Old Bay Vinaigrette

I made an Old Bay Vinaigrette today.  The inspiration for this dish came about because of a purchase from the deli counter at grocery store yesterday.  There was a Chesapeake Turkey that was roasted in the store.  This sounded very intriguing to me.  So, I bought a pound of it.  I had already planned on having chef salad at least one day this week for lunch and thought that an Old Bay Vinaigrette would be a nice complement to the meat.  I did not really find a recipe for this online, but I did find some good information on how to make a vinaigrette.  I used this information to come up with my own recipe.  With lent on the horizon I may try a salad with crab meat and/or shrimp with this vinaigrette.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2/3 cup Red Wine Vinegar
• Juice from 1/2 a lemon
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons Old Bay

Combine all ingredients in glass container (do not use aluminum) and mix with immersion (hand) blender.  I am sure a food processor or regular blender could be used as well.  Allow to sit at room temp for 1-3 hours.

Blogging / Creamy Italian Slow Cooker Chicken Pasta

I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while, but for one reason or another decided not to.  The thing that finally convinced me to is that I joined Pinterest.  One might ask, "what does one have to do with the other?"  Well, it seems as though the only way to "pin" things is to have a web link (although I could be wrong, since I just joined and don't really have much an idea of how it all works).  I like to make up my own recipes, well not exactly what one might call recipes seeing as I don't exactly measure much.  So, I created the blog to have a place to post my creations (or any other random rants/thoughts etc.).

Today I made what I suppose I will call Creamy Italian Slow Cooker Chicken Pasta.  As stated above I don't measure exactly, but here is the "recipe" with the approximate measurements.

• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 8 oz softened cream cheese
• 1/2 to 3/4 of a can (poured into one of the cream of chicken soup cans) of white wine
• 1/2 can of chicken broth (I used one of the cartons and just poured it into one of the cream of chicken soup cans)
• 1 packet of Italian Dressing dry mix
• 4 chicken breasts
• One box of pasta any shape
• Small amount of Italian Dressing (liquid) *optional

Combine cream of chicken soup, cream cheese, white wine, chicken broth and Italian Dressing mix.  Add chicken and submerge in the mixture.  Cook on low 4-6 hours.  Cook pasta according to directions. My favorite "tip" for pasta being served in any sort of Italian style sauce is when returning cooked pasta to the dish (or serving dish) is to put a little bit of Italian Dressing and mix it in with the pasta.  It is the best way I have found to keep the pasta from sticking together and adds a little bit of flavor as well.  Serve the chicken mixture over the pasta.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished product after it was done, but managed to snap a shot of what was leftover.  I suppose it is better than no picture at all.