Chicken Salad Skewers

Are ya'll sick of hearing about this shower yet? No... you can't get enough of a party you didn't attend, huh? Good thing I've still got recipes to share. We'll continue livin' the dream together my friends. Livin. The. Dream. 

Okay, I feel like every shower I ever go to -- be it baby or wedding -- there's chicken salad. What is it about this tasty dish on a croissant that makes it scream "ladies who lunch"?? Seriously! I have a vagina and a beautifully wrapped gift... I MUST love chicken salad. Well I'm not one to completely muck with tradition, but I did want to find a new way to enjoy this favorite. Plus I like meat on a stick. 

Enter grilled chicken salad skewers. A creamy yogurt marinade makes it feel chicken salad-y, but grilled chicken and bites on a skewer lend creative freshness. 

The marinade is just a few ingredients -- plain greek yogurt, basil, parsley and lemon juice. You'll reserve at least one cup for your dipping sauce later. This marinade adds flavor and the yogurt really tenderizes the chicken.

How Love and Lemons is this photo? Who knew my Grammie's old kitchen table was so blog-forward.

After marinating overnight, load up the chicken onto pre-soaked skewers. Thank your friends for taking pictures while your hands are covered in raw chicken yogurt.

Grill over medium-high, direct heat until they release easily.

Pop-on a red grape and celery chunk to finish and don't forget the reserved dipping sauce for extra chicken salad flare.

Chicken Salad Skewers
3lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast
4 cups plain Greek yogurt
1 bunch parsley, chopped
1 cup basil, chopped
Juice of one lemon
S&P
Red grapes
Celery, but in 1-inch chunks

Rinse and pat dry chicken before slicing into 2-inch strips. In a large bowl, combine yogurt, basil, parsley, lemon and S&P. Reserve 1-1 1/2 cups of marinate for dipping sauce. Toss chicken in remaining marinate and seal in a large zip-top bag. Marinate overnight.

Soak wooden skewers in water for 15 minutes. Skewer chicken, one per stick. Place on a preheated grill and cook over medium-high direct heat for 7-8 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through (may depend on how thickly they were sliced).

When ready to serve, skewer red grapes and celery on each stick. Serve with remaining dipping sauce.

Note: Chicken can be grilled one day ahead of serving.

Earl Grey Panna Cotta

Okay... so this is not low fat. Not even a little, but hey, it was for a party. Plus the pregnant ladies needed the calcium in all that whole milk and cream. I came to this recipe because I was looking for something that I could do in individual servings AND that I could make ahead of time.

Panna cotta is almost as simple as dessert comes and a teacup offers baby shower level cuteness. Plus once you learn the basic recipe, there are nearly endless variations of flavors and toppings.

Plus this adorable dessert gave me a chance to use all of my mom's and Grammie's pretty china. If you can't use it for a party, when can you?

It starts with warm milk, cream and gelatin...gently stirred until the gelatin dissolves and steam just starts to rise.

Remove from heat and allow to steep. If Earl Grey's not your thing, you could do vanilla bean or lavender here. Lavender is going to be my next round. It's one of my favorite smells and I'm interested to experiment with it as a flavor.

Gently ladle into tea cups or small bowls. These need to refrigerate at least overnight or you can make two days ahead like I did.

I added a saran wrap on top while the pudding was still warm to avoid pudding skin. Pudding skin reminds me of a cafeteria or an old folks home. Not cute for a party. Say no to pudding skin.

Remove from the fridge for a few minutes before serving to take the cold edge off and remove your skin-preventing saran. There may be a few wrinkles in the panna cotta from the wrap, but nothing a light dusting of cinnamon can't fix. A squeeze of honey would be good too.

Earl Grey Panna Cotta
Makes 24 individual servings

6 cups cream
6 cups whole milk
1 oz unflavored gelatin
2 cups sugar
6 Earl Grey tea bags

Pour milk an cream in large pot and sprinkle gelatin. Turn heat on low and stir until gelatin dissolves completely. Add sugar; stir until dissolved and continue just until milk begins to steam. Remove from heat and steep tea bags for 30 minutes.

Ladle into teacups or small ramekins. Place plastic wrap on the surface of the milk and smooth out wrinkles. Refrigerate overnight.

Remove from refrigerator 15-30 minutes before serving. Remove plastic wrap and lightly dust with cinnamon.


Oh yeah... it the spirit of being transparent, I promote consumption of milk at my job. I was not asked to write this, nor compensated. Secret's out... milk is good for you. Have you heard?

Apple Pomegranate Slaw in Endive

The promise of fall... crisp, sweet apples. A September shower had to include this seasonal sensation. Pomegranate seeds give crunch and tartness. Endive lends bitterness and a sophisticated serving vessel. A balanced fresh salad to counter the saccharin, creamy treats on the dessert table.

Can we note my mother's 80's style Cuisinart? This thing functioned longer than my parent's marriage. Ah... the sarcasm of a child of a divorce. Biting as ever.
Obligatory shout out to Mom and Dad... love you!

This appliance is a lifesaver for a big parties. Two-minute zing in the processor vs. 20 minutes of hand shredding apples.

Toss with pomegranate seeds, vinaigrette, green onions and walnuts. The green onions and pomegranate seeds really make the color pop!

 Spoon into endive leaves and arrange in the prettiest way you can figure out.

Apple Pomegranate Slaw
For Salad
2 honeycrisp or fuji apples, shredded
3 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
1/4 cup walnuts chopped
3 heads endive, ends removed

For Vinaigrette
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons pomegranate juice
1 tablespoon cider vinegar

Combine apples, green onions, pomegranate seed and walnuts in a large bowl. Whisk together vinaigrette and toss with salad. Lightly spoon apple salad into endive leaves. Serve immediately (this will brown if you prepare too far in advance).

Photographed recipe is a double batch. Recipe inspired by Bon Appetit.

Pink Ombre Cake with Buttercream

You've seen it on Pinterest (by the way, do you follow my boards?)... the adorable pink layer cake. I don't usually fall for the Pinterest fads -- I don't have any wood palette art in my house and I don't knit these -- but this cake was too cute to skip for an It's a Girl Baby Shower.

I didn't have a good white cake recipe up my sleeve, so I checked-in with my baking goddess friends and was recommended the Magnolia Bakery recipe. They've made millions on cupcakes, so I figured they know what they're doing. It took some serious self-control not to improvise, but that's not what baking is about. Focus Carey!

Fresh flour purchased to ensure everything would rise properly. And yes... there is a difference between self-rising flour and cake flour... I googled it.

Okay, I know I talk about my lack of baking ability, but my first real job in high school was at a cookie shop. If I learned one thing, it's that you REALLY need to cream butter in baked goods to get that fluffy texture. Start creaming room-temperature butter and beat until it looks like marshmallow fluff, then you're ready to add eggs and sugar. No eggs until you see the fluff!

Once the batter is prepared, split evenly into four parts. These will soon become the various layers of pink.

Start with the lightest-colored layer. Remember you can always add more, but you can't take it away. I started with one drop in the first bowl, two in the second and so on. I ended up tweaking a bit with two drops in the lightest layer and five in the darkest, but every food coloring is different.

Lovely shades of pink ready to bake.

This batter is a dense and sticky, so you MUST butter and flour your pans. Take care when handling too. Once the cake is fully cooled, prepare the gooey buttercream, following the instructions to reach the perfect texture.

Start with the crumb coat... a thin layer to encapsulate the inevitable errors in your cake.

I like to finish my cakes with a rough coat of frosting. It makes it look homemade and like you can bite right in. When things are too smooth, no one wants to ruin the finish at a party. This puppy looked delectable! And my lovely co-host fashioned the adorable pennant decorations.

Pink Ombre Cake with Buttercream

For cake
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 stick butter (unsalted), softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
Red food coloring

For buttercream frosting
3 sticks butter (unsalted), softened
10 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup milk
3 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour four 9-inch cake pans. Start by combining flours. In a separate bowl cream butter on high speed, using an electric mixer, and gradually add sugar until fluffy. About 3-4 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating in each completely. Gradually add dry ingredients, alternating with milk and vanilla. Do not overbeat once the dry ingredients have been added.

Divide batter into four bowls. Start by adding one drop of food coloring into the first bowl, two drops into the second, three into the third and four into the fourth. Lightly mix batters until color is combined. Add more food coloring, if needed, until desired color is reached.

Bake cakes for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Using an electric mixer combine butter, 3 cups powdered sugar, milk and vanilla. Start slowly, the sugar will get everywhere. Beat until smooth, about 3-5 minutes. Add remaining sugar two cups at a time, beating well in between (about 2 minutes).

Place darkest layer of cake on cake stand and add an ample layer of frosting. Continue layering cake and place a thin layer of frosting on top and sides to contain crumbs. Then apply frosting in a thick layer to finish.

Party Time -- It's a Girl Finger Foods

When there are extra special people in your life, you want to share extra special celebrations with them. My dear friend Katie can be credited with introducing me to the Husband, so you can bet I wanted to throw her a heck of a party when I learned she was expecting a baby girl.

We reunited in our hometown to celebrate this new life and my mother generously offered her home as a location. There's something personal about an at-home party that you just can't get at a restaurant or club. Welcoming people to your table lets them know you really want them there. I really wanted all of them there, but there wasn't a table for 25 (it's not Downton Abbey after all...jeez). Given this constraint, I developed a menu of delectable finger foods with feminine flair.

It's a Girl Baby Shower Menu

Finger Foods for 25

Goat Cheese Vegetable Tarts Three Ways 

Cremini, Asparagus, Zucchini

Honey Ricotta Crostini

Chicken Salad Skewers

Apple Pomegranate Salad

Served in Endive with Walnut

Deviled Eggs

Earl Grey Panna Cotta

Pink Ombre Cake with Buttercream

French Macarons

For the Road

Rosemary Lemonade

Peach Bellinis

Iced Tea

Oh and there was diaper cake... it was delicious.

When I Am Tired

A glass of red, yoga pants and puppy time are pretty much the greatest things in the world.

One heck of a tasty party was thrown this weekend. Stay tuned.

Year-Old Cake Makes Me Think

...we interrupt our regularly scheduled food  programming for a moment of thoughtfulness...

The Husband and I celebrated our one year anniversary last week and what a celebration we had! Have I mentioned that I'm completely spoiled by the greatest guy in the world? It's true. In grand tradition, we enjoyed a piece of our cake topper and watched our wedding video (this guy is THE BEST and he loves one of my dearest friends awful). It's so nice to have this video, because I frankly don't remember much of our wedding day... too much emotion to remember things.

Our marriage ceremony was very personal and officiated by my good friend Kevin. One of the things I do remember and was reminded of when we watched the video was Kevin asking this... what do you want to be famous for? 

The question was asked in a roundabout way involving Steak n'Shake references (that's just how Kevin is), but as we closed out our first year together, I found myself meditating on this question. In the context of a wedding ceremony, it meant that we should try to be famous for our love for one another and a great marriage....but this question goes so far beyond a marriage ceremony. 

I'm not sure "famous" is even the right word (you'll never catch me on American Idol), but rather what do you want to be KNOWN for? I'll try not to get too quarter-life-crisis on you here, but I think it's an important question to ask yourself. If my early twenties were supposed to be a time of figuring out who I wanted to be, I now find myself in my late twenties in a stage of becoming who I want to be. And it's increasingly apparent that I was totally off in the figuring out part (maybe it was all those beers and late night shenanigans). 

This becoming thing is a bit terrifying... mostly because I have nothing figured out. The question of what I want to be known for has really helped me to focus my thought and feel less overwhelmed. So while there's a lot I don't know about the future, I know that I want to be known for these things: 

-- My love and loyalty to my husband, family, friends and God.

-- An always open door and full table.

-- A creative spirit.

-- Laughing often. 

So in these overwhelming moments of figuring out and becoming, ground yourself in the end goal. What do you want to be known for?

...and now back to food blogging...