Granddad Franklin's Potato Salad

10 white potatoes, still warm
2 medium peppers
2 celery stalks
1 onion
1 large tomato
1 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp celery seed
4 oz pimentos
1 cup sweet pickle relish

Cut and mix? I haven't made this yet--maybe I'll sit down with Grandma tomorrow and figure some more detailed directions out. She is apparently the only family member (aside from Great-Granddad Franklin himself) who can make this potato salad right.

Scott's Pasta Salad

1 pound pasta
2 heads broccoli
1/2 head cauliflower
2 carrots
1 cup chopped chicken
1 red or yellow pepper, chopped and raw
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup freshly shredded Parmesan cheese
Salt & fresh ground pepper to taste

Cook and drain pasta. Cut broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots in bite-size pieces and steam until tender-crisp. Throw everything except the cheese into a big bowl and mix it up. The hot pasta will take a little of the edge off the raw garlic. Add the cheese last, on top of each serving if you like.

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I haven't tried making this recipe yet, but when I ate it (straight from the Kirner kitchen) for the first time, it was amazing. Now that I've rediscovered the recipe, I will make it soon!

Avocado: fruit or vegetable?

Notes to remember:

My mom keeps making this great lime chicken, which mostly involves sauteeing chicken breasts in butter, lime juice, and garlic powder. I added avocado to mine, yum!

Also made a really quick avocado smoothie with avocado, milk, and chocolate syrup, all mashed up and dumped in a cup drizzled with more chocolate. If I felt like getting the blender dirty I'd blend it all up with ice, but I'm just too lazy tonight.

I think I'll fix something for John and Betsie on Sunday and leave it in their fridge for them to find when they get hungry (after they fly back from Texas). I'm leaning toward lime chicken with avocado and my favorite fruit salad. I wonder if those two would go together at all...guess I'll try it and find out. Oh, and I'll add some grape tomatoes to the chicken, because there are a thousand of them coming off Betsie's plants. Yeah. We'll see what happens.

Chicken with Goat Cheese and Artichoke Hearts

Yay, I get to post my own recipe now! I guess technically I stole it from Bonefish Grill, but I don't remember them putting capers or chives in their dish... =) Let's see if I can remember what I did this time, and hopefully I can go back and figure out some specific measurements at some point.

Cut chicken breast into bite-sized pieces. Melt butter in skillet or pan along with chopped chives and parsley and cook chicken. Deglaze pan with milk or cream, add capers and artichoke hearts and reduce. Top with goat cheese medallions or crumbles.

I confess...I haven't tested the last bit yet, with the cheese. I'll have a verdict after lunch tomorrow. I can see where with the sauce it'd be too much creamy stuff, but I'm hoping if I use it sparingly it'll fly. When I added milk and cream, I also put in some flour because it looked like it was going to be really thin. It was probably quite unnecessary, because I just had to add like another cup of milk to make it liquidy again. I have a hunch that heating and reducing would have worked just fine. I'll make this again at some point and refine. Ooh exciting, I'm a real chef!

I plan to serve this tomorrow with broccoli and fruit salad (made with pineapple, red grapes, blueberries, and strawberries and maybe some wheat thins on the side. I'm meeting John for lunch with this, so I put some extra time into it. As in, I actually planned what I was going to make (colors and everything) before even going to the store. Amazing! I think I'll take the rest of that cucumber soup along as well, it needs to get eaten, and I want to spread the word about it. That recipe will be along very soon, promise.