d's delights- cooking and crafts

Curried Chicken Salad 1 ½ C Mayonnaise 1 Tbs Curry Powder ½ Tsp Ground Ginger 3 Chicken Breasts, cooked, shredded* 3 stalks celery, chopped ½ small red onion, chopped ¼ C (A handful) chopped fresh cilantro   Mix mayo, curry and ginger in a small bowl. Put chicken, celery, onion and cilantro in a big bowl. Add mayo mixture and mix until evenly spread.   This is definitely not your momma’s chicken salad! I found this in a South Beach Diet cookbook.   Instead of the mayo, it had yogurt. I remember trying it that way, and thinking it was ok, but not what I wanted.   So, I thought I would reboot it with mayonnaise instead.   I love the nutty flavor of the curry and celery!   It might be nice to add some crunchy almond on top.   I could even see adding some dried apricot…or cherries? *I cooked my chicken in the crock pot with a little salt and pepper so it would cook while I was away.   You could also boil or bake...

November 27, 2014 On this Thanksgiving Day, I would like to recount the story of Tom the Turkey. I wish I had pictures of Tom, but alas, this was well before camera phone days and Pinterest. My mom was rather crafty.   Growing up, I remember doing a lot of fun crafty and creative things.   She got some ideas from school where she worked, or library books.   I wonder how crazy she wound have gone had we had Pinterest way back then… One year, my mom decided that we would make a paper maché turkey.   We mixed up the flour and water, got our hands good and sloppy, and cut up newspaper strips to lay on the balloon.   We used toilet paper rolls for the neck and legs.   My mom reminded me that we cut his feet and his gobbler out of a yellow sponge.   (It was probably even a used sponge!)   We painted it (after it dried) with some left over dark brown house paint, and of course, used construction paper to make the feathers. What made this o...

Just in time for you to go to the grocery store… Cheesy Potato Casserole   Ingredients: 1 Package frozen hashed browns (thawed) 1 (10 oz) Can Cream of Chicken Soup 8 Oz. Sour Cream 2 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese (Or more…more cheese=Always better) ½ Stick Butter 1 Onion, diced   Directions: Mix sour cream, cream of chicken, onions and cheese (save some cheese for top!) In a large bowl   Spread hash browns in a 9x13 ungreased casserole dish Pour melted butter over potatoes. Pour mixture over potatoes, and mix in evenly. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top.   Add crunched up potato chips or corn flakes on top for extra crunchiness, if desired. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.   This is also a great make-ahead casserole.   Make it up on Wednesday, and bake it on Thursday!   Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!    

Family Holiday Favorites- Part One: Stuffing and Chicken Casserole Around this time of year, many people ask what some of your family’s favorite go-to holiday dishes are.   Well, here’s the first of two that it seems my family can’t do without this time of year. Stuffing and Chicken Casserole 2 Boxes of Stove Stop Stuffing- Chicken Flavor 2 Sticks of Butter/Margarine 6-8 Boneless Chicken Breasts 2 Cans of Cream of Chicken Soup 16 oz. Sour Cream 2 Cups of Chicken Broth 1 Medium Chopped Onion Boil chicken in water.   Shred the chicken and add the cream of chicken soup, sour cream and chopped onion. Melt one stuck of butter/margarine and mix with one box of the stuffing and seasonings.   Put on the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Put the chicken mixture on top of bottom layer. Melt the other stick of butter/margarine and mix with second stuffing box.   Put on top of the chicken mixture layer.   Pour the chicken broth over casserole.   L...

Irvington Halloween Festival Two Bean Minestrone  This minestrone doesn’t have anything to do with the festival, except that I decided to make it on this great Fall day in which we are going to go to the festival in Irvington!   Will is ready to dress up as Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc, and I have my camera ready for lots of fun shots!   I put on this soup in the slow cooker so that it will be nice and ready when we come home.   (Even though I’ll be the only one who cares!)   I chopped up the vegetables last night while chopping other vegetables for dinner, so that I all had to do today was dump them in. (Store the onion/garlic separate from the carrots/celery!)    Ingredients: 1 Medium Onion (Recipe suggests to halve crosswise and cut in big chunks.   I used three small ones.) 1 Garlic clove, chopped   (Oh, I think I used 3…)  1 Stalk Celery, chopped (I used two) 2 Medium Carrots, sliced ¼ inch-ish ...

Smoked Sausage, Potatoes and Green Beans This is not a new, innovative combination by any means, but I thought for my blog’s sake… and for posterity, I guess, that I should write down how I make my version of it. First, I used to make this in the crock pot.   That’s how I originally got the recipe.   That method basically consisted of layering potatoes, sliced smoked sausage, and green beans in the crock pot with some garlic powder for seasoning each layer.   I started making this skillet version when I wasn’t very good at thinking far enough ahead to put everything in the pot in the morning!   I found I liked it better this way because of the flavors that the skillet brought out, and the time it took to make it.   I also made some additions: Paprika and (real) Garlic.   Ingredients: Cooking Oil (once or twice around the pan) 1-2 Cloves of Garlic, chopped or minced. 4-5 Small- Medium Potatoes, skinned and sliced. 1 package of smoked sausage...

  Beef with Broccoli and Mushrooms I don’t often get to make “one-dish” meals because the hubby doesn’t always like them.   Every once in a while, I can find one that he will like.   This one wasn’t too difficult, and my “sous chef” hubby helped by chopping, mixing and making rice.   Maybe you, too,   can have the less capable cook in the house to help, or maybe you have an older child able to help…? I found this recipe in book called “One-Dish Meals” and thought it would be something my husband (and Sous Chef) would actually like! 2 Cups Uncooked Instant Rice   (Cook as directed) 1 (1 oz) Package of Beef and Broccoli-Flavored Authentic Oriental Seasoning Mix (Find it in the “Asian” aisle.) 1 Cup Beef Broth 2 Tbs Soy Sauce 1 Tbs Oil 1-2 Garlic Cloves, chopped ½-1 lb Beef Top Sirloin Steak, cut into thin strips ½ lb Fresh Broccoli (Make it easy on yourself-   get the pre-packaged kind in the produce section!) 1 C Celer...