Goldenrod Eggs With Bacon and Lime Honey Mint Fruit Salad - Sunday Brunch Break Day Between The Puppy Drama and Onslaught of Movers

Goldenrod eggs, or Eggs a la Goldenrod for you high-falutin' folks, is a traditional French brunch recipe usually eaten on Easter morning. I knew it from my childhood, as one of the very few dishes my mother would make. Mom was just not into cooking. She was the Minute Rice and Shake and Bake Queen.

Goldenrod eggs is a variation on the old "something in cream over toast"  which was a staple of the military canteen with the charming name of SOS*, and also of Depression-era households. It is comprised of a basic white béchamel sauce, with a roux of flour and butter cooked light blonde, to which milk is added and a dash of something savory if you're feeling adventurous. Chopped up hard boiled egg whites are added to the sauce and it is finished over toast with a sprinkling of crumbled egg yolks.

It was a frequent dinner at the home of my childhood, probably for the same reason it was a Depression-era staple. I can remember nights when powdered milk was substituted for fresh. Thank heaven eggs were cheap or we'd be handed the dual-edged culinary nightmare of powdered milk AND powdered eggs, and it's awfully hard to fake crumbled hard boiled egg yolks with powdered eggs. I guess you'd just sprinkle more of the powder on top?

I served this with bacon and a yummy light fruit salad of mixed summer stone fruit and pears with a honey lime and mint dressing.

Douse cook and brunch companion liberally with Mimosas. Cranmosa for the cook.

Mangia!

Goldenrod Eggs

8 hard boiled eggs, yolks removed, chopped
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
A couple of dashes of Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

4 slices sourdough bread, or your choice, toasted

Crumble the yolks into a bowl and set aside. Heat a deep skillet over medium heat. Add butter and melt it. Add flour mixed with salt and pepper, using a whisk to stir until well blended. Sauté until cooked to a pale blonde color, Pour milk in gradually; stirring constantly. Bring to boiling point and boil 2 minutes (stirring constantly). Reduce heat, stir in Worcestershire sauce, cayenne and dry mustard and cook (stirring constantly) 10 minutes. Stir in egg whites, and heat through.

Serve over toast and sprinkle with egg yolks.

Fruit Salad with Lime Honey Mint Dressing

1/4 cup mint leaves chopped
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup honey
Mixed fresh fruit, cut into chunks (we had peaches, pears and nectarines)

Mix dressing ingredients together. Toss fruit with dressing and serve.

* Shit On a Shingle"

Saturday Night Comfort Food - Smoked Gouda and Cheddar Ham Mac N Cheese and Oatmeal Cookies

The Colonel's been talking about Mac and Cheese for some time now. It wouldn't be a dish I would think of doing in the summer in San Diego, but in the LAND OF AIR CONDITIONING ALL THE TIME, I say: BRING IT!

And in the LAND OF AIR CONDITIONING ALL THE TIME, why not bake cookies as well?

Mac and Cheese was the first dish I remember making for my family. I think I was about 8 years old. I found a Betty Crocker recipe and it contained an exotic ingredient: Worcestershire sauce. We normally didn't have too many spices and herbs and sauces at home. Mom could never take anything that was seasoned beyond salt and pepper, really. She always claimed it was because she had more taste buds than the average person. Right...

There are two schools of thought on preparation. You can add shredded cheese directly to cooked macaroni and pour on a mixture of eggs, butter and milk, or you can make a Béchamel sauce, with a roux of flour and butter, sauté it to a light blonde color, and add the seasonings and cheeses and let them melt into a lovely, creamy cheesy wonder creation. It should be obvious what my preference is.



Ready for lovin' in the oven

Some folks don't like to finish with the breadcrumbs, but I think Panko bread crumbs browned in butter can't be beat. I fold in some diced ham for a really decadent treat.

The movers are finally scheduled to be here Monday afternoon. Monday morning is a busy time for me as well, running the puppy for her follow up kennel cough vet visit and marketing my "outside contractor" consulting gig, so come time for the van to show up, and anticipating surviving enough unpacking to set up the second bedroom and bathroom with lines, comforter, and shower curtain before collapsing.

It will be good to have leftovers so comforting.  The Colonel should really enjoy his lunches this week!

Got milk?

Cookie-wise, we decided to go with Oatmeal Raisin. Chewy, molasses-y, plump raisin-filled Oatmeal cookies. We used unbleached flour and substituted some molasses for some of the brown sugar, which accounts for the dark brown color. Puppy Kagan will have some good smells tonight!

Mangia!

Smoked Gouda, Sharp Cheddar and Ham Mac and Cheese
Adapted from Fannie Farmer Cookbook

1 (16  ounce) package macaroni or small shells

8 tablespoons butter, plus 1 tablespoon for the breadcrumbs

8 tablespoons flour

4 cups milk

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon salt

fresh ground pepper, to taste

2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

2 cups smoked gouda, shredded

1 cup diced ham

1 cup breadcrumbs

Directions

 

Preheat oven to 400°F.

 

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in skillet over medium low heat and add Panko. Sauté until slightly browned. Set aside.

 

Cook and drain macaroni according to package directions; set aside.

 

In a large saucepan melt butter. Add flour mixed with salt and pepper, using a whisk to stir until well blended. Sauté until cooked to a pale blonde color, Pour milk and cream in gradually; stirring constantly. Bring to boiling point and boil 2 minutes (stirring constantly). Reduce heat and cook (stirring constantly) 10 minutes.

 

Add the Worcestershire, cayenne pepper and shredded cheddar little by little, and then the ham, and simmer an additional 5 minutes, or until cheese melts. Turn off flame.

 

Add macaroni to the saucepan and toss to coat with the cheese sauce. Transfer macaroni to a buttered baking dish. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs.

 

Bake 20 to 30 minutes until the top is golden brown.

 

 

Raisin Oatmeal Cookies
Courtesy Food.com

Whisk together and set aside:

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Cream wet ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

Then stir in

3 cups oats (not instant)

1 ¹⁄₂ cups  raisins

  
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.                                      

Whisk dry ingredients; set aside. Combine wet ingredients with a hand mixer on low. To cream, increase speed to high and beat until fluffy and the color lightens. Stir the flour mixture into the creamed mixture until no flour is visible. (Over mixing develops the gluten, making a tough cookie.)

Now add the oats and raisins; stir to incorporate.
 

Fill a #40 cookie scoop and press against side of bowl, pulling up to level dough (to measure 2 tablespoons of dough). (Seriously, who has one of those??? We used a spoon)

Drop 2-inches apart onto baking sheet sprayed with nonstick spray.
 

Bake 11-13 minutes (on center rack), until golden, but still moist beneath cracks on top.
 

Remove from oven; let cookies sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

 

Chicken Tamales With Green Chile Sauce - Visit To Food City Yields Yummy Dinner

Food City, I believe, will become one of my favorite food haunts. When The Colonel took me there, we picked up masa and corn husks, and I swore on the spot to make tamales. I have only ever done this during Petal's annual Christmas Eve tamale party. For the tamale party, she sends out invitations and for everyone who attends, brings an appetizer or party snack, and helps to make some tamales, they get to take home a dozen tamales. She and the guests usually end up making some 20 dozen.

I get assigned grunt work at these shindigs, cleaning, breaking down rotisserie chicken, helping with sauce, chopping cilantro, cutting up veggie platters, and the like. She tries to have one batch cooked by the time people start arriving at 4 PM or so, so we have to have some three dozen in a kettle the size of William Howard Taft's bathtub by 11:30 or noon, or we're behind the game.

My Petal has been very critical of my tamale-making skills and often accuses me of preparing dry tamales. I can double the amount of sauce she instructs us all to use and she still says the dry tamales are courtesy of me. I think it a bit unfair.



Batch One nestled in steamer

For the average home cook, it is difficult to find space for a giant kettle-sized steamer, and I am envious of Petal's. But I managed with a pasta pot with sieved insert just fine. You just need to steam in smaller batches. And I made sure to put in a little extra sauce in homage to my bestie.

The preparation process was not without its hiccups. I failed a bit on water watch and when The Colonel asked what was burning I rushed to the stove and had him help remove the steamer insert while I cleaned out the burned bottom of the pot and started new water. It luckily only imparted a very faint taste, which The Colonel dubbed "smoked". This is a man to love, girls.

We had met a new neighbor the other day: Mary and her darling pit bull terrier Valentina. Mary and I share a love of Talavera pottery and all things Mexican, so I told her I was making tamales. She immediately asked: red or green chile sauce? I make both, but this time it's green. Follow up question: do you shred your meat? Of course!

I brought her a few to try, and I am hoping I selected some that were not from the "smoked" batch. Mary did say she is particular about her tamales, being from El Paso.

I served these with leftover Drunken Beans.

Mangia!


Chicken Tamales with Green Chile Sauce
Adapted from Mexican Family Cooking by Aida Gabilondo

1 (8 ounce) packaged dried corn husks
1 pound tomatillos, husked and rinsed (10 to 12 medium)
Fresh, hot chile peppers, stemmed and roughly chopped (about 4 serranos or jalapenos)

4 large garlic cloves, peeled

1 ¹⁄₂ tablespoons vegetable oil or 1 ¹⁄₂ tablespoons olive oil

2 cups chicken broth

Salt

4 cups cooked chicken, preferably grilled, roasted (about 1 lb.) or 4 cups rotisserie chicken, coarsely shredded (about 1 lb.)

²⁄₃ cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro

4 or 5 pound bag of prepared masa

Directions

Preparing the cornhusks. Cover the husks with very hot water, weight with a plate to keep them submerged, and let stand for a couple of hours until the husks are pliable.

Preparing the filling: On a baking sheet, roast the tomatillos about 4 inches below a very hot broiler until soft and blackened in spots, about 5 minutes; flip them over and roast the other side. Cool and transfer to a food processor or blender, along with all the delicious juice that has run onto the baking sheet. Add the chiles and garlic and process to a smooth puree. Heat the oil in a medium-size saucepan over medium high. When quite hot, add the puree all at once and stir until noticeably thicker and darker, about 5 minutes. Add 2 cups of the broth and simmer over medium heat until thick enough to coat a spoon quite heavily, at least 10 minutes. (If you are making a double batch of the recipe, make sure to cook the filling for a longer amount of time.) Taste and season highly with salt, usually about 2 teaspoons. Stir in the chicken and cilantro; cool completely.

For forming the tamales, separate out 24 of the largest and most pliable husks—ones that are at least 6 inches across on the wider end and 6 or 7 inches long. If you can’t find enough good ones, overlap some of the large ones to give wide, sturdy surfaces to spread the batter on. Pat the chosen husks dry with a towel.

Forming the tamales. Cut twenty-four 8- to 10-inch pieces of string or thin strips of cornhusks. One at a time, form the tamales: Lay out one of your chosen cornhusks with the tapering end toward you. Spread about ¼ cup of the batter into about a 4-inch square, leaving at least a 1 ½-inch border on the side toward you and a ¾-inch border along the other sides (with large husks, the borders will be much bigger). Spoon about 1 ½ tablespoons of the filling down the center of the batter. Pick up the two long sides of the cornhusk and bring them together (this will cause the batter to surround the filling). If the uncovered borders of the two long sides you’re holding are narrow, tuck one side under the other; if wide, roll both sides in the same direction around the tamal. (If the husk is small, you may feel more comfortable wrapping the tamal in a second husk.) Finally, fold up the empty 1 ½-inch section of the husk (to form a tightly closed “bottom” leaving the top open), and secure it in place by loosely tying one of the strings or strips of husk around the tamal. As they’re made, stand the tamales on their folded bottoms in the prepared steamer. Don’t tie the tamales too tightly or pack them too closely in the steamer. They need room to expand.

Setting up the steamer. Steaming 24 husk-wrapped tamales can be done in batches in a collapsible vegetable steamer set into a large, deep saucepan. To steam them all at once, you need something like the kettle-size tamal steamers used in Mexico or Asian stack steamers, or you can improvise by setting a wire rack on 4 coffee or custard cups in a large kettle. It is best to line the rack or upper part of the steamer with leftover cornhusks to protect the tamales from direct contact with the steam and to add more flavor. Make sure to leave tiny spaces between the husks so condensing steam can drain off.

Steaming and serving the tamales: When all the tamales are in the steamer, cover them with a layer of leftover cornhusks; if your husk-wrapped tamales don’t take up the entire steamer, fill in the open spaces with loosely wadded aluminum foil (to keep the tamales from falling over). Set the lid in place and steam over a constant medium heat for about 1 ¼ hours. (depending on the size of the tamales you make, it can take up to 4 hours). Watch carefully that all the water doesn’t boil away and, to keep the steam steady, pour boiling water into the pot when more is necessary. Tamales are done when the husk peels away from the masa easily. Let tamales stand in the steamer off the heat for a few minutes to firm up. For the best textured tamales, let them cool completely, then re-steam about 15 minutes to heat through

.

What's That Nasty White Bread Doing In The Freezer? - Waiting To Become Peach Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce

There were a few horrors awaiting me in the Bachelor Freezer. Some were mild horrors, like the Banquet meals; others were more jarring, like the whole loaf of Kroger white sandwich bread. The Colonel explained this one away: he was already in line at Fry's when he realized he had forgotten to grab bread. And there at the side of him, within reach of a gently and automatically outstretched hand, just as the Merchandising Gods in charge of impulse purchases intended, was a rack of shining, plastic-wrapped, Modern Marvel, commercially-produced-in-bulk refined carbs. Mission accomplished!

I most certainly would not be making sandwiches out of that. But nor did I want food to go to waste. A repurposing plan formed: bread pudding!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE bread pudding, of all kinds. Savory ones like a wild mushroom one I make sometimes to go with a roast, and of course, dessert ones. We had some lovely ripe peaches and I found a recipe with a sinful-sounding bourbon sauce. We have Bushmills and Johnnie Walker Red on hand, and The Colonel usually has eggs and milk, and along with a box of pantry items I brought along on Carload 3 was a bag of powdered sugar. We were all set.

Trouble was, I had already made some impulse purchases of my own, having been sucked in by those Merchandising Gods myself, passing one day a display of pies (apple went into cart) and on another, Pineapple Upside Down cake. More desserts??? We ate some, and now I am conducting a freezer experiment to see how they hold up. I doused two Gladware containers of pudding with the sauce and popped them in. I will probably defrost one on Monday, the day the movers (FINALLY) show up with my stuff. I will be in need of comfort food that day.

Mangia!

Peach Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce

Adapted from PCC Natural Markets recipe

4 eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups milk or half-and-half
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 to 5 cups bread cubes (about 3/4 to 1 inch)
1 cup diced peaches (you may use frozen, thawed peaches)

In a mixing bowl, combine the eggs with the milk or half-and-half, vanilla, brown sugar, salt, bread cubes, brittle and diced peaches. Let sit for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350º F. Butter a medium casserole dish and pour the bread mixture into it. Bake the pudding for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until set in the center. Serve the Bourbon Sauce on the side.

Bourbon Sauce

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup bourbon

Preparation

In a saucepan over medium heat, blend butter and sugar for 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and add egg yolks to the hot mixture. This will cook them sufficiently.

Gradually add bourbon, stirring constantly. The sauce will thicken as it cools.

Mexican Lime and Garlic Marinated Fried Chicken - With Fixin's!

I've talked about this Mexican fried chicken to The Colonel quite a bit, and told him I would make it fairly soon after officially arriving to move in with him. We decided upon Saturday night for its debut in Phoenix. He informs me that he has been "jonesing" about it for days. I was unfamiliar with this term and asked if the origin was based upon the old saying about keeping up with the Joneses. No. Turns out it's a drug phrase. I learn only the best things in life from The Colonel. There's also another apparent inconceivable gap in my cultural education. I did not recognize the "Kit Kat Bar" theme song.

The recipe itself made it into my repertoire years ago when I was very young and freshly married at the tender age of 19, and I brought to the marriage a copy of Betty Crocker's International Cookbook, circa 1982. Oops, just dated myself. There were a few very good recipes in there although few were authentic. But the lime and garlic chicken was a big hit, and I've made it from time to time. I don't do it frequently because fried chicken makes a heck of a mess to clean.



The remains of the dish

But my baby is jonesing for it, so let's destroy the kitchen and spend some time on Sunday cleaning up the oily damage. I was also smart enough to pack corn flour into one of the boxes that traveled with me on the third trip. Also, The Colonel deserves a celebratory dinner, having spent four hours and ten minutes today assembling a dresser that arrived in one big, 125 pound cardboard box Friday.

I made this with the full "fixin's" of Drunken Beans and Emeril Lagasse's Jicama Slaw. Both recipes have been previously posted, and links are below.

We're drinking Negro Modelos with it.

Mangia!

Mexican Lime and Garlic Marinated Fried Chicken


Ta Da!

Based  on an adaptation of an Epicurious recipe called South American Fried Chicken and my recollections of the Betty Crocker recipe.
    

1 frying chicken, weighing no more than 3 pounds, cut up for frying Chinese-style, or 8 chicken thighs, chopped in half crosswise (I also cut up the back where little chicken oysters lie, but you could skip this part and just freeze them for stock)

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon Tajin seasoning, or chile powder

Salt and freshly milled black pepper

1 cup corn flour (very fine cornmeal — not cornstarch)

lard or peanut or vegetable oil, for frying

hot sauce

2 limes, cut into wedges

 

Wash the chicken and pat dry. Put the pieces into a large nonreactive glass or stainless steel bowl and pour the lime juice over them. Sprinkle with the minced garlic, a large pinch of salt, several liberal grindings of black pepper and the Tajin. Toss until the seasoning is uniformly distributed and set aside to marinate for at least 1 hour, refrigerated. (Or cover and marinate overnight in the refrigerator; remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before you are ready to cook the chicken.)

           

Place the corn flour in a paper or large plastic ziplock bag. Shake to coat the inside. Fit a wire cooling rack over a cookie sheet and place it in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 150°F (or Warm setting). Fill a deep cast-iron skillet, Dutch oven, or deep-fat fryer with enough lard or oil to come halfway up the sides, at least 2 inches deep. Over medium-high heat, bring the fat to 375°F (hot but not smoking).

When the fat is hot, lift the chicken pieces a few at a time from their marinade, allowing the excess to flow back into the bowl. Drop them into the bag of corn flour, close the top, and shake until the chicken is well coated. Lift them out of the corn flour, shake off the excess, and slip them into the fat. Repeat until the pan is full without crowding. Fry, maintaining a temperature of 365°F, turning once, until the chicken is a rich golden brown and cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes, depending on type an size of pieces (on the 6 minute end are wings, drumsticks and back pieces; the thighs and breast pieces go the distance).
           
Lift the chicken from the fat, drain well, and transfer to the wire rack in the oven while you fry the remaining chicken. Serve hot, with hot sauce and lime wedges passed separately.

Drunken Beans:

http://chimangiabenevivechronicles.blogspot.com/2013/09/drunken-beans.html

Emeril's Jicama Slaw:

Straightforward per recipe, except I switched out sugar for honey because my Honey took me by a farmer's market off the Piestewa Highway*.

http://chimangiabenevivechronicles.blogspot.com/2013/09/emeril-lagasses-jicama-slaw.html

*Piestewa is what Squaw Mountain is called now. I am having trouble with it because I remember it as Squaw Mountain, but the Navajo and the Hopi nations went after the naming rights.

Per Wikipedia:

Since at least 1910, the name Squaw Peak had been used in reference to the mountain. Other historic names included Squaw Tit Mountain, Phoenix Mountain and Vainom Do'ag, the Pima name for the mountain.^[7] As the term "squaw" is considered derogatory by some, numerous efforts to change the name of the mountain were made through the years. State Representative Jack Jackson, himself a Navajo, submitted a bill to change the name annually beginning in 1992, which generated repeated and often raw debates in Arizona. In 1997, the local youth group of the American Indian Movement, which filed a petition with the State Board on Geographic and Historic Names in 1997 to change the name to Iron Mountain, the English translation of the mountain's native Pima name. The board researched the issue for nearly a year before ruling in July 1998 that too much doubt existed as to whether the name Vainom Do'ag actually referred to the mountain in question or another nearby peak and the petition was rejected, although the board left the door open to alternative possible name-changes.<sup>[8]

Who is this "Piestawa"?</sup>

Specialist Lori Ann Piestewa (/paɪˈɛstəwɑː/ py-ESS-tə-wah;^[3] December 14, 1979 – March 23, 2003) was a U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps soldier killed during the same Iraqi Army attack in which fellow soldiers Shoshana Johnson and Jessica Lynch sustained injuries. A member of the Hopi tribe, Piestewa was the first Native American woman in history to die in combat while serving with the U.S. military and the first woman in the U.S. armed forces killed in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.^[2] Arizona's Piestewa Peak is named in her honor.

New Place - Big Load Haul Day- Easy Please-y Chicken, Artichoke, Tomato and Olive Penne

No es bueno.

Three carloads into the move and now just waiting for the movers to show up on this end! And pick out furniture, do endless assembly (The Colonel handles that), order stuff online that we can't find local and start to get to know the neighborhood!

The Colonel has taken me to Asiana Market which will do just fine for Asian and certain Middle Eastern fare, and Food City, which is a great Hispanic market with bakery, meats, spices, masa, and all sorts of good things, including a two pack of 4 pound or so sized whole chickens for .98 a pound!

When I first arrived, I checked out the bachelor provisions, and found Salisbury steak and turkey Banquet meals. Won't someone please help this poor man????

I made Steak Pizzaola one of the first nights but won't re-post it here. On the night of the third load haul, I made an easy pasta and chicken recipe, and served it along with salad and bread. This is among the first photos of the kitchen and table in the new home!

The dish is penne with chicken thighs, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, olives, parsley and parmesan.

Picked up pinto beans for Drunken Beans and stuff to marinate lime garlic chicken for frying Saturday night!

Mangia!

Easy Please-y Chicken, Artichoke, Tomato and Olive Penne

1 lb chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 14 oz cans artichoke hearts
2/3 cup Kalamata olives, sliced
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
2 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup white wine with 1 tsp chicken Better Then Bullion added
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/3 cup Italian parsley, chopped
1/2 cup parmesan
1 lb fettucine or tagliatelle

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and add the olive oil. Toss the chicken with the oregano and crushed red pepper and add salt and pepper. Add chicken thighs in a single layer with space between the pieces. Cook in batches if needed so they brown and don't just steam. Turn after a few minutes, and brown the other side. You want to cook these to the 90% stage as they will be finished with the rest of the sauce at the end. Transfer to a plate and keep warm.

Brig water in a large pot to a boil and salt generously. Cook pasta according to package directions. While pasta is cooking, sauté the garlic in the large skillet for a minute or two. Add the wine, tomatoes, artichokes and olives, scraping up brown fond from the bottom of the pan. Continue cooking for 3 minutes or so, and add the chicken and any juices accumulated on the pan. Sautee for another 2 to 3 minutes to finish cooking the chicken.

Drain the pasta after reserving about 3/4 cup of cooking liquid, and add the pasta and reserved liquid to the sauce. Toss with the parsley and parmesan and serve.

Bacon Tomato Pasta Salad Recipe - BLT and Pasta In A Bowl - With Bacon!!!

This is probably the last dish I turn out in the old place. There's too many things packed at this stage, so I am down to a very simple inventory of a few pots and some utensils and crappy plates to eat from. There's still a lot of stuff in the freezer, but I just wanted something fresh to celebrate my last official day of being a full time worker bee!

Who doesn't love a good BLT? And who doesn't love pasta? The two together sound like a marriage made in porky, Italianate Heaven. It's not carbonara, which is made with pancetta, and not usually bacon. But the tomatoes and fresh herbs give it a lovely, summery freshness, and orzo is one of my favorite pastas because it is very tiny and shaped like rice, so that gives it a surface that allows for deeper penetration of sauce flavors.

Are we still talking about pasta? I miss The Colonel.

Mangia!

Bacon Tomato Pasta Salad Recipe

Adapted from Food Fanatic

Ingredients

8 slices bacon

2 cups orzo pasta

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons dijon mustard
2 teaspoons capers

2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half

large handful fresh basil leaves, torn

large handful fresh parsley, chopped

Directions

In a large skillet, cook the bacon strips over medium-low heat until crisp. Drain the grease from the skillet, but reserve 3 tablespoons of the grease for the dressing.

In a large pot, bring 2 quarts of water to a boil. When boiling, add a small handful of salt and the orzo pasta. Cook according to the directions on the box. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, make the dressing: combine the olive oil with the red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, capers and Dijon mustard. Whisk very well to combine.

When the pasta is done cooking, immediately toss it in the dressing and stir to combine. Add the diced tomato and herbs, and serve.

Stir Fry Hoisin Chicken With Peppers, Leeks And Mushrooms

Time out from packing and time for stir fry! And mindless TV! Hurray!

And probably a deep hair conditioning treatment. The chicken pox has been keeping me from doing much more than washing hair. But I think the scalp is on the mend well enough to goop up the hair.

Enokis

Stir fries are so flexible. If you have a few Asian condiments in the kitchen, you can basically prowl the aisles at the market and make whatever you feel like. I saw Enoki mushrooms next to shiitakes and thought: peppers, leeks, chicken.

I made my standard hoisin marinade, reserving some to toss with everything after all is cooked. Serve with rice.

Mangia!

Stir Fry Hoisin Chicken With Peppers, Leeks And Mushrooms

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, sliced thinly
2 to 3 tbsp. peanut or vegetable oil
1 each green, red and yellow bell pepper, sliced thinly
3 leeks, washed well, dark green parts cut off, sliced lengthwise and then crosswise into 1/2" pieces

4 ounces Enoki mushrooms, stems cut off, leave in 2" to 3" lengths
1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, sliced thinly
1/2 bunch cilantro leaves, chopped

Marinade:

4 tbsp. hoisin sauce

3 tbsp. soy sauce

1 tbsp. sriracha

1 ½ tbsp. rice wine vinegar

2 tbsp. sesame oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

Toss chicken with marinade, reserving about 1/4 cup and let marinate for a couple of hours in the fridge, or at least 30 to 45 minutes at room temperature.

Heat oil til really hot in a large, deep skillet or wok.

Stir fry chicken until nearly cooked, about  3 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.

Add more oil if needed. Heat until hot. Stir fry leeks (1 minute), then add peppers and mushrooms. Stir-fry until they become a bit soft, (about 2 minutes).

Add the chicken and reserved marinade and continue to stir for 2 minutes.

When done, remove from heat and add the cilantro, mixing it all together, and serve.