My Momma's Chicken Salad - A True Southern Wedding Shower Favorite!

It seems that we never really make things as good as our moms.  For years I've tried my best to perfect my chicken salad recipe.  I've added different spices and added nuts, but never quite perfected my chicken salad until yesterday.  Being last minute on almost everything I do in and out of the kitchen, yesterday was no exception.

My Momma's Chicken Salad - Click here for the recipe

In the South, we love our wedding showers.  It is traditional to have certain appetizers to help celebrate the bride to be with.  Yesterday we got to honor one of my oldest friends sweet daughter Leslie Hodges on her upcoming wedding with a bridal shower.  She will be a beautiful bride here very soon and her aunt Camila, her family, along with her mom's and dad's friends came together to shower her with gifts for her home with her new husband.

I will always remember Leslie and her sweet sisters in their pajamas at our house after Friday night football games.  All our young friends would gather at our little house in town after home football games to visit and the kids would play and then pass out all over our girls bedrooms.  We've been friends with her parents for a lifetime and love them and their families very much.  Scott made them a part of our lives many years ago on our very first date and their 'Indian Rock' community connection from church, to classmates, to dear friends goes back a long way.  To sum it all up, it's very special to celebrate sweet friends kids whenever you can.

Leslie and her sweet mom Cindy

Leslie and her sisters Lauren, Lacy and mom Cindy

Hostesses for Leslie's wedding shower full of aunts and friends

Leslie with her mom and dear grandmothers

Leslie with friend Anna Jo and daughter Kayla

Leslie and Patti, her sweet stepmother

Cindy and sister Camila

Leslie and best friend Cassie

It is tradition to serve dainty foods and not a full meal at a southern wedding shower.  In our little town a favorite party food is always petite fours that are little white cakes with a delicate white icing on top.  You simply can never get enough of these and everyone loves them.  Along with those little cakes, you will always find these days beautifully decorated sugar cookies in beautiful bridal designs, fruits and cheese trays, seasoned and spiced nuts, sausage balls and little pinwheel sandwiches that in our part of the south are made with tortillas.  My job was to make chicken salad to serve with crackers for Leslie's shower and instead of store bought, I chose to make it from scratch last minute.

Stunning cookies

Loved these sweet and modern napkins

A pretty southern wedding shower table full of finger foods

Literally as I drove to the store, I called my mom and asked her to snap a picture of her handwritten recipe and send it to me.  You'll see her recipe note below.

My mom's beautiful handwriting.  You can tell it's a teacher's penmanship!

I know one day I hope very far in the future, that these recipe notes will all be handed down to me.  On this day, I was thankful for the technology of telephone photography and the ease in which I was able to get a copy of the recipe instead of having it recited to me last minute.

My Momma's Chicken Salad in my pretty crystal bowl with matching platter.
Click here for the recipe for My Momma's Chicken Salad recipe.

Using store bought rotisserie chicken, I deboned the meat and cut it all into small bite sized portions.  Fresh celery, green grapes, long, green onions (green tops as well), and fresh squeezed lemon were added to make My Momma's Chicken Salad the best I've honestly ever had.  The things that I believe took this chicken salad over the top were the pineapple and sour cream along with the Real Mayonnaise that we mixed in with plenty of salt and black pepper.  If you are not a fan of black pepper, you can hold off on it, but I love, love it in abundance and especially with this chicken salad.

My youngest daughter Audrey was a huge help slicing the grapes with my newest, favorite cherry tomato slicer and helped me mix it all together while making sure I was following my mom's recipe exactly as it was written.

Audrey and I doubled the recipe using two rotisserie chickens so that we could have some for lunch the next day and for the week ahead.  My Momma's Chicken Salad was seriously a huge hit at the shower and from the 8 cups I took, literally only 1 cup was left.  I promised to place the recipe on my blog and recipe site today, so that we could share with all those who asked for it.

As always a special thanks to my sweet mom who inspires me more than she knows with her cooking, her tried and true recipes and love for us all.  She is one of my biggest cheerleaders ever and along with so many of her and my Granny's recipes, her chicken salad will forever be on my shower menus from now on.

So whether it's a wedding shower, birthday party, or you just want a wonderful chicken salad to serve with crackers or between to pieces of bread as a sandwich, try My Momma's Chicken Salad  recipe.  In a pinch, store bought can be a great substitute, however from start to finish Audrey and I had My Momma's Chicken Salad Recipe recipe done in under 30 minutes and in a pretty crystal bowl ready to go.  Sometimes last minute recipes are the best recipes!

Enjoy and let me know if you like it please.

Alise 
The Ranch Kitchen    

Last of the Garden & Confetti Pasta

It's hot in Texas finally.  After a mild summer with tons of rain and low temperatures, the humidity and heat has set in.  Our garden that produced so well for us this year is now on it's last leg and veggies are not producing as much as I'd like.

This past weekend I picked some of our last banana and bell peppers from our garden and along with the basil we've grown in large quantities, I created this simple pasta dish.  As my daughter's friend Ashley said, it had a fresh taste to it using the peppers and especially the basil.  The added sour cream, Real Mayonnaise, Rotel Tomatoes and cream cheese made the pasta creamy and delicious too.  If you still have fresh tomatoes, by all means replace the Rotel Tomatoes and use them instead with a sprinkling of cilantro. If you like a little heat, then add a chopped jalapeno to it as well.

                            Click here for the recipe for Confetti Pasta.

Confetti Pasta is just so bright, fun and colorful! 

If you serve this pasta outside, be sure to keep the bowl on top of another bowl of ice to keep this pasta chilled.  I think adding cooked chicken, tuna, salmon or even pepperoni would easily turn this side dish in to a main dish for dinner or a light lunch.

This recipe would be perfect for a church or work potluck or large family gathering or reunion.

If you have similar pasta dishes, please consider sharing them on The Ranch Kitchen Share a Recipe Section of my recipe site.  I love new recipes and would love to share yours on the blog with fellow followers.

Enjoy the rest of your July, try to stay cook and let me know how you like this Confetti Salad!

Alise
The Ranch Kitchen 

Spring is Just Around the Corner - Winter Salad Recipe

Spring is Just Around the Corner 
 
Winter Salad Recipe
 

In winter I dream about my garden in the spring.  What will we grow, when will we plant...and always have ambitious plans.  Our garden is always HUGE!  This past year my husband got a little carried away and planted 48 tomato plants.  Most of their fruit however was given to friends and family.  This year (my husband and I have predicted) that our garden will be much, much smaller than last...but this is something we say every year.  As we shop our for our plants...one pack though is never enough.

This spring I plan to plant heirloom tomatoes, white eggplants, and long, slender zucchini just to name a few!  I love planting brussel sprouts for my daughter to pick and mostly just enjoy knowing that most of my meal on some nights was provided off our ranch; the meat from our Hereford cattle, the vegetables from our garden, and prepared in my kitchen or at my grill.

As you sit by the fire with your computer nearby, google plant and seed catalogs, send off for their magazines, and start dreaming of spring!  My Winter Salad below is a taste of early spring.  It's a favorite at family gatherings and so easy to make.  It's right around the corner right!  I hope the ground hog doesn't see his shadow tomorrow and spring is just around the corner!

 

 

 

Winter Salad

1 large head of broccoli (cut with florets only), frozen can be used - thaw

1 large head of cauliflower (cut with florets only), frozen can be used – thaw

1 16 ounce Creamy Italian Dressing or Ceasar Salad Dressing

1 cup REAL Mayonnaise

 

Optional vegetables:

12 – 18 cherry tomatoes or Roma sliced

1 red onion, chopped

1 bunch - fresh spinach leaves

Combine Creamy Italian Dressing and REAL Mayonnaise with a whisk.  Spoon dressing mixture over broccoli and cauliflower.  Mix well.  Serve chilled.  Mix in a separate bowl from the one you serve in. 

*This will need to be refrigerated until ready to serve as broccoli will wilt.