I love Midwestern Potluck’s with so many good things to enjoy. For our 4th of July celebration, my cousin makes the BBQ sandwiches, bacon wrapped hot dogs and bean casserole. Others fill out the meal with various salads and desserts. This year there were three separate coleslaws which were all different and delicious; one with a sweet vinegar sauce, one with a creamy dressing and one that was celery seed forward. My Aunt made a finely diced broccoli, cauliflower, bacon and mayo dressing delight that I am still thinking about. The only potato salad was awesome and there were some sweet salad offerings as well. Desserts included several fruity cheesecake pies, an apple coffeecake and my Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp, which I must say turned out well. The best part was bringing some home we enjoyed the next night for dessert. We offered to host the event at our lake house next year which will add a new twist with Chez Paul in charge.
This week, Paul’s test kitchen perfected selection from Cooks Illustrated was Chicken Enchiladas. The recipe included making your own red and/or green sauce but we cheated by using the canned version. The way around the corn tortillas falling apart when you fill and wrap them is to first spray them with cooking oil and softening them in the oven for 5 minutes before filling. Also, adding to the flavor profile is poaching your chicken in flavorful broth before shredding and briefly heating it back up with sautéed onions, spices and a little enchilada sauce before filling the tortillas. I like a little extra cheese browned on top of my enchiladas and we served them with homemade salsa and sour cream. I added a big handful of fresh garden greens to the top of mine. Both holiday weekend dinner guests loved them, especially along with both pear and berry margaritas.
Paul also made a light pasta dish with shrimp, peas, fresh basil and mint along with shredded parmesan for other friends this weekend. I would have added more veggies to the mix but he likes to keep tastes and flavors simple. Last night, after serving a several pitchers of margaritas to the lake lizards that anchored at our dock for happy hour, he made homemade dough for pizza which was topped with sautéed onions, peppers, kale/chard, pepperoni cubes and mozzarella. Earlier in the week, he made a cheesy spicy raised cornbread along with his first ancient grain loaf using teff which made the bread itself slightly crunchy and yummy!
Holiday weekends are all about enjoying time with family and friends which always involves good food. I had a long conversation with my girlfriend in Flagstaff this weekend. She loves to cook and was experimenting with stuffed pepper recipes having made Italian, Greek and Mexican varieties. Some lake friends had success making BBQ ribs for the first time. Did you know almost 50M people travel during the 4th of July holiday weekend? As such, there are many more cooking adventures I could research and write about but must stop somewhere. This coming week will be a sad state of affairs on the cooking front as Paul will be visiting family in Kentucky. Somehow, I think I’ll survive and am already orchestrating a lakeside porch happy hour with the girls!