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in the pasta/chicken/egg/potato/tuna salad area, we're pretty 'usual' - but what it get served with . . . that's a different story. I see all the nice pix of various "plates" - but they seem to more represent 'things served around' the salad, not in the salad....or?

Thanks for the eye candy but mostly for your ever-present pithy commentary, @Pete Fred.

Turkey keema with potatoes, peas, and most of the spice cabinet I had ground turkey that needed using up, and most of the ingredients, so here we are.

I save the carcass from costco rotisserie chickens for stock as well. And also add in whatever poultry backs, necks, pieces I've got on hand. Depending on the day/how much time I have dictates if i put in the IP or let simmer for hours/days on the stovetop. My last batch of said carcasses and pieces was on the stove and simmered for 24ish hours gelled nicely. If you want to be certain to get gel, buy some chicken feet. Even just a couple add a ton of collagen.

Bacon, potatoes, eggs (cooked in bacon grease) and toast. (Partner had all the same but in sandwiches)

Another vote for curried chicken salad. First had it about 15 years ago from Whole Foods while at a work conference. IIRC, it had the usual onion, celery etc but also had either raisins or dried cranberries that had been partially hydrated and plumped up. Chicken salad isn't something that gets made often in my house, it's more of a convenience to grab a tub while out for a quick lunch.

That sounds quite similar to the curry chicken salad I make. I use my friend’s masala mixture and always toast it before adding to the mayo. I add halved red grapes and chunks of green apple.

Mustard roasted cabbage, potatoes, onions, and chicken on butternut squash-apple purée.

I don’t make chicken salad very often, but when I do, I am partial to Ina Garten’s curried chicken salad. It has cashews in it, which I really like as an addition. I am not a huge celery fan, so usually leave that ingredient out. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/curried-chicken-salad-recipe-2014291

I made this again with roasted, marinated beets, garlic and herb labne, and smoked sablefish from my weekly fish share.

I used to frequent a sandwich shop whose chicken salad was mayo and sour cream 50/50, diced chicken, celery, cashews, all diced fairly small seasoned lightly with curry powder - it was habit forming!

Nice swap — sour cream would add just the right tang. Grapes and slivered almonds are such a great sweet-and-crunch combo too.

I love the confidence in that “Period.” 😂 There’s something really comforting about a stripped-down, no-nonsense version. And I completely agree — how finely the chicken is chopped makes such a difference in texture. I think that alone can change the whole experience.

Thanks so much, Mitch! I’ll dig into those threads — I had a feeling this topic had history 😄 It’s funny how something as “simple” as chicken salad can spark so many strong opinions. I’m looking forward to seeing what combinations people have experimented with over the years.

Update, I got an email from Newell Brands about the safety upgrade part for the oven "order confirmation' Feb 2nd. Nothing in mail yet but they did send out a survey email about how I'd rate their service on Feb 11th, LOL. I think I put in for the recall upgrade back in Sept or Oct 2025. I don't expect much.

CAR COOKIES: TJ's mini chocolate chip cookies Many of us often pick up something to snack on for the drive home from the market. TJ's has these small, snack-sized packages of single-bite chocolate chip cookies that make for a perfect treat if you lean in the direction of such a snack. I call them Car Cookies because of their size, low cost (99-cents), and because the package, unlike other similarly packed items, is easy to open as there's a cut in the top (Note the notch in the upper right corner of the pacage) that allows the bag to open easily and form a little pouch that fits perfectly into my car's console.

I would be worried about that head space (lack thereof).

Just a little less than three quarts of very delicious stock. I will do this again ... and again ...

@Shel_B How much stock did you end up with?

Head space is necessary in a PC to make sure that any kind of boiling/foaming doesn't reach the valves and potentially clog them, which could be catastrophic. It shouldn't affect the flavor or anything else. Gelatin doesn't come from meat - gelatin is made from connective tissue - this is why backs, feet, wing tips, etc are great for stock because they have a lot of connective tissue which converts to gelatin after a period of time of moist heat.

I typically swap some of the mayo for sour cream to add a little tang. My wife liked it with cut up grapes and slivered almonds.

Here goes with a couple of miso date cookie combos mentioned a couple of posts back. I'm not usually a tinkerer, but decided to wing some substitutions into a couple of existing recipes. These were adapted from a tahini date cookie, using the miso-maple flavours that I quite liked from the Dorie Greenspan cake... And these were a miso-date syrup cookie... They were both fine, but the executives at Big Cookie can rest easy. The miso-maple were soft and chewy (from the oats) but the balance wasn't right - not enough maple. And the miso-date were too cakey for my taste. Moving on from miso, I believe The Evil Genius Cake by Ben Shewry had its TikTok ten minutes of fame last summer, so I'm a bit late to the party... I can see why it had its moment in the sun before everyone moved on to the next thing. The Gen Z-ers love this kinda thing. But at the end of the day it's just a plain cake covered with undercooked blondie batter. That's not to pour scorn on it - it's no different to a chocolate lava cake or other self saucing pudding, I guess. But it tasted mostly just sweet and of white chocolate. The best part was actually the base cake which gets compressed and becomes a little chewy thanks to the weight of the mixture above it. If I made it again - which I doubt - I'd use less blondie mix and cook it longer (or let it firm up more). A couple of videos, and the recipe.

Have you called and explained that it is a birthday? (They always manage to fit us in for a birthday dinner). I don't think you can have a standard dinner before the show at 7 (not enough time), it would have to be after the show. Lounge is nice, but it's certainly not the same experience.

A few days ago I made I made Chris Young's Costco roast chicken stock: https://youtu.be/3k20zFlbFfE and it blew me away for it's simplicity, cost effectiveness, speed, and flavor. In the video, Chris shows the stock to have been gelatinized, but mine didn't turn out to be so. In my preparation, I used the meat almost two whole chickens, holding back a small amount of meat for a sandwich. I added almost three quarts of water. The result of these amounts caused the pot to fill a fair percentage over the maximum fill line, reducing the head space inside the pot while cooking. My question is this: could the reduced head space affected the formation of gelatin in some way, or reduced the amount of flavor extracted from the meat.

Hi @Tropicalsenior those leaves are sorrel. A good add to salads, slightly bitter. It overwinters here as well, meaning it doesn’t die off but still gets a few leaves in winter. I believe there is a plain green sorrel as well but this is what I have growing at home Photo below from a gardening page of Better Homes and Gardens.