Leftover Chicken Revamped

Curry Chicken Salad

Leftover chicken

Plain cream top yogurt

Grapes, halved

Raisins

Walnuts, roughly chopped

Curry powder, a shit-ton (very technical terms. can vary between 2 tsp to 2 tbsp)

Mix and enjoy. Eat on a sandwich or over greens.

 

Picnic on the beach

 

Bananas--you stole the last doughnut, ah!

 

Roasted Polyface Chicken

Finally cooked my Polyface broiler today. Used Jamie's trusty roasted chicken recipe. My parents have made this recipe a few times but this was the first time I tried it on my own...my first gravy from scratch experience too. Very exiting. Joel didn't let me down. The chicken was amazing--every single part of it.

Cooking for Geeks

“If you never want to fail, you should eat PB&J for the rest of your life. But if you’re willing to go out on a limb, you might ultimately be rewarded with a wonderful new food discovery. “

cool blog I discovered: http://www.cookingforgeeks.com/blog/

Chris's Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday Christopher! By request, here is a vanilla butter cake.

the new work space

very proud of this beautiful pan extraction

Best Butter Cake (recipe from Sunset: Living in the West magazine)

simple, yummy, extremely versatile

2 1/4 c cake flour, sifted

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 1/4 c sugar

1/2 c unsalted butter at room temp

1 large eggs at room temp

2 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 c milk

Cake flour VS All-purpose flour:

Cake flour is made from soft wheats while all-purpose is made from a blend of hard and soft wheat flours and is not as high in gluten as cake flour.  if you only have all-purpose just use this conversion factor, 1 cup baking flour = 1 cup minus 2 tbsp all-purpose

1. sift together dry ingredients. blend together sugar and butter until creamy. crack eggs into sepearte bowl and add vanilla. add one egg at a time. mix dry ingredients into sugar mixture in small batches, alternating with milk. make sure each batch is fully incorporating before adding the next.
2. preheat oven to 350 degrees F. butter and flour 2 round 8-inch cake pans. 
3. bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown, cake bounces back after taping with finger
4. cool cakes 5 minutes, remove from pans by inverting onto a rack, let cool to room temp

Brown Butter Icing (Better Homes & Gardens) 

1/2 c butter

4 c sifted powdered sugar

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter until light brown color. Mix with sifted sugar, milk, vanilla. Add additional milk if needed. Ices two top sides of an 8-inch cake.

Peeling Tomatoes

So I've discovered that peeling tomatoes isn't actually difficult.

To peel:

• bring pan of water to a boil

• using a slotted spool, dip tomatoes in, one at a time for about 5 seconds

• remove and skin peels off like magic!

  

....now what to do with your lovely skinless tomatoes?

Yellow Squash Medley (recipe from Nourishing Traditions)

Squash (skwosh, skwawsh)- member of the gourd family, relative of the cucumber (cousin) and the melon (step sister). technically a fruit. provide carotenoids and vit C, potassium, calcium, and fiber. 

1 yellow squash

1 zucchini

sea salt

1 onion, thinly sliced

3 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, chopped

1 tbsp crispy pine nuts

1 tbsp parsley

4 tbsp evoo

• peel tomatoes, use food processor to cut squash and zucchini julienne. 

• sprinkle with sea salt and let sit one hr, rinse well and squeeze dry w/ tea towel. saute onions in olive oil until golden.

• add squash, zucch, tomatoes, and saute for a few minutes  over medium heat, stir constantly. stir in pine nut and parsley.