Paxton impeachment celebration dinner

Roasted sheet pan potato, asparagus, leek salad with sauteed chicken breasts

Photo: Tracy Harris

I almost broke my arm this afternoon patting myself on my back for having chosen the subject of this morning’s column yesterday. Yes, folks, the grubbily greedy Ken Paxton, who until this afternoon served as the Texas Attorney General, was impeached by the Texas House on 20 counts. The vote was 121 to 23, boding ill for Paxton’s chances in the state Senate, which will sit in judgement of the charges against him sometime in the coming days or weeks. A two-thirds majority will be necessary to convict Paxton and end his time in office, but with five times as many members of the House voting to impeach Paxton as voted no, if the same ratio holds in the Senate, it is looking very likely that we will be having a “Paxton ousted as Texas Attorney General celebration dinner,” and maybe even a “Paxton indicted on multiple counts celebration dinner” later this summer.

All of which just goes to show that even in this time of so much political doom and gloom, there are some occasions when the old hippie mantra, “what goes around, comes around” doth still apply.

The sauteed chicken breasts and mushrooms speak for themselves, but the sheet pan potato salad is new to us and delightfully easy to make: basically, you douse baby potatoes, asparagus and leeks in some olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika and roast them in the oven at 425 for about a half hour, devoting the first 15 minutes to the potatoes alone, with the vegetables thrown in for the last 15 minutes. There is a dressing made of olive oil, sherry vinegar, minced shallot, Dijon mustard and honey that you toss the salad with. Then you sprinkle on some minced mint, and voila! The celebration dinner! The recipe, my hearties, is a keeper!

Photo: Tracy Harris

The recipe is by Romel Bruno and comes from Times Cooking at the link below:

Roasted sheet pan potato salad