Buffalo Chicken Salad

So the time has come (the walrus said) to go back to eating healthier. I've been carried away these past few months with things that are just not good for me. Casseroles and pastas with heavy cream and loads of cheese, loads of oils and butters too. Until a week ago I hadn't even been to the gym in 5 months! That's pretty bad. And I'm not typically one to call myself fat or be down on my eating choices but my clothes are getting a lot tighter and I could use the health-boost of eating right.

That being said I've got myself on a 5 meal a day routine. You're laughing I know BUT I think most of our problems come from eating 1) the wrong foods 2) too much of the wrong foods 3) too often. I always snack. Always munching on something or other. I think as a culture we can get to a fine line between boredom and hunger, which is just twisted. SO I've got myself eating breakfast, a snack, lunch, a snack, and dinner. And I think that's just fine.

One of the foods I came up with for my lunches is a buffalo chicken salad. I haven't seen a buffalo chicken salad that isn't fried and drenched in bleu cheese dressing ...which is disturbing. So I made my own version. It's pretty tasty and not too spicy for my sensibilities. Easy to pack in the morning. Easy to eat. Healthy.


But before I give you the recipe I'd like to post a few other recipes that I made today that I discovered on this amazing new website that my cousin sent me called foodgawker- Their tagline is "Feed your eyes" and for anyone who loves beautiful photos of delicious food, prepare to be overwhelmed and in love! This website completed my life (OK so maybe that's a little dramatic, but it definitely is awesome.)

Here's what I made today:

• Asian Glazed Drumsticks - This recipe was great! The cook time was longer than it said but I think that's because I used a dutch oven instead of a large saucepan. Chicken was nicely spicy and really flavorful. You've gotta have rice with this!
• Chocolate Pudding Cookies with Mini Robin's Eggs - I know I just said I was on a diet but I just fell in love with these when I saw them - and when Aj asked me to get some "keebler knockoffs of girl scout cookies" at the grocery store I thought "I can do better than that." and decided to make these. I ate two of them and boy are they YUMMY! Tell you what though, there is no "Chopping" those hard-shelled robin's eggs...more like smashing with the flat of your knife. You don't know how many of those little punks rolled onto the floor as I tried to chop them up.
• Pineapple Bliss Cupcakes - Mostly I just thought it was amazing that you could mix a can of pineapple and a box of cake mix and it turns into delicious muffins. Awesome. These are SO good. I didn't use any frosting. Just ate them straight. Best part? Low in calories and fat with no frosting! YUMMMMM.

I also made a fresh batch of Pico de Gallo and grabbed some Crystal Light Lemonade mix at the grocery and put some limes and mildly crushed mint into my cup....Amazing.

Well without further ado...
Buffalo Chicken Salad

• 1 Rotisserie chicken, skin removed and meat chopped/shredded
• 1/4 C. diced red onion
• 1 C. diced celery stalks
• 1 Tsp. garlic powder
• 1/4 Tsp. Paprika
• 1/4 C. Frank's Red Hot sauce
• 2-4 Tbsp. mayo depending on tastes
• Leafy lettuce and romaine lettuce, torn into edible size pieces
  

1. Mix the first 7 ingredients
2. Top the lettuce mixture with 1/2 cup of chicken mixture.
   

Spring and Pico de Gallo

Spring is technically here, but it is just starting to feel like it. Only a few days after spring officially began we got a few inches of snow. Thanks, New England! But it's finally starting to warm up and I'm totally in the Spring Mood. Cleaning, cooking, feeling more alive and active!

When I went grocery shopping this week I made sure to do it early in the morning - the later you wait the more packed the grocery store is (no matter if it's Tuesday or Friday...) and I hate the jostle of carts and the absolute ineptitude with which people park their carts and asses in the middle of the aisle while they look at cream cheese varieties and granola bars. Since grocery shopping can be a severe stress on my life (mostly due to the magnitude of people who shop at the same grocery store I do) I have been making a list of exactly what I need for a week of recipes. That, of course, cuts out impulse buying and makes my shopping much cheaper, but it also makes it so much faster and easier.


On my grocery list were ingredients for Pico de Gallo, something my dad used to make when spring and summer started coming around. If you asked me to define fresh with food, this would be my answer. The tang of cilantro, the crunch of onions and the soft fresh tomatoes just scream YAY in your mouth. Paired with tortilla chips (baked tostitos anyone?) or couscous you get a real treat you can use in tons of ways.

There are a lot of recipes for Pico out there, but the one I swear by is so simple it hurts. Next time you're in the mood for something fresh and healthy, go for this!

Papa's Pico

• 4 Roma tomatoes
• 1/2 Bunch cilantro
• 3/4 Small red onion
• 1 Small jalapeno pepper
• Salt to taste

1. Cut the tomatoes into thirds and remove the seeds/innards. Cut the tomatoes by hand into small chunks (I promise it's better to cut this stuff by hand).
2. Dice the red onion.
3. Finely chop the cilantro leaves (not stems.)
   
4. PUT ON GLOVES and cut and de-seed the Jalapeno. If you do this with your hands they will burn for hours. So don't.
5. Mix all the ingredients together and salt to taste (I like salt so I add a lot of sea salt).

Enjoy!

Cheeses and What I Know About Them

There are few things in life that can make even the worst day a little better. Cheese happens to be one of them. Cheese can change your everyday foods - and almost always for the better. There is a reason that there is such thing as a "Cheese plate" and a "Cheese and Wine tasting". Cheese is fabulous. Of course, if you're lactose intolerant...well... I'm sorry. Funny story. Did you know many lactose intolerant people BECOME lactose intolerant in their adult life because they eat too much dairy? That's the world's way of saying LISTEN ... I know cheese is FUCKING DELICIOUS but chill out and don't eat so much.

So here is the little bit I know about cheese at this point in my life and career as a home cook. I hope these descriptions help you make wise cheese decisions when faced with an array of cheeses you can't even pronounce.


Gruyere: (Prounounced GROO-YAIR). Origin: 1795–1805; after Gruyère district in Switzerland where the cheese is made. This cheese is a new discovery for me. A recipe from my new-used Yankee cookbook called for it...and I try to trust recipes when they name particular cheeses. This cheese has a deliciously mild and milky taste. It's a harder cheese. It's absolutely perfect with wheat thins, and would go great next to grapes or possibly apples. Sprinkled on top of a baked casserole or quiche it becomes richly flavorful. A revelation for me...cheese wise.

Creme Fraiche: (Prounounced: KREM FRESH) Origin: French for "fresh cream." I was supposed to get Fontina cheese for one of my recipes and for whatever reason I was just like "Oh. Yeah. Creme Fraiche, Totally... that's what I need." Turns out...it wasn't. But it was an AWESOME mistake. This cheese is still in its fresh, squishy creamy form. It makes any dish you might normally add milk into...well, delicious! Creamy pasta sauces, mashed potatoes, even sugared with a little strawberry on a bagel? Sure why not!

Gouda: (Pronounced: GOO-DUH) Origin: Named after Gouda, a city in the North East of the Netherlands, where it originated. I must be honest: I've only ever had Smoked Gouda. So perhaps my judgement is a little skewed. Smoked Gouda, at least, is a rich cheese. It's mildly soft, similar to Gruyere, and pairs really well with crackers. I imagine, in its regular form, it would pair extremely well with fruits as well. But I'm not sure what else I'd use it in. This website suggests using an aged Gouda in Mac & Cheese, scalloped potatoes or on a pizza. Come to think of it I've definitely seen a lot of Gouda Mac & Cheese recipes. Perhaps worth a try?

Romano & Parmesan: (Pronounced: ROH-MAH-NO and PARM-UH-ZAHN (not PARM-EH-JAHN) Origins: Romano - Roman, Parmesan - from Parma, Italy. Both are dry Italian cheeses with strong flavors. Romano is made with sheep's milk, and Parmesan is made from skim cow's milk. Both are absolutely perfect in cheese sauces or with pastas or sprinkled on salads. Everyone is familiar with Parmesan cheese, but give its friend Romano a try next time you're doing an Italian dish.

Cheddar: (Pronounced: CHED-ER) Origin: 1655–65; named after Cheddar, village in Somersetshire, England, where it was first made. You're thinking "Oh. Cool. Cheddar, I totally know Cheddar." But do you? There are so many different varieties of Cheddar! Go to your basic cheese aisle in any grocery store. There's Mild, Sharp, Extra Sharp, White... Where do you start? Which one is the best? What if your recipe just wants CHEDDAR and doesn't specify what kind!? Oh God! Well, take it from me. MOST Cheddar cheeses are totally delicious and you really can't go wrong. The only one I take exception to is mild Cheddar. I don't like it. It seems to try to have the flavor of a full Cheddar, but fails miserably and just ends up halfway there and milky. Bleh. My genuinely favorite cheddar is made by Cabot and is Seriously Sharp White Cheddar. I have to warn you this is a STRONG cheese. But it makes an amazing topping for spaghetti, or a delicious grilled cheese between hearty wheat slices. It's great on crackers, or even in cubes by itself! This cheese can sucker punch just about any other cheese in a fight. Oh yeah.

Havarti: (Pronounced: HUH-VAR-TEE) Origin: 1957-62; < Havarthigard, farm in Denmark. Havarti is a cow's milk cheese. It's a mid-range cheese. Not too mild, not too strong. It is my number one "Cracker cheese". You can get all kinds of variants of this cheese. Dill is my favorite, but the garlic variant is good too and I'm sure there's others that are delicious. This cheese is also a sandwich cheese, so you can get it at your deli. Put cubes of this in piping hot tomato soup, or in a grilled panini-style sandwich. Or just eat it on crackers for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Chèvre: (Pronounced: CHEV-RUH) Origin: from French chèvre meaning goat. This is a really broad term and it is essentially any cheese made from goat's milk. HOLY EW you think? No way! This stuff is SO delicious you can barely stop eating it even though you know you've had like...5 servings. This cheese is super soft and goes well with almost any flavor. It's mild and creamy. My best experience with Chèvre is a blueberry variant on Triscuits. I am not sure how else to use Chèvre, but aside from telling me how it's healthier than cow cheese with fewer calories (awesome), this website suggests using it in place of sour cream on your baked potato (ok!) or in lasagna.

Cream Cheese: (Pronounced: Do your best) Origin: Probably France or England since those have the earliest references..but no one knows for sure as far as I gather. Everyone knows cream cheese. Everyone loves it. Everyone sits puts way more than 2 tbsp on their bagels. Try this, though: mix it in mashed potatoes, smother a baguette and toast it with some chives, mix it with marshmallow fluff and eat it with strawberries! The possibilities with cream cheese are endless. And it's delicious. 'Nuff said.

American Cheese: Origin: AMERICA! So the sad part is that American Cheese is not even, by FDA standards, real cheese. BUT when its creamy processed goodness is overflowing from your grilled cheese and turkey in the skillet, or dripping down the sides of your juicy AMERICAN burger...you just think to your self...My country tis of thee...Sweet land of American Cheese...of thee I sing! Then you know it's alright.

Brie: (Pronounced: BREE) Origin: France, from Brie. Brie is a soft cheese a little bit like cream cheese except richer in flavor and matured, so that it doesn't need to be eaten fresh like cream cheese does. It's famous for being paired with wines and fruits (hey, nothing wrong with that!) but works in more or less the same way cream cheese might work. Spread it on anything. Toast it. Make fondue. Yum. Just don't try to make cheesecake with it...I don't think that would turn out too well for anyone (especially not your test subjects).

Well that's MOST of my world of cheese at this point. There is still a lot to learn, and believe me, I'm pursuing with reckless abandon.

As an interesting sidenote: Google Cheese in Google Images and 70% of the photos are Mac & Cheese.

The Road to Becoming a Yankee Chef?

At work I came across two cookbooks I felt I needed to get. The first is Favorite New England Recipes, compiled by Yankee Magazine's "Lady Editors" and it's original publication date was 1972, though the version I got was from 1990. (Still..can you believe that was 21 years ago?) I thought to myself that it was perfect for me and for this blog! The recipes seem to be characterized by simplicity, with very few ingredients. Often quite contrary to any deeply flavored Southern dish.

There is quite a variety of recipes from "Jellied Chicken Pate" (You can bet I will NOT be making this) to "Yankee Chicken Hash" and "Fried Cucumbers" (hmm...) to "Yankee Christmas Pudding" and a LOT more. This cookbook is PACKED with interesting recipes. Many of them are fish-centric and use mostly ingredients able to be grown in the north (Excluding spices). I think this is great.

When I first moved to New England I had never had, or had an interest in tasting New England Clam Chowder. When I went to a dinner at Silo's Steak House (RIP) in Merrimack, NH and was served Clam Chowder as an appetizer (Set menu..I didn't choose it) ... Well, I was blown away. It was amazing. Creamy and flavorful, with perfectly cooked clams (which I am starting to appreciate...at least when they are in other things or deep fried). Since then I've been a connoisseur of New England Clam Chowder and have tried it at many restaurants. There are two types of NECC, one of which I like and the other I find gross. There is the thick NECC... that's the worst. It's the kind you get at chain restaurants and out of a can. It's not fresh. It's full of potato chunks and overcooked clam. The kind I do love is thin, creamy and all of the ingredients are fresh and the clams are perfectly cooked. No one element is predominant the flavors are a perfect harmony. This is the kind of NECC I am dying to learn to make. To be honest, I haven't even attempted to make NECC...because I am afraid of what I will do to it. I want a tried and true and perfect recipe. I have a feeling I will have to experiment in the end, though.

The other cookbook I got was The Williams-Sonoma Cookbook. The thing I like most about this one is that every single recipe has a picture. A lot of times I'm flipping through cookbooks and I see a recipe and think "That COULD be good...I wonder what it looks like." Most of the time I'm about 75% more willing to try a recipe at random (meaning I'm not looking for a recipe for that particular dish) if it has a picture.

I've already seen some dishes in this book that I really want to make. I have read a few reviews that the recipes can be bland, though. Luckily I've got a pantry of Penzeys Spices to supplement if needed. For anyone who is not familiar with their spices I highly recommend them. Their best are their "blends" that can bump a dish to the next notch with almost no effort. I'd strongly recommend the Bicentennial Rub for rotisserie chicken, and Pork Chop Seasoning for delicious pork chops with no effort. And of course they have GREAT flake sea salt for cheap.

I've been pretty busy at work and without a lot of time to cook. Earlier in the week I made some portabella mushroom and guacamole sandwiches that turned out well, and a couple of meals we make when we don't have the energy to cook, such as angel hair and spaghetti with turkey kielbasa, or shake and bake chicken wings. Hopefully soon I'll have time to do some exploratory cooking.

Food of Japan

I know that when I left for Japan I promised you all I'd post photos of what we ate when I came home...and I know that I didn't do it. Honestly I always INTENDED to...it's just...time is short and all that. Well - here I am - ready to show you all the splendors of Japanese foods. These are going to be things you're surprised even exist. Oh yeah - you thought you knew ALL about Japanese food... Well, ya don't. Here's just a little snippet for you - because most of the time we got 3/4ths of the way through our meals before we realized we hadn't taken a photo.



This is Kitsune Udon. There was this udon restaurant around the corner from the first hotel that we stayed at and every time we walked by it smelled SO good. So we decided to go in. It was the best udon i had the whole trip. The place was ALWAYS open --- they seemed to stay open all night because we saw them open at 11...and 8 am! What??? Who knows? In Japanese "Kitsune" means Fox. I am not sure why it is called Fox udon, but the broth is mildly sweet and doesn't taste like any particular kind of meat. There were greens in the bowl (that I ate before I took the photo) and the part that makes it particularly Kitsune udon is the square of sweetened fried tofu. Udon itself is a thicker noodle made to be slurped up. The bowl was bigger than my face.

This is called Kushi Katsu and it essentially means (and is) "Fried things on a stick" This is one of my favorite Japanese bar foods. Fried ANYTHING... We had mushroom stuffed crab, onion, pumpkin, shrimp, chicken, pork, quail egg, sweet potato...Almost anything you can imagine on a stick, deep fried with sauce. The Japanese do it right.


While this probably LOOKS disgusting, it's actually AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS. This is called "Omraisu" (Omelet Rice). Mine was the top and it was cheese and eggplant. Aj's was chicken katsu (Fried chicken cutlet). This is essentially buttered rice, wrapped in an omelet, with a topping and then covered in Japanese curry sauce. I don't know how to explain that this is in fact delicious unless you try it. Aj and I are HUGE fans of Japanese curry. We tried a ridiculous number of things deep fried and drenched in curry sauce while we were there. It was a great fallback food. We knew we loved it, and it ALWAYS hit the spot. And it's abundant. It's sweet, mildly spicy, and alarmingly flavorful. If any of you ever gets the chance to try Japanese curry, I'd highly recommend it. It's very different from any Indian curries.

This is Japanese somen. I had never had Somen before and especially not prepared like this, but this was one of the most memorable and delicious foods I had while I was there. The broth was rich and sweet and chicken-y. There is something resembling general tso's chicken in there, a soft-boiled duck egg, and some greens. And then of course Somen noodles which are thin and made of wheat flour. They're delicious and I've decided to try to recreate something like this in the near future. I think the greens were Mizuna, "Japanese Mustard" - it's a tasty green we don't have readily available here in America. But delicious.

The last photo I have for you is of all of the delicious FOOD we brought back from Japan. We took 2 suitcases, one packed inside the other. The small one held our clothes and some souvenirs, and the big one held just souvenirs and food. Yum. We've eaten a lot of this stuff already but we do have plenty left. The Japanese kitkats were something we searched EVERYWHERE for to get the most flavors. We could only find five flavors ...they are seasonal and February is not a popular season for unique flavors. That's OK though...we got plenty else!

We also ate a lot more food than this, but forgot to take photos. We had sushi, tempura, okonomiyaki, and lots of other traditional Japanese foods. We did not once eat an American restaurant or fast food place (Though I was tempted to have Aj try to Tamago Big Mac from McDonalds)... We really went for Japanese comfort foods and day to day things with some traditional foods thrown in. We had real green tea and Japanese sweets. We had more bread and pastry items than you could ever imagine (Oh the Japanese are HUGE on pastry and take a lot from France. Their pastry and breads are amazing). Overall, we had a huge variety of delicious foods and to top it off, we probably spent over $100 on tiny cups of coffee, vending machine drinks, and a couple of beers. (Japanese vending machines do hot AND cold) --- perfect!

For those of you more interested in the Japanese sites, we did take tons of photos. You can check a selection of them out in this album.

The Easiest Bread You Ever Made

I have recently been pursuing making homemade bread. So far it's going OK. It takes years to perfect a good loaf and so far I've just been following recipes and learning the right places in my house to rise bread.

The other day I was doing laundry in the basement and saw my bread machine. It was all dusty with that sketchy kinda dust that comes from basements...but I hauled it up the stairs (this is an exaggeration...it weighs less than my dog)...and cleaned it up. Then I looked up a recipe for a really simple bread.

I was looking for something that used the bread maker start to finish, but ended up picking one that mixed the dough and did the first rise, and then you transfered to a pan for the second rise and bake. In the end, I think the results were good...and I learned that a bread machine can really cut down on the time you need to make bread! I had forgotten this.

The recipe I used was some random recipe from a website called "Soft As Wonder White" - I wouldn't really call this bread anything like wonder bread...but it was definitely a white bread, and it was soft, and good.

In order to use this recipe you probably need a bread maker. I suppose you don't have to have one...but the point of this post is how EASY it was with a bread maker. You get to stick all the ingredients in the bread maker and come back almost 2 hours later for a nice dough that's already had its first rise! Awesome.

The Easiest White Bread Ever

• 1 C. Water
• 1 Tsp. Salt
• 3 Tbsp. Margarine or butter
• 1 Tbsp. Honey
• 3 C. All-Purpose Flour
• 1/4 C. Powdered Milk** (See notes below)
• 2 Tsp. Sugar
• 1 1/2 Tsp. Bread Machine/Rapid Rise/Instant yeast (all essentially the same)

1. Add the ingredients into the bread machine in the order listed.
2. Set to the dough cycle. This will mix the dough and then rise the bread, and should take about 1 hour 40 minutes.
3. When the timer on the bread machine reads 1 hour, turn the oven onto 400 for about 3 minutes, and then turn it off.
4. When the timer goes off on the bread machine, turn the dough out gently onto a floured surface. Mold it into a loaf as gently as possible. Try not to work the dough much.
5. Put the loaf in a loaf pan and cover it with a towel. Place this in your oven which should now be luke warm. Make sure the towel won't inhibit the rising of the bread by being caught under the pan.
6. Rise 40 mins or until doubled in size. (When it looks like a loaf of bread...that's when it's ready to bake)
7. Bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes.
   
8. Take out of pan and cool.

NOTE: If you're using a very dark bread pan, knock the heat down to 325.

**Powdered milk can be purchased at the grocery store but usually does NOT come in any kind of reasonable size. In fact, I had to buy a box that would make like 50 gallons of nasty watery skim milk. HOWEVER....this is a VERY COMMON ingredient in bread recipes and it essentially can't easily be substituted with regular milk. So just suck it up and buy it if you're going to be baking bread regularly.

Who's Bringing the Shrimp?

Have you ever thought about shrimp...I mean REALLY thought about shrimp. Where they're from and what they eat and do? It's kinda gross, really. They crawl around all day eating fish poop. I'll tell you what though...they are DELICIOUS. Just goes to show that the phrase "you are what you eat" is a load of crap (haha..pun intended!).

I asked Aj to cook me a nice dinner this week. He agreed and kept it a surprise until I got home. When I got home he was hard at work cooking up a storm ...and it sure looked good! He kept being self depreciating and telling me he wasn't sure it would be good, etc...etc. He was making shrimp skewers with sauteed asparagus and mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes came from a box...(We're huge fans of Yukon Gold which we think taste like KFC mashed potatoes...but they discontinued them and that was our last box.) The asparagus and the shrimp were freshly seasoned and cooked, though. When we finally sat down to eat and I tasted my first bite of asparagus....MAN! It was gooooooood!

Aj was excited that it tasted so yummy and mentioned something about cooking more (Can I get that in writing, please?). He even said that he looked up a shrimp marinade and made some changes to it to make it his own...Very impressive! It was quite possibly some of the best shrimp I've ever had. So I've decided to do another guest recipe so you can all taste the deliciousness of this shrimp!

If you're wondering how we grilled these in the middle of winter...we have a Japanese little stovetop grill and a single-eye gas range that we use for table-top cooking. Whatever method you come up with for grilling these...I'm sure it will taste yummy.

The Best Shrimp Marinade Ever

• 2 Lbs. raw peeled, de-veined shrimp
• 1 Large clove of garlic, finely minced
• 1 Tbsp. coarse salt
• Pinch of cayenne
• 1 Tsp. paprika
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 Tsp. lemon juice
  

Mix everything but the shrimp together in a bowl. Skewer the shrimp 5 to a stick. Evenly and liberally coat the shrimp. Grill 2-3 minutes on each side or until the shrimp are opaque.

Enjoy!