Strawberry Spinach Salad

This is one of my favorite salads!

Dressing:
1/4 cup supar or equivalent
/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup cooking oil
1 Tblsp poppy seeds
1/4 tsp paprika

Salad:
2 pints fresh strawberries
9 ounces baby spinach

Instructions:
Place all dressing ingredients in jar with lid or cruet with stopper and shake until thoroughly blended and mixture thickens slightly. Chill at least l hour before serving.
Rinse strawberries then hull and slice. Combine spinach and strawberries in large serving bowl. Pour dressing over mixture and toss well. Serve immediately.
Makes 8 servings.

Strawberry Angel Food Delight

I've been making this dessert for many years. It is one of Jim’s favorites!!  It comes together easily once you have your angel food cake done. Of course, you can always take a short cut and buy one ready-made at the store. I like to make mine from scratch and will share that recipe at a later time. (If you do make one from scratch, you won't be able to use the whole thing. Scratch angel food cakes are so much more dense then store bought that it will be more cake then you need in this recipe.)

Strawberry Angel Food Delight

1 angel food cake, cut into small chunks
1 can Eagle Brand condensed milk
¼ cup lemon juice
12 oz whipped topping
16 – 20 oz frozen strawberries in juice, thawed
1 cup chopped nuts

Beat sweetened condensed milk with lemon juice. Fold in whipped topping. Add strawberries and nuts. Pour mixture over cake chunks and mix until pieces are coated with mixture. Pour into a 9 X 13 or large bowl and chill until ready to serve.

Note: the calories/fat can be easily reduced by using low-fat or light products. It will still be delicious.

Red White & Blue Trifle

Is this not a beautiful dessert?  This is my own creation and it is as yummy as it is pretty!  The berries have been absolutely delicious this year.  The blueberries are big and juicy and the strawberries...what can I say!    Last year I made this for the first time and did it a little differently.  But this year's variation was the clear winner for taste.  It has moved into the "must haves" on our 4th of July party menu.

Red, White & Blue Trifle

Ingredients

Angel Food Cake (ready made, boxed and made at home, or made from scratch) - tear into bite size pieces
1 pound of blueberries - cleaned, stems removed
2 pounds of strawberries - cleaned, hulls removed, sliced
Cream cheese mixture - an 8 oz cream cheese, softened; mix with 1 cup powdered sugar, and an 8 oz container of cool whip, thawed

You are going to have to divide everything into thirds.  Layer the cake, cream cheese, berries, repeat.  I like to save back some of the strawberries for the top and instead of slices I cut them in half.  You can get as creative as you want on the top.

To make sure the berries are easily seen be sure to slide some blueberries and strawberries down the sides of the bowl as you layer.

Such a wonderful dessert.  Light, refreshing, and full of flavor.  Enjoy!!!

Grilled Chicken followed by Chicken Salad

Welcome to my new food blog! I'm anxious to get started documenting my trials, successes and periodic errors in the kitchen. I love to cook/bake. I know many people like to do one or the other - but I enjoy both. Alot! For many years I've been recording what I cook/bake with side notes of what I changed, liked or to "never make again". I've referred back to these notes MANY times! I"ll share more about that in a future post. I also hope to eventually use pictures in my blog, but I have to confer with my blogging mentor on how to do that!


This past weekend I decided to make some grilled chicken, potato salad and corn on the cob for our Sunday dinner. In preparation, on Saturday, I put 7 huge chicken breasts in Italian dressing in a ziploc bag. I should mention that I was making more chicken then we needed for dinner with the intent of making chicken salad out of it. I also boiled 5# of new potatoes Saturday night so they would have time to chill before making my salad.


On Sunday, I got going on my potato salad. The recipe is from my cousin Deb (hence the name I've given it). It has no eggs in it and is absolutely wonderful. After having it at a dinner party at her house last year I had to have the recipe! I've made it many times since - YUM!


Deb's Red Potato Salad


Ingredients

5# red potatoes with skins left on (I prefer using the small new potato variety)
1# bacon, cut up into small pieces, fried and drained on paper towel (I like the ready-to-use Hormel bacon pieces in a bag- no frying for me!)
3 scallions/bunches of green onions chopped fine (I use green onions)
Approx 1/4 to 1/3 cup fresh chives, snipped into small pieces (spend the money and buy the fresh chives if you don't have them - it makes the salad!)
1 cup (more or less) real mayonnaise (I use Hellman's Light)


Cut up the potatoes with the skins on, add bacon, scallions/green onions, chives and mix with mayonnaise. Chill and enjoy!


This salad will last up to a week in the refrigerator


Now the whole reason this meal was planned for Sunday dinner was so I could have chicken salad to enjoy during the week. Looking back I now wish I had NOT used the grilled chicken. In the past I've always made this salad with chicken that I boiled specifically for that purpose. The grilled chicken, that was marinated in Italian dressing made the finished salad not taste as great as it has in the past. Oh well, live and learn! I'm not saying we didn't eat it, because we did! And we enjoyed it, but it just wasn't up to my expectations. I don't know where I got the original recipe as I have no source info on my sheet. This recipe has two of my favorite things in it - grapes and nuts. Here is the recipe with my side comments:


Chicken Salad with Grapes


Ingredients
4-5 cups of cooked chicken (could be boiled and then cut up into bite sized pieces or cut up and then cooked quickly in a skillet) and chilled
1/2 cup of chopped onion, scallion or green onions
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I like to use almonds - slivered or sliced)
1 cup seedless grapes - halved (green or purple - I prefer green)
1 cup mayonnaise (I use Hellman's Light)
1 tbsp fresh parsley (I like to use fresh dillweed)


In a mixing bowl, stir the chilled, cut up chicken with the onion, celery, nuts and grapes.


In a smaller bowl, blend the mayonnaise and seasonings together. Adjust as needed and then mix into chicken mixture.


Yield: enough fililng for 8 sandwiches

All of the amounts are able to be increased according to taste - more grapes - more nuts, feel free to change it up!


Our vegetable for the meal was sweet corn on the cob. I boiled the corn on the stove and it was absolutely wonderful - the peaches n' cream variety (or some say milk n' honey). I melted some of the "healthy" margarine and mixed in some Ms. Dash Garlic Herb Blend for slathering on the corn. Butter was available as well as salt and pepper.


Rounding out the Sunday meal was fresh strawberries over angel food cake with cool whip. I make my angel food cake from scratch (which I will share at a later time) and because it is a much larger cake then you can buy in the store I oftentimes have some left over. I had a couple quarter cakes in the freezer which I had thawed out. I cleaned the quart of strawberries that I had purchased, cutting them up into small pieces. I then sprinkled a tablespoon or two of sugar over them and then took my potato masher and gave the mixture several good smashes. I let it sit in the fridge for a few hours and served the strawberries over slices of angel food cake with a dollop of cool whip on top! A great ending to a great meal!