Caesar Salad with Chicken and Bacon

Do you ever have one of those weeks? - I know you have - where if something can go wrong, it will. First of all the vacuum cleaner started making the most bloody awful noise, then the fridge gasped its last and gave up the ghost. So, then you’re waiting for the third thing to go wrong, because we all know these things happen in threes, right? In our case the third thing was the chainsaw, so then we heaved a sigh of relief because at least one of the cars didn’t conk out. Suffice it to say that the local Lowes store did very nicely indeedy out of us.

Anyway, enough of that! I know I’ve been very lackadaisical (isn’t that a lovely word?) over the past few months, but I do have a couple of recipes I want to share with you before I wave the summer goodbye. Not that I’m sorry to see the back of it – as you all know, I hate the hot, humid weather. Now that it’s turned cooler I will be seeking out the heat of the kitchen, and curling up with my computer while we get down to some good old comfort foods.

But before that, a farewell to summer. The first recipe is a Caesar Salad with chicken and bacon. This has been my absolute favorite salad this summer, and I’m sure it will be making a few encores over the winter. The second, which I’ll post tomorrow, is a Cajun Chicken Burger, it’s a BBC Good Food recipe that I adapted to cook on the BBQ.

Caesar Salad with Chicken and Bacon

Ingredients:

For the croutons
½ a French baguette torn into bite size pieces
3 tablespoons olive oil
A sprinkle of sea salt, to taste. (I know I never use salt but I do here).

For the rest

3 slices of bacon, cut in half.

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite size chunks
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 romaine lettuce, torn into large pieces

For the dressing

½ cup Parmesan cheese, shredded + 2 tablespoons for topping
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
6 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
Black pepper to taste

Directions

• Pre-heat BBQ grill to low.
• In a medium bowl mix bread chunks with olive oil.
• Take a large piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil and turn up the edges to form a small baking tray. Brush with a little olive oil, place bread on foil, crust side up, in a single layer. Sprinkle with sea salt and set aside.
• Make another small baking tray from foil and add the bacon.
• Cook croutons and bacon on BBQ for approximately 20 minutes, or until both are crispy. Turn bacon and croutons halfway through cooking. Remove both from grill and allow to cool, drain bacon on paper towel.
• Meanwhile, (back at the range), heat olive oil in a large skillet over a medium-high heat and add chicken. Sauté until no longer pink, reduce heat to medium and continue to cook for a further 5 or 6 minutes until golden brown. Add garlic and sauté for a further minute. Remove chicken and garlic to a plate and allow to cool.
• While everything cools, wash, dry, and tear lettuce and add to a salad bowl.
• Also prepare dressing. In a small bowl, mix mayo, white wine vinegar, garlic, black pepper, and Parmesan. It should look about the consistency of yogurt, if it’s a bit thick, add a few drops of water.
• Top lettuce with half the chicken pieces, half the croutons, and crumble over half of the bacon. Toss with ¾ of the dressing. Scatter the remaining chicken and croutons on top, crumble over the bacon, drizzle with the rest of the dressing, top with 2 tablespoons of shredded Parmesan, and serve. YUM!
  
  
  
  

Lemon Chicken Chow Mein Salad

I’m sorry to have caused concern and consternation, amazingly, the way things have been going this year, I have not been ill, just busy with other things. My good friend Vicki (see Victoria’s comment on the last post), called me the other day and told me I needed to get back blogging as you guys were missing me. I’ve missed y’all, too, so thanks for the kick up the bum, Vicki. :-)Anyway, we have a long weekend coming up, and I have nothing planned, so I’ll be visiting with you real soon.

In the meantime, I'll leave you all with this scrummy salad recipe, and hope you all have a fabulous weekend.

Lemon Chicken Chow Mein Salad


Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts
Juice from ½ a lemon
Black pepper, to taste
A drizzle of olive oil
1/2 a package (about 3 ounces) chow mein noodles
A handful of sugar snap peas, (about 4 ounces) halved lengthways
½ yellow (red or orange) pepper, thinly sliced
A handful of beansprouts
A couple of sprigs of fresh basil, leaves removed and torn

Salad Dressing

3 tablespoons olive oil
Zest and juice of ½ a lemon
2 tablespoons mayonnaise

• Pre-heat BBQ grill to low.
• Brush a large piece of heavy-duty foil with olive oil. Place chicken on foil, drizzle with the juice from ½ a lemon, and add a couple of grinds of black pepper. Seal foil loosely around chicken.
• Place chicken on BBQ and cook to desired doneness. Remove from foil a few minutes before end of cooking time and brown a little on the bars.
• Meanwhile, cook chow mein noodles according to package directions, transfer noodles to a colander, rinse under cold water and allow to drain.
• While noodles drain, prepare the dressing. In a small bowl mix all ingredients together and whisk lightly with a fork.
• Divide noodles between 2 bowls, throw in the sugar snap peas, peppers, bean sprouts and basil. Pour a little of the dressing into each bowl and toss lightly to coat.
• Slice the chicken breasts and arrange on top of the salad. Drizzle with remaining dressing and serve.
  
  
  
  
  
  

Potato Salad

I haven’t been around much this past couple of weeks, largely due to being glued to the tennis at Wimbledon. Needless to say, the token Brit, Andy Murray, got knocked out in the semi-finals. (Sob!) It’s something like 72 years since a British man won the singles at Wimbledon. And the last British woman to win was Virginia Wade back in 1977, which incidentally was also the year of the queen’s silver jubilee. Anyway, better luck next year, Andy.

Also, I want to thank Pam at http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/ for kindly allowing me to use her recipe for Portabella Burgers in my recent article about a mushroom farm. If you’re interested you can find the article and Pam’s recipe here: http://www.ok-living.coop/Feature1.php

This recipe for potato salad features baby red potatoes from our garden, which were absolutely delish – still are in fact, as we haven’t used them all yet. Tragically the plants did die, but we were able to harvest a decent amount of new potatoes before they finally popped their clogs. Fortunately, however, our robust russets are robust and thriving, so many more spuds to come.

Potato Salad

Ingredients:

2 lbs. red potatoes, unpeeled
1 rib celery, sliced
¼ of a red onion, sliced
3 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
¼ cup plain yogurt
¼ cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
Black pepper, to taste
Dash of paprika

Directions:

• Cut potatoes into halves or quarters depending on size, place in a saucepan and bring to boil over a high heat. Reduce heat to medium-high and boil gently for 10 – 15 minutes until potatoes are slightly tender. Don’t overcook or you’ll end up with mashed potato salad. Boil eggs while potatoes cook.
  
• Allow eggs to cool in cold water. Drain potatoes, and leave to cool for 10 – 15 minutes.
  
• In a small bowl mix together yogurt, mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, and black pepper.
  
• Put potatoes in a salad bowl with the celery, onions, and eggs. Add the dressing and toss gently to coat. Cover and chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
• Before serving sprinkle with a little paprika.
  

Amalfi-Style Shrimp

Many moons ago, I had a fabulous vacation not too far from the Amalfi area of Italy, staying in a lovely place called Sorento. While there I had the opportunity to visit many historic places such as Pompeii, Herculaneum, Monte Casino, and even revisited one of my favorite cities, Rome, for a weekend. I also went to the top of the still active volcano, Vesuvius, and to the island of Capri, so I have many happy memories of this region.

On a less happy note, it’s been sweltering here this week, we’ve been melting in 100°F temperatures, which were further compounded by high humidity. Even at night, temps have been in the low 80’s so it’s been thoroughly unpleasant.

Anyway, it's no use moaning, 'cos I can't do a damn thing about it. Today’s recipe is another one from good old Auntie Beeb and another winner. As usual I changed it up a bit, the recipe said to marinate the shrimp for 1 hour, but I thought that was too long as I felt the mint would completely dominate the flavor of the shrimp, so I only did them for 10 minutes. Personally, I thought that was just right, but by all means marinate them for longer if you like.

I highly recommend this dish, the shrimp were finger-licking good. Also, they only took 5 minutes to cook on the grill, so poor old Mick didn’t have to spend too long sweating over a hot BBQ. Try these, you’ll be glad you did.


Amalfi-Style Shrimp





Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2-3 sprigs of mint, (about 15 leaves) finely chopped
Black pepper, to taste
25-30 large uncooked shrimp
¼ cup Italian breadcrumbs

Directions:

• Peel shrimp, but leave tails on.
• In a medium bowl combine the olive oil, garlic, mint, and black pepper, add the shrimp and toss to coat. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
• Pre-heat BBQ to low.
• Thread 5-6 shrimp onto skewers, (I used metal ones, but if you use bamboo you’ll need to soak them in water for a few minutes).
• Place the breadcrumbs on a plate then press the skewered shrimp into the crumbs.
• Brush a piece of heavy-duty foil with olive oil. Place the skewers on the foil and grill for about 2 minutes a side, until shrimp have turned pink, and breadcrumbs are golden.
  Serve with lemon wedges.
  
  
  

Parmesan Chicken

It’s 95°F here today, and as humid and sweaty as an old sock, despite this we are still being battered by severe thunderstorms on a regular basis. Last week we had a particularly bad one with straight-line winds that brought down one of our persimmon trees.

We had a really nice grouping of three of these trees, when they were all in leaf they looked like one magnificent tree. These trees have had an unfortunate year; one was struck by lightning and will have to be cut down – now this.


The remaining one looks totally forlorn without his chums. But on a brighter note, we have had a bit of a tree planting frenzy this spring, and have put in 14 new trees. Admittedly, they are not much more than twigs right now, but one-day. :-)

Anyway, on with the food. We have finally had some luck with some salad greens. Yay! We’ve tried growing lettuce and spinach before with very little success. The weather here in Oklahoma changes from warm to baking hot so rapidly that the plants always bolted before we had a chance to eat them. This year Mick planted some mesclun greens which did very well indeedy, in fact, they grew back almost as fast as we could pick them. Mesclun mixes vary, ours was made up of arugula and dinky little spinach leaves. Although they kept us in salads during the spring, that avenue of pleasure is now closed, as they too have bolted in the heat. Oh hum!

To this mix of salad greens, I added a few baby Swiss rainbow chard leaves from our garden, some chopped tomato, a drizzle of olive oil and red wine vinegar, a dash of cracked pepper, feta cheese. You can also add a few toasted slivered almonds for a little extra crunch. I served this salad with the Parmesan chicken. This chicken is light but full of flavor. We cooked it on the BBQ, but you could do it in the oven at 350F, for about 10-15 minutes.

Parmesan Chicken


Ingredients:

1/3 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
Cracked black pepper, to taste
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

Directions:

• Pre-heat grill to low, or oven to 350F
• Mix Italian breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, and a dash of cracked black pepper on a plate.
• Beat egg in a shallow bowl.
• Slice chicken in half into 2 flat pieces.
• Dip chicken in egg, then into parmesan/breadcrumb mix.
• Place chicken in an ovenproof dish, or if grilling, on a double sheet of heavy-duty foil, greased with olive oil. Grill or bake for 10 – 15 minutes.
  
  
  

Wild Cod in a Tomato, Pepper and Olive Sauce

I’ve been having a bit of a break from writing, and catching up on some gardening (yay!), and housework (yuk!), both of which needed some attention after all my recent bouts of illness. But I still found plenty of time for dossing around (English slang for idling about) enjoying a glass or two of wine on the porch in the evenings, reading, doing crosswords, watching some telly, and of course, cooking.


I usually get my gardening and flower planting done much earlier than this, but the weather this spring has been pretty dire. Lots of storms, rain of biblical proportions, and the odd tornado scare thrown in for good measure. Not that I mind gardening in the rain, if the Brits allowed a little rain to stop them they would never garden. :-) Mick’s veggie garden is coming along great, if you’re interested you can check out his blog here: http://oklahomegrownveg.blogspot.com/


This week, however, has been largely hot and sunny, though we did have one day that was really cloudy and cool, thus a perfect gardening day for me. I loathe laboring in the heat. This type of weather always reminds me of summer days in England, endless gray skies, with the ever-present threat of rain.


Anyway, enough of my drivel, let’s get on with the recipe. As many of you know, I am often bemoaning the fact that I can’t get any decent fresh fish here, and my experiences with frozen fish have not been very good. Anyway, the last time I went to Sam’s Club, I picked up a bag of frozen wild cod that turned out to be surprisingly good. They had a number of other varieties of fish by the same producer, so I will definitely be checking those out next time I go there.


Wild Cod in a Tomato, Pepper and Olive Sauce




Ingredients:


1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
½ green pepper, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 14-ounce can whole tomatoes (I used my tomato gloop, recipe here: http://range-warfare.blogspot.com/2008/08/tomato-gloop-2.html) As the gloop already contains peppers and onions I didn’t need to add them, but I did throw in a few chopped spring onions).
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Black pepper
3-4 wild cod fillets
2 tablespoons feta cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, chopped


Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 400°F


• Heat oil in a large skillet over a medium heat, add onions and green pepper and sauté until onion is translucent. Stir in tomatoes, (break them up a little with the spoon), tomato paste, olives, oregano, and black pepper. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for about 5 minutes.


• Brush an 11 x 7-inch baking dish with a little olive oil and add cod fillets to dish. Spoon the tomato mixture over the fish and bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily.


• To serve, sprinkle with feta cheese and chopped parsley.
  

Pasta Bolognese Bake with Garlic Bread

A few weeks back I mentioned that I had written an article about a local botanical garden for Oklahoma Living Magazine. If you’re interested you can find it here: http://www.ok-living.coop/Feature_3.php

And whilst I’m on the subject of writing, last week, I got my entries back from the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation contest. I won a big fat zero this year, not even so much as a measly honorable mention. Oh hum. On the plus side, I did get some excellent marks from the judges and some very favorable comments, but I guess others just did better. Oh well, you can’t win them all, and there’s always next year.

And continuing the literary theme, a couple of friends from my writer’s group were recently bemoaning the fact that though they like lasagna, they find it a fiddle to make. I told them I had a much easier pasta bake recipe, personally I prefer it to lasagna, and any leftovers freeze beautifully. So this one’s for you Sharon and Margaret.

If you like you can leave out the baking stage and use this as a pasta sauce. Omit the cheeses, and just sprinkle the finished dish with a little shredded Parmesan.

Pasta Bolognese Bake with Garlic Bread
Serves 4

Ingredients:

8 ounces penne pasta
½ tablespoon butter
1 lb. ground sirloin
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 – 3 teaspoons chili powder
1 14½ ounce can whole tomatoes (I used my tomato gloop, you can find that recipe here: http://range-warfare.blogspot.com/2008/08/tomato-gloop-2.html)
3 tablespoons tomato paste
A couple of dashes of Tabasco sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 level teaspoon sugar
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
4 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded (divided)
½ cup sharp cheddar, shredded

Note: Seasonings, spices, and herb quantities are all guesstimates, I just tinker around until it’s how I like it.

Easy Peasy Garlic Bread


Ingredients:

½ a French loaf, cut in half lengthwise
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped – use less if you want, but I like garlic bread that tastes of garlic
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, + about 2 teaspoons butter.

Directions for pasta bake:

• Cook pasta for about 5 minutes, drain and set aside.
• Melt butter in a deep-sided skillet, over a medium-high heat, add ground beef and saute until browned.
• Reduce heat to medium, add onion, and sauté for about 2 minutes. Add garlic and chili powder and sauté for a further minute.
• Add canned tomatoes, and break tomatoes in half, bring to a gentle boil. Stir in tomato paste.
• Add Tabasco, Worcestershire sauces, oregano, black pepper, and sugar, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile pre-heat oven to 350F
• Spoon a layer of about a 1/3 of the sauce into an 11x7-inch baking dish and top with ¾ of the mozzarella.
• Stir pasta and mushrooms into remaining sauce, and transfer to baking dish. Top with remaining cheeses and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes, until cheese is bubbly.

While pasta bakes prepare garlic bread.

• Spread each half of French loaf with approximately 2 teaspoons butter, and place on a baking sheet covered with foil for easy clean up.
• Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Add garlic, and sauté for 1 minute.
• Spoon garlic butter evenly over bread, and set aside.
• When pasta is out of the oven, heat broiler to high.
• Place garlic bread under broiler for 2-3 minutes until bread is golden brown. Keep a close eye on it, as it’s easy to burn it.