Chicken Salad with Sugar Spiced Pecans

Sounds fancy smancy huh?  It's not.  Not a single thing fancy about this, but dang it tastes delish!  I love Chicken Salad Sandwiches.  Not too mayo-y, and loaded with lots of crunchy things.  On a croissant, or Honey Whole Wheat from Great Harvest, or homemade Focaccia it all makes me happy.  Last week James had to come home a little earlier than normal from work.  Something to do with taxes and gathering, sorting, categorizing and other really fun stuff like that.  But he brought home a super fresh and delicious loaf of the above mentioned Honey Whole Wheat.  In all reality James believes on most days he makes the BEST Whole Wheat Bread on the planet.  Well this was one of those days.  It was a perfect loaf of bread, and as James was driving home he called and asked if I'd make something really tasty to go on it.  Well of course I would!  Chicken Salad!  It was scrumptious!  We both made yummy sounds as we were eating, and all that tax stuff just didn't seem so bad.

So here's my opinion on Chicken Salad.  A just right amount of mayo.  Not Miracle Whip.  A little sweet, a lot of crunchy, and a really great nut involved.  I love adding these Sugar Spiced Pecans.  Just a little heat, but a toasted sweet crunch is AWESOME!  The pictured sandwich is on some homemade Focaccia (HERE"S A LINK) that I made the next day.  Yup!  It hit the spot as well.  And by the way............that was a breakfast picture.  Not lunch, but brekky:)  Enjoy!

Chicken Salad with Sugar Spiced Pecans

Chopped chicken  (I used canned chicken and it was wonderful.  Leftover chicken of any sort works, as well as fresh boiled, grilled, or baked chicken.)
Mayo (To your liking.  If you like it a little creamier then go for it!)
1/2 T. Spicy Mustard (dried mustard, or regular yellow mustard works too.)
1/4 c. sugar
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
1 Apple chopped
2-3 Ribs of Celery chopped
2-3 T. Fresh Chopped Parsley

1 c. chopped Sugar Spiced Pecans (Recipe Follows)


Sugar Spice Pecans

1/3 c. sugar
1 c. whole or chopped pecans

In a dry fry pan place the sugar and nuts and put over a medium high heat.  Be diligent and stay right by these babies until they're done.  I've burned a few nuts in my day, and even the kitty won't eat them:(
Don't stir until you start to see the sugar melting.  Gently stir the nuts so they don't burn.  Keep stirring until all the sugar has fully melted and turns golden brown.  This part goes fast.  It takes a while for the sugar to start to melt, but once it does watch it.  Pour the nuts onto a WELL GREASED pan or plate.  Immediately sprinkle with a shot of salt and chili pepper.  Let cool and then break up and add to the best salad or Chicken Salad.


Mix all ingredients together and serve on bread of choice.  It's even better the second day:)

The Sam's Ham Sammie

The Great Harvest bakery question I probably get asked the most is, "Who came up with your sandwich ideas?" And honestly I can say..............ME!  Actually my sister, my mom, my dad, cousins, brothers and lots of other places.  I get inspiration from everywhere.   Our best selling sandwich, The Swede Turkey Pesto, was and idea from my sister Hollie, and my brother Marc and his wife Susan.   We had a Clawson Gourmet Night years ago to try out new sandwiches on James' many siblings.  The Swede was named after my cousin Swede who was a baker for us at the time.  Every sandwich is named after an employees or family members.   It's funny how many times our current employees are trying to come up with sandwich concoctions to get their name to a sandwich:)

One of my favorites is the Sam's Ham.  I have two brother in law's named Sam.  Actually they're both Sam Smith's if you can imagine that.  They aren't remotely related, and there is one on each side of my family.   One is the best orthodontist in Boise Id. (Super Smiles Orthodontics) and the other is the best merchant service man in Utah.  So due to that unique little fact, I decided to name this ham sandwich after the two of them.

The actual recipe is an old one my mom used to make for big family gatherings, mission farewells, and the like.  It was originally made with croissant rolls, and had only the poppy seed spread and toasted ham and cheese.  I've seen a lot of variations of it on Pinterest lately, but I personally think my mom made them best:)  I thought this sandwich would be perfect on the Pretzel Rolls I made last week.  Indeed it was perfect.  Now it does give you some serious onion breath, so make sure if you're in to kissing and the like, that you're favorite person eats one too.  Enjoy!

The Sam's Ham Sammie

Rolls (pretzel rolls, croissant rolls, or white bread from you local Great Harvest!)

sliced ham

sliced Swiss cheese

lettuce

tomato

red onion

and the secret weapons.........Special Poppy Sauce!

Apple Butter or Apple sauce!

Poppy Sauce

1 Tablespoon poppy seeds

2 Tablespoons yellow mustard

1/2 cup butter, extra soft

1 Tablespoon minced onion 

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

In a small bowl mix all the above ingredients together.  If you have extra just refrigerate it.  It will last a week or two.

Sandwich preparation:  Slice each roll in half and spread a generous layer of poppy sauce on one side of the roll or one slice of bread.  Top with a slice of good ham and Swiss cheese.  Place on a cookie sheet and pop in a 375' F oven for about 7-10 minutes.  Until the cheese is melty, and the bread is toasty.  At the bakery we make this grilled cheese style.  So if you use bread just toast as you would a grilled cheese.  You can eat the sandwiches as is now, or you can top with lettuce, tomato, red onion and a swipe of apple butter or sauce.  I know the apple sauce sounds weird, but trust me, it's delicious!!

Pesto

Perfect pesto!  It goes on anything.

I hate to admit it, but I sometimes hate harvesting my garden.   Like a few months ago when I finally pulled out my lettuce that was starting to bolt.  All it did was leave a large area of unproductive ground.  It looked like a scab on an otherwise unblemished face.  I love the neat, perfect little rows and sometimes harvesting ruins my aesthetic perspective.  Silly I know, but still it's hard for me:)  Well yesterday I did it!  I harvested a lot of my basil and then proceeded to make pesto sauce.  I trimmed up those basil plants neatly.  Kind of like a really good haircut.  The kind that you don't notice a significant change, and everything still looks real nice.  My mother-in-law told me that that is the sign of a very fine haircut.  I believe her.

So the basil in the garden is still beautiful, but I now have a very large stash of homemade pesto sauce.  It is so stinking pretty.  The most beautiful color green.  It totally matches my kitchen, and the walls at the bakery.  I must have a thing for Pesto Green.  What to do with all that pesto you may ask.  We use a lot of it at our house.  I stir it into the ricotta/cottage cheese mixture in lasagna.  We use it as the sauce for our homemade pizza's, and the best purpose for pesto sauce of all is to make a Swede Turkey Pesto sandwich at home.

The Swede Turkey Pesto, or STP for short is the number one selling sandwich at the bakery.  It probably out sells the other sandwiches 2 to 1.  If you haven't had one I'll give you the secret recipe now so you can make them at home.

Don't you love this pic.  My brother-in-law Doug does all the photos for us at the bakery.  This poster is a huge hit!

Swede Turkey Pesto Sandwich

courtesy of Great Harvest Bread Logan, UT

and my sister Hollie who helped me come up with this sandwich:)

Great Harvest Asiago Sourdough Bread

Mayo

Spicy Brown Mustard

Pesto Sauce

Good Deli Turkey

Swiss Cheese

Leaf Lettuce

Red Onion 

Tomato

Balsamic Salad Dressing

Ta-Da!!  That's it!  We take the bread and squirt on the mayo, mustard, and a smear of pesto sauce.  Add the turkey and cheese and grill.  We use a George Foreman grill.  We like how it does the job, but a fry pan, or griddle will work too.  When the sandwich is sufficiently toasty, add the veggies, and then drizzle the sandwich with the balsamic dressing.  I actually like to dip so do as you please.

Just so you know who Swede is, he's my cousin and was a baker for us for quite a few years.  And you say his name as it is spelled.  It's a family name on the other side, but when we made the sandwich we needed a catchy name, and Swede was so unique, and interesting the rest is history.   The sandwich is so famous that one semester Swede was sitting in a class the first day, and the teacher was reading down the role.  When she got to Swede's name she said it, he responded with, "Here!" and then she stopped.  She then went on to ask if Swede just happened to have a sandwich named after him at Great Harvest?  Of course he did and I don't think Swede had to do a single assignment in that class that semester.  He just got an A for being "the Man".        

To make the pesto it is quite simple as well.  If you've got a lot of basil in your garden, put it to good use.  If not, go buy some and make yourself a Swede!

Pesto Sauce

2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts

3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

A food processor or blender

 Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts instead of pine nuts and they are not already chopped, pulse them a few times first, before adding the basil.) Add the garlic, pulse a few times more.

Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.  I poured my pesto into cute bottles and then poured enough EVOO on top to cover it.  The pesto will discolor quickly if exposed to air.  I freeze mine.  It will last forever.  One tip I learned was to portion the pesto in ice cube trays, and then freeze the cubes.  When frozen place in Ziploc bags and use when needed.  

My Day

Cold, austere beauty!

Last Friday was so beautiful.  You know those cold mornings when the whole world looks as if it's been flocked.  I love the way everything looks.  The trees, the ornamental grasses, my kitty's whiskers, and my running friends eyelashes.  Beautiful and white.  I had to share my day and what we had at the bakery.  It's that time again for Red Velvet Love Cakes, and fabulous sugar cookies, but I must admit it was the Reuben sandwich that made me happy.

I love this sandwich.  It's kind of a man sandwich, but you girls out there should really try it.  And none of this sissy, "no saurekraut please".  It just won't do.  Do it big or don't do it at all.  I wish I could say this to customers sometime.  "Ooh!  No apple butter please, no pesto,  no cranberry sauce, oh yuck I hate coleslaw!"  For heaven's sakes just trust me on these things.  Your life would be so much better with these things on their designated sandwiches.  We should all try our sandwiches as God intended at least once, and then you can change it up.  Saurerkraut is a must on any Reuben, or it  just stops being a Reuben.  Why bother then.

Years ago when our family won the "Cooking With Your Kids Contest" from the Food Network we spent 6 days in New York City.  James and I had a different Reuben sandwich everywhere we went.  They were all different, and we enjoyed each one.  When we started making sandwiches a few years ago I knew we had to have a Reuben.  I like mine with lots of cold veggies after it's grilled.  It makes the sandwich perfect. So if you are hungry today or tomorrow I'll be at the bakery, and I'll make you the best Reuben you've ever had.  I promise you'll love it.  And while your here, you deserve a Love Cake too.  

Chicken Ceasar Salad Sandwiches

I love Caesar Salad!  Do you?  I have an obsession with this tasty treat.  Everywhere I go I search it out and I have a few personal favorites.  I love the Baby Cesar Salad at The Elements restaurant in Logan.  It is delicious.  You have to use a fork and a knife, but heck it is wonderful.  Maybe it's the addition of a few little cherry tomatoes.  It doesn't matter what time of year it is, those tomatoes always taste like they are from a Sept. garden.    My all time favorite though is the Blue Caesar Salad at Pesto's restaurant on the Big Island.  A big fat Caesar salad comes out, topped with Blue Cheese and lots of Pansy petals, and Orchids.  You don't eat the flowers, but they sure look pretty.  It's just so darn good.  

Years ago I encountered the inspiration for the recipe I'm posting today.  We were in Maui and  Bubba Gumps was the new restaurant in town.  We decided to try it for lunch, and I was smitten.  They had a Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwich that was lovely.  A long toasted roll chuck full of fresh Caesar Salad and grilled chicken breast.  Ever since that day I make this sandwich at home.  It is actually a really fast meal to prepare if you are organized.  I love to buy the big long baguettes from Sam's and serve the sandwich on this.  Don't get crusty bread because it makes it too hard to eat.  My kids will even eat it, and when I serve it at a gathering I get tons of requests for recipes.  It's easy, and will be perfect this Summer.  You'll become a fan too I'm sure!

Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwiches

Long hoagie rolls or long baguettes

butter

garlic salt

Take the hoagie rolls and slice them in half.  Try not to cut all the way through.  It makes it easier to fill the sandwich, but if you do it's OK.  Spread a thin layer of butter and a sprinkling of garlic salt on both sides of the loaf.  Turn your broiler on and toast the bread until brown.  Top with Caesar Salad.

Romaine lettuce

your favorite Caesar dressing  (I've made homemade, but then you have a half used can of anchovies leftover and the Lighthouse brand is tasty.)

Croutons

grated Parmesan Cheese

halved cherry tomatoes
Sliced grilled chicken breast

Stir everything together right before serving and top the hot toasted rolls with the salad.  You're going to love this!!

Tuna!

The bathing beauty. My camera got wet this day, therefore the extra "soft" focus.

This is the keyword that was yelled from anywhere on a lake when one of my sibling or I had a fish on our fishing lines. It didn't matter is it was a big fat Brook Trout or a Sardine sized cast back. It was yelled out, and yelled out as loud as you could. We'd all go running to see what Josh, or maybe Marc caught. It was always a treat when Tuna was yelled. Maybe it's the fact that I don't think I actually ever yelled it in response to an actual fish on my line. I may have cried "wolf" a few times though. My dad always came up with something funny to say on these family outings. You should ask my brother Marc about the "double humpy with a blond wig". That's the code word for some kind of Salmon I'm told. I think it may just be the punch line for a nasty little joke.  

I had to write about Tuna since that's what J and I have been eating every afternoon for the past week. A beautiful week I may add in Kona............just the two of us, some good books, a large bottle of sunscreen, runs along the beach every morning and Tuna sandwiches for lunch. Yummy! It's what my Aunt Jone calls her Ironman training. You do all of these things everyday, plus add a nap or two and a dip in the pool and repeat. You'll be ready for the Ironman in no time:) I wanted to see if anyone else in this little world of our likes Tuna sandwiches the way I do. I love them with sweet pickles and of all things Doritos on top. Doritos you may ask. Heck ya!

I have a very dear friend Terri who had the stinkiest socks in gym at good old NOJH. By about Weds., she'd pull them out of her locker and we'd smell. They were a little crusty and they smelled of Nacho Cheese Doritos. I was amazed. I didn't have this talent. I never had Doritos socks like Terri. I tried, but I never did. You'd think with Terri's socks and all, I wouldn't like Doritos but I do. Only on Tuna sandwiches though. James thinks it gross. He watched my brother in law chum fish with Doritos years ago and won't touch the things. He's missing out I tell you.

So my Tuna sandwich goes like this:

Tuna (The white kind is best. Thanks Aunt Jone for leaving me plenty of this in the condo!)

Mayo (Miracle Whip is ok as well.)

Mustard (Just a squeeze.)

Dill Weed

Salt and Pepper

Spread the mixture on a roll. Take it to the beach and top it with Bread and Butter Stackers, and a big helping of Doritos. Crunch to your hearts content. I couldn't have thought of anything better for a beach side picnic..........except James, but that story is private and I'll keep it to myself:)

So, I'm A Bread Digger

It's true.  I'm a bread digger!  I only married James because he was tall dark and handsome, (and I'd never dated that before), for his Polo rugby shirt, and because I'm a bread digger.  Mind you I wasn't a gold digger.  He had no gold to dig for, but boy did he have bread!  J started at GH shortly after we started dating and that was the clincher for me.  I remember the first time I ate Great Harvest Honey Whole Wheat bread.  It was this time of year, and we were having BLT's for dinner.  Oh heaven forbid!  I ate 3 of them by myself.  Does anyone remember that day?  Mom, Hollie, Brothers?  We didn't even toast the bread.  We ate it like it was candy, and I knew from that moment I must marry the boy who had baked that bread.  

I call that my first Great Harvest moment.  I've had a few.  You know the kind.  Like a lovely Fri. morning and I just happen to drop by the bakery as the Apple Crumble is coming out of the oven.  I cut a huge slice and then slather it with peanut butter.  Or how about coming into the bakery early and making a turkey sandwich on fresh Cranberry Orange!   I love it!  Actually, I am a complete bread snob.  I don't even bother with bread unless it is the perfect loaf, that smells just right, isn't over baked, and reminds me of that first sandwich with homemade tomatoes.  We had another bread moment Sunday for dinner.  BLT's with roasted chicken and avocados.  The lettuce was out of my garden too.  Meals like that just make me smile:)

So now you know.  I'm a bread digger!  I sleep with a baker that makes the best bread in this world, and I love his stinking guts!  Mind you he has a few other great qualities too.  He's the man!  I hope you have a Great Harvest Bread Co. somewhere close by and if not......well crap.  You might as well bend over and kiss your bum goodbye.  Or come to my house.  I'll make you the best BLT you've ever had and then maybe I'll make a treat too:)