S'mores on a stick

This is NOT my idea.  I cannot claim it in any way.  But I learned enough in the making of it not to take some notes and share them.  Dipping chocolate has ever been my foe, and I learn something new every time I try and fail and retry and fail less badly LOL  If you don't count the time I spent screwing up the first batch of chocolate, going to the store to get more chocolate and starting that part over, it only took me about 20 minutes total to make these.  These can be made a couple of days ahead, if you're making them for a party.

First the DOs:

• DO push the pretzel sticks into the marshmallows until they stick out the other side a bit
• DO thin the melted chocolate with a tbsp of shortening
• DO buy extra chocolate chips, just in case of screw-ups
• DO use parchment paper or a silicone mat to put the dipped sticks on

Now the DON'Ts:

• DON'T use anything except shortening to thin the chocolate (not butter, milk, water, or oil...better to use nothing at all if you don't have shortening)

OK, there's just the one DON'T but it's important.  If water or milk or butter or oil gets into the chocolate, it will "seize" or start to turn fudgy and you will have delicious faux fudge but totally undippable chocolate.  This is true for candy coating as well. 

The set-up is more important than the recipe.  Have your pretzel-stuck marshmallows assembled before you start melting chocolate.  Put them on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or silicone mats.  Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, preferably one wide enough to put your hand down into safely to dip the marshmallows (I have had bad luck with melting chocolate for dipping in the microwave, so I don't try any more).  I rolled just the sides of the marshmallows rather than dipping them straight down as I was worried that the marshmallows would pull off the sticks.  Keep the heat on low under the double boiler to keep the chocolate warm and thin (if you don't have a double boiler, I suppose you could melt the chocolate and put your work bowl over a heating pad to help keep the chocolate from cooling and thickening too much, but I can't swear to the viability of this equipment work-around).  Work with one stick at a time, dipping then rolling then putting it back on the baking sheet before doing the next one.



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Broccoli Salad

This is a creature I had not encountered before moving to the Midwest.  I am not going to engage in culinary anthropology and draw the sweeping conclusion that this is therefore a Midwestern dish (as my lack of exposure may derive merely from a vegetable-deficient upbringing rather than geographical particulars), though there is clearly a link between the Midwest love of mayonnaise-covered fruit and most broccoli salad recipes.

I have discovered a superior dressing recipe (originally for pasta salad, thanks again Cooking Light!) that is ideally suited to a vegetable salad such as this.  It doesn't break (as many a typical mayo-and-vinegar broccoli salad dressing does), but stays creamy even when made a full day in advance.  It also employs buttermilk which significantly reduces the fat content of the dressing versus a full mayo dressing.  And it's got a little zing from chili (or chile) powder.  This dressing works well for other vegetable salads as well, including coleslaw.

I am using chive flowers right now b/c 1) I'm just so tickled you can eat them, 2) they've got only another couple of days before they dry up in the garden, and 3) they're really pretty in the salad.  Use 1/4 cup chopped chives or red onion instead, if you want.

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Broccoli Rice Salad

I spent part of a summer in France many, many moons ago, and to be expected, my culinary world was transformed by the exposure to French foods and French cooks.  However, not so expectedly, my favorite foods from this trip are the French gastronomic equivalents of PB&J (which they do NOT have in France)...ham and butter sandwiches, grilled sausage served in split baguettes instead of hot dog buns, salads made of a single perfectly ripe and lightly dressed vegetable, fresh-picked plums (oh the plums!), and rice salads. 

I was one of about a dozen volunteers, both French and de l'étranger , and we took it in turns to cook for the group.  Several times we had salads composed of rice mixed with leftover meats, black olives, chopped fresh onion and peppers, summer corn, and just about anything else that needed using up.  Like I said, it's not fancy food, but it was revelatory for me.  I had no idea leftovers could be, well, delicious!  It holds at room temperature very well, too, so it's an excellent potluck/pitch-in/picnic dish.

The transition between the tough, outer
layers and the tender, light green "meat"
is clearly delineated.

As implied, you can make a rice salad out of just about anything on hand.  A few cups of rice (even that can be a leftover), a couple cups of cooked chicken, beef, pork, canned tuna, salmon mixed with a couple cups of vegetables (fresh or leftover), any herbs that are handy, some olives or pimiento and a little bit of salad dressing is all you need. 

The following salad uses up raw broccoli stems and is a vegetarian/vegan (depending on the exact ingredients of your salad dressing) dish.  To peel the broccoli, cut the bottom inch or so of stem off.  Stand the stem on its "floret" end (after removing the florets for another use), and use a knife to slice the woody peel away.  Then shred the broccoli using a food processor or hand grater. 

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Corned Beef Cheese Ball

And finally, I have a post about the other St. Patty's Day corned beef do-over.  Maybe it's a Midwest thing, but cheeseballs are great pitch-in food.  They can even be frozen ahead and thawed a day before the event. 

If you're going to freeze them for more than a few days, vacusealing is the way to go as the cream cheese is prone to picking up funky odors.  Make the cheeseball, then freeze for at least an hour on a piece of waxed or parchment paper, THEN vacuseal.  Otherwise the vacuum will squish the cheeseball flat.  Once again, I screw up so you don't have to.

I also recommend preparing this cheeseball in a stand mixer rather than a food processor or by hand.  The food processor will just turn the mix-ins to paste and without some electric elbow grease, the cream cheese will stay clumpy and dense instead of mixing into a light, smooth medium for corned beef goodness delivery.

Corned Beef Cheeseball
Makes 2 4" cheeseballs

12 oz. corned beef, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup pickle relish
8 oz. cream cheese
2 cups shredded cheddar
1 1/2 tbsp horseradish
1 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
1/2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 cups walnut or pecan pieces

Combine first 8 ingredients in a stand mixer.  Mix until well-blended.  Divide mixture in half and shape into balls. 



Please to be ignoring the take-out cup in the background

 Spread half of the nut pieces on a piece of waxed or parchment paper.  Roll one ball in the nuts until well-coated on all sides.  Repeat with remaining cheeseball.  Refrigerate or freeze. Pin It

Orange and pepper baked fish with Picnic Green Bean Salad

Tonight is the perfect storm of reasons why I can't make dinner at dinnertime.  No outside play time due to inclement weather, early naptime and anticipated late spousal arrival equals too much juvenile energy without adult backup, and that means that not even the Wonder Pets will guarantee me 10 tantrum- and injury-free minutes to put dinner together at Hungry O'Clock.  So everything on the menu tonight was prepared at 8am this morning and will require almost no attention to complete at 6pm.

The fish can be prepped ahead and made into a freezer kit, while the beans are make-ahead but not freezer-friendly.  Whether you're prepping ahead for same-day or next-day cooking or freezing the fish, don't marinate fish until right before cooking.  The acid in the orange juice will turn it into ceviche (not a bad thing, but not what we're going for here) if left too long. 

The beans are best at room temperature, but I doubt I'll remember to get them out of the fridge with enough time to warm up that far.  You basically want to make sure the vinaigrette has a chance to unsolidify as it will harden up when refrigerated.  This is a great dish to make for a picnic or pitch-in because it benefits from a day of melding with no last-minute cooking/assembling and it doesn't need to be kept at dairy-based food safety temperatures. 

My last thought is on preserved lemons.  I adore lemons, and used to make preserved lemons pretty regularly.  If you make/have them, this is a delicious salad to put them in.  Chop up a piece of the rind and discard the flesh. 



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