Citrus Chicken Chopped Salad

Here's a refreshing main dish salad for a hot summer day.

It's been cool and rainy here in the Fraser Valley so far but when the sun shines again

this simple salad will be on the menu.

As with most chopped salads you can change the ingredient and dressing combinations

according what you have in your fridge.

For the salad:

• one small head romaine or leafy lettuce
• 2 cooked chicken breasts or a deli roasted chicken cut into chunks
• 2 avocados cubed
• 1-2 cups dried cranberries
• 1 large English cucumber chopped or 2 mini cucumbers slices
• 2 large navel oranges, peeled and cut into segments

For the dressing*:

• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar (I used a grapefruit flavoured balsamic but you can substitute white wine vinegar for the balsamic)
• 2 teaspoons Dijon Mustard
• 2 teaspoons. honey or to taste
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Layer a large platter with torn lettuce.
2. Peel and cube avocados, sprinkle with a bit of lemon juice to keep them from browning.
3. Chop Cucumbers.
4. Arrange rows of vegetables, oranges, dried cranberries and chicken as shown above.
5. Mix dressing in a shaker or bottle with a tightly fitting lid and shake until blended.
6. Drizzle dressing over salad and serve.

*A bottled golden Italian dressing or Mom's Salad Dressing would also be good on this salad.

Chocolate 'With a Hint of Spice' Pudding

What's better than chocolate? Chocolate with a bit of spice. I know you can hardly see the chocolate pudding but it's there in the cup, under the whipped cream and raspberries. We all know what chocolate pudding looks like so this is more about the taste, that 'hint of spice' and about presentation.
A few weeks ago I invited a few blogging friends for lunch, Char (mgcc), Susan (Mom's Recipe Collection) and Jeanine (Faithfully Gluten Free), they came bearing gifts, don't you just love when that happens. This cute cup and saucer is a gift from Susan. We got to talking and since I served chocolate pudding for dessert we all thought this would be a great little cup to serve pudding in and it was suggested for a future post. And here it is.
This pudding paired up with coconut rolls is just perfect.

• 3/4 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 1/2 cups coconut milk, you can use regular milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

1. In a large microwave safe bowl whisk together brown sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch, cinnamon, chili powder, coconut milk, and heavy cream.
2. Cook in microwave for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes until thick and smooth.
3. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla.
4. Now if you don't like the 'skin' that forms on hot pudding, press plastic wrap directly on the pudding to prevent that. I like the 'skin' that forms on the pudding so I leave out this step.
5. Pour into serving dishes and serve with a dollop of whipped cream and a few raspberries. 
6. Here's an idea: If you want to turn the spice up a notch sprinkle a few grains of cayenne on top.
7. Serves: 6

Saturday in Lovella's kitchen

A while back Ellen posted pictures of her kitchen so I thought I would take up the show and shine challenge and share some of mine too.  

The kitchen space is 18 X 11 including the dining area and 8 1/2 by 11 for just the kitchen area. 

We did this remodel 11 years ago.  

The floors throughout our main living area are tongue and groove fir that we stained, distressed and put coats of varathane over.  The floor started out being a satin finish but the wear of everyday use has turned it to a semi gloss.  

Cabinets and countertops are showing their wear but are still functional and clean up just fine for this farm bungalow. 

I've never had enough space to store my kitchen things but that is probably because I have too many things. 

I'm thankful for the island that gives me lots of drawer space for utensils, spices, linens, a treat drawer, dry goods, casserole dishes, plastic wrap, kitchen bags etc and of course everyone needs a plastic storage container drawer. 

The top cabinet on the right side of the oven is where I keep our everyday dishes and baking equipment. 

My bottom shelf is right above where I do all my mixing. 

Our everyday dishes are  plain white and inexpensive family style that take up minimal space in storage. 

Cabinet above the dishwasher.   I used to have many odd mugs which I've given away.  

Top corner cabinet where I keep mixing bowls, pie plates,  choppers and graters. 

Kitchen linen drawer. 

I have vintage linen tea towels that were handed down to my from my sister in law.

I love bar mop towels and dishcloths.  They are not overly expensive and can be bleached when necessary.  When it is time to buy new ones, I know that it will all match what is already in my drawer.  By the looks of this photo I can see it is nearly time to do a dishcloth switch over again. 

I could save a lot of space if I would buy smaller cartons of kitchen bags, foil, parchment, plastic wrap, but I'm stuck on the idea of rarely running out.  

Top shelf of the bottom kitchen corner cabinet is big pots, fry pans, oil and vinegar. 

Bottom shelf of the corner kitchen cabinet is flour, sugar, spring-loaded scoops that take up too much room in drawers and of course bread pans that I need to keep handy. 

Spice drawer is one of the narrow ones on the top row in the island. 

Bottom drawer in the island is for casseroles, serving bowls, pot holders and drying mats. 

Plastic containers.   I have a love hate relationship with them.  I hate them when I can't find lids to match the containers but I love them but more so when they are full of yummy food. 

The cabinet beside the stove has pull-out shelves. 

The bottom shelf has the pots and lids. 

The top pull out shelf has the toaster, hand mixer and coffee grinder. 

This shelf needs to be vacuumed often. 

I fully admit to be a gadget junkie.  

This is another one of the top drawers in the island. 

I should have a better place for knives but... this is where they are. 

Dry goods for baking and cooking are kept in the deeper drawers beside the stove.  

Odds and ends drawer. 

Cabinet beside the dishwasher for baking sheets, pizza pans, a splatter lid, cooling racks and chopping boards. 

Top shelf is the rolling pin, mat for rolling out pastry and dough and baking mats. 

As I was tidying this drawer I scolded myself saying that this drawer should really be used for better use but we've always had a treat drawer as long as we've been married so we'll stick with it for a bit yet.   Everyone in the family opens up this drawer to peruse the selection. 

And not in my kitchen but I'll share it because you might wonder...  I store small appliances, heavy pots, roasters,  and baking pans in our office closet.


It's a little bit scary opening all my drawers and cabinets for you but I know it's fun to see so I hope you enjoyed my kitchen tour!

I hope some of the others from our MGCC group will open their cabinets for a Saturday post.

The challenge is open!

Maybe you want to share some of your great storage ideas. 

Flash Back Friday ~ Spaghetti Pie

This recipe was very popular when I posted it back in 2012 so I'm posting it again for Flashback Friday. The original post is here. It is simple and satisfying and will serve 6 people generously.

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces spaghetti
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1/3 Cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 well beaten eggs
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 of a green bell pepper chopped
• 1 Tablespoon Olive oil
• 1 cup of tomatoes chopped (or canned chopped tomatoes)
• 1 -6 oz. can of tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook the spaghetti in salted boiling water, drain.
3. Stir butter into hot spaghetti. Stir in Parmesan and beaten eggs. Form spaghetti mixture into a "crust" in a buttered 10 inch round baking dish.
4. Saute the onion and green pepper in a tablespoon of Olive oil until soft and then add the hamburger to the mixture and cook till hamburger is browned. Drain off excess fat. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, oregano and garlic salt. Heat through. Add salt to taste if desired.
5. Spread cottage cheese over the spaghetti crust in the baking dish. Pour and spread the hamburger mixture over the cottage cheese. Bake uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top and bake an additional 5 minutes or till cheese melts.

Serves 6-8 depending on appetites.

Here's what I learned from commenters the first time around with this recipe. If you want to use your favorite spaghetti sauce instead of the cup of tomatoes and tomato paste you can substitute 12-14 oz. of sauce. You can use ricotta cheese instead of cottage cheese. Add a cup of cheese on top instead of just a 1/2 cup if your family really enjoys melted cheese.

Twisted Thai Salad

I saw a demo of a similar salad on the news hour of a local TV station recently and took note.  Here was another way to enjoy all the fresh veggies from our neighbourhood greenhouse...and it looked like the perfect patio lunch salad to me!  We love it and would be quite happy to make a meal of this salad regularly.  The long strips of veggies take the place of noodles...a healthy, veggie salad.  I used a potato peeler for the carrots and cucumbers and cut the peppers and cabbage on a mandolin slicer.  If you happen to have a fancy spiral veggie slicer...this would be a good recipe to use it on.

• 4 mini cucumbers, cut in long thin strips
• 4 large carrots, in strips (use potato peeler)
• 1 red pepper, cut in strips
• 1 yellow pepper, cut in strips
• chopped red cabbage, 2 cups
• chopped green cabbage, 2 cups
• chopped peanut, 1/2 cup or to taste
• Cilantro leaves, chopped (optional)

1. Prepare all veggies and arrange on four individual serving plates.  
2. Drizzle with dressing. (Recipe below.)
3. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and cilantro leaves.

Thai Peanut Dressing:

• juice of 1 lime
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 2 Tablespoons rice vinegar
• 3 Tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 Tablespoon minced ginger
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 3 tablespoons water (or as required)

1. Combine all ingredients (except water) in a  blender jar.
2. Blend until smooth, adding enough water to make a pourable dressing.

*The ingredients above are exactly as I made it.  However, feel free to substitute white vinegar for the rice vinegar or your favorite salad oil for the sesame oil. Using a fine microplane grater works well for mincing both the ginger and garlic.

Serves 4. (Use half the veggies to serve 2)

Enjoy!

Granola Fruit Bowls

These little granola tarts are a perfect way to dress up granola with fruit and yogurt! They keep well, sealed in a zip-lock in the refrigerator and make for a quick healthy breakfast with fresh or frozen fruit around. You can mix up the nuts and seeds according to personal preference or what you have on hand.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 6 Tbsp honey
• 1 egg beaten with fork
• 2 cups large flake oats
• 1 cup pecans, finely crushed
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds 
• 2 Tbsp sesame seeds
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1/4 tsp salt

extras:

• favorite yogurt
• fruit (berries, mango, kiwi, banana . . .)
• toasted coconut

Method:

1. Grease 12 regular size or 6 - 8 giant muffin tins. Set aside.
2. Melt butter, stir in honey and egg. Be sure butter is not hot.
3. In large mixing bowl, mix oats and nuts, coconut, seeds, extract and salt. 
4. Stir in butter, honey and egg mix. With wet hands, shape into 12 golf ball size balls and press into bottom and sides of muffin tins. Adjust size according to size of shells to be made.
5. Bake at 325 F for 15 - 18 minutes. Cool and remove from pans.

If I do half the recipe I still use 1 egg, so if you find the total mix still hard to shape, just add another egg. I have also made these tarts by putting half of the oats with the nuts into the blender to pulse into a rough flour-like mix. I found the mix easier to handle and shape but the tarts turned out firmer and more like a bowl to eat out of, to enjoy the crust on it's own. 

Stawberry Pudding Cake

Today in the U.S.A. many are celebrating the 4th of July or Independence Day with barbecues and other gatherings with lots of red, white and blue decorations. This dessert would be great to serve for this or any celebration.
This is an easy dessert to make with fresh fruit that is in season. I made a strawberry one and a blueberry one. Rhubarb would work, too. I saw this recipe on our garden store Facebook page and I modified it decreasing the sugar. It's good alone or with whipped cream or ice cream.

Strawberry Pudding Cake

2 cups sliced fresh strawberry or other fresh fruit
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup sifted flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2/3 cup boiling water

Instructions
Cover the bottom of an 8 or 9 inch lightly greased square pan with fruit.
Mix 1/2 cup sugar, butter, baking powder, salt, extracts, milk and flour together. Spread evenly over the fruit.
Mix remaining sugar and cornstarch; sprinkle over mixture in pan.
Pour boiling water over the top. (This creates the glaze on the top of the cake and the pudding at the bottom).
Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

You can serve warm in a bowl with ice cream, or let it cool a bit and serve it on a plate with ice cream or whipped cream.

 
Pudding cake with blueberries on the left and strawberries on the right. We all enjoyed both!
I also used canned pears and peaches that were drained of their liquid for the cake. 

Saturday in Julie's Kitchen

Recipe Books - Marking the (Canadian) Kitchen Trail of My Life 

I was looking at some of my recipe books this morning, and I thought about the recipe books that over the years 'came and stayed' in my kitchen - each in their own order and becoming the recipe books I used most. ..

Growing up, Saturday was the day of the week when the cookbook was pulled out because it was the day baking was done.  Baking was the only thing that needed recipes - all cooking was this and that and add a few things until everything looked about right.
The Purity Cookbook was the one in our home - and the first cook book I bought along with the Five Roses cookbook in 1965 when I got married - or maybe they were shower or wedding gifts.   I still have both original copies. The Purity cookbook was my favorite of the two.

Also as a wedding gift from my husband's cousins, I  received the Mennonite Treasure of Recipes. I I wore out two copies of that one, my own original, then my mother-in-law's that I kept after she passed away.
My husband being a picky eater - "if its not Mennonite cooking, it is suspect" - I almost predominately used the Mennonite cookbook, with the Purity and Red Rose cookbooks allowing me an occasion 'outside the box' food preparation.  Finally, now with my granddaughters growing up and loving a wide range of flavors, and my husband becoming more willing to try different foods, I am having fun exploring new recipes. (does Google count as a 'recipe book' ??)

The next recipe book fad  that hit the shelves was in 1980 with The Best of Bridge series.  Everyone was talking about them and they quickly became runaway sellers. They were the gift of choice and I received two of them as birthday gifts.

Close on their heels came the Company Coming series,  starting in 1981 (200 books published at present)  that were enormously popular.  I bought the first book - 150 Delicious Squares - because I LOVED the cover, I didn't even open it until after I bought it, but it allowed me to please many palates. Jean Pare, the author, grew up with the Purity Cookbook - a detail I found interesting. Another interesting detail is she was 54 when she published her first book. (a new life-purpose can begin at any age !!)

Then ....  there came the Mennonite Girls Can Cook series ...  I would never have guessed, as an 18 year old, in the kitchen, trying to please her new husband, that one day I would be part of a group that would put its mark on the historical recipe book trail.

I was sitting at the breakfast table as I shared my thoughts for this post and my husband said ... "You need to ask your readers to vote on which cookbook series they liked best !"   I said, "I don't think so, that would be a loaded question."   And he said .. "Well, of course the MGCC books would be first so you could just ask them which one is second !!"   I just smiled and shook my head.

BUT ...  I would be interested in hearing what your Recipe Book Life-Trail looks like and which cookbooks were always on standby in your kitchen - on any day of the week!

Flashback Friday ~ Canada Day / Rhubarb Strawberry Streusel Pie

Right now in Manitoba the Rhubarb is plenty. I can't think of a better way to celebrate Canada day than with family and friends, and serve up a luscious Rhubarb Strawberry Streusel pie to end a delicious meal.  I am featuring an old recipe that I posted back in 2008 for this weeks Flashback Friday. It is still delicious today and it was back then. 

Line a pie plate with your favorite recipe for pie crust. 

Mix together : 

• 4 cups rhubarb, chopped
• 2 cups strawberries, sliced

In a separate bowl combine :

• 1 cup sour cream 
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup flour

Pour over the Rhubarb and strawberries.

Top with Streusel :

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup hard margarine or butter

Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes then turn the temperature down to 350 and continue to bake for another 30-40 minutes until the topping is a golden brown. 

Biscuit Torte (Sponge Cake)

I found this recipe (submitted by Mrs. H Dyck)  in the 1973 edition of the Mennonite Treasury and the name caught my eye, because that is what my mom also called a simple white sponge cake. She did not have an angel food cake pan. so she make it in a spring form pan. I think she greased and floured it - somehow it worked.

This was our traditional birthday cake, filled with fruit and whipped cream.  When I made it now, I mostly followed the directions in the following recipe. This cake is great with fresh berries or peaches and cream. You can also use it for a trifle. 

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs. divided
• 1 cup sugar
• grated rind of 1/2 lemon
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice 
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Method:

1. Beat egg whites until stiff. Set aside
2. Beat egg yolks, gradually beating in the sugar until thick and lemon colored. Stil in lemon rind and juice.
3. Fold about half of the beaten egg whites into the yolk mix, then blend in sifted, combined flour, baking powder and salt. ( I did not sift)
4. With a spatula fold in the last of the beaten egg whites, using careful light strokes, until batter is light and fluffy with no more egg white showing.
5. Bake in an ungreased angel food pan at 325 F for 10 minutes, 350 F for 20 minutes and 375 F for the last 10 - 15 minutes. 
6. Invert the pan over a wire rack, to cool upside down. Run a knife along edges, including bottom (if pan comes in two pieces) and shake it out.