Creamy Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Creamy Chicken Salad Sandwich with Sweet Potato Wedges

I have a confession. Sometimes I am super cheap. You know how No Frills makes you put in a quarter to get the grocery cart and then you get it back when you return the cart? Sometimes I look for a cart that hasn't been returned so that I can get a free quarter. There, it feels better now that I've admitted it.

This probably isn't news to anybody else, but did you know you can take flyers from other stores to Wal-Mart and they match all the sales? I'm telling you, this is the best thing since sliced bread. My stepmom used to go to four different stores in a week to hit up the sales. I've never had that dedication. We went to Wal-Mart armed with the flyers from every other grocery store and saved almost $15! It's like free money!

The best deal was on chicken. Food Basics had a whole chicken for $5. The same chicken was $10.78 at Wal-Mart. Price match it up, baby! That bargain chicken gave us two meals, one of which being these chicken salad sandwiches.

This is seriously the best chicken salad I've ever had. I never thought I'd say this, but the blue cheese dressing makes the sandwich. I really try to like blue cheese, but I just can't do it. It tastes like moldy feet. But just a little squeeze here makes all the difference. Plus, I got a certain someone to eat avocado without even knowing it. Way to go Tyler! (You thought I was going to say Parker, the 2 year old, right? He loves avocado- he'll eat a whole one for a snack if I let him).

One Year Ago: Panini Bar + Summer BBQ Menu

Two Years Ago: Bran Flax Muffins + Breakfast Club Sandwiches + Slow Cooker Bristket

CREAMY CHICKEN SALAD SANDWICHES

Serves 4

• 2 cups chopped cooked chicken
• 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup crumbled feta
• 1/4 cup sour cream, low fat or regular 
• 1/2 an avocado, mashed
• 1 tbsp blue cheese dressing
• 1/2 tsp dried dill
• 1/4 tsp lemon pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 buns, toasted
• handful baby spinach

Mix all ingredients but buns and spinach in a bowl. Divide mixture evenly between buns, top with some baby spinach. 

Challah

Challah is near and dear to my heart, but we call it Grandma Bread. Challah is a traditional Jewish bread steeped in tradition- Wikipedia will tell you all about it. My family is not Jewish, but my Grandma makes a mean Challah.

Wanting to get more into the blogging community (yes, this exists), I have recently joined The Daring Kitchen. Each month they post challenges- one for baking and one for cooking- and all members post on their blogs the results. I chose to sign up for baking for now. May’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah! Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah,” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads. I'm taking it as a sign that my first challenge was Grandma bread (I mean, challah).

I have made this type of bread before from my favourite people, America's Test Kitchen, but I found their recipe dry. I know- shock and horror- I've never criticized any of their recipes before. This time I used a recipe supplied in the challenge and it turned out much better. Be sure to use a heavy pan to bake the bread though- my loaves always burn on the bottom regardless of the recipe so I've attributed it to my pan being too thin.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Bread is fairly easy to make, but you have to have some time to do it, what with the risings and in this case, shaping the bread. I did take some advise from America's Test Kitchen, actually, on how to braid the dough. Making a four or six (!) strand braid was confusing the hell out of me, so they have you make two regular three strand braids and stick them on top of each other. Easy. Even I can do that. Regardless of the shape, the end result is two delicious, slightly sweet, golden loaves. Stick one in the freezer for later, but be warned you may be pulling it out sooner than you expected. Cause the first one will be eaten so fast, of course.

Aside from being delicious with a schmear of butter, Grandma bread/challah makes fantastic French toast and uber-delicious sandwiches. But my favourite way, which is kind of a tradition in my family, is with butter and a thick slice of ham. Salty and sweet. It's kinda my thang.

One Year Ago: Mushroom, Caramelized Onion, Goat Cheese Quiche

Two Years Ago: Roasted Tomato and Goat Cheese Pasta

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Easy Cheesecake

Challah (Honey White)

from Tammy’s Recipes
Servings: 2 loaves

 To make fancy looking braided loaves, at step 4 divide each piece of dough into two sections, one slightly larger than the other. Starting with the larger section, divide each of these pieces into 3. Roll each into strands, tapering at ends. Braid, tucking ends under. Repeat with second, smaller, piece of dough. Brush top of first braid with egg wash and affix smaller braid, tucking ends under loaf.

• 1 ½ cups (360 ml) warm water, separated
• 1 Tbsp. (15 ml) (15 gm/½ oz sugar
• 2 Tbsp. (2-2/3 packets) (30 ml) (18 gm) (2/3 oz) dry active yeast
• ½ cup (120 ml) honey
• 1 Tbsp. (15 ml) oil (light colored vegetable oil, or olive oil if you prefer)
• 4 large eggs
• 1 ½ tsp. 7½ ml) (9 gm) (1/3 oz) salt
• 5 cups (1200 ml) (700 gm/25 oz) all-purpose (plain) flour, plus more as needed (up to 8 or 9 cups total)
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tsp. water

1. In mixer bowl/large mixing bowl combine ½ cup warm water, 1 Tbsp. sugar and 2 Tbsp. yeast. Allow to proof approximately 5 minutes until foamy.
2. To the yeast mixture add the remaining water, honey, oil, eggs, salt and 5 cups of flour. Knead (by hand or with your mixer’s dough hook) until smooth, adding flour as needed. Knead for approximately 10 minutes.
3. Transfer dough to a clean, oiled bowl, turn to coat or add a bit more oil on top. Cover bowl with a kitchen/tea towel. Leave to rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 ½ hours.
4. Punch down the dough, divide it into two sections. Use one half to make each loaf (shaped or braided as desired).
5. Place loaves on parchment lined or greased baking sheets, cover with a towel, allow to rise 30 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
7. Brush tops loaves with egg wash. (Sprinkle with seeds or toppings here if wanted.)
8. Bake loaves 30-40 minutes until done.
9. Cool on wire racks.

Ham, Cheese, and Spinach Strata

What do you do when you have a couple of slices of ham, half a loaf of week old bread, and a couple ends of cheese lurking in your fridge? You make strata! Or I do anyways.

You can hide all kinds of good stuff in here. I mixed some pumpkin puree into the batter and you really can't tell it is there. For spinach haters the spinach can be left out of course, but please try it with the spinach- you won't really taste it and it adds so much nutrition and colour.

Any bread, except white sandwich bread, will do, but I had a loaf of Seeduction bread from Whole Foods that my Grannie brought when she visited last week (no Whole Foods here, unfortunately). This bread is a showstopper- it's deeply brown and crusty with lots of different seeds. If you can find a loaf like that, all the better. This is the only way Tyler will eat bread like this- he doesn't like his bread with "stuff" in it.

Strata, bread pudding, call it what you want, either way it is delicious. The best strata ever is my Papa's (now my uncle's since Papa passed away). It is reserved for once a year at Easter, not only because it contains just bread, cheese, eggs, and possibly cream (read: no vegetables) but because it is something to look forward to once a year. If we made it all the time it wouldn't be special anymore, right?

HAM, CHEESE, AND SPINACH STRATA

Serves 4

• 1/2 loaf crusty bread (stale is better), cut into bite-sized cubes
• 1/2 300g box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and excess moisture squeezed out
• 1 cup diced ham
• 1 cup grated cheese
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 cup milk
• salt and pepper to season

Toss together cubed bread, spinach, ham, and cheese in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients. Pour egg mixture into bowl with bread and stir to coat all bread cubes with batter. Let stand while oven heats.

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a casserole dish with cooking spray. When oven is heated, pour bread mixture into prepared dish. Bake 35-45 minutes, or until top is browned and crusty.

On Kale and Man Food

A funny thing happened in our kitchen last weekend. Tyler was making pancakes for breakfast on Saturday morning*. I suggested that he make them with whole wheat flour at least to make them healthier. He refused, saying something to the effect of "don't mess with man food". I was in charge of making BLTs**. I made BKTs instead. Bacon. KALE. Tomato. Take that man food.

I think kale can stand in for lettuce almost all of the time. Tyler seems to agree, cause he assembled sandwiches for us the next meal using... you guessed it. Go on, healthy up your bacon man-wich with some kale.

*Since I have starting working at 8am on Sundays, Tyler has learned to make pancakes. He keeps telling me how much Parker loves pancakes, but I hadn't witnessed the pancake phenomenon until this weekend. Wow. The kid goes bananas for pancakes. He ate more than I did. Incidentally, he also goes bananas for bananas. I wonder what would happen if we gave him banana pancakes?

**Are BLTs global, or is this a Canadian acronym? Just in case, BLT stands for Bacon Lettuce Tomato sandwich.

Apple Cheddar Soup

Photo from Cityline.ca

I made another amazing recipe from Healthy Starts Here the other day for Apple Cheddar Soup. It is perfect for the cold wet weather we've had lately. Tyler liked it, but declared it not to be in the "man soup" category. Apparently "man soup" has to have red meat or sausage. I served it with a quick bread made with beer, however, so that helped up the man-quotient.

A note about the recipe: If you cannot find unsweetened apple cider, use a little less cider and more water or some chicken stock. We found the soup a bit on the sweet side.

One Year Ago: Breaded Shrimp and Vegetable of The Week: Kale

Kale Chips

Two Years Ago: Deep Dish Pizza

The Best Granola 

Chaussons aux Pommes

Recipe: Apple Cheddar Soup via Cityline

BEER BATTER CHEESE BREAD

Adapted slightly from Best of America's Test Kitchen 2009

• 8 oz old cheddar cheese, 4 oz shredded and 4 oz cut into 1/4-inch cubes
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 pepper
• 1 (12-oz) bottle light-bodied beer (I used Blue)
• 3 tbsp butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F with rack in middle. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan.

Combine the cheese, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, pepper in a large bowl. Stir in the beer and mix well. Pour the batter (it will be quite thick) into the prepared pan, pushing batter into the corners and smoothing the top. Drizzle the melted butter evenly over the top.

Bake until loaf is deep golden brown and a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean (try a couple of spots because it may look wet if you hit a pocket of cheese), about 45 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove from pan and finish cooling on a rack. Can be kept at room temperature for 3 days in an airtight container, although is better toasted on the 2nd day.

Panini Bar

Click on the photo to enlarge and actually be able to read the writing

Taco bar, baked potato bar, pizza bar, etc, all great if you have people coming over last minute or just want something easy to make for a crowd. But how about panini bar! You just have to prep the ingredients and then everybody gets to put whatever they want on their sandwich*. If you don't have a panini press you can do them in a pan on the stove instead and call it "gourmet grilled cheese".

Full disclosure: I did this in February and just got around to writing about it now. Sorry.

*My dad used to do this with pasta too- give everybody a list of ingredients, then they check off what they want and you toss everything together in a pan for a custom pasta dish.

One Year Ago: Bran Flax Muffins

Open Faced Steak Sandwiches

Hello good lookin'. That's what I said when I made these sandwiches. What, you don't talk to your food? Weirdo.

I won't go into much detail on how to cook steak- I'm sure if you Google "how to cook a steak" you'll get a million links (I just tried it: there are over 8 million hits). Here's how I cook steak: Heat a cast iron skillet over med-high heat. Dry meat with a paper towel. Just before cooking, add a pat of butter to the pan and season steaks really well with salt and pepper. Cook to medium rare; I used 1/2-inch thick beef tenderloin steaks so they took only about 3 minutes per side. Let rest on a plate covered with foil for 10 minutes before slicing. I think it is a travesty to not make a sauce when you have beautiful beefy browned bits stuck to the pan, hence the pan sauce pored over the sandwiches.

 I baked an amazing loaf of bread for this sandwich the day before. I'm glad I decided not to half the recipe because now I have a second loaf in the freezer. If you don't have a delicious homemade Rosemary and Garlic Loaf, be sure to use a good hearty bread. This is not the time, nor the place, for Wonder Bread folks.

One Year Ago: Baked Fish and Chips, Olive Bread, Birthday Dinner Menu

OPEN FACED STEAK SANDWICHES

• steak, cooked to your liking and sliced thinly
• two slices of bread per person
• shredded cheese (I used this kind)
• baby spinach or arugula
• caramelized onions (see below)
• balsamic pan sauce (see below)

Preheat broiler and move oven rack to top position. Place bread on a baking sheet. Top with steak, then onions, spinach, cheese. Broil until cheese is melted. Top with balsamic sauce. Eat with a knife and fork.

CARAMELIZED ONIONS

Slice onions into thin half moons (I use a mandoline). Saute over medium-low to medium heat with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper until onions are very soft and golden (you don't want them to brown at any point though). Extra caramelized onions can be kept in the fridge- I always make lots so that I have left overs.

BALSAMIC PAN SAUCE

While steaks are resting, turn pan down to medium heat. Add a small pat of butter, a big splash of balsamic vinegar, a dollop of Dijon mustard, and pepper. Whisk to combine and get all the nice bits off the bottom of the pan. Simmer until slightly thickened and keep warm over medium heat until ready to use. Add in any juices accumulated from the steaks resting or when you cut the meat as well.

Let your light shine in

Small things make me happy. Today, I took down the curtains in our living room/dining room that were here when we moved in a year ago. Now there is so much more light and I can see trees and sky. I'm sitting here at the table gazing out the window while I write. It makes me think of the line from a poem "Barn's burnt down... Now I can see the moon". Of course now it kind of feels like we just moved in and we haven't put up curtains yet, and Tyler will put them back up when he gets home until we get new ones (I'm thinking like this) cause that's how he is, but now I've seen the possibilities.

I also started a sourdough starter today, following the method on Serious Eats. Starter is what gives sourdough it's unique flavor and also takes the place of yeast in bread. As the author, Donna Currie, says "sourdough is as old as the pyramids". This is what they used before commercial yeast. I'm stoked for this project (it's super easy) and to have some sourdough bread in 10 days or so.

In the spirit of bread making, here is the recipe I've been using lately. Since I'm home with the baby I figured we could save money if I made bread once or twice a week. Plus it's fun. This dough is really easy to work with and it makes a nice crusty loaf, so it's perfect if you've never made bread before. Seriously try it. Baking bread is actually quite simple but it's so impressive. Yeast is not scary! Just make sure your liquid is only warm, not hot, so you don't kill the yeast. Otherwise, relax and just do it.

One Year Ago: Spanakopita and Spaghetti with Spaghetti Squash

CRUSTY CROWN LOAF

Adapted slightly from The Complete Canadian Living Baking Book

• Pinch of sugar
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 2 1/2 tsp dry yeast (traditional, although I've used quick rise and it's fine too)
• 3/4 cup warm milk
• 1/4 olive oil
• 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour (approx)
• 2 tsp salt
• cornmeal

In a large bowl, or in a mixer fitted with a dough hook, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle in yeast, let stand until frothy. Stir in milk and oil. Stir in 3 3/4 cups flour and salt. Add more flour if needed to form a shaggy, moist dough that isn't too sticky.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Or knead in your mixer for about 5 minutes. Form into a ball, place in a large greased bowl, turning dough to cover with oil (this helps it to rise as the top won't dry out). Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Dust a rimless baking sheet, pizza peel, or the underside of a rimmed baking sheet with cornmeal to prevent the dough from sticking to it when you slide it in the oven. Punch down risen dough, form into a ball. Place on prepared pan; cover with a damp clean tea towel and let rise until not quite doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Spray loaf with water. With a sharp knife, cut three 1/2-inch deep intersecting slashes across the top of the loaf. Bake in the center of a preheated 450 degree F oven for 10 minutes, spraying loaf 3 more times with water during this time. Reduce heat to 400 degrees F; bake 35 minutes or until loaf is golden and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Cool on a rack at least 1 hour before slicing.

I came up with a variation for a whole wheat loaf: Reduce all purpose flour to 1 1/2 cups plus up to 1/4 cup more if needed in the mixing stage and add 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour.

Olive Bread

I got the bread-making bug again the other day, but I wanted to make something different. I was flipping through Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and saw a recipe for Tapenade Bread. I've just recently started to like olives, and I had olives in the fridge that I had to use up, so I decided to make this. I didn't, however, want to make 4 loaves of it which the recipe in the book yielded (the premise of the book is to make a big batch of dough and then but it in the fridge for a while which negates having to knead it and it ferments like sourdough). I turned to, once again, America's Test Kitchen. I swear I'm not being paid by them! They have a recipe for Almost No Knead Bread that I've made before with great results. Don't be scared of making bread! This method is so easy a child or my husband couldn't screw it up.

I made some quick tapenade* and added this to the dough when I added the wet ingredients. The dough didn't rise a lot, but the bread turned out really flavorful and moist (ugh, I just can't avoid that word). I'm not sure if the lack of rising and moistness was due to the addition of the tapenade or the fact that I added too much water by accident and tried to compensate by throwing in some more flour which threw off the science behind the No Knead method, but it still turned out great. The addition of the tapenade also turned the bread kind of purple-tinged, but I think it's pretty...

*Throw olives (don't make the same mistake I did and forget to pit the olives before processing them. I'm surprised my food processor still works), capers, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, dried thyme in a food processor and process until chopped to your liking