Jean's Hot Chicken Salad

Just as we thought it was finally warming up, it decided to snow again today. It makes you want to come home, eat/drink something warm, and curl up in bed.

In that spirit, we present this unexpectedly warm recipe. Note that it includes several things you would usually find on Grammy Gertie's lunch table, including the Hellman's and potato chips.

Jean's Hot Chicken Salad

2 cups chicken, cooked and diced

1 cup celery, chopped

1/4 cup almonds, slivered

pinch of salt

2 tsp onions, finely chopped

1 cup Hellmann's

2 TB lemon juice

-Mix all of the above ingredients together.

-Put into a baking dish, and top with:

1/3 cups grated cheddar cheese

crumpled potato chips on top

-Bake at 30 minutes for 350 degrees.

-Recommended serving, pour baked chicken salad over Chinese noodles

Swiss Steak

I just watched a "Good Eats" episode where Alton Brown covered the regional differences between Swiss Steak and Salisbury Steak, etc. You can watch it here. The intro of the episode made me laugh, especially since we've featured most of those recipes on this blog.

Swiss Steak

1/4 cup flour

1 ts seasoning blend

1/4 ts pepper

1 1/2 lbs round steak, trimmed

1 TB vegetable oil

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced

1 cup water

1 clove garlic, minced

1 TB steak sauce

-Combine flour, seasoning blend and pepper.

-Cut steak into serving size pieces, dredge in flour mixture.

-In a non-stick skillet, brown steak in oil.

-Drain and place steaks in a casserole dish.

-Top with celery, onion and mushrooms.

-Combine water, garlic, and steak sauce. Pour over vegetables.

-Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 90 minutes or until meat is tender.

Spinach Casserole

I'm pretty hungry as I type this recipe in... and it's sounding pretty good right now.

Spinach Casserole from Pat Peterson

2 pkgs frozen chopped spinach, cooked & drained

1 cup Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix

1/4 cup margarine

1/2 pkg Lipton onion soup mix

1 cup sour cream

-Melt margarine, and mix with stuffing.

-Add other ingredients and mix.

-Put mix into casserole dish and back at 350 degrees for 20 mins.

My father and I visited Grammy Gertie over the weekend, and actually made one of the recipes!

The dish in question was Wilted Lettuce, a favorite of Grammy's. It's actually not as unhealthy as I originally thought -- it's more like a salad with bacon bits.

Grammy Gertie, of course, did not need the recipe card; she has it memorized. The prep time only took about 10 minutes. We all sat down to eat it and...

...it was good.

I would actually make this at home for guests. The name seems a little misleading - it would be better to call this something like "salad with a tangy dressing."

Anyway, Grammy says hello to everyone. Here's a photo of her, chopping and sauteing away!

(That's my father's hand, by the way, in case you thought she had a mutant limb)

Greetings from England!

We've had a slight delay in postings due to Emily's and my somewhat impromptu trip to London. She's still over there, but I made it back last night -- this time without a single volcanic disruption.

Meanwhile, here is an England-inspired pick for tonight's recipe:

Aunt Eve's Yorkshire Pudding

1 cup sifted flour

1/2 ts salt

1 cup milk

3 eggs, slightly beaten

-Add flour, salt and 2/3 the cup of milk to beaten eggs.

-Mix until all flour is damp.

-Gradually add remaining milk, and beat smooth.

-Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, until puffed and browned.

-Serve with roast & gravy.

Sour Cream - Date Dreams

Happy Friday! Here's a recipe for some homemade cookies. You can double click on the image to enlarge it.

Molded Cranberry Salad

Grammy has multiple recipes for Cranberry Jello Mold. When I've posted them all, maybe we'll do a compare and contrast recap.

(and if you can't wait for that, click the "cranberries" link on the right... it should bring up a number of recipes)

Molded Cranberry Salad

2 pkgs strawberry jello

3 cups water, hot

5 med oranges, plus orange zest

16 oz cranberries, chopped

2 cups sugar

-prepare the jello per instructions on box.

-mix in other ingredients while water is hot.

-set in mold and cool.