Posted on 05/25/2017 3:33:48 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
While roaming on Youtube last week, I found a video from the Southern Foodways Alliance about ‘Sally Bell’s’, a little Richmond, Virginia bakery which is famous for it’s boxed lunches. This is a very interesting short video about a family business that has become beloved for its made-from-scratch-everyday menu:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVm0CaOxEQY
I searched to see if some of their recipes might be available, with no luck; but I did find a recipe for Cheese Wafers with Pecans, which looks similar to those that are always included in Sally Bell’s lunch boxes:
http://www.sweetpaulmag.com/food/my-happy-dish-cheese-wafers-with-pecans-1
Apparently the Chicken Salad is the favorite sandwich at Sally Bell’s; and since they aren’t giving their recipe away, I’ll share mine again. The lemon-basil butter is what really makes this, and for parties I do this on little flower-shaped tea breads made from a special mold. I believe I first found this recipe in the booklet that came with my ‘Pampered Chef’ molds:
Almond Chicken Salad Sandwiches with Lemon-Basil Butter
To make butter spread:
Combine ¾ Cup softened butter with 2 tsps. Lemon juice, a pinch of salt, and ½ cup fresh basil leaves finely chopped, or 2 T. dried basil.
To make filling:
Combine 1 C. finely chopped cooked chicken with ½ Cup mayonnaise, ½ cup slivered almonds, and salt and pepper to taste. (I shred the chicken in the food processor, to get a very smooth, consistent texture.)
To make sandwiches:
Carefully spread each slice of bread on one side with thin layer of butter spread. Then place filling on one bread slice, and top with second buttered slice.
If you take these to a party, they can be made the evening before, and stored in a container with a double layer of paper towels between each layer of sandwiches. The butter spread will help keep the bread from going soggy.
(If you DO want to make fancy bread: I usually use the Bridgford frozen bread dough, cutting dough in half and baking each half in a canapé bread mold sprayed with PAM. To slice the bread for sandwiches, it helps to partially freeze it. Slice thinly.)
Here’s a link to Sally Bell’s website, in case you make it to Richmond this summer:
http://www.sallybellskitchen.com
I know that some of our cooking thread members are familiar with ‘La Tienda’, the online purveyor of gourmet Spanish food items; but I didn’t realize that they have a retail store and a tapas bar at Williamsburg, VA:
https://www.tienda.com/aboutus/retailstore.html
La Tienda has lots of recipes on their website; I’ve never made Paella, and want to try theirs.
-JT
Uh-oh—hope you feel better soon!
A chef and a philosopher—you are a joy!
I thought you were a guy... I think because you were so good at handicapping horse races or something. How sexist of me, You could have been any number of genders and I profiled you. I love a man who cooks. I married a chef once. ;)
But I have been wrong about people’s genders before on here. And I’ve been cursed out on FR as a dude, too.
Very ‘Japanese Cute’. They sell all sorts of things for making these little kid lunches.
You can break your budget buying all those Japanese bento boxes and accessories.
Actually the bento boxes are a great idea.
Make in advance. Then all you have to do is reach into the fridge for your boxed lunch.
Tell me about it. I’ve bought so many tiffins, bento boxes, etc. I’m just a sucker for clever *containers*.
Fortunately, they’re useful for a lot of things besides food - or so I tell myself.
Same here...I have to restrain myself........
Everytime they come out w/ new containers, I cant decide.
So I buy three of each container.
At least we wind up with a lunch box to go with each outfit ;-)
This is true....although I’ve never really tried to match my container collection to my attire.
ROTFLOL.
TRUE CONFESSIONS I once bought so many clever containers ——ON SALE-—that I had to store them in my car-—no room in the kitchen.
But it worked out really good.
Dining out w/ friends, restaurant leftovers packed in bags went right into the clever containers.....each friend got one.
See how great it is when you plan ahead.
ROTFLOL.
It is nice to have something in the car, for ‘doggie bags’.
One of my latests ‘covets’:
I love the “munchbox” lower right......
You got three compartments to put stuff in.
So much fun to dream up trios of dishes to put in there.
Neat.
I work in a ‘food desert’ and take lunch every day.
I’ve found that especially when you’re dieting, it’s nice to have a compartmented container to hold lots of different things attractively. If I put thought and variety into it like that, it’s a lot easier to stick to healthy eating.
Soup is a problem - it’s hard to find designs that are both really spill-proof and can be microwaved. I found these screwtop bowls at my grocery store, and they work really well:
Yes. I try to justify buying this stuff because you can use them for a lot of purposes. And I do have several that are full of craft and sewing bits and pieces; Lee Valley has some that are nice for nuts and bolts, etc.
Two years ago I got positively hooked on cilantro. I grew some and it tasted so much better and fresher than any store bunch I had tried. I eat a lot from the garden. Just chopped with tomato and onion and a tiny amount of pickled jalapenos (mine) and a little juice. I could just eat it out of the bowl.
I confess that I am always intrigued by this kind of thing.... :)
I love cilantro and am growing some in the garden as we speak. I put it in everything!
I have always heard that the Moon Pie was made round to fit in the bottom of the round lunch boxes that miners used, and there seems to be some substance to that:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_pie#History
Nice for soup....
......and that 8-piece matching set is really nice.
So I guess you already have it. And a dress to accessorize your lunch. (grin)
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