Egg salad toasties

8 eggs
Mayo
Dijon mustard
salt
pepper
Shredded Parmesan
White bread
Small lettuce cups

Boil eggs covered for 7 minutes. Turn off heat and leave covered for additional 10 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and allow eggs to cool in ice water bath or fridge.

1. In large bowl add peeled and chopped eggs
2. Add 3 Tbsp mayo (more if to dry)
3. Mix in 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste
5. Toast bread and cut off crust, cut diagonal to form triangles
6. Top toast triangles with egg salad
7. Fill lettuce cups with egg salad
8. Top both with Parmesan cheese

For cute seasonal toasts you can cut bread into shapes with cookie cutters. Allowing you to have hearts, leaves, or ghosts. Whatever your mind desires! After posting this my friend Shawna made it and asked me what I thought to serve with it. The first thing that came to mind was roasted rosemary potatoes (I will put recipe up today). The next thing I thought was for your friends who weren't vegetarian this dish would be delish with crumbled crispy bacon on the top! She tried it and said it was a hit. So there you have it. For the meat eaters in your life I vote toss some bacon on top !

Lettuce bites

5-6 smaller inside leaves of romain lettuce (usually the lighter color leaves)
Spreadable garlic and herb cheese (I prefer alouette)
Fresh shredded Parmesan
Sunflower seeds (roasted and shelled)
Diced olives
Any other veggie topper you want

1. Spread layer of cheese inside your lettuce cups
2. Add seeds, olives and Parmesan
3. Serve!

For parties another great thing I love to serve is egg salad on toasted bread. For the gluten free version I serve some of the egg salad in my little lettuce cups so that no one is left out!

Labels

I've added two new labels to the label list. One is Vegetarian alternative and one is Gluten free available.

Vegetarian alternative will be added to recipes that can easily be made vegetarian, and I will offer the variation at the end of the recipe.

Gluten Free available will be added to dishes that can easily be converted to a gluten free recipe or are entirely gluten free. I will also add the variation for these at the end of the recipes.

Since I have been both gluten free and vegetarian I can give tons of advice on this! Hope this helps some of you out there.

Definition of the day: ROUX

Dummy terms: Over high heat QUICKLY whisk together butter and flour till mixture turns light gold, add liquid to mixture and whisk until dissolved and bubbling, reduce heat and allow to thicken.

FANCY PANTS TERMS:

Roux (pronounced like the English word "rue") is a mixture of wheat flour and fat. It is the basis of three of the mother sauces of classical French cooking: Sauce béchamel, Sauce velouté, and Sauce Espagnole. Butter, vegetable oils, or lard are common fats used. It is used as a base for gravy, other sauces, soufflés, soups and stews.

The mixture is cooked by stirring over heat in a pot or pan. The fat is heated first, in the process melting it if necessary, then the flour is added, the mixture is stirred until the flour is incorporated and then cooked until at least the point where a raw flour taste is no longer apparent. The end result is a thickening and flavoring agent. The final results can range from the nearly white to the nearly black, depending on the length of time it is over the heat, and its intended use.

Roux is most often made with butter as the fat base. However, it may be made with any edible fat. In the case of meat gravies, they are often made with rendered fat from the meat. In traditional American cookery, bacon is sometimes fried to produce fat to use in the roux.

Cooks can cheat by adding a mixture of water and wheat flour to a dish which needs thickening since the heat of boiling water will still release the starch, however this temperature is not high enough to eliminate the floury taste. A mixture of water and flour used in this way is colloquially known as cowboy roux.

Dummy terms: Over high heat QUICKLY whisk together butter and flour till mixture turns light gold, add liquid to mixture and whisk until dissolved and bubbling, reduce heat and allow to thicken.

VARIATION: If you are gluten intolerant you can simply mix cornstarch with cold liquid, water, or broth and then heat to boiling. You will achieve the same thickness of a roux with out the added rich flavor of the butter and flour.

Pasta with chicken and a garlic cream sauce

Serving size: 4 with a little bit of left overs
1 pack vermicelli noodles (the small spaghetti noodles like angel hair)
5 cloves garlic rough chopped (at least this many, depends on how much you like garlic, personally I use more)
4 chicken breasts (Think one per person you are serving)
1 cup milk or heavy cream
2-3 cups chicken broth
1- package mushrooms, washed and sliced
1/2 large white onion preferably vidalia
1 large jar marinated artichoke hearts drained
2-3 Tbsp butter
2-3 Tbsp flour
Salt
Pepper
olive oil
Fresh Parmesan cheese

1. Boil pasta in large pot.
   
2. While pasta boiling preheat large deep skillet to medium low.
3. Cube chicken to bite size pieces
4. Coat pan with olive oil and add chicken, salt and pepper
   
5. Cook until chicken is almost done
   
6. Dice onions, mushrooms and garlic and add in with chicken (you don't add it at the beginning or you will burn your garlic.)
7. Move chicken to the outside of the pan and add butter and flour to center of pan, whisk until butter/flour mixture turns the color of toasted bread or a light golden color, this creates a roux (pronounced roo)
   
8. Mix chicken into your roux and add in the first cup of chicken stock raising heat to medium high, stir until thickens. Sauce will be very thick
9. Whisk in second cup of stock, up to three until desired consistency.
10. Taste sauce at this point and add in more salt and pepper to taste. Heavy pepper is good in this dish.
    
11. Add in artichoke hearts, reduce heat to low and allow sauce to continue cooking and thickening.
12. At the very end add in your milk or cream starting with a half a cup first.
13. Drain pasta and add to sauce, coating pasta with chicken and cream sauce.
14. Top with Parmesan cheese and enjoy.

If sauce gets to thick it is better to add more stock then milk, as milk or cream will make the dish to rich and take away from the flavor of mushrooms, and artichokes. If your sauce is not thick enough turn up the heat and quickly whisk in more flour.

**If you have a gluten or wheat intolerance, you can make this same dish by mixing about 2 Tbsp of cornstarch in with 1/2 cup cold chicken stock and adding that in place of flour and butter. This will also cause your sauce to thicken just as well. Like the roux, if it isn't thick enough simply dissolve more cornstarch in chicken sauce and add in. Both of these need heat to activate.

** You can make this same recipe vegetarian, by eliminating the chicken and using vegetable broth. I use thick chunked portobello mushrooms in place of chicken for my recipe.

Things I can't live without..aka things in my fridge I can't spell

• Unsalted sticks of butter, one must always be softened.
• Fresh shredded Parmesan cheese (I'm offended by the stuff with the green lid)
• At least two kinds of breads, usually a whole wheat and then a sourdough or french
• Some kind of pasta
• Garlic (whole cloves)
  
• A variety of tomatoes
  
• Cheetos (for my son)
• Cheese, usually a cheddar, swiss, provolone and mozzarella (at least two are always molded because I always forget them)
• Bacon for my husband
• Ice cream
• Fresh basil
• Eggs
• Chicken with skin on and off
• Tortilla chips
• Beans
• Onion
• Cous Cous
• Olive oil
• Deli turkey
• Pepperocini
• Sour Cream
• Shelled, roasted, salted sun flower seeds
• Potatoes
  

These are all things I have to have. Why? Because they are a base for some quick easy meals. Pasta with butter and parm, pasta with olive oil, tomatoes, garlic, and parm. Egg sammies, Specialty grilled cheese sammies. A quick salad with pepperocinis, cheese and seeds on it. Tacos or burritos. Taco salad. BLT's. Fries, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes with shredded cheddar cheese and sour cream, hash browns, baked potatoes. Roasted chicken, fried chicken, chicken tacos. Chicken cream pasta. The possibilities are endless here people. All you need is a few basic ingredients and an eye for putting flavors together and you can have a ton of different meals right on hand.