Fruit and Seed Chicken Salad

This recipe is not your typical onion and celery chicken salad. It is adapted from my mama's famous cream cheese-based chicken salad, which is heavenly. She usually serves it warm, either by itself or on a croissant roll. Her original recipe includes grapes and pecans or walnuts. My husband is allergic to nuts, so I modified it to have toasted seeds instead for the same yummy crunch. I also tweaked it to make it a little bit more health friendly ;) 

You can make this with any kind of fruit - diced pineapple, chopped apples, cranberries, cherries, etc. Mix and match as you please. The goal is to be healthy and sweet and delicious, all at once! 

Ingredients:

These amounts are mostly guestimates. We usually just make it to taste. Start off with a little, and keep adding until it feels right.

- 2 lb rotisserie chicken, hand shredded (you can also cook 1-2 lbs of chicken meat yourself, but a rotisserie chicken makes the process a lot easier)
- 1/2 block of cream cheese
- 1/4 cup olive oil based mayonnaise
- 1/2-3/4 cup chopped fruit (I used grapes this time)
- 1/4 cup mixed sunflower and pumpkin seeds, toasted
- 2 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tsp thyme 
- 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

Set out block of cream cheese to soften. Hand shred your chicken into small pieces and put in a large mixing bowl. Put mixed seeds into a frying pan over medium-high heat. Mix until they start to sizzle and brown, and then pour over chicken. Add chopped fruit. In a separate bowl, mix cream cheese and mayonnaise until smooth. You want more cream cheese than mayo - the mayo just helps it all "hold together." Mix cream cheese and mayo into your large bowl with chicken and toppings. Add thyme and salt, and then mix thoroughly. Voila! 

Serve in a croissant, in a lettuce wrap, over cantaloupe, or by itself for light lunch or snack. 

Hugs, 
Madi

Pumpkin Parmesan Scones and Goat Cheese Spread

Okay, I know. Pumpkin is usually an autumn thing. During the months of September through November, websites like Pinterest are bursting at the seams with all kinds of pumpkin crafts and recipes. Pumpkin muffins, pancakes, pound cakes, cookies, smores, or roasted pumpkin; pumpkin in a soup, pumpkin in a stew, pumpkin in the slow cooker, etc. Pumpkin is just so darn tasty, with a few sweet notes like yams or butternut squash, but only a little more savory. 

Why does pumpkin have to be reserved for autumn? I can see why it doesn't fit the mood of summer, but I think hearty pumpkin dishes are great for winter as well. Since we are on our way out of winter now and into Spring (hooray!), I wanted to make one last thing with the good ol' pumpkin.

I had been eyeing this recipe over at Drizzle and Dip for a while. She said it was "easy," but I was a little bit suspicious. Especially since I tend to have awful luck with scones. Baking in general is not my forte, but my scones are especially bad. I'm just being honest with you. They either turn out really ugly or very biscuit-like instead of the nice, crumbly scones I intend to make. Amazingly, these actually turned out sooooo good for me. The texture was right on par, and the flavor was delicious. They are not sweet breakfast scones, but rather a more savory addition for a brunch or to snack on in the afternoon. The goat cheese spread really makes them, too. They would be great with butter or plain cream cheese, but if you can get your hands on some goat cheese, I would definitely try to use it. 

I modified the recipe a small bit to make do with what I had at the house.

Pumpkin Parmesan Scone with Thyme

[Serves 9-10

Prep: 15 minutes

Bake: 20-25 minutes]

Ingredients: 

- 3/4 can of cooked pumpkin

- 1/2 cup buttermilk (Note: I never want to buy a whole carton of buttermilk when most recipes only call for a portion of a cup. You can purchase dried buttermilk and add water, or, you can make a pseudo buttermilk at home. That's what I did today. Just take a cup of milk and add a tbsp of either lemon juice, white vinegar, or apple cider vinegar. I used apple cider vin. It doesn't have the same taste, but it accomplishes the same baking purposes)

- 2 1/2 cups self rising flour (Note: I only had all-purpose. So I used 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour plus 2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt for each cup to essentially make it into "self rising" flour)

- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1/2 tsp black pepper

- 2 tsp thyme - fresh chopped is best, but dried works too 

- 1 egg yolk and 1 tbsp buttermilk

- Sunflower seeds or pepitas (optional)

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 400 F. 

- Mix your flour, parmesan, salt, pepper, and thyme in a large bowl. 

- Add buttermilk and pumpkin, and lightly stir until combined. 

- Put your dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for just a minute or two, until it is sticky but firm. 

- Flour your hands and press the dough down to about 3-4 cm in height. 

- Use a cookie cutter (or whatever you have - of all the crazy gadgets we put on our wedding registry, I totally forgot about cookie cutters! An old drinking glass works fine) to cut round scones approximately 1.5-2 inches across.

- Place scones onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

- Brush the tops with your egg yolk and extra buttermilk. Sprinkle sunflower seeds or pepitas. 

- Bake until golden brown, around 20 minutes. 

Goat Cheese Spread

Ingredients:

- 1/2 package of cream cheese

- Equal amount of goat cheese

- 2-3 tbsp milk

Directions:

- Put all ingredients into a small bowl and whisk with electric mixer until light and creamy. 

- Spread on your warm scones and enjoy! 

Please let me know what you think.

Love,

Madi