Wednesday, June 9, 2010

A Great Summer Dinner


I so enjoyed my dinner tonight, I thought I'd share it with you - the recipes, not the actual meal!
Silly.

I made it early in the day, so it could chill properly.
It was great just pulling it out of the fridge and enjoying it at suppertime. I'd forgotten all the work involved!

Chicken Salad on Honey Oat Bread
(not putting the recipe on for the bread - I will another time.

Pasta Salad

Strawberry Pie

I hope you will enjoy these recipes!
They are sure to be added to your favorites.

Chicken Salad

4 cups cooked, chopped chicken
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
2 green onions, chopped
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

1 cup mayonnaise (I only use Hellmans)
1 t paprika
1 t seasoning salt
pepper to taste

In a large bowl, mix the mayo, paprika and salt. Add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well, and chill thoroughly.

Pasta Salad

16 oz shell pasta (or bowtie, or gemelli - what ever you'd like), cooked and drained.
8 oz of italian dressing
1/2 bottle of McCormick Salad Supreme
2 medium cucumbers, chopped (I seed mine)
a bunch of grape tomatoes, quartered - I just put enough to where it looks right
1 large red onion, chopped
2 medium green peppers, chopped

Combine all, and refrigerate overnight.


Strawberry Pie

Baked pie shell.

8 cups of medium strawberries (the in season berries will taste the best!)
2/3 cup of sugar
2 T cornstarch

Whipped cream

Clean and hull strawberries, if any are larger than bite size, cut in half. Set aside.

For the glaze - mash one cup of the strawberries and 2/3 cup of water. Add more water if needed to equal 1 and a 1/2 cups of strawberry mash. In a small saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch and strawberry mixture. Cook, stirring constantly until mixture begins to thicken and bubble. Cook two minutes more. Cool mixture for ten minutes, without stirring.

Spread about 1/4 cup of the glaze over the bottom of the pie crust. Arrange half of the plain strawberries over the glaze. Carefully spoon half the remaining glaze over the berries. Repeat with the other half of the berries and glaze.

Keep in fridge for two hours.
Best if eaten the same day - as filling may weep.