lls_mutant | (no subject)

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Eek. Quick cooking question-

I'm having a little V-Day party tomorrow, that involves lunch for women and kids. The kids are eating pizza, red fruit, and cookies. The moms? That's my question. I'm definitely serving gougeres, and either red fruit or strawberry spinach salad, depending on the strawberries at the grocery store. And chocolate raspberry tarts (VERY rich) for dessert.

So, lunch. Two options:

1.) Smoked chicken salad with basil Parmesan mayonnaise. Smoked chicken, cheese, proscuitto, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, and scallions with a basil parm mayo (not homemade, because one of my guests is pregnant.)

2.) Macaroni and cheese with shiitake mushrooms, corn, and bacon. Mac, cheddar cheese, shiitake mushrooms, bacon, super-sweet white corn, parsley, and cream.

[Poll #1525951]

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I'd go for the mac, personally (and would love a baconless recipe for it!), but I have a bias against chicken salad thanks to a former cafe job.

I am going with chicken because of the veggies and the calorie count. Also, yum.

The warm mac sounds better for a chilly winter day, but for flavors, the salad sounds even better.

if I ate either I'd probably prefer the chicken. I was reading a NY times article about valentine's day couple's menus and they made a comment about how very heavy foods (mostly steaks and carbs and such) were likely to leave couples without the energy to have much amorous activity afterwards. While this is a friends affair and not a romantic dinner, I think the advice is still good.

But the spinach salad sounds good. Short of strawberries, you could use pomegranate?

Edited 2010-02-15 21:49 (UTC)

But keep in mind that my vote is based on the fact that I'm a vegetarian and hated working with proscuitto in the deli. ;)

Salad always sounds to me like fake food. It's what you eat when you're trying to be good, even though you know it's not as good as what you really want. I'm happy to drink diet coke, and have lost my taste for the real stuff because of it, but I've never come close to having eaten enough salad that I'd rather have another one than a pizza.

I voted for the chicken salad, because I think the kids would be less likely to be pestering their moms for some than they would the mac and cheese.

Someone at work tells me that strawberry dressing is very easy to make for those strawberry type salads- just mix balsamic vinegarette with jelly. :)

That salad sounds delicious! xxx

DAMN girl, will you move to my side of the continent, please? YUM.

(I voted for the salad because the pasta might be a little heavy if you're adding a rich dessert. But they both sound fab and I'm very jealous.)

They both sound amazing, honestly.

I have totally done that. Well, vinegar + olive oil + raspberry jam.

They both sound delicious. I voted chicken salad because it's a bit lighter, since you've got a rich dessert. (Also, I'm a corn snob, but that's just my personal quirk.)

I'll dig it up and post it. I think I'm going to make it next week for company anyway! :)

Not sure the calories were all that less, but damn, was it good :)

Turned out the salad worked better, precisely because the mac and cheese is warm. We could eat whenever... which, with kids....

What would EVER make you think we need energy, with seven kids running around? :)

I'll bet pomegranate would be really good with the spinach salad. I'll have to try that sometime!

LOL. I hate working with proscuitto, even though I love eating it.

If it has lettuce, I often agree with you. I'll eat it to mostly fill up and then eat something else, just for the calorie count. But this one has no lettuce or greens whatsoever :) It's mainly chicken. It worked really, really well, especially with the chocolate raspberry tarts afterwards. (Because wow, are those AMAZING.)

This is an EXCELLENT point, and one I forget about because my kids won't go near this mac n cheese (it's not an unnatural bright yellow and doesn't come out of a blue box).

That sounds tasty. The one I use is vinegar, olive oil, sugar, paprika, salt, and shallots. It's tasty.

Thanks! It was. I'm thinking I should post it.

Come on over here! :)

We went with the salad, partly because of the dessert (and because of

puszysty's point that the kids would be less likely to bug their moms.)

Thanks! We went with the salad. I am SO stuffed.

It worked out better, for that reason mostly. And it was fantastic. But I'll have to make the mac n cheese soon, I think!

Thanks!

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