Too.Much.Food.

This past weekend was a holiday weekend so what else did I do with an extra day off? I made more labor intensive dishes. I really, really love chicken salad. You can do almost anything with it. I really like the pre-made Waldorf Chicken Salad at Fresh Market, the crunchy grapes and walnuts add something special. But when you make it at home the possibilities are endless, you could do an Asian style chicken salad with wasabi mayo or a Mediterranean style chicken salad with sun-dried tomatoes and Kalmata olives, nearly anything.

My favorite chicken salad recipe comes from Epicurious.com, it's Chicken Salad with Walnuts & Peaches. I first made it when my best friend and I hosted a bridal shower several years ago. It got rave reviews and I've been making it ever since. Usually Doug is not a fan of something like chicken salad, there are too many 'unknown' ingredients for him. But this past weekend I made some and asked him to try a bite. He did and he actually liked it, so I can add another dish to my lunch/dinner repertoire. The recipe is relatively easy but it does involved the poaching and shredding of chicken breasts, chopping an onion and peeling and cutting up peaches, the end result is worth it though.

Last week, around Wednesday, I bought a huge container of strawberries from the grocery store, mainly because they were on sale and when they're in season I eat strawberries several times a week. Monday afternoon I realized I hadn't eaten those berries yet so I pulled them out of the fridge and inspected them. They were still good but they weren't as sweet as the ones I bought at the Farmer's Market the week before so I went looking for a strawberry cobbler recipe. I didn't have any eggs on hand so I had to find a recipe that didn't call for an egg. I found this one on the Whole Foods website. I made it and it was great, not too sweet and not too soupy. The fruit is held together with a mixture of flour and sugar so it gives it a little more 'body'. I topped the biscuit-y part with raw sugar and butter and it was perfect, even better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.