Chicken Poppy Seed Salad

I have found another fantastic chicken salad to include on my fantasy cafe menu, I mentioned here. This one comes from Trisha Yearwood's cookbook Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood. I just checked out both of her cookbooks from the library and they are full of easy, authentic Southern recipes.

It has been hotter than Hades around here and a plate filled with fresh fruit, a wedge of cheese, crackers, and a generous scoop of chicken salad is one of my favorite dinners during the dog days of summer. While I loved the fruit on the plate and the rich nuttiness of the cheese was divine, this chicken salad was the star of the show! The toasted almonds added the crunch that is a requirement for me in a chicken salad, the grapes added juicy sweetness and the poppy seeds gave it that something extra. Really fantastic!

Chicken Poppy Seed Salad

Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood, Trisha Yearwood

2½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 celery stalks, finely chopped
4 cups seedless grapes, halved
2 cups slivered almonds
2 cups mayonnaise
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
2 tablespoons dried dill

Boil the chicken in a large pot filled with water until done, about 45 minutes. Drain the chicken and set aside to cool. Once the chicken is cooled, dice into small pieces and place in a large mixing bowl. Add the celery, grapes, almonds, mayonnaise, salt, pepper, poppy seeds, and dill. Mix until the salad is fully com­bined. Store in the refrigerator.

My Notes: I didn't include the celery (don't like) or the dill (didn't have). I also halved the recipe but wish I had made a bigger batch!

Chipotle-Cherry Barbecue Sauce

No SMS this week. I made this week's recipe for Toasted Almond Lemon Bars before joining SMS and it was not successful. I blame a lot of my failure with this particular recipe to switching to extra-large eggs after hearing my beloved Ina Garten say that doing so improved her baking for the 100th time. Extra-large eggs may be a better value, but they completely jacked up every recipe I tried to use them in. My failure aside, the flavor profile of the bars is fantastic! You can visit Rebecca at Indecisive Baker to get the recipe.

One of my New Year's resolutions a couple of years back was to make a least one recipe out of each issue of Bon Appetit. Most months I was able to find something that I wanted to make that didn't intimidate me in terms of ingredients and technique. Some months it was a challenge to find a recipe but that was not the case with the July 2010 issue. I quickly bookmarked several recipes to try including this one for Chipotle-Cherry Barbeque Sauce. While still not a fan, cherries are growing on me as an ingredient and I liked the idea of using cherry jam in this recipe.

I like making homemade barbeque sauce and once you get past the mile long list of ingredients most recipes call for, it is very easy to make. This recipe was no exception and I was drawn to not only the cherries and chipotles in the recipe, but the use of soy sauce and cocoa. This recipe is a simple study in the cooking principle of balancing flavors (sweet, salty and sour). The final result is a thick sauce that is sweet yet spicy. I only added one chipotle and told my husband it was a cherry BBQ sauce because he doesn't like anything spicy. He enjoyed the light coating of sauce I added to some grilled ribs the first night and didn't detect any heat. The smugness I felt at having tricked him was short lived and I was busted a couple of nights later when I slathered pork chops with the sauce and the heat of the chipotle intensified while sitting in the fridge. I found the sauce to be a tad too spicy this time and that the other flavors were lost. If you like heat, I would prepare the recipe as written, but in the future I would only use a half of a chipotle or use all of the sauce immediately.

Chipotle-Cherry Barbeque Sauce
Bon Appetit, July 2010

1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup cherry preserves
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons mild-flavored (light) molasses
2 tablespoons golden brown sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
1 to 2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo, minced, plus 1 tablespoon adobo sauce from can
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

Preparation
Bring ketchup, cherry preserves, lemon juice, molasses, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, lemon peel, chiles, adobo sauce, liquid smoke, onion powder, and cocoa powder to simmer in medium saucepan, stirring often. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 10 minutes, stirring often. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

DO AHEAD Sauce can be made up to 1 week ahead. Cover tightly and refrigerate.

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

I have been on an ice cream making kick lately. Among the flavors I have made (but not blogged about) in the past month: Dorie Greenspan's Honey Vanilla, a Coconut Almond Chocolate Chip concoction, and this Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream.

I came across the recipe on the wonderful blog, Sing For Your Supper. Amy has an adorable blog and everytime I visit it I am inspired to make one of her delicious creations. She found the recipe in a book I own, a/k/a the ice cream bible A Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. J'adore David Lebovitz and his blog is a must read for me. One of the easiest ice creams I have ever made, cream cheese, sour cream , half and half and a couple other ingredients thrown together in a food processor. While I was making this I thought it would be easy to reduce some of the fat and calories by substituting low fat cream cheese and sour cream. Although I should be, I usually am not terribly concerned about reducing fat or calories but almost always use low fat cream cheese and sour cream anyway. A few days later I read this post on David's blog about people tinkering with his recipes, especially ice cream and had to giggle.

This ice cream tastes exactly like rich, creamy cheesecake. A hit of lemon gives the tang traditionally found in cheesecake and the cream cheese and sour cream provide the spot-on texture. I did find the texture to be a tad too thick and probably will add a little more half and half to thin it out just a bit (sorry David!). The strawberry swirl is sweet and adds a delicious counterpoint to the richness of the ice cream. The base ice cream is a blank canvas that would be delicious on its on and additional flavor possibilities are endless: blueberry, raspberry, chocolate, crushed oreos, Nutella, and on. Yum!

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

8 ounces cream cheese, cut into small pieces

1 lemon

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup half and half

2/3 cup sugar

pinch of salt

Zest the lemon directly into a blender or food processor, then add the cream cheese, sour cream, half and half, sugar and salt and puree until smooth.Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Strawberry Sauce (I only used half of this for the recipe and froze the rest for later)

1 1/2 pounds strawberries, rinsed and hulled1/4 cup sugar1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Puree the strawberries with the sugar and lemon juice in a food processor until smooth. Press the puree through a strainer to remove the seeds.

To finish the ice cream:Place half of the ice cream in a container, then spoon in some of the strawberry sauce; repeat layers, then gently swirl with a spoon. Store in the freezer until ready to serve.

Butter-Almond Crusted Tiliapia Fillets

It feels like it's been forever since I posted anything other than a dessert! I found this recipe in a recent issue of Rachel Ray Magazine and have already made it a couple of times. It's a snap to put together and the almonds in the crust give extra crunch and elevate plain ol' tilapia fillets into something special. The original recipe calls for a slaw, actually a very chunky tarter sauce, to be served on the sandwiches and I plan on trying that soon as it sounds awesome! Quick, easy, and cheap - give this a try!

Butter-Almond Crusted Tilapia Fillets

Rachel Ray Magazine

1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1 cup breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
Flour, for coating
2 eggs, beaten
4 fillets tilapia
3 tablespoons butter
Juice of 1 lemon
8 slices good-quality white bread or split rolls of choice, toasted

Using a food processor, grind the almonds. Stir in the breadcrumbs and thyme. Place in a shallow bowl. Place the flour and beaten eggs in 2 other shallow bowls. Halve the tilapia fillets crosswise, making 8 small pieces of fish. Pat the fish dry and season with a little salt. Dip the fish first in the flour, then in the beaten egg, then in the breadcrumb mixture.

In a large skillet, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, 1 turn of the pan, over medium heat. Add the butter to melt. Add the coated fish and cook, turning once, until brown and crisp, 3 minutes per side. Douse the fish with the lemon juice.

SMS - Sour Cherry and Almond Biscotti

I feel like I haven't blogged in forever! Between vacation, being busy at work, and being just plain lazy, I have neglected my blog. I've cooking some good stuff to! I've just got to take time to take pictures and then post more often...

Tracey at Made by Tray Tray selected Sour Cherry and Almond Biscotti for this week's SMS. For some reason I had it in my head that this recipe was for Chocolate, Sour Cherry and Almond Biscotti. Even after reading the recipe to ensure I had all of the ingredients on hand, I was asking myself 'Where is the chocolate?' as I started making the cookies. Wishful thinking, perhaps?

These biscotti were very good! I have never been a big fan of cherries but have recently discovered dried cherries and really like them. While the cherries add a tart flavor and chewiness to the cookies, the almond was really the star for me. I LOVE almonds and they are well represented here. I found the cookie very easy to put together. I sampled a bite after the first baking period and wish I had cooked them to a little less than the traditional biscotti texture. Still, they were very tasty and would be the perfect sweet snack to serve alongside your favorite hot beverage.

The recipe can be found on Tracey's blog, here!