In our small town of Pendleton there are so many get-togethers where everyone pitches in with food and even decorating, so  a great time can be had without host and/or hostess stress.  It also makes getting ready for a party as much fun as the party.  I have to bring an appetizer to one of those parties and leave for out of town early the next morning.  I am thinking really easy to make, really tasty, and really appetizing to look at.  Savory Smoked Salmon Spread fits the bill and I will still have lots of time to pack.

Savory Smoked Salmon Spread

2 - 8 ounce packages cream cheese
8 ounces smoked salmon, flaked (reserve about 2 tablespoons for garnish)
1-1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon Saucy Mama Horseradish
2 tablespoon minced chives (reserve 1 tablespoon for garnish)
1 teaspoon Saucy Mama Hot Wing Sauce

Beat cream cheese until smooth.  Add remaining ingredients except for garnish and blend thoroughly.  At this point you can place the spread in a serving bowl or form into ball and wrap with plastic wrap.  Either way chill for at least 1 hour up to 1 day.  Place on serving platter topped with the reserved flaked salmon and minced chives, and surrounded with a sliced baguette or crackers.

I love to have this left over smeared on my morning whole wheat bagel and topped with thinly sliced sweet onion.

We just celebrated Mike’s birthday.  His three sons Luke, 8 years, Ian, 6 years and Ben, 3 years, got to plan the party.  I got to be the driver, for shopping, and assistant in the kitchen.  The boys decided what their Dad liked doing best was playing games with them, so the perfect gift was SORRY! Sliders.  I do believe from Dad’s reaction that they made a good choice.
Dinner couldn’t have been easier.  We had rib steaks, that I had marinated for about 6 hours in Saucy Mama Cracked Pepper Marinade and then barbecued and topped with blue cheese.  Along with the steaks we had roasted carrots, and French fries.  I did all the prep before I went to pick up the boys after school, so we could spend lots of time browsing the store, picking out the perfect gift and birthday cards.  My Waring Pro Deep Fryer really helps the easy factor on meals like this.  It heats a gallon of canola oil to 325 in under 10 minutes and doesn’t drop a great deal in temperature when the potatoes are added for perfect crispy fries.

DAD’S CRACKED PEPPER STEAKS

4-1 inch thick rib steaks
Saucy Mama Cracked Pepper Marinade
Crumbled Blue Cheese

Place 2 steaks each in 1 gallon zip lock bags along with enough marinade to thoroughly coat.  Marinate for at least 1 hour up to 24 hours.  Allow steaks to sit at room temperature for 15 to 30 minutes before grilling.

Place steaks over medium-high heat for a minute or two, you just want to get good grill marks.  Turn steaks and repeat on other side.  If using a gas grill reduce temperature to medium, if over coals move the steaks away from hottest part of grill and cook for about 7 minutes more for medium rare.

Remove steaks from grill, top with crumbled blue cheese and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

ROASTED CARROTS

2 pounds carrots cut into 3 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch strips Food and Wine Three Herb Spice Marinade

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Place carrots on a rimmed baking sheet toss with enough marinade to coat.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until tender and golden.
Keep warm in oven until ready to serve.

FRENCH FRIES

4 Russet Potatoes into 1/4 inch sticks
Vegetable oil
Kosher salt to taste

Rinse potato sticks in cold water until the water runs clear.  Place potatoes in large bowl of ice water and let stand at least 1 hour.  This can be done a day ahead and kept in the refrigerator.

If not using a deep fat fryer pour 3 inches of oil into a deep, heavy cast iron skillet.  If using a deep fat fryer follow fryer instructions.

Bring oil to a temperature of 325 degrees

While oil is heating drain potatoes and thoroughly dry.  I keep a large bath towel that is only used in the kitchen for this purpose.

Fry potatoes in small batches.  Cook for about 3 minutes,  remove and drain on layers of paper towels.

When all of the potatoes have gone through their first cooking increase temperature of the oil to 375 degrees.

In small batches, again, fry the potatoes to a golden brown, about 4 minutes.

Drain on paper towels and season with kosher salt.

The kids did help with this recipe, but I did keep myself between the deep fat fryer and them.  You also have to be careful that they don’t sneak all the fries off the serving plate before they get to the table.  Those little guys are really good at stealthily opening the warming drawer.

If there is a time pinch you can fry the potatoes only once.  Bring the temperature of the oil to 365 degrees and cook the potatoes until golden, about 7 minutes.

Yippee!!  ‘Beyond the Bull’ The Round-Up Centennial Cookbook is finally finished and hot off the presses.  We got the books just in time for Round-up, our annual rodeo here in Pendleton www.pendletonroundup.com and the sales are going great.  We were even able to get Reba McEntire to do our forward.  I and my good friends and fellow cookbook planners Mary Alice and Raphael were able to present Reba with a cookbook at the Oregon State Fair.
We had so much fun meeting her.  She is very charming and just plain gorgeous in person.  If anyone out there would like to order a cookbook they can contact me and I will make sure they get one.  I do believe we really captured the flavor and personality of The Pendleton Round-up.  The price is
$28.95 plus $6.05 shipping and handling.  All the proceeds go to renovating the plaza and entrance to our historic rodeo in time for it’s 100th year.

We are almost jittery with excitement from the absolutely overwhelming creativity we’ve discovered, thanks to our first (and most definitely NOT our last) recipe contest.   We have been honored by the 25 fabulous bloggers who participated in this event, and are blown away by the beautiful, accessible, and obviously delicious recipes that have emerged from their kitchens.

The contest itself wraps up today; however, the next two weeks we’ll be in the enviable (yet challenging) position of testing, tasting, and selecting the winners.  While we’re at it, though, we’ll load up our blog with samples of these incredible recipes, and the talented chefs who submitted them.

Please let us know if you try out any of these Saucy Mama recipes, and let us know what you think! If you’re looking to buy some of your own Saucy Mama condiments, make sure to visit our website at www.barhyte.com, or look for us in specialty food and gourmet stores near you.

Make every meal extraordinary!

Summery Chicken Tostadas

submitted by:   Bella Eats (www.bellaeats.com)

serves 4 for a light dinner

Ingredients:

• 3 medium-sized boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Saucy Mama Lime Chipotle Marinade, to marinate chicken in and also to drizzle on top of tostadas
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced into strips
• 1 poblano pepper, seeds removed and sliced into strips
• 1 medium onion, sliced into strips
• 2 ears of fresh corn, corn removed from husk
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt + pepper
• 4 oz chevre (goat cheese), crumbled
• 4 whole wheat pitas (8″), brushed with olive oil and toasted in oven

Method:

1. First, turn your oven on to 350*.  Coat chicken breasts with marinade and let sit in small glass dish for 10 minutes.
2. As the oven preheats and the chicken marinates, chop up your veggies and toss in a 9×13 glass dish.  Drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.  Place in oven and set timer to 30 minutes.
3. When oven timer has 20 minutes remaining, pour excess marinade out of chicken dish.  Bake chicken for remaining 20 minutes at 350*.
4. Pull chicken from oven and bump oven temperature up to 400*.  Stir veggies and let roast for an additional 5 minutes, while chicken cools slightly.  Place pitas directly on rack to toast, turning halfway through 5 minutes.
5. After 5 minutes, shred chicken with a fork.  Pull pitas and veggies from oven.  Place one pita on each plate and top with shredded chicken, roasted veggies and crumbles of chevre.  Drizzle Lime Chipotle Marinade over top of tostada, to taste.

We have to admit that it’s always great to see a recipe in which the author says, “This is one of those recipes where it’s almost insulting how good it is when it was made with so little effort.”  Yet that is exactly the kind of quick, easy and delicious recipe we were looking for when we sent a call out for our Saucy Mama’s Extraordinary Condiment Contest. If you’re looking for a simple and quick side dish for supper tonight, this tangy offering is a fantastic solution.  Thanks to Coconut & Lime for offering up such a beautiful creation.

More to follow later this week!  Enjoy!

Parmesan-Caper Potato Salad

1 1/2 lb red skin potatoes, diced

for the dressing
1/3 cup Parmesan garlic marinade
1/3 cup diced green onion
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan
1 1/2 tablespoons nonpareil capers
salt
pepper

Directions:
In a large pot, boil the potatoes until fork-tender. Drain. Whisk together the dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Drizzle dressing over still slightly warm potatoes, toss to coat. порно смотреть регистрации без

My good friend Jo Simpson had our monthly Bunco night at her house out in the country last night. Cheryl Doyle, another very good friend and I were co-hostesses.  Jo ordered a Mediterranean Chicken light crust pizza from our local Papa Murphy’s www.papamurphys.com so she could just slip it into the oven after we all arrived.  I made an asparagus salad using Saucy Mama Sesame Ginger Salad Dressing.  For dessert Cheryl brought raspberry sherbet and butter cookies.  It all made for a very tasty very easy meal with no stress and lots of fun.  It was great to sit out on her deck watching the evening colors change on our beautiful Blue Mountains, catching up on each others lives and doing a whole bunch of laughing.

This salad is easy to make and travels well.

Asparagus Orange Salad with Glazed Almonds

Serves 8

1/2 cup whole almonds
3 tablespoons Saucy Mama Sesame Ginger Dressing
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

4 bunches asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 to 2 inch pieces
2 large oranges
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
1 large avocado cubed
1/3 cup Saucy Mama Sesame Ginger Dressing
2/3 cup fresh cilantro leaves

Place almonds in a heavy skillet set over medium heat.  I use my trusty old cast iron skillet.  Stir until almonds are lightly toasted, about 5 minutes.
Increase heat to medium high and add dressing and soy sauce.  Stir until the liquid has evaporated and the almonds are coated.  About 1 minute.  Transfer the almonds to a cutting board and coarsely chop as soon as they are cool enough to handle.

Cook asparagus in a large pot of rapidly boiling water for about 2 minutes until bright green and just tender.  Immediately plunge the asparagus into ice water to stop the cooking.  Drain well.

Use a sharp knife to remove the peel and pith from the oranges and divide the orange sections removing the membrane.

Toss the asparagus, oranges, onions, avocado and dressing together.

Place into a pretty serving dish and top with cilantro and almonds.

Last spring I got a call from my fabulous daughter-in-law, Irene, saying she wanted to sell me in an auction for Bridgeport Elementary School in Tualatin. Turns out she wasn’t planning on getting rid of me, but on having a Martini and appetizer party at her house. Well, last Thursday was the day. What a good time we had!

I started the evening with a cheese platter out and a Martini bar set up. I had recipes for the different martinis alongside the needed ingredients. I made the first few martinis and then let the guests prepare their own. This freed me up to make the appetizers, and Chris and Irene to mingle with everyone. My first appetizer was a baked brie with apricot pepper jelly, sweet ‘n hot stone ground mustard and Oregon hazelnuts. That was followed by blanched snow peas and asparagus with herb dip. I then made shrimp with our cracked pepper marinade. Everyone ate like crazy, which I love.

I used a little trick to prepare the brie … I found this HUGE wheel of L’Edel de Claron (still in its stapled wood container) and froze it for about two hours.  This gave it just enough firmness for me to cut and then scrape away the top rind with the edge of my knife, leaving the round beautifully prepared for its toppings.

The apricot jelly I used for the brie came from Rose City Pepperheads www.rosecitypepperheads.com . (It’s an Apricot with an Attitude, and I think it is terrific.)  I spread a thick layer of the jelly over the top of the brie, then finished it with a rough-cut cup of Oregon Hazlenuts.

Next, I popped it in the oven (IN its wooden container!) at 350 degrees for about an hour (it was a BIG round, mind you; you’d probably cut the time in half for a smaller round).

I served this with simple sliced baguettes - and when we ran out of that, I added a load of crackers in a basket and watched those disappear at record pace as well!  I thought for sure I’d have leftover brie for a month. How wrong I was!  That appetizer was by far the big hit of the party, and we were left with only the wooden box in which it came.  Yum!

At Barhyte Specialty Foods our crew works 4, 10 hour days Monday through Thursday, so we work a short staff on Fridays. That is the day that quite often I like to cook lunch for whoever happens to be around. It a great way to try out new recipes and experiment with our products. This last Friday about 10:00 AM I had a hankering for panini. That meant a quick trip to the store for ingredients, well it was supposed to be quick. Of course the place was packed. I thought I would save some time by going through self check-out, hah! that didn’t happen, the time saving part anyway. I managed to pick out the hunk of cheese with no bar code and choose produce that isn’t listed when you go the alphabetical screen. I am so glad that the fellow working the self check-out was cheerful.

Before I left to do my shopping I preheated my oven to 350 degrees and pulled some boneless skinless chicken breasts out of the freezer. I placed four breasts each in two different 1 gallon zip lock bags. In one bag I poured Saucy Mama Spicy Garlic Wing Sauce and in the other I poured Saucy Mama Parmesan Garlic Wing Sauce. I then defrosted the chicken in the microwave. It is a good idea to put the zip lock bags into a bowl or baking dish in the micro in case a bag breaks during the defrosting process. (Who wants to have to clean up a microwave?) I then poured the chicken with their sauces into two baking dishes large enough so the chicken could lie flat and not be too crowded and placed the dishes into a preheated oven. If the wing sauces begin to burn on the bottom of the baking dishes during cooking I add some chicken broth to prevent that from happening.

When I got back from shopping the chicken was done. It shouldn’t have been, but I took way too long at the store. Thank heavens Mark, my right hand guy, was there to add chicken broth to the pans when they started to dry out. I took the chicken out of the oven and set it aside to cool and began to assemble the ingredients for the two different paninis I had decided to make. My first panini was going to have an Italian theme and consist of pesto spread on sourdough bread slices, fresh mozzarella, roasted red peppers, prosciutto, creamy havarti, the parmesan chicken and freshly grated parmesan. The second was Southwestern and consisted of cilantro mayonnaise spread on the sourdough bread slices, pepper jack cheese, avocado and the spicy garlic chicken.

I do not have a panini press so I used my range griddle top preheated to about 325. I placed the buttered sandwiches on the griddle and then placed small cast iron skillet on top of the sandwiches for a weight, if you do not have a heavy skillet for a weight use a lighter one with some canned goods placed in it to give that extra heft. A large cast iron skillet preheated to medium will work just as well as a griddle top.

The sandwiches were delicious and we decided we have to have regular panini days at least once a month. We sat around and came up with so many ideas for different combinations of fillings. I get hungry just thinking about them.

Saucy Mama Italian Panini

(for 1 sandwich)

2 slices sourdough bread

2 tablespoons pesto

3 ounces fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced

1 large piece jarred roasted sweet red pepper

1 parmesan chicken breast, sliced into 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces

1 slice prosciutto

1 slice creamy havarti

about 2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan

Spread each slice of bread with pesto. Top one slice of bread, pesto side up with mozzarella, piece of red pepper spread flat (use two pieces if necessary to cover mozzarella). On the other slice of bread top the pesto with enough chicken slices to cover, top with prosciutto, creamy havarti and parmesan. Place the two halves of the sandwich together and butter the upward facing slice of bread. Place the sandwich buttered side down on the preheated griddle or in the skillet and place weight on top. Cook until golden brown on one side. Butter other slice of bread and flip the sandwich.

Place weight on top and cook until golden brown. Slice in half and serve.

Saucy Mama Parmesan Chicken Panini (for 1 sandwich)

2 slices sourdough bread

2 tablespoons cilantro mayonnaise (recipe follows)

1 spicy garlic chicken breast, sliced into 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces

1 slice pepper jack cheese

2 slices avocado

Spread each slice of bread with cilantro mayonnaise. Top one slice of bread mayo side up with sliced chicken, pepper jack cheese and avocado. Top with other slice of bread mayo side down. Butter the bread and cook as described above.

Cilantro Mayonnaise

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro

2 teaspoons fresh lemon or lime juice

Mix ingredients and store refrigerated in a tightly covered container for up to two weeks. Makes a great sandwich spread or serve with fish.

As soon as the last box of Christmas decorations are stored away I start thinking about what to serve for our Super Bowl party. Funny how my thoughts always turn to food. I’m thinking this year I will make a big pot of soup and have a create your own sandwich bar. I’ve been working on a Whiskey Green Chili Cheese Soup that is pretty darn good.

Whiskey Chili Cheese Soup

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3/4 Cup plus 2 Tablespoons Butter

1 Cup All-purpose Flour

8 Cups Chicken Broth

1 Large Yellow Onion finely, chopped

2-4 oz cans green chiles

2 large cloves garlic, minced

2 Tablespoons shallots, minced

1 Cup Whiskey

16 oz. sharp or extra sharp cheddar cheese ( I prefer extra sharp) grated Salt and White Pepper to taste

6 Slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (for garnish)

In a heavy six quart saucepan melt 3/4 cup butter over medium heat. Whisk in the flour to make a roux. Cook over medium-low heat for 5 minutes while stirring. Whisk in chicken broth until smooth. Simmer 30 minutes.

Meanwhile melt the remaining butter over medium heat in a large sauté pan.

Sauté the onions until soft and golden. Add the green chiles, garlic and shallots. Continue to sauté until remaining ingredients are soft. Add sautéed ingredients to soup base. Then add whiskey and cheese stirring to blend thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper as needed. Serve topped with crumbled bacon. I like to cook my bacon in the oven using a foil lined rimmed baking sheet with a rack in it. I usually heat the oven to 350 degrees, but you can do it at 325 or 425 depending on how closely you want to pay attention to when the bacon is done. I am famous for burning toast or bacon in the oven, so I usually opt for a cooler temperature whenever possible.

One of my favorite places in Palm Springs is Melvyn’s located in the Ingleside Inn.  The inn is tucked away behind downtown Palm Springs and is surrounded by beautifully landscaped grounds and is an official Palm Springs historic landmark. It was definitely one of the places to see and be seen back in the day. It still oozes old Palm Springs charm and has the best bartenders and waiters that can be found anywhere. David, the daytime bartender has the true gift of bringing everyone in the bar together, tourists and locals alike, and pours a mean drink. We have met many folks there that make Melvyn’s their first stop when they arrive into town just to find out what is happening and to unwind into Palm Springs calm.

We have gotten to know David over the years and have been lucky enough to meet his wife Karen. On this trip we all went to lunch at Le Vallauris www.levallauris.com

download Watcher in the Woods, The

a small French restaurant, that has excellent food and service. We had such a good time eating out on their beautiful secluded patio. If you’re visiting the area and want a place for a romantic dinner this is it.