Fare Exchange: Creating a salad as a meal and a lush dessert for later

It’s another wonderful Wednesday, the kind for which we may be glad to be alive. Then again, to be realistic, we may not be. Who’s to say, however, that a nourishing meal wouldn’t solve that?

Our curious questioner, A.E., needs detailed instructions for making a really fine chicken salad. She would like her chicken salad juicy and tender, “not too many ingredients nor too few. I sampled a chicken salad from Birmingham last month and it had a little honey taste to it. I don’t want a sweet chicken salad, but this one was pretty good.”

We have repeat requests for Easy Toffee, the kind made with a graham cracker base. This recipe is one that is easy to mess up. Please, if you have this one, send very specific directions.

In addition, readers are seeking a sour cream coffee cake made with Splenda, a recipe for crock pot chicken thighs and a Dutch apple pie with no crust on the bottom and an oatmeal-crumb mixture on top.

LUSH DESSERT

The discussion of Lemon Lush dessert brought a thoughtful response from Eva Layman of Spring City, Tenn. Her particular recipe “came from a cookbook compiled in the early 1980s by the Girls in Action mission group my daughter attended at New Union Baptist Church in Dayton, Tenn. This recipe is from Mrs. Jean Looney.

“Instead of instant lemon pudding, this recipe uses canned lemon pie filling. You may also use Jell-O Cook and Serve Lemon Pie Filling mix, and make it by the directions on the box. The tartness of this type of filling complements the sweetness of the cream-cheese layer and the crust so well. The bright yellow is also a pretty topping. I have made this dish many times, and it has always been well received.”

Lemon Lush

Crust

1 stick margarine, softened

1 cup finely chopped pecans

1 cup self-rising flour

Mix together until dough is formed. Press into a 9-by-13-inch dish and bake at 325 degrees until lightly browned. Cool completely.

Filling

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

1 (8-ounce) carton Cool Whip, thawed

Beat cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in Cool Whip and mix well. Spread on cooled crust.

Topping

1 can lemon pie filling

Spread pie filling on top of cream cheese mixture.

Chill Lemon Lush before serving.

SALAD AS A MEAL

Yeast of the Ridge adapted a salad recipe she found on the web. “It’s so messy to cook bacon, so I bought the packaged cooked bacon bits at Costco. This salad makes a meal along with sliced tomatoes and maybe some good bread.”

Creamy Ranch Bacon Pea Salad

1/3 cup sour cream or buttermilk

1 cup ranch-style dressing

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Salt and pepper to taste

1 1/2 cups cauliflower florets, broken into small pieces

2 cups green peas, fresh or frozen, cooked in salted water for no more than 2 minutes

2 cups chickpeas (garbanzo beans), canned

1/2 cup celery, diced fine

1 cup green onions, diced

1 1/2 cups roasted cashews, chopped

10 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped, or REAL bacon bits, packaged

In a small bowl, put sour cream or buttermilk, ranch dressing, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper together and mix until completely blended. Set aside.

Fill the bottom of a stockpot with 2 inches of water. Set up the steamer and put in the cauliflower florets. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and steam over medium-high heat. Steam for about 5-7 minutes until the cauliflower is tender but still has a crunch. Cool completely in cold water.

In a large bowl, combine peas, chickpeas, celery, green onions, cashews, cauliflower and bacon until well mixed. Add the dressing and toss until everything is evenly coated.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving. Makes 12 servings.

MEAL OF HONOR

Pardon this digression as I take some time to tell you about a recent graduation event. The hostess has a wide-open kitchen with a broad countertop, beautiful and fitting for serving up a graduation meal for her second daughter. We held hands around that massive kitchen island and the graduate’s mama offered up a prayer of thanks for her and those who were special to her.

Then she invited us to the groaning board – or shall we call it a groaning island? Tables were set around the house with her finest china, the set she inherited from her estimable grandmother. Guests picked a plate and proceeded to fill it with seared Ahi tuna from her husband’s Big Green Egg-spertise. A handmade bowl containing black rice stood alongside, then baguette slices topped with pesto, fresh mozzarella, Roma tomato slices and a large leaf of fresh basil. The two salads – one couscous, the other arugula – offered the perfect marriage of flavors, both tangy and sweet.

That was dinner – and what a dinner. It was the kind of food that made guests want to savor each flavor. It was the kind of event that made guests want to savor the presence of each other. So we did.

Then, in the fullness of time, the hostess brought out big, white bowls and filled them with generous portions of vanilla ice cream. A huge serving bowl – again handmade – and filled with raspberries and blackberries was there for topping the ice cream, along with a platter of homemade lace cookies to provide a final touch to each bowlful.

Sometimes a meal seems to be designed to amaze. This one was amazing, but it was abundantly clear that the graduate’s family designed it all to do one thing: honor their daughter. Is it any wonder that the guests lingered long after the feast?

Tell us about your latest feast, one you sat down to or one you stirred up. A recipe or two would be welcome as well.