Roasted Pear_butternut Soup & Chicken Salad Sandwich

I found these recipes again at Food Network website. I made roasted pear-butternut soup & chicken salad sandwich. It was very autumn like supper.

This soup has butternut squash and pear and tomato, etc and tasted really really good. It was creamy yet I didn't have to add any cream and it was also very refreshing because of pear.

First, I tossed vegetables with oil and salt, pepper.

Then, Arrange in a sheet pan.

Roast in the oven until soft.

Then, blend them in a mixer with chicken stock. That's it.

I really liked this soup. If you would like to make this. Click here for the recipe from Food Network Site. 


When I have soup, I crave for sandwich so I made chicken salad sandwich using the roasted chicken breast which I made when I made chicken flautas.

This chicken salad recipe is from Ina Garten from Food Network. Click here for her recipe from Food Network site. 

I cubed the roasted chicken breast.

Mixed with lots of other ingredients such as pecans, walnuts and grapes and made a sandwich with pumpernickel bread.

I loved the combination of chicken, nuts and grapes. This was perfect paring with pear-butternut soup.

Butternut squash is a great thing to make soup or sauce. I would love to try some other recipe using butternut squash while it is in season. I highly recommend this soup and sandwich!

Shrimp Sandwich with the bread from EATALY

I made shrimp sandwich using the rustic bread which I bought from Eataly in NY on the weekend. This sandwich is something my friend made for us when he and his wife and kid visited us from South Africa. We live far away right now but I hope we will be living close to each other someday.
(Click here for the post of that time)

He is a great cook and he also make something special for us when we see each other. He does not use recipe and always come up with great dish. I wish I could cook like him. I really loved this sandwich he made for us so I decided to make it just like he did.

I used frozen shrimp, lots of arugula and cilantro. I forgot to get avocado but the sandwich was already too big to eat so maybe it was good that I forgot avocado. I also used sautéed onion, just like he did.

The bread was too big so when I tried to eat this sandwich, it was impossible to eat so I separate the bread and ended up making two open-face sandwiches. It was really good!

This is easy sandwich but very special and satisfying sandwich. Whenever I get good bread, I crave for this sandwich.

Cucumber Sandwich & Egg Sandwich

Lately, I love eating cucumber sandwich. This is so simple and light. I love it. I can not call this cooking but when it really hot outside, this kind of sandwich taste super with the cool cucumber.


For cucumber sandwich, I just slice cucumbers. Spread some mayonnaise on toast, add sliced swiss cheese and cucumber. That's it. It can not get easier, isn't it?

When I was little, there was a period of time which I was obsessed with cucumber. I would just wash the cucumber and dip in mayonnaise and eat. (Japanese cucumbers are very small so you can just bite them like pickles even tough I don't call it a good manner...) I think it is a great snack for kids :-) if they like cucumber.

I felt bad for my husband making only cucumber sandwich so I also made egg salad sandwich. Egg salad sandwich is something my mom used to make sometimes when I was little.

I just boiled eggs and mash them. Add mayonnaise, relish and salt/pepper. This is also super easy but relish make it super good.

Even tough this is such an easy meal, since my husband loves sandwich, he was so happy!

With the sandwiches, we also had some salad. We have been eating lots of salad lately. This time, I used one of my favorite salad dressing. Paul Newman's (Newman's Own) Caesar salad dressing.

I liked Paul Newman. I think he is so good looking. I think he was the best looking old guy. Anyway, he has lots of food products under Newman's Own brand. I like his products. Lots of them are natural and organic.

And all the profit goes to charities. This Caesar salad dressing is one of my favorite. There is oil type and creamy type. I like both of them but this time I used oil type.

He also have popcorn, cookies, pasta sauce, lemonade, etc. You can find them in a regular supermarket so if you have a chance, try some of his products. It is pretty good. All of his products have his illustrated face on the package.

Challenge for another homemade bread

I have tried to make homemade sandwich bread for a few times in the past. I have never made this perfectly and need more practice. So I tried it again to make it better.

It was a bit smaller than I have expected and it is not even. This is not a perfect sandwich bread which I was trying to make but the taste was there.

First, I made the dough and separate them into two. (At this point, it is already uneven....)

Roll them and put them in the pan.

This is after baking.

Let's cut them into thin slices.

I made turkey sandwich with this bread. The taste was really good. I just need to work on the shape.

Freshly baked bread is really good. Since this was quite small bread, we ate them pretty quickly.

Well, it seems like I need more practice on baking bread. In the future, I would love to bake baguette and sourdough bread but first I would like to make a perfect sandwich bread. Hopefully, the day will come very soon :-)

Dried Cranberry & Walnut Chicken Salad Sandwich recipe

Using the roasted chicken from Costco, I made yet another dish! The roasted chicken is pretty big for two people, I have to make something else using this chicken so we don't get tired of eating roasted chicken everyday.

Since I had homemade bread on hand, I made this chicken salad with dried cranberry and walnuts.

A few years ago, My husband, I and one of our good friend have visited a small town in up north where Norman Rockwell has lived. I don't remember the name of the town but it was very small and cute town.

I am sure that you have heard of Norman Rockwell. He is a famous artist who drew good old America such as these. I love his pieces. It always makes me smile.












Anyway, in this small town we had lunch in a small cute restaurant. One of the dish we ordered was Turkey Sandwich and it came with some cranberry sauce in it. It was so good!

When I think about Chicken Sandwich, I think about that particular turkey sandwich and I wanted to try to recreate this with my chicken salad sandwich.

The town was very cute but most of the things I remember is food, of course. I can not forget the Turkey sandwich and flourless chocolate cake I had at this restaurant. (Too bad I don't remember the name of the restaurant) Everything we ate there were really good! As always, my memory is surrounded by food I ate.

I just remembered that I had nose bleeding after I had lunch here. I almost never have nose bleeding. Maybe the food was so good that I got too excited and had nose bleeding. I don't know. It is funny that I forgot about this :-)

Anyway, back to chicken salad sandwich. I add some stuff to make it little bit different from the chicken salad I normally see. Here is the recipe.

Dried Cranberry & Walnut Chicken Salad Sandwich

Ingredients
Cooked Chicken  300g (shredded)
Celery           3 ribs (chopped)
Scallion        2   (Chopped)
Dried Cranberry    a Handful
Walnuts                 a Handful
Mayonnaise           2 table spoon
Honey mustard     1 table spoon
Salt & Pepper       for taste
Paprika                 1 tea spoon

1. Add all the ingredients above in the bowl.

2. Mix it well.

3. Sandwich with your favorite kind of bread and serve.

Sweet cranberry and crunchy walnuts with crispy celery makes this chicken sandwich extraordinary. You can bring this for lunch also. Put the chicken salad in a container and bring the bread separately. This way the bread won't be soggy when you eat. This is another easy recipe but it is great when you have extra roasted chicken left over.

After I moved to the U.S., I encountered lots of new dishes. I love living here because there are people from different country and I can appreciate different culture and food. I was not used to eating something savory with sweet but now I love the combination such as Turkey with cranberry sauce or Swedish meatball with lingonberry sauce. (Though, I still don't like pineapple pizza....)

Anyway, if you are tired of same chicken salad sandwich, try this one. It is something sweet and savory at the same time and it create a great harmony in your mouth!