And the Whoogas go to.....

Jeanne of Simple Math Bakery will be warming her soles with her choice of ugg bots courtesy of Whooga Boots!!!  Thanks to all of you who left a comment. And if you didn't win and have a blog, you can still enter the giveaway at Whooga Boots by displaying their badge on your own blog.And a special thanks to our friends across the pond at Whooga Boots.

Stay tuned because another giveaway is coming  that will answer the age old question....Where's the beef!!

Adoptive Mom.... of a New Blogger!

Wouldn't you think with 6 kids I would have had enough of being a mom? But when I saw that Kristen of Dine and Dish had a new crop of baby bloggers who wanted a blog mentor, I thought about when I started my blog and how people helped and encouraged me (Tanya Wenman Steel at Epi-Log, Anne of Cooking with Anne, Glenna of A Fridge Full of Food to name a few) and I thought this was a great idea. So I threw my name into the hat and I was paired with Tanya at Take the Cannoli, a great pairing since we have just the right number of commonalities and differences to make things interesting.

First of all Tanya is young, while I am, well...vintage. Tanya lives in a metropolis known for food (Chicago), while I live in an area where you really have to scramble (or cook your own) to find really great food (Newport News VA). I have six children and have been married for 34 years, while Tanya and her husband are relative newlyweds. Tanya is a real professional baker, while I am a rank amateur home cook. However, we both love food and blogging about our food and cooking experiences, Tanya loves vintage (she should love me since I am vintage '50s!) and I love antiques, Tanya likes to bake desserts and I like to eat them, so I think we have something to build on.

I have been monitoring Tanya's blog since we were paired and I see that she is making one of my recipes (actually my lone dessert) for Dew-licious Turnovers. I have already found several things from Tanya including a group who bakes cookies and sends them to the troops (already signed up) and a recipe for cupcakes with Mountain Dew (need to try it). Tanya has also, after losing her regular job as a baker (damn economy!) has started her own baking business, so if you are in the Chicago area, check her out at Sweet Baker Lady.

We will be keeping in touch and I will be keeping you all in the loop as well, so stop by Tanya's blog and welcome her to the blogosphere..... you bring the coffee, she'll have the baked goods!

Put your best food forward-An exchange!

Exchanges are a lot of fun and a great way to meet other bloggers. I have participated in two, one a Halloween exchange hosted by Elizabeth of Mommy Cooks and the recent One World One Heart exchange hosted by Lisa Oceandreamer of Heart of the Nest and Imagination Cafe . Both were fun since you have the joy of both giving and receiving. Kristen, of One and Two Makes Three, and a new diet/food blog called Lick the Spoon who was my exchange partner in the Halloween exchange is hosting an exhange that closes at midnight tonight. The premise is simple, share the best of your city/state/region with another blogger. This has great potential- Boston baked beans, new england clam chowder, Idaho potatoes, Kansas City steak... you see the trend. Now you know exchanges are only successful if you have lots of bloggers, so check out Kristen's site before midnight and sign up for the "best of" exchange!

And the winner is......

The One World, One Heart giveaway is finally over. I received seventy-seven entries (visits) representing 24 states in the US as well as entries from eight foreign countries. I am not sure which was more fun, reading each of the comments or visiting the many (I think the number went over 400!) participants and their blogs. There were entrants who lived in cities like NY and Chicago and some who lived in America's heartland. I really enjoyed checking out the sites of those entrants from other countries, and reading about them and what they were passionate about.

Over the last week I have seen amazing photographs, original artwork, handcrafted papers and jewelry, quilts and needlework. So many people putting so much love and creativity into what they make with their own hands. There were many many more crafting blogs participating than food blogs, so it was fun for me to get a peek into another blogging world.

But I am sure that you all really don't want to hear my ramblings at this point, what you really want to know is who won the homemade coconut cream eggs (pictured right waiting for their dark chocolate bath) to be delivered before Easter. I used a random number generator, and the winner is Nancy of NancyLuvsPix, somewhere in the US! I will be sending Nancy an email and the rest of you will be grateful when you step on your scales after Easter! Thank all of you for stopping by my blog and entering this giveaway.

I will definitely particpate again and look forward to taking a more leisurely look at the many bloggers who responded to the giveaway, and I hope that many of you will become regular guests at my cyber-kitchen table.

One World, One Heart Giveaway!

With the blogosphere, you have the whole world in your hands (or at least at your fingertips!), and no event helps bloggers cross geographical borders like the One Heart, One World event. To encourage participation, bloggers are supposed to offer a giveaway, and so here is mine- 1 dozen handmade bitesize coconut Easter eggs, made from my family recipe (I you want to see how involved it is, check out my archives- my eggs were an entry in WTSIM Easter Basket event).

To enter, leave a comment to this post and on Valentine's Day, I will randomly select a name from comments received to get these rich delicious morsels before Easter! Be sure to check out the OHOW blogroll to discover new friends, there are over 280 participants! Good surfing and good luck!

P.S. Hey food bloggers- the arts and crafts bloggers outnumber us in this event- check it out and sign up!

Waiter There's Something in my.... topless tart!

Besides sounding the the punch line of an off-color joke, this is the theme for the monthly WTSIM blog event hosted this month by

Cook Sister! and as usual I am getting in just under the wire. I have not participated in WTSIM since there was something in my Easter Basket, but besides the incredibly rich humor potential in this month's theme, I actually made a recipe that fits in for a Wednesday tapas (no, not topless!) night that is both topless and a tart, and I thought this would be as good a time as any to share.

If you have followed my blog at all, you know that just about every Wednesday night we have a tapas night with our friend "Evil" David, where both of us make several small dishes. It is a time for us to try new things, explore new ingredients or combinations. If they turn out, it is great, but if not, it is a lesson learned, and we move on. Tapas night has included great successes such as a venison backstrap with a drunken dark cherry sauce, grilled sardines, and bulgogi and some real disasters like the time David's watermelon puree for his planned granita was spewed all over my kitchen and cabinets due to an ill-fitting blender lid. It took weeks before things were no longer sticky again.

Tapas also has become a way to experiment with and use up seasonal bounty- summer's zucchini, tomatoes and corn, fall beets and spinach , venison and winter squash in cold weather- all of these have found their way to the tapas table. And that is how we got to the topless tart that is my entry in the WTSIM...

I came up with this recipe as a way to use the last of the really good locally grown tomatoes and some goat cheese I had to create a light dish. I confess to using an all-ready pie crust for the bottom of this tart, but if you had time you could, of course, make your own. Now that great tomatoes are not as easily come by I would try oven roasting some tomatoes first to sweeten and intensify their flavor. In the summer this is a nice light lunch or a dinner with a big green salad. So give this topless tart a try when you need something light and luscious and hot (okay, okay, enough innuendo!)

Tomato and Goat Cheese (Topless) Tart

1 refrigerated all-ready pie crust

1-2 tablespoons pesto

3 large vine-ripened tomatoes thinly sliced (if tomatoes are out of season, roast sliced tomatoes in slow oven with a drizzle of olive oil for about 30 minutes)

4 ounces goat cheese crumbled

Press pie crust into a tart pan and crimp sides. Brush bottom of crust with pesto, and place sliced tomatoes in overlapping even layers.Slating and peppering each layer. Crumble cheese over top of tomatoes. Bake in 375 degree oven about 20 minutes or until crust is done, tomatoes are bubbly and cheese is soft and brown. Cut in squares or wedges and serve warm or at room temperature.

Halloween Swap!

Elizabeth of MommyChef hosted a Halloween Swap. Bloggers who wanted to participate sent Elizabeth a brief description of themselves and then Elizabeth matched us up. Participants were to plan, assemble and send a package of Halloween-related items and recipients were to post about their packages. Well, since I love Halloween, this was a no-brainer for me. I sent Elizabeth my info and waited.

It wasn't long before I got my assignment, a young (probably young enough to be my daughter) mom in Utah, Kristen of One and Two Make Three. Already I was excited, since the Wintle family includes a little girl, Allyson, meaning I got to factor her in while putting together a package. Since my youngest child is now a preteen, this was a definite plus for me. I began checking in with the Wintles and really enjoying the pictures of Ally and reading about their family life.

I began planning what I wanted to send, some things that the Wintles could incorporate into their Halloween traditions, and and something that they could pull out on subsequent Halloweens that would remind them of me and the rest of the Dowd family. I wanted to include something that would be unique to our region, and something that captured the fun and flavor of the season. In the midst of this preparation and planning, Molly broke her leg at school and besides my full time job, part-time consulting, blog, and just being a mom, suddenly my life was full of ortho consults, x-rays, crutches, wheelchairs, icepacks, and tons of make-up schoolwork.

As we finally started to get back into somewhat of a semi-normal routine, we took our last-of- the-year camping trip with our friends Julie, Anthony and Lilly, and when we returned, there was a box from the Wintle family waiting for us.

The girls were so excited, that they wouldn't even let me finish unpacking the car before we had to open the package. Seriously, it was just like Christmas! After I found the scissors and cut the tape that held the seams of the box together, we opened the flaps and there was a rolled up scroll nestles in a bed of shredded paper that directed us to read it first.

Kristen had clearly taken as much time packaging as she had selecting, with each item having its own note, and contained in a Halloween-themed bag, which made each item like a seperate gift. We pulled out our treasures one by one, with everyone ooh-ing and aah-ing.

There were Kristen's favorite sugar cookie recipe and a pumpkin cookie cutter (I didn't have one!) and some black annd orange sprinkles that we put to work that very evening, decoration Bridget's birthday cake!

The girls' favorite was a terrific CD of Halloween themed music and sounds which we promptly listened too, and were so excited to use on Halloween night!

Kristen also included some really cute decorative items that are now part of our Halloween tradition. I show a picture that we took when we unwraped them and then another picture to show you that these items immediately found a home in our house!

This swap was so much fun and I hope that Kristen and the Wintle family enjoyed the items that we all selected for her, and the next time you see the opportunity to participate in a swap, grab it! It really is as much fun to give as to receive! P.S. Kristen, your package was boo-tiful!

Weekend Herb Blogging-Veal chops with white wine and fresh sage

If you are following this blog you know that my days and nights lately have been taken up painting, scraping, priming a rental property that my family owns, and that after 8 hours of said activity, food has to be fast, simple and light. It turns out that necessity is the mother of invention, because some of my dinners in the last week have been, well, inspired (or maybe the food tastes good because we are so hungry!)

Last night, I made a dish that turned out really well and seemed a perfect entry for Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging, so here I am! First, let me start with the star of this meal- a pair of veal chops. Okay, call me a bohunk, but I had never had veal chops before, because they don't show up often where I shop, and when they did, they were incredibly expensive. However, with the number of people I have to cook for declining, when I saw a two-pack of these chops at Harris Teeter marked down from $11.45 to $1.97, I bought them and popped them in the freezer for a day when only Gavin, Molly and I would be there for dinner. Last night after 8 hours in rental renovation mode was the perfect night to play with these chops (and for $1.97, I could afford to have fun!)

In the supporting role was some tricolor sage that we have been growing as part of our "rolling garden" (pictured right) Because we do not have a lot of sun in our backyard, my husband started a container garden and put it in out old garden cart which he can move around to get maximum sunlight! The added advantage is that the multitudes of bunnies cannot reach my tender herbs!

I browned the chops in a pan in a little olive oil, salt and pepper and a chiffonade(this means I stacked the leaves on top of one another and cut into thin ribbons) of the fresh sage. Once the chops were browned on both sides I added some white wine and cooked until the chops were medium-rare. The chops were light in flavor (like a moister pork chop, with a more delicate flavor), and really delicious, so if you find some chops marked down to $1.97, you should give veal chops a try! I served these with a mixture of spinach and canellini beans cooked in garlic, and it was a big hit! I just wish I had taken a picture!

Veal Chops with White Wine and Fresh Sage Chiffonade (doesn't this sound really complicated!)

2 veal chops (or one per person if you are cooking for more than two)

12-20 sage leaves

1 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 cup white wine

Salt and pepper to taste

Put oil in pan and heat until just starting to smoke. Add chops and brown on both sides, adding a grind or two of salt and pepper. Lower to medium heat, add sage leaves and slowly add white wine, and cook covered for 10-15 minutes. Serve chops with the pan juices poured over.

Silence speaks louder than words

Weekend Herb Blogging - Salt Roasted Rosemary Potatoes

I have been seeing posts since I started blogging for Weekend
Herb Blogging, the brainchild of Kalyn over at Kalyn's Kitchen, but until this weekend, I have not participated. However, I was visiting Anh at Food Lover's Journey who is hosting this edition of WHB and I thought of a recipe that would qualify and that would be appropriate for Easter as well, so here I am. Like a lot of my recipes, I can't remember where this idea originally came from, but I have been making it for quite awhile and it is one of my favorite ways to make (and eat) potatoes. While you may be put off by the amount of salt used... don't be. The finished product is delicious and when you break the potatoes out of the salt crust, only enough salt is left to flavor the potatoes and the rosemary is infused into the potatoes. The bonus? The aroma while they bake is incredible.

First, let's start with the star for this event, the rosemary. When we bought this house, it had a huge yard and I had a fantasy that we could have a kitchen garden by my door, but the sun wasn't really right, so we had to compromise. To satisfy my desire to have fresh herbs right outside my door, I have two large clay pots one witha large bay tree (that is actually outgrowing the pot ) and the other has a large rosemary bush and oregano, (seen to the right, you can see that I haven't started spring cleaning outside yet!) I use this rosemary all the time for cooking and even cut sprigs to tie onto a gift bottle of wine when we go to a friend's for dinner. No matter the weather, wind, Hurricane Isabel, snow on April 7 (yesterday!), this rosemary bush doesn't seem to suffer, and it finds its way to our dinner table at least once a week.

And this recipe is one of my favorites (Surprise! the Irish woman likes potatoes!)

Salt Roasted Rosemary Potatoes

5-8 small potatoes (red or Yukon Gold are great), enough to fit snugly in a 9 inch cake pan

3 cups coarse Kosher salt

1/2 cup white flour

The leaves stripped off of 2 4-inch long stalks of rosemary

1/2 cup water

Optional (not really, once you've tasted this you won't want these any other way) :

Sour cream

Caviar or fresh chives chopped

Wash the potatoes and place them in a pan that accomodates the potatoes just touching and touching the sides of the pan. Mix the salt and flour together, until well mixed, then slowly add water until it forms a crumbly "dough". sprinkle in the leaves of rosemary and mix well. Spoon the salt into the spaces between the potatoes and the pan and cover tops with salt mixture. Pat down until firm. Place in the oven at 350 degrees and bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and invert pan onto plate. Break the potatoes out of the salt crust and serve warm with sour cream and either chives or caviar.

This is a great dish to have for company, it is so dramatic to bring to the table. It looks almost like you are breaking the potatoes out of a bed of ice crystals. Try it... you and your guests will be impressed!

Waiter, There's something in my .... Easter Basket!

I know it is not good to take advantage of the misfortune of others but since the host of the WTISIM... Easter Basket! event is taking advantage of her children's illness to extend the deadline over at the Passionate Cook, I was inspired to take advantage to share a recipe I was already planning on posting. This is a family recipe for coconut cream Easter eggs that came from my mother-in-law, Virginia. When I was newly married she showed me how to make these, and over the years I think I am the last child or in-law to still make them. I usually make a huge batch because I give them to friends, family and coworkers. When my mother-in-law made them she would make the cream and knead it for 15 minute every night for a week to get the creamy coconut flavor, but now, with mixers with dough hooks you can make short work of the kneading and still have a rich and creamy outcome. This recipe makes about 8 large multi-serving eggs an about 30 2-inch "bite-size" eggs. You could easily cut this recipe in half, if you like. I know a lot of people buy their eggs from church groups, but at least once you should try making them yourself.... they put the commercial ones to shame. I have always wanted to color part of the fondant yellow to make "yolks" in my eggs, but I am either in a hurry or forget until the eggs are formed. I dip mine in a mixture of bittersweet chocolate and paraffin which make the chocolate easier to handle and the finished product smooth and shiny. You could use semisweet, but I prefer the darker chocolate as a counter to the sweet richness of the coconut cream. Believe me, once you try these you will want the waiter to leave these in your Easter basket!

Dowd Family Coconut Cream Eggs

2 sticks butter softened

1/2 15 ounce can of cream of coconut

10 cups confectioners sugar

1/2 tablespoon coconut extract

1 1/2 14 ounce bags of flaked coconut

For dipping:

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate

1/2 of one sheet of paraffin (used for canning)

Begin with mixer using mixing blade to cream butter, cream of coconut and coconut extract. Add sugar 2 cups at a time, mixing after each addition. Once you have mixed in all ten cups of sugar, the mixture should look a lot like bread dough(it should pull cleanly away fro the sides of the bowl and form large ball) Take off blade and mix coconut in by hand. Then, using dough hook attachment,knead fondant until it is smooth, shiny and doesn't stick to your hands. If you don't have a mixer with dough hook attachment you can knead by hand for 3 10-minute periods (great for pecs and upper arms!- if you can do all 30 minutes at one time you should be on a body-building blog!).

Once the fondant is ready you can form the eggs. The larger size are great for giving, and these eggs freeze very well and so can be frozen and eaten a bit at a time (several of our friends and neighbors would eat theirs slice by slice). Line a cookie sheet with either waxed paper or parchment and once all eggs are formed, place eggs in freezer to firm. You will know you have done a great job if, when you are done this part, your kitchen and the front of your clothes or apron are covered with powdered sugar!

The final step is to dip the eggs in chocolate . Melt the chocolate and paraffin together in a pan over boiling water (my kitchen equipment doesn't include a double boiler!). Do not leave this mixture unattended! Once the chocolate and paraffin are melted and mixed together, take the eggs from the freezer for dipping. You will need a couple of cold cookie sheets with parchment for this process, which is the most time-consuming (for me, at least!) I use a two-prong meat fork and stick it into the side of the eggs , dipping them, and then placing them on the sheet, using the back of a spoon to remove the fork, then quickly use a little melted chocolate to cover the fork holes. Those of you who are more experienced candy-makers may have a better and prettier technique (and if you do, please share it!) The smaller eggs are a lot quicker and easier . Once all are dipped, set in freezer again until chocolate is set. If you like you can use frosting and personalize eggs, drizzle with white chocolate, whatever suits you. The eggs then need to be refrigerated until ready to eat. They are best if you take them out an hour before you want to eat them to allow them to come to room temperature.

So thanks to Passionate Cook for this great event (and thank her for the extra pounds you see on your scale and the temporary spike in your cholesterol!- but hey, Easter is only once a year!)

What's in (on) my refrigerator?

It has been awhile since Michael of Chicken-Fried Gourmet tagged me with a meme to show what is in my refrigerator. Okay, Michael, I am a working mother who blogs. When I saw that you tagged me, I wanted to do all of the following: 1) buy a new refrigerator (my preference pictured right), 2) take the day off and clean my existing refrigerator, 3) Go to Trader Joe's and fill my fridge with triple cream brie and beluga caviar. However, reality (and finances) prevailed and so I waited for a weekend when I had time, tidied up and took inventory so Michael would not think I had forgotten or worse, was ignoring him. Besides, I started this blog to make cooking approachable, and what could be more approachable than a fridge whose contents go from Velveeta to venison?!

First of all, because this blog centers on cooking for a family, what is on the outside of my fridge is as important as what is inside. To the left you see my fridge from the outside, plastered with appointment reminders, papers with good grades, certificates, a picture of us all at Katie's college graduation party, the operating calendar for Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and phone numbers of whomever the kids were with last. You know, when it was brand new in the showroom, its stark white double doors looked so neat...

but our house is not a showroom but a home, and so...



I am putting off showing you the inside, but part of blogging is opening up, even if it is your refrigerator! So ta-da! Here it is to the right with the fridge and freezer open (you can see I spent less time on the freezer!)



So what is in there? Here is a partial list:



Meat: Some chorizo, turkey bacon, Jamestown Sausage (you caught me, it's my husband's addiction), a defrosting flank steak I am stuffing with blue cheese for dinner and a defrosting whole turkey for tomorrow's dinner



Cheese: Cambia artisan blue, Land O Lakes White American slices from the deli (my sister in law loves this cheese and turned us on to it), Kraft American, Manchego, neufchatel, Dubliner, and some Emmenthaler, Feta



Staples: Sundried tomatoes, Artichoke hearts, chipotle peppers in adobo, capers, chili and garlic sauce, butter(for cooking) and Smart Balance (for eating), anchovies,



Condiments: Mayo, 5 kinds of mustard including Trader Joe's Sweet and Hot, Honeycup (my favorite), French's and Dijon, and jalapeno dijon, Ketchup, Alfredo Sauce, pesto,



Miscellaneous: Buttermilk (remainder used from a recipe for soda bread, skim milk, Perrier (bought for a dinner guest who had wine instead), Diet Pepsi, Ruby Red grapefruit juice, Kirkland bottled water (where would we be without Costco?), eggs (real and Eggbeaters), yogurt (I love the Trader Joe's Mediterranean); Sliced roast beef and baby swiss cheese for sandwiches.



Produce: Asparagus, Celery, Romaine, Lemons, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Onions, scallions, radishes



Leftovers: Feta-stuffed chicken breasts (from a recipe I got from Elizabeth at Mommy Cooks), Homemade barbecue pulled pork



Okay, so now I feel so much better- I responded to a meme and cleaned out my fridge and posted all in the same day. Now, I have to tag someone. If you have been tagged previously, I apologize, but if not, open up those fridge doors and bare your (filet of) sole!



I tag: Shelley of S'kat and the Food (she will probably be glad to feature a kitchen appliance that works), Shauna at Gluten Free Girl (I know her fridge will be interesting), and Anne of Cooking with Anne (she probably has two fridges!)

The Greatest Chicken Salad I Will Never Make Again

This post is in response to Kitchen Wench's one-off event challenging bloggers to share a recipe attached to some event in your past in a substantial, yet bittersweet way. When I read this challenge, I knew immediately the recipe and its story that I wanted to share even though I cannot include a picture (you will see why!). It is the story of the greatest chicken salad I will never make again.

I can't even remember now where I got this recipe, it must've been from a person, because it is neatly copied on one of my beautiful 4x6 recipe cards for a set that included a recipe box with matching cards that I received as a gift back when I and my family was young. Most of my recipes are torn from magazines, cut from a newspaper, scribbled on random bits of paper, or typed by friends or acquaintances, printed out from Food Network or Epicurious. A recipe had to be really special in order for me to use one of the 50 cards that came with my set, and it had to be something that I was sure would be a permanent addition to my culinary reperatoire.

This recipe is everything a recipe should be - delicious, light, healthy, easy to make, filled with complex, swett-hot flavors and very portable! In fact, I made this Szechwan Chicken Salad several times when I needed to take something to a pot luck and there were never leftovers. Everyone in my family loved it and were always suggesting it, particularly during the dog days of Tidewater summer!

There was nothing unusual on a day, so long ago, when I made a big double batch of this salad. The weather was going to be warm, lending itself to a light salad, and I was planning to take any leftovers for lunch at work in the next week. I had just placed the covered bowl of salad in the fridge when we got a call from the hospital that my husband's father was near death. The Colonel, as he was affectionately (and respectfully) called by all, was an incredible man, with a sharp memory and a knowledge for world history that would have shamed any history professor 4 decades his junior. He had served in three branches of the service during his military career, had served in the esteemed 1st City Troop, and danced with Lucy Mercer in the Roosevelt White House as a young officer. He was full of stories for anyone who would listen, and since most of his family had heard them all (multiple times) , as the newest daughter-in-law, I was a welcome audience. As our family grew, he was a doting grandfather with all of the grandchildren, bouncing them on his knee to the tune of "Gary Owen". The older Dowd grandchildren remember to this day their "Grandpapa" blowing the bugle. He was always an ally to a grandchild who wanted an extra dessert or to stay up past bedtime. A man who was sometimes remembered as stern by his own children, was a marshmallow to his grandchildren.

I will never forget the first time that I met him. It wasn't long after the movie Patton had come out. My father-in-law, who was at that time the Superintendent of the Winchester National Cemetary, was strolling among the headstones and when he turned around, I thought I was dating the son of George C. Scott!! He had the bearing and demeanor (and the posture) of a career military officer. You could imagine that he cut a dashing figure in his younger years (and he delighted in telling you so!).

As young newlyweds, my husband and I moved in with my in-laws in order to save money to buy a house, and allowing our mother-in-law to travel to wherever my sisters-in-law were having their children (and for awhile there was a steady stream). In the years that we lived there I never saw my father-in-law in any state other than either fully dressed (to the nines I might add) or in his pajamas, robe and slippers. When I had my own first child, my mother-in-law was away, so I brought my daughter home to a house run by the Colonel and my husband, who had gone to the commissary to get all manner of food for a new mom... and Guinness stout because he was sure that would help with my nursing!

His pet peeves- Cheap suits or shoes, runs in a lady's stockings, adults or children who were disrespectful, lazy or dishonest people. When he was told by his doctor (he was a Type 2 diabetic) that if he was good, he could have a half-cup of ice cream a night, he picked the largest mug in the cabinet and then used about about 600 psi to spoon in as much Breyer's chocolate ice cream as could be accomodated by the laws of physics!

My mother-in-law told me about his one cooking experience, when she came home from the hospital after the birth of one of their children. She said that he was determined to make her a meal and serve her (despite the fact that, to my knowledge he could only cook hot dogs and toast!). This was when TV dinners were brand new and he said he would make her one. Despite her offers to help (and her strong conviction that he had no idea how to use the oven!), he insisted that he could do it. She ate her words when he marched proudly up the stairs with the foil plate with a turkey dinner golden brown and steaming, smelling delicious and inviting. As he ran to get her a drink, she stuck her fork to take the first bite... and found that beneath the golden brown steaming surface, the food was still frozen in the middle!

The days leading up to his funeral, we put the Szechwan Chicken Salad that I had made what seemed like an eternity ago out with the other food brought by family and friends, and as always, it disappeared. My husband has, since then, associated that chicken salad with his father's death and even though I and my children have tried to convince him otherwise, I have not ever made it again.

While it may seem strange, this blog event gives me the opportunity to share not only my fond memories of the Colonel, and his incredible life, but to share with anyone who reads this a great recipe that you and our family can enjoy. I hope that you will make it and enjoy ...and also remember, in a fond way, a man you never met except through my words.

Szechwan Chicken Salad

Dressing:
1/4 cup peanut or sesame oil (I used sesame)

4-5 tbsp red wine vingar

1-2 tbsp honey

2 tsp sesame seeds

2 cloves garlic
3/4 tsp hot pepper sauce, adjust to taste

1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger

1/4 tsp salt

Combine all ingredients above until well mixed and then toss with the following:

1/2 lb bow tie pasta, cooked and drained

3 cups broccoli florets

2 cups cooked chicken cut in chunks

1 cup fresh or frozen snow peas

2 green onions, cut up

Once combined, salad is best if it sits for 4-8 hours or overnight.