Thai Chicken Salad and these delightfully crispy vanilla almond granola cookies!

I used the leftover chicken from last night's dinner to make a Thai Chicken Salad. My measurements are to taste, adjust to your liking. I used about 2 heaping tablespoons of Ryals Farms chevre, 1 tablespoon of mayonaise, a good squirt of Sriracha, a good squeeze of a 1/2 lime, 1/4 teaspoon of lime zest, 1 tablespoon of fresh basil, 1 tablespoon of fresh cilantro, and a teaspoon or two of good quality fish sauce. A tiny bit of honey might have been good too. When making chicken or tuna salad I make a wet mixture and then add it gradually into the meat. I served the chicken salad on buttered and griddle toasted Forte Grove Kalamata olive bread with avocado a slice of tomato and an herb spring lettuce mix. I can't wait to try this with tuna. I think it will be a good way to spicce up an otherwise pretty boring lunch. If you don't like the goat cheese, substitute cream cheese, a cream cheese mayonaise base mixture makes a pretty decedent chicken or tuna salad. I omit the cheese altogether make this same base mixture with mayonaise only and a lot more sriracha and it makes a fabulous asian chicken wing. Chop extra cilantro and sprinkle over the wings right before you serve them!

For desert, I discovered a new simple cookie recipe that was great.
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk ( I used Ryals Goat Dairy milk)
1 teaspoon of almond extract (I used almond because the granola I had was vanilla almond)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 stick butter
1 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
2 cups of your favorite granola

Take butter, egg and milk out and allow butter to soften and egg and milk to come to room temp. Preheat oven to 350. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add egg, milk, akmond and vanilla, beat until smooth, add flour, mix until well combined, stir in granola, some dried cranberries would probably be good too. The cookie dough will be more like a batter. Grease a cookie sheet well and then drop by the tablespoon with plenty of space in between. They do expand significantly when cooking, and you want to make sure they don't come together, because you will loose that incredible, sweet, buttery, crunchy crust like edge around all sides. Bake for 10-12 minutes, you are not looking for a lot of carry over cooking, you want them to look done. Store them in an airtight container, they will go well with Chris' iced coffee in the morning.

FoodSources:

free range chicken
Briarhill Farms, Mt. Hermon, LA
Joe and Jackie Dobie
phone: 985-877-5946
georgedobie@bellsouth.net

feta cheese and goats milk
Ryals Goat Dairy, Tylertown, MS
Bill and Niki Ryals
phone: 601-876-6328
ryalsb@telepak.net

Kalamata Olive Bread
Forte Grove , Plaquemine, LA
Contact: Kathleen and Bill Cooper
phone: 225.687.3026
kfcooper@cox.net