Recipe Rewind: Lemon Chicken Pasta

This has been the weekend of family birthdays. My sister's birthday was yesterday and our niece Lizzie's was today. Because we were in Huntsville yesterday, we celebrated with them today. Mel requested Lemon Chicken Pasta for dinner. This recipe is impressive tasting, but it comes together quickly. If you haven't tried it, you need to! We had Apple-Blue Cheese Chopped Salad and Focaccia. For dessert, we had cake from Whole Foods. Happy birthday, Mel and LB!

Muffulettas

Today, our nephew Aubrey turned 2. Happy birthday, buddy! We spent Friday night and Saturday in Huntsville with Andy's family so we could celebrate Aubrey's big day. His party was a picnic at Monte Sano State Park. Each family was responsible for their own lunch. Andy's parents, Andy, and I had Muffulettas, Updated Potato Salad, and watermelon. Usually I make a muffuletta in a sourdough round and cut it into quarters. However the size of the quarters make them difficult to eat. For our picnic, I decided to make individual sandwiches using the French hamburger rolls from the Publix Bakery. Very easy and delicious!

Muffulettas
French hamburger rolls, sliced
Olive salad
Provolone cheese slices
Hard salami slices
Black pepper ham slices
Pastrami slices

1. Spread olive salad on cut sides of rolls. Layer half of rolls with cheese, salami, ham, and pastrami. Top with remaining rolls halves.

Olive Salad:
1 jar greens olives stuffed with pimientos, drained
1 jar roasted red peppers, drained
1 garlic clove
Pepper
1 tsp. dried oregano
Olive oil (optional)

1. Combine olives and next 2 ingredients in a food processor. Pulse until mixture is coarsely chopped. Stir in pepper, oregano, and, if desired, a little olive oil.

Updated Potato Salad
This is a new (and easier) method for making Grilled Potato Salad.

4 new potatoes, thinly sliced
1 onion, sliced in half and then into thin half-moon shape
Olive oil
6 bacon slices, chopped and cooked
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. Worchestershire sauce

1. Bake potato slices on a lightly greased baking sheet for 15 minutes or until done.
2. Sauté onion in hot oil over medium heat, stirring often, until they caramelize.
3. Combine potatoes, onions, and bacon in a bowl. Stir together mayonnaise and next 2 ingredients. Toss with potato mixuture. Serve warm.

Focaccia

There's a recipe in the October issue of SL for focaccia topped with caramelized onions. Yummy! I had planned to make it tonight for dinner. However AC and Lizzie ended up eating with us and I knew they wouldn't eat the onions, so I improvised. I used pizza dough from Publix as the base of the recipe and roll it out a little thicker than I do for pizza. Then I made indentations in the top of the dough with the handle of a wooden spoon. The next step was to sprinkle the dough with salt and dried rosemary and drizzled it with olive oil. Bake it at 425° for 15 to 20 minutes. Cut the focaccia into triangles to serve.

Wilted Spinach

Tonight for dinner we had Pork Chops With Apple Cider Gravy and Wilted Spinach. I don't usually make spinach but I had a craving for it, so I made up this easy recipe. (Keep in mind that spinach really shrinks when it is cooked, so cook twice as much as you think you need. I cooked one bag of baby spinach, which was enough to serve two people.)

Wilted Spinach
2 Tbsp. butter
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
1 bag baby spinach
Salt and pepper
1/4 chicken broth (optional)

1. Melt butter in a skillet; add in garlic, and sauté 1 minute. Stir in spinach, salt, pepper, and, if desired, chicken broth; cook 2 to 3 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Chocolate Cupcakes With Peanut Butter Frosting

Our department at work takes birthdays (and cake) very seriously. We look forward to all eight birthdays and what delectable desserts our coworkers will make. (Our tradition is that whoever had the last birthday brings dessert for the next one.) Sunday was Stephanie's birthday, so JoAnn made cake for her on Friday. In this case it was Chocolate Cupcakes With Peanut Butter Frosting from Barefoot Contessa. JoAnn meticulously piped the frosting on the cupcakes using a zip-top bag and then she had the great idea to garnish them with chopped Reese's Cups to further amp up the chocolate-peanut butter combination. They were outstanding! I asked if it would be okay to post the recipe on my blog and she agreed. (Photography by Stephanie; styling by JoAnn.) Happy birthday, Steph!

Buttermilk-Brown Sugar Pound Cake

I decided to make a pound cake for dessert and came across this recipe in The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook, which is an outstanding book, by the way. The original recipe calls for mace (I'm not sure what it tastes like), which I omitted. For flavoring, I used a combination of vanilla and almond extract. I can't find my regular loaf pan, so I made four mini pound cakes and have frozen some for later. The cake itself is very moist and did fall a bit after it came out of the oven. I served the pound cake slices with ice cream and Blueberry Syrup recipe that I made up. (A friend said it tasted a lot better than the blueberry syrup at IHOP; I hope so!) Enjoy!

Buttermilk-Brown Sugar Pound Cake
1 1/4 cups butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup buttermilk

1. Beat butter and sugars with an electric mixer until creamy. Add in eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla and almond extract.
2. Combine flour and next 2 ingredients in a bowl. Gradually add to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Pour into lightly greased mini loaf pans.
3. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until a pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean.

Blueberry Syrup
1 pint fresh blueberries
Zest and juice from 1 lemon
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water

1. Combine ingredients in a small saucepan, and cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves and liquid begins to thicken. Taste and add more sugar, if desired. Serve warm.

Bacon-Basil Pesto Pizza

Bacon is one of my favorite ingredients, and I use it all the time. Last night we grilled our first pizza. Andy was a little skeptical, but we decided it would be best if we put our pizza stone on the grill and let it preheat with the grill. Then once it was hot, we placed the pizza on the stone. It worked pretty well (we did end up folding the pizza like a calzone to transport it from the kitchen and then unfolded on top of the stone and placed the cheese evenly on the top. The crust browned and crisped up perfectly! We'll definitely try this again. In fact, I liked it better than cooking it in the oven. The best part is that you don't have to heat up the kitchen!

Bacon-Pesto Pizza
1 pizza dough round (I bought this one at the Publix bakery.)
Basil pesto
8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
Provolone cheese slices

1. Roll out pizza dough on a piece of wax paper (helps with transport); spread pesto evenly over top of crust. Sprinkle with bacon, and top with provolone cheese slices.
2. Grill for 10 to 15 minutes or until crust is crispy and cheese is melted.