A small diversion…
Back to Seattle and the fabulous 4th in a bit, but I want you to know that even after returning home, both Michele and I have continued the Pretty Food quest.
Earlier in the week, we had a crowd for lunch and on that scorchingly hot summer day chicken salad sounded quite appealing. The problem was that I didn’t know the food preferences of some of our guests and I didn’t want to bail off and just fix my version of chicken salad with the assumption that it would be pleasing to all, so I set up a “chicken salad construction kit” on the island in the kitchen, complete with large bowls for tossing each guest’s mixture, and allowed each diner to customize his or her salad mixture.
I placed my mound of shredded chicken on a platter surrounded by shreds of green papaya and some flowers and herbs from the garden.
On a large square platter, I filled nine small containers with an assortment of ingredients: craisins, raisins, julienned granny smith apple, celery, walnuts, strawberries, cantalope, Splenda-sweetened mayo, and sour cream.
Low carb tortillas were available to stuff with each person’s unique combination of ingredients, or a fork and a heap of chicken delight was an option.
It was beautiful, satisfying, healthy, and just what each of us wanted.
That night, after a trip to the local farmer’s market, we were in for a major treat. Michael had cooked maple glazed pork bellies. It was his first time to experiment with them and the results were worth the wait. Along with our confetti slaw, fresh peaches, tomatoes with mozarella, basil and my usual vinaigrette, it was an incredible meal.
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