food

Reuben Sliders and pretzel rolls

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Has anyone tried those new pretzel rolls that seem to be all the rage? I have seen them on a couple of fast food commercials and they just look yummy. So when I was cruising on the Internet looking for football snack recipes, imagine my surprise when I paused at a photo of a Rueben slider on a pretzel roll. Quickly wiping the drool off my computer keyboard, I slammed the print button. No one likes fun food more than our family … especially during football season.

I found “Sister Schubert’s” Pretzel Rolls in the frozen bread section of my local grocery store. One bag of 6 mini rolls cost about $3.00. The frozen little rolls thaw quite nicely several different ways. I loaded each up with pastrami, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and some spicy mustard. I know … Rueben sandwiches demand Thousand Island or Russian dressing. We just like ours with spicy mustard. Oh, and then pop the little darlins’ in the microwave to melt the cheese. Be prepared to make them often!

The original recipe was adapted from eatathomecookes.com

“Kick in the Pants” Chicken Salad

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It’s beastly hot outside. Yep … summer in Texas. So what to cook tonight for dinner? I was thumbing through a stack of cookbooks looking for a recipe that didn’t require turning on the oven, or the stove top, and came across one for chicken salad that looked moderately interesting. After the first taste test, I decided it contained just the right amount of cumin and chili powder. It really gave it some zing! I’ve renamed it “Kick in the Pants” Chicken Salad. So instead of literally heating up the kitchen … decide if it might be more fun to simmer a couple of taste buds instead. On a scale of one to five my husband gave the recipe a five. And don’t forget the corn and bell peppers. They give it just the right amount of crunch! I just had to share.

Chicken Salad with Corn and Cilantro
Serves four

Serve with salad greens, or roll the chicken in a wrap for a quick lunch.

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
½ cup rice vinegar
¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice (about 2 limes)
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
½ teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon Tabasco or other hot sauce
4 cups cubed cooked chicken
2 ears yellow corn, kernels removed
½ cup chopped cilantro
½ red bell pepper, diced
4 green onions (white and green parts), thinly sliced

To make the dressing, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, lime juice, chili powder, cumin, garlic, salt, pepper and hot sauce in medium bowl.

Add cubed chicken, corn, cilantro, bell pepper, green onions and stir well to coat. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Adapted from “Pure Flavor” by Kurt Beecher Dammeier

These biscuits are not for wimps

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA “Can I make a request for dinner? Would you make those cheese and pepper biscuits tomorrow? We can have breakfast for dinner,” Rick said.

My husband of 40 years was born and raised in Texas and loves biscuits of all persuasions.

We have this Texas cookbook with a great recipe for Cheddar and Black Pepper Biscuits. I’d have to say it’s the black pepper that gives them a lot of character and a little bit of sass. Check the recipe tab of this blog to find out how to make your own!

The biscuits were paired with the most wonderful whole sour cherry preserves on the planet. The label says they were imported from Serbia. Actually we purchased the preserves from a specialty store just because the jar was so darn beautiful. Turned out what is in the inside of the jar is just as awesome. Close your eyes and picture pitted sweet cherries swimming around in a pool of the richest, darkest cherry juices. I know … made me tear up also.

Now all you need are a couple of eggs over easy and some orange juice in a wine glass. How about a toast … to love, life and family!

Brisket, ribs and sausage … oh my!

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We are serious about our barbecue at the Frantz house. It’s definitely a Texas thang handed down through the ages. The photos are from last year’s family BBQ tour. Luling City Market is rated one of the top five in the state. I sincerely concur with Texas Monthly magazine’s assessment.

My husband … now he has some mean skills on the grill. My favorite is his brisket. Me … I am in charge of the sides. I make a downright righteous potato salad. Still working on my cole slaw.

It’s one of the things our son is missing at the moment. Ricky is in the Air Force and getting close to halfway through a six-month deployment in the Middle East. I’m not allowed to tell where exactly. Yep, but I’m keeping track of the days till his return on the chalkboard Santa got me for Christmas this year. Only 114 more days … but who is counting?

Thanks to modern technology, we FaceTime chat with Ricky every Sunday morning around the breakfast table, slurping juice and crunching breakfast cereal, before heading to church. This past week he had a request.

“Mom, I need some more barbecue sauce. I donated my last two bottles to our squadron’s New Year’s feast,” Ricky said.

When Ricky got there before Thanksgiving he mentioned the food was terrible.

“They boil all the meat. I don’t know why. The barbecue sauce will help mask some of the blandness,” said our son.

It’s why I mailed our son several more bottles of KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce this week. I’m his official barbecue sauce supplier. Thought it was interesting when the postal clerk asked me if the box contained any perfume or liquids.

“Does barbecue sauce count as a liquid?” I glared, narrowing my eyeballs in his direction.

I knew the answer and wondered what he was going to do about it. After about thirty seconds he just shrugged his shoulders and stamped the package with postage. Guess BBQ sauce might be on the official liquid exemption list … or maybe he knew better not to mess with an airmen’s momma.

Now if I can just figure out how to mail Ricky one of his dad’s briskets …

Blackened and most memorable

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I stopped by our local Hallmark Shop last week for a couple of sheets of fancy-looking Thanksgiving-themed paper. Actually, it’s the sort of pretty paper used to print party invites on. I use them to handwrite our holiday menus. Our daughter, Katie, has the artistic flair in the family, so she has handwriting duty.

Every year we audition a couple of new recipes for the holidays along with our favorite tried-and-true dishes. The menu this year kinda looked like this: hickory-smoked turkey with horseradish applesauce, mixed greens and goat cheese with bacon-wrapped figs, homemade orange liquored cranberry sauce, citrus-glazed carrots, sourdough dressing with sausage and dates, sweet potato rolls with honey butter, mashed potatoes and gravy … and for dessert pumpkin cheesecake tart and thick-as-mud chocolate pie. It all tasted as good as it reads … except for … well …

This year I’ve decided to make some notes on the back of the menu like who attended the Frantz family festivities and a couple of memories of the day. Yep, memories like the sourdough dressing with sage-inspired sausage and dates (the recipe called for figs) was the best stuffing ever. And where have bacon-wrapped figs been all my life? Oh, and the delicious pumpkin cheesecake tart from her new Smitten Kitchen cookbook our daughter crafted from scratch that almost wasn’t. Katie didn’t like the thinness of the pumpkin part of the recipe and almost threw the whole thing in the trash. Thanks to our new son-in-law the tart was saved.

Did I mention there was a very important football game on while the finishing touches were being put on the Turkey Day meal? It was the Texans vs. the Lions. We had survived one tense overtime just the week before. Would we survive another? The citrus-glazed carrots were on the grill when the game went into overtime. And you know how long “overtime” sometimes takes in a football game? Let’s just say it was way more than the four to six minutes needed for adding grill marks to carrots.

One of the reasons we make up holiday menu cards is somewhere between the blessing and going through the buffet line, I run a reality check to make sure I haven’t forgotten anything. One year a batch of rolls got left in the oven for a week because I just forgot them.

“Where are the carrots?” I remarked in alarm.

Two sets of eyeballs opened wide, my husband and son-in-law, as they realized they were still on the grill. Let’s just call the citrus-glazed carrots this year’s most blackened and memorable dish. Funniest thing you’ve ever seen! It further lightened the Thanksgiving mood as family stories would soon make it around the table.

In a few days I’ll make my way back to our local Hallmark shop. I need some of that pretty paper for makin’ Christmas menu memories.