Simple Recipes

Sometimes the simple recipes are just as fabulous as the complicated ones.  The chicken wings we made for the ARC of Indiana fundraiser.  Or the tomato, zucchini, yellow squash gratin I made to use up extra produce. 

Let's start with the chicken wings.  For years I made La Brea Tar Pit Chicken Wings.  They are fabulous.  Then, I found A Taste of Palm Springs and a wing recipe with sherry, brown sugar and soy sauce.  Our grandkids were coming over for a weekend.  I knew son David would want to watch football so I did an appetizer bar for lunch.  Everyone devoured the wings.  Since then I've made them half a dozen times.  My brother's mother-in-law declared she had never eaten a chicken wing and promptly demolished half a dozen.  They're that good.  The last time I made them was for a fund raiser.  You take 75-100 bites and folks wander around and nibble.  We sold out in 15 minutes.  Yup, 15 minutes. 

Next up is the gratin.  There's a produce stand down the road.  They have a $1 per basket close out shelf.  That's where I start.  I went in looking for tomatoes and wound up spending $4.  Six large tomatoes, eight yellow squash, seven peaches plus four plums and the most overloaded basket EVER - with seventeen bananas.  Yes, you read that correctly.  SEVENTEEN.  In addition to the jalapenos, goat cheese and cherry tomatoes to use up, I now had a full bag of other produce.  Research time.  Eatyourbooks.com, New York Times, recipes I've scanned in at home, recipes I've scanned in at the office.  Some really great recipes.  But, what to make for an actual dinner in an hour?  Had to be quick.  Gourmet's Quick Kitchen had this wonderful gratin recipe.  It called for grated parmesan on top.  But, my elbow hurt from all of the work on the computer at the office.  So, I chopped off a piece about 1" long and 1/2" square.  And, proceeded to chop the heck out of it.  That turned out to be the difference between a four and a five.  Remember, we score dishes one thru five.  This one was a five. 

Bananas.  Still had that mountain of bananas to work my way through.  And, I'd gotten some apples from our Imperfect Produce box.  There was a recipe for a banana, apple, walnut Waldorf salad.  Sounded perfect. 

Still needed a protein since I'd not had any all day.  Shrimp poached in white wine would be perfect.

Here are the recipes...

Taste of Palm Springs Chicken Wings

Ingredients:
5 lbs chicken wings (fyi - the Costco wings are pre-cut but there are only 12 per pack with three packs for 5 lbs - the recipe says it makes 50-60 pieces.  It does not.)
1 c brown sugar, packed
3/4 c sherry
1/2 t dry mustard
1 c soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced

Directions
Separate the wings into two pieces after you've cut off the tips.  Bake the wings at 350 for thirty minutes.  I usually use a piece of aluminum foil on the half sheet so the clean up is easier!  While the wings are starting, heat the sauce ingredients.  Pour the sauce over the wings and bake for another two hours.  You want the wings to be totally glazed.  There may be a bit of sauce left but there shouldn't be much.


Tomato Zucchini Gratin

Ingredients:
1 large tomato
1 small zucchini
1 small yellow squash
6 large leaves basil
1 t minced garlic
2 T olive oil
2 T freshly grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

Cut the zucchini and yellow squash into 1/4" slices.  I got about 11-12 slices from each.  Cut the tomato into 1/4" slices then cut those in half.  Drizzle one tablespoon of the olive oil in a 9" pie plate.  Top that with the garlic.  Then layer over the vegetables.  The recipe called for one layer but I already had a baking dish for two so that's what I did.  On the first layer, sprinkle half the basil and half the parmesan.  Ditto the second.  Then drizzle the gratin with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil.  Bake at 425 for 35 minutes. 


Apple Banana Waldorf Salad

Ingredients:

1 t orange zest
1 T seasoned rice vinegar
1/4 c mayonnaise
dash of nutmeg
1 apple, cored and diced
1 banana, peeled and sliced
1 stalk celery, diced
1/2 c chopped walnuts or pecans, toasted

Directions:
Mix the orange zest, vinegar, mayonnaise and nutmeg.  Either toss everything together or make a deconstructed version like I did.

Waldorf Salad

Secret Recipe Club is fast approaching.  We made my recipe Friday night.  No, I'm not going to jump the gun and show you!  But, I will tell you about the lovely salad we had alongside our entree...

I don't know about your grocery store, but ours tend to have bargain book bins.  After a great deal of hunting, I sometimes find a cookbook or two that I just can't live without.  My family room is littered with cookbooks I just couldn't live without.  I have to live to at least 550 to even make a dent in all the recipes I'd like to try.  Off the top of my head I can't tell you which recipe triggered my picking up Jamie's America.  It's Jamie Oliver's twists on American favorites.  Like a NY cheesecake with a meringue topping.  I know.  Go figure.  Then, I got to Waldorf Salad My Way.  Now, I've never been much of a fan of Waldorf Salad.  It's just too cloying for my taste.  Individually, I love apples and grapes and celery and nuts.  But, not gummed up with sweetened mayo.  Bleech. 

Thursday evening, we went to a retirement party for one of my favorite attorneys.  He's a great guy and truly exceptional at his specialty.  I was honored to be among those invited to wish him a wonderful retirement.  After the cocktail party we headed to the store to get everything we needed to make my Secret Recipe Club recipe.  In addition I bought a bunch of asparagus and a rotisserie chicken.  I figured that'd take care of us until Saturday when I'd had an opportunity to make out a menu. 

Friday, I had a massage.  Margi worked her fingers to the bone trying to get me to a semi-normal range of motion.  Normally, after a massage I just want to curl up in a chair and chill. Not Friday. I was raring to go. And, the Waldorf Salad had been on my mind all day. I'd had a crispy, sweet, tart Gala apple earlier in the week and it had totally hit the spot. Fine, I'd go ahead and make the menu for the week and head to the store Friday evening.  Best part about that?  Connie vacuumed the house while I went to the grocery.  I'll  take that trade-off any day. 

Another 9pm dinner.  But, I've finally found a Waldorf salad that I LOVE!  And the fabulous dressing will go with SO many salads.  BTW - when you read the ingredients I've copied them mostly verbatim from Jamie's recipe.  I love how he phrases the list.  Here's how you put it together:

Waldorf Salad My Way

Ingredients:

4 large handfuls of interesting green salad leaves, washed and spun dry
2 seedless red or green grapes, halved
3 medium celery stalks, trimmed and sliced
2 large handfuls walnuts, roughly crumbled
a small bunch of Italian parsley, chopped
1 red apple (I used Gala,) diced
6 oz blue cheese (I used about 2 oz)

for the dressing:
1 heaped teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
good quality extra virgin olive oil
1 heaped tablespoon natural yogurt (I used Greek)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Toast the walnuts. 

Whisk together the dressing ingredients. 

Toss the grapes, celery, walnuts, parsley and apple with the dressing. 

You can either toss the greens with the other ingredients or mound the apple mixture on top of the greens.  Crumble the blue cheese over the salad and drizzle with a bit more extra virgin olive oil.

adapted from Jamie's America