Recipe of the Week: Mom & Daughter's Hot Chicken Salad

I'd love to take credit for this recipe, but I was simply smart enough to snag it from my mom before I got married.  It makes a great dinner entree, or a savory meat dish for a brunch.  When I take it to our annual "Salad Night" for Secret Sisters, I always come home with an empty dish.  I have modified it slightly (my modifications are noted below.)

Hot Chicken Salad

Mom's original ingredients:
1 pound (approximately 2 cups) diced cooked chicken
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup finely diced onion
1 cup sliced celery
1/2 cup toasted almonds and chopped (I prefer slivered almonds, untoasted)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, set aside
Crushed potato chips for garnish (sour cream and onion work particularly well)

Terry's modifications:
1) Substitute diced green onion (with some green tops) for the onion - adjust quantity to taste
2) Increase chicken to 3 generous cups
3) Reduce mayonnaise to 3/4 cup.  Add 1/2 cup sour cream and 4 ounces cream cheese (softened) - blend with mayonnaise before adding other ingredients.

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except 1/2 cup cheese and potato chips.  Pour into a shallow baking dish; top with potato chips and remaining cheese.  Bake at 350 about 25-30 minutes or until bubbling hot.

Makes 6-8 servings.

As you can see, this recipe is not exactly heart-healthy.  If you're watching your calories or fat grams, low-fat ingredients may be substituted (mayonnaise, sour cream, cream cheese and shredded cheese) - experiment to find the right balance of flavor and texture vs. calories and fat.

This makes a great summer dinner with a fresh tossed salad and some bread, although someone may point out the irony of serving a salad-with-a-salad.

This Week in PREview

The week is off to a great start:  we had guests for dinner last night (minus one; she was missed, but that just means we need to get back together soon when she can join us, right?)  Extra nice - most of the basic housework is done for a few days...at least as soon as the laundry is all put away.

This cheesecake recipe made a very good cake, but my crust needs work. Maybe next time I'll leave enough time to do this sponge cake crust.  (I also need a new springform pan.  Mine has permanently "sprung" open.  I have two larger sizes, but honestly - who needs a 16" or 18" cheesecake?  That's HUGE!)

The A/C unit is working better now after they added 2 pounds of refrigerant this morning.   Let's hope the suspected "slow leak" of refrigerant is truly   "s   l   o   w  w  w."

Today is the day to use up the last of the hamburger buns.  Croutons, breadcrumbs and enough cubes for a breakfast casserole, here we come!

Tomorrow's a typical busy Tuesday:  early morning run, swing by the Farmers' Market on my way home, head to our last regular season swim meet in the afternoon, and prayers and thoughts all day with my mother-in-law as she goes on her next doctor's appointment.  (No surgery date scheduled yet.)

This is definitely a week of trying new recipes:

1. Another stab at salmon; this time it's Pecan Crusted Salmon - I'm not a huge tarragon fan, so I may look at a few other recipes to get a different mix of flavors.
2. Hot German Potato Salad is on the menu for this week.   I bought some golden fingerling potatoes, so now I just need to settle on the next recipe to try, and fire up the grill for some brats to accompany this latest culinary adventure.  
3. Manicotti.  In 27 years of cooking, I have never (as best I can recall) made manicotti.  I don't know why - it's not a huge stretch from lasagna to manicotti, but I've just never thought to try it.  That changes this week. I think the vodka cream sauce will be particularly yummy.
4. Summer Squash Kabobs - another new one, or at least a twist on the old summer standard.  Balsamic vinegar, summer squash, bell peppers, and skewers. What's not to like?

Slightly cooler temps may make it more pleasant to get outdoors after today.  Which is good, considering I spent all of about two minutes in the garden last week - the vegetables got short shrift with my attention focused on the roses and daylily bed.  It's definitely time to get the veggies weeded, watered and the tomatoes tied up.

The week wraps up with a holiday weekend - yay for US and God Bless the USA!  That means it's time to drag out the White Mountain freezer and whip up some homemade ice cream.  If you're in the neighborhood, you should stop by.  A little help with the cranking will earn you a bowlful of sweet creamy rewards!

Rose pruning 101

Question: "When is the best time to prune a rugosa rose?"

Answer:  "Anytime the pruners or loppers are in your hands." (Just don't prune immediately before first frost, or you'll risk new growth being instantly killed.)

This was my poor overgrown 'Sarah Van Fleet' before:

And this was her after: 

I quickly discovered that bees (yay) Japanese beetles (yuck) and yellow jackets (yikes!) all like her, so as I lopped and pulled off each branch, I had to contend with her extremely sharp thorns, and also with the swarm of flying things that came out with the branch.  Fortunately I suffered no stings and only one gash on the thigh for my efforts.

There's also a lesson in there about heeding the available horticultural information before planting.  She's a big girl and most references say she gets at least 4-8 feet tall and a good 4-5 feet wide.  I put her in a position where she can only get about 3 feet wide (We were easing around her to get into the garden.)  And for aesthetics, I'd rather keep her at a 3-4 height.

Fortunately, rugosas have two things going for them:
1) they can be severely pruned just about any time of year; and
2) they are disease resistant, so her crowded quarters had not led to a nasty outbreak of blackspot.

Lesson learned:  From now on, I will prune her each spring on to avoid  having to do that again.

The worst part of the exercise was the extreme humidity.  My clothes were DRENCHED in minutes, even though the work was not exactly strenuous.  After I got the rose trimmings hauled off to the burn pile, I worked on my daylily bed for a bit, where at least it was shady.  That bed is now in a little better shape (I am not a fastidious gardener, sad to say), and some Crocosmia bulbs have been planted among the daylilies.  I don't know if they'll bloom yet this year, since they were planted so late - but we'll see.

A late afternoon storm blew in and knocked out power to almost all of the 'boro.  There are 25 stoplights between here and Oakland High School, where the daughter was swimming before the storm.  My fellow 'boro residents have no idea how to proceed through an intersection without a functioning traffic light, so it was a lesson in frustration.  At least it was temporary - by the time we headed for home the lights were back on.