Taste & Create 12 - Plated Summer

Once again this month I find myself paired with Katie of One Little Corner of the World for Taste & Create XII. (Those of you paying attention will recall Katie's yummy Donut Muffins were my contribution to the April event).

This time I was torn; there were a couple of recipes that caught my eye. In the end I selected her delightful Dill Chicken Salad, to which I added a couple of twists of my own.

I started with two boneless skinless chicken breasts, coating them in the Italian seasoning infused olive oil and baking them off as Katie suggests. Yum... I could have stopped right there. But I didn't, though I took a look around my refrigerator and my pantry and I ad libbed a bit. Chicken's packed with protein, so I left the egg out to save a couple of calories. Not a fan of celery, I substituted half a jicama. I made the salad dressing as directed and substituted scallions for the chives, again because that's what I had on hand.

My thoughts? First of all, Katie's chicken would be excellent all on its own, served with steamed vegetables of sliced over green salad. And you could easily make the chicken salad with leftover bits of roasted chicken. The chicken salad would be sensational sandwiched between two slices of whole wheat bread and grilled panini style. But since I've blogged a bit about panini in the recent past and I've got some luscious tomatoes and avocados from my CSA delivery, I decided to plate it Napoleon-style - a slice of tomato, a slice of avocado, a mound of chicken salad, topped with another slice of tomato. The taste? The crunch of the jicama, the dill-studded salad dressing, a couple of sun-sweetened tomatoes and buttery bits of avocado... this *is* summer on a plate my friends.

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