Salsa Chicken and Pasta Salad

I didn't get a pretty picture, but hey, 

at least I got one.

It was delicious. 

The only problem I had was the chef

who *tweeked* the recipe said to switch

chipotle chili powder for the regular

that the recipe calls for.

The chipotle was a good call, it has a smokey flavor

that plain chili powder just doesn't have. 

He neglected to adjust the amount of 

chili powder to take into account

the excessively hotter heat 

from the chipotle.

 I'll adjust that here.

Salsa Chicken Pasta Salad

2 cups cooked pasta

1 onion, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped

6 ounces sliced black olives

3 tomatoes, diced

2 cups chicken breast, chopped

Feel free to add in or take out any

vegetables.

The dressing:

1/4 cup fresh cilantro 

(I didn't have any and it was still great)

1 lime, juiced

1/3 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp. garlic salt

1 tsp. chipotle chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 cup mayo

(I went light on the mayo)

Mix it all together and enjoy!

Curry Chicken Pasta Salad

I had this way cool pasta

and needed something to do with it.

I also had some cooked chicken breasts and time.
So scouring the internet I devised
this little concoction:

Most curry dishes have you add chutney or raisins
or some other sweet component,
I didn't have either but I had some apricot preserves.

I also didn't have any curry powder
but was pretty certain Indra had told me years ago
that curry powder was a misnomer,
there is no ONE curry powder.
Every cook has his or her own blend.

To the internet!

And here you have my creation!

The salad is made up of:
slivered almonds
diced celery
peas
pasta
diced chicken.

The dressing is:
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup sour  cream
1/4 cup apricot preserves
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

The curry powder:
1 tablespoon turmeric
3 bay leaves
2 tablespoons coriander
1 tablespoon cumin seed
2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 whole clove.

You toss this all in a dry skillet
over medium heat and
toast them for 5-10 minutes and then grind it all.

The most surprising part isn't that this turned out great.
The most surprising part is that I
didn't have curry powder
yet had that preceding list of spices!

BBQ Chicken Quinoa Salad

Sooo good!

And so easy.

I used the breast of a 

rotisserie chicken that I shredded,

a cup of quinoa,

and then added

black beans,

corn,

jicama,

avocado,

green onions, 

and cilantro.

Toss it all with some BBQ sauce, 

top with a little shredded cheese

and there you have a fantastic dinner.

This one will be going to the top of our 

summer dinner rotation.

Grilled Potato Salad

This was really good. 

Think German potato salad meets American,

and they get along!

Except they'll give you a heart attack.

This came from Food Network magazine.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/grilled-potato-salad-recipe/index.html

You boil the potatoes and then coat

them in a really flavorful mayonnaise concoction.

It would be good enough there but then

you grill the potatoes

(yes, mayo coating and all)

and then toss in a bacon vinaigrette!

So good!

My deviations:

I cut the potatoes in 1.5 inch

(approximately)

discs,

I used extra bacon 

(of course)

and used cilantro instead of parsley

and yukon gold instead of red potatoes

(they're what I had.)

I wouldn't make this every day but 

I will make it 

again!

Can You Do It?

Yes, you can!

I am loving my Avocado Chimichurri these days.

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/10720

I am certain there is nothing that couldn't benefit from having this added to it.

Here I put it on top of a smear of roasted red pepper hummus

on a toasted baguette. 

Last Friday I had the bright idea to swap basil for the cilantro.

It was great!

I wound up with some left over and was wondering what 

to do with it when I caught this recipe from Giada.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/linguine-with-avocado-and-arugula-pesto-recipe/index.html

Pretty much everything that is in the chimichurri is in this

with the addition of arugula which I happened

to have some of getting ready to wilt away in the fridge.

So I asked myself, 

Can you do it?

YES!

You can.

Smiley does it again. 

I'm gonna have to start showing her more respect at some point.

Chicken Avocado Salad

For a girl who worked today, I sure did get in some 

tasty cooking :o)

I didn't go in till noon so I left one 

Ahhhmazing sandwich

on the table for my Honey's lunch.

That's a chicken salad made with avocado.

But the thing is, the avocado isn't diced up in it, 

it's smashed up in it so it actually becomes part of the

dressing. 

I did about 1 tablespoon of mayo and 1 tablespoon of sour cream. 

Turns out sour cream has way less sodium than mayo.

Who knew?

That along with 1 avocado makes enough saucy stuff

to create a creamy base for the salad. 

I threw in some celery and red onion for crunch

and then some cilantro and red pepper. 

Oh, and a hit of lime juice just to keep the avocado from

turning funky colors on me. 

I got this brainstorm from an episode of

Diner, Drive ins and Dives.

Cable has earned its keep once again. 

Number 200!!!!!

WHOOT! WHOOT!

Wasn't even aware of it!

(200th post, that is)

In honor of which there will be a fantastic giveaway!

A giveaway of gargantuan proportions!

A giveaway to end all giveaways!!!!

Yeah, no, actually just a 

Whoot, Whoot.

Oh, and a new post :o)

About an Asian Sweet Potato Salad that I don't need to make again.

And now looking at it, I can't remember what intrigued me about it to begin with.

Well, except for that I have been interested in finding a 

potato salad that uses sweet potatoes as opposed to white potatoes.

It's from Tyler Florence and the one good take away

from the experience was his reiterating to be careful

not to over cook the potatoes.

"We are making potato salad, not mashed potatoes."

Good point.

I have been known to cook my potatoes to within an inch of their lives.

Thank you Tyler, I will take your advice. 

You, however, may keep your 

Asian Sweet Potato Salad with Cucumbers, Dates and Arugula.

Meantime, Honey and I are devising

 our own recipe for 

Grilled Sweet Potato Salad. 

It's better already, way shorter title.

Oh, and we found out we like arugula.

Once again, thank you Tyler. 

It Doesn't Have A Name

I don't know what you would call this:

It's a combination of this stuff:

And then  I did this with it:

And it was delicious.

What would you call it?

Thai-Style Chicken Salad

I seem to be on an international bend at the moment.

In my never ending quest to find different things to do to a chicken

breast, I have stumbled upon this little gem.

Have I mentioned that I love

America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated?

And does any one get the connection between the two?

And why aren't they just one entity?

And where does Cook's Country figure in?

I digress....

This was really good. I served it over a bed of quinoa.

Sliced heirloom tomato on the side.

I didn't happen to have a cucumber but, go figure, I had a zucchini.

Other than that I stuck pretty close to the recipe as written.

This was one of those times that the frozen ginger

and the lime ice cubes came in handy.

It's the best when I can put together a recipe without

having to run to the grocery store.

The greeter at Meijer kinda looks at me funny sometimes.

One of the greeters is kinda grumpy.

That's a contradiction, don't you think?

It appears I'm having a difficult time staying on task.

I'll post the recipe in the pages and end for now before I take

you to the next weird place my mind is headed.

You're welcome :o)

Watermelon-Cucumber Salad

Hello Food Network Magazine!

I pulled this from the June issue. It has been waiting in my

"experiment" binder for someone to say the magic words.

"Do you need some guinea pigs?"

Diabolical laugh *ahhahhhahha*

It was really good. It seemed so off the wall that

I figured it had potential.

Everyone really enjoyed it and here are my observations/tips:

Watermelon picking out:

It should have a flat side, shows it's been sitting and growing undisturbed for a while

and it should be heavy for it's size. Yeah, that's a judgement call.

Recipe calls for 1/2 an onion that you have soaked in water

to take a bit of the edge off it. But once I put it in the bowl,

that was all I could smell so I pulled a bunch out.

Grabbed some fresh mint at the farmers market.

One of our dining companions could detect the taste of dill!

We are pretty sure that mint was grown by some dill.

Lesson: know the pedigree of your produce :o)

Oh, and this recipe is written how I think we should all

learn to use recipes, not much by way of exact amounts.

You like something? Put lots of it in.

Not too crazy about other things? Go light.

And, surprisingly, it was good the next day.

Huh!