Attnetion all of you in a relationship with a Tarus: we love food. We want you to cook us a birthday dinner if at all possible. Here some more of my Grandmother's recipes
Benedictine/Cucumber Dip
Chicken Salad
Baked Chicken
In Kentucky, we called this Benedictine. (It has nothing to do with the liquor, you know we just drink bourbon there anyway!) My Ama called it Cucumber Dip. It's easy to make and delicious. I like it on BLT's (in place of mayo).
Blend:
1 pkg. cream cheese
1 cucumber (peeled)
6 minced shallots
2 tbsp. sour cream
pinch dill weed
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
You can either blend it entirely smoothly or leave it with a few chunks of cucumber here and there. It's great as a dip with club or similar crackers.
Ama's Favorite Chicken Salad
This recipe is actually mine but it was Ama's favorite thing to eat. You can do this with leftover chicken and ignore my chicken-cooking step. It's best the way it is here though.
Boil whole chicken (the yummiest way, you then use all but the breasts & thighs, along with the broth0 for soup) or 4 chicken breasts with enough water to cover and:
1 onion
heart of celery (the part in the middle of the stalks - the sort of yellowish center)
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. thyme
few sprigs parsley
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. white pepper
dash Lowrey's
Remove breasts, thighs, cool. (Add noodles, matzo or veg to broth to make soup, dumplings for chicken & dumplings).
Add juice of about 1/4 lemon, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper to the chicken while cooling. When cool, shred with 2 forks or chop into chunks.
Add finely chopped celerly and scallions (including bulbs) to taste. How finely you chop is actually up to how crunchy you like the salad. Less is more. I use about 3 celerly stalks, 4 of scallion.
Add quartered white grapes and slivered almonds.
Add enough Hellmans' or Dukes' (has to be one of these or it won't taste right) mayonaise to make it all stick together. Mix with a fork, adding salt and white pepper to taste. (You have to keep tasting it to get this just right). Chill for at least 1 hour.
Ama's Baked Chicken
Pre-heat oven to 425. Wash whole chicken/remove innards. Rub with, inside and out:
Thyme
White Pepper
Lowrey's or Crazy Jane's Mixed up Salt
Dot with butter or pour a little wesson oil over chicken. Stuff with whole onion & hearts of celery (this is for flavor not to be eaten as a stuffing side-dish. If you want actual stuffing, omit this and add that.)
Bake until leg shakes loose (or, in an ideal situation, the pop-up timer in the chicken when you buy it pops up)
