Thursday, August 30, 2012
8:12 PM
When I last posted in June I thought I would take a couple of weeks off to do the wedding and reception of my son Skyler and his beautiful French bride, Laetitia, but here we are 2 months later!
With much help from family and friends, especially my wonderful daughter in law Susan, everything turned out beautiful.
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| Table decorations created by Laetitia & Susan |
Even after the wedding was over, there was too much life to be lived and blogging was forgotten. We had family with us most of the summer, which meant grandchildren to play with. I'm just barely recuperating from all the fun!
My parents would have loved it. I find myself looking around for them when the house is full of family, because I know how much they loved being with their children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.
A friend said the newlyweds look like my parents when they were young. I don't see it but they are certainly two very good looking couples. What do you think?
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| My parents on their wedding day |
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| Laetitia & Skyler |
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| Leaving the Church |
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| At their garden reception |
Here is a nice summer dish you could serve at a garden wedding reception. We probably would have, if Mamina were still with us.... I had the food mostly catered.
ENSALADA DE POLLO-Chicken Salad
This is a marriage of chicken and potato salad. It always says “party” to me, because that is when my mother made it.
4 cups Chicken, cooked and diced
4-6 Potatoes boiled, cubed
1 Apple (peeled, cored, diced in small pieces)
1 cup frozen peas
½ cup onion finely chopped
4 hard boiled eggs
1 small jar diced pimentos
1 cup diced celery (optional)
1 ½ -2 cups mayonnaise
½ Tablespoon salt
Shred or cut the cooked chicken in small pieces. Peel and boil the potatoes, cut up into small cubes. Mix with chicken. Add the peeled, cored and diced apple. Chop the onion up in a food processor, so you don’t have to cry too much. Add that in. Peel and dice the hard boiled eggs, drain the pimentos, mix it all together with the salt and mayonnaise.
I add celery, my mother thought that was a heresy, but I like the taste. She liked to add dill pickles, but I leave them out. My cousin MaConcha adds asparagus to her version.
It is best if you refrigerate it for a couple of hours before serving, so the flavors blend.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
12:39 PM
ARROZ CON POLLO (Chicken and rice)
This is Mamina’s version of a very popular Cuban dish. She simplified it to please her husband and children who did not care for fancy spices, etc.
1 chicken or 5 chicken breasts, cut up
1 teaspoon dry oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
1-2 teaspoons Garlic powder
1-2 teaspoons salt
1 medium onion
5 cloves of garlic
½ green pepper
1 8oz can tomato sauce
3 cups Rice
1/3 cup cooking wine (optional)
5 cups water
2 teaspoons salt.
1 teaspoon of saffron (or you can also use bijol-also known as achiote or annatto
Roasted red pepper strips (optional)
Green olives (optional)
If you have planned ahead and have the time to marinade the chicken for extra flavorfulness, sprinkle it generously with oregano, cumin, garlic powder and salt. Cover and let it marinade for at least an hour, in the fridge. If you didn’t plan ahead and need dinner ready in less than an hour, just proceed and add the oregano and cumin at the end. It will still be good.
Brown the chicken in a little olive oil. Enough to barely cover the bottom of the pan. On medium high.
Chop in food processor onion, cloves of garlic, green pepper. Add to chicken and sauté for a few minutes, till onions are translucent. Add rice and stir for a minute or so, then add tomato sauce, water, wine, salt and saffron (to color the rice). My mother always used the tomato sauce can to measure the water, because it uses all the tomato sauce (plus it cleans the can for recycling). Turn heat down to low and simmer for about 35 minutes, till rice soaks up all the water. If you use brown rice, as I often do, cook it for 45-50 minutes.
You can remove the lid, put a spoon in to the bottom of the pan and see if there is still water there that needs to be absorbed by the rice, but don’t do it too soon, wait at least 30 minutes, even if the delicious smell is driving you crazy.
Garnish with strips of roasted red peppers strips and green olives, if you like. Serve with a green salad and if you are after a true Cuban experience, some plantains-in what ever form. Recipes to come in the future!
