Easter Eats

Easter dinner isn't the most important part of Easter by a long shot; however, it is a yummy part. Here is a  menu that might give you some ideas for your own Easter dinner. 

Lemon-Dill Salmon

Salmon seems to be a crowd pleaser even among people who don't really like fish in general. (The guilty will remain nameless.) Here's my husband's favorite, quick and easy way to make salmon, and he's quite a good cook!

Salmon filets (okay if skin on one side)

2 tsp olive oil (or olive oil spray)

Fresh dill, chopped

A lemon

Preheat grill, medium high. With foil, create a rectangular "tray" (or 2), folding up the foil to create sides that will prevent liquid from seeping out.  Spread (or spray) olive oil on the foil. Lay filets in foil, spreading the remaining oil on top.  Sprinkle chopped dill and garlic salt (to taste) on top of filets.  Finally, squeeze half a lemon over each filet. Place the foil trays on the grill, and cook for about 10-12 minutes (depending on thickness) until it flakes with a fork.  (No need to turn it.) You can serve salmon with its skin, which will be nicely charred.  Otherwise, filets lift easily off the skin with a spatula.

This salmon dish is great with Lemonaise Light by Ojai (a mayonnaise substitute that you can get at your local health food store and, interestingly enough, Walmart.) The Lemonaise is great with a little extra lemon, garlic salt and pepper.

Garlic-Almond Green Beans

2 packages of fresh green beans. (Prepared for cooking). About 1 1/2 lbs.

2 teaspoons of minced or crushed garlic

2 Tablespoons of salted butter

2/3 cup of sliced almonds

Preheat the oven to 400.  Melt the butter and garlic then toss  everything together in a mixing bowl. Spread mixture out on a cookie sheet, and bake at 400 for about 12 min. Next broil them for about 7 minutes or until they are a bit shriveled up and lightly browned on the top. (Serves 6 to 8)

Heirloom Carrots with Thyme and Maple syrup

Every Easter dinner has to include carrots for obvious reasons. Here is a great recipe:

A big bunch of Heirloom Carrots or 2 Small Bags (regular carrots are fine.)

1 Tablespoon of fresh thyme (or teaspoon of dried.)

1 Tablespoon of salted butter

1 Tablespoon of maple syrup

1/4 teaspoon of sea salt and a grind or 2 of cracked pepper.

Preheat oven to 400. Chop thyme very fine. (I use a manual food chopper.) Mix thyme, butter, maple syrup and salt & pepper in a medium sized bowl. Cut carrots into bite-sized pieces and toss in mixture. Spread on a sprayed cookie sheet and bake for 15 min. or until a fork goes in them with a little effort. Next you broil them for about 7 min. until they they are brown on top and a bit shriveled. (Serves 6)

Try It You'll Love It!

Curry Chicken Salad

Curried Chicken Salad

Who doesn't like chicken salad? Here's a yummy recipe that you can serve at any party or just at home. My family goes nuts over this one. Here's what you'll need:

3 cups of shredded white meat chicken (from a roasted chicken)

2/3 cup of mayonnaise (My family likes "Lemonnaise." I like the good stuff.)

2 teaspoons of curry powder 

1/3 cup of dries cranberries

Opt. 1/3 cup of sliced almonds

Stir together mayonnaise and curry powder. Next mix in shredded chicken. Then mince cranberries using a hand chopper. (These hand choppers work great for mincing or chopping small amounts of something.) You then mix in the cranberries.

Finally use garlic salt and pepper to taste. (Serves 4)

This delicious chicken salad is really good served on a bed of lettuce with a homemade balsamic dressing. (See blog post titled: Sweet and Blue.) Parmesan cheese crisps would be awesome with this dish. 

Fun Saying:

One of my favorite sayings is: "Naked as a Jaybird". This would only make sense if Jaybirds had no feathers. Now that's an image. While we are on the subject of naked, as a southerner I grew up saying" necked" and I'm not afraid to admit it.

Marinade and Magic

One night a few of us were down at Lisa Taylor's house, Newport Beach, and she served a steak with an unbelievable sauce called chimichurri. I had to have the recipe! I have impressed lots of people with this dish ever since. (I love impressing people and don't mind admitting it.)

Here's what you'll need for the marinade/sauce: 

2 bunches of Italian flat-leafed parsley (If you can't find this, use 1 bunch of both cilantro and regular parsley.)

1 and 1/2 cups of extra-virgin olive oil. (As if there is any other kind out there.)

1/4 cup + 1 Tablespoon of lime

1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes (A couple of options instead of red pepper flakes are 1 heaping Tablespoon of minced garlic and/or 1 Tablespoon of apple-cider vinegar. I personally prefer the flakes.)

2 teaspoons of garlic salt

Course ground pepper to taste

Tear of the tops of the bunch of parsley. (Get all the leaves. It's okay if you get some stem.) Puree the 4 ingredients (plus garlic salt and pepper) in a food processor or large bullet then put aside 3/4 of the mixture for a sauce in a small serving bowl to pass around later. Use the rest of it for a marinade for  the 2 1/2 lbs. of meat (The traditional meat used is carne asada or flank stake, so I use one of those.) Cut the meat into 3 portions and put it in a 1 gallon bag with the marinade. You then move the meat around in the bag till it is entirely covered. Squeeze all the air out of the bag, and marinate the meat in the bag for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight. 

Remove the meat and barbecue on high for 5 minutes then flip meat and cook for another 5 minutes or longer depending on desired temperature. Remove from the barbecue and serve. Great with salad and white rice.  (Serves 8)

Cooking Tidbit: Italian flat-leafed parsley has more flavor and has a softer texture than regular curly parsley. Curly parsley (what a fun name) is easier to find and mostly used for a garnish, but it too is packed with flavor.

 

South By Southwest

"Burr-rabbit" (as my Young Life leader, Louise Price used to say). It makes no sense whatsoever, but it's very cute. It's freezing  out there. (Or in our case, It's freezing inside. Our heater sounds like a plane is taking off, so we only use it when we don't need to talk each other.) Anyway as I was saying, this is when you want to stay inside, put the fire on and eat soup!  Here is a recipe for Southwest Soup that I got from my sister-in-law, Chris Steckel. I'm going to make it for Super Bowl Sunday!

Here's what you'll need:

1 large can or jar of MILD, GREEN enchilada sauce

1 medium sized can of black beans (some grocery stores have three types of beans in one can!)

1 medium sized can of roasted corn (Del Monte makes this) or 1/2 pkg. of Trader Joe's frozen roasted corn.

Roast chicken or 2 baked chicken breasts

(Optional: avocado, sour cream or Greek yogurt, cheddar cheese, and tortilla strips)

Combine the enchilada sauce, the can of beans (undrained) and roasted corn (undrained if using a can) in a sauce pan. Shred 1/2 the white meat of a roast chicken and add to the sauce pan. Heat up on the stovetop until hot and bubbly. (Serve with the toppings of your choice.) 

Serves 4+

Corny Cornbread

Of course, you can't have Southwest Soup without cornbread. That would be a major sin! Here's a recipe that I got from my Mama and from my fun friend, Debbie Hunter.  (Just thank the Lord that you weren't the one testing the different cornbread recipes. I swear I gained 100 lbs.)

Here's what you'll need:

1 pkg. of Jiffy Corn Bread Mix (or 1/2 a pkg. of any other cornbread mix)

Most of a small can of cream corn (about 3/4 cup).

Most of a small container of light sour cream (about 3/4 cup) 

Preheat the oven to 400. Mix together the ingredients, grease the muffin tin, and pour the mixture into the muffin tin. Bake the corn muffins for 30 min or 'till muffins are golden brown on top. And don't forget the most important part: serve hot with lots of butter.

Wrap It Up!

One of the favorite meals around the Pickett home is Asian Lettuce Wraps. They are actually more like "lettuce boats", but wraps sounds much more sophisticated. Here's what you'll need for this super easy and super delicious dish:

1 lb. of ground chicken (1 pkg.)

3 Tablespoons of Hoisin sauce (Sinfully good and found next to soy sauce in the grocery store.)

1/3 cup of diced red onion 

1/3 cup of sliced almonds

Spray a skillet with cooking spray and put it on medium heat. Cook the ground chicken in the skillet then stir in onion, almonds, and hoisin sauce. Season with garlic salt and pepper. Serve chicken on whole romaine leaves.

* We put the Hoisin sauce on top of the wraps as well. Yum! 

Try It You'll Love It!

This dish goes great with rice. Rice can be on the side or added to the wraps. We absolutely love "black" rice.  It tastes different from other types of rice, but it's super nutritious! (We now like it better than other rice.) It can be found in many health food stores such as Whole Foods and even some grocery stores.

 

Squash It

Below is an unbelievable recipe for butternut squash! I found this recipe in the awesome "Jerusalem " cookbook and of course I tweaked it. It calls for a large butternut squash. Thankfully in my grocery store, Ralph's (which is owned by Kroger by the way.) and Trader Jos, butternut squash can be found in the produce section. Warning: Don't get the frozen kind because they turn out way tooo soggy! 

A lot of the items I suggest are hard to find, so either you should look, look and look some more or ask for help. You can always cut up a raw butternut squash, but you won't get that here. (I'm way too lazy for that.) Here's what you'll need:

Approx. 1 & 1/2 lbs. of cubed butternut squash (If some of the pieces are bigger than the others, you will want to cut them in half.)

1 very large red onion (Red onions are nice and sweet.)

3 Tablespoons of pine nuts

3 Tablespoons of tahini (A paste made with made with sesame seeds) Trader Joe's makes the best. (Simple Truth makes the worst!) A tahini called Jova is fine.

Preheat the oven to 475. Cut the onions into wedges. Toss the onions and squash in bit of olive oil,  and a dash of salt and pepper. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and spread vegetables out onto the sheet. Cook about 30 minutes until you can put a fork through them with a bit of effort. You don't want the squash to be mushy, so its better to err on the side of being undercooked. (You can always put it in the oven for longer.) In the last 5 min. put the pine nuts in a corner of the cookie sheet. (Browning pine nuts is not essential. I've started using uncooked pine nuts because I always burn them.)

In a small bowl vigorously stir the tahini with a dash of salt, and about 2 tablespoons of water. (I like to use a small whisk or better yet one beater from my hand mixer.) The paste should be the consistency of honey so add more water or tahini if necessary. 

To serve, spread the vegetables out on a serving platter and drizzle with tahini then the pine nuts. Voila you have a totally delicious side dish!

Try It You'll Love It!

Easy as 1,2,3,4

It's soup weather, so let's make soup! This tortellini soup is hands down the best soup you'll ever have and it only takes a few minutes to make. Oh yeah, it only has 4 ingredients!

Tortellini Soup

You'll need:

5 cups of vegetable broth.

1 (14.5) can of Diced Italian Seasoned Tomatoes (Look hard they should be there. ) 

1 (9 ounce) pkg. of refrigerated, small cheese tortellini. (If you are going for vegan, you can use vegan ravioli.)

3 cups of baby spinach chopped or torn into large pieces.

In a large pot bring to boil broth, tomatoes and tortellini. Reduce heat and boil lightly until tortellini is soft and fully cooked (about 10 minutes).

Then stir in spinach until it is wilted (about 30 sec. to a minute)

Season with about 1 teaspoon of garlic salt and pepper to taste. (The Picketts are garlic salt crazy, so we are never without it. I use it a lot in Pickett's Pearl's recipes 'cause it is an easy way to get garlic into a dish without counting it as an ingredient:) (Serves 6)

Optional: Serve topped with Parmesan cheese.  You can also add cooked italian sausage but not necessary.

Try It You'll Love It!

Fun Saying:

It's time for a fun saying: "I was flying by the seat of my pants. " What a funny way of saying: "I was winging it." There I go, using one metaphor to explain another. I guess when it comes to being in a hurry and making things happen as best as we can, flying is usually involved. (My daughter, Carly, is my illustrator. 

About the Blog Posts

I’m going to be posting "Pickett’s Pearls" every other Wednesday. Each time I will be posting what my taste buds think is an awesome four-ingredient (or less) recipe. Some of these recipes I got from friends or family and some are my own concoctions. I then test each one on my husband (needless to say, he's behind the project!) 

Also, I will be sharing a helpful or creative idea (usually for the home.)  Learning to make special napkin folds or making simple earrings, for example, are two ideas you'll see in future blog posts. 

Fun Sayings

If that’s not enough cool stuff, I will be throwing out  a "Fun Saying" every now and then like the one above. There are so many random sayings that we can laugh about. 

Send Me Your Ideas

I really want this blog to be a group effort. I want to hear about your four-ingredient recipes and your helpful/creative ideas. All you have to do is fill out the Contact page. I will then test the idea and if it "cuts the mustard", (ha- ha) I will then share your idea, your name and where you are from. (Unless, of course, you want to keep that under wraps.)

Meatloaf and Cauliflower Mash

Meatloaf

It's winter time which means it's time for warm and cozy food. One of the combos that is so appealing this time of year is meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I used to make a meatloaf recipe that my mother-in-.aw, Mimi, made. The problem was that it had about 10 ingredients, so I dreaded making it. Lisa Taylor, Newport Beach,  gave me a 4 ingredient recipe that she got from her mother. Here's what you'll need:

2 lbs. of ground meat 

1/3 cup of evaporated milk (once I mixed up evaporated milk and condensed milk. Big mistake! Thankfully I didn't go so far as to mix it into the meatloaf!)

1 pkg. of lipton onion soup mix

Ketchup (1/3 cup of ketchup + ketchup to pour on top)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees then spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.  Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. (Using your hands is the only way to go.)  Put the mixture in the loaf pan and squirt some ketchup on top. Then put the meatloaf in the oven for an hour.. (After an hour cut into the meatloaf to make sure it is cooked through.) There will be lots of juice in the baking dish, but don't worry the juice keeps the meatloaf moist. Finally broil the meatloaf for about 3 min. or until it is browned on top. There you have it an easy and tasty meatloaf.

Cauliflower Mash

Mashed potatoes are always good with meatloaf. These days most of us eat low-carb (or at least, in my case, say I eat low-carb). Anyway mashed cauliflower is a good substitute for mashed potatoes. I have made cauliflower mash many ways, but here is the best way I have found:

For the cauliflower mash, take two bags of cauliflower florets. (Found at most grocery stores)  Make as directed. I prefer to use the microwave. (My microwave takes about 6 minutes for each bag, but my microwave has been around since Queen Victoria.) The next step is to put the bags of cooked cauliflower in the freezer for at least 15 minutes.

After cauliflower has cooled, put it in a kitchen towel (with no texture), a cheese cloth (whatever that is) or believe it or not the outside of a pillow case .  You then squeeze all the water out. Squeezing the water out is the key to good cauliflower mash! Finally put the cauliflower in a food processor with 1/4 cup of Ranch Dressing, 1/3 cup of shredded parmesan cheese and garlic salt & pepper to taste. Cream cheese or sour cream can be substituted for the ranch dressing.  Voila! Your mashed cauliflower will be creamy and delicious!

Caesar Salad

Caesar salad goes great with this meal! For a while we used the ready-made salad packets, but I realized that I could put together a better one that was less expensive. We use a pkg. of romaine, shaved parmesan, (DiGiorno, if you can find it.) Marie's Caesar Dressing and either Butter and Garlic Croutons (Using Caesar croutons goes a bit overboard.) and/or avocado.

There you have a delicious meal each part having only 4 ingredients!

 

Asparagus Even Kids Will Love

I learned how to do asparagus this way from our Mimi (The best Mother-In-Law ever). Most kids (including me) don't love vegetables, so I'm always looking for ways to make them eatable. This asparagus dish isn't only eatable, but good.

Here's what you'll need:

A bunch of asparagus

1 Tablespoon of olive oil

1 teaspoon of sesame seed oil

1 Tablespoon of low sodium soy sauce

First you  snap off the bottoms of the asparagus, then cut each piece about 3 times diagonally. You then heat up a pan on medium high with 1 Tablespoon of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of sesame seed oil. Saute the asparagus until it is cooked but firm. Finally stir in 1 Tablespoon of low sodium soy sauce and serve. (Serves 4 to 6)

Try It You'll Love It

EAT YOUR VEGETABLES

You probably love vegetables, but I actually could do without them. Here is a simple way that my husband, Todd,  makes vegetables that makes them far more enticing, even for me:

First, you take the vegetables that you are planning to use and slice them fairly thin. Then you toss them in a bowl with olive oil and garlic salt. Next you spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray, then lay  the vegetables out one layer thick. Finally you broil them on high. Cooking them this way only takes about 8 to 10 minutes. (You want them to be golden brown on top.) When done they come out crispy and delicious. If you want to cook denser vegetables like brussels sprouts, you still want to slice them very thin, but bake them a bit first. (About 10 -12 min. at 350.)

TRY IT YOU'LL LOVE IT!

Helpful Hints for the Home - Keeping Things Fresh 

One way to keep produce like berries or lettuce fresh longer is to use paper towels to absorb the moisture. You can wash and dry berries, layer them with paper towels and put them back in the container. (This way you can keep the  lovely mold at bay.) With lettuce just stuff paper towels into the plastic bags they came in. If you do this the lettuce won't get stinky and wilted so soon. By the way, have you noticed that Romaine lasts longer than any other lettuce?

A funny memory that I have of my Mother-in-Law, Mimi, involves lettuce and a pillow case. (This was before the days that lettuce came pre-washed.) Mimi would wash lettuce, put it in a pillow case and swing the pillowcase high above her head until the lettuce dried. She performed this feat outside of course.

I'd love to hear what Helpful Hints and Tricks you have! (Just go to the Contact Page and share away.)

 

And You Thought Jam Was Just For Toast

Apricot-Pesto Chicken

A couple of months ago a few of us were having dinner at Paula O'Connor's house (Newport Beach, CA). She served this wonderful chicken dish. (Of course we all wanted the recipe.)

I'm always looking for new chicken dishes because somehow no one in my family eats anything but chicken and turkey. So coming up with new recipes is a bit of a challenge.  One of the best things about making this recipe is that it involves barbecuing, thankfully that's not my department. Here's how you make it:

Ingredients:

4 Thin sliced chicken breasts or 2 regular breasts

1/2 cup + 1/4 cup of apricot jam

1/2 cup + 1 /4 cup of pesto 

1/3 cup of very finely chopped pecans (pecan chips)

First you put the breasts between plastic wrap, and pound the heck out of them till they are almost paper thin. (I use a mallet.)

Then you mix the jam with the pesto and set aside about 1/3 of the mixture for later. Next carefully spoon the mixture on top of each breast leaving about 1/2 an inch around the edges. After that you evenly sprinkle the chopped pecans on top of the breasts as well.  

Next you roll up each breast and secure them with toothpicks stuck in diagonally. Before you put them on the BBQ, brush the tops with half the mixture you've put aside.

You then BBQ them on the top rack on medium for 6 to 7 minutes on each side. (The trick is cooking the breasts through without drying them out.) Once you turn the breasts over use the remaining part of the apricot/pesto mixture to apply to the top of breasts.

While the breasts are cooking mix 1/4 cup of the jam and 1/4 cup of the pesto. Right before serving microwave the new mixture. You will use this mixture as an additional sauce for the chicken.

Another option is baking the chicken at 350 until the breasts are cooked through or cooking them in a pan with oil. However, these option doesn't come out quite as tasty.

Arugula What?

Assuming you know how to make rice, a salad that goes well with this chicken dish is an arugula salad. I have had to get used to Arugula, but now I love it. Years ago I was in Florence with my husband and we went to a well known pizza place. When our order came out, the pizza was covered with this green stuff, and I didn't like the bitter taste of that that pizza at all. Now I actually love it. Go figure.

Recently I was at the home of Kelsey and Chris Nunziata. They served a simple but delicious arugula salad.

Here are the ingredients:

A bag of arugula lettuce

The juice of half a lemon 

2-3 tablespoons of olive oil

1/4 cup of shaved Parmesan (DiGiorno is really good.)

Salt and Pepper (doesn't count as an ingredient in my book)

Starting with the arugula, just throw in all the ingredients and toss. (Taste the salad to see if you need more of something.)

Try It You'll love It!

Fun Saying

"She had me in stitches." What on earth? What I envision is someone with sutures  all over them. It really makes no sense, but who cares:)

 

Spaghetti?

I never made spaghetti squash because the thought of making it intimated me. One day Marcy Tillman from Laguna Beach showed a bunch of us the ropes. She said to stab it all the way through with a knife and slam it on a step. (outside of course). If you have someone with muscles around, they can cut it longwise starting in the middle.

Next clean out the inside with an ice cream scoop.  You then roast them at 425 for 40 to 55  minutes. (Depending on size.) You want to stop cooking the squash when you can take a fork and comb through the squash. It's strands should be soft but not mushy.

My husband actually likes to scrap all the cooked insides out when they are still firm and saute the squash in some butter and chicken broth. Not only does this make the squash yummy. It gives you control over how soft it is.

You can serve it lots of ways. For instance: Greek style with olives, tomatoes, feta, balsamic dressing, etc.,  or spaghetti sauce. The classic way to serve it is with butter, parmesan and garlic. I prefer the butter route. (There's a reason why I'm a bit rounded.)

Try It You'll Love It!

Lisa's Chicken

My very good friend, Lisa, is an awesome cook. Possibly part of it is out of necessity because she has 5 very large males to feed and that's not even counting Nicky, her husky! She gave me this recipe which is called "Easy Chicken Casserole" from the Wolitarski family cookbook. Who can boast of a family cookbook? Not many of us. Anyway, we just call it "Lisa's Chicken" around our house. Here's what you'll need:

2 packages of chicken breast tenders (Not the kind at McDonalds:) 

1/2 cup of Wishbone Russian dressing (Not so easy to find these days, but it's out there. Of course like everything, Walmart has it.)

1/2 cup of apricot jam

1 pkg. of Lipton Onion Soup Mix

All you do is combine the ingredients in a casserole dish (I try to mix the ingredients right in the dish. It makes clean-up easier!) You then put the chicken tenders in the sauce. Bake at 325 for an hour, and believe it or not, that's it!!! Lots of white rice is the perfect compliment. (Serves 6)

Cooking Tidbit: Did you know that one of the main reasons rice gets gooey and lumpy is that it is cooked too fast with the heat too high?. So when the directions say turn it on low, make sure you turn it very low. (I learned this the hard way.)

Round and Round

Often I come up with random ideas. Sometimes they work and sometimes they flop. This idea is one that totally worked. It was for our wedding rehearsal dinner. (It seems like these days couples have a sit down dinner after their wedding ceremony, but this still applies.) The idea is that the guests at the dinner get to visit with at least one significant couple such as the Bride and Groom, the Best Man and Maid of Honor, etc.

The significant couples eat the salad course at their first table, the main course at a second table, and the dessert at a third table. See the diagram below and it will make more sense. (An important detail is that there needs to be a separate salad fork, main course fork/knife set and dessert fork.) This rotation game makes a wedding dinner extra fun. Maybe you or your daughter, niece, etc. is getting married and you can share this with them.  (Of course number of tables, significant couples, etc. can vary.)

Fun Saying:

Recently I heard someone say that they went to a flea market." Now that's a lovely image! The French came up with the term "Marche aux Puces" which referred to a market that sold the type of old furniture and clothes that might actually have fleas. Great! Just great! Thank goodness our modern day flea markets don't have fleas hopping around.