5:01 Dinner Club

Plain wheat bread becomes fancy toast with no crusts and a brush of olive oil!

This is another recipe that utilizes one of every last minute cook’s best friends:  the rotisserie chicken!  It is so easy and so delicious when fresh- and even better when left over.  Use is as an appetizer on toast points (as I have pictured above) or on the end of an endive leave for a fresh serving tool that will leave you virtually carb free!  Or serve it up on the bread of your choice for a lunch, brunch, or dinner sandwich.

 Makes 4-6 sandwiches or appetizers for 6-8 adults in about 10 minutes

•  1 Rotisserie chicken cut into cubes
• ½ Medium sweet onion, chopped fine
• Heaping 1/3 C Mayo
• ¼ C Sour cream
• 2 Tsp Dried tarragon
• Salt & Pepper to taste (I use very little salt and a ton of fresh cracked pepper)

 In a large bowl, mix all ingredients and serve!

Skirt steak & a mango????

Serves 4 in about 20 minutes

•  1.5 lbs Skirt Steak
• 1 Tbs Olive oil
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 1 Mango:  peeled, seeded & cut into thin strips
• ½ C Cilantro
• 2 Limes, juiced
• 1 Tbs Honey
• 2 Tbs Olive oil
• 2 Tsp Fresh ginger, minced
• ¼ Tsp Red chili pepper flakes
• Salt to taste

1.  Heat grill or grill pan over high heat.
2. Brush steak with olive oil and then season with salt & pepper to taste.
3. Grill steak over high heat for about 3 minutes on each side.
4. Pull steak from grill and allow to “rest” for a few minutes before slicing. 
5. ****Important!!!-slice steak against the grain into thin strips.  This helps to insure tender meat…
6. Set meat aside.
7. In a small bowl, whisk together next 6 ingredients, set aside. 
8. In a large bowl, mix steak, mango, cilantro and lime dressing and serve immediately or, better yet, let it sit overnight and serve cold-great for a picnic or tailgating…  (After tasting my invention, I came to the conclusion that you could leave the mango out-it didn’t hurt anything but I am not sure that it helped that much…)

Too Easy To Not Make This A Summer Fave!

Time to pay some respect to one of the easiest, most beautiful salads you will ever throw together.  I know this is another one for the “no duh” department when it comes to preparing so I am confident that all of you can (if you don’t already) throw an insalata caprese together in a flash to impress family & friends.  I felt compelled to mention this salad this week because if you are one of those people with an abundance of Summer tomatoes and you are not making this, you are soooo missing out! 

I always lay the tomatoes out first and salt & pepper them on their own.  Tomatoes take on a whole new world of flavor when lightly salted and, if your dealing with a homegrown tomato, they might just taste so good that you make an obscene sound and the tomato hits your palate.  After the tomatoes are seasoned, you weave in buffalo mozzarella and fresh basil in any matter that you see fit.  Another wonderful thing about this salad- it will be stunning no matter how you arrange things.  Now drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and boom-you are done!

Summer on a plate!

 The key to this salad is the praline pecans because if you let the salad sit for just a couple of minutes before serving the sugar on the pecans will begin to dissolve into the vinaigrette and it really enhances the flavor of the salad.  I find these pecans on the bread/bottled water/fancy nut isle at my grocery store???  If you can’t find the praline/candied pecans though, just drizzle a little (1 tsp maybe) honey over the greens when you add the oil and vinegar and use toasted pecans and this salad will still be amazing.  Put this with a rotisserie chicken and you have fabulous summer meal on the table in about 10 minutes for about $4/person.

 Strawberry Balsamic Salad With

Goat Cheese & Praline Pecans

Serves 4

Takes about 5 minutes to prepare

Costs about $2/person

8 C Field greens

2 C Fresh Strawberries, cleaned & cut in half

½ C Praline or candied pecans, chopped & toasted

¼ C Balsamic vinegar

¼ C Olive oil

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 C Goat cheese crumbles

In a large bowl or on a large serving platter, toss 1^st 3 ingredients

Drizzle with vinegar and oil

Season with salt & pepper, taste, and adjust seasoning if needed

Toss again to evenly coat all ingredients

Sprinkle goat cheese on top and serve!

Recipe Art Cards With Original Art By Janet Whitehead Coming Soon!

This salad is so elegant and so good with seafood.  You could serve this to company with very little effort and really impress or you can whip it up in no time for your family for a casual dinner at home.  If you don’t want to make the vinaigrette, just add olive oil, lemon juice, salt & pepper to the arugula for a quicker version and it will still taste great!  I actually served this last night for dinner with what I call “salt & pepper seared” sea scallops.  (Purchased frozen at my warehouse store to keep cost down of course!) 

Arugula Salad With Salt & Pepper Seared Scallops

 A couple of notes about cooking scallops:

1. Thaw them slowly
2. Make sure they are dry when you get ready to cook them (I actually hand pat mine dry with a paper towel.  If they are wet, they won’t sear properly-they boil.)
3. Coat them with olive oil, lots of pepper and a little salt and then sear on really high heat for just a couple of minutes on each side-so easy!

Arugula Salad With Lemon-Basil Vinaigrette

Serves 4

Takes about 5-15 Minutes to prepare

Costs about $3/person

Juice of 2 lemons

2 Tsp Honey

3 Tbs Fresh basil, chopped fine

Salt & pepper to taste

¼ C Olive oil

8 C Arugula

½ C Kalamata olives, pitted (see “my culinary tips”) and cut in half

Shaved Parmesan cheese (parmesan reggiano if the budget allows)

Whisk together 1^st 4 ingredients in a small bowl

Slowly add olive oil as you which constantly, set aside

Place arugula in a large bowl or on a large serving platter

Toss arugula in vinaigrette

Arrange olives and parmesan over arugula and serve!

I call this recipe dangerous because, for our family, it’s become a little addictive.  It’s a fast, easy, healthy sort of restaurant quality meal that anyone can make in about 20 minutes!  My husband just loves the sweet richness of the salmon and the Greek dressing punctuated with the spicy savory flavors of the peppers, olives, and feta cheese.  If you want to knock the time needed to make this recipe down to about 15 minutes, buy bottled Greek dressing but remember this home-made dressing is easy, less expensive and you are in control of the ingredients (like salt) which can be a great thing!

Dangerous Greek Salad & Pan Seared Salmon

Serves 4

Takes about 20 minutes to prepare

Costs about $5/person

Dressing:

¼ C Red wine vinegar

1 Tsp Honey

2 Tbs. Fresh chopped or 2 Tsp dried oregano

Salt & pepper to taste

½ C Olive oil

Salad:

2 “Hearts of Romaine” lettuce, chopped  

 ½ C Tomatoes, chopped

1 C Cucumber, chopped (optional-we don’t do cucumbers)

1 Small sweet onion, sliced thin

½ C Kalamata olives, pitted & halved

½ C Peperoncini peppers, sliced into rings

½ C Feta cheese, crumbled

Salmon:

4 (4-6 oz.) pieces salmon that have been coated with

1 Tbs Olive oil and then seasoned with

Salt & pepper to taste

In a medium bowl, whisk together 1^st 4 dressing ingredients

Slowly drizzle olive oil into vinegar mixture and whisk constantly until oil is incorporated, set aside

In a large serving bowl, toss lettuce and next 3 ingredients in dressing

Evenly arrange last 3 ingredients over the top of the salad

Heat a non stick pan (or griddle) over high heat

When very hot, place salmon in pan and cook about 3 minutes on each side (wait until there’s a nice deep golden brown on one side before flipping)

Serve salmon on top of or aside of salad!

Arugula, Fennel, & Orange Salad

This traditional Italian salad is such an easy way to dress up a meal.  And with such an impressive presentation, you will want to put this one out at your summer dinner party for sure!  A great mix of fresh flavors in this salad with fennel (has a licorice flavor so if you do not like licorice this may not be the salad for you!) & arugula being sort of spicy and the oranges being sweet!

Serves 6

8-10 oz Arugula, washed & dried

3 Navel Oranges, peeled & segmented

1 Bulb fennel, washed & sliced very, very thin

2 Tbs Red wine vinegar

2 Tbs Olive oil

Salt & Pepper to taste

Arrange arugula, then fennel, then oranges on top of one another on a large platter

Drizzle with vinegar & oil

Season generously with salt & pepper