Chicken Salad and Cheesy Biscuits

Whew! All that social-ness can be exhausting.

Ok, really it was fun, but time for some updates.

1. Chicken and Grape Salad
It was a big hit at the work potluck. I actually had a coworker insist that I email her the recipe. My first thought was "Is it weird to just give you the link to my blog?" and my second thought was "Which version of the recipe do you actually want?" because of course, I modified.

This comes from my "Life Tastes Good Again" cookbook, but here it is with my modifications.
3 cups cooked chicken cut in cubes
2 1/2 cups grapes cut in half
2 cups celery
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tbs curry powder
3 tbs mango salsa (or more to taste. I found myself really wanting a little kick, so I kept adding more. I used Mrs. Renfro's Mango Habanero Salsa.)
1/4 tsp salt
spinach
slivered almonds

In a large bowl, toss together the chicken, grapes, and celery.
In a smaller bowl, mix the sour cream, milk, curry powder salsa, and salt. Pour this over the chicken mix and stir until coated.
At this point the salad can be stored in the fridge.

The day after I decided to eat the leftovers for lunch, and I filled my bowl with spinach and tossed a serving of the chicken salad on top. It was fabulous and I decided what would make it absolutely perfect is some slivered almonds sprinkled on top, so I did that too. I've added spinach and slivered almonds as serving suggestions. Modify as you wish!

2. Cheesy Garlic Biscuits
Last night I had a group of women over for dinner. My original plan, as I mentioned in my last post, was Butternut Squash Chili and cornbread. First lesson - acorn squash is WAY harder to peel than butternut squash. Second lesson - other people won't eat squash. (Yeah, I know, they probably say I am a super picky eater. Plus I'm weird).

I had planned on cornbread, but then I saw this post on Sunday morning: Garlic Cheese Biscuits at Gluten-Free Easily. I actually had all the ingredients and Kim told me they sounded way better than cornbread, so I followed her advice and made them.

The recipe made two dozen. They were completely gone. The crumbs too. (And that is why there are no pictures).

I did get to eat a few, and these are just like the Chebe brand cheese bread mix. And they are good.

A few modifications:
1. I used Bob's Red Mill All-purpose Gluten Free flour. I was worried it would be too heavy, but it wasn't.
2. I froze the butter and grated it. Super easy.
3. I just put the garlic into the batter.
4. I used a "heaping" cup of cheese.

Menu Plan
I am leaving on Thursday to go home for Christmas (so excited!) So the entire menu plan for the week is to clean out the fridge. I still have leftovers of the rice and peas risotto and I have some veggies and an acorn squash that need to be finished up. Fortunately I was able to just freeze the leftover chili, so it will last for a good long time.

Menu Plan

This weekend was my first foray into making my own stock. Good news: it made the house smell good. Bad news: when I tasted it, it burnt my tongue and tasted like water. It will obviously take some work to get the seasonings proportioned right.

Menu plan
Rice and Peas Risotto (already made and taken to an "event")
Apple Cinnamon Raisin Muffins
Sweet Potato Enchiladas (lunch with a friend tomorrow)
Chicken and Grape Salad (potluck for work on Friday)
Butternut Squash Chili (made with acorn squash - dinner with friends on Sunday) with Cornbread

The new recipe is the Chicken and Grape Salad. For that potluck I need something that can be served cold, because it is too much trouble to heat things at work.

And also, take a look at that social calendar.... Makes me feel popular.

If something tastes good, and you ask what's in it, the answer is always butter.

I saw Julie and Julia this weekend. I loved it! It is super cute.

And, of course, it made me want to cook. And eat. So I actually came home and tried to poach an egg. I probably did it wrong, because my feeling was, what's the point? Why not just boil it?

But I started thinking about all the exotic things I could learn to make, so I started reading my Enciclopedia della cucina Italiana.

I think I have gone off the deep end.

I'm reading a cookbook in Italian. And falling asleep thinking, hm... could I make those gnocchi with sorghum flour? Or would it have to be a blend? How much is 50 g of burro (butter)? And what is a teglia?