Saturdays with Rachael Ray - Chicken Salad with Yogurt-Ranch Dressing

For some reason, chicken salad always makes me think of showers. Not the kind that bring the rain, but the ones before babies come or before wedding days. Why is it that chicken salad is such a common food at bridal and baby showers? Or is it just a Utah thing? Regardless, I don't mind, because I love chicken salad. In fact, I get excited whenever I am invited to a shower because chances are that they will have chicken salad on croissants. But whether or not the chicken salad is a good one, now that's the question.

I actually didn't intend on making this chicken salad for dinner this week, because it's not the chicken salad that I normally enjoy. You know - the kind with mayo, cashews...ooooh, I really like grapes in it, too. (Don't knock it until you've tried it!) But I accidentally brought the wrong RR magazine with me to work to make a grocery list from, so I had to choose something. And this is what I chose. Mainly because I didn't really feel like cooking, and how much easier does it get than a rotisserie chicken?

I'm so glad I ended up with this recipe instead of the one I was going to make. Because this is my idea of the PERFECT summer meal. No cooking, full of fresh veggies, and done in 15 minutes. And tasty, I might add. In fact, I may just give up that mayo-laden version for awhile, because I really loved all of the veggies in this. My surprise favorite - the cucumber. I would have never guessed that cucumbers would be so good in chicken salad!!

Chicken Salad with Yogurt-Ranch Dressing
from Every Day with Rachael Ray August 2010

serves 4

total time: 15 minutes

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, grated or finely chopped and pasted
juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
salt and pepper
1 cup reduced fat or fat free Greek yogurt
a small handful each finely chopped dill, parsley and chives
a few dashes hot sauce
1 rotisserie chicken, skin and bones discarded and meat shredded, or 1 pound cold cooked chicken, shredded or diced
1 small red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
1/3 seedless cucumber, chopped
2 ribs celery from the heart, thinly sliced on an angle
2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
4 flatbreads, warmed

In a large bowl, combine the EVOO , garlic, lemon juice and vinegar; season with salt and pepper. Stir in the yogurt, herbs and hot sauce. Add the chicken, bell pepper, onion, cucumber and celery; season with salt and pepper. Top the salad with the tomatoes and serve with the flatbreads.

-----------------------------------

Saturdays with Rachael Ray rules:

• You can link any blog post, present or past, as long as it is a Rachael Ray recipe.
• Your blog post must link back to this post, mentioning Saturdays with Rachael Ray.

That's it!! Simple, simple. Just make sure the recipe is a Rachael Ray recipe - it doesn't matter if it comes from her talk show, 30-Minute Meals, her magazine, or one of her cookbooks. But it must be from Rachael Ray. Any posts that don't follow these two rules will be deleted from the Mr. Linky.

I can't wait to see what you've made!

Cookbook of the Month Post - Postponed!!

Oh my....

For some reason, I cannot get my card reader to work. I've tried googling to find the answer, but so far, nothing is working. And my picture for today's Cookbook of the Month recipe is on there!

So instead of giving you a recipe without a picture - which I know is a sin here in food blogging land, I'm postponing it until Sunday. I'll still have Saturdays with Rachael Ray here tomorrow, but instead of having a free day on Sunday, hopefully I'll have a solution - and a picture!!

In the meantime, don't forget - time is running out to win a copy of this month's Cookbook of the Month - The Deen Bros. Southern Cooking. Check out the details HERE.

Toasted Angel Hair with Sausage and Peppers

Since going back to work, fast meals have taken on a whole new meaning to me. I love to cook, but sometimes, the only thing I want to do when I get home in the evening is to play with my little girl and spend time with my husband. So as much as I loved fast meals before, I really love them now!

That is one reason I decided to pull out my Pampered Chef cookbook - 29 Minutes to Dinner. I've made a few recipes from this book, and they hadn't steered me wrong, and dinner in under 30 minutes is awesome!! This recipe was good, but it could have been amazing with a couple of changes. First of all, I rarely make a full recipe - I usually cut it in half since I'm only feeding the two of us and a toddler. So what in the world possessed me to make this full recipe - especially when it feeds 8? I guess it's so that I can tell you that if you make this full recipe, you will need a very big pan. Do you know how much 1 pound of pasta is? My pan is pretty big, but it was basically impossible to stir the pasta around enough for it to toast properly. Instead, I had some of it burn while other parts didn't toast at all. Luckily, I was able to pick out most of the burnt pieces, but it was a bit of a pain. Also, the bell peppers cook a little to long for my tastes. I like them when they still have a little bit and are still really red, but the bell peppers in this were a bit soft. So, I would add them in later than the recipe calls. But really, this was quite tasty, and I'm sure that with the couple changes, this would be awesome! And good thing this heats up well as leftovers, since I had enough to feed 8!

Toasted Angel Hair with Sausage and Peppers
from 29 Minutes to Dinner

serves 8

total time: 26 minutes

1 pound Italian sausage
2 medium red bell peppers
1 pound angel hair pasta
3 garlic cloves, pressed
5 1/4 cups chicken broth
1 cup fresh basil, divided
1 ounce Parmesan cheese

Slice the tops and bottoms off of the bell peppers. Remove and discard the seeds and stems. Finely chop the tops and bottoms and slice the rest into julienne strips.

Place the sausage in a large skillet. Cook over medium heat for 8-10 minutes, until cooked through, breaking into crumbles as it cooks. Remove the sausage from the skillet and set aside.

Add the pasta to the skillet and toast for 8-10 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes. Press the garlic over the pasta and add broth, the peppers, and the cooked sausage. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes or until pasta is tender.

As the pasta simmers, chop the basil, reserving half for garnish. When the pasta is tender, remove from heat and stir in the basil.

Serve with the Parmesan cheese and some of the reserved basil.

Dutch Oven Desserts

What happens when you combine your love of the outdoors and your love of cooking? Dutch oven!! Head on over to my Cafe Zupas post today if you want to see what 2 delicious desserts I made this past weekend!

Sukiyaki Beef

I love the internet!! I seriously don't know how we survived before it. First of all, I got this recipe off the internet - where I find lots of recipes and inspiration. But also because there is so much information out there. I have to say that I didn't know what "Sukiyaki" was before this recipe, or even after I made this recipe. But before I shared this with you, I thought I'd do a quick search to find out exactly what sukiyaki is. it turn out, this is not really a sukiyaki dish.

First of all, traditional sukiyaki is a one pot meal that is cooked at the table. It is made from very high quality beef, so the traditional meal is not an inexpensive one. And, everyone typically eats out of the one pot.

But even though this isn't "traditional", I still really enjoyed it. It was easy and fast, and pretty good for you as well. And I love that I learned a non-traditional way to make a traditional Japanese meal!

Sukiyaki Beef
from Allrecipes.com

serves 4

total time: 35 minutes

1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 pound beef round steak, sliced diagonally into 3 inch pieces
1/2 cup beef stock
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon butter
3/4 cup diced onion
3/4 cup diced celery
1/4 pound mushrooms, sliced
1/4 pound fresh spinach, rinsed
prepared rice, for serving

Heat the oil in a wok or large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the beef and cook until evenly browned. Stir in the beef stock, soy sauce and butter. Push meat to the side and add in onion, celery and mushrooms. Cook, stirring, for about 4 minutes. Add spinach and cook fro 2 more minutes.

Serve over prepared rice.

Saturdays with Rachael Ray - Corn-and-Chipotle Chowdah

Yes, another corn recipe!!

Today is actually a state holiday here in Utah, and I'm enjoying it up in the mountains. Thank goodness for scheduled posting!! So I'm going to keep it nice and short today.

I'm one of those people that love soup year round. And it's a good thing, because this soup wouldn't be nearly as good in the middle of winter because the corn wouldn't be fresh. But hot or not outside, I love soup. And I loved this recipe!!

I did change a few things. First of all, the original recipe calls for grilling the corn first. I'm sure that makes this soup even more delicious, but for the sake of time, I skipped that. I also just chopped the chipotles on my cutting board because they would have been totally lost in my food processor.

How about you - do you like soup when it's hot outside?

Corn-and-Chipotle Chowdah
from Every Day with Rachael Ray June/July 2009

serves 6

total time: 30 minutes

6 ears corn, scraped from cob
drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
4 slices bacon, finely chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 yellow fleshed potatoes, such as Yukon Gold, cut into small cubes
2 ribs celery from the heart with leafy tops, finely chopped
2 large cloves garlic, grated or finely chopped
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper
2 canned chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce
32-ounces chicken stock (4 cups)
2 cups heavy cream
lime wedges, chopped flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped scallions and crumbles of cotija cheese or queso fresco, for garnish

In a soup pot, heat a drizzle of EVOO over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook until crisp, 3 to 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a plate. Add the onion, potatoes, celery and garlic to the pot. Add the bay leaf and thyme, season with salt and pepper, cover the pot and cook until the vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes.

Using a food processor, puree the chipotle chiles. Stir into the vegetables, then stir in the broth and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and keep warm. Rinse the food processor bowl.

Add one-third of the corn kernels to the food processor, pour in 2 cups of the soup and puree. Pour the mixture into the remaining soup and lower the heat to a simmer. Stir in the remaining corn kernels, the cream and reserved bacon and cook until thickened, about 2 minutes. Serve the chowder in bowls with the lime wedges, parsley, scallions and lots of cheese.

-----------------------------------

Saturdays with Rachael Ray rules:

• You can link any blog post, present or past, as long as it is a Rachael Ray recipe.
• Your blog post must link back to this post, mentioning Saturdays with Rachael Ray.

That's it!! Simple, simple. Just make sure the recipe is a Rachael Ray recipe - it doesn't matter if it comes from her talk show, 30-Minute Meals, her magazine, or one of her cookbooks. But it must be from Rachael Ray. Any posts that don't follow these two rules will be deleted from the Mr. Linky.

I can't wait to see what you've made!

Cookbook of the Month Recipe - Fried Green Tomatoes

**Don't forget - you can enter to win a copy of this month's Cookbook of the Month - The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook. Enter and check out the details HERE.**

I think that sometimes, people think that since you have a food blog, you know a lot about food. I'm just here to tell you - I have been writing this blog for over 3 years now, and I am no where close to a food expert!! Just to prove it - up until a couple of years ago, I thought that green tomatoes were actually a kind of a tomato. I didn't know that they are actually just unripe tomatoes. I had always wanted to try fried green tomatoes, but I had never seen green tomatoes at my grocery store. Boy, did I feel stupid when I learned that fried green tomatoes are just made from unripe tomatoes!!

I actually almost waited until August to do this cookbook, because the one recipe I really wanted to make was fried green tomatoes. I've never had them before, and ever since seeing the movie Fried Green Tomatoes, I've always wanted to try one. We don't get tomatoes until August, so I didn't know if I'd be able to make this recipe this month or not. Lucky me - I went out to the garden the other day and was able to pull a few green tomatoes. They weren't very big, but they would work! I do have to admit, though, that it kind of made me sad, picking those green tomatoes. Just because I knew that those would be my first ripe tomatoes, and now I'll have to wait a little bit longer!

But the wait will be worth it, because these were good. And I didn't have my hopes up, because I tasted a raw green tomato and had to spit it out. But once they are coated and fried - pure heaven!!

Recipe Notes:

• I loved this dressing, but I wish I would have had a little sour cream to add to it. It was really thin, and I think that some creaminess would have been wonderful.
• I loved these when they were hot, but I think I actually liked them best when they were almost room temperature. Which is a good thing, because it means they would be a good appetizer you could make earlier in the day to serve to company!
• In the recipe, it mentions that if you can't find green tomatoes, you can use store tomatoes that are out of season and just salt them and squirt them with lemon juice before dredging. I'd actually like to try this sometime!

Recipe Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Fried Green Tomatoes
from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook

serves 6

total time: 30 minutes

3 pounds green tomatoes (about 6-8 medium tomatoes)
3 large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup whole milk
3 cups peanut oil
3 batches Lee Bros. All-Purpose Fry Dredge (recipe follows)
kosher salt, if needed
lemon juice, if needed

Cut out the stem ends from the tomatoes and slice them 1/4-inch thick with a serrated tomato or bread knife; reserve. Whisk the eggs and milk together in a broad, shallow bowl.

Pour the oil into a 12-inch skillet and heat over medium-high heat until the temperature on a candy thermometer reads 365 degrees. (If using a different size skillet or pan, fill with oil to a depth of 1/3 inch.)

Heat the oven to 225 degrees. Set a cooling rack on a cookie sheet and place on the top rack of the oven.

Spread the dredge on a large plate or pie pan or in a small, shallow baking pan. Taste the tomatoes. They should have a bright tartness like citrus fruit. If they don't, sprinkle the slices with salt and lemon juice. Then press 1 tomato slice into the dredge, once on each side, shaking any excess loose. Dunk in the egg mixture, then dredge the slice on both sides again. Shake off any excess and place the slice on a clean plate. Repeat with more slices until you've dredged enough for a batch (3 or 4 slices). With a spatula, transfer the first batch of slices to the oil.

As the first batch cooks, dredge the second batch of tomatoes, but keep a watchful eye on the first. Once the slices have fried to a rich golden brown on one side, about 2 minutes, flip them carefully and fry for 2 minutes more, or until golden brown. Transfer the fried tomatoes to a plate lined with a double thickness of paper towels and leave them to drain for 1 minute.

Transfer the slices to the cooling rack in the oven, arranging them in a single layer, so they remain warm and crisp. Repeat with the remaining slices until all the green tomatoes have been fried. Serve right away with Buttermilk-Lime Dressing (recipe follows).

Lee Bros. All-Purpose Fry Dredge

1/2 cup all purpose flour
3 tablespoons stone-ground cornmeal
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper

In a medium bowl, sift the flour, cornmeal, salt and pepper together twice.

Buttermilk-Lime Dressing

makes 1 1/4 cups

3/4 cup whole or lowfat buttermilk
5 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup finely minced basil
1/4 cup finely minced green onions
1/4 cup finely minced flat-leaf parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste

In a small bowl, whisk the ingredients together until thoroughly combined. Cover tightly and store in the refrigerator not more than 2 days.