Smoked Chicken Salad

We had our story telling party a little over a week ago. The kids are ready to move on to an open house for Christmas but my husband still enjoys the story sharing. It is always a lot of fun.

I made 3 different appetizers, 3 types of cookies, 3 different dips, fudge, white chocolate party mix, and there were the fruit, veggie & cheese/cracker trays. We ended up having just under 50 people come. The smoked Chicken Salad and the lemon-spice swirl cookies were new recipes that I tried and they were a hit.

Smoked Chicken Salad

1 (3.5-4 lb.) rotisserie chicken
2 (15 oz.) cans black eyed peas, rinsed and drained
1 pint grape tomatoes, quartered
3/4C chopped chives
1/2C mayonnaise
1/2C sour cream
1/2t salt
1/2t pepper
1/2t liquid smoke
1 (7 oz.) pkg. miniature pita bread, cut in half
2C spring salad mix

Pull meat off of rotisserie chicken and put in work bowl of food processor. Pulse until meat is coarsely chopped, about 10 sec. In a large bowl, combine chicken, peas, tomatoes, and chives. Add mayonnaise, sour cream, salt, pepper and liquid smoke, stirring until well-combined. Line each pita half with a few leaves of salad mix and stuff with chicken salad. Yield: 40 pita halves.

Ground Beef

Ok, so life got crazy and I have not been an active poster and actually there are no guarantees about the coming future but I shared a tip last night with someone at the activity formerly known as Enrichment and thought it would be a good tip to share....

When browning ground beef put some water in the pan with it. (Do you already do this?) I read about this a couple of years ago and I LOVE the results. It creates a much softer meat than just browning it normally. So easy and can be poured off when you dump the grease. You can add up to a cup for a pound and remember you will dump it off, it changes the texture and makes it light and lovely. If you have not tried this, I would highly suggest it! Let me know what you think!

Trisha

Pasta with Chicken and Squash

I've had this recipe for a long time but I never made it because I knew the kids wouldn't be thrilled with the zucchini and summer squash. I've been making a couple of dishes each week that are new to us, trying to get some new dishes in the mix that everyone likes. I loved this dish, probably more than everyone else. Of the 4 kids, the 11 yr. old didn't like the flavor and picked at it. The other three kids (13, 9 & 9) had seconds.

While it got top ratings with 5 out of 6, I'm still sharing it because it is delicious. The noodles are covered in a creamy cheese sauce with julienned squash and chicken.

Pasta with Chicken and Squash

1 pkg. (16 oz.) spiral pasta
2C whipping cream
1T butter or margarine
2C (8 oz.) shredded Mexican cheese blend or cheddar cheese
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
5T olive or vegetable oil, divided
2 med. zucchini, julienned
2 med yellow summer squash, julienned
1-1/4t salt, divided
1/8t pepper
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, julienned
1/4t each dried basil, marjoram and savory
1/4t dried rosemary, crushed
1/8t rubbed sage

Cook pasta according to directions. Meanwhile, heat cream and butter in a saucepan until butter melts. Add cheese; cook and stir until melted. Rinse and drain pasta; add to cheese mixture. Cover and keep warm. In a skillet over medium heat, saute onion and garlic in 3T oil until onion is tender. Add squash; cook until tender. Add 1t of salt and pepper; remove and keep warm. Add remaining oil to skillet; cook chicken with herbs and remaining salt until juices run clear. Place pasta on a serving platter; top with chicken and squash.

Homemade Pop Tarts

My kids like pop tarts, but they get expensive. I decided to make my own. They are actually really easy, and they taste so much better than store bought. Now the trick is making some and actually getting them in the freezer for the kids for breakfast. This batch didn't last that long. I got the recipe from the internet (oops I forgot to keep the link). The dough was very flaky. I am pretty sure any pie crust dough will work. We like the brown sugar cinnamon kind, so I made a paste of butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and spread in the middle. I will attach the recipe I used.

Homemade Pop Tarts

4 cups Flour
1 3/4 cups Vegetable Shortening
2 tablespoon Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1 Egg
1 teaspoon Vinegar
1/2 cup Cold Water
16 tablespoons Jam -- any flavor divided

In a large bowl, cut flour and shortening together (I added all the dry ingredients together then wet) with pastry blender or two butter knives, until completely blended (mixture will resemble crumbs). Add sugar, baking powder, salt, egg, vinegar and cold water. Mix with hands until mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Divide dough into fourths, refrigerating the portions you are not working with yet.

Take first 1/4 of dough and roll out onto a floured surface. Cut into rectangles using a sharp knife. It is helpful to make a template the size you wish your poptarts to be, from cardboard or heavy plastic, so they will be a uniform size. Spread on tbsp. jam on one half of the rectangles, leaving a half inch or so on the edges without jam. Cover with the other half of the rectangles. Crimp edges with a fork. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 12 - 15 minutes or until the pie dough is evenly browned and cooked through. Cool completely and place into zip baggies for storage until you are ready to eat them. Repeat with remaining dough and jam until it is all completed.

Variation: Glaze poptarts with a simple glaze made from powdered sugar, milk and vanilla extract. Be sure to let glaze dry hard before placing poptarts into storage baggies.

Pop-Tarts may be stored up to one week as you would store bread, or frozen for up to 3 months before use.

For the rest of the dough I used the circle cutter/sealer from pampered chef. It made them a little smaller, but it was easier than the rectangles. I cut the circles, put filling on one, covered and then sealed as best I could.

Laundry Soap

I'm posting a different type of recipe today. In order to save money, I looked for a recipe to make my own laundry soap earlier this year. Who doesn't like to save money?

If I were to use Tide, I would spend $13.99 for 52 loads. I'm spending $3.79 for 128 loads of laundry (4 batches of the recipe - 1/4 of the supplies). I bought Mule Team Borax ($2.79), Arm & Hammer Washing Soda ($2.07) and 8 bars Fels Naptha soap ($1.29/ea) for a total of $15.18. For the same number of loads, I can spend $137.75 for Tide or $15.18 and make it myself. I think I'll make my own.

Laundry Soap

1/2C Borax

1/2C Washing Soda

1C Fels Naptha, grated

I use a box grater for the Fels Naptha, but you can use your food processor or other grater. Mix it all together and store in a plastic container. Use 1T (yes, that is 1 tablespoon) of soap in your laundry. I use 1/4C white vinegar for softener and I still use a dryer sheet for static cling in the dryer.

Don't expect bubbles like you get with detergents.

Microwave Warnings

I decided that I would include a few of my failures in cooking just so no one would think I was perfect or anything of the sort.

Just so you know when trying to bake cookies in the microwave, 4 minutes is WAY to long.

The other day I was baking cookies. It got to the last bit of dough and there was enough for maybe 4 cookies. I decided that I would experiment and cook them in the microwave. I put them on a glass plate, and set the cooking time for 5 minutes. I checked the cookies after 2 1/2 minutes, and thought they would take a little longer. So I left the room for just a second. A minute later I smelled them burning. So I ran in the kitchen to stop them. Only to find smoke pouring out of my microwave. I quickly pulled the plate out and ran it outside to cool off. It took a while to air out our house.

It smelled very similar to popcorn burned in the microwave (which I have done also), but nothing like burned cracked wheat. (Which by the way cooks much better when you add water. That smell was horrible. I guess I don't know if it was the burning wheat that smelled so bad, or the plastic Pampered Chef Microwave bowl that melted at the time. I was making Marlin his breakfast, and was in such a hurry that I forgot the water. I think he ate granola that morning.) I guess, because of the sugar, it smelled similar to when Andrew put a bowl of fondant (for cakes) in the microwave for 50 minutes. We found that after about 5. It smelled kind of like burning marshmallow.

So for the most part I learned

1) to pay attention when you bake in the microwave - I think they would have been ok had I taken them out at 2 1/2 minutes.

2) I am prone to stupidity.

3) I will still focus my microwave use on reheating and defrosting. It doesn't smell nearly as bad.

Have fun cooking. I hope you learn from my mistakes, and don't have to put your nose through the trauma of burning food in the microwave.

Cobb Salad w/ Chili-Lime Dressing

I love this salad because everyone in our family will eat it and likes it. I must admit that I scale back on the avocado if it is just us because it is not a favorite in the salad but in small doses, they will eat it.

I've found as we've lived around the country that cobb salads are different every where. There are some basic parts that are standard (i.e., chicken, tomato, bacon & avocado) and the rest is up to the chef.

Salad

10 oz. Romaine lettuce
1 can kidney beans, rinsed
1C shredded cheese (I use Monterey/Colby mix)
1C chopped tomatoes
1/2 lb. chicken, cooked and cubed
1 avocado, peeled and cubed
1/2C chopped red onion
1/3C bacon, crumbled or chopped

Dressing

1 (4 oz.) can chopped green chilies, undrained
2/3C sour cream
1/4C cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
2T lime juice
1/2t pepper
1/3t hot sauce
1/4t salt

For salad, place lettuce in serving bowl. Make columns with remaining ingredients.

For dressing, place ingredients in food processor; blend. Chill until serving.