Our Winter Garden - Part 2

....Continuing the saga of our winter garden. You will recall here that we had some critters that enjoyed our previous winter garden. The animal control man suggested that we put down wire and replant. The wire prevents our little animal friends from digging up our tender seedlings. And it worked!

Scott preparing the wire

The garden plot after the seeds were planted

The seedlings growing through the chicken wire

Peas

Cilantro

Carrots

Picked lettuce ready to prepare for tonight's dinner

Below is a picture of our garden today. With the chicken wire down, it makes it so the raccoons are not able to dig up the plants. It also makes it hard to weed the garden. If you click on the picture, you'll notice that weeds are growing along the wooden fence, not lettuce.

Please pass the salad.

Salad in a Jar

This has to be the coolest idea. Salad in a jar. Check out the recipe here. As as long as you are checking out the recipe, check out Paula's web page.

Waldorf Salad

chopped apples - to taste

chopped celery - to taste

drained crushed pineapple - to taste

*strawberry poppy seed dressing - to taste

Mix everything together.

We have been eating this salad a lot lately as a side dish for dinner. It is easy to make and tastes so good. I usually have some poppy seed dressing already made up in my fridge. I also have lots of canned crushed pineapple on hand in my cupboards.

Below is a picture of my chop wizard (In the picture it is chopping a red pepper. Don't get confused. There is no red pepper in this recipe. I just used this picture for another post.) I quarter and de-seed the apples and chop them using the chop wizard. I also use the chop wizard to chop my celery. As I said in a previous post, I use my chop wizard a lot. I got it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

*Strawberry Poppy Seed Dressing

2 C Mayonnaise
1/3 C half and half (if I don't have half and half, I just use milk)
2/3 C sugar
3-4 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
3-4 tablespoons strawberry jam
A few drops of red food coloring

Chicken Croissant Sandwich

1 Costco rotisserie chicken - de-boned and cut into small bite size pieces. Add the chicken drippings from bottom of the rotisserie container to make the meat moist.

Add:

• Lawry’s seasoned salt to taste*
• Mrs. Dash to taste*
• 1/2 bunch of Celery cut into small pieces
• 1 red pepper cut into small pieces
• Best Foods Mayonnaise (add enough to coat the chicken so that it is moist)
• 1 cup cashews (optional) -best if broken in pieces or halfs

Just before serving the sandwiches, add cashews (if you use them) and spread on croissant rolls that have been cut in half. Add a piece of leaf lettuce to each sandwich.

This is a modified version of Debbie Jones' recipe that you can get here.

I like to use the small setting on my chop wizard to cut my vegetables. You can get a chop wizard from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. (As a side note, I use my chop wizard all the time for different recipes such as making vegetable soup or salsa)

*When putting this together, I like to use generous amounts of seasonings. You don't need to use croissant rolls to put the chicken mixture on. I like the rolls that Smart and Final has available.

**One added bonus from making this recipe is that you can also make a pot of chicken broth from the chicken carcass and skin.

**How to get chicken broth from rotisserie chicken: After de-boning the meat, put the chicken carcass and skin into a pot. Cover with water and boil on the stove for 30 - 60 minutes. When it has cooled little bit cool, take out bones and skin with a slotted spoon. Then put the broth into the fridge. The next day, skim off the fat that has risen to the top. Put the broth into a ziploc bag or another container and put it into the freezer for for future use. Or you can leave the broth in the fridge if you are going to use it within the week. You now have a batch of nutritious chicken broth to use as a base for any other soup recipe such as cream of broccoli soup or chicken noodle soup or any other chicken soup found in my soup section.