Grilled Cheese with Avocado and Chicken

I was hoping I would have a recipe to share with Thanksgiving leftovers, but my family finished them off already! We didn't have much to start with...apparently we were all really hungry on Thanksgiving :). So instead, I'll share this really quick lunch or dinner idea--I had some leftover chicken in the fridge that I wanted to use and I found avocados at the store that looked delicious. So I decided to combine them both into this delicious grilled cheese sandwich.


Ingredients
2 slices wheat bread
2 slices provolone cheese
Half an avocado, sliced
Half a cooked chicken breast, sliced
1 tsp butter

Directions
1. Butter one side of each slice of bread. Place one slice on a skillet, butter side down and set the other slice aside. 
2. Slice chicken breast into this slices. Slice avocado into wedges. 
3. Place one slice of provolone on the bread slice in the skillet. Layer chicken slices and avocado slices on top. Add the next slice of provolone followed by the second slice of bread.

1st slice of break with cheese slice, chicken, and avocado

4. Grill each side of the sandwich in the skillet over medium heat until each side is golden brown and the cheese is melted.
5. Slice in half and enjoy the warm and delicious sandwich.

Potato Chowder

Every year when the weather gets colder, I end up making a lot of soup...it tastes good, helps warm me up, and makes for great leftovers. Potato Chowder is one easy and delicious soup recipe I got from my mom. And I just made that today. Here's the recipe, I recommend giving it a try:

Ingredients
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups sliced carrots
1 can (8 oz or 15 oz) whole kernel corn, drained
1 cup sliced celery
1/2 tsp thyme
Dash of pepper
2 Tbsp flour
1 cup milk
2 cups grated cheddar cheese

Directions
1. Combine potatoes and broth in large soup pot with tight-fitting lid. Bring to boil, then simmer until tender (about 10 minutes). 
2. Use fork to slightly mash up potatoes. You don't have to mash them up a lot, just break them apart a little.
3. Stir in carrots, corn, celery, and thyme. Cover and simmer until veggies are tender (about 15 minutes).

4. In a separate bowl, stir together milk and flour. Then add milk and flour mixture to the rest of the ingredients. Stir in cheese. A little bit of the cheese can be set aside to sprinkle on top of the soup; bacon bits are also good on top :).

Now serve and enjoy! 

Credit to my mom for sharing this recipe with my mom.

Salade Chevre Chaud

I spent a semester studying abroad in France and one of my favorite salads I had there was Salade Chevre Chaud (or Salad with warm goat cheese). Now before you give up on this recipe because you don't like goat cheese, I would recommend at least trying out the dressing. It's delicious. You can buy goat cheese at the store in a package like the one to the right. 

Ingredients

1 roll of goat cheese

4-5 slices of sandwich bread

1 bag romaine lettuce

1/3 pound (150g) toasted walnuts

3-4 slices bacon

Olive oil

Dressing

3 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1 Tbsp white wine vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Chop walnuts coarsely
2. Cook bacon slices until crispy. Let cool and them crumble coarsely.
3. Slice the roll of goat's cheese and cut each slice of bread in half. 
4. Lightly brush olive oil on bread then place a slice of cheese on top of each piece of bread.

5. Grill in oven for 5-10 minutes at 425 or on broil
6. Mix the dressing in a small bowl until ingredients are all combined.
7. Pour the bag of lettuce into a small bowl and toss the salad with an appropriate amount of the dressing.
8. Place salad on a plate and sprinkle with walnuts and crumbled bacon.
9. Top with 1-2 slices of goat's cheese toasts.


Emily's Thoughts
If you want the final salad to look a little "prettier," try using french bread or cut the bread into a circle or square. And try out the dressing on other salads too, it's too good not to :)

Recipe adapted from Honest Cooking.

Baked Brie

In college, I studied abroad in Lyon, France for 5 months, and the one thing I loved more than anything else in France was their food: fresh bread all the time, delicious cheeses, great wine, and much more. One cheese I really developed a taste for was brie. So when I saw the package of Brie at the store, I couldn't resist. But I figured, what better way to eat brie than by trying out a new recipe. I recently tried a caterer's baked brie for the first time and loved it, so I wanted to try it out myself.

Ingredients
1 wheel of brie (as in the picture above)
1 package crescent dinner rolls or 1 large sheet puff pastry dough
Strawberry, raspberry, or apricot jam
Brown sugar
Syrup 


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°

2. Lightly spray a non-stick cookie sheet with cooking spray and spread out half the sheet of crescent rolls (do not separate individual rolls) or puff pasty dough. 
3. Spread a thin layer of jam on the dough. Then place the cheese in the center of the dough (the rind is perfectly fine, do not worry about leaving it on)
4. If using crescent dinner roll dough, spread the other half with jam and lay, jam-side down, on top of cheese. 
5. Fold dough together and over the cheese, cutting off any excess dough.
6. Drizzle maple syrup and sprinkle brown sugar on top of pastry to give it a nice glaze. 

 7. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes until pastry is golden brown. Allow pastry to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. 

Serve with crackers and apple slices. 

Emily's Thoughts

I found a couple different recipes for this. Instead of using syrup and brown sugar on top, you can use 1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tsp of water and brush the entire pastry with that before baking for a glaze. 

As you can see from my pictures, I had a little too much dough around the edges, so I highly recommend cutting off at least the corners of the crescent roll dough (this was what I used) to reduce the amount of breading. 

Also consider serving this with a red wine. The mix of the cheese and the wine would be a delicious combination. 

Recipe adapted from Simply Recipes and the President cheese wrapper.