Crunchy Asian Cabbage & Chicken Salad

What to do with leftover Beer Can Chicken? Found a great recipe that calls for cooked chicken on Peggy Lampman's blog, Dinner Feed. The original recipe came from Linda Cole and Peggy made a few adaptations. I pretty much followed the recipe which I usually never do!

Ingredients

• 1 pound Savoy cabbage, chopped or shredded
• 1 large cooked chicken breast, chopped
• 2 cups small (1/2-inch) broccoli florets, blanched
• 1 cup sugar snap peas, blanched
• 1 red, yellow, or orange bell pepper; seeds and membranes removed then sliced
• 1 cup sliced scallions
• 1 1/2 cups whole cashews
• Chopped cilantro, optional
• 1 recipe for dressing (below)

Ingredients for sauce

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons white or rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Instructions

1. To make the salad, toss cabbage, chicken, broccoli, peas, peppers, scallions, and cashews together, adding cilantro to taste, if using.
2. To make the dressing, whisk together soy sauce, vinegar, peanut butter, sugar, garlic, canola and sesame oils. Thoroughly combine.
3. Slowly add dressing to salad to taste, adding kosher salt to taste, if desired. 

Beer Can Chicken!

A can of beer, opened at the top with herbs thrown in for good measure and flavor, makes a handy pedestal on which to prop an unsuspecting 6 pound bird. The beer inside the bird keeps it moist as it roasts in the covered grill.

5 or 6 pound chicken
veggies of your choice: I used chunks of zucchini, red onion, red pepper, and turnips. Tossed the veggies in olive oil, salt and pepper and some of the spices used for the chicken rub.

I used a mix by McCormick, Fiery 5 Pepper, and salt and pepper for the chicken rub.

I used a meat thermometer set for 175 degrees. I also used indirect heat with the middle burner turned off and the other two set at medium which kept the grill at about 350. Took about an hour and 45 minutes for the 6 lb chicken to roast--but grills do vary so that's why using a thermometer is a good idea.

I added the veggies during the last hour.........they get nice and caramelized as they roast--yum!

New York Sunset

The sun is setting over Lake Erie in Hamburg, New York and we're having a fried perch dinner to celebrate the end of a great trip!

Little Gem in Lee, Mass

If you ever find yourself in the cute little town of Lee, Massachusetts and are looking for a good place to eat, head to Timothy's on Main Street. It's a great spot with good drinks and wonderful Italian fare. Luscious pasta dishes, good bread and pizza that is SUPERB! We, of course, ordered more than we could eat because hubs wanted lasagna and I wanted to build my own pizza: fresh garlic, anchovies, and jalapenos! Not for the fainted-hearted and pass me the breath mints. However, it was delicious if I do say so myself :-)

French Toast and Eggs!

Great breakfast cooked by sister-in-law, Dyanne and brother-in-law, Alec.

Lobstah!

On the road in Maine!

Stopped for lunch in one of my favorite Maine small towns, Belfast. Love the architecture and the ambiance. Ate lunch at a great local bar, Rollie's. Time for a perfectly prepared fried haddock sandwich and hand cut fries!

Day 3-Rolling through the Green Mountains of Vermont

 I love Vermont! Case in point, as soon as we crossed the border on a little two lane road, we saw this!

And then, on down the road, we came upon a cute little town, Chester, and stopped for coffee and a macaroon at the Moon Dog Café--where you can get breakfast, lunch, buy jewelry, fresh produce, a tie dyed dress, and really a whole lot more...........see below :-)

 Of course, there's lunch to think about and we made our way to the tiniest, yet darling sandwich shop, Stella's in Hartland, Vermont. This place has about eight tables and, friendly service and food so fresh and just good, good good. Hubs had the special of the day, Bar-B-Cue Beef with hand cut fries and I had the Falafel with green salad. Both plates were delish!

 In the afternoon, we made our way into New Hampshire and rolled into Gorham around 3 PM which gave me a little shopping time before our dinner reservation at Libby's Bistro. We have eaten at this restaurant before and I just have to say if you are ever in the vicinity of Gorham, New Hampshire do not leave without taking one meal at this exceptional establishment. Everything about this place is perfect--from the service, to the drinks, to the food--unpretentious, inventive, authentic American food in a restored house with mismatched chairs and silverware. The chef, Liz, is an award winner and when you taste her food you'll know why.

We shared a starter of house-made bread and spreads--see below: French and olive breads with goat cheese and sweet corn spread, kale pesto, and heirloom tomato bacon jam--oh yeah-you heard that right!

 My camera's batteries ran out so I only captured one main dish: Deconstructed Cassoulet which had duck, sausage, and pork over white beans and baby carrots. My dish was Chicken Breast with a fresh tomato "gravy" over mashed fingerling potatoes served with a fresh Vietnamese Salad--sounds odd but you had to taste it to know how scrumptious, yummy and inventive it was!

Deconstructed Cassoulet

 Of course, I've heard their desserts are out of this world, but honestly, we have to have SOME restraint!

Road Trip-Day 2- Lunch & Dinner

I LOVE small town America: If ever on Rt 86 East, stop into OWEGO NY. A very cool little city right on the Sesquehanna River. Entrance to the city is over a flag-festooned bridge. Several great lunch spots from which to choose. We went to the  Calaboose Grill and had a fab lunch of burger with blue cheese (hubby says it rivals Knight's :-) and I had a fab Cobb salad with grilled shrimp.

And, then, of course, a girl needs to shop a little and I found a cool, cool gallery on Front Street--the Black Cat.

And now for dinner: we're on the eastern edge of NY--just  a hop, skip, and jump to Vermont and we
are staying at a great little inn with a terrific restaurant. Perfect martini and no one needs to drive :-)

Hubby had a perfect strip steak and I had a tender Filet Mignon. Even better, we have New York Cheesecake-to-go for the room while we watch Obama's speech! Life is good and tasty :-)

Road Trip! Michigan to Maine!

First stop:  Ellicottville New York. If you're ever in this area I can recommend this very cute little town in western New York. Several streets of "girlfriend" worthy shopping and a couple good restaurant choices. We had a lovely dinner at the Kabob Kafé next to the Ellicottville Brewing Company. Hubby says their Pale Ale is quite tasty. Both of us were pleasantly surprised with our flavorful chicken tikka dinners: spicy chicken, rice, salad and warmed pita--total yum! The weather was so pleasant we dined on the porch. Great first night of vacay!