Memorial Day 2013

I hope any Service Members in your life were honored and well-fed yesterday.

I know there's nothing like a big, juicy hamburger hot off the grill, but we just got back from lots of eating Down South (more next time), and so for Memorial Day I went with chicken. Nothing I haven’t done before, but here’s what it looked like:

Great or gross? I say great, but I would never take a shot of anyone taking a bite.

The top bun had relish and a bit of Honey Mustard Dressing. The other side of the bun was layered with these: Grilled Chicken Breast, Baked Beans, Sautéed Peppers and Onions, Pickles, Tomato Slices and more Honey Mustard Dressing.

Here are better views:

Honey Mustard Dressing In Any Quantity

1 part each honey, Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar

3 parts olive or other vegetable oil

Blend together until smooth. Pour into jar, cover and refrigerate. I use it to marinate the chicken, plus it's great on salad and as a dipping (or pouring) sauce.

One more super-sized view:

Thank A Veteran Today

And think about our veterans. That’s always good too. And not just today. 

I made some of the usual – Chicken on a Roll with Honey Mustard Dressing (email me for the recipe), Roasted Potato Salad and Baked Beans.

I also served some really great Amish Vegetable Chips. To learn more about them, you'll have to read my next(ish) post to hear about my travels...

The other thing I made was some pretty wicked Chinese-Style Cole Slaw.

It was wicked because, for the first time ever, I neglected to put on gloves when I was handling the hot peppers. In this case, it was a jalapeño, which might have been bearable, but the other was a fiery red habañero.

Really, what was I thinking? And there have been many times when I haven’t had gloves handy and I just use plastic bags with rubber bands around my wrists. WHY didn’t I do that? 

I tried to wash the hot poison off my hands. (I hadn’t yet read about rubbing your hands with vegetable oil after you wash them and then wash them again. It works!) Unfortunately (I still can’t believe how dumb I was), I took out my contac lenses with my burning hands. I think I must have been in a coma or something. It did everything you would think it would. My eyes burned to high heaven!!! AND I won’t even tell you that the next day I tried to salvage the contacs…Don’t do that either! 

But try this cole slaw. It tastes more like the cabbage salad you get in Chinese restaurants than the kind you have at a picnic, but it is GOOD. It would be fantastic with pulled pork, flank steak or really anything. Just be sure to do what I SAY, not what I DID when dealing with hot peppers. 

Spicy Chinese-Style Cole Slaw (serves 4 to 6)

Printable recipe here adapted from Gourmet’s Hot-And-Sour Coleslaw 1/2 small head cabbage, quartered, cored, and thinly sliced or grated 1 teaspoon salt 3 carrots, shredded 1/4 cup scallions, finely sliced 1/2  red pepper, cut into thin strips 1/4 cup cider vinegar 1/4 cup sugar 2 thick slices ginger 1  jalapeño, sliced into rounds (remove the seeds) – Wear gloves when handling 1/4  of a habañero, without seeds, stem, core or ribs - Wear gloves when handling 1 tbl. sesame oil Stir together cabbage and salt. Add carrots and scallions and stir well. Bring red pepper, vinegar, sugar, ginger, jalapeño and habañero to a boil in a very small saucepan, stirring over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Cook for about 30 seconds.  Remove ginger, jalapeño and habañero pieces (you’ll be glad you did). Stir in sesame oil, then pour over cabbage mixture and toss to coat. Stir really well before serving. Can be made a day ahead and refrigerated, tightly wrapped. Note: I don't usually tell anyone, but my baked beans recipe is this - Heat one can of Heinz Vegetarian Baked Beans with one can of Bush's Vegetarian Baked Beans. Add 3 good squirts of KC Masterpiece Original Barbecue Sauce. Simmer on a low heat for 15 minutes.They'll thicken up as they cook. Serve hot.

Homemade Hamburgers Buns And Lots Of Other Good Things Too!

Remember my buns? My HOMEMADE Hamburger Buns from our barbecue

on Monday.

Well, here's one in use:

As I said, I was really thrilled with them. I got the idea to make them from scratch from Shulie, a fellow tweetster, and, boy, am I glad I did. I don’t know why I was so taken with the idea but I was.

The funny thing is that the result was exactly what I usually try to avoid at all costs – they tasted just like store-bought hamburger buns. Okay, fresher and puffier than store-bought ones, but they had that air of perfection that says mass-produced. AND they were still fabulous!

Here’s the hamburger bun recipe. I made a few revisions.

When I use yeast, I ALWAYS proof it first. ALWAYS. Especially since this dough had extra good things in it like butter and an egg and sugar, I didn’t want to chance using flabby yeast. So no matter what the recipe says, I sprinkle the yeast (one envelope in this case) over hottish water that has had a teaspoon of sugar stirred into it. Then I wait for some action.

If after 10 minutes, there is none, I start again with different yeast. (You actually know WAY before 10 minutes, if the yeast is dead.)

If the yeast is fine, as it was in this case, I add it to the dry ingredients with the rest of the liquid that’s called for. Here I mixed flour, sugar, an egg and some melted butter together before adding the yeast. Shulie suggested adding one cup of water instead of a ¾ cup. I actually think three quarters of a cup PLUS 2 tablespoons would have been fine. Just add the last few tablespoons slowly.

Another change I made was to make 10 buns instead of 9 and I probably could squeezed out another one too. These were good-sized.

I kneaded the dough for about 7 minutes by hand and then put it back in the KitchenAid with the dough hook for another 4 or 5 minutes. If your dough looks blistered (ANY yeast dough), it’s not ready. Keep kneading.

It should be smooth and supple.

The recipe mentioned using the KitchenAid. It’s funny. I completely forgot about that way to knead dough. Usually I do it in the Cuisinart or by hand. And make sure you knead on speed 2 or 3, and no higher, if you do use your stand mixer.

The only other challenge was getting the sesame seeds to stick. Shulie said the butter didn’t do it and she used an egg white. I didn’t want to do that, because they weren’t going back into the oven. One bun at a time, I brushed melted butter over the baked buns and immediately sprinkled over sesame seeds. They seemed to stick until we came to use them and, then, there were sesame seeds everywhere – the counter, the floor, H’s arm and my hair.

I think next time (and there WILL be a next time and many times after that), I’ll take them out a little early, brush them with butter and then PRESS in the sesame seeds and put them back in the oven.

Other dishes –

· My fav barbecue sauce that I marinated and cooked chicken breasts in.

·

Guacamole

3 ripe avocados, chopped

1 cup diced red onion

½ tsp. salt

Juice of 2 limes

Big handful of chopped cilantro

Mix all ingredients together.


Julienned red onions, carrots and zucchini, which I cooked in the same pan as the bacon dressing below. Just quickly sauté the vegetables together. This dish is really all about the knifework.

Then I made two dishes that started with inspiration from June’s Food Network magazine. The first was Corn Salsa that was supposedly a close copy of Chipotle’s. I’ve never been to Chipotle. I tried to go once, but it didn’t look like a cozy place to sit and visit with a friend, so we skipped it. I have no idea how close a version this is – The Food Network Magazine’s Almost-Famous Corn Salsa. I also found myself without most of the ingredients, so this was my lightning-fast, super easy Corn Salsa.

Corn Salsa

One ear of grilled corn, kernels cut from the ear

¼ cup (or more) diced red onion

Juice of one lime

A big handful of chopped cilantro

Mix ingredients together and serve.

· I also saw this awesome sounding Grilled Romaine With Blue Cheese-Bacon Vinaigrette from Guy Fieri in the same magazine. (This was after not finding anything in the last two Bon Appétit’s that I wanted to make.) I totally changed the recipe. I didn’t grill the romaine, I didn’t use blue cheese, but I did cook bacon with basalmic vinegar. It was kind of divine!

·

Romaine Lettuce Leaves with Bacon and Balsamic Dressing

This is really a bacon-packed drizzle for whole leaves of lettuce. The recipe makes more than enough for 12 people. But make it all and dilute the leftovers with lots of red wine vinegar to dress your salads for next week. Mmmm.

½ big red onion, diced

8 oz bacon, diced

1 tbl. olive oil (I could see the argument for skipping the oil)

½ cup balsamic vinegar

romaine lettuce leaves

Cook the onion and bacon in a large sauté pan until the bacon is crisp. Start at medium heat and then as the bacon gets more cooked, raise the heat to medium high. It should take 8 to 10 minutes.

Stir in oil and balsamic vinegar. Reduce for about a minute. Remove from heat and leave in pan until ready to use.

Just before serving, place romaine lettuce leaves on serving plate. Heat up dressing for 30 seconds. Using a teaspoon, carefully spoon some of the bacon mixture down the center of each leave. Serve immediately.

Here was the final product – from the bottom half of the (homemade!) bun up:

MY Bun; Chicken Breast cooked in Barbecue Sauce, Extra Barbecue Sauce,

Corn Salsa, Guacamole. Served with Romaine Lettuce with Bacon and Balsamic Dressing and Sautéed Julienned Vegetables.

Memorial Day 2011

I feel foolish saying HAPPY Memorial Day, when it’s an intensely sad day for many, as they remember their lost family members who have served in the military. I will say thank you to them and their families, though, and hope that their pride and love carries them through this day. This is a food blog, after all, so I must make a quick mention of these:

Aren’t they glorious? I made a new Twitter buddy the other day– Hi Shulie! – and after she asked fellow Tweeters for a barbecue sauce recipe (I gave her this one), she said she was looking for a hamburger bun recipe.

I was impressed! It never occurred to me before to make hamburger buns. It just never crossed my mind. Plus I have to admit I have never known anyone else to make them either.  And it was amazing that Shulie didn’t waste any time in putting together her barbecue. Gorgeous job!

Anyway, Angie gave Shulie this recipe from Jennifer. I tried it and, voila, real store-bought-looking hamburger buns. (That's a GOOD thing in this case.) 

I was SO thrilled with myself. Enjoy your barbecues, save some time to think of so many families’ sacrifices and, next time, I’ll tell you about a few up and downs (really, only ups) with this fantastic recipe.