MY OWN Creamy Pasta Chicken Salad

Having prepared too much chicken from the previous night's Chicken Cordon Bleu Calzones, I decided to use up some of the food stuffs I already had on hand, and combine them into a tasty light lunch.

I prepared a box of large shell pasta, and then rinsed, drained, and chilled the noodles. Meanwhile I combined some chopped/shredded chicken, mayo, and spices such as garlic powder, onion, celery salt, dill weed, and pepper. I combined the noodles with the wet mixture and voila!- Creamy Pasta Chicken Salad. My husband ate it, had seconds, and ate it the second day, but he hasn't commented on the dish, except for asking if this was one of the recipes. My oldest son, LOVED the dish and has asked for it at a few meals. SCORE!

Publish Post

Chicken Cordon Bleu Calzones

Today's blog is about the Chicken Cordon Bleu Calzones As discussed earlier, I intend on following the "spirit" of recipes and not doing everything exactly by the book. In Wednesday's case (the day I actually prepared the meal) I omitted the mushrooms, since I know my DH wouldn't care for them, and switched the provolone cheese to swiss, which I already had on hand.


The meal turned out fine, although I must admit the chicken was a bit tough, and the puff pastry took a lot longer to cook that suggested, and it still came out undercooked, but the meal tasted yummy.

I did struggle with the assembly part. I wasn't sure if I should wrap the ham around the chicken, or just drape it over, and I wasn't sure WHERE to put the sauce, or exactly HOW to close the calzone.

Despite the over-cooked chicken and undercooked pastry, my husband DID like it, and so did I, which I suppose is more important. I served the meal with buttered white rice and a simple salad.

Spinach Cheese Manicotti

I made Spinach Cheese Manicotti for Sunday "dinner" (which is what I call the Sunday mid-day meal- I call the evening meal "supper", but only on Sundays for some weird reason).

I pre-cooked the noodles before church so that would be ready for me when I got home. When I got ready to assemble the cheese I realized I hadn't gotten one of the ingredients- cream cheese. No biggie, I just winged it... I added more mozzarella cheese, and an egg to help bind the ricotta and the mozzarella together (something I frequently do when making lasagna, and that was actually part of the recipe on the back of the manicotti shell box as well.) I didn't follow the recipe exactly in other areas, I used a store bought sauce and omitted the garlic. In many of my future endeavors I plan on following the SPIRIT of the recipe anyway, so this was just par for the course.

When it was time to fill the shells I wanted to try a trick I'd seen on a Martha Stewart show... didn't work for me. I spooned the combined cheese into a plastic bag and cut off a tip, so it would be like a pastry bag. I don't think my plastic bag was strong enough (I used a cheap store-brand) and I must not have had the technique right. I ended up breaking most of the shells, so I just spilt them all down the side, laid them flat on a plate, squirted a line of cheese in the center and then rolled it back up- I should have done that from the beginning, it was much easier.

I plated the meal with salad and a yummy garlic crescent roll that I had seen at the grocery store's bakery department. I still hadn't told him the name of the disk. When I asked my DH for a star rating (like 4 out of 5 stars) he just rolled his eyes. I asked for suggestions or comments, and he said slowly, "there was a lot of green stuff inside." Duh- it was the Spinach. I'll admit that I'd never cooked spinach before, and it's only been in the house in baby/raw form for salads, so perhaps I should have prepared him for the spinach-ness about it, but I didn't think it tasted too spinach-y.

I will definitely make this recipe again, or at least a lasagna version with the spinach, and I'd probably make the recipe again like I did this first time, w/out the cream cheese and with the homemade sauce.

(PHOTO TAKEN FROM THE TASTE OF HOME WEBSITES)

Something New

Since the official project is not underway, and I had some leftover spaghetti sauce (that apparently my husband doesn't like) I decided to try something new.

I sprayed my baking dish with nonstick spray and placed frozen chicken tenders inside. I basted the chicken with the leftover sauce and baked it in the oven until done. About half way through the bake time I sprinkled the chicken with bread crumbs. Meanwhile I cooked some penne pasta.

The dish was served with buttered garlic bread (wish I had some salad), lightly buttered pasta and sliced chicken with a sprinkle of cheese.

Baking the sauce reduced it nicely and made the sauce much sweeter than normal. I wished I would have had some fresh seasonings to add, more sharp cheese, and some nice cooking oil to put on the pasta.

I guess my husband liked it well enough. He asked if it was one of my new recipes, and I told him it was something I just kinda put together. Don't know if they helped or hurt my case for trying new things. I just didn't have the heart to tell him that the dish was made mostly because I didn't want to let the opened pasta sauce go to waste.

Taste of Home Annual Recipes Book

After some thought, I've decided to start working my way through one of my "Taste of Home" Annual Recipes books- I have books from 2002 and 2001, however I've chosen to begin in the 2002 book since a few of the recipes have peaked my interest more.


I'm trying to decide HOW FAR out of my comfort zone I'm wanting to go when preparing dishes. For example, I don't eat fish very often, and have only cooked it a few times in my whole life. Excluding a half dozen time visiting a fish house in Pensacola, my knowledge of fish is primarily from Gorton's and Starkist.
The inspiration from for my project, the Julie Powell from the Julie/Julia Project went out of her comfort zone and ate eggs- for basically the first time ever. So should I too expand my culinary mind and skill by preparing AND eating fish as well? I have yet to decide, but feel free to comment on this topic.

What is a Recipe?

So what is a "recipe" let alone a recipe for success? According to a dictionary, "recipe" means:

1) a set of directions with a list of ingredients for making or preparing something
2) a formula for or means to a desired end
3) a method for achieving some desired objective

I'm learning there is no "one-size-fits-all" recipe for success, thus the blog title "DB" (my initials) recipe- this will be an account of my journey. Inevitably not all attempts will be successful, but I think that my failures will also help me to build upon successes and become happier along the way.

I hope to post some photos along the way of my scrumptious foods, and perhaps some of the the other successes in my life, whether it be organizing an area of thehouse, or tackling another project, I'm hoping this venue will encourage me to attempt successes, and result in a better ME.

First Post

My current dilemma is determining what type of cookbook I will attempt to cook through. Since my children are (currently) 6 1/2, 5 1/2, and 4 I will be cooking mainly for me and my husband, although I'd like to expand my children's palette. Selecting the Julia Child's book at this point in my children's lives is undo able. I've considered working through the Martha Stewart cookbook, however I admit I don't think I have all the gadgets that her type of cooking would require.

At this point I am leaning towards more practical cooking, such as Rachel Ray or possibly Paula Deen. At first mention of the project (not the accompanying blog) my DH wasn't that helpful with suggestions. It looks as if I might need to take a trip to the library or a store in order to see what type of cookbook would best work into my life.