly nine pounds), and I think I just about have her routine worked out so I may be able to get back to cooking.

For one more week, I'll be re-heating the pre-made meals, and just using the kitchen to make the bottles every day!



Thanks for your patience. Hope everyone has been well, and getting more sleep than we have!

Salad Week: Asian Salad

Here's another simple tossed salad, with some Asian-inspired flavors.



I marinated chicken breasts (pounded flat or purchased thin) in peanut oil and teriyaki sauce for about an hour. I grilled that, sliced it, and topped some mixed greens with it. I also added feta cheese, scallions, walnuts, and green apple chunks. For the dressing, I mixed a little sesame seed oil, olive oil (because the sesame seed is expensive, and you can taste it while not adding much), about two tablespoons soy sauce, and a chunky tablespoon of peanut butter. Whisk it all together, pour it on, and enjoy!

Salad Week: Herbed Chicken Salad

These salads are so simple, honestly, I had to post a week's worth just to avoid feeling guilty.

This one came out quite well, and made me feel just a little French. (And since I'm not a redneck, I'm okay with that.)



I pulled some chicken off a grocery store rotisserie chicken (or use leftover chicken), combined it with several diced and boiled Yukon Gold potatoes, and added lowfat mayonnaise (or regular) until it looked right to me. I diced and added scallions, parsley, and dill, then salt and pepper. You could really use whatever fresh herbs you have on hand, because the rest of the dish is "tabula rasa."

I like to serve a few big scoops of it on top of some greens, and drizzle dressing around the outside. Keeps in the fridge for over a week!

Salad Week: Chop Salad

Some folks call this one "garbage salad," but... ucchh. I can't cope with that. Let's never speak of the un-tasty name again. It's too pretty!



The great thing about a chop salad is that you can alter the ingredients easily according to what you have. Change the type of berry, add some cold pasta (like rotini or farfalle) to stretch your lettuce out (seriously), add croutons, use any kind of cheese, switch to beef, whatever. Check out the good stuff in this guy:

chopped Romaine
chopped turkey bacon
green onions
diced breaded chicken
diced avocado
pecans
strawberries
feta cheese

I just whisked up some balsamic vinaigrette (1 part vinegar to four parts olive oil) with lemon juice, Italian seasoning, pinch of salt & pepper and a little sugar to taste, but this would go with lots of different kinds of dressing.

Chop your heart out! (Eyw, that's worse than the other phrase...)

Salad Week: Buffalo Chicken

Are you ready for something fun and exciting? I THOUGHT YOU WERE. And I'm here to help.

In honor of this mother of a hot summer, and in honor of the fact that my beloved lettuce no longer makes me sick to look at, I'm posting a new salad every day for a week. Because we've been eating a lot of them, because they keep you regular, and because dang, did I mention? IT IS FREAKING HOT OUTSIDE.

First up is the fattiest salad of the bunch. Still, when you consider that every time I eat this, I don't have my fat ass over at Hooters with my face in a platter of chicken wings, it's almost like a diet food.



I've got Romaine lettuce, diced celery, full-fat Marie's bleu cheese dressing, a few chow mein noodles, shredded cheddar, and about three diced buffalo-style chicken fingers on this sweet baby. And I think I'm gonna have this one again tonight. Not for the faint of heart! You could lighten it up by using vinaigrette and a few bleu cheese crumbles instead of the Marie's (and no cheddar), but I won't be messing with that until after baby arrives, because studies show that higher-fat dairy products are good for pregnant women (and women who are trying to conceive). Jealous?

Salad Dressing for Dinner

Why is blogging so difficult? Seriously, I'm going to try not to bore you with the details, but I am slowly trying to get one chunk done at a time on my current project: making it so I can easily blog from UPSTAIRS on the laptop. See, the big ol' computer is downstairs in Chris' office, and I don't like sitting in the basement. But until recently all the networked files couldn't be accessed until I turned on that computer. Now I don't have to, but there are still some bugs to work out! Shih.

Anyway, one of the tastiest things I'm stuck on lately is a new way to do a chicken cutlet around here. I've been taking a package of the Perdue Fit 'N Tasty thin-sliced chicken breasts (you could pound them yourself if you're so inclined), putting them in a large Ziploc with salad dressing and olive oil, and letting them marinate in the fridge. I like honey mustard or ranch dressing. It works great with leftover dressing -- you know, the large containers you get with other stuff? I had a couple of containers of honey mustard from some "big salads" I got at some places, and some ranch dressing at another time from our new favorite pizza place, Wayne's. We get the ranch dressing with the cauliflower bites that they have. Yum. Too good to waste!



You just mix up the dressing and the olive oil by hand after you seal the bag. When you open it, you dredge the chicken in a little Italian breadcrumb, and lightly fry it in a little oil, then drain it on paper towels. "Winner winner, chicken dinner!" It is so moist and delicious, I've been making it once a week.



I serve it with brown rice and a veggie. I cooked up the brown rice, and I happened to also have some Newman's Own Low Fat Sesame Ginger dressing also on hand. I mixed some of that into the rice, and hey presto! An asian side dish.

Anyhoo, sorry about the kinks in the system. I'm working them out, and if not, I'll try and get over my fear of the basement and post more often!

Oscar's Chicken Salad

This post features two vintage pics! Whoopee! Check out my growth as a photographer...



When I was at Hull House, I worked with a lot of cool people. It almost made it okay that the president's secretary was an out-of-hand, psychotic bitch who would forget that she asked you to do something, and then scream at you for doing it. Almost. Anyway, there was this guy named Oscar who made the greatest chicken salad for the potluck occasions.

I know it may not look that appealing, but it is really tasty. He would boil a chicken, pick it, then add mayo, cayenne to taste, lots of paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper, a drained can of peas and carrots (you heard me right), and chopped boiled potatoes. When I make it, I pick a cooked rotisserie chicken. I ain't boiling no chicken.

I like to serve a couple scoops of it on a bed of romaine lettuce with some French or Western dressing drizzled around the edges, like so:



The salad is like a one-dish chicken dinner, and it is never too hot outside to eat it.

Is it a Mexican thing to do to put the peas and carrots in salads? I'm wondering, because when I was in school last year, I saw another student eating tuna salad that her husband had made. It had peas and carrots in it, and I said, "Is your husband Mexican?" She said, "Yeah! How did you know?" Huh!

Hooters Hot Wings

Chris and I both like buffalo wings. My favorites are actually the ones my brother used to fry up in the kitchen at Ruby Tuesday's, when he and I both worked there. That was twelve years ago now (wow.) He would always make his crazy off-the-menu hot, not so hot for me.

Now Ruby's is under new ownership (the whole chain, that is), and I dunno if their wings are the same or not. Chris likes the wings at the Ram Brewery, and they are actually the ones that remind me most of the ones that David used to make back when. But you know what? I think my favorites are the buffalo wings at Hooters. (I'm taking you to the menu here, sparing you the chatty waitress on the homepage. Click on "chicken wings.") They are breaded (you can get them without), and more like fried chicken. The hot sauce is sort of inside the breading, so you don't get the sauce all over your face (but if you're me, you get the bleu cheese there, anyway.)

Remember when opening a new Hooters was the talk of the town? I remember a big hoopla when they first opened one in Champaign. I dunno why people complained. I'm not really into women being objectified or anything, but I'm just saying that no one seemed to have a problem with the strip clubs just outside of town. The Hooters waitresses are dressed, after all. Somewhat.

I started eating at a Hooters when I lived in Nashville. It was literally in my backyard. I was shy about going in at first, and soon I was going by myself to sit down to a beer and some wings on the way back from work. The menu was more limited then... I seem to remember maybe burgers, an open-faced steak sandwich, the wings, and not much else. Chris likes their burgers.



Now Hooters has salads, healthier options, blah blah blah. I'll probably never try any of those things, because I don't know if I can go in there and not get the hot wings.



Chris accompanied me on a recent trip to get a replacement part for a sofa I had purchased out at Woodfield Mall (I can never buy a piece of assembly-required furniture that doesn't have a broken piece, it seems) and I practically hijacked the car when we drove past Hooters. I know he's been worried about the amount we've been eating out/driving through lately, but what can I do? When baby wants wings, baby wants wings.

Actually, I wonder if it was the hooters baby wanted...