General Primary Board Chicken Salad

Many years ago, Marlene G and I were in a Stake Primary presidency together. We were lucky enough to be able to host the General Board for multi-stake meetings. I would have one member and she would have another stay at her house. We would also be lucky enough to feed everyone lunch-Weren't we lucky.

We were also very sure that our own Chicken salad should be used. She thought as highly of hers as I thought of mine. We took them to a Presidency meeting to have a taste off with the other members of our presidency. We were shut down by the other members who said that they didn't prefer either one over the other. Instead a mutated version of both was developed and the end result with a mild reprimand and reminder from all of the others to not think so highly of ourselves was the following recipe

2 1/2 cups diced cooked chicken
1/2 - 1 cup cashews
1 lg can crushed pineapple-drained
1/4 c chopped green onion
1 small can sliced water chestnuts
coconut to taste
Equal parts mayo and Sour Cream

Combine all ingredients and chill at least one hour. Serve on a bed of crisp lettuce leaves with ritz crackers, crossaints, or french bread with a side dish of fresh fruit salad.

Broccoli Bacon Chicken Soup-FAST

Frozen Broccoli-I used about 2 cups of frozen chopped Broccoli
1 C cream of Chicken
1 C of milk
1/2 cup crumbled cooked bacon
1/2 cup of grated irish cheddar cheese
dash of tobasco

Put it all together in a deep glass bowl and nuked it in the microwave.

Stir after about 3 minutes. Nuke again for about 2 minutes. stir. nuke one more time until it is bubbly and heated to the temp you like your soup.

This literally took less than 10 minutes.

Tasted like I had taken all day to make it!

Pasta Fagioli ala Mento - revisited again

It seems no matter what kind of changes I make to this Pasta Fagioli due to necessity or desire, it turns out awesome.

1 lb ground beef CHANGED TO thinly sliced into bite size pieces of beef tenderloin
1 lb italian sausage CHANGED to 1 lb of beef/venison sausage-thinly sliced
1 C bacon cooked-crumbled
14 ounces baby carrots
1 + C onion chopped
1 C bell pepper chopped
1 1/2 C Chopped Celery-Golly didn't have any added 1 and 1/2 cup finely chopped baby spinach and 1 C of sliced okra
1 quart homestock tomato soup or 1 quart tomato juice
48 oz diced canned tomatos with garlic and basil
2 Cans dark red kidney beans
1 Can light red kidney beans
1 quart Chicken Stock-add as needed to the thickness you want it
Italian seasoning to taste
minced garlic to taste
Kosher Salt- to taste
Pepper-to taste
black olives are totally optional...I just love them.
1 lb ounces dry pasta (salads, shells whatevers)
couple dashes of tabasco

cook beef, sausage, bacon till browned. add veges.

Just start throwing in everything---EXCEPT the pasta. That is last if you are cooking for a long time.

Serve with grated parmesan on top.

If making the soup a day ahead- wait to put in cooked pasta until 1 hour before serving.