Raman Chicken Salad

Brian's sister Dena brings this salad to family parties and it was always a favorite of mine and Brian's, but now it's Bridget's all time favorite too. Probably shouldn't admit this, but our rice vinegar is five years old and we used it anyway! Alexa said it was fine.

Dressing:

3/4 cup Canola oil

3/4 cup rice vinegar

4 Tbsp sugar

2 season packets from Chicken Top Ramen

Whisk together and set aside.

Salad:

1 head of cabbage, shredded (I sliced it thin, then chopped)

2 pkgs chicken ramen noodles, boiled for EXACTLY two minutes and drained

1 Costco rotisserie chicken, chopped (the equivalent of about 3 cooked chicken breasts) 

4 green onions, sliced

4 Tbsp sliced almonds

4 Tbsp sunflower seeds, salted and roasted

Mix dry ingredients and pour dressing over. Stir with tongs, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for as long as possible and for at least two hours. (If the recipe is doubled, which it always is for family parties, still use just one head of cabbage and don't add more chicken.)

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Bridget got a cake decorating kit for Christmas and she would love to be making cakes and cupcakes all day every day. I found this recipe for Red Velvet Cake and we made adjustments using red velvet emulsion and cupcakes. They were DELICIOUS. They could have made 24 cupcakes if we had two muffin tins, but we only have one and a half.

Cake/Cupcakes

2 2/3 c. flour (the original recipe calls for cake flour, but we didn't have that)

1/4 c. natural, unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

1/2 c. granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 c. canola or vegetable oil

1 Tbsp. red velvet emulsion (or an entire 1 oz. bottle liquid red food color)

1 tsp. distilled white vinegar

1 1/3 c. buttermilk at room temperature


Frosting:

12 oz. cream cheese, softened

3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened

3 c. powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract (I like Watkins clear vanilla)


Cake Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-count muffin tins with paper baking cups and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Sift to remove lumps of cocoa powder.

In a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until completely combined. Add eggs and mix well. Add oil, red velvet emulsion, vanilla, and vinegar. Stop to scrap down the sides as often as you need.

Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the wet ingredients in the stand mixer, three times for each.

Evenly distribute the batter into the baking cups. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and frost.

Frosting Directions:

Cream all ingredients together until there are no lumps and it's light and fluffy.

Smoothies

It's summer! Smoothies for breakfast. Another thing I make all the time that I haven't written down ever, so here you go.

2-3 ice cubes

2+ cups frozen fruit (we like strawberries and peaches best because they are less seed-y than some)

1 banana

1 yogurt (vanilla works with everything)

2 tsp. honey

Fruit juice (orange juice doesn't really work, but apple always does)

Put ingredients in order into a blender. Pour juice in last and fill until about 3/4 of the level of the fruit. Pulse a couple of times, then blend until you don't see any big chunks. Add more juice if it's not blending. Enjoy!

Bowties and Sausage

This recipe is in the second Sisters' Cookbook, but I don't think I've ever made it the way I've written it down there. Hm! It's an easy skillet dish that makes 75% of your family happy. (I'm a C-average around here. I've accepted it.) The Paremesan cheese on top didn't make it into the photo, but you get the idea.

1 lb. Farfalle pasta (bowtie) cooked al dente and set aside

1 lb. Italian Jimmy Dean sausage

1 medium white onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 15-oz. cans petite diced tomatoes (if you can find the kind with oregano and basil - bonus!)

1 1/2 c. heavy cream

2 T. fresh parsley (I didn't have any tonight)

1/2 tsp salt

Parmesan Cheese

In a large skillet, cook the sausage until all the pink is gone, breaking it up as it cooks. Add the chopped onion and continue to cook for about a minute. Add the minced garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. Pour in the tomatoes and cream, add the salt and parsley and stir well. (You need a big skillet for this, if you didn't get that already.) Let the sauce simmer on medium-low for about 10 minutes and it should thicken up. Put the cooked pasta into the sauce and stir combine. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese on the top.

Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup

This recipe comes from my neighborhood cookbook and we love it, but I haven't made it very often because the directions are messy. I'm going to attempt to clear them up here so that my mind can rest.

2/3 of a 16 oz. bag of Country Pasta noodles

Cook noodles according to package directions, drain and set aside.


4 cups chicken broth

1 small cube chicken bouillon

3 carrots, peeled and diced

2 ribs of celery, diced

1 small onion, diced

Put all ingredients into a large soup pot, bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium and cook vegetables for about 10 minutes or until they're soft.

Add to the vegetables and chicken broth:

2 cans Cream of Chicken Soup

2 cups chicken, cooked and diced (I used a rotisserie chicken)

1/4 cup melted butter and 1/3 cup flour whisked together

1 cup milk

Salt and pepper

With a large whisk, blend ingredients together. Add cooked noodles and stir with a large wooden spoon.

Fresh Raspberry Pie

I had the brilliant idea to use something from the weekly specials at Kohler's (the local grocery store that advertises in the Lehi Free Press) in a recipe from the Lehi Historical Society Cookbook, make and photograph the recipe and publish it alongside the weekly Kohler's ad. The only hitch is we get the new ad on Monday and the paper is put together early on Tuesday. That means 24 hours to find the recipe, get ingredients, make it, take a picture of it. Are you sweating too?! It worked, though! And this pie was DELICIOUS. I cheated with a Marie Callendar's pie crust, but as always, back off.

1 c. sugar

1 c. water

3 Tb cornstarch

1 Tb white corn syrup

1/8 tsp salt

1/4 tsp red food coloring

3 Tb dry raspberry flavored Jell-O

1 quart or 4 cups fresh raspberries

1 pre-baked pie crust

In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar, water, cornstarch, corn syrup, salt, and food coloring. Bring to a boil and cool until nearly clear and thick. Add Jell-O and mix well. Cool. Fold in whole raspberries. Pour into baked pie shell.

Refrigerate. Serve with fresh whipped cream. (The recipe adds, "or Cool Whip," but you're better than that.)

Maya Angelou's Cold Potato Salad

I tried a lot of potato salad recipes before this one, but zero after this one. KnowwhatI'msayin'?! You'll need the Costco mayo jar for this :).

6 c. peeled, diced, cooked potatoes

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 c. finely diced celery

1 c. chopped dill pickles

1 c. sweet relish

8 large hard-boiled eggs, 4 chopped, 4 whole

2 c. mayonnaise

Fresh parsley, chopped

First! A perfect hard boiled egg: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Gently place each egg into the boiling water (I use a spoon). Continue to boil for 12 minutes. Drain water quickly and fill the pot with cold water and as many ice cubes as you can fit. If you have time, refrigerate the eggs for a while until you're ready to use them. About 90% of the eggs peel easily and perfectly.

Back to potato salad. Combine potatoes, onion, celery, pickles, and chopped eggs. Whisk mayo and sweet relish together. Pour a third of the sauce over the rest of the ingredients and stir, then pour the next third and stir, then the final third and stir. Slice the remaining four eggs and arrange on top of the salad in the bowl. Dust with parsley. Refrigerate for a few hours, or for as long as you can before serving.