This past weekend we visited my parents, and my mom prepared a new salad recipe she said we just had to try. “It’s got corn bread and beans and tomatoes. You’ll love it!” she said.

And love it we did!

So of course, I had to share it with all of you. This salad is a nice change from the typical lettuce/pasta/potato salad categories—it’s a unique dish that will be at home on many shower menus.

It’s got corn bread and beans and tomatoes. You’ll love it! (My mom said so.)

Southwest Fiesta Salad

This salad requires lots of prep work…but it’s worth it, I promise! Remember this recipe calls for a fairly long refrigeration period before serving (2-8 hours)—plan ahead to be sure you leave ample time for the flavors to mingle.

 1 cup sour cream

1 cup salsa

2 medium (2 cups) tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1 cup chopped green pepper

½ cup chopped red onion

1 T chopped fresh cilantro

4 cups crumbled corn bread

2 (15 oz) cans corn, drained

1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained

8 oz shredded cheddar cheese (or your favorite)

In a small bowl, combine the sour cream and salsa, set aside. Combine the chopped tomatoes, peppers, onion, and cilantro, set aside. Combine the corn and beans, set aside. In a 9×13 baking dish, spread 2 cups of crumbled corn bread. Top that with half of the corn/bean mixture, and half of the cheese. Next, evenly distribute half of the tomato mixture over the cheese. Repeat the layers with the remaining corn bread, corn/bean mixture, and cheese—saving the remaining tomato mixture for the end! Spread the sour cream/salsa mixture over the cheese, and then top it all with the remaining tomato mixture. Cover and refrigerate the salad for at least 2-8 hours before serving.

Enjoy!

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

It’s strawberry season! Hooray! I’m a big fan of berries, and I think strawberries top my list (particularly if they’re involved in some sort of shortcake/whipped cream concoction…). They’re so versatile—they can be incorporated into everything from a yummy spinach salad to creamy strawberry soup to sparkling beverages to a simple dip in chocolate. If you’re hosting a baby shower this summer, be sure to incorporate this delicious fruit into your menu…even if it’s just by offering a bowl of fresh juicy whole berries.

This delicious recipe is a perfect way to showcase the gorgeous strawberries to be found this time of year. A take on strawberry cheese cake, these “one-bite” morsels are pretty much perfect as is…or you can gild the lily (highly recommended) by dusting the filled berries with graham cracker crumbs or grated dark chocolate. Or dip them in chocolate! Or place them on small baked rounds of delicate puff pastry! Or…you get the picture. 

Stuffed Strawberries

1 pint fresh strawberries

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened

½ cup powdered sugar

1-2 tsp pure vanilla extract (or almond extract)

Wash strawberries well and lay them out to dry. Meanwhile, combine the remaining ingredients with a mixer or a food processor until its smooth. Place it either into a piping bag with a large tip (a star tip is pretty!) or into a plastic sandwich bag with the corner cut off. Refrigerate the filling while you prepare the strawberries.

To assemble, cut the tops off your strawberries so you can stand them upright on the cut side. (Alternately, if your strawberries have pretty stems and leaves, or if you plan to dip them, leave the tops on and just lay them on their sides after they’ve been filled.) To open up the inside of the strawberries for filling, cut either a small wedge shape out of the tip of each berry, or make two intersecting (criss-cross) cuts from the tip to about ¾ of the way toward the now-bottom of the berry and gently fan the sections out a bit to create a pocket for the filling. Squeeze some filling into each strawberry, ending with a pretty dollop on top of the berry, and place them on a platter.

Cut berries tend to weep a bit of juice, so if you’d like to fill them way ahead of time, I’d suggest storing them in a paper towel-lined cake pan and then transferring them to your platter when you’re ready to serve them.

Enjoy!

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

Chicken salad is a main-stay on baby shower menus…and this recipe is a favorite among my family and friends. It’s a classic chicken salad, but it’s dressed up a bit with the addition of grapes and whipped heavy cream. It’s light and flavorful and perfect on a croissant!

Chicken Salad

This recipe can be made even easier if you use the meat from a cooked grocery store rotisserie chicken (or even canned chicken). You can use either red or green grapes—the sweeter, the better—and I’ve occasionally added in some chopped apple as well for a nice twist. Though the recipe calls for almonds, it’s equally delicious prepared with pecans or even cashews, if that’s what you have on hand. Also, this salad tastes even better if you make it a day ahead of time and let the flavors mingle overnight.

2 ½ cups diced cooked chicken, chilled
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup sliced, seedless grapes
½ cup sliced almonds, toasted if desired
2 T chopped fresh parsley (or 1-2 tsp dried parsley)
2/3 cup mayonnaise
¼ cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp salt

In a medium bowl, whip the cream to soft peaks, set aside. In a larger bowl, combine the remaining ingredients, except the salt. Mix everything together well, and fold in the whipped cream until everything is well-combined. Add the salt to taste, and chill the salad until you’re ready to serve it, overnight if possible. Serve on croissants, rolls, or even lettuce leaves.

Enjoy!

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

One of my very favorite shower menus to plan is brunch. Quiche! Salads! Sweet rolls! Bacon! (Mimosas!) Some of my favorite foods can be found on a brunch table—and the best part is there’s always lots of room for baked goods. Of multiple varieties.

My go-to recipe for goes-with-coffee baked goods is a simple butter scone recipe. These delicious scones are a breeze to prepare, can be made ahead of time (days! weeks!), can be prepared beautifully from the freezer, and can be customized into as many flavors as you have flavor ideas.

They have a wonderful crisp exterior that gives way to a soft fluffy buttery interior, and they are equally wonderful straight out of the oven or at room temperature…which makes them perfect shower food in my opinion.

Butter Scones
These scones are delicious as they are, but they’re lifted to an entirely new level when broken open and slathered with fresh butter and jam. Also, you can treat this as a base recipe and add any number of ingredients to create new flavors: Add about ½-3/4 cup of “dry” ingredients (berries, chocolate chips, nuts, etc. in any combination) or sub in another liquid (orange juice, maple syrup, mashed bananas, etc.) for some of the milk.

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 T baking powder
3 T sugar
1/2 tsp salt
5 T chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 cup heavy cream (milk will work in a pinch!)

Heat your oven to 425°F. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Use a pastry blender or your fingers to cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal (some larger lumps of butter are ok.) At this point, stir any “dry” add-ins you’re using into the flour.

Stir in the heavy cream (and any liquid add-ins you’re using) with a wooden spoon until the dough forms, being careful not to over-mix. Your dough may still be a bit floury—that’s fine! You should have a thick, sticky dough that holds it’s shape. If yours is runny, mix in some extra flour until you achieve the correct consistency.

Using two spoons or an ice cream scoop, drop 1/3-1/2-cup mounds of dough onto an ungreased baking sheet (you should be able to make 12 scones with the original butter scone recipe.) *If you’d like, at this point you can place the pan of unbaked scones into the freezer until they’re frozen, then transfer the frozen dough into a freezer bag. When you’re ready to bake them, simply place the frozen dough onto a baking sheet and bake as usual, adding 10 minutes or so to the bake time. Fully-baked scones also freeze and thaw beautifully if you’d like to prepare them ahead of time.

Bake 15-20 minutes, or until the tops are light brown. Cool on a wire rack at least 10 minutes before digging in.

Enjoy!

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger