Okay, here you have the rest of the story… After the fam got home from their grand adventure returning from Nashville I spent the next week getting ready to cater the wedding reception for my friend Amanda. Our menu was pork barbecue (Amanda’s father makes the best barbecue), chicken salad, southwestern chicken salad, vegetables, fruit tower, spicy nuts, cinnamon nuts, white chocolate, milk chocolate, and dark chocolate mousse. I didn’t make all of it, but I did make the chicken salads. These recipes make a lot. You can probably half them, I just didn’t want to do all that work. I also don’t measure. I just add until it looks and tasted right.

Cranberry Chicken Salad

1 rotisserie chicken, pulled off the bone and chopped fine

1 bag dried cranberries

1 jar Miracle Whip

1 jar sweet relish

1/2 cup crushed pecans

Combine all in a bowl. Add Miracle Whip and relish until it is the right consistency and tastes right. Serve on sandwiches or with crackers.

The Southewestern Chicken Salad got rave reviews and was very popular. It’s a little harder to divide down, but if you are making it for a party, it will all be eaten.

Southewestern Chicken Salad

1 rotisserie chicken, pulled off bone and chopped fine

1 can sweet niblets corn, drained

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 bottle Spicy Ranch Dressing

1 carton sour cream

1 jar salsa

1 diced tomato

Combine chicken, corn, beans, and salsa. Add Ranch dressing and sour cream until the consistency is creamy. Serve in Tostitoes Scoops topped with diced tomato or for sandwiches serve as a wrap in flour tortillas with lettuce and tomatoes.

This salad is not very spicy but you can probably add a can of chilis or make the salsa spicy.

After the wedding it was off to New York with the youth group. I wasn’t supposed to go, but do to some sponsor emergencies, that have so far resolved well, Ron needed a couple extra female sponsors. Thanks to the generosity of my sister, I got to go. It was fun and we ate at some cool places. On the way home we stopped in Philadelphia to solve the great mystery of who makes the best cheese steaks, Pat’s or Geno’s. They are right across the street and have some fierce competition going. Pat’s wins hands down, the meat has more flavor. So, if you are ever in Philly, don’t ask me how to get there, I have no clue, but Ron found it and found a place to parallel park a 29-passenger bus. He rocks! We’re home now, in time for tax free weekend. We got a bunch of clothes for Ron and a new computer for me. Sad thing is it is back ordered at Best Buy and we won’t get it for about two weeks. I can’t wait!