Balsamic Vinegar Chicken Salad May 17, 2011

As I mentioned the other day-Matt and I have been doing the Artisan bread thing lately-which means lots of sandwiches. Once I find a sandwich I like, I can eat 7 days a week. But not Matt, he needs variety. SO, also inspired by our favorite Bakery, I tried my hand at a little copy cat chicken salad.

Let me post this disclaimer-this is not your mama’s chicken salad. We’ve been raving about it to my sister-in-law for ages, and since she was expecting mayo, celery, chicken, and whatever else-she was not impressed. Or rather, she was underwhelmed. This chicken salad is warm and I like to think…Fancy.

I really have no idea how the chefs make it at my favorite restaurant but I know it has these ingredients:

Ingredients:

Shredded chicken (1 or 2 cups)

Sauteed onions (1/2 cup to 1 cup)

Garlic (I probably used about 1 teaspoon for those of you who are measurers)

Balsamic Vinegar (I used 1/3 Cup)

Capers (I used a Tablespoon)

Celery (I forgot to buy this, so mine didn’t have it)

Ingredients I added based on some other recipes I found:

Spicy or Dijon mustard to taste (I probably ended up using 1-2 Tablespoons)

Honey to taste  (maybe 1/2 Tablespoon)

Start by sauteing the onions in Olive oil with the garlic. Add the Shredded Chicken and stir for 5-10 minutes until all of the flavors are merging. For those of you who make jambalaya, it will smell very similar at this point (note to self: make that later in the week). When you feel everything is sufficiently flavorful, add the Balsamic vinegar and let it all simmer for a few minutes.

At this point, I transferred everything to a Pyrex bowl and added the mustard, honey, and capers.

Other recipes I found suggested using more honey, or adding pine nuts or almonds. You could serve this fancy little chicken salad (mixture) over some greens or as a Panini, which is what we did.

While it does not taste exactly like my favorite sandwich (because I’m pretty sure the chefs at said Bakery are geniuses), it’s another sandwich to add to the rotation.

Not your Mama’s BLT August 26, 2010

Ever since I was a kid,I’ve been a little obsessed with the sandwich. I mean really, what could be more perfect than great bread, meat, and veggies all in one compact little piece of perfection?

Two Mother’s Days ago, (I know this NOT because I was a mom yet, but because I was on the phone with Bunny, my grandma) I smelled bacon cooking in the kitchen. When I hung up the phone with Bunny I went in there to find Matt making BLT’s for dinner. Now I LOVE setting this man loose in the kitchen. 1. For the MOST part he cleans up after himself (except for little tiny crumbs on the stove top that don’t seem to bother any one in the world but me). 2. He’s a really creative cook. These BLT’s had every veggie from the fridge and some cheese. Cheese on BLT’s?? Yes. And it was goooooood. Needless to say, we have not made a 3 ingredient BLT since.

The other night, Matt wanted them, so I whipped up some creative juices of my own and this is what I came up with…

Ingredients

Sour dough bread

Olive Oil

Garlic Powder

Bacon

Swiss Cheese

Spinach (fresh/organic-I don’t splurge on many organics yet, except for Spinach-it is infinitely tastier than regular bagged spinach and not exorbitantly priced)

Cucumbers

Tomatoes

Mayo

Horseradish Mustard

1. Get that bacon going. As you cook the bacon, slice up enough cucumbers and tomatoes for each sandwich.

2. Brush one side of each slice of bread with a little bit of Olive Oil and sprinkle with some garlic powder. Place Olive Oil down on a skillet. I have one of those flat ones that is good for pancakes or eggs.

3. When one side is toasted, add the Swiss cheese to one slice immediately so it will melt. Smear mayo and mustard on the other slice.

4. Then layer your sandwich with cucumbers, tomatoes, and spinach. 

5. Enjoy!

Last words…I think part of the reason Matt and I particularly enjoyed this sandwich, was because of the bread. If you’ll notice, most restaurants will toast just one side of the bread leaving the outside soft so you can bite into it easily, but the inside a little crunchy. If you do this at home and if you buy some good bread, you’ll have restaurant quality sandwiches almost that effortlessly.  Secondly, using fresh ingredients makes all of the difference. A ripe tomato is worlds better than one that is not. I recently read an article about what foods to refrigerate and what to leave out. Turns out tomatoes get mealy if you refrigerate them. SO, wait until they are ripe on the counter. I bought these at the store when they weren’t quite ripened and then waited-and it was worth it.

How do you make your BLT’s?

Grilled Cucumber Sandwiches April 25, 2010

A friend of mine recently mentioned making a grilled cucumber sandwich. I like cucumbers and I like all things grilled so I decided to give this one a try.

The ingredients are pretty interesting, but let me tell you, I’ve made three of them this week AND they passed the husband test. Granted, my husband will pretty much eat anything, BUT he’s had two this week and that’s a big deal.

So here you go…

Take two pieces of bread (I’m a big fan of Orowheat Health Nut) and spread cream cheese on one slice. The recipe says to mix blue cheese and cream cheese but I don’t like blue cheese so I omitted that part. Then (and this sounds weird, but it’s a must) spread a little bit of apricot jelly/jam on top of the cream cheese. Don’t use too much, a little goes a long way. Top with cucumbers slices and Swiss cheese and grill to perfection.

Yummo!