Talking to strangers...

See what it gets you - a good healthy recipe!

[Edit - apparently the below is a modified Waldorf Salad recipe.  Oops - here I thought it was so clever]

A week or so ago I happened to stand in line at Wegmans near a jolly couple.  They were obviously the kind of shoppers and cooks who paid attention to the ingredients they bought and were healthy eaters.  The conversation started when she was unloading her cart and told me some tips on cooking with less salt. 

It quickly segued into a recipe for a meal that she found in weight watchers which I believe may actually be vegan.  She recited it to me and lo and behold, I remembered it.  I made it today, finally.  It's actually quite good!

1 fuji apple
1 granny smith apple
1/2 c chopped red onion (I probably had more)
A few handfuls of cranberries - I bought dried raisin/cranberry mixed together.
A cup of chopped celery - again, that may have been a little more than the recipe but it was fine.

Mix the above, and toss with just a touch of mayo and then sprinkle lemon juice on top and toss some more.  The mayo in my fridge was about 10 months expired (oops) so no mayo for this chica.  I did use lemon juice though.

Finally, just before you dig in, sprinkle walnuts on top.  THIS is key - they definitely added to the taste.

This turned out very well!  I would not call it dinner per se, but, a good snack. It was a very late lunch (just finished it) so dinner may be take out, after all that.  But this was goooooood.

So you see, talking to strangers can be a good thing.

ps.  you want to be sure you have the right mix of onion and in fact I'd probably scale back on the onion.  Either make sure it's exactly 1/2 c or even less.  I had a second helping and this scoop had a lot more onion.  Almost took my breath away.

(NUMBER SIX in 2010)

Curry Chicken Casserole

Here is the first meal I made by using the new apps I have on my iPod Touch!

I downloaded a ton of free apps last week.  One of them was the McCormick's recipe finder.  What a stroke of genius this is!  It's a database directly on your Touch  - in other words, you don't need to be hooked into the internet to use it. 

I also downloaded Epicurious to my Touch, but, to use that app you have to be near wifi.  Not a big deal, because once you have the recipe on the screen it's there and then you can go to the grocery store, but, the McCormick's database is a lot handier because if you are walking around the store, utterly stumped, you can look up a recipe (browse OR search) and then you have the handy-dandy shopping list in your pocket!

Here is the recipe (NUMBER ONE in 2010)

1 T vegetable oil (I used olive oil and just poured into the large frying pan what I felt was appropriate)
1 lb boneless chicken breast, cut into 3/4 inch strips
1 medium onion, chopped (mine was kind of big)
1c sliced carrots
1 c chicken broth (I ended up using the whole can)
1/4 c flour
2 t curry powder (MCCORMICK, since this is their recipe)
1/2 t salt (didn't use, as the chicken broth has plenty)
1 medium Golden Delicious apple (I used Granny Smith)
1/2 c frozen peas
1/2 light cream OR coconut milk (I used coconut milk).

1.  Preheat oven to 425.  Heat oil in large skillet on medium-high heat.  Add chicken, onion and carrots, cook and stir for 5 minutes or so.

2.  Mix flour with curry powder and salt, add in chicken broth and whisk.  Add to skillet, bring to a boil.  Stir in apple.  Reduce heat to medium, cook and stir two minutes until sauce is thick.  This is where I added the rest of the broth, because it cooked down too far for me.  Stir in peas and cream/coconut milk.

3.  The recipe called for either a 9 inch deep-dish pie dish, or, a two quart casserole.  I think I had too many ingredients (I tend to just kind of eyeball things, or throw in more than needed) and I ended up using a 13x9 inch cake pan.  Anyway, pour the mixture into your container!

4.  It said to top with the pie crust.  Well, I had a much bigger container than it called for, so, I draped both pie crusts over the 13x9 inch cake pan and actually they both fit pretty well - one on each end.  By the time it cooked you could not tell there were two of them.  It did call for slitting the top, I forgot.  Oops.

5.  Bake 20-25 minutes or until crust is golden brown.  Mine was in a few minutes longer, but it was fine. 

Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Soup, surprise!

More domesticity...

A few nights previous I had bought a rotisserie chicken from Wegmans.  I industriously cleaned much of the meat from its bones and put the carcass in a pot of water with carrots.  I let it boil away for quite some time.  What was left was some good chicken stock.

Today (Sunday) I bought about 2.5 lbs of butternut squash (already cleaned and cut) and decided to make soup. 

Loosely following a recipe, I baked the squash for about 30 mins (light coating of olive oil) and then poured it into the pot of stock.  I'm not sure how much stock there was, I'd say no less than 6 cups.  I also cut up a granny smith apple and plopped it in, along with the remainder of the bag of carrots.

I then squirted a good 3T of honey on top, threw in some bay leaves, and then liberally sprinkled cinnamon on top.  A little bit of cayenne pepper, some curry powder (not much) and my kitchen is now aroma laden and I hope this will turn out well.  When I get closer to the end I will put a cup of heavy cream into the mix.

When all was said and done I used a potato masher to even out the big chunks.  It worked out very well - very flavorful!  I now have several meals...