With A Little Help From My Friends

One of my absolute favorite things in the world of cooking is when you have something fabulous cooked by one of your friends/family.  I was thinking about the inspiration I get from my friends and was inspired as a part of this blog to include a series of recipes/ideas that I get from my friends. 

This salad was AMAZING! My friend, Shannon, blessed me with a taste of this and I couldn't get it off my mind.  What's in the salad?  Arugala, feta cheese, and a roasted tomato with balsamic vinegar & olive oil (a little salt & pepper). So I decided I should add something to the salad as well to make it more my own.  What did I add? Peaches- the sweet taste of the peaches balanced the salad so well and it was awesome. 

Another Challenge- I am a HUGE MESS and have asked one of my friends, Sonya, for a recipe for her chicken salad for ages and she keeps giving it to me and I have lost it everytime.  So I tried to develop it from taste and memory.  It was so much fun to try different ideas out and then execute them and get the result.

  What did I put in the chicken salad?
Chicken:  I boiled the chicken to cook it but you can always season and then bake
Small Clam Noodles
Cut up Pickles
Mayo
A pinch of grey poupon
salt
pepper
feta cheese (added later)
I also added chopped onion and celery salt (which would have been actual celery but I didn't have any)

First Ice Cream

It is always fun working with kids in the kitchen.  Although sometimes it can bring a lot of chaos it is also a great way to bond.  It is also a great way to work on units of measure, sharing, hand-eye coordination, and lots of other great skills.  And what could be yummier to make with a child than ice cream? 

For our first ice cream we made a French Vanilla with a simple cream base and then mixed in oreo cookies to make the perfect cookies and cream.  It was delicious and turned out great!  The texture was exactly what we were aiming for and Wyatt had a blast watching the dessert in all of the various stages.