Fresh Bok Choy Salad
Before you balk at this bok choy salad, you should know that I am not a salad person, and I don’t really trust the people who say they are. Most salads are kind of sad; a handful of wilted lettuce covering a few limp slices …
Recipes
Peachy Delight Cake
I looooove peaches. And it’s peach season here in Utah. People are literally just giving them away, so I’m happy as can be. The one problem is what to do with them. Hence this recipe for peach cake. I started looking for peach cake recipes …
Homemade Chicken Stock
Chicken stock is kind of the unsung hero of cooking, especially homemade chicken stock. It is the base for risotto, many sauces, and most soups. Chicken stock is also used to give extra body and flavor to rice, vegetables, gravy, and chicken pot pie.
Chicken stock is one of my kitchen must-haves, and making it at home is incredibly easy. You honestly just dump kitchen scraps in a crock pot, and cook on low until it looks done. You’ll be able to tell; there’ll be golden bubbles of fat on the surface, and your whole house will smell like chicken noodle soup. You can feel all crafty and domestic for having done practically nothing. It’s a good feeling.
Ingredients
- Chicken carcass (I usually just use the remnants of a rotisserie chicken)
- Vegetable scraps (onions, celery, carrots, and tomatoes are my go-tos, but anything that’s not too pungent or delicate works)
- Salt and pepper
- Many small containers
Instructions
Dump everything in the crock pot and cover it with water. Cover and let it simmer on low heat for 8 hours, stirring occasionally. At this point, mine is usually done, but check for those golden fat bubbles.
When it’s finished, scoop out the veggie scraps and chicken carcass and throw them away. Finally, strain the stock and preserve in small containers. Freeze until needed. (The chicken stock will keep for about six months, but mine never lasts that long.) Enjoy!
Sticky Lemon Rolls
Sticky lemon rolls are stupid good. I’d only ever had cinnamon rolls, and they just weren’t doing it for me. But then I found Faith Durand’s recipe for sticky lemon rolls, and I made them for brunch, and I fell in love. I adapted the …
Easy Baked Peaches
Summer means peach season! I like smelling peaches so much that I always end up buying too many, and need to find new ways to eat them. Baked peaches are especially tasty, and a dessert where you can still feel virtuous for being so healthy. …
Strawberry Chicken Salad
I really do love making this strawberry chicken salad. I remember my mom picking the first (ugly, but delicious) strawberries from our garden, and assembling this salad. Assembling, because it doesn’t even really count as cooking; this salad takes some tasty things, and makes something even better. It is greater than the sum of its parts.
To me, this salad tastes like the first really warm evening of spring. A golden rotisserie chicken elevates a pile of fruit and greens into the taste of long days and sunshine. The cheese is really just a bonus.
I apologize for the philosophical tone. Last night, I was reading a post on Smitten Kitchen when I realized that her love of food really shines through whatever she writes. I want Buttery Basics to be more like that. This isn’t meant to copy Deb Perelman; only to celebrate how much I love food too. With that, bon appetit!
Ingredients
1 2-lb roasted chicken (I like just using a rotisserie chicken)
6 ounces spinach
2 cups sliced strawberries
1 cup parmesan or Gouda cheese (nothing too soft)
1/2 cup almonds (or honey-roasted cashews)
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Instructions
First, remove chicken meat from bones and coarsely chop the chicken into bite-size pieces. Place spinach on a platter.
Top with chicken, strawberries, cheese, and nuts. Drizzle lemon juice and olive oil to taste over the whole salad. Lastly, salt and pepper to taste.
Serve this strawberry chicken salad with warm bread and rich butter for a simple, hearty summer meal. Enjoy!
“The Happy Cook” Review
Announcement! I’m going to start doing cookbook reviews! I love books and food, so I wanted to combine my two favorite things. I was also inspired by just how many cookbooks are available. How can you know, out of so many, which are the good …
Honey Thyme Granola
Granola is not something I usually make, especially not honey thyme granola. But I have Daphne Oz’s The Happy Cook from the library this week (see the other recipe I tried from her cookbook here), and this was a recipe that seemed within my comfort zone. Around …
Balsamic Pear Grilled Cheese
There’s nothing like a grilled cheese sandwich for the perfect weekend lunch; but it sometimes needs to be livened up a bit. Enter the elevated grilled cheese: in this case, a gorgeous balsamic onion and pear grilled cheese. It’s not much more work than a normal grilled cheese, but the flavor payoff is amazing.
Onions are caramelized with balsamic vinegar and sugar, before being assembled into a gorgeous sandwich featuring pears and a lovely cheese of your choice. Unfortunately, I can’t take full credit for this balsamic onion and pear grilled cheese recipe: it’s adapted from Daphne Oz’s The Happy Cook, which I found at my local library. It’s part of my new cookbook review section (coming soon!).
Anyway; this grilled cheese is impressive, but also so easy. What more do you need to know? Get cooking!
Ingredients
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 sweet yellow onion, sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
4 slices bread (homemade is tasty, but any kind works)
1 tablespoon mayonnaise, at room temperature
4 slices Havarti cheese (Daphne also recommends Gouda, Gruyere, or cheddar)
1 pear, cored and sliced
Instructions
First, melt half of the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until the onion begins to caramelize. Pour in the vinegar and sugar, and let the liquid reduce, cooking for about 2 minutes. Set the onions aside, and wipe out the skillet.
Assemble the sandwiches by layering cheese, onion, and pear to your liking. (I like two slices of cheese per sandwich.) Cover the outside bread of each sandwich with mayonnaise. (Don’t worry, it won’t taste like mayonnaise; it just crisps up beautifully.)
Melt the rest of the butter in the skilled over medium-low heat. Place the sandwiches in the skillet. Finally, press them down with a large plate, and cook the sandwiches until golden brown on each side. Serve warm. Enjoy!
