Two Birthdays, A Whole Lot of Food, Roses, and Animals

This year for Steven's and my birthdays, we played hooky took some time off work to have a picnic and go to the zoo. Temperatures the day before ranged from 95 to 100, which were 20 to 25 degrees above normal! I know I already complained, but I have to complain some more since it was just too hot for Seattleites. Luckily the temperatures cooled significantly overnight so the weather was perfectly mild and pleasant for our picnic. We set up our picnic in Woodland Park Rose Garden, which is conveniently located right next to the zoo. We dined while surrounded by the wonderful fragrance and sight of roses in full bloom as far as the eye can see.


I packed:
Ham and Butter Sandwich
Salami, Pastrami, Spinach and Cream Cheese Sandwich
Bread and butter
Seattle rolls: smoked salmon and cream cheese sushi rolls
Cold noodles: a must since noodles are a Chinese birthday tradition! long noodles = longevity
Cheese and meat platter: white Stilton, danish blue, cheddar, Parmesan, salami, prosciutto, pastrami, ham
Crackers, grapes, and raspberries
White wine and mango lemonade



I first tasted a ham and butter sandwich at Le Fournil, a wonderful French bakery in the Seattle area. It was so simple and delicious. It's really important to use good butter, bread, and ham since the flavors of the sandwich are really subtle and clean, the ingredients will really shine. I used some Kerrygold Irish butter; this is the butter I couldn't get enough of at the cheese festival. After reading comments on Jaden's post about bread and butter, some other recommended brands are Lurpak, a Danish butter, and Presidente, a French butter. Just don't use any old regular brand, splurge for the expensive stuff! It's sooo worth it to indulge! And don't you dare use "I can't believe it's not butter" because I can believe it, and it's not butter. ;) After some Googling, ham and butter doesn't seem like a popular combination but it always struck me as a classic French sandwich. Maybe fellow French food bloggers/readers can offer some more info?

Ham and Butter Sandwich*
A section of crusty baguette cut in half
2 - 3 oz. of ham, about 3 - 4 slices
1 Tbsp high quality butter
1 - 2 tsp Dijon mustard

Spread a thin layer of Dijon on one slice of bread, and spread butter on the other slice. Layer with ham and close the sandwich. Cut in half and serve somewhat chilled.

The butter will be hard to spread if it is chilled so wait for it to warm up a little to soften so it's easier to spread. Then chill the sandwich to chill the butter.




The idea of salami and cream cheese in a sandwich came from Everyday Food. I had never thought of pairing cream cheese with anything other than preserves or smoked salmon, but this sandwich was truly delicious. The salami and pastrami are very flavorful meats, the cream cheese added a luscious, creamy smoothness, and the spinach is a rich green that holds its own in this robust sandwich. Don't skimp on the cream cheese and no buying reduced fat! You can't go wrong with Philadelphia, my favorite brand.

This sandwich, featuring the very healthy spinach, will be my entry for this week's Weekend Herb Blogging, a fantastic event created by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, and hosted this week by Susan of Food Blogga. Food fact: After cooking the volume of spinach will decrease by 3/4. Spinach is loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, bone building nutrients, and other healthy compounds. Eating your spinach will help prevent cancers, osteoporosis, heart disease, arthritis, delay loss of mental function, prevents and even reverse macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in the elderly.

Salami, Pastrami, and Spinach Cream Cheese Sandwich*
2 slices of bread or a section of crusty baguette cut in half
3 - 4 slices of salami
2 - 3 slices of pastrami
A handful of baby spinach leaves
2 Tbsp softened cream cheese
Optional: 1 - 2 tsp Dijon mustard

Spread a thin layer of dijon on one slice of bread (optional). Top first slice of bread with a layer of salami, followed by pastrami, and then a thick layer of baby spinach leaves.

Spread the cream cheese on the second slice of bread and close the sandwich. Cut in half and enjoy!

*The quantities are really estimations, since I made the sandwiches without measuring the ingredients exactly. If you like more meat feel free to pile it on or if you really like cream cheese or butter, like me go, ahead and add more! :)


For more pictures:
Rose Garden
Zoo

Regrettably many of the zoo pictures turned out too blurry and I'm not a big picture taker at the zoo to begin with. The red panda was awfully cute though! The butterfly house was very nice also.

BBQ Chicken Quesadilla

The last few days have been unbearably hot, with yesterday being one of the top 10 hottest days ever recorded here in Seattle. I was too lethargic to do get up and do anything other than lay on the couch and complain about the heat. Pardon the silence on this blog, as I haven't been cooking much or blogging. But like Jaden, there are so many old recipes I still haven't gotten around to posting, so now is a good time to do so.

BBQ Chicken Quesadilla was a very popular menu item at my favorite lunch spot near the UW, Honeybee's Cafe (which sadly closed two years ago). It's been a long time since I've had a Honeybee's quesadilla, but from what I can remember, the original quesadilla had grilled chicken, tomatoes, Monterey Jack cheese, tomatoes, green onions, and BBQ sauce in a tomato flour tortilla. This quesadilla is very flexible the only constants are: tortilla, chicken, your favorite BBQ sauce (Cook's Illustrated likes Bull's Eye Original), and cheese. The rest of the ingredients depend on what you have on hand. So here rather than offering an exact recipe, it's just a few tips on making a yummy quesadilla, which I learned from watching America's Test Kitchen.

Barbeque Chicken Quesadilla

Flour Tortillas
Chicken, cut up into large chunks (You can use grilled chicken, leftover roast chicken or bbq chicken, doesn't really matter)
Coarsley grated cheese (Cheddar, Monterey, Pepper Jack, or a combo)
Thinly sliced green onions or red onions
Fresh tomatoes or fresh tomato salsa, drained (if using this then omit the onions)
Corn (frozen is almost as good as fresh)
BBQ Sauce
Freshly ground black pepper
Few dashes of Tabasco if you like it hot
Lime juice, just a little bit (omit if using fresh tomato salsa)

- Toast your corn
Toasting the corn brings out a nice roasted, toasty flavor and evaporates the moisture so it doesn't leak into the quesadilla. This is an essential ingredient in all of my quesadilas now. (Frozen corn also doubles as a handy ice pack if you ever jam your finger in a door like Steven. :( Ouch!)

Heat a small nonstick skillet pan over high or medium high heat (no oil!) and add your corn. Shake the pan occasionally until you see the corn turn a dark brown in spots and pop out of your pan. Yes it will literally jump out of the skillet. Set aside for the filling.

- Make your quesadillas
There's a lot of flexibility here with what goes in so you can be the judge of that. Just don't make them too stuffed otherwise it'll be too hard to flip.

Also, rather than making the quesadilla with one tortilla on the bottom and one on the top and forming a sandwich (this is too hard to flip, stuff will fall out). Add your filling to only half the tortilla (leave a 1/2 in border around the edge) then you flip the other half over and make a half moon shape. This way, less yummy filling falls out. You can also cook two of these in a pan.

- Cooking the quesadilla
If you add the oil directly to the pan it won't evenly distribute to cover the entire quesadilla and sometimes you end up using too much oil leading to overly greasy quesadillas and oily fingers.

So instead, use a pastry brush and brush the tortilla a thin layer of vegetable oil. This ensures that the quesadilla will be evenly covered using the least amount of oil as possible. Optional step: sprinkle a little bit of salt over the oil so it will be even more crisp (I always forget to do this).

Cook the quesadilla over medium heat, oil side down, until the bottoms are crisp and golden brown, it'll will take a few minutes. Then brush the top of the quesadilla with some more oil and carefully flip them over. The second side will take less time because the pan will be hotter.

Slide them out and let it sit for 2 - 3 minutes for the cheese to set. Then cut into wedges and serve.

Links:
I'm not the only Seattleite who can't stand the heat, Pea made an absolutely drool-worthy ice cream.