The Absolute Best.....

Chicken Salad that I have ever had!

Just as I promised in my previous post I'm back to give you the recipe for the awesome Curried Chicken Salad that Ina Garten made on Barefoot Contessa yesterday. It's the best chicken salad ever!! You've got to give it a try. I even made a second batch for the hubby using vegetarian FriChick and he loves it too.

Curried Chicken Wraps

Ingredients

• 3 split chicken breasts, bone in, skin on
• Olive oil
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups good mayo
• 1/3 cup dry white wine (Note: I didn't have any wine so I used a dash or two of apple juice just to thin the mayo and I think the flavor goes great with the rest of the ingredients)
• 1/4 cup chutney ( recommended: Major Gray's) **I found this at Lowes Food - on the aisle with the pickles/chow-chow/etc. It's made with mango.
• 3 TBLS curry powder
• 1 cup diced celery
• 1/4 cup chopped scallions, white and green parts
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1 cup whole roasted, salted cashews, chopped
• 6 tortillas ( plain flour, whole wheat, roasted red pepper or spinach would be good )

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Place chicken breasts on a sheet pan and rub the skin with olive oil. (Note: cover pan with a sheet of heavy duty foil and clean up is easy)
• Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is cooked thoroughly. Set aside until cool enough to handle. Remove the meat from the bones, shredding with a fork. Discard skin and bones.
• For the dressing....combine mayo, wine, chutney, curry powder and 1 1/2 tsp. salt in the bowl of a food processor. Process until smooth. You can just use a whisk, I did!
• Combine the chicken with enough dressing to moisten well. Add the celery, scallions and raisins and mix well. Refrigerate for a few hours to allow the flavors to blend. Add the cashews.

Fill the center of a tortilla with the chicken mixture and roll like a buritto. Cut in half diagonally and serve. The chicken salad would also be great with crackers or the little puff pastry shells you can find in the frozen food section at the grocery.

You can certainly use low fat mayo with this recipe as all the other flavors would really perk it up. I'll definitely be making this again. It's really yummy!

P B & J

UPDATED!!!!

I used an 8 inch square cake pan because that's what I had and baked them in two batches. The first batch, I followed the directions completely using the parchment paper in the pan. The jam oozes out a little and the parchment paper stuck to the edges a little. The parchment paper definitely makes it easy to lift the bars out of the pan. BUT I didn't like the jam sticking so the 2nd pan that I just now took out of the oven, I didn't use the paper. I just greased and floured my non stick pan and they did much better. I baked the first pan this afternoon while I was home from work on a split shift and put the rest of the dough in the fridge. When I got home tonight I baked the 2nd batch. I think the dough was easier to work with after being refrigerated. I used Smuckers Red Raspberry jam. It's really good and I think a lot of other flavors would be too. Grape or Strawberry or even apple would work. Give em a try. Really easy and really tasty!

Original Post:

Working a split shift today. I am home for a few hours and will go back and work tonight. I wanted to make a treat this week for the hubby to share with his buddies at work. I might even share with a few of mine. I had been thinking about something I could make. Yesterday while watching the Food Network Ina Garten made these fabulous looking bars. I hit up the grocery today for all the ingredients and the bars are in the oven as I type. Thought I would share the recipe with you all. It's an all time favorite combo of Peanut Butter & Jelly made into cookie bars......Yummy

Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars

Ingredients

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

2 extra large eggs

2 cups (18 ounces) creamy peanut butter

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups (18 ounces) raspberry jam or other jam

2/3 cups salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Directions

Preheat over to 350 degrees F.

Grease a 9 x 13 x 2 inch cake pan. Line it with parchment paper, then grease and flour the pan

Cream the butter and sugar on medium speed with electric mixer until light yellow. Add the vanilla, eggs and peanut butter and mix until all ingredients are combined.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture. Mix just until combined.

Spread 2/3 of the dough into the prepared pan and spread over the bottom. I used my hands to pat it out. Spread the jam evenly over the dough. Drop small globs of the remaining dough evenly over the jam. Don't worry if all the jam isn't covered; it will spread in the oven. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and cut into squares.

The dough tasted great and the bars are cooking up nicely. I think they are going to be a hit.

On the same show Ina made Curried Chicken Wraps. I got the ingredients for those also and I will share that recipe with you later today or tomorrow.

What's cooking in your kitchen???

What a Lazy Day!

I wanted to go to the pool today but shortly after I got up it started to get partly cloudy and who wants to go to the pool only to have it come up a storm and have to pack it all up and take it back home. I told the hubby it would make things much simpler if we just installed our own pool. We tossed around the idea last summer and never did anything about it. We're tossing it again, but I don't know if we'll do anything about it this summer either. It's terribly hot here in NC today. In the 90's and it's humid. Plus my face is still peeling from last weekend at the pool. I thought I had a good enough tan to not get burned but I was wrong. My face looks nasty. It's flaking this dark brown skin and even using exfoliating gloves daily is not helping much. Sooooooo me and the pups have been lounging around the house today.....eating cheez-its and reading blogs and facebooking. Well, me, not the pups, you know.

What are your plans for the 4th of July? I will be off of work on Friday July 3rd. My sister is hosting our annual 4th of July cookout at her house on Saturday evening. The Isaacs are in NC on Saturday but it's a good long drive. I think we may head up to Bedford, VA on Sunday the 5th to see them. It's only about 140 miles, so not a bad road trip.

I am looking forward to my move at work. The orders were put in to IT on Friday to move me so I should be moved on Monday or Tuesday. I will have a nice private office. I'm trying to get a few decorating items together to dress it up. It's a large room and it will be difficult to make it cozy. I spend so much time at work, I want it to be a nice place to spend 8 hours or more a day. I will try to take a few pictures when I get moved in.

What are your thoughts about the death of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson this week? I loved Farrah in Charlie's Angels and I have loved the movies she's done like Extremeties and The Burning Bed. I remember the hair and the beautiful smile and she always had a killer tan. I know that Michael Jackson was weird and I certainly don't agree with the lifestyle that he chose but I did enjoy his music. I grew up with Michael. He was only a few years older than me. No matter what his lifestyle turned out to be his was still an amazing story from that cute little kid to the icon that he became. One of my favorite songs of his remains Billie Jean. I must not be the only one that likes it as the video has received over 14 million views on You Tube. And lastly it's not my duty to judge Michael or anyone else. HE will take care of that.

I hope each of you has a great week. If you're vacationing or working or just staying around the house....make it a great week and be safe.

Blessings,

RIP

June 25, 2009

RIP Farrah Fawcett & Michael Jackson

Two in One

This is a two in one post......

First of all my Director at work asked to meet with me today. She sent me a meeting invite last week and I had no idea why I was being met with. You know how that is....had to think about it and wonder and worry a little over the weekend. The meeting went very well and I found out that I'm actually being moved again! This will be my 5th move in 14 months. This time I'm moving to a different building all together and I'll be taking on some new duties. I'm really excited about it and looking forward to it. I'll be making the move next week. I love to learn new things and I'm not afraid of change at all.

Secondly I let you in on a little travel news this morning. Well, sort of. I didn't have all the details and I had not asked off at work so I hated to say much until I cleared it all. I've been invited to go on the Gaither cruise in August to Alaska. I've never been on a cruise and I've never been to Alaska so I'm really excited. Have you been? Got any helpful info for me? I will take all I can get. I do know that the average temperature in August is in the 30's and 40's so it will not be a sunbathing cruise. You'll probably be hearing about this a lot over the next two months so just tune me out if you get tired of it.

Back to my Lifetime movie now and my bag of Orange Milanos. No, they aren't healthy, but they are soooooo good.

The Voice of Publishers Clearing House......

Ed McMahon passed way early this morning. The voice of "Heeeeeere's Johnny" and the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes. RIP in Mr. McMahon.

Travel Plans in my future.......

I just found out yesterday that I'm probably going on a long trip. More details to come.......Hint - there is water involved : > )

Yum - a cool summer recipe

I'm joining my friend and cuz Christina over at we-5-kings for Friday Foodie. Those of you that know me know that I'm all about some good food. Christina's green pea salad looks so good. That recipe made me think about this one and I decided I'd share with you all.

Corn Salad

2 cans of your favorite Niblet corn - mix it up with yellow and white corn for prettiness! - Drain it!

1/2 of a medium green pepper - diced fine

1/4 cup onion - diced fine - red, yellow, white or green will work just fine

1 small ripe tomato diced

1 small ripe avocado diced

1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

2 hard boiled eggs - diced

salt & pepper to taste

enough mayonnaise to thoroughly coat everything. I don't measure it. Start with 2 tablespoons and add more if needed.

dash of yellow mustard

Mix everything well and chill for at least 2 hours before serving. Enjoy!!

Praying for Stellan

I'm sure you've all heard by now that MckMama has taken Stellan back to the hospital. Join me in praying that they get his SVT problem under control quickly. That sweet child has sure had a rocky adventure so far. I pray the Dr can find a solution soon. Bless his heart!

I'm back

I started this post 3 days ago. I think I finally have it ready to post. I hope it makes sense. I've rambled I know.

I took a hiatus from blogging. Well, not really, because I've been blogging on The Mommy's blog and The Isaacs blog, but, you know, a hiatus from my own blog. I guess I just really haven't had anything to say that I thought would be interesting enough to write about. I've been in a funk of sorts. Hopefully I'm on my way out. Sometimes life just beats a person down and it's hard to see the sun through the rain. You know what I mean, right?

Since I've been gone I've made two trips to the Smoky Mtns. of TN, a trip to the hills of KY and I've gained a new family member....my beautifuly new baby niece Ellie Grace. Memorial Day weekend my friend Shelly and I drove to Gatlinburg and spent the weekend working at Gaither Family Fest for the Isaacs. We had a grand time. We heard lots of great music, had some fantastic food and spent hours laughing and just enjoying ourselves. This is our 3rd trip together and each year we have a good time. This year we didn't walk ourselves to death like we have the years before. We usually come back so tired that we need a week off to recover.

The Isaacs singing at Family Fest

in Gatlinburg

Last weekend the hubby and I made a trip to Berea, KY. We had the best time. I wrote about it HERE. I'm still thinking about it. It just amazes me that people still live like Aunt Edna with no electricity or running water. She wants for nothing though and she seemed to be the happiest person I've run across in a long time.

Edna Isaacs showing us around the farm

My niece The Mommy had asked me a few weeks ago if I would like to be in the delivery room with her when she birthed her baby girl. Of course I didn't have to think twice about that one. I have been with each of my great nieces and nephews except for The Muffin. I wasn't invited that time and my feelings were injured. No, not really, it just didn't work out that I could attend. So I was really excited to be invited this time and I told my Director that I wanted to be there and I might just have to run out at some unexpected moment from work so as not to miss the event. The Mommy was planning to have the baby in a nearby county that would take me at least an hour to get there so I was kind of glad when she called me on Thursday to say they were going to induce her on Friday. My sister and The Muffin and I got to the hospital around 9:00 on Friday morning and we found her walking the halls in her hospital gown and dragging her IV pole behind her. She walked and walked and walked some more. We got settled in her room and spent the day there. They would come in every once in a while to check her and to get the baby monitor positioned on her belly where they could monitor the baby properly and we would wait some more. By 4:30 she just wasn't making any progress and they couldn't up the dosage of pitocin anymore so they came in and told us it didn't look like there would be a baby that day after all. I was so disappointed! I can't even tell you how much. You see we had planned this trip to KY and we were leaving very early on Saturday morning so if there wouldn't be a baby that day then that meant I wasn't going to be present for the event. I could hardly believe what they were telling us. They said that they wanted to stop the pitocin and let her uterus have a rest and would start it again early on Saturday morning. She wanted so much to have the baby without having a c-section and they said this would be the best chance to make that happen. So my sister and I packed up the camera and the laptop and the Muffin's toys and books and we headed home. We hardly said a word on the long drive home. We were tired and it was as if someone had let the air out of a balloon. Anyway, The Mommy ended up not having the little girl til 10:30 on Saturday night. I was getting so worried. I had text'd with them all most of the day and they kept me updated with what was happening (or not happening) and at 10:00 that night I was starting to get worried. I couldn't believe she had not had the baby yet. She gave birth to a beautiful little girl. She gets more beautiful with every photo I see of her and I've visited with her twice now and she is changing daily. Her name is Ellie Grace.

Sweet Baby Ellie

Work has been crazy for the last few weeks. I work on a team of about 5 people and somehow I became the "fill in/do their job when they're out" person. For the last 6 to 8 weeks we have not had a full team but maybe 2 days. There has been medical problems, deaths, vacations, you name it! Hopefully next week we'll have a full team again and things will get back to normal. Whatever normal is!

It sounds like we're going to have 95 degree weather coming up this weekend. Sigh! The rain last night was so hard that a lot of our mulch is on our sidewalk this morning. I think we've had enough rain to last a while. Not that what I think matters though! No huge plans this weekend except a short trip to Weaverville, near Asheville. For an Isaacs concert, what else! I wish a good weekend for each of you! Keep blogging. I sneak in and read your posts every single day.

Sending love your way........