Author: Lynnae

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Spinach Chicken Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing

Lynnae

This chicken salad is to die for!  It is a beautiful, light, and nutritious meal that is highly satisfying.  Sounds great, right? 

Start with the chicken.  Marinate two boneless, skinless chicken breasts for 1-2 hours in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste.  After you marinade the chicken, pound the fatter part of the chicken with a meat tenderizer (I do this is a zip lock bag), so that the chicken is of even thickness.  Use olive oil on one side of the chicken, and season with some more Kosher salt.  Grill the chicken.  Sear on each side for about two minutes to get a nice carmelization, then keep turning the chicken until it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.  This will give you a beautiful juicy chicken.  Set aside and allow to cool.  To prepare for the salad, slice it against the grain in 3/4 inch thick pieces.

Next, make the salad dressing.  Just put all of the ingredients together in a measuring cup and mix with a whisk until smooth.  You can prepare the dressing and the chicken well ahead of time.

To assemble the salad, use fresh spinach as the base, and top with craisens, cheese, almonds, and bacon bits.  Fan the chicken across the top, and drizzle the dressing across the top.


Spinach Chicken Salad

From the Kitchen of Lynnae Hymas
Chicken Marinade
·         ¼ cup oil
·         ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
·         Salt and pepper to taste
Ingredients
·         2 Grilled and marinated chicken breasts
·         1 pound Spinach
·         ¼ cup Roasted Almonds
·         ¼ cup Craisins
·         ¼ cup Blue Cheese Crumbles
·         1/8 cup Bacon Bits
Directions
Mix the oil, vinegar, and salt and pepper together.  Marinate chicken breast in marinade 1-2 hours before cooking.  Grill the chicken until the internal temperature reaches 165°.  Cut into small ¾ inch strips and allow to cool to room temperature.  Add all other ingredients to a salad bowl and toss.  Add chicken and serve with honey mustard salad dressing. Serves 4.

Spinach Chicken Salad PDF

Honey Mustard Dressing

From the Kitchen of Lynnae Hymas
Ingredients
·         ½ cup mayonnaise
·         2 tablespoons honey
·         2 tablespoons yellow mustard
·         2 tablespoons milk
·         2 teaspoon lemon juice
·         ¼ teaspoon coriander
Directions
Mix all ingredients together in a measuring cup with a whisk.
Honey Mustard Dressing PDF

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Tuesday Tips-Oven Bake Your Bacon

Lynnae

I LOVE bacon, but I hate to fry it on the stove top.  It makes a huge mess and the bacon smell just sticks to me.  So, I started baking my bacon in the oven.  I cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil (I use the 18″ width kind for this job), spray it with non-stick spray, and spread the bacon in a single layer across the pan.  The non-stick spray really is an important step.  I know bacon has plenty of fat in it, but the bacon sticks if I don’t spray it first.  Bake at 425 degrees for 15-23 minutes, depending on how crispy you like it and how thick your bacon is.  I like my bacon thick and crispy!

 

After it’s done cooking, I fold one hot pad in half and set the pan on it and a flat one so that it create a tilt. 

Place the pan on the folded hot pad as well as a flat one for the other end.  I push the bacon to the top half and let the grease run down to the bottom.

Remove the bacon and place on paper towels to absorb any extra grease.  Once the pan cools a bit, I put a couple of paper towels down to soak up/contain the grease, fold the foil up into a neat little packet, and throw it in the garbage.  No mess no fuss.  If I cooked any extra bacon, I crumble it up and store it in the fridge for bacon bits.

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Barb’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Lynnae

Several years ago, one of my co-workers and good friends, Barbara, would bring the most amazing chocolate chip cookies to work to share.  They were soft and rich, and I could easily eat half a dozen in one sitting.  Give them a try.  You won’t be disappointed. 

One amazing tip I’ve learned is to cream your eggs and butter together to create beautiful, creamy emulsion.  See the picture below.  It takes a while, so don’t panic.  The cookies bake differently when I do this and when I don’t. This picture shows the whip attachment for the mixure, but I prefer to use the paddle attachment.

After the eggs and butter cream together, I add the sugars, cream, and extracts and mix, then switch to my dough hook.  Next, I add the dry ingredients that I mixed together in a separate bowl, and lastly, the chocolate chips, about 1 1/2 bags.  Guittard Milk Chocolate Chips are my favorite.  I’d definitely use a high quality chocolate chip in these.  Milk and semi-sweet both work great.  Use your favorite!

Next, drop them onto a cookie sheet.  Don’t flatten them.  I recently started using silicone baking liners, and I love them!  Another tip is don’t bake too many at a time.  I only cook a dozen at a time.

Bake at 350 degrees for 9-12 minutes.  Do NOT over bake them.  They will get hard and crunchy if you do.  The best way to tell is by looking at the bottom of the cookie.  They should be on the very light end of turning brown.  I like to leave them on the cookie sheet for an extra minute or two before I transfer them to the cooling rack.  They cook just a tiny bit more and are a little easier to handle after they have cooled for a moment.

They are the best when served with a tall glass of milk!  After they have completely cooled, store them in an air tight container so they will stay fresh and soft.

Barb’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

From the Kitchen of Lynnae Hymas

Recipe adapted from Barbara Leonhardt

Ingredients

  •          1 ½ c. butter
  •          3 eggs
  •          2 c. brown sugar
  •          1 ½ c. sugar
  •          1 ½ tsp vanilla
  •          1 ½ tsp coconut extract (don’t leave this out!)
  •          ¾ c. cream

Dry Ingredients

  •          4 ½ c oatmeal flour (17 ounces)
  •          4 ½ c. flour (22.15 ounces)
  •          1 ½ tsp baking powder
  •          1 ½ tsp baking soda
  •          ¾ tsp salt
  •          3 c. chocolate chips

Directions

Cream the eggs and butter together until emulsified.  Preheat oven to 350° F.  Cream the sugar.  Mix in extracts and cream.  Blend oats in blender until flour.  Combine dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and then add to sugar, butter, and egg mixture.  Combine together, then add chocolate chips.  Drop balls onto a cookie sheet and then bake for 9-12 minutes.  Allow to cool on the pan for a minute or two. Remove from pan and allow to cool on cooling rack.  Makes approx. 6 dozen cookies.

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Etiquette–Bread and Butter

Lynnae

A few weeks ago, we went to a banquet at a country club.  I found myself needing a refresher on what to do with my roll and butter.  So here’s the skinny on bread and butter.

Before eating, you should break the bread into moderate sized pieces with your fingers.  Then you can butter the bread one piece at a time.  There were some differing opinions on whether you should hold the piece of bread when buttering or hold it against your plate, not in your hand.  The most prevailing opinions said to hold the bread in your fingers.  Toast and hot biscuit halves can be buttered all at once since they taste the best when the butter is melted.

If the butter is in the center of the table with a butter knife provided, you should transfer the amount you want to use to your bread plate, or to the side of your dinner plate if there isn’t a bread plate.  If no utensil is provided, individuals may use their own clean knives or forks.

When butter is served as individually wrapped squares, leave the empty wrappers on your bread plate or tucked under the edge of your dinner plate if you don’t have a bread plate. 

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Granola

Lynnae


My mother-in-law has some delicious recipes that have become part of our family tradition.  One of these is homemade granola.

A few quality ingredients make for a great breakfast treat.  Grape-Nuts Flakes is one of the more difficult ingredients to find, but well worth the effort!

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a big bowl. 

Add the butter and honey melted together.

 

Stir until well mixed.

Place on two cookie sheets.  I put the both in the oven at the same time and switch the shelves half way through.  Stir occasionally while in the oven.
It’s also a good idea to stir the granola while it cools.  It will harden into a big chunk that you’ll have to break apart if you don’t.

 

Granola

From the Kitchen of Lorinda Hymas

Ingredients

·         9 c. rolled oats

·         3 c. Grape Nuts Flakes

·         3 c. shredded coconut

·         1 c. wheat germ (optional)

·         1 c. brown sugar

·         1 c. melted butter

·         1 c. honey

·         1 c. raw sunflower seeds

·         3 c. chopped nuts

Directions

Mix dry ingredients together.  Melt honey and butter together.  Pour over dry ingredients and stir until well mixed.  Bake at 325° F for 20-30 minutes.  Stir 1-2 times.  (Less cook time=more chewy).  Remove from oven and allow to cool.  Stir while cooling to keep the granola broken up into individual flakes.

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Tuesday Tips-Weigh Your Flour

Lynnae

This is the first of a series of Tuesday’s Tip of the Week.  Today’s tip is weigh your flour.  When baking, getting the right amount of flour in a recipe can be tricky.  Usually, you add the minimum amount of flour a recipe calls for and then add more, a little at a time, in order to get the right texture. 

Remember in Home Ec in school, your teacher would have you sift the flour before adding it to the recipe.   For me, it was way more effort that it was worth because I thought it was a texture thing.  Turns out that it is a volume thing. The more packed a cup of flour, the more flour you get per cup.  So, when using volume to measure, you can get widely varying amounts of flour in a recipe.  Sifting the flour first gives you a more consistent volume of measure.  However, I think there is yet a better and easier way.

A few years ago, we purchased a kitchen scale, and I started weighing our flour.  Turns out that weight is a far more consistent way to measure flour.  The conversion factor for flour should be:

1 cup flour = 4.92 ounces

Not all recipes are created equal, and you may have to play around a bit with the recipe to get the correct weight of flour, but the conversion factor is a great place to start.  Once I figure out the correct weight of the flour for a recipe, it takes out all the guess work.  I just add the correct weight of flour and the recipe turns out every time.  I don’t need to tweak anything.  It is definitely a time saver, and my recipes turn out more consistently each time.

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Etiquette-Napkins

Lynnae

Etiquette is a way to show respect for others.  It’s not a way to put on airs or think you are better than others. A few years ago, I bought a reference book called Emily Post’s Etiquette.  It covers various topics on etiquette that range from weddings, travel, communication, and of course, table manners.
  

As a family, we’ve decided we’d like to start focusing on a different aspect of table manners each week, and as an added incentive for us, I thought I’d start sharing our focus here. 

This week’s topic is using your napkin.  In a place setting, the napkin is placed to the left of the forks, under the forks, or in the center of the dinner plate.  It can be either folded or with a napkin ring around it.

Your napkin should go into your lap as soon as you sit down.  In more formal settings, you may wait until your hostess puts her napkin in her lap.  Don’t tuck the napkin under your chin or in your belt.  The napkin should stay folded in half.

You should use the napkin frequently during the meal to blot your lips.  Do not wipe.  When you get up or when the meal is over, you should put your napkin to the left side of your plate with loose folds.  If your plate has been removed, you can place it in the middle of the place setting.

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Pasta Salad

Lynnae



This pasta salad is my go to when I have to bring a salad to an event or when I’ve having a luncheon.  It’s simple, but it goes a long way and is full of flavor.

Feta is  the most flavorful cheese for this dish.  I especially like the kind that comes in a chunk in brine.  Cheddar will also work.  Olive Garden’s Italian Dressing is delicious in this, but if you want to make your own, Our Best Bites has a great recipe for Italian Dressing.

While your pasta is cooking, cut up your broccoli.  The smaller the florets, the better your salad will be.

 Rinsing the pasta after it’s drained helps to cool it down quickly and to get rid of the startch.

At this point, throw everything into a bowl and toss it together.

Pasta Salad

From the Kitchen of and Recipe by Lynnae Hymas

Ingredients:

3 quarts water

2 teaspoons salt

6 oz. Tri-color Rotini Pasta

1 small head of broccoli

15-20 pieces of pepperoni

3-4 ounces Feta cheese

1 cup Italian dressing

Boil the water and add the salt.  Add the pasta to the boiling water.  Cook for 8-10 minutes.  Drain the pasta in a strainer and rinse with cold water.  Cut the broccoli into small bite sized florets and discard the stems.  Add pasta and broccoli to a salad bowl, along with pepperoni, and crumbled Feta cheese.  Pour the Italian dressing over the top and toss together.  Serves 8-12.  
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Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

Lynnae

 
 A couple of years ago, I went to Chicago for the first time on a girl’s trip with my daughter, sister-in-law, Katie, her mom, and my niece.  One of the first things we did was go to Giordano’s and Lou Malnati’s (Giordano’s is my favorite).  I’d never tasted Chicago style deep dish pizza before, and I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.  If you haven’t tried it before, it’s kind of an upside pizza with a flaky crust.  Trust me, it’s good!

While there are a few pizzerias outside of Chicago where you can get the stuff, I wanted to recreate the experience at home.  I found a recipe on carnaldish.com, which totally fits the bill.

The crust is not a normal pizza crust.  It includes corn meal and you fold in a layer of butter to give it a flaky texture.

Roll out the dough and spread a layer of soft butter on top

Roll it up like a cinnamon roll

Cut the roll in half, and fold in thirds to make a ball

The sauce is made caramelized onions, and slow simmered crushed tomatoes.

Use a 9″ cake pan, grease with olive oil, and line the pan with the rolled out dough.  Then, first put down the cheese, then the toppings, then the sauce.  Bake.  Serve.  YUM!

Whatever toppings you like on pizza
Toppings before sauce!

About to go in the oven

Hot out of the oven

Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza
From the Kitchen of Lynnae Hymas

Recipe adapted from Carnal Dish

Ingredients

For the dough:

  • 3¼ cups (16¼ ounces) bread flour
  • ½ cup (2¾ ounces) yellow cornmeal
  • 1½ teaspoon table salt
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 2 teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
  • 1¼ cups water (10 ounces), room temperature
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted, plus 4 tablespoons, softened
  • 1 teaspoon plus 4 tablespoons olive oil

Sauce:

  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • ¼ cup grated onion
  • ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
  • Dash of crushed red pepper
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press (about 2 teaspoons)
  • 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
  • ¼ teaspoon sugar
  • 2 teaspoons dried basil
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • Ground black pepper

Toppings:

  • 1 pound whole-milk or part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 4 cups) (see note below)
  • ½ ounce grated Parmesan cheese (about ¼ cup)
  • Your favorite pizza toppings (sausage, ham, pepperoni, bacon, pineapple, etc.)

Directions

FOR THE DOUGH:

  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar and yeast together until incorporated. Using the dough hook attachment, add the water and melted butter and mix on low speed until fully combined.  Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl occasionally.  Knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
  2. Coat a large bowl with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and transfer the dough to the bowl, turning once to oil the top. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until it’s nearly doubled in size, about 45-75 minutes.

FOR THE SAUCE:

  1. Heat butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until melted. Then add the onion,  oregano, crushed red pepper and ½ teaspoon of salt, cooking and stirring occasionally until liquid has evaporated and onion is golden.  Add the garlic and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and sugar and bring to a simmer over high heat.  Lower the heat to medium and simmer until the sauce has reduced to 2½ cups. Remove the sauce from the stove and stir in basil and oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

TO LAMINATE THE DOUGH:

  1. Spray your work surface with non-stick cooking spray and turn the dough out onto the work surface.  Roll it into a rectangular shape about 1/4-inch thick.  Spread the softened butter over the dough but leave a ½-inch border along the edges.  Roll the dough into a tight cylinder (like a cinnamon roll).  Cut the roll in half and fold the half into thirds, pinching the seams together to form a ball. Repeat with the other half.  Place both dough balls into an oiled bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let the dough balls rise in the refrigerator until doubled in size, about 45-60 minutes.
  2. Heat the oven to 425°.  Oil two 9-inch round cake pans with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil each. Place 1 dough ball on a dry work surface and roll out into a 13-inch circle, about ¼-inch thick. Transfer the dough to the cake pan.  Press the dough into the pan lightly, working up the sides. Repeat with the other dough half.
  3. Sprinkle 2 cups of mozzarella over the dough for each pizza.  Place your toppings on top of the cheese (if using sausage, you can leave it raw, but make sure to bake for at least 30 minutes). Spread half of the tomato sauce on top of each pizza, then sprinkle 2 tablespoons of parmesan over the sauce. Bake until the crust is golden brown, about 25-35 minutes. Remove the pizza from the oven to rest for 5-10 minutes.
  4. Slice, serve and enjoy!

http://carnaldish.com/recipes/pizza/homemadechicago-style-deep-dish-pizza/#.VMlnDi7jeVB

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Creamy Basil Chicken

Lynnae

 
Creamy Basil Chicken is a family favorite around here.  It is frequently requested, always goes fast, and there are never left overs.  My oldest even made it once for a cook-off with some of his friends.

I actually buy my chicken breasts in bulk, as in 40 lbs at a time.  It takes a while to trim, cut, and bag it, but it’s a time saver when I’m cooking dinner.  I cut some of it into chunks, flatten some of it, and just bag the rest.  This is some that I’ve already flattened along with the other ingredients to make this meal delicious.  I think the McCormick Red Pepper and Roasted Garlic Seasoning is one of the secret ingredients that makes this dish rock!

Just use two shallow bowls for the milk and bread crumb mixture.  I go straight from the bread crumbs to the frying pan.

I find it works best to brown one side of the chicken in 2 Tbs. melted butter, pull the chicken from the pan, melt 2 Tbs. of butter, and brown the other side of the chicken.

When the chicken is browned, pull it out and bake it in the oven, then add the chicken broth directly to the pan to soak up all those delicious flavors.

After adding the sauce ingredients, including the Parmesean cheese, I thicken it with a corn starch surrey.

Pull the chicken from the oven and serve it all over a bed of your favorite pasta.  I like fettuccine best!

 Creamy Basil Chicken

From the Kitchen of and Recipe by Lynnae Hymas
Ingredients

  •          1 c. milk
  •          3 large chicken breasts
  •          4 Tbs. butter

Breading

  •          1 c. Panko bread crumbs
  •          1 Tbs. basil
  •          1 tsp. garlic salt
  •          1 tsp. McCormick Red Pepper and Roasted Garlic Seasoning
Sauce
  •          1 c. chicken broth
  •          2 c. heavy cream
  •          1 tsp. basil
  •          1 tsp. salt
  •          ½ tsp. pepper
  •          1 c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  •          2 Tbs. corn starch
  •          4 Tbs. cold water
Directions
Cut each chicken breast in half crosswise.  Cover with plastic wrap.  Using a meat tenderizer, pound each chicken breast until it’s about a ½ inch thick.  Set aside.
Mix together the Panko bread crumbs, 1 Tbs. basil, garlic salt, and McCormick Red Pepper and Roasted Garlic Seasoning in a shallow bowl.  Pour milk into another shallow bowl.  Dip chicken in the milk and then the breading mixture.  In a large frying pan over medium heat, melt 2 Tbs. butter.  Add the chicken to the pan and brown one side.  Remove the chicken from the pan and melt the other 2 Tbs. of butter.  Brown the other side of the chicken.  Remove from the pan and put in a 9×13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.   
Sauce:  Deglaze the pan with the chicken broth.  Add the cream, basil, salt, and pepper.  Add 1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese and stir until melted.  Mix the corn starch and water together in a separate bowl.  Add a little at a time to the sauce and stir until desired thickness is reached.  Place chicken on your favorite pasta and then cover with sauce.

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