The BLT

Anyone need some tomatoes? I planted 3 bushes this spring. Just 3. And I've got so many tomatoes they are going to waste! It's criminal.

However, someone, or should I say, SOMETHING, has been helping itself to what I'm not using. I noticed there were big holes in some of my roma tomatoes, like someone had opened up the side and eaten just the guts. Weird, I think to myself. Birds, maybe? I've seen the local cardinals going in and out of the bushes. But you wouldn't think they'd be so messy. I mean, they're just little birds, right? But I've found the gutted bodies of tomatoes dragged out to the front yard! How mysterious.

Well, low and behold, I come home one day early from work, and guess what I see? Squirrels. Squirrels, resting on the tomato cages, having themselves a grand old time! I got out to ask if they'd like some basil and mozzarella to go with that, make a nice caprese salad. Afraid they took off before I got the chance to ask, however. Oh, well. I'm not going to put nets over my plants to keep them out. Apparently they do that for water. Can't begrudge 'em, if they're thirsty. And I've got plenty to share.

So, BLTs. The Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato. A jewel of a sandwich, that summertime essential.

Hard to mess this one up. Bacon, (done extremely crisp as John likes it), lettuce, and fresh tomatoes, either from your garden, somebody else's, or from a local farmer's market. The taste of summer, as far as I'm concerned. Look at that deep red color!

Mine sandwiches were made with Nature's Own Oatnut toasted bread. Have y'all ever had that before? Very good stuff. I highly recommend. A little light mayo on both pieces of bread. (If your having bacon, might as well go for broke and put plenty of mayo on, too.) Then cut it down the center. Serve.

Ugh, the mouth is watering right now, and its 10 in the morning!

Buffalo Chicken Salad

It's been a long time since I've blogged! Not since the end of June... I should feel bad about that. But, I've been busy, busy, busy. All kinds of things happened in July, including John and I getting engaged!

I can't tell you how excited I am about that last bit. It was a wonderful surprise, and I'm thrilled to exchange vows with the man I love, committing ourselves to something bigger.

On to food! I've done some cooking over the past weeks, but not much. Too much summer fun going on around here. John and I have been boating quite a bit. Hard to argue with going out on the boat on a hot summers day.

This recipe - Buffalo Chicken Salad - is one I found and adapted from Pinterest. Who doesn't love Pinterest? I used to laugh at friends who couldn't stop talking about things they discovered on the site (the fools!!), and then, what do you know, I've become just like them! 'Do you see this? Yup, found the idea on Pinterest!' Karma. She always comes back around.

I love me some spicy food. The spicier, the more I tend to like it, too. I'm a glutton for punishment. If you want less spicy salad, use less buffalo sauce. I used Texas Pete's Buffalo Sauce, but I'd also highly recommend Tabasco's Buffalo flavor sauce. Good stuff, either way.

Instead of using just mayonaise, I've substituted half of it for no-fat Greek yogurt. Also added bits of celery and carrots, like you'd get with you chicken wings. (Plus, vegetables are good for you. Sneaky, sneaky.)

Cracked pepper, some green onion, and two cans of pre-cooked white chicken meat. This is actually a fairly lazy recipe. Perfect for hot summer days, when there is so much to do, and the warm weather only lasts so long!

Pan Bagnat

I am, to put it simply, obsessed with this sandwich. Cannot get enough of it! The fresh, juicy tomatoes, tuna mixed with a home-made vinaigrette, capers, celery, sliced boiled egg... And two secret ingredients, my own herbs de provence mix, and anchovy paste.

I know, right? Anchovy paste, ewww! Well, I've yet to actually eat an anchovy, but the paste adds something special to recipes. It's commonly used in Cesar salad dressings. If you're at a nice Italian restaurant, for instance, and the dressing there has a certain, savory quality that you just can't find in the store bought Cesar dressings, that's the difference. Anchovy paste! No grocer in Owensboro carries Anchovy paste, naturally, so I ordered it from Au Marche, an online European grocer. I also purchased the lavender for my herbs de provence mixture, and Cornichons, a French cucumber pickle.

Cornichons are a small, French style Gherkin. Its flavor is rather like a cross between a dill and sweet American pickles. No sweetness, but they are spicy and sour. Turns out, I LOVE them. Can't get enough of the little things! Never really saw myself as a sour food eater, but I'm wrong. Capers, lemon juice, vinegar and cornichons. All sour. All get a big *heart* from me.

Pan Bagnat translates to a 'bathed' or 'wet' sandwich. The tough beignettes are given time to absorb the juices from the tuna salad mix and the tomatoes, softening up the bread. It's delicious and amazing. The Pan Bagnat reminds me of Nicoise salad, only on bread. Most recipes call for olives, but because I'm not fond of the fruit, I left it off.

For the vinaigrette, you'll need a lemon, white wine vinegar (red wine or sherry vinegar will also work), herbs de provence, a shallot, dijon mustard, and capers. Finely dice the shallot, mix together all the ingredients, and allow the lemon juice and vinegar to semi-pickle the shallots. This is a classic vinaigrette, and goes very well on all sorts of foods. 

Sandwich assembly goes like this: mix your vinaigrette, let it sit. Then add the celery, onion, capers and tuna. Set aside.

Your eggs should already be boiled and sliced. Tomatoes should also be chopped. Cut the cornichons in half lengthwise, roughly chop romaine lettuce. Assemble whatever other goodies you want on your 'wich, like olives, green pepper, radishes, etc.

Once the prep work is done, cut the beignette into fourths. Cut each fourth in half, lengthwise. Take the bottom half, and remove some of the breading. Carefully place a layer of tomatoes down, into the area where the bread has been removed. Then place lettuce.

On top of tomato/lettuce, place the eggs, cornichons, green pepper, etc. The tuna mixture should be the last addition, so that it touches the top piece of bread. Place the top half on, and carefully wrap it up into wax paper. Repeat with each loaf chunk. Place in fridge, and allow to sit for at least an hour. Eat!

Make sure to have napkin and fork on hand, because these sandwiches are quite sloppy.

Herbs de Provence

French food, and cooking, is something I've only spent a small amount of time on. I make a mean Coq au Vin, but that's about it. I like French wine, does that count too?

This recipe is the most famous of French herb mixes. It will be needed if you want to make my most recent eating passion, Pan Bagnat. And it's also perfect for the theme of this blog, which is how to handle not having unusual ingredients easily available in town. (In this case, the dried lavender flowers.) I purchased the flowers online, from a grocery store called Au Marche. Quick delivery, excellent quality items. Wish I could go to the actual store itself!

There are 10 different types of herbs in this mix. I had to buy 5 fresh off the shelves just for this: Tarragon, Marjoram, dried Rosemary (I keep a bush in the back yard for fresh), Summer Savory, and of course the Lavender. My friend JH asked if it was my '$65 herb mix'. Oh, the painful stab of truth! Yeah, JH, it is. It is. More expensive than that, honestly. *sigh* Whoever said cooking at home is cheap? (Actually, cooking at home IS cheaper. It's the building up of the pantry that's expensive!)

This mix makes enough to last a looooong time. Herbs de Provence possesses a wonderful scent. Reminds me of summer fields, when they are ready for baling, back in Nebraska. (This thought then makes me groan, as I remember how hot, difficult and itchy baling hay is.)

Dried savory, or dried summer savory as its also called, is similar to sage. It is NOT a reference to savory flavoring.

I've been placing this stuff on just about everything lately! Fish. Potato salad. Be creative!

Also, a Princess pic. Because she's just so darn cute! Not supposed to have milk, but she really, really, really, reeeeaaaaally wanted it.

Jamaican Jerk Chicken Burger

Summer is here, baby! At long last, the heat has come out. It gets steamy here in Kentucky, and the rain fall can be incredible! (The humidity is so thick, that sometimes, when you're running your air conditioning in the car, it starts to SWEAT on the outside of the vehicle. Like your ice cold soda pop glass. Crazy.)

In honor of the heat, I made a meal with a powerful hot pepper-powered punch, Jerk Chicken Burgers. These things were awesome! And really not that difficult to make. Don't be intimidated by the ingredient list. Assembly is simple, and you can be eating in about 30 minutes.

Jamaican Jerk is a barbeque glaze made with allspice and Scotch Bonnet Peppers, which are some of the hottest peppers in the world. No, you're not going to be finding any Scotch Bonnie's here in Owensboro, KY, Small City USA. So, instead of chopping up one of those bad boys, I substituted red pepper flakes and a couple dashes of cayenne pepper. These burger patties can be made without the heat however, if you'd prefer not to have it.

For my topping sauce however, I did add Captain Rodney's Scotch Bonnie Pepper Boucan Glaze. 3 TBS Mayo, 2 TBS lime juice, 1 1/2 TBS Captain Rodney's. A great, tangy sauce with just a bit of heat. I highly recommend making the sauce to top the burgers off. Make the sauce!!

The seasoning I made first, then added the ground chicken meat. (Ground chicken, not chicken breast, FYI. More flavorful, holds together better when grilling.) Wet your hands when making the patties, makes it much easier to shape and stops the sticking to your skin. Also oil the grill before placing your patties down - they will stick badly without it. Cook about 5 minutes on each side, flipping only once to get those pretty grill marks. Flip carefully, too. They won't hold together like a hamburger patty.

Garnish with the sauce, lettuce, tomato, and onion. These chicken burgers are quite hot.  Have a refreshing margarita on the side to cool it down.

This plate above is literally about 30 seconds before I started eating. I paired the burgers with grilled avocado and baked mango chunks. Fantastic.

Key Lime Pie

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! Also to John, who served in Afghanistan, years ago now. Thank you for your service. :*

Key Lime Pie. It's a sentence in itself. This cool, refreshing dessert originates from the Florida Keys, but gets its name from the key lime, a small, naturalized version of the Persian limes seen in grocery stores in the US. My local Kroger, by some miracle, actually carries real key limes, and so I picked some up to make a from-scratch pie.

This recipe doesn't include egg yolks, which Wikipedia lists as 'part of the traditional recipe'. Eh. Whatever. I used the version found on Allrecipes.com called, Key Lime Pie VII. It's certifiably amazing, having made it before. Very simple - 3 cups condensed sweetened milk (about 2 1/2 cans), 1/2 cup sour cream (in place of the egg yolks to hold the pie together), 3/4 key lime juice, and some lime zest. Place that in a pre-made graham cracker crust (which I made from scratch, and from cookies, not graham crackers), and bam! Delicious.

I squeezed an entire bag of key limes to get my 3/4 cup of juice! Tiny little things, aren't they? Instead of using a typical squeezer, I grabbed a garlic press. Cut the limes into quarter wedges, place in the press, instant juice. So simple! Takes time to do this, but the tartness of real key lime juice is hard to substitute. However, if you don't have time to squeeze an entire bag of limes like some people, there are perfectly acceptable alternatives. I recommend Nellie and Joe's Famous Key West Lime Juice. (It's really expensive on Amazon. I get it for around 4 bucks at Kroger.)

For the crust, I pulled a recipe from Everyday with Rachel Ray. (For some reason, the magazine just began randomly coming to my house, but under John's name. I don't know.) Take a box of Pure Butter Shortbread Cookies, some shredded coconut, a bit o' sugar, and some butter. Place in blender or food processor to make crumbs, press into bottom of pie pan, and bake your crust. Nice, thick, delicious.

I considered making homemade whipped cream for this. But then I got lazy, and it didn't happen. In the actual Conch Republic, they apparently place a meringue on top. This also didn't happen with my pie. Just the pie, which should be YELLOW in color, not green. Like this one.

Make it, bake it, eat it. Enjoy the holiday!

$500 Blueberry Pie

No, this pie doesn't cost $500. (Well, for for the winning bidder it did). It earned $500 at a charity just a few weeks ago! The Whitesville Lion's club threw a Pie Auction and Chili Supper (old article, sorry) to earn funds for the Wendell Foster's Center, here in Owensboro. I made this same pie for it, fancy crust design and all.

John's dad, (Judge, we shall call him), apparently goes to this every year and buys a pie. He mentioned it to me at dinner (knowing I make and bake), and naturally I wanted to donate one. Wound up being the second highest earner, largely thanks to the Judge. He LOVES this pie, and advertised heavily how good it was. Some smart person then snatched it up!

I have several fruit pie-making secrets. Tired of runny pies? Want your pie to gel like Grandma's? Cook part of the fruit insides first! Cook ONLY PART. Leave some out, to maintain that crunchiness of whole fruit pieces. Otherwise it'll be like the cheap fruit pies y'all buy at Wal-mart. *shudder* There are a few pies I keep as exceptions to this rule, such as apple. I just added the hot blueberry sauce to the dry, in this picture.

The second secret, and I advise this for most pies, is a 1/2 tsp of cinnamon. Combining a touch of spice with sugar does amazing things. It'll make you fall in love with pie again, I promise you that!

For the crust, which I call sunburst, make your bottom half like you were doing a single pie crust only. Then, take the second, and set it on a large cutting board. Use a small mouthed cup to cut out the center, set aside. Then, using a pizza cutter, cut the crust into small strips of varying sizes. Start arranging them around the edge, doing the long pieces first, then short, layering them until beautiful. (Easier said than done.) This pie turned out a little lop-sided, but once you've got a strip down, its DOWN. Don't pick it back up, especially with blueberries. The dark juice stains terribly. Wet the back of the circle-center, and gently set it down on the petals, pressing slightly to make sure it sticks firmly.

This pie was a gift for the Judge, cause he deserved one. (Funny, it's Mother's day and I made a pie for John's dad....) This pie is a great Mother's day recipe, however. Blueberries are coming into season, and little baskets are everywhere. Use 4 small boxes, or 2 big boxes, for Blueberry pie. Strawberries can easily be substituted.

Cover this pie after 15 minutes in the oven with aluminum foil. Otherwise, it will over darken. 

I was glad to donate something to a cause as good as Wendell Foster's. Next year I will do it again. And again. And again.