White Wine Chicken Salad

We purchased a rotisserie chicken for dinner one Friday night and ended up not eating as much of it as we expected. Come lunch time Saturday it was not something that we wanted to re-heat (I'm not a fan of leftovers at all) but we also did not want to waste it. My idea was to make chicken salad. While I have made my fair share of tuna salad, I had never at this time attempted chicken salad. So, I used some staples common in a good tuna salad recipe like mayonnaise and hard boiled eggs. Then I looked at what was in our refrigerator and found a bell pepper and an onion and I decided to create a chicken salad recipe of my own. My all-time favorite chicken salad is from a locally owned restaurant called Norma's. She makes a uniquely delicious champagne chicken salad. Inspired by this incredible dish I decided to add a little Riesling to my recipe. Voila, chicken salad!

SERVES 2-4

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chicken, shredded
• .5 cup sour cream
• 3 eggs, boiled and diced
• .25 red bell pepper, chopped
• .25 cup onion, chopped
• handful dried cranberries
• .5 cup mayonnaise or miracle whip
• .25 cup white wine (a sweet Riesling is preferred)
• .25 teaspoon salt
• .25 teaspoon black pepper
• .25 teaspoon garlic powder
• .25 teaspoon dill
• .5 teaspoon brown sugar
• .25 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Cookware/Utensils:

• small glass bowl
• medium glass bowl
• large spoon
• measuring cups
• cutting board
• santoku or chef's knife

Place salt, pepper, garlic powder, dill, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Set aside. In large bowl add chicken, sour cream, eggs, bell pepper, onion and cranberries. Stir until mixed. Add mayonnaise and stir again until all ingredients are mixed together. Pour wine over the mixture. Add all dry ingredients from the small bowl. Stir thoroughly. Place in the refrigerator for at least one hour before serving.

***Remove from refrigerator and serve in a pita, on your favorite bread as a sandwich or place on a bed of spinach as seen above.

Summer Shrimp n' Spinach Salad

Tonight we created a meal that will go down in food history as the Floridian Citrus Seafood Trio. While we ate this impeccable meal we conversed not only about the flavors of each component, but also about how it should be represented in blog form. The conclusion--to feature each integrant in its own post.
The Summer Shrimp n' Spinach Salad was my contribution to the meal. It was a hot, humid day in Florida (shocking, I know) so I wasn't in the mood to come home from work and "cook". I wanted to create something that would accent the main course with maximum flavor and minimum heat. My answer...salad.
What I created was a side salad, but because I opted for something full of flavor it could easily be converted into a meal. I love a spinach salad with fruit and a sweet vinaigrette. The affinity for that type of salad is the heart of this recipe.

SERVES 2:

Ingredients:

• 2-3 ounces baby spinach
• 10 gulf shrimp, steamed and peeled
• .25 cucumber, sliced very thin
• handful almonds, slivered
• 11 ounces mandarin oranges, drained
• .5 cup bleu cheese, crumbled
• dash salt
• dash ground black pepper
• .5 cup raspberry walnut vinaigrette

Cookware/Utensils:

• can opener
• measuring cups
• cutting board
• santoku or chef's knife

Once the prep work of peeling the shrimp, slicing the cucumber and draining the oranges is complete then the salad is ready for assembly. I prepare individual bowls of salad. I find it easier and less dishes to clean if I do it this way as opposed to fixing a salad in a salad bowl and then transferring the salad to individual bowls. This means that you will need to take each ingredient and divide it in half between each bowl. First, place spinach in each bowl. Next add cucumbers, cheese, shrimp, oranges, salt, pepper and almonds. Finally, top each bowl with vinaigrette. This is the order in which I layer my salad. I suggest assembling the salad moments before consumption. This will prevent the spinach from becoming soggy as a result of the wet ingredients--oranges and vinaigrette. Voila!

***The other components of the Floridian Citrus Seafood Trio include Pan Broiled Amberjack with an Orange Apricot Butter Sauce and Buffalo Bill's Orange Blossom Cream Ale (blog posts listed separately). The salad, fish and beer all centered around the idea of the orange. The salad and fish shared almond as a common ingredient. This trio is Floridan for its use of the orange, as the official state flower is the orange blossom and the official state beverage is orange juice. The seafood used are also both Floridian in nature. Amberjack is found in great numbers swimming in the water surrounding Florida enjoying the reefs, rock outcrops and wrecks. Gulf shrimp is caught off the coasts of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. Since we live on the Gulf Coast and know that our shrimp came from the local fishermen who docked their boats in our community this morning, we know that our shrimp shared our home state.

Perfect Tuna Salad

Tuna salad is a snack that my mom used to frequently make for me while I was growing up. Her version included eggs, pickles and mayonnaise. Mine is a little more complex in ingredients but just as quick and easy to make. The great thing about tuna salad is that it is the perfect meal or snack for two!

SERVES 2

Ingredients:

• 1 6oz. can tuna, drained
• 3 eggs, boiled and peeled
• 1 cup mayonnaise or miracle whip
• .5 celery stalk, chopped very fine
• 3 dried apricots, chopped
• 1 tablespoon dried cranberries, chopped
• 1 tablespoon honey mustard
• .5 tablespoon salt
• .5 tablespoon dill
• .5 tablespoon garlic powder
• dash ground black pepper
• dash celery seed
• dash paprika

Cookware/Utensils:

• large spoon
• large bowl
• measuring cups
• cutting board
• santoku or chef's knife
• plastic wrap

Add tuna, mayonnaise, eggs and mustard to bowl. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Then add chopped celery, apricots and cranberries. Again, stir until mixed. Add dry ingredients and stir one final time. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Remove from refrigerator and serve on a pita, wrapped in a tortilla or placed on crackers. I like mine served on a piece of toasted bread. The juxtaposed temperatures and textures of the warm, crisp bread and the cold, creamy salad are perfect!