Chicken Salad Days With the Yank

Remember this stuff?

It's called "Snow".

We don't have any this year, so I thought I'd post this pic in fond remembrance of 2010, 09, and 08...

For those of you with snow, feel free to have a hot chocolate on the house today! Or coffee, latte', whatever you'd like. In honor of your shoveling, snowblowing, plowing moments, the Cafe is giving out free drinks to anyone in a 2012 snow belt!  You guys rock!

Okay, on to chicken salad. We have chickens for eggs. I don't eat our chickens. We have in the past, but now life's a little busy to be spending summers putting up chickens... (note how carefully I did not use the word "butchering" so as not to offend anyone. Yes, I'm that sensitive to my friends' delicate needs)

Anyway, I'm fussy about chicken salad, too. I don't use canned chicken because it's got bits of ...stuff in it. I use boneless skinless chicken breasts and I pop them right into the kettle from the freezer, no need to thaw because we'll trim off any of those 'bits' of vein, fat, cartilage once they're cooked. It's way easier then.


Simple ingredients:

2 or 3 quarts Water
Chicken base or bouillon cubes (amount depends on how much water you use, follow label directions)
2 (or more) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Celery, chopped
Salt, pepper to taste
Hellman's Mayonnaise

Easy-peasy, right?

Boil the chicken in the broth.  You can use the broth later to make chicken soup or as a base for some other soup stock. Remember that a lot of soup stocks blend chicken and beef to make a heartier broth. Yum!

When chicken is fully cooked (a fork will pierce it easily), remove from broth, rinse in cool water, and set aside to cool. Trim away any bits of fat, vein, cartilage until all you have left is white meat chicken. This is like a fifteen second job when chicken is cooked and you have a decent knife. Or you can borrow one of Missy's new knives. She's dangerous with them.

Chop up chicken. I like mine in small pieces but if you like chunks, that's fine. Add about 1/3-1/2 cup of chopped celery. Feel free to eat some while you chop, I love celery. If a few bits of celery leaf jump into the knife and then the bowl, this is perfectly okay, but not too many.

Add mayonnaise. Do this a little at a time to see how "moist" you want your salad. Tasting for quality control is encouraged.  Add salt and pepper to taste. We go heavy on the pepper (you might not need any salt because you boiled the chicken in a salt-water environment, very eco-friendly) and that flash of  heat brightens up the more bland taste of chicken.

I LOVE chicken salad on a lightly toasted buttered bagel, but if I'm low-carb I eat it on a bed of chopped lettuce and pray that my jeans will zipper the next week.

A side of broccoli/cabbage salad makes a nice "crunch" alongside the chicken chewiness.

I make this for Luke (finance boy in Boston) whenever he comes home. It was a favorite at Bridal Hall, too, the sweet bridal store where I sold wedding gowns for seven years.... Great family business and one of these days I will be doing a series with a bridal industry background, because it's HYSTERICAL...  you have no idea! I'm grinning, just thinking about it. Or maybe because my teeth really are too big for my head.

Whatever.

And I'm living a dual life right now because I'm working on a Christmas book.... While the world is morphing into Valentine's Day.  So I have to keep my head in "O Holy Night" while others are thinking "Lady in Red"...

:)

So if you hear rumors of Christmas music in Ruthy's house, they're all true!

This gratuitous pic is just to remind me of Christmas and how much I loved this cover on Matt and Callie's story.  Sigh...

And yes, that's a live link to take you straight to Amazon to get your own copy, LOL!

Shopping Fatigue

Missy, here. Shopping and decorating fatigue has set in. I waited until last minute and am worn out. I did most of my shopping yesterday and came home at 10:30 last night to my peaceful, welcoming front door. (Actually, I passed it by and drove into the garage, then entered from the back. But we'll pretend my front door greeted me.) :)

I came in and had to hide all the gifts. Then I had to put away office supplies I bought while out. THEN, I finally got to crash on the couch, propping my feet up on the coffee table. And...you guessed it. I realized I was hungry.

Of course I was. Shopping can really make you work up an appetite. :)

I started out thinking healthy. I'd made kale chips on Monday, and they were gone. I wasn't in the mood for fruit. Or oatmeal. Or even Kashi cereal (all my regular snacks). No way was I going to bake anything. The kids were making popcorn, which smelled good. But no, that didn't appeal to me...

I seriously considered cheese and crackers. Or cream cheese with pepper jelly and crackers. Or instead of pepper jelly, I have this wonderful new sauce I bought at a Pampered Chef party--Blackberry Balsamic. Just pour it over a block of cream cheese and serve with crackers. Excellent!

Then it hit me what I wanted. A RUTHY SALAD! The salad she shared with us a while back. I had one the other day for lunch. Here's my version:

Romaine lettuce
Spinach
Shredded cabbage
Broccoli slaw
Shredded carrots
Cubed cheddar cheese
Chopped ham (lunch meat)
Sunflower seeds
Ranch dressing

I buy the first 5 ingredients already prepared. I'll chop the ham and cheese. I may add cucumbers if I feel like expending the energy to peel and chop. :)

And just think, I resisted the carbs. I resisted the cream cheese. I'm proud of myself! (But we won't talk about the Starbucks Caramel Brulee Latte I had while out shopping!!)  :)

What's your favorite snack when you're worn out from shopping and holiday prep and are just too tired to make anything? If you do indulge in the cream cheese or carbs, feel free to admit it. We won't judge you around the cafe. :)

Talk About "Salad" Days, LOL!!!

Okay, so I talk big. We know that. I talk about all the things I LOVE to eat...

Cake...

Cookies....

Ice Cream.....

CANDY!!!!!

Oh, Yum.

But the truth is MUCH MORE BORING.  Yes, you've heard of Tuesdays With Morrie, right? Well, this is Tuesday with Ruthy and first... No one dies.

Now that right there should make you feel better, right?

But this is a look-see into Ruthy-reality. Because I might talk a good line.. But... Yes.. It's true...

I eat a lot of salad. But not your typical twigs and dark greens and iceberg. Oh, yuck. Here is a Ruthy salad that lives in my refrigerator, step by delicious tummy-filling step. Because the problem with most salads is that you feel like you ATE NOTHING an hour later. That doesn't happen with this baby!

Okay, we start with a thick layer of cole slaw mix. You can use store-bought OR chop up your own cabbage and carrots... In summer I chop my own because the bags of pre-cut ferment too quickly.

I am SO NOT into sauerkraut salad.

Then we add a layer of broccoli slaw:

Broccoli slaw is cole slaw made with broccoli stalks. So crispy, wonderful and marvelous. I love this stuff.

Now I toss in some cukes...

 Celery...

That's the basic mix that I keep on hand. I usually have enough for 3 or 4 days... And then I doll it up when I'm starving and want to eat a small child or a 3 lb bag of M&M's...

So now I make it today's version of lunch...

Blogger ate my interim picture. See??? Even Mr. Blogger gets hungry!  So I layered on shredded sharp cheddar cheese, sliced grilled chicken from Saturday's barbecue with the kids, sunflower seeds and pepper parmesan dressing made by mixing up Hidden Valley Ranch dressing regular recipe with about 1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese and a whole bunch of freshly ground pepper...

The rest of the salad base stays in the fridge... For tomorrow. And the next day. If I have it mostly ready, I don't eat the whole bag of M&M's...

Or the small child.

So that's the reality. That's the truth.

Really.

(But I do sneak M&M's now and again. Just because!)