Summer Eats Post #1: Greek Potato Salad & Tangy Grilled Chicken

I have been scattered this summer- feeling pretty foggy in the brain when it comes to trying to write a creative, inspiring, cohesive blog post.   The lack of posting certainly isn't because of a lack of cooking. There has been much action in our kitchen… perpetual, and I have taken photos along the way, in case I had some inspiration and time for sharing them with you.

Perhaps this foggy-headedness is because my three very zesty, energetic, creative children have been swirling about nonstop.  Or perhaps it is because I have taken on an added role in my home as nurse, to my healing son, after a broken leg and a nose surgery in the past few weeks.  Or it might be that I am just plum tuckered out.  I’m feeling old and tired, if truth be told.

But we have had some yummy eats so far this summer. 

So, rather than waiting until my foggy brain clears, I have decided to just write some brief, simple posts for the next few weeks to fling some of these recipes your way!

Greek Potato Salad

For the 4th of July I wanted to make potato salad that was vinegar and oil based rather than mayonnaise-based.  I looked and looked for a recipe that was what I had in mind.  I just couldn't put my finger on it.  In looking in my huge How to Cook Everything cookbook by Mark Bittman I found one recipe for a Potato Salad with a Mustard Sauce.  As I made it, I thought,  "this looks tasty, but it's not what I had in mind".  I kept looking through cookbooks.  I went to Ina Garten- surely she has what I'm looking for! She usually does.  I found her Provencal Potato Salad which was on the right track, but before I started making batch #2, I texted my friend Gretchen to ask if she had a recipe.  She replied with the magic words that sparked it for me, "Hmm I haven't. Makes me think about the Zoe's Kitchen one- like that?" YES!! That was exactly what I was trying to remember …from some back file in my brain that I had not been able to reach. 

I then had the clarity I needed: Red New Potatoes, Green Onion, Feta and a Greek Vinaigrette with chopped fresh herbs.  I used Ina's advice about cooking the potatoes and then letting them steam to finish cooking, and I used herbs out of my garden.  It was just what I was hoping for: zippy, fresh, and flavorful.

Greek Potato Salad
2 1/2 pounds Red New Potatoes

1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
Juice of one lemon
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
1 tsp. oregano
handful of fresh parsley, chopped
handful of fresh basil, chopped
3 green onions, chopped (green and white parts)
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
fresh ground pepper to taste
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (or more)

Wash potatoes and chop them into large bite sized pieces.
Boil a pot of water.  Sprinkle in some salt.
Drop potatoes into the boiling water.
Let cook for 15 minutes or until tender but not mushy.
Remove from heat, drain water and place in bowl with a tea towel over it for 10 more minutes to steam and finish cooking.

In a bowl or glass measuring cup, combine vinegar, oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, chopped green onion, basil, parsley and oregano together. Add salt and pepper.  Pour over cooked potatoes and toss well until fully coated.  Add feta cheese.  Stir.  Add salt as needed.  (This is a very loose recipe.  You can add/delete/substitute/change amounts as you desire.)

Serve warm, at room temperature or cold.

It was even better the day after (FYI).  And it is reminiscent of Zoe's Kitchen tasty potato salad that they sneak in the bottom of their Greek Salad (my favorite thing on their menu)…the Greek Salad with a buried treasure.

Tangy Grilled Chicken (Brower's BBQ)

Dave's dad was in town a couple of weeks ago and we were grilling chicken but didn't have much time to marinade it like we typically do.  I said, "maybe we could baste it with something while we are grilling".  As we were brainstorming, somehow the word "baste" sparked the thought of this great vinegar based BBQ sauce that we had all of the time growing up but I haven't made in a decade.  
(I'm telling you, my brain is foggy.)

I found the recipe card in my box, had all the ingredients on hand, and stirred it up.  Dave brushed it on the chicken as he grilled.  It was a hit.  It is salty and tangy and is made with ingredients you most likely already have in your kitchen.   

We call it Brower's BBQ Chicken, named after Mr. Brower, the man at our church, who gave my mom the recipe.  He had a long portable grill he would use to serve large groups.  He grilled for a church-wide dinner one time and my mom requested the marinade recipe.  My parents made it regularly after that.

For several years of my childhood my family owned a lake house, and my food memories of dinner there involve this chicken.  From the dock we could smell it as dad was grilling. We ate it with Rice-A-Roni: summer childhood comfort food.

It is such a great marinade.  I'm glad it has resurfaced from my recipe archives.

Brower's BBQ Chicken
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 stick butter (the original recipe calls for "Oleo" but I used butter)
3 Tbsp. salt
2 tsp. cayenne red pepper (or more or less depending on your desired spiciness)

Pour all ingredients into a small pan on the stove.  Stir and heat, but not to a boil.
Pour over raw chicken.  Place chicken on hot grill. Baste frequently on chicken with brush as it grills.

I hope your summer is full of beautiful produce and the flavors of summer. 

Other  installments of our summer eats are soon to come: Homemade Ice Cream, Pizza, Chocolate Pound Cake and more! 

Chicken Salad

Chicken Salad is a personal thing.  I think there are as many recipes for chicken salad as there are personalities. They range from savory, to nutty and fruity, to pickle-y, to curried, to sweet, to smooth, to chunky... you get my point.  My favorite bought Chicken Salad is from Bread and Company.  They actually have 3 types: Curried, Honey Walnut and Almond Tarragon.  I like them all, but Honey Walnut is my favorite!   They have this amazing artisan cranberry walnut bread.  Their chicken salad sandwich, made with that bread is called the "Iroquois".   It's super special.  In fact, during my third child's labor and delivery, when I was trying to find a "focal point" to help me deal with my pain, I thought of an Iroquois Sandwich and Fruit Tea from Bread and Company.  I know, kind of ridiculous.  My focal point was not Hawaii, or some beautiful beach, or a sunset, or the sight of my sweet baby on her way, but a chicken salad sandwich.  Call me a realist.  I think I was focusing on the immediate reward that I imagined could actually be at the end of this anguish.  And it worked.  And she popped out, and my in-laws went promptly to Bread and Company and fulfilled my dreams with my focal point-lunch!  

So, I guess you could say I have a strong connection with Chicken Salad.  The good news with making it, is that you can't go wrong and you really don't need a recipe.  You just need some good ingredients and some test-drives to find the way you like it. 

For me, the key ingredients are: Mayonnaise, Chicken (of course),  grapes (or other fruits are good too), honey, nuts, a little lemon juice, salt and pepper.

I sometimes add chopped celery, and onion - depending on who my eaters are. 

I like a thick, smooth chicken salad. Some people prefer cubed or chunked chicken.  

If you like a smoother, creamy chicken salad, then I have a trick for you that I just learned this past year – use a stand mixer to tear/smooth the chicken!  In a matter of seconds, the chicken goes from hunks, to pulled, creamy chicken! (Thank you, Casey, for this great tip!) 

This recipe really isn't a recipe.  To those who love a recipe with exact measurements, this might drive you a little crazy.

1. Cook your chicken.  

You can roast it: brush with olive oil, sprinkle with coarse salt and ground pepper, place on a baking sheet and roast it in a 400˚ oven until done.

You can boil it: place your chicken in a pot of boiling water with some large chunks of onions (and celery and carrots if you want). 

You can crock pot cook it: A great tip that came from Connie via her mother-in-law is to place your frozen chicken breasts, and chunks of onion (and carrots and celery if you want) in a crock pot and cook on low until the chicken cooks to pulling-apart tenderness.  It is moist and tender.

Or...you can start with a rotisserie chicken.  Just tear off the meat you want to use and you are set. 

Cook your chicken, by the method of your choosing, then chop or dice if that's your desired outcome, or put in the mixer for a creamed effect.  

2. Then, add Mayo.  People are crazy-devoted to their mayo.  Have you experienced this?  Some are Hellman's-purists, some are Miracle Whip people, some are low-fat, some see that as an abomination.  And then there are Duke's fans.  Regardless, mayo is key in Chicken Salad.

I add some lemon juice (start with about a teaspoon) to the mayonnaise and then I add it by the large spoonfuls and mix between additions to ensure that it is creamy enough but not gloppy with mayonnaise.

3. Salt and Pepper to taste. Obviously.

4. The personality: And here is where the road diverges and you must make your decision about spices: tarragon, honey, onion, curry.  You have to choose.

And "mix ins": Raisins, grapes, sliced almonds, toasted pecans, walnuts, pickles, chopped celery, chopped onion.  And those of you who love measurements in recipes, I am sorry, there really can't be, since you don't know exactly how much meat you will have, or how creamy, nutty, flavored you'll need it.  

Keep refrigerated after preparation.

I have wondered when to post about chicken salad, pondering which season is the most chicken salad-ish.  I think it is a good summer meal, cold and yet hearty. Lovely on a bed of lettuce, or with a tomato,  or scooped on a pineapple boat.  It is a great spring picnic item.   But it's on my mind because I have eaten it twice in the past few weeks.  Nashville weather last week was warm and springy and this week it was blistery and flurrying.  So, really this can be an anytime dish.

This is the pineapple trick that my mom taught me.  She has served this at ladies lunches before.  It is delicious and lovely .  Chop the top off of the pineapple.  Quarter it.  Shimmy a sharp, long knife between the outside skin and the fruit to separate it from the skin, starting on one end and working all the way around the piece.  Slice the long hard core piece away from the top, making it flat instead of pointed. Slice in thin slices.  For the fancy zig zag effect, just gently push the pieces with your pointer fingers.

Then plop a big scoop of chicken salad on top and you are ready to have a luncheon.


I'd love to hear your favorite methods, ingredients, ideas for Chicken Salad YOUR Way!

Party Chicken and Rice – Easter Main Dish

Is "dinner" the evening meal or is it the mid-day meal?  Or is the BIG meal, regardless of what time the meal is served?  At our house, dinner is the evening meal, and although it is not formal, it is the larger, hot meal of the day.  I guess you can call that supper.  Though we never do.  Some people talk about “coming over for Sunday Dinner” and they mean the mid-day meal.  When we have a holiday meal, we tend to call it dinner regardless of the time at which it is served.  At Christmas and Thanksgiving, that is oftentimes 12, or 1, or 2 in the afternoon.  I prefer to have Easter dinner at lunchtime so that friends can linger into the afternoon, we can hunt eggs in the yard and the work of the meal and dishes are done by afternoon.  It is tricky, though, when you are trying to race from an Easter Sunday church service, to get home, and get things cranking for the meal.   And if you are the guest at someone else's home where you are bringing a dish, you have to swing by your house to pick up your items, or have them in the car, in a cooler, or a keeper to have them ready for the meal.  This is all complicated.

For many, many years, Dave has had responsibilities at church on Easter morning, helping with the music for the services.  Which means we don’t travel on this holiday to visit family.  Instead, we stay in town and it has become a friend holiday.  We started a tradition years ago to ask around to see if there are people without a table to join for the holiday, and invite them to ours.  It has been interesting to see who comes and what the mix of people is.  It is sometimes full of college students, sometimes not.  Some years, people know each other, other years it is a mish-mash of our worlds colliding.  But the food is always yummy and it feels like a special celebration.

We usually provide the main dish and cold coconut cake (our favorite Easter dessert) and then people bring the rest (depending on how many people come – sometimes we do more of the providing, if there are less guests.)  One of our favorite main dishes for this meal is Party Chicken.  This was the “special occasion main dish” at my house growing up.  After all, the name is party chicken!  Mom said she got this recipe 40 years ago.  It was printed on the Georgia Power and Light (utility company) bill, of all places.  They had a recipe printed each month on the bill and she remembers keeping it and trying it, because the list of ingredients looked so tasty to her.  Never underestimate the source of a good recipe!

Water chestnut rice

It is a great dish, and you can alter it as you like.  I remember her often serving it with Water Chestnut Rice – which could be called Party Rice, in my opinion.  The Rice is actually my very favorite part of the dish! It’s a savory, moist, highly flavorful rice pilaf with a crunch of water chestnuts.  My mom got the rice recipe from a friend during the same era in which she got the Party Chicken recipe.  She said she had it at a friend’s house for dinner one night.  The host gave a disclaimer that the first time her husband had it, he said, “he liked it, but the potatoes in it weren’t cooked!” There are no potatoes in this dish.... it was the water chestnuts.  Mom wrote down the recipe and has been making it ever since. She even made large quantities of it for groups when she was doing food service for her church, altering it a little to simplify it.

The Rice dish would also be good on a non-holiday with a piece of grilled meat.

So now that Easter is 2 weeks away, we are starting to think about what to eat and who needs a table to join.  I tend to revert to the same menu repeatedly.   

My favorite Easter menu is:

An appetizer (so people can lightly munch while the meal is being put together – maybe nice cheese and crackers)

A green salad with strawberries, nuts, feta, etc.

Party Chicken

Water Chestnut Rice

Fresh Green Beans (or Asparagus)

Rolls or Sweet Potato Biscuits

Fruit Tea

Dessert: Cold Coconut Cake and any other goodies people want to bring!

My friend Melissa and her family usually share this meal with us.  She and I split what's left on the menu after our other guests have signed up.  She also oftentimes brings a dessert: sugar cookies, M & M cookies or tea cakes for the kids to enjoy…and she sometimes brings beautiful flowers for the tables!  It is a beloved tradition in our home!

Party Chicken


6 chicken breasts (pounded until uniform thickness)
12 slices dried beef (canned)
3 slices of bacon (to be cut in half)
1 (10 oz.) can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup (8 oz) sour cream

the can of dried beef and the cool jar
you get to keep- see above as a vase
for a daisy!

A handful of slivered almonds


Place individual slices of dried beef side by side in baking pan.  


Flatten chicken breast, place a slice of dried beef in "rough" side of chicken and roll up.  


Place 1/2 slice bacon around outside of roll and place seam side down in pan.  


Place a rolled breast on each piece 
of dried beef. (All of this can be prepared ahead and refrigerated or frozen). When ready to bake, add combined soup and sour cream and pour over each breast.  


This will seem thick, but the juices from the chicken will dilute it.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour OR 250 for 3 hours (if you want to slow-cook it). Add almonds on top and bake an additional 10 minutes or until toasted.  

done!

Water Chestnut Rice


5 Tbsp. butter
1 onion, chopped finely
1/2 cup canned mushrooms, drained and sliced
8 oz. can water chestnuts, chopped
1 cup white rice, uncooked
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
2 cups water
1 tsp salt
Melt butter in casserole.  Add all other ingredients.  Gently stir together. Cover and cook 1 hour at 350 degrees, or until rice is completely cooked.  (I have made this with brown rice and it works, it just takes much more time!
Also, it easily doubles or triples!)

Dinner time!

Tricky Chicken Tenders

Happy New Year! With all the desserts, and cheese, and white chocolate covered-everything, and cheese, and sausage filled, and cream cheese-filled treats that I have consumed over the past month, my body is screaming for Healthy Food! I am telling my kids that their bodies are too (even though they might not hear their bodies screaming as loudly as I hear mine). I adore the notion of sneaking healthy ingredients into foods, for kids and adults alike.  However, this pursuit hasn't always been the simplest or most successful with my family.  I don't know if it's because my kids are so very sensitive to tastes and textures, or because they are persnickety, OR because they have such discerning palates that they are able to identify the added or altered ingredient.  Regardless, they are hard to sneak up on in the kitchen.  I will say, I am blessed with good eaters.  My Lucy's favorite foods are bell peppers and tomatoes. But anytime I can add some fiber, veggies or umph to a dish, I want to try.

ready to bread

There have been a few books on the market filled with suggestions of how to sneak beans, wheat germ and cauliflower into dishes.  One is The Sneaky Chef. The author even uses pureed white beans in her chocolate chip cookie recipe.  They are surprisingly chocolate chip cookie-tasting, but the texture is more soft and cakey.  It's almost as if they have some healthy ingredient substituting the 2 sticks of butter used in traditional Chocolate Chip cookie recipes! (Imagine that!)

Jessica Seinfeld (wife of Jerry) wrote a cookbook a few years ago, Deceptively Delicious that also catalogs ideas for this tricky pursuit.  My friend Melissa brought over some Mac and Cheese that she made from that cookbook, where she snuck in some pureed cauliflower.   She thought it was yummy enough that it might pass by my kids without notice.  I had a hunch it wouldn't work, as I guessed Asher would sense the difference.  And within one bite, Asher said "something is different about this mac and cheese".  He noticed a difference in the taste and texture.  Urg! How does he do that!?  I think his discernment/critical thinking skills are great LIFE SKILLS, but annoying when trying to sneak in some added healthiness.

Dave cutting those nasty cartilage pieces off of the tenderloins

dredging in egg 

So when I found this recipe for chicken tenders a few years ago in my Every Day Food Magazine, containing ground wheat germ, flax seed and bran, I wanted to give it a try.  However, I had LOW, I'm talking SLIM, expectations of the kids digging them.  And to my surprise, and great delight, they loved them.  Especially Asher, my meat-eating, not-as-adventurous eater!! He requests them. He calls them Crusty Chicken Tenders, I guess in comparison to my mostly grilled or baked chicken tenders, they are the "crusty" ones at our house.

dredging in crumb mixture

I have tried to come up with a fun name for these that would communicate to adults the healthiness of them and yet communicate to kids the yummy "normalness" of them.  It made me think of KIX cereal, whose slogan claims, "Kid Tested, Mother Approved".  I thought, what about KIX Chicken?  But then that is a little misleading, since they are not rolled in crumbled Kix cereal.  Or Healthy spelled backwards: Yhtlaeh Chicken, thinking that would be sneaky, but I couldn't pronounce it.  I thought of using Pig Latin. (Are you familiar with Pig Latin, the language? If not, click here to further your education). So I thought of ealthy-hay chicken. But that is hard to pronounce and kinda wierd, and potentially kids would un-code it before parents could pronounce it correctly.  So then I thought of simply Tricky Chicky, or Tricky Chicken Tenders, or Tricky Chicken.  I asked what my kids thought about all of my name options (albeit without telling them what ingredients were in it, or even revealing how healthy it is).   They liked the name Tricky Chicken. So, that's what we are going to call them at our house.

I encourage you to come up with a name that works for your house, if you think this is lame.  I think there is power in a name.  My friend, David, calls it Marketing.

ready to bake

Oh, and I must say, dipping sauces really enhance these tenders! The recipe originally suggested they be served with BBQ sauce.  I think BBQ, Honey Mustard, Ketchup, Ranch...the usuals all are yummy with it. AND, thanks to Brandi, a reader who replied to my request for homemade Chick-fil-A Sauce, back in August, we now have Chick-fil-A Sauce at our house!!!  It is the most popular sauce at our table, our "house sauce", if you will.
(Thank you, Brandi!)

Tricky Chicken Tenders

1/2 cup wheat germ

served with my childhood mac and cheese,
(which I'll post soon) and a fruit kebab

1/2 cup unprocessed bran

1/4 cup plain dried breadcrumbs

2 Tbsp. ground flax seed (meal)

2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 ½ tsp. coarse salt

¼ tsp. ground pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 large eggs

1 1/2 pounds chicken tenders (about 16)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.


In a food processor, combine wheat germ, bran,
breadcrumbs, flax seed, Parmesan, onion and garlic powders, salt and pepper; pulse to combine.  
Add oil; pulse to combine.  Transfer crumb mixture to a large bowl.  Set a wire rack on a 
rimmed baking sheet.  In a shallow bowl, lightly beat eggs.  Dip chicken in eggs (allowing 
excess tro drip off), then dredge in crumb mixture, patting to adhere.
Place on rack, and transfer to oven.
Bake until chicken is cooked throughout, 12 to 14 minutes.  Serve with your sauce of choice.


**** You can also freeze these, once you have battered them.  Then you can pull out and bake as many as you need at a time.  (I wouldn't suggest you do this with chicken you bought frozen...the double freeze situation is one I'd avoid).

one of the place cards that Lainey made while I prepared
the meal... evidently it was a special occasion to her

Simple Home-made Chick-fil-A Sauce


Ken’s honey mustard sauce (you must use this brand, not compromising)
Hickory BBQ sauce (any brand, just make sure it’s smoky)


Mix together 2 parts honey mustard to 1 part BBQ, stir until fully combined and tweak as needed to arrive at desired taste. Dip, eat, & refrigerate any leftover sauce.

Chicken & Wild Rice Soup and A Lesson Learned

Soup is one of my favorite meals and this recipe is my kind of soup.  It is chock-full of yummy things I appreciate in a soup- Wild Rice, Rotisserie Chicken, broth and sauteed vegetables. This  recipe is my adaptation of  a Cooking Light recipe from years ago. It is a little labor-intensive but it makes a large pot of soup that is very tasty and hits the spot for days!

December cooking class

In December, a friend and I attended a cooking class at one of our favorite restaurants, Marché.  They offered monthly topical cooking classes and we signed up to take the December cookie-making class.  We had a fabulous time.  To get to be “behind the counter”, watching and experiencing first hand the magic of chef Tom in Marche’s kitchen was surreal.  He was delightful and humble.  We were eagerly taking notes on all of his great tips.

One of my favorite “take aways” from our class was:  Read through the entire recipe before making the dish and mark or re-write the recipe in your own way.  Tom encouraged us to rewrite or restructure recipes to make them more readable to our personal style and to make them simpler to follow.  This can be done by bracketing steps to break it down, or indicating the amount of time each step is estimated to take.  Some people prefer having the ingredients listed on top and instructions below while others write ingredients throughout the instructions.  Whatever is your best way of tracking, is the way you should go.

 marked up recipe in my notebook

I do this to some degree but the value of this tip was learned last week, the hard way, when I was making a multi-step recipe that I hadn’t made in a year. I was making this Chicken & Wild Rice Soup for my friend, Kristen, who had a baby girl.  The dessert was in the oven and I embarked on the soup-making.  I read the first line,  “Prepare rice according to instructions on the package.”  I began to prepare the rice and failed to read further.  I was frustrated, knowing that it would take 30 minutes to cook the rice, so I assumed that I had to wait to proceed with the rest of the recipe.  I did go ahead and prep the veggies but waited to do the next step of the recipe.  In the meantime, I mixed up the salad dressing for the green salad I was making and cleaned a bit. When the rice was done, I looked at the recipe and realized that the next step was to prep and saute the veggies.  Then I noticed that there were about 4 more steps following (or about 30 more minutes worth of work) before the rice was to be added!  Which means, that I could have started the rice and immediately proceeded with the rest of the soup preparation.  So instead of taking an hour and a half to make the soup it could have taken more like 40 minutes.  The soup was completed and was worth the effort but Chef Tom's words rang in my head.  The next day, I proceeded to REWRITE the recipe.   (See newly formatted recipe as follows)

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

1 (6 ounce) box long-grain and wild rice mix (such as Uncle Ben’s)                           

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 ½ cups chopped red onion

1 sweet potato, peeled and diced

1 cup chopped carrots

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 (8 oz.) package mushrooms, halved                                                                     

¼ tsp dried tarragon

¼ tsp dried thyme

2 cups water

2 Tbsp cooking sherry

2 (15.75 oz) cans of less-sodium chicken broth

1 cup 2% milk                                                                                                        

3 cups shredded rotisserie (or roasted) skinless chicken

      1. Prep vegetables and chicken.

      2. Prepare rice according to package directions.

Meanwhile-   

3. Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.  Add chopped onion, sweet potatoes, carrots, garlic and mushrooms.  Saute for 6 minutes or until onion is tender.  Add tarragon, thyme, water, sherry, broth and milk into the vegetable mixture.  Bring to boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until slightly thick.

4.   Stir in cooked rice and chicken.  Cook for 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated. 

So, don’t be afraid to mark on your recipes, or re-write (or re-type) them with the format that makes sense to you.  It will help your cooking to flow more smoothly.

Lesson learned!  Oh, and read through the entire recipe before you begin, so that you know the whole scope of the process from the start.
And enjoy some savory soup!