Joanne Fluke's Lake Eden Cookbook Part 8

salt to taste

freshly ground black pepper to taste

curly leaf lettuce leaves, red lettuce leaves, b.u.t.ter lettuce

leaves, or spinach leaves (with the stems removed) to form

a bed for Hannah's Chicken Salad

cup salted sunflower nuts for a garnish7

Place the cubed chicken (approximately the size of bouillon cubes) in a large mixing bowl.

Peel and chop the hard-boiled eggs. A rough chop is fine. You want people to recognize them as eggs. Add them to the bowl with the chicken cubes.

Add the crumbled bacon, the parsley, the grated carrots, and the black olives to the bowl. Mix well.

Put the cream cheese in a small, microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds on HIGH to soften it. If it can be easily stirred with a fork, take it out of the microwave and add the sour cream and mayonnaise. Mix well.

If the cream cheese is too solid to stir, give it another 10 seconds or so on HIGH in the microwave before you add the other ingredients.

Stir in the garlic powder and onion powder.

Add the cream cheese mixture to the bowl with the chicken mixture and stir it all up. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste, and chill until ready to serve.

You can serve this salad on a large platter so that everyone can help themselves, or on individual plates. Line the platter or individual plates with lettuce leaves or spinach leaves and cover them with mounds of chicken salad.

Sprinkle the top of your salad with salted sunflower nuts, chopped salted cashews, or crushed potato chips to add crunch.

Yield: 6 entree-size portions.

Hannah's Note: You can cut the egg and the chicken in smaller pieces and use this salad as sandwich filling. This recipe will make about a dozen chicken salad sandwiches.

HOLE IN ONE.

One slice of bread (any kind)

One egg

Softened b.u.t.ter

Biscuit cutter or juice gla.s.s

Spray a frying pan with non-stick spray and set it aside.

b.u.t.ter the piece of bread on one side. Put it b.u.t.ter-side-down in the frying pan. b.u.t.ter the side on top. (Using a rubber spatula makes this easier.) With a biscuit cutter or the rim of a juice gla.s.s, stamp a hole in the center of the slice of bread. Put the circle you've cut out next to the slice of bread in the pan.

Put the pan on medium heat and wait until the bread starts to fry. Then crack an egg and drop it into the hole in the bread. (If you're really hungry, you can use two eggs.) Add salt and pepper to the egg if you wish. When the egg has cooked on the bottom, flip the whole thing, bread and all, with a pancake turner. Also flip the cutout circle of bread. Fry until the egg is done the way you want it.

Tracey loves these for breakfast. She prefers a runny yolk so that she can dip the fried bread in it. Now she's teaching Bethie how to do it.

MEXICAN HOTDISH.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the center position.

4-ounce can Ortega diced green chilies (with the juice)

2 cups shredded Monterrey Jack cheese (approx. 8 ounces)

2 cans (14 ounces each) diced tomatoes (with the juice)

1 medium onion, chopped

2-ounce can sliced black olives (with the juice)

1 large green bell pepper, seeded & chopped

2 cups UNCOOKED white rice

2 packages (approx. 1-ounce each) Taco seasoning (Clara

buys Lawry's)

3 cups cubed cooked chicken

1 can (14.5 ounces) chicken broth

cup cold b.u.t.ter (1 stick, pound, 4 ounces)

2 cups Fritos corn chips

2 cups (approx. 8 ounces) shredded Mexican cheese 8

(I used the kind with four cheeses mixed together)

Spray a 6-quart roaster with Pam or other nonstick cooking spray. (Clara buys disposable half-size steam table pans at CostMart and uses one of those. She says to be careful to set it on a cookie sheet before you fill it, though. The disposable foil could buckle and you could end up with uncooked Mexican Hotdish all over your kitchen floor!) Hannah's 1st Note: This hotdish is easy to make because once you've got the cubed chicken, all you have to do is open a bunch of cans. You don't even have to drain them. Just dump them in your baking pan, juice and all!

In the bottom of the pan or roaster, mix together the diced green chilies, the Monterrey Jack cheese, the two cans of diced tomatoes, the chopped onion, the can of sliced black olives, the chopped bell pepper, and the UNCOOKED white rice. (Marguerite told Norman that she washes her hands and then just mixes everything up with her fingers, but that's only if Clara's not around.) Sprinkle the Taco seasoning over the top, add the chicken cubes, and mix again.

Add the chicken broth and stir everything up with a wooden spoon. (You can also get in there with your impeccably clean hands and mix it up that way.) Cut the cold stick of b.u.t.ter into 8 pieces and put the pieces on top of the hotdish.

Cover the pan with heavy duty foil (or a double thickness of regular foil) and turn down the edges to seal them.

Bake the hotdish for 1 and hours (90 minutes) at 350 degrees F.

Take the baking pan out of the oven BUT DON'T TURN OFF THE OVEN YET. Remove the foil carefully as steam may escape.