Grilled Chicken Salad from Martha Stewart

Oh my oh my. Martha Stewart. Just when I was ready and set to give up on you. Just when I felt like every recipe in your magazine required the purchase of either (a.) a new specialized baking dish or kitchen utensil or (b.) a farm in New Hampshire, you came through for me.

In the May issue of the magazine is the feature "Lunch in the Garden," in which Dana Gallagher rewarded several of her friends for helping rescue her weedy garden by serving them a delicious lunch that she made largely with the fruits of their own labor.

It was another one of those serendipitous moments for me. I was leisurely leafing through the magazine, just about to quit my Martha habit cold turkey, when I spied the recipe for the Grilled Chicken Salad. It listed several ingredients that happened to come in my box again this week (thanks be to seasonal cooking once again! Dana Gallagher's garden and the Abundant Harvest Farms both seem to have produce that understands it should be ripening right now. Those smart little veggies.).

Lettuce, peas, mint, lemon? I've got that!

This recipe is really easy to put together, especially considering lots of it can be done ahead of time. If you've been around here for very long at all, you know I love something that can be done ahead. There just isn't time between school and karate class and baseball practice and piano lessons and scout meetings to really dedicate any length of afternoon/evening to the kitchen. This salad let me marinate the chicken in the morning, grill it while I cleaned the veggies and whisked up the dressing at lunch time, and throw the salad together just in time to intercept the starving family as they zipped though my dining room. The chicken can actually be cooked at any time during the day and kept refrigerated until showtime.

I sat at dinner and ate and ate and ate until I was uncomfortable (which has been pointed out to me, isn't easy to do with a salad). It was just so delicious that I couldn't stop! I didn't know how I was going to feel about mint in my salad, but it was amazing! I am hoping to get more peas right quick so I can make this one again!

Here is the recipe just how Martha presents it. The only substitution I made was to use Romaine instead of butter lettuce. I think the butter lettuce would have been even better, but Romaine was what I got this week, and so Romaine is what I ate. I also cooked a little less chicken (feeding only five, rather than the 20 or so that seemed to be at the featured garden party). I loved that it called for both legs and breasts. The kids love eating chicken drumsticks!

Grilled Chicken Salad
from Martha Stewart Living May 2012

• 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 2 tablespoons plus 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (from 3 or 4 lemons), divided
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon minced garlic (4 cloves), divided
• 5 boneless, skinless chicken-breast halves (10 to 11 ounces each)
• 12 chicken drumsticks
• 2 cups shelled fresh peas (from 2 pounds in pods)
• 2 tablespoons minced shallot
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint leaves, plus 1/2 cup packed fresh mint leaves (from 2 bunches)
• 1 to 2 heads butterhead lettuce such as Bibb or Boston, trimmed and separated into leaves

Directions

1. Whisk together 1/4 cup oil, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon garlic. Pour over chicken, and refrigerate 2 hours.
2. Cook peas in a large pot of boiling water until just tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Drain, and submerge in ice water to stop the cooking and retain color.
3. Preheat grill to medium-high heat or set up grill for indirect heat. Remove chicken from marinade, and grill chicken, turning often, until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees, 15 to 20 minutes for drumsticks and 20 to 25 minutes for breasts. Let cool, and refrigerate until ready to serve. Just before serving, cut chicken breasts into thick slices.
4. Whisk together remaining 1/2 cup oil, 1/3 cup lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon garlic, the shallot, mustard, salt, and chopped mint in a medium bowl. Arrange lettuce, whole mint leaves, and peas on a large serving platter. Toss chicken in dressing, and arrange on salad. Pour remaining dressing over salad.

Roast Red Peppers Sandwiches on Focaccia

It is hot. Hotter than Hades around here. I believe it got up to 107 yesterday. So hot, in fact, that my local hometown newspaper ran an article in which some of my townspeople, I'm ashamed to admit, explain that they have found it necessary to carry water bottles... and (oh! The horror!) rent a movie instead of heading out to the park. My hometown newspaper is fabulous for great tidbits like these.

At any rate, if there is one thing I am not so interested in when it's ridiculously hot out, it's cooking.

I thought that sandwiches would be a fabulous dinner, but I wanted to make them a tad more special than the usual PB&J that makes its way to school in the lunchbox every day.

Veggie sandwiches were the order of the day... and I did end up cooking a little bit. I roasted the peppers, so the broiler was on. But only for about 10 minutes, so that doesn't count. And I did bake the focaccia, but that was early in the morning, so that doesn't count either.

I love love love roasted red bell peppers, and here is how I do them (they work great on the grill as well, but it was to hot to go outside and stand near the grill, so I did them in the oven this time).

Turn on the broiler, and scrub the peppers clean.

Place the whole, uncut pepper straight onto the oven rack, near the broiling element. (If you place a baking sheet on a lower rack, it catches the dripping pepper juices, which will make cleaning up much easier). Turn the peppers every couple of minutes with a pair of tongs. You want the pepper to get as black and blistery as possible all over. It will take a total of about 10 minutes.

After the pepper is blackened, take it out of the oven and place it into a plastic or paper bag, and close up the bag. Wait a few minutes while it gets all sweaty and steamy. When you take it out, the skin should peel right off the pepper, leaving you with a delicious roasted, skinless bell pepper. Cut it up, removing the seeds, stem, and ribs. For sandwiches, I leave it in pretty big planks.

Once you have your bread and your roasted peppers, it's just a matter of stacking up a sandwich and enjoying the life of Riley. Especially if you lived the life of Cinderella earlier this summer and made some pesto and some pickles that you can grab.

Mine had lettuce, tomato, bread and butter pickles, sharp cheese, roasted peppers, and pesto.

Mmmmmm.

Spring Rolls

After driving halfway up California's Great Central Valley, and visiting Peterson Family Farm, we arrived at our campground.

AAAAHHHHH.

I love camping. I was trying to figure out why it seems so relaxing, when in reality many things are more difficult while camping. For example, washing dishes:

At home, I load the dishwasher (theoretically I do this as I create dirty dishes), pop in the detergent, and press "start."

While camping, I walk to the water spout to fill a dishpan. Then I walk back to fill a large pot. I place the pot onto the stove to heat the water. Once it boils, I divide the cold water and the hot water so that I end up with two pans of very warm water. One gets soap, the other is for rinsing. Then, I scrub each item in the first pan, transfer it to the rinse pan, and then place it into a drying rack. When they are all done, I have to throw the water out, place the dish rack into one pan, and invert the other pan over it all, in order to keep it dust-free.

Really, being at home is much easier, right?

Well, except.

At a campground, I have no floors to sweep, mop, or vaccuum. I have no beds to make (unless you count throwing the sleeping bag back to it's proper side of the tent). I have no washing machine or dryer to run. I have no windows to wash, furniture to dust, or showers to scrub. I also have no appointments to keep, errands to run, or practices and classes to shuttle kids to and from.

It's lovely.

As I mentioned, eons ago, we grabbed our Abundant Harvest box on the way to the campground. Meaning that there were all sorts of yummy fruits and veggies to consume during the week. Fortunately, we also had friends and family there to share in the harvest.

One fun use for many veggies was spring rolls. This was actually my mom's idea, and she got my kids and their friends involved right alongside the adults, in making this delicious appetizer.

They are super nutritious (all sorts of raw vegetables) and easy to make (very little actual cooking). Once the chopping was done, the kids pretty much took over, and the adults got busy eating the spring rolls as quickly as the kids could build them.

Spring Rolls

First, you need to buy spring roll wrappers. I have only seen them at Asian Markets.

It is an extra errand to run, but as you can see, they are certainly reasonably priced! This package didn't say how many it contains, and they were being eaten faster than I can count. However, I'd be willing to bet that for $1.49, we made at least 80 spring rolls.

Spring roll wrappers are made out of rice flour, water and salt. They are rolled out to be extremely thin, and then dried on bamboo mats.

They are almost transparent and completely dry (almost fragile) when you take them out of the package. After dipping them into warm water for a half-minute or so, they become pliable.

The other specialty ingredient is rice noodles. These can probably be found in any supermarket, but you will find them for a ridiculously low price if you get them at the Asian Market while you are picking up your spring roll wrappers. Cook the noodles according to the directions on the package. (Pretty much like cooking any pasta, but way faster). This is the only cooking you have to do.

Now, chop up your veggies. They should be chopped into match sticks. I used (of course) the stuff I had on hand, but any combo is bound to be good. I had carrots, basil, bell peppers (red and yellow), summer squash, lettuce, and cilantro. You could add almost anything. Some things that come to mind are bean sprouts, cucumber, celery, mushrooms, or radishes.

Once you have assembled your supplies (wrappers, cooked noodles, chopped veggies), you can begin rolling.

Take a wrapper, and submerge it in warm water until it is soft enough to fold without cracking (20-30 seconds). Lay it out and begin piling ingredients onto one side of it. Remember that it is small and needs to roll up, so go easy on the filling! A couple of pieces of each veggie, and bit of noodles is all it takes.

This one is filled very generously!

Once you have gotten all the good stuff on there, roll it and tuck the ends in as you go. (Like a burrito).

Since we had a whole group of rollers (ranging in age from 7 to... shall we say... adults?), we ended up with a whole range of rolling styles. Some were perfectly done.

Others looked a little more... creative.

But all of them were delicious!

Ordinarily, I would love to artfully display a platter-ful.
This time, though, I had to snap quickly. These hungry
campers weren't waiting to eat them! I don't think we ever had
more than four on the plate at any one time.

Once they are rolled, dip them in the most delicious dipping sauce ever. 

1 cup hoisin sauce

1 Tablespoon peanut butter

1 teaspoon rice vinegar

1/4 cup chopped peanuts

Mix together hoisin sauce, peanut butter and vinegar. If it seems too thick, you can stir in a little water. Top with chopped peanuts.

One salad, coming up. Chop-chop.

I moved to my current town about 10 years ago, and when I did we had a double income, and no kids. In other words, I ate at restaurants a heck of a lot more often than I do these days.

I came from a fabulous city on the beach where there were more than a fair share of ethnic restaurants of every kind, and I came to a city 50 miles inland, where there are chain restaurants and barbecue places. (It has gotten a bit better in the past 10 years. I'll be okay.) I went from being spoiled to being petulant.

One thing I noticed at the time was that all of a sudden, every restaurant happened to offer a "barbecue chopped salad." I am not sure if that was the case everywhere in the United States at the time, or the town I moved to. This town has more than it's fair share of barbecue restaurants, mind you.

I like to think that the barbecue chopped salad originated in New Mexico. I imagine that people in New Mexico eat black beans and corn with every meal. I have never been to New Mexico, but I am sure it must be true.

Whether this salad came from New Mexico or my little city here; whether it is a local thing or a thing of its era, this salad seems to be in every restaurant around me.

I love it. It has enough protein and fiber to be a meal, lots of nutrition, and enough different ingredients to keep it interesting enough to eat often.

The only problem is that 2 of 3 little guys around here won't touch a salad with a 10-foot pole. That is a hurdle that I plan to overcome someday. Just not yet.

Last night I was attending a fundraiser for breast cancer, and I knew that there would be pizza available for the kids. Since they were all taken care of with their favorite dinner, I took the chance before we went out, to enjoy one of my own favorite dinners too.

In case you live in a remote corner of the United States where they don't have a barbecue chopped salad, it is:
lettuce
cilantro
black beans
tomato
corn
green onions
cheddar cheese
grilled chicken
avocado

tossed with ranch dressing and barbecue sauce