Beat The Heat

The fires have started in Los Angeles. It has become incredibly hot and the smell of smoke outside my window is unbearable. The stove is looking like a punishment.

It’s a challenge to cook without using the stove, while still making a delicious meal. My first idea is to make a salad, but that is too easy. Sandwiches are plain unless you can make a panini, but that uses a griddle.

One of the foods I love is flatbread. It’s a great combination of sandwich, salad, and pizza. You can have many different combinations of vegetables and cheeses. All are delicious!

Heirloom Tomato Flatbread

1 Piece of Flatbread (Naan can be used as well)

1 Ounce Goat Cheese, Room Temperature

2 Tablespoons of Toasted Pine Nuts

1 Heirloom Tomato, Sliced

1 1/2 Cups of Arugula

1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Honey

1 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar

Salt and Pepper

Mix honey, apple cider vinegar, and olive oil in a bowl. Season the dressing with salt and pepper. Toss arugula in dressing and put aside. Spread goat cheese on flatbread. It’s important that the goat cheese is slightly warm so it is easy to spread. Sprinkle pine nuts on goat cheese. Place tomato slices on top of the cheese and nuts. Salt and pepper the tomatoes. Then arrange arugula on top of that.

Buffalo Options

It has been a busy week for me. My parents came to Los Angeles to visit for the week. When my sister called asking for a special recipe request, I felt my parents were the perfect test subjects.

When I was younger, if I wasn’t baking with my Grandmother, then I was helping my Father make some French/American classics. In high school my parents allowed me to cook dinner on a regular basis. Sometimes it was good and sometimes it wasn’t, but they always smiled. They would help me figure out what I could have changed.

My sisters’ predicament is that she needs to make a dish to take to a picnic, but wants to make it with a Buffalo twist. It’s like for a wedding when they say “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” For this picnic, “something Buffalonian, something room temperature, something delicious”.

Buffalo Chicken Mini Wraps

This recipe can be used as an appetizer or add lettuce and would make a great lunch wrap!

1 Chicken Breast

1 Tablespoon Butter

1-2 Tablespoon Frank’s Red Hot Sauce

1/3 Cup Blue Cheese, crumbled small

1 Tablespoon Low Fat Mayo

1 Tablespoon Low Fat Sour Cream

Pepper

1 Carrot, shredded

1 Celery Stalk, cut thin

Whole Wheat Tortilla

Tooth Picks

Use half tablespoon of butter and melt in pan over medium low heat. Cook the chicken breast and begin to brown. Add the rest of the butter and hot sauce. I used 2 tablespoons, which gives you a pretty hot sauce (medium in Buffalo terms). Cover the chicken breast and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes. Take the chicken out, do not discard sauce in the pan but remove from heat, and let the chicken rest for about 5 minutes. Cut chicken up in to a small shred and toss with the sauce left in the pan.

Mix blue cheese, mayo, sour cream, and pepper together for blue cheese sauce. Set aside.

Take tortilla and begin to cut into small rounds with a cookie cutter. If your making a lunch wrap you can skip this step. Then begin to assemble the chicken, blue cheese, celery, and carrot. Place tooth pick through the wrap to hold it together. Enjoy!

The lunch wrap. Same ingredients just added some lettuce mix.

This is another option to take a celery stalk, fill it with blue cheese, top with shred carrots and Buffalo chicken.