Curry Chicken Salad Pita Sandwich

I have a fondness for chicken salad...mostly because I love it when leftovers can be used to make something I really like. It's like twice as good! I really like the curry flavor and I'm a sucker for apples in salad. This is one of my favorite picnic recipes because you can assemble the sandwich on site and the pita doesn't get soggy. Number one complaint about picnic food!

Ingredients:

5-6 grilled chicken tenders (marinated with soy sauce and ground ginger) or 1 lb of chicken breast

1 Granny Smith apple cubed

1 tablespoon sliced almonds

6 tablespoons plain Greek yorgurt

1 tablespoon mayo

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons curry powder

1 tablespoon rough chopped cilantro

2 tablespoons sliced green onion

3/4 teaspoon coarse salt

Ground pepper to taste

pitas

bibb lettuce

Directions:

1. Chicken should be baked or grilled and refrigerated until cool. Cube chicken into 1 inch pieces. Mix chicken with apples, almonds, curry, cilantro, onion, salt and pepper. Add yogurt, mayo and lemon juice and mix thoroughly.
2. To assemble sandwich: halve the pita, line with lettuce and fill with chicken salad.

Tahini Potato Salad

Every time I try a new potato salad recipe, I swear "it is the best potato salad ever." I've just figured out that I just like potato salad. This recipe is no exception! Best. Potato. Salad. Ever. It is nice and spicy and I love tahini sauce. It is even better the next day...My kind of leftovers! Using all these herbs for this recipe made be really want to plant an herb garden. Gonna get on that real soon. Anyway, super good potato salad.

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs red creamer potatoes

1 cup fresh peas (I used thawed frozen peas)

4 green onions minced

1 tbs fresh mint

1 tbs cilantro

1 tbs fresh oregano

Dressing

1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tbs almond oil (sub EVOO)

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1/2 teaspoon tabasco

1 1/2 tbs tahini sauce

1 tbs dijon mustard

1/2 cup sour cream

Recipe:

Boil potatoes for 15-20 minutes. Drain and let cool.

When cool, mix potatoes with peas, green onion, mint, cilantro and oregano.

In blender or with immersion blender, mix garlic, lemon juice, white pepper, tabasco, tahini, mustard, sour cream and while mixing, drizzle in oil.

Gently toss potato mixture with dressing and served chilled.

Banana Sour Cream Waffles

I made these for Beck for his first day of testing to get him off to a good start. He ate so much that he made himself sick and had to stay home!! Murphy's Law in full effect...anywho, these are good, just be sure to stop when you are full.

I added chocolate chips to Beck's and glazed walnuts for the adults. These are so delicious, just be warned that they are dangerous!

Ingredients for 4-5 waffles:

• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 ripe banana
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 ts coarse salt
• 1/2 ts ground cinnamon
• 1/2 ts ground ginger
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tb (1/4 stick) melted butter, cooled
• 1/8 cup chocolate chips
• 1/8 cup glazed chopped walnuts

Recipe:

1. Beat the eggs and sugar for 5-8 minutes. When the beater is lifted, the batter should trail off like a ribbon.
2. Beat in mashed, ripe banana.
3. Sift flour, salt and spices together. Alternately fold in half of the flour mixture, all the sour cream, and the rest of the flour mixture. Lightly stir in the melted butter. Let the batter rest for 15 minutes.
4. Pour about 1/2 cup batter on heated waffle maker and add either the chips or the walnuts. cook until golden brown.

Serve with warm syrup and enjoy in moderation!!

Cedar Plank Mint Salmon

This is my favorite salmon recipe and I wanted to have one more BBQ night before it's starts raining again. I'm also trying to make food high in protein because Beck is doing the second grade standardized testing that all California schools require. I really want Beck to preform well as a reflection of his excellent teacher and his school! He has been going to bed early (7:30) and I've even been making Saturday style breakfast (pancakes, waffles, the like) in the morning before school. Tomorrow we are having chocolate chip sour cream waffles...if I can get up early enough, we'll see!

• Soak cedar plank for at least 3 hours

Ingredients:

• 1 lb salmon filet
• 1 cup mint leaves
• 1 cup flat parsley leaves
• 1 small shallot
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 ts salt
• 1 ts black pepper
• 1/4 ts grated ginger
• 1/2 cup juice of fresh lemons
• 4 tbs evoo
• 2 tbs honey
• 4 tbs minced tarragon

Recipe:

In food processor, mix garlic and shallot with lemon juice and evoo.

Pulse until a fine paste.

Add honey, mint and parsley, along with salt and pepper and continue to pulse until incorporated into watery pesto like consistency.

Marinate salmon for about three hours.

Remove fish from marinate and dispose of marinate. Rub filet with evoo and top with salt, pepper and minced tarragon.

Place salmon on plank, skin side down. BBQ for about 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

Salmon is done when flakes easily.

I served the salmon with green bean almondine and a yummy salad. Even made glazed walnut for the salad! But that is another recipe..maybe later...I'm tired. Cheers!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

These muffins are super good! Beck even ate one! He says that he hates bananas, but I guess chocolate chips trump banana.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Recipe makes about 1 dozen muffins.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) melted butter
• 1/3 cup buttermilk (sub regular milk and add 2 drops lemon juice, stir)
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 ripe banana
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Recipe:

• sift all dry ingredients together (flour, sugars, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder and soda, and salt)
• Add melted butter, buttermilk, egg and extracts. Beat for 1 minute
• mix in ripe banana
• fold in chocolate chips

Line muffin tin with paper cup and fill with mixture

Bake at 300 degrees for about 30 minutes

Check for doneness with toothpick

I ate my warm muffin with a glass of sparkling almond wine from Trader Joe's. Not sure which I liked better, but I highly recommend both! Cheers.

Almost Summer

It's almost summer, even in Northern California!! Of course, the day after this picture was taken it, rained cats and dogs (actually the next two days)! Just try to get used to the weather..."I dare you."

Anywho, it was almost in the seventies and Beck took full advantage by playing in the fountains downtown. He had a really good time, but the walk to the car was a little cold!

Thai Coconut Curry Wonton Soup

This is my answer for dinner on a super lazy Sunday evening. I just love it when I have all the ingredients to make dinner in my cupboards. It really is a buzz kill to have to drive down the hill because I'm missing something. I gathered up all my fixings and basically my soup was done.Ingredients:

• 32 ozs Thai coconut curry broth (sub. chicken or veggie broth)
• 2 cups (about two handfuls) shredded carrots
• 4 green onions (white part cooked in soup and green part for garnish)
• 1 cup peas
• 1/2 package frozen chicken wontons (more if you like)
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger (if you like spicy add more to taste)
• 2 splashes soy sauce

Add broth, ginger, white parts of onion, and soy sauce. Simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add peas, carrots, and wontons and simmer for another 10 minutes. Add pepper to taste.

Garnish soup with green onion and enjoy.

Zucchini Walnut Bread

This is my attempt to use all the zucchini I bought. It was on sale so I bought more than a family of three can comfortably eat! We had so much that Beck would finish the descriptions of dinner with "and zucchini!" As in, we are going to have chicken, rice and Beck would add "let me guess, ... and zucchini."

So anywho, found a good recipe for zucchini nut bread. It uses two zucchinis and it makes two loaves. We usually eat about 1/2 a loaf and Aaron takes the rest to work to stock the lunchroom. I love any chance I get to bake and use my new stand mixer! I really like using my mixer, but it is dangerous to have baked goods about the house, so this is a good arrangement for all involved!

Zucchini Walnut Bread

Ingredients:

• 2 cups finely grated zucchini (about 2 zucchinis)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/4 teaspoon rum extract
• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground anise
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two loaf pans and line with parchment paper and grease paper
• Mix sugars, oil and eggs together
• Add extracts and mix
• Sift all dry ingredients together and add to mix in 3 increments
• Fold in zucchini and walnuts
• Divide batter between loaf pans
• Bake for approximately 1 hour 10 minutes.
• Check for doneness via a toothpick or other tester
• Cool ten minutes, then invert on wire rack and remove parchment paper

This is yummy bread and yet another way to get Beck to eat vegetables. Small victories!

Cedar Plank Blackened Halibut

This is the best fish recipe ever!! I especially like the way the cedar plank smells while the fish is cooking. The halibut is so yummy even Beck will eat fish. Of course, Beck's is plain because he doesn't like spicy food, but he still is eating fish (he said this is better than fish sticks, a ringing endorsement from an eight-year-old.)

Here is the spice roundup:
Spices all mixed together.
Most important, super fresh fish. Daddy gets the big piece!!

Ingredients:

• Cedar plank, soaked in water for at least an hour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh tarragon
• 1 teaspoon cajun blackened spice (Cajun's Choice)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed fennel seeds
• 1 pound halibut
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Mix all spices together in a bowl.

Rub halibut with 1 tablespoon oil.

Top halibut with spice mixture.

Sear halibut in hot pan or skillet with remaining oil. Cook seasoned side down for about 1 minute, until very brown on bottom.

Transfer halibut to cedar plank with seasoned side up.

Barbeque at 400 degrees until fish flakes easily, about 8 minutes.

Serve with lemon wedges.

I call this recipe "Fantastic Fish." Enjoy!

Easter Eggs

Beck and I dyed Easter eggs using food coloring and paper towels. Started out by dipping them, but they were kind of boring.

Took wet paper towels, put a few drops of different food colors on the towels and then wrapped the egg in the towel. The eggs came out kind of swirled. I think they are neato!

Spicy Ginger Butternut Squash Soup

I've had this large butternut squash on my kitchen counter for about a month now and was getting tired of dusting around it! So I decided to make some soup out of it. Turned out pretty good.

Ingredients:

1 large butternut squash

4 cup chicken stock

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon fresh minced ginger

2 teaspoons fresh tarragon

2 teaspoons fresh parsley

1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon paprika

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven 400 degrees

Cut squash in half lengthwise. Rub olive oil and salt squash halves. Roast squash 30 minutes at 400 degrees. Let squash cool and scoop out the meat of the squash into a bowl.

In stock pot, saute onions, garlic and fresh ginger in 1 tablespoon olive oil on medium heat. Cook until onions are translucent.

Add squash and spices, mix throughly.

Add 4 cups chicken stock.

Gently simmer for 25 minutes.

Mix with immersion hand blender until smooth.

Garnish with plain yogurt and chives.

Bon Appetit!

Costanoa Camping

These are the tent cabins we stayed in at Half Moon Bay in February. We had a ton of fun. The weather was even nice for three days we were there!

The boys went on a long hike along the ocean. I stayed behind and read in the sauna. I swear I'm going to get one of those one of these days. I really wish I had one today...brrrrrrrrr. Last time I checked it was 38 degrees outside.

Quilt for baby Zachary

I made this quilt for my cousin Amber and her husband Mark. Happy Birthday Zachary!!!

I like madras for baby quilts because the colors are good for a boy or girl.

Beck saw the quilt I was making and he said that he wanted one too. So I made one for Beck and he chose the boarder. I really liked the way it turned out. His quilt is the one on the right. The one on the left was made for me for my Great Grandma Scott.

In fact, Beck had a project at school where he had to give a presentation about a "family artifact" and he used Grandma Scott's quilt. Of course, he told the class that it was my baby quilt and it was really old, "like 100 years old." Thanks Beck!! I suppose age has no real meaning to an eight-year-old; if you're not a kid, you're old!

Easter 2010

Happy Easter!!!!

Happy Easter Everyone! Beck got a HUGE Easter basket this year. Beck ranks holidays in descending order of amounts of candy given. He proclaimed that this year, Easter is almost better than Halloween. ("Mostly because you don't have to work so hard to get the candy.") Also after much debate Beck decided that the Easter Bunny is real because Santa Claus is real. Can't argue with that logic!

We discovered that Lemon and Abbie have a penchant for Bunny Peeps. Lemon was trying to chew through the packaging so I figured if I gave him one he would leave Beck's candy alone. Boy was I wrong. Lemon began by licking it, then picked it up in his mouth and ran off to devour it elsewhere. After watching the cat eat the peep as he would a mouse, body first and leaving the head, I don't think that I will ever eat another peep. Aaron found it quite bizarre to find a disembodied peep bunny on the stairs!

It is too cold to have the Easter egg hunt outside (gotta love NorCal....I swear Northern California should not be called California at all, it gives a false sense of the climate. I'm going to call it Oregonia or Caligon.) It snowed here last week and you can see your breath in the downstairs bathroom. So we found some creative hiding places inside the house.

Happy Hunting!!!