Shauna's House Salad

2 Heads of Romaine
2 c. cherry tomatoes
1 c. coarsely grated swiss or provolone
parmesan
1/4 pound crisp bacon
croutons

Dressing:
juice of one lemon
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
1/2 t. pepper
Combine all of the above and slowly add:
3/4 c. vegetable or olive oil
Let stand for at least 3 hours.

Shauna gave me this recipe years ago. I always go the extra five miles and make my own croutons for this salad because I adore homemade croutons and they are great with this recipe. I don't have an exact recipe (because I am not a big recipe follower) but I can give you basic instructions.

CROUTONS: cube up some french bread - a few cups full at least. put in a big bowl and drizzle with melted butter or olive oil. Maybe 1/4-1/2 cup. Stir until lightly coated. Season with basil, garlic salt, parsley (whatever you want) until desired flavor. Spread out on cookie sheet and place under low broiler. watch closely. When bread is slightly browned, remove from oven and stir around with spatula - return to oven to brown more.

They can burn really easily, so be careful.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

My sister in law, Sarah, is hosting a salad week, where participants are sharing a week's worth of salad recipes.

This first salad is a salad my mom makes for almost every wedding she caters. It is almost ALWAYS requested by brides.

STRAWBERRY SPINACH SALAD

The base of the salad is baby spinach and then a smattering of fresh fruits: (any combination of)sliced strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, halved grapes, mandarin oranges, sliced pears or apples. In the summer, it is always berries, in the winter it is fresh oranges or apples.

On top of the salad is sugared pecans, which my mom does differently than I do. She puts 1 cup of pecans in a teflon pan with 1/2 cup of sugar and cooks on medium heat until the sugar melts and the nuts are coated. Then she pours them on a cookie sheet. I do it a simpler way because I mess up the sugared pecans frequently (can't get right temp for sugar to melt without burning nuts). My way is to put the nuts in the pan heat up the nuts and they are slightly roasted. Then I drizzle honey on them (no worrying about melting sugar) and stir until coated. Pour on cookie sheet to harden. Let completely cool before adding them to salad.

DRESSING:

1/2 c. Girard's fat free raspberry dressing (you could use other brand, this is what we use)

1/4 cup sugar
3/4 t grated onion
3/4 t. salt
1/3 t. dry mustard
1 c. olive or canola oil
2 T red wine vinegar
3 T poppyseeds

Mix very well (blender works great)

Optional items:
red onion (I don't add)
feta (yes!)
craisins (yes again!)

Wait to put the dressing and nuts on until right before you serve it.

**Cheaters tip: If you don't have the time to make the fancy schmancy dressing, use the regular Girard's Raspberry (not fat free) or Brianna's Poppyseed Dressing. Both are delicious.

Crockpot!

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com

This blog is awesome. I have tried several things. All good. I love my crockpot. It's such an easy way to cook.

Spiced Chicken with Sweet Potatoes

3-4 chicken breasts, cubed
1/4 c. olive or vegetable oil
1/2 c. dry vermouth (obviously i substituted here. can sub: apple/grape/white grape juice or white wine vinegar)
1 1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/2 - 1 t. ground cinnamon
2-3 T. brown sugar
2 tart apples, cored, cut in wedges
3 sweet potatoes, cooked and sliced

brown chicken pieces in a heavy skillet in hot olive/vegetable oil. drain off all but 1 tablespoon of oil. combine dry vermouth with salt, pepper, cinnamon, and brown sugar. add vermouth mixture to chieck in skillet along with apple wedges. bast chicken. cover skillet and cook over low hear for 25 minutes. add cooked sliced sweet potatoes and baste again until with cooking liquid. cover and simmer until heated.

note: i had to play around with this a little bit. i added more cinnamon and brown sugar because i substituted white wine vingear for the vermouth and i didn't really like the flavor. i think i'll use white grape juice next time. also i cut up the sweet potatoes and baked them in the oven for about a half an hour then added them to the skillet (i actually used a big boiling pot) and let them cook with the chicken and apples for the 25 minutes. i served it over rice pilaf. it was yummier then i thought it was going to be and darek liked it too even though he's not really a sweet potato fan.

Tex-Mex food

I recently came across this blog while in search for a homemade tortilla recipe. I looked through the pages and there really wasn't ANYTHING that didn't sound good to me on her blog.

The name of the blog is homesicktexan.blogspot.com
It's not healthy food, I will tell you that. But it's Tex-mex and BBQ and southern comfort food. There is a section of most popular posts on her sidebar and the King Ranch Chicken Casserole sounds delicious.

UPDATE: Her homemade flour tortillas were AWESOME.

chicken and wild rice salad

so this salad is really delicious and such a good summer dinner. however, i lost the recipe so this is from my head. feel free to experiment a little.

salad:
4 chicken breasts, seasoned, cooked, cubed
2 boxes uncle ben's original recipe long grain wild rice (the 5 minute quick recipe works too)
1 red pepper, diced
4-5 green onions, diced
juice from one lemon
sugar snap peas, diced (i've never added this but i know the original recipe included it)

dressing:
1/2 c olive oil
1/4 - 1/3 c white wine vinegar
2 T dijon mustard
2 T sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
pepper to taste

toppings:
sliced almonds
diced avocado
whatever else you think would be yummy (maybe craisins?)

bake chicken at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes, while chopping veggies. i season my chicken on both sides with lowry's seasoning salt. prepare rice per box instructions. combine rice, cubed chicken, red peppers, green onion and sugar snap peas in large bowl. in seperate bowl whisk dressing ingredients together (can blend in a blender, or shake in a jar to mix as well). add dressing to rice salad. stir well. serve chilled with toppings. this salad is yummier if you prepare it 24 hours before serving.

enjoy

Maroff Salad

Ok, so Maroff (pronounced Mar-roof) is Tad's step grandfather from Lebanon. Let's just say he makes a tasty salad--that is if you love garlic and lemon as much as we do. Here goes for your breath and sweat for a week. Warn the hubby.

2-3 cloves garlic

1 tsp Kosher salt (at least)

1 lemon

2 T olive oil (something like that) 

Mash garlic and salt in your mortar and pestle to make a paste. Add the lemon juice of one lemon and olive oil. Season with pepper.

Drizzle over romaine with tomato, avocado, and cucumber. We love this. Especially when we make it a meal with roasted chicken. . . before starting the dressing, put a chicken breast in a small pyrex pan with olive oil, kosher salt and pepper. (apply generously) Cook for 25 minutes at 350. Cut and add to salad after it cools a bit of course. Enjoy.