Curried Chicken (or Turkey) Salad

I genuinely enjoy a good chicken or turkey salad, but this is the first time I have ever been inspired to want to make some for myself. Meredith, a friend of mine made this treat for a baby shower this weekend, and I think I spent more time making trips to salad bowl than I spent with the guest of honor. It's that good.


Curried Chicken/Turkey Salad

In a medium bowl, combine:

• 2 c diced cooked chicken or turkey
• 1/4 c chopped toasted walnuts, almonds, or cashews (Meredith used cashews)
• 3 scallions, chopped
• 2 celery ribs, thinly sliced
• 1 apple, cored, peeled, and coarsely chopped**
• 1/4 c dark or golden raisins**

Mix in a separate bowl:

• 1 T curry powder toasted 30-60 sec in a skillet over low heat with 1T vegetable oil, cooled
• 1/2 c mayonnaise
• 1/2 t lime juice
• 1/2 t honey
• 1/8 t salt
• salt and black pepper to taste

Stir mayo mixture into meat and combine.  Serve on a bed of lettuce leaves.

**Alternatives for the fruit might include water chestnuts, cucumber, red bell pepper, or sweet onion

Flourless Chocolate Cake

I have a roommate right now who makes some pretty awesome food on occasion (hello RM) - and some of these recipes need to be shared because they are just too yummy to keep to myself :)


For instance this Flourless Chocolate Cake. Think of brownies on steroids and you will be pretty close to the mark. And so easy too - she told me it was, but dang! She wasn't kidding!


So here it is - reblogged from her food blog,  the recipe is from a 1997 issue of Gourmet.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

4 oz good bittersweet chocolate (I used a 72% dark chocolate bar, and it was pretty decadent. You could easily go lighter...)

1/2 c real butter

3/4 c sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1 t vanilla (the original recipe does not call for this, but comments on Epicurious recommend it)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Butter an 8-inch round cake pan and line bottom with a round of wax paper; butter paper. In a double-boiler-type setup, melt chocolate with butter, stirring till smooth. Remove from heat. Whisk in sugar. Add eggs, whisk well. Sift in cocoa and whisk till just combined. Pour batter in pan and bake in the middle of the oven 25 minutes, or until top has formed a thin crust. Cool cake in pan on a rack 5 minutes and invert onto a serving plate. 

Then fancy it up as your whims dictate - a chocolate ganache, berries, powdered sugar, whipped cream... so many yummy possibilities.

Ridiculously Easy Apple Cranberry Pie

So, the fact that I am posting this will only serve to emphasize what a lazy cheater I am - and I don't think this even counts as an actual recipe.

However it is really quite delicious, so very simple (but it looks so fancy!) and it makes a great fall back when all of a sudden you find that you have to take a dessert and you don't have the time to do more than throw things together.

• 1 box of Stouffer's Holiday Edition Glazed Apple with Cranberries
• 1 package of refrigerated pie crusts (2 crusts)

Yup. That is all it takes. Defrost the Apple Cranberry mix. Line a pie dish with the first crust, pour filling into crust and lay second crust over the top. Pinch edges together to form a tight seal, cut holes into top of pie crust to vent, and bake according to directions on crust box. You can sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on the top of the crust, or fancy it up any other way you see fit - or just leave it be! You really can't mess this one up!

Snowflakes

This is not so much a recipe, as an idea to try. We put a large decorating tip (star shaped) in a decorating bag, and filled it with our favorite yogurt. Then squeezed (not much squeezing needed) drops of yogurt on a cookie sheet, and place it in the freezer. In about 3-4 hours, you can just use a spatula to pop them right off the cookie sheet. Put the "snowflakes" in a tupperware in your freezer, and proceed to serve 2-3 of those as "dessert". Our resident 4-year old named these, and proudly served them to our dinner guests.

Also, you can use a zip-lock bag and just cut a hole in a bottom corner. Less snowflake-like, but with the savings in clean up time, I'm sure you can devise other names.

Chicken Pasta Carbonara

(adapted from http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2012/05/pasta-carbonara/)

The first time we had carbonara was in San Jose, and I. Loved. It. We tried to duplicate the recipe, and had something that worked for awhile, but it morphed in time (or I did. Don't judge.) and then I found it overly rich. And then I found this recipe, and fell in love with it all over again. Still rich (it's the cream, ya know). But not overpoweringly so. Also, for certain young ones in our lives, we've learned to mix in the chicken and peas and whatnot in after all the sauce, and serve them before that finally mixing. And then they get peas (frozen, because that's the only way to eat it when you are four) and chicken (cut tiny) separately. Thusly increasing odds for consumption. No guarantees, of course. We need to be kept on our toes.

And P.S. we found a local butcher that has bacon to die for. The ends are pretty cheap, too, which works nicely for this meal.

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces, weight Pasta, Any Variety
• 1 chicken breast, cut in strips
• 4 pieces Thick Cut Bacon (diced Small)
• 1/2 whole Medium Onion, Diced Small
• 2 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 3 whole Eggs
• 3/4 cups Finely Grated Parmesan
• 3/4 cups Heavy Cream
• Salt & Plenty Of Black Pepper
• 1/2 cup Peas

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package directions.

While the pasta is cooking, fry the bacon until just barely crisp. Remove from the pan and drain on paper towels. Pour off all of the bacon grease, but don't clean the pan. Return the pan to the stove over medium-low heat and throw in the onions and garlic and chicken. Cook until golden brown. Set aside.

In a bowl, mix together eggs, Parmesan, cream, and salt and pepper until smooth.

When the pasta is done, reserve a cup or two of the pasta water. Drain the pasta and place it in a bowl. While the pasta is still really hot, slowly drizzle in the egg mixture, stirring the pasta the whole time. The sauce will become thick and should coat the pasta. Splash in a little hot pasta water if needed for consistency.

Halfway through After serving the children, add the peas, chicken, bacon, and sauteed onion/garlic. Finish adding the sauce, stirring until it's all combined.

Chicken Enchilada Soup

Chicken Enchilada Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups chicken broth
• 10 (6 inch) corn tortillas, cut into 1/2 inch strips
• 1 cup green enchilada sauce
• 1 (10 oz) can red enchilada sauce
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 4 cooked, boneless/skinless chicken breast halves
• 1 cup half-and-half

Directions:

1. Combine chicken broth and tortilla strips in a large pot. Cook over medium heat until strips soften and broth thickens somewhat.
2. Stir in enchilada sauces and cumin.
3. Stir chicken and half-and-half.
4. Serve with tortilla chips. Optional garnishes also include: diced tomatoes, sour cream, cheese, avocado, jalapeno, etc.

Hot Fudge Sauce

For many long years this has been considered a Top Secret family recipe passed down from my Grandmother. But since my Mum started sharing the secret several years back - I feel absolutely no guilt in posting it to a public forum now. Besides, an Ice Cream Roll wouldn't be complete without it!

In large sauce pan mix together:

4 Tbs. Cocoa

4 Tbs. Flour

2 cups Sugar

Add:

12 oz can evaporated milk 

1 cube Butter/Margarine

1 tsp. Vanilla

Mix well and bring to a boil. Boil 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly. If sauce becomes too thick, add a bit more milk. The sauce stores well in the fridge for long periods of time, but odds are that it won't last that long.

Ice Cream Rolls

Ice Cream Rolls have been a long standing tradition in my family - and have made appearances at weddings, family reunions, caroling parties and birthdays starting long before I was born. And because they are delicious in addition to sentimental, I thought I would share - 'tis the season!

3 Eggs - room temperature, beat on high 4-8 minutes until very thick
3/4 cups Sugar - beat into eggs
1/3 cup Water - blend in on low speed
1 tsp. Vanilla - blend in

(Pre-mixed & well sifted)
1 cup Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 cup Cocoa
Add slowly and gently to egg and sugar mix.

Spread batter gently into a foil lined and greased jelly roll pan. Bake at 375 for 12 minutes and drop out onto dish towel coated with powdered sugar - roll up with the towel and allow to cool.
Unroll.
Using a knife, cut 1/2 inch slices of ice cream (pick your flavor) and cover the roll - this should take about 1/2 a carton of ice cream.
Re-roll, cover with foil, and freeze.
Slice roll, and serve with Hot Fudge Sauce and whipped cream.

Serves 12-15