Hot Chicken Salad in Avocado

Hot Chicken Salad in Avocado

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chopped cooked chicken
• 1/2 cup mayo or Miracle Whip
• 2 medium avocados, halved and peeled
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 2 tbsp. grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Combine chicken and mayo and mix well. 
3. Brush the avocados with the lemon juice. 
4. Spoon chicken salad into the avocado and place in a baking dish. 
5. Top with the cheese. Bake for 30 minutes.

You can make the chicken salad any way you prefer. Some like to add other ingredients. I don't normally.

Omelet Muffin Cups

Omelet Muffin Cups

Nice brunch for company or breakfast if you like.

Ingredients (amount depends on number of muffins being served)

• Butter or spray
• eggs
• milk
• omelet ingredients to taste
• crumbled bacon
• hamburger or ground turkey (browned)
• veggies
• chopped green onion, red onion or Vidalia onion
• frozen hash brown potatoes
• sea salt
• pepper
• shredded cheese (mild cheddar, sharp cheddar, Mexican mix, Italian Mix)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Coat 4 nonstick muffin cups with butter or spray. 
3. Melt butter and put into a large bowl. 
4. Add omelet ingredients of choice
5. Add 2 egg whites to the butter; add sea salt and pepper to taste and mix thoroughly. 
6. Place 1/2 cup of the ingredients into each muffin cup, firmly pressing into bottom and side of each cup.
7. Add the eggs.
8. Top with cheese.
9. Bake for 15-20 minutes

Broiled Halibut Steak

Broiled Halibut Steak

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. halibut steaks
• 2 tbsp. fresh squeezed orange juice
• 1 tbsp. orange zest
• 1/2 tsp. Worchestershire sauce
• 2 tbsp. butter
• sea salt

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients and brush mixture over the steaks. 
2. Cut butter into small pieces and scatter over the top of the steaks. 
3. Place under the broiler until the fish meets your desired doneness. We prefer our fish well done - about 15 minutes.

Rib Roast with Horseradish Sauce

These recipes are directly from Lawry's the Prime Rib:

Ingredients:

• 1 standing rib roast (4-rib)
• Lawry's Seasoned Salt
• 1 bag rock salt (4-5 pounds)

Directions:

1. Sprinkle fatty cap of roast with Seasoned Salt. In heavy roasting pan, spread rock salt evenly over bottom; place wire roasting rack on top of salt. Place the roast on rack, fatty side up. 
2. Make sure no salt actually touches the beef. 
3. Insert meat thermometer in thickest part of meat, making sure it does not touch a bone. 
4. Roast in preheated 350 degree oven until thermometer registers 130 degrees for rare, 140 degrees for medium, or approximately 20-25 minutes per pound. 
5. Remove from oven and let stand 20 minutes before carving. 
6. Slice across the grain. 
7. Discard rock salt.

Horseradish Sauce:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1/4 tsp. Lawry's Seasoned Salt
• 2 tbsp. prepared horseradish
• Dash Tabasco sauce

Directions:

1. Whip cream until stiff peaks form. 
2. Fold in Lawry's Seasoned Salt, horseradish and Tabasco until well mixed.

Nita doesn't even like horseradish, but she likes this sauce.

Garlic-Roasted Fingerlings

I had never heard of fingerlings before - saw them at Whole Foods and found that we both love them.

Garlic Roasted Fingerlings

Ingredients:

• 1 pound mixed fingerling potatoes - Russian banana, French, Austrian crescent and ruby crescent - cut into 1 inch chunks (if you've never used them, you will be surprised that the ruby crescent is totally red inside and out)
• 3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp. sear salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1/2 tbsp. minced thyme
• 1 tsp. minced garlic - or more if you like it

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Mix olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme in a large bowl. 
3. Add potatoes and mix well until all are coated.
4. Arrange potatoes on large baking pan - one layer deep. 
5. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes.
6. Remove foil and roast potatoes for 30 minutes.
7. Remove pan from oven and spread garlic evenly on all potatoes. 
8. Return to oven and roast an additional 10 minutes to make sure the garlic is not burnt.

For the leftovers, add some dill and serve with salmon.

Leek gratin

Leeks are another food we never tried until the past few years. They make a wonderful addition to my onion soup (you can see that recipe elsewhere in my blog site). This is one recipe I followed nearly exactly as I saw it in the Food magazine. I just cut it in half for the two of us and served it with a rib roast. They went very well together.

Ingredients:

• 4 leeks, cut in half lengthwise and rinsed - white and light green parts only
• 1 cup heavy cream
• sea salt
• black pepper
• 1/4 cup grated Roman cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Place leeks and cream in large skillet and season with salt and pepper to your taste.
3. Bring to a boil over medium high heat; reduce heat to medium and simmer covered for 5 minutes. 
4. Uncover and continue to simmer for another 15 minutes to make sure leeks are tender.
5. Transfer leeks and sauce to a shallow baking dish. 
6. Sprinkle with cheese and bake 35 minutes.

Turnip and Sweet Potato Gratin

Turnip and Sweet Potato Gratin

Nita and I have never tasted turnips as far as we can recall, so this was an experiment that worked wonderfully. Turnips are a great complement to the sweet potatoes with their taste similar to carrots. I considered using Swiss cheese, but decided to use Gruyere since I have never used it, either. Nita loved this dish that I served with an herb-crusted rack of lamb.

Ingredients:

• 1 large turnip - peeled and sliced to 1/4 inch
• 1 large sweet potato - peeled and sliced to 1/4 inch
• sea salt
• black pepper
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp. butter cut into small pieces
• 1/3 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup grated Gruyere cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray 8-inch square glass baking dish with non-stick spray.
3. Arrange one layer of sweet potato and turnip overlapping slightly. 
4. Season the layer with salt, pepper and flour. 
5. Repeat to make four total layers. 
6. Place pieces of butter throughout the top layer. 
7. Slowly pour broth over the mixture. 
8. Cover with foil and cook about 35 minutes. Vegetables should be slightly crispy.
9. Increase oven temperature to 425 degrees. 
10. Remove foil and cover the top with the cheese. 
11. Bake 15 minutes more to get the cheese melted and golden.