Cookie S'Mores

Last week, while I was racing around to get ready for my book tour in Illinois, I had the TV tuned to the Cooking Channel. My attention was fractured. I was thinking about ALMOST PERFECT, the second Fool’s Gold book, which is available now. (Click the link to read a free excerpt. I’m so excited to hear what readers think of Liz. She’s a mystery writer, and she’s been killing her first love, Ethan Hendrix, over and over again in her books.) So there I was, thinking about ALMOST PERFECT and wondering whether anyone would notice my newly painted toenails.

The upshot is, I only caught the tail end of a barbecue segment. Paula Deen and others were eating dessert – s’mores made with cookies instead of graham crackers – but I had missed the recipe! I looked on their website, but I couldn’t find it there, either. I was disappointed – I wanted to share the recipe with you in time for 4th of July barbecues.

Then I thought to myself, “How hard could it be?”

That question has led to many kitchen disasters throughout my life, but I’m pleased to report that this time, the results were delicious. I must warn you, though: there’s so much sugar in this treat that you may well slip into a coma after one bite. Encourage your kids to wear a safety helmet before eating!

Recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie S’Mores

Ingredients:

2 dozen chocolate chip cookies – homemade or store-bought
144 mini marshmallows (approximate)
144 chocolate chips (approximate)

Preheat the grill to medium-high. Place one chocolate chip cookie on a square of aluminum foil. Put about six mini marshmallows and about six chocolate chips on the cookie. If the marshmallows roll off, then split them with your finger and press the sticky side into the cookie. Place a second cookie flat-side up on top of the marshmallow layer. Wrap loosely (but airtight) with the foil. Grill over direct heat about 4 minutes on each side. Unwrap carefully. Yield: 1 dozen s’mores

Next time, I’m going to try these with peanut butter cookies. Kids should love these easy treats. You can even make them if you’re going camping! (As long as you remember to bring helmets.)

Tater Salad

Today, I had the bright idea to try making potato salad with Tater Tots. Tater Salad. The main reason for this brainstorm was simply that I think it’s funny to say Tater Salad. I didn’t have Tater Tots on hand. I had to make a special trip to the grocery store to buy them. All so I could say Tater Salad.
Ingredients:

1 28-oz bag of Tater Tots, baked according to package directions, then cooled on paper towels

6 hardboiled eggs, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

½ of a large onion, chopped

1 C. mayonnaise

1 T. prepared mustard

½ t celery seed

1 10-oz can of Bacardi frozen strawberry daiquiri concentrate, mixed with 1 can of water (optional)

Coconut rum (optional)

Crushed ice (optional)

Fill a glass with crushed ice. Add the amount of coconut rum you want and top off with strawberry daiquiri mix. If you’re feeling more energetic than I was, you could put all of that in a blender and do it right. But it tastes pretty good with crushed ice from the refrigerator door.

With drink in hand, you’re ready to start on the Tater Salad.

Put the cool, baked Tater Tots in a bowl and set aside. Put the other ingredients in a separate bowl and mix well. Add the mayonnaise mixture to the Tater Tot mixture and mix gently. Refrigerate.

The Tater Salad turned out to be more fun to say than to eat. It was okay, but it wasn’t better than regular potato salad. You can use this recipe for Potato Salad, too, though. Just replace the Tater Tots with six large baking potatoes. Peel, chunk, and boil the potatoes. Cool, and then continue with the recipe as above.

Cheers!

Green Salad with Turkey and Cranberry Vinaigrette

Yesterday, I cooked a boneless turkey breast on the grill. I wanted to use the leftovers today in a salad, and I thought that cranberry vinaigrette sounded like a nice dressing for it. Sadly, I didn’t have cranberry vinaigrette on hand. Is that a staple in anyone’s pantry?

I looked up some recipes online, but they all called for a bag of cranberries, which was another thing I didn’t have. I find that most new recipes arise out of laziness. Or maybe it’s agoraphobia. All I know is that I wanted cranberry vinaigrette, but I did not want to go to the store. I wanted to use the can of cranberry sauce that I had bought at Thanksgiving but forgot to serve. Was
that so wrong?

It turned out surprisingly delicious. I’m always surprised when I make up recipes and they taste good. They don’t always, I swear. But I’ll probably never tell you about the ones that don’t because I want you to keep coming back to this blog, and I don’t think you will if I post recipes for inedible food.

Cranberry Vinaigrette

1 can of whole berry cranberry sauce, whole berries set aside
½ cup of olive oil
¼ cup of red wine vinegar
¼ cup of water
1 t. Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

Put all ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.

Garlic Croutons

Adding to the deliciousness of the salad were homemade garlic croutons. O…M…G! They were so easy, too! I pressed three cloves of garlic through the garlic press into a small bowl and then poured about a quarter-cup of olive oil over it. Let that sit for about 20-30 minutes, then pour it over a sieve into another bowl. The oil becomes infused with garlic flavor. Toss with cubed bread and bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes, flipping once.

The hardest part about the croutons was cutting the bread into little chunks. It required delicacy, and I’ve never been the delicate type.

Salad

I lined the plate with a bed of salad greens, added sugar snap peas, green onions, the turkey, croutons, and reserved whole cranberries. I used bleu cheese, but if you don’t like bleu cheese, then romano or parmesan would be good, too. Drizzle with the vinaigrette.

Let me know what you think! Would you change anything if you tried the recipe? This recipe and many others will be available as printable PDFs on my website, www.susanmallery.com, as soon as we finish the redesign.