OId Hickory Ward Sisters/Christmas 2008

On December 6th, I was asked to head the food committee for our Relief Society Christmas Party. Everyone LOVED the Chinese Chicken Salad, so I thought I'd share it with my favorite inter peeps.


Since I didn't share this event with you then, I thought I'd throw in a few pictures so y'all can see some of my sweet sisters here in Nashville.


As my son-in-law Joe said to me...."You know, Amy Grant had it right...It really is a Tender Tennessee Christmas!"

The Skit

Putting the Salad together...

By the way, the recipe calls for rice noodles. You should have seen all the varieties of noodles that showed up. Have you ever tried to eat Vermicelli rice noodles uncooked? (They are like spaghetti noodles, only tougher to chew.) Well, they were not cooked...just broken up and tossed in the salad. We got a really good laugh over that one. Thanks to all the polite sisters who ate them while trying to choke them down. We also got some long wide noodles cooked and ready to toss. At least they were dropped off in a zip lock baggie and not tossed into the salad. Can you imagine cold wet noodles in a green salad? Yummm!

Needless to say, I'm changing the recipe to say "Chow Mein Noodles". I'm sure there are crunchy rice noodles out there. More power to you if you can find them. It was really good with the Chow Mein Noodles.

Old Hickory Ward Sisters

It was lots of fun!

Here's the recipe...enjoy!




Chinese Chicken Salad
Serves 12-15

12 oz spinach
21 oz. romaine lettuce
(Add some red leaf lettuce for color)
1 cup shredded carrots
3 cups mandarin oranges
1 1/4 cups bacon (cooked and cut into pieces)
2 1/4 cups toasted almonds (sliced)
1 1/2 bag Chow Mein Noodles

Poppy Seed Dressing

1/3 cup vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
Heat and dissolve sugar in vinegar

Add:
1 Tbsp dry mustard
1 1/2 Tbsp. poppy seeds
2/3 cup oil
1/2 tsp. salt

Whip together to mix oil and vinegar. It will mix completely and not separate IF whipped together long enough. This makes about 1 2/3 cups.

Chicken

Cook and cube 4 chicken breast halves. Thaw chicken or, if fresh chicken pieces are used, remove skin and trim fat. Dust in flour mixed with some seasoning mix (Lawry's Chicken Rub). Shake on a bit more of the seasoning and a tiny bit of garlic and bake in butter at 375 for 35 minutes, turning the chicken once.

The spinach, romaine, red leaf, and carrots can all be mixed together ahead of time. the rest of the ingredients are to be mixed in just prior to serving.

Finally...Christmas 2008

If you fly the friendly skies, it could take up to a half a day to fly from Tennessee to Salt Lake City, and that's if you have a layover somewhere. By car....well lets just say....if you go by car, it's NOT a day trip! But... when all is said and done, you will be able to say you've been in Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, and Utah. So after giving it some thought, we decided to drive home for Christmas. This does shed some doubt on our ability to make a rational decision, but all rationale goes out the door when you're emotionally driven by a great desire to be with loved ones for Christmas.


So our road trip began...and after miles and miles of miles and miles, we ended the first leg of our trip in Denver. A mere 18 hours and we had arrived back in the Rockies. Ahhhh....home! And though we still had miles and miles of more miles and miles to travel, we were finally able to take some scenic pictures. (Yes, our first and only scenic pictures were taken the second day of our journey when we drove through the mountains of Colorado.) As a matter of fact, it was so beautiful that we almost made a phone call saying we'd come as far as we could and if anyone wanted to see us, they could join us on the slopes of Vail Colorado. Too bad we don't ski. Lucky for us we were just one step ahead of the snow storms that wreaked havoc on Christmas travelers across the U.S. As a matter of fact, the road we were traveling on (I-70) was closed the day after our arrival in Cedar City, Utah. Then it started to snow. And snow. And snow. We wanted a white Christmas and it looked pretty likely we would be having one.

After we arrived in Cedar and the snow kept falling, we decided this called for some serious gingerbread house making and snow playing. After three days, we were back on the road again. But before we left, Before we left, we made sure to stop for the best burger in town. Ya wanna guess where that was? The BOWLING ALLEY! Go figure.



Next stop...Salt Lake City. With our sleigh packed to the gills, our bun warmers on, and an extra gallon of windshield wiper fluid, just in case, we headed north.


After traveling all those miles and miles of miles and miles to get to Salt Lake for Christmas, we began to really question our decision. What in the world possessed us to do such a crazy thing! Especially since we still had to drive back...AAUGH!

So...why did we do this...

Maybe we did it because we really wanted to be a part of that crazy gift exchange at Penni's house. You know...the game that Grandma Hand started years ago with all her treasures from entering the Reader's Digest Sweepstakes that she couldn't bear to part with so she decided to wrap them up for a Christmas Eve we would never forget. Thanks to Penni, the tradition continues. Oh the treasures one can walk away with...
Maybe it's because we love opening up new PJ's to wear to bed on Christmas Eve. Or maybe it's watching the faces of our grandchildren as they listen to the story of our Savior's birth on that first Christmas so long ago. Or maybe it's that magical feeling only present on a snowy Christmas Eve.
Maybe it's because we can't wait for Santa to come so we can watch the faces of the kids as they open their gifts. Priceless.Maybe it's the jammies that fit,



and those that don't.
Maybe it's tradition. Maybe it's Christmas casserole, muffins, and juice, or Bob's
Tenderloin....yummm!

Maybe it's having a white Christmas and playing in the snow.
Maybe it's the family band and lots of Christmas songs together.

Maybe it's four generations of girls under one roof.

Maybe it's having breakfast with best friends and wondering how time has gone by so quickly that our girls are now moms and we're grandmas! Maybe it's realizing how blessed we are to have such lifelong friends. (Thanks LaDean and Aly...it was so fun to see you!)


Maybe it's staying up as late as we possibly can after getting all the kids settled down so we can play games, laugh, and just have fun together.

Or maybe it's that after-all-the-games-are-over-late-night-talk-with-mom. You know... the one that's not planned but happens every time we're together that I look forward to after dad goes to bed. The one that sort of caps off our visit and begins our long goodbye. That one.

Maybe those are the reasons we do it, or maybe we're just crazy!! I guess we are a little crazy. All I know is that it was worth it. Thanks for such a wonderful Christmas! We love you all!