Idea of the Week...California Girl Club

 So I'm thinking I need quick, yummy lunches to take to work in the coming weeks. Maybe I'll add soup or a small salad and a half sammy. Either way, I have all these ideas running through my head and here's one...   Grilled whole wheat bread Bacon Tomato Sliced chicken breast Arugala Avocado Mayo Any Questions?  

 

Savory Bread Pudding

This yummy bread pudding is perfect for brunch, lunch or dinner and perfect served with a side salad. Just add love!

Butter or cooking spray
14 slices day old bread Bread, cut into cubes
1 large leek, cleaned well and sliced into coins. I used the white parts only for this and saved the green for another day. 
1 8 ounce package sliced white mushrooms
1 10 3/4 ounce can cream of chicken soup

1 10 3/4 ounce can cream of celery soup 
6 eggs
3 cups milk
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves, crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups shredded Swiss cheese 

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter or spray a 3 quart or slightly larger baking dish. In a frying pan add 2 tablespoon butter and cook leeks until tender. Add mushrooms and cook another 6 minutes. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk the soups, eggs, milk, thyme and black pepper. Add in the bread, cooked leeks and mushrooms and 1 cup of cheese. Lightly toss with a spatula or spoon to coat. Let casserole set up and soak in the custard for 20 to 30 minutes. 

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Sprinkle top with the remaining cheese and bake for an additional  5 to 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted. 

Serve hot with your favorite side salad.

Homemade English Muffins

Breakfast just doesn't get any better than English muffins...nooks, crannies and crispy crunchies all in one. OMG! And add homemade to these delectables and you have insanely good muffin crack. After all, they're so versatile, you can eat them alone with butter and jelly or make egg, sausage or bacon sammy's. They even make an amazing cheeseburger melt for lunch or dinner. So how can you go wrong learning to make these amazing bready treasures? You can't! Whether you're a English muffin purest or just looking for the perfect bread to wedge your favorite food between, this is the way to go. Stopping the addition is quite another thing. : )

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoons salt
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
about 3 to 4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter
1 egg

4 tablespoons yellow cornmeal
vegetable or canola oil


Directions:
In a large bowl, combine1 1/2 cups flour, sugar, salt and yeast.  Heat milk in a sauce pan and 1/4 cup of butter until hot.

Using a mixer on low speed, beat liquid into dry ingredients until incorporated.  Beat 2 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl down. Beat in egg and 1 cup flour. Batter should be thick. If needed add a bit more flour until mixture is thick. Beat for 3 additional minutes. Dough should be very thick.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead just until combined. Shape dough into a ball and place in a greased bowl. Turn dough ball until completely greased.. Cover with a dish towel and let rise in a warm place, until dough is doubled, about 1 1/2 hours. Pour cornmeal into a plate and set aside.

 

 Punch dough down and turn onto lightly floured surface. Cover with a towel for 20 minutes. Lightly flour your rolling pin and surface.  Roll out dough about 3/4 inch thick. Using a a 3 inch round biscuit or cookie cutter, cut dough into circles. Dip each side of the dough circles in the plate of cornmeal and place dough rounds on cookie sheets. Cover cookie sheets with a dish towel and let rise in a warm place, until doubled, about 45 minutes.

 Lightly grease or brush a pan with oil. Over medium heat, heat skillet until hot. Place muffins in pan a cook for 7 to8 minutes on each side or until browned. Cool on wire rack. When cool, slice open, toast if desired and slather with butter, jelly or wedge your favorite breakfast foods like eggs, bacon, ham or lunch meats between these amazing muffins and enjoy. Use caution. They are addicting!

Enjoy Enjoy Enjoy!

Rosemary Focaccia

 This is my mild adaption to Steven Cooks, quick focaccia. Find his wonderful blog with healthy delicious recipes at the link.

Rosemary Focaccia

Ingredients:
5 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons instant yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for baking
1-3/4  cups warm water
coarse salt for sprinkling
1 egg yolk beaten with 2 teaspoons water


Directions:
Process 5 cups of flour, sugar, yeast, salt and half of the rosemary with a few pulses. Slowly add the water and oil and continue to process until dough forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Sprinkle surface with remaining flour and kneed 4 to 5 times. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a lint free kitchen cloth and let rise until doubled. This can take from 1 to 2 hours depending on the warmth in your kitchen.

Preheat oven to 450 degree F. Punch down the dough and divide into 2 equal sized balls. Flatten the ball into disk, place on a baking sheet, cover and allow to rise again for about 1/2 hour. After dough has risen a second time, poke dimples into the disk using your finger. Brush or gently rub disk with oil and sprinkle with rosemary. You can also add thinly sliced tomatoes, red onion and olive slices if you wish. Bake for 10 minutes on 450 degrees, then reduce heat to 375 degrees F and bake for 20 minutes more or until golden brown. 2 to 3 minutes before bread is done brush with egg wash and sprinkle with course salt.
Allow to cool before serving or using for sandwiches. Enjoy!

Buttermilk Biscuits with a Honey Butter Baste

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 sticks butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat oven and turn to 400 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients together.  Dice butter into small pieces and cut butter into dry ingredients with a fork or pastry blender. Try not to leave any big chunks of butter in mixture.  Stir in buttermilk.  Dough will be slightly on the sticky side. Turn out onto floured surface and kneed 3 to 4 times in a folding and pushing method. Flatten dough to 1 1/2 inches thick.  Cut out biscuits using a 2 1/2 to 3 inch circle cutter or an old clean can with both ends removed.  Make sure there are no jagged edges.  Place biscuits in a pan and bake until lightly golden brown or for about 10 to 12 minutes.  All ovens vary, so watch biscuits carefully.  Remove from oven and baste tops with honey butter while hot.  Serve with butter and jelly or just plain. 

For the Honey Butter Baste:

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
3 tablespoons honey

Directions:
Melt butter or margarine and honey in microwave and stir.  Baste biscuits.

Another Sandwich...

I know, I know, I know...yes, I'm posting another sandwich. This is just how my week is going. After the holidays and all the baking and slaving over a hot stove, I was just ready for a little break. So enjoy!

Cheesy Bacon Potato Salad

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, boiled in jackets and cubed

3 green onions, chopped

6 slices bacon, fried crispy and crumbled

3/4 cup good mayonnaise

1/2 cup plain yogurt

4 to 5 ounces mixed Colby/jack cheese, shredded

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Toss all ingredients together, season and gently mix. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Cooks Note: If you want the cubes to stay reasonably in tact after you toss the salad, cook potatoes al dente and refrigerate the cubed potatoes until firmly set before tossing mixture together. Otherwise, the potatoes with mash somewhat when mixed.

Texas Style Pastrami & Turkey on Black Rye with Jalapenos
Serves 4 or more

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter
1 loaf dark rye bread, cut lengthwise into three long slices
8 ounces real deli turkey breast (not pressed)
8 ounces deli pastrami
4 slices Provalone cheese
2 large leaves butter lettuce or a nice handful of spring mix
4 to 6 large slices fresh tomatoes
2 to 3 pickled jalapenos, sliced or 15 or so slices
Mayo and/or mustard to taste
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

In a skillet, add 1/2 tablespoon butter and toast all three slices of bread. In the same skillet, add the rest of the butter and heat turkey and pastrami for 2 to 3 minutes and remove.

Building the Sandwich:
Spread bread slices with mayo or mustard and place pastrami on bottom slice of bread, then add 1/2 the cheese slices to the top of the pastrami. Top pastrami and cheese with tomato and jalapeno slices. Add the middle bread slice and top with the turkey, the remaining cheese and lettuce. Add the top and secure the layers together with a long tooth pick or cocktail fork. Divide into individual sandwiches.

Cooks note: I like my deli meat cut on no. 1 or 2 thickness. This is also the cut we used in our restaurant and everyone seemed to really like it and even commented on it. However, to each his own. If you like thicker slices, ask for it. I prefer this particular thickness because it can be fluffed and is much more aesthetically pleasing. It's just plain looks purdy this way! As my Uncle Frank would say ; ).

Shrimp & Bacon Club with Pommes Frites

This recipe is for 2 sandwiches. That said, these are huge and can easily feed 4 when cut in two. Absolute-a-ly de-licious! We love this sandwich. It is very much like one of the sandwiches we served at our tea room. I gave it a little twist, but other than that this is our shrimp and bacon. Funny, but true story...a lot of the Doctors from the local hospital ate in our establishment on a fairly regular basis. One Doctor in particular loved this sandwich. He ordered it quite often and picked it up to go when he had to. One day he came in to pick up his order and said to me, "I gotta tell you, I couldn't wait to get though with my last patient. All I could think about was getting to my shrimp and bacon sandwich". He said, he just kept looking at the clock and thinking it's almost lunch time! He was an OB GYN! Now you know what they're thinking!

*First prepare garlic mayo sauce and refrigerate to let flavors meld.

Garlic Mayo Sauce:
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup good mayonnaise
2 teaspoons garlic powder
Several drops hot sauce, to taste

In a bowl, stir all ingredients well and refrigerate.

Belgian Fries or Pommes Frites
4 cups vegetable or peanut oil
2 to 2 1/2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into uniform strips.
salt

Frites Directions:
Pommes frites are fried twice. So this is a two step process. Fill a large heavy bottom pot or deep fryer 2/3 full of oil and heat for deep frying. A thermometer should read 325 to 350 degrees. Dry potatoes well so that they don't splatter when they are lowered into the hot oil. Lower potatoes in using a large spoon and fry for appoximately 5 minutes. Don't over crowd the fries. Fry in as many batches as you need to for your size pot. Keep in mind that you are not frying them completely. Just to a lightly golden color. When fries are the desired color, remove them and drain on paper towels in a colainder. This is the first fry. Let fries rest for as long as possible and then return them to the hot oil to cook to a golden brown color. This should only take 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from oil again and drain. Using a large kitchen bowl (a salad bowl works well), place fries with salt and toss well. Serve hot with sauce, if desired. We used the garlic mayo sauce as a dip for the frites.

Shrimp & Bacon Club with Avocado and Garlic Mayo Sauce

(Ingredients make 2 sandwiches, 1/2 for each)

6 medium thick slices bread (I used French bread here)
8 slices bacon, fried and drained well
2 leaves Bibb lettuce or small handful of spring mix, washed if need be
4 slices tomato, washed and sliced
4 slices Swiss cheese
10 medium frozen shrimp, defrosted in warm water, tails removed
Hot sauce

1 avocado, seeded and sliced
8 extra long frilly sandwich toothpicks (4 for each clubstyle sandwich)

Directions:
Add frozen shrimp to a bowl of warm water to defrost. Let sit while you fry the bacon. On a griddle or flat grill, fry bacon until crispy. Remove from grill, drain well and sit aside. Drain shrimp and pat dry with a paper towel. Lay shrimp on one side of the grill and add 2 to 3 drops of hot sauce to each. Fry on each side for 1 or 2 minutes. Set aside. Toast bread on the other side of the grill.

Assemble Sandwich:
Spread one side of each slice of bread with garlic mayo sauce.
Add 1 slice of cheese to a slice of bread and top with shrimp
Top shrimp with avocado slices
Top avocado slices with another slice of bread, mayo side down
Add mayo to the other side of the bread and add another slice of cheese
Add bacon to the cheese and top bacon with tomato slices
Top Tomato slices with lettuce and add slice of bread to top.

Here's where the tricky part starts. Stick a toothpick in each of the four sides of the bread in a cross type pattern, midway between the edge of the bread and the center. Using a bread knife, cut bread diagonally crisscrossing the sandwich in an X pattern. It's a little tricky holding it all together and cutting at the same time but you can rearrainge anything that falls out. Once sandwich is cut into four pieces, join two quarters together, end to end using toothpicks in top and bottom to secure together. Do this for each sandwich.