Domesticated

Since I don't work, and we all know how leisurely being a SAH mom is, I've just had oodles of free time. Rather than devote my hours to Charitable Work (which would require leaving the home and carting Bella around), I have been cooking more.

Recently my sister moved to Virginia to take a new job. We threw a luncheon for her, and I made egg salad, chicken salad, white chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin flan, and banana pudding. Since they were such hits, I thought I'd share some of the recipes. At least the ones I didn't get off the back of a package.

So here, first, is the Chicken Salad.

2 whole rotisserie chickens
1/2 yellow pepper, chopped
about 2/3 cup craisins, chopped
1/2 cup chopped almonds (I bought sliced ones and threw them in the food processor)
about 1 tbs miracle whip
about 1 1/2 onion powder
pepper
1 tsp basil
2 tsp garlic salt


peel all the meat you can off one whole chicken and half of the other. Cut chicken into bite sized pieces. You can also use a food processor if you want to speed the process; I mixed it up. A lot of people prefer the chicken to be chunky, so cutting by hand is better in that case. Mix in all the ingredients and stir. Add more of the seasonings to taste if you like. Refrigerate at least one hour.

Of course this can work by itself, on top of lettuce, or on any type of crackers of bread, but I liked it best on thinly sliced pumpernickel bread. You can use Danish Style or the darker Westphalian style. I recommend Rubschaler brand. It's just so...hearty teatime.

Egg Salad

15 hard-boiled eggs.
1 1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp chili powder
3 stalks celery
1 tbs miracle whip

Chop up eggs and celery, Mix everything together. Add more of the spices as desired. Refrigerate at least one hour. This also tasted great on the smaller rye cocktail breads, as well as flatbread crackers.

Also, to get the best hard-boiled eggs, you boil them for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat, cover and let sit for 15 minutes. I learned that from my parents and it did make a difference in both appearance and ease of chopping.

And that's the salad post. Next time, I'll type up the desserts, my niece is clamoring for more raisins and the timer's about to go off on my pumpkin cookies.