Cheri's Chicken Salad for Sandwiches

This chicken salad was served on the table at Evie's wedding with the tea sandwiches and hot hors d'oeuvres. For that event, Cheri cut off the crusts of the bread after spreading with the chicken salad. (This is very important, she notes, because if you don't spread them first, then cut off the crusts, the bread won't hold up to the spreading.) The sandwiches were then sliced into fingerling rectangles. Presentation matters just as much as taste, and this was so lovely!

I left the recipe exactly as Cheri sent it to me. This is the only one that came with both sets of measurements still on it. The set to the right is the size of the recipe one would make at home. The measurements on the left represent her conversions for our wedding quantity. I still stand in awe that she managed all of that food the way she did! It makes me smile, and fills me with humble gratitude, to see those numbers on the left.

40       Makes 8 sandwiches

20       4 C. chicken—baked, seasoned, cut in chunks, pulsed in food processor

3         1/2 C. celery, thinly sliced 

5         1 C. mayo

1 ½     1/8 C. yellow mustard

2 ½     1/3 C. dill pickle (food processor)

1 ½     scant pickle juice

7 ½    1 ½ tsp. dill

          salt and pepper to taste

80       16 slices of bread

Process chicken, add all ingredients, and stir.  Season to taste. Chill. 

This recipe is gluten-free if gluten-free bread is used, so we made both.

Potato Bites with Spicy Sour Cream Dipping Sauce

This was another item on the passed appetizer trays at Evie's wedding. We did not use the dipping sauce for the wedding. These were served with toothpicks. The recipe as listed below makes about three dozen bites.

1-2 pounds small,  fingerling potatoes
2 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary or thyme
1 tablespoon olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.

2. Wash and dry the potatoes. Cut in half, keeping the chunks roughly the same size. 

3. Add the rosemary, olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and a few grinds of pepper, and toss until the potatoes are evenly coated.

4. Bake 35-45 min. 

5. If using the dipping sauce, mix the ingredients listed below in a small bowl. 

6. Pile the potato bites on a plate and serve alongside the dip.

Sour Cream Dipping Sauce 

(We did not use the dipping sauce for the wedding.  I have not tried it.)

1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
1-3 teaspoons hot sauce
Salt and pepper, to taste

Moroccan Stuffed Dates

This was another delicious sweet taste on the passed appetizer trays at Evie's wedding. They were also served in little cups that served as dividers on the tray. So pretty and so yummy!

INGREDIENTS:

12 pitted dates
2 oz. softened cream cheese
1 tablespoon honey (optional)
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
12  salted roasted skinned almonds

DIRECTIONS:

Slice 12 dates down one side longwise. Set aside. Stir cream cheese together with honey, cinnamon, and almond extract. Stuff.  Roll in confectionary sugar. Keep in air tight container. Dust with more sugar before serving.  May make ahead 1-2 days.

Herbed Quinoa Salad (or Cucumber Appetizer)

This wonderful salad was stuffed into thick cucumber slices and served on the passed appetizer trays at Evie's wedding. We ate the leftovers later as a regular side dish salad, and it was delicious that way, too.

Ingredients

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1/3 cup chopped parsley
• 1 cup chopped cilantro
• 2 tbsp chopped tarragon
• 2 tbsp chopped mint (opt – we didn’t use on wedding day)
• 6 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup diced cucumber (left from scooping cucumbers if desired)
• 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes (didn’t use on wedding day)
• small bits of colored peppers – pulse in food processor
• ½ c feta cheese
• 3 cucumbers
  

1. Place the quinoa and the chicken stock in a pot. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Let it cook for 15 minutes until all the water has evaporated. Remove from the pot and set aside.
2. In a food processor or blender, combine the parsley, cilantro, tarragon, mint and olive oil. Pulse until the mixture turns into a pesto-looking consistency.
3. Combine the herbed mixture with the cooked quinoa and toss to combine. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
4. Add the cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and feta cheese. Stir and taste.
5. Wash, score, and cut cucumbers ½ inch thick.  Scoop out a cavity and use small cookie scoop to mound filling on top.
6. You can make the quinoa ahead and add the feta just before serving.

Sweet & Salty Party Mix, Dowdy Style

This recipe was originally a teacher gift from Cheri's son one year. It is a nice sweet-salty-crunchy taste, and we thought it would be nice among the passed appetizers at Evie's wedding. It was pretty in little serving cups on the trays, and they made nice dividers on the trays themselves. The original recipe was modified, Dowdy-style, from a Pampered Chef recipe of the same name.

Ingredients:
10 c popped popcorn (not microwave)
6 cups miniature pretzel twists
4 cups dry-roasted salted peanuts
4 cups oven-toasted rice cereal squares (not wheat)
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup corn syrup
1 tsp baking soda

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 300°F.  In Stainless (6-qt.) Mixing Bowl, combine
popcorn, pretzels, peanuts and cereal; set aside. Combine butter, brown
sugar and corn syrup in (2-qt.) Saucepan. Cook and stir with over medium
heat until mixture comes to a boil. Continue to cook without stirring 3
minutes. Remove from heat; carefully stir in baking soda.

2.  Pour caramel sauce over popcorn mixture; stir until evenly coated. Spoon
onto Large Bar Pan; bake 30 minutes, stirring every 10 min. Remove from
oven.

3.  Transfer popcorn mixture to large piece of Parchment Paper. Cool
completely, breaking mixture into clusters as it cools. Pour into Large
Bowl.

Yield:  24 cups

Cook's Tips:  This recipe can be stored in an airtight container for up to
three days.

Do not use dark brown sugar when preparing this recipe as it may alter the
taste and appearance.

Paleo Bacon-Wrapped Sweet Potatoes

This is one of the recipes that was served on the passed appetizer trays at Evie's wedding reception. (The original recipe, which we modified, appeared here.)

Ingredients

• 1 sweet potato
• 3 slices of bacon (nitrate free is preferable)
• ½ tablespoon of olive oil (or fat of your choice like coconut oil)
• pinch of cinnamon
• pinch of chili powder
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
2. Peel and cut your sweet potatoes into standard sizes for uniform baking, 1-2 inch chunks or wedges.
3. Place the sweet potatoes in a mixing bowl. in your bowl, put olive oil and spices and spread throughout making sure the sweet potatoes are all evenly coated. Your sweet potatoes do not need to be drenched in olive oil. Remember, the bacon grease will keep the sweet potatoes from burning. The olive oil acts more like a binder so the spices will stick to the sweet potato while the bacon grease will actually help give the sweet potatoes that crunchy/ “deep fried” texture and flavor.
4. Take each piece of bacon and stretch it a little, then cut them in halves. Take a piece of bacon and wrap it around each of your seasoned sweet potato slices. I use toothpicks to hold the bacon together, but it’s not always necessary.
5. Place your bacon wrapped sweet potatoes on a lined cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 40 minutes or so. I always turn them over half way through the cookie process around the 20 minute mark. 
6. A drizzle of honey or maple syrup is nice at the end.  We did not do this for the wedding.  It may cause too much browning.
   

Brioche

This is the recipe for brioche loaves that we use to make yummy Chocolate Star Bread. We modified the original brioche recipe, which appeared on the Martha Stewart website, as it was unnecessarily complicated, in our opinion. Here is what we do, which works just great:

1 scant Tbsp. yeast
1/3 C. warm milk
4 C. all-purpose flour
1 T. salt
1/4 C. confectionery sugar
6 eggs (reserve 1 yolk for brioche loaves, or 1 egg white for Chocolate Star Bread)
3 sticks butter, softened (I used 2 sticks and added some extra milk to make the dough smooth.)

1) Proof yeast in warm milk in bowl of KitchenAid mixer. (Dissolve yeast and add a pinch of sugar, making sure yeast is activated by looking for the tell-tale foamy bubbles. These will be slight.)

2) With the dough hook fitted on the KitchenAid and the speed set on low, alternately add some of the combined dry ingredients and some of the softened butter to the yeast/milk liquid mixture, blending well with each addition.

3) Once all ingredients have been incorporated, increase the speed to medium-low and continue mixing until it is smooth, shiny, and elastic, and it comes away from the sides of the bowl clean. This will take a few minutes. (Fluctuations in the atmosphere of your room and in your measuring methods can make a difference in how wet or dry your dough turns out on a given day. Watch carefully to see if you need to add either a little extra flour or a little extra liquid to make the dough smooth—you don't want it too sticky and wet, but you don't want it too dry and stiff, either.)

4) Butter a large metal bowl and transfer your dough into it. Cover dough lightly with buttered plastic wrap and wait until dough is doubled in size (about two hours).

5) If you have the time, repeat this process one or two more times by lifting the dough and dropping it back into the bowl to deflate it, then letting it rise again. (We did not do this.)

6) Cover the dough one last time and put it in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours or overnight.

7) The next day, remove the dough from the fridge and return it to room temperature. It will be stiff and cold, and this will take a while. Leave it covered with the buttered plastic wrap for this step.

8) Divide the dough into two equal parts and proceed with your recipe, either turning it into two brioche loaves, or turning it into two Chocolate Star Breads. Instructions for the latter can be found here. For brioche loaves, proceed as indicated below.

9) For the first loaf, divide the first lump of dough into 8 equal parts, rolling each into a ball and placing it into a buttered loaf pan, side by side. Repeat for the second loaf.

10) Brush each loaf lightly with a mixture of one egg yolk mixed with a teeny splash of milk. Reserve this mixture. Cover loaves again with buttered plastic wrap, letting them rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about two hours.

11) Brush lightly again with egg yolk mixture, then place in oven preheated to 425 degrees. Bake until loaves just begin to turn golden (about 15 minutes), then reduce heat to 375 degrees and  continue baking until loaves are a deep golden brown, around 20-25 more minutes.

12) Remove from oven and let brioche loaves cool in the loaf pans for five minutes. After five minutes, remove from loaf pans and cool completely on wire rack.

Chocolate Star Bread

Their dad is working from home today, so the girls decided to make this special treat for our breakfast this morning. It is beautiful and absolutely delicious! They took pictures of each stage so you could make it without having to watch the video over and over. (We will say that it is worth one watch, however, even if just to hear to speaker's cool accent and to cement in your head how you must forevermore pronounce "Chocolate Star Bread.")

Elanore started with a pretty involved brioche recipe. It was a bit of a pain, but very worth it. Click the link to make that recipe, which will take a while. (She started it one day ahead of the planned "CHOC oh lut STAH bread" baking day.)

Here are the steps, illustrated for you in order:

1) Divide the brioche recipe into two even lumps. (This will make two CHOC oh lut STAH breads.)

2) Divide one of the lumps into four even sections.

3) Roll out the first quarter of the dough into a round a bit larger than the size of a large dinner plate. Cut around the edge of your dinner plate with a knife to create a perfect circle.

4) Cover the first round with a thin layer of Nutella.

5) Repeat with the next three quarters of dough, so that you have four rounds and three layers of Nutella by the end.

NOTE: At this point, you are supposed to move the entire thing to the parchment paper on the cookie sheet before cutting. The girls forgot to move it at this point, and didn't move it until the very end, which worked fine, too.

6) Place a small juice glass in the center of your stack of rounds, and cut the outer portion into sixteen even, pie-shaped wedges.

(Cut into fourths, then cut those in half again, then repeat, to make it easier.)

7) Take two of the wedges that are next to one another and twist them over twice to reveal the lovely inside pattern. At this point, just lay them down once they're twisted.

8) Repeat for all of the sections.

9) Pinch each of the two "star points" together.

10) Transfer the whole thing to parchment paper using a large spatula.

11) Brush with egg white.

12) Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.










Once the star bread is baked, each pinched point of the star will just pull out and be its own individual piece. It makes eight identical pieces, plus the small, gooey center piece left at the end. You can see it in all its video glory here.

Corned Beef and Cabbage

My friend Janet posted this on Facebook. I haven't tried it yet, but she's a great cook, so I assume it's yummy. We may try this for St. Patrick's Day this year, so I'll let you know...

2 C. water
2.5-3.5 lb. corned beef brisket
1/4 C. honey
2 T. Dijon mustard, divided
1 med. head cabbage, cut into 8 wedges
3 T. butter
1.5 tsp. chopped fresh dill, or 1/2 tsp. dried dill weed
spice packet--throw this away!

Place brisket in water in a Dutch oven, cover tightly, and cook 1 hour at 350 degrees. It is very important to cook the meat slowly because boiling it will cause the meat to become tough.

Turn brisket over and continue cooking 1.5-2 hours more or until meat is tender.

Remove brisket from cooking liquid and place, flat side up, on rack in broiler pan so that the surface of the meat is 3-4 inches from the heat.

Combine honey with 1 T. mustard and brush half of mixture over top of brisket and broil 3 minutes. Brush with remaining mixture and continue broiling 2 minutes or until brisket is glazed.

Meanwhile, steam cabbage 15-20 minutes or until tender.

Combine remaining 1 T. mustard with butter and dill, spread over hot cabbage wedges.

Carve brisket diagonally across the grain into thin slices and serve with cabbage.

Oven-Puffed German Pancake ("Dutch Baby")

3 Tbsp unsalted butter (salted was fine)
3/4 C. all-purpose flour (freshly ground whole wheat was fine)
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1 C. milk
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 C. fruit (see note below)
powdered sugar, for sprinkling

NOTE: Olivia made this delicious treat for us this morning. She used apple, unpeeled and chopped into small chunks, because that's what we had on hand and because our friend Susan, who had posted the recipe on Facebook, had done so successfully.  It was delicious, and not at all dry. The original recipe calls for any combination of blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries, fresh or frozen.

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place the butter in a cast-iron skillet and place it in the oven.

2. Combine the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. In another bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. Add this to the dry ingredients and whisk until combined and smooth.

3. Wearing an oven mitt, remove the hot skillet from the oven (the butter should be bubbling) and pour in the batter all at once. Sprinkle the fruit evenly over the top and return the skillet to the oven. Bake until the pancake is nicely browned and puffed around the edges, usually 12-15 minutes.

4. Remove the pancake from the oven--don't forget that oven mitt!--and carefully transfer to a serving platter. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

This recipe originally appeared in Hay Day Country Market Cookbook, and we found it on the yummy food blog two tarts, via a Facebook post from our friend Susan D., to whom belongs the photo credit. (That's hers, not ours, pictured above!)

  
The one on the left was made by Aunt Kaarin, and the one on the right was made by Olivia. 

It really is quick, easy, and yummy... low sugar and high protein... perfect for breakfast today!