Tasty Chicken, Kale, & Apple Sandwich Recipe

Meet our new favorite sandwich, the Toasted Chicken, Kale, and Apple Sandwich.

It's so easy to make. My favorite part is how leftover chicken is put to good use. I also love to crowd as many veggies as I can get onto a sandwich (or into any dish I make). That's good eatin', Clark!

Toasted Chicken, Kale, & Apple Sandwich

Ingredients:

~ very good bread
~ cream cheese
~ pepper jack cheese
~ apple
~ shredded chicken
~ red onion
~ kale
~ black pepper


For each sandwich:

1. Toast 2 slices of very good bread. The more whole grains, nuts, and seeds, the better.

2. Spread a thin layer of cream cheese on one side.

3. Add slice(s) of pepper jack to the other side.

4. Thinly slice your favorite apple. Add slices to pepper jack side.

5. Add leftover shredded chicken.

6. Add thinly sliced red onion and torn kale.

7. Pepper the cream cheese side and close the sandwich.

8. Cut in half and try to eat without all the goodies falling out! (I failed miserably at this, but it was so good, even if I had to pick pieces off of my plate to finish the rest of the sandwich.)

My Writing Partner (Cute Kitty Alert)

This is my girl. ONE of my gray girls, as the neighbor calls them.

She is my writing partner. Most days, as soon as my backside hits the chair, the cat joins me.

She gets the back half. I get the front. I'm the one in danger, though, of sliding off the front. This is mainly due to the slick covering and the mandatory highest setting so I can reach the keyboard. Which, unfortunately, means my feet do not really touch the ground.

Sitting down becomes a balancing act between not smashing the kitty, not slipping off the front of the chair, and not falling back and making the chair slip out from beneath me. (That has happened once, and it hurts.)

Hi, Mabel, my built in heating pad.

The best part, which I never think about unless my husband notices and tells me?

I walk around the rest of the day with a cat-hair stripe across my buttsy cheeks.

It's a new fashion statement. Gray hair on my head (thanks, Hollywood, for catching my style) and gray hair on my pants.

We girls color coordinate.

Garden Freebies

Last year's strawberries are growing gung-ho. It won't be too long. Just need a few more warm days and visits from busy bees.

It's going to be a great gardening year. My patches of dirt have started supplying delectables that have been already consumed.

The oregano is lush and green. This herb really makes dishes pop with spring flavor and excitement.

Now, I won't be eating this stray chick, but isn't it pretty? It escaped last fall from the hen and is happy bedding down with the strawberries. It shall soon join the high heat, low water portion of the garden.

The sage is growing crazy wild. This is year three for this plant. Last year it jumped right into blooms, so I am hoping for a slower race to seed.

Meet one of my new "I will do this again for sure" experiments. Last fall, after the killer attack of the aphids, I ripped all of the kale plants from the garden bed. Except this one. Did you know how difficult it is to pull out the roots of full sized plants? I just destroyed it as much as possible, and left this stalk in the dirt. And now? I already have fresh baby kale leaves. We have been pulling off leaves for a week or two. Not a ton of fresh produce, but enough to top a salad or sandwich.

As you can tell, I barely kept up with my herbs. My guilt is showing in the seeding of the parsley. Many baby plants coming up on their own. Good for us. We love fresh and dried parsley. Now, if anyone knows of a way to kill off the aphids, I will be forever grateful.

Either all of my lettuce seeds did not germinate last spring, or a few sneakily went to seed. The baby lettuce, already in use at mealtimes, is growing quite well. There are several random spots of lettuce sprouts in each garden bed.

This won't be on our menu either, but I'm pretty excited about the baby lupines. These are all volunteers. Next year they will be gorgeous.

The mama plant is towering over the brood of babies. Maybe some of them will show off their colors this summer.


Those are some of my freebies this spring. It's always a surprise when the greens start sprouting. Some I have forgotten, others are a result of bolting plants or lack of time on my part. This gardening girl is pretty happy to welcome the plants back to our yard.


How does your garden grow?

Motocycle Monday - Clear Lake Loop Ride (Washington State)

Welcome to Motorcycle Monday, a new feature for this blog. On Mondays after the weekends we are able to enjoy a ride, I will share the trails we followed and some photos from our motorcycle excursion.

We have so much fun, just the two of us, touring around central Washington on the Honda Shadow. We've met several very nice people who enjoy the same hobby we do. And if we don't talk in person, as least we wave as we pass each other. It's the brotherhood of two wheels.

Our ride began by heading west on Highway 12. In Naches, we hopped off the highway and took the back road (Old Naches Highway) behind Naches, where the beauty of blooming fruit trees danced past our visors.

Wildflowers were in bloom, covering the hillsides.

We did make a few short stops, mostly for me to take photos. Here is a close-up of lichen on a pine tree.

We traveled behind Clear Lake and Rimrock Lake through the Rimrock Recreation Area. The water was very calm and clear. Canada geese were nesting, honking, and generally making a noisy fuss. The road was paved the entire way and we saw few other vehicles on this loop around the lakes.

Just to prove that I was on the trip, here I am in the rear-view mirror. Sometimes, you just can't get fuzzy-free shot. Invariably, when I would click the shutter, we would hit a bump, go through a wind sheer, or my arm would just bounce around. Whenever we get home, it is always a surprise to see which photos turned out well.

The road behind Clear Lake is a loop and hooks back up to Highway 12 on the west side of Rimrock Lake. As you can tell by the gray water, skies, and general tone, it was a bit chilly for us. This is Rimrock Lake. We had just finished traveling behind it.

Can you see the rock climber? It was a wonderful day for the many we saw attempting the basalt columns along Highway 12.

What does not work? Camera + motorcycle + bumpy road does not equal quality photos. Out of four, this one is the only one that was even close to recognizable. You get what you get while shooting from the backside of the Honda.

Happy trails to you, 'til we meet again.

The Write Conversation : Google Penalizes Sites that aren’t Mobile Friendly...

The Write Conversation : Google Penalizes Sites that aren’t Mobile Friendly...: by Edie Melson  @EdieMelson Time for some digital spring cleaning. I don’t know about your neck of the woods, but here in South Ca...

Oh, sounds like work, but necessary work! I do love the freshly cleaned and organized house after spring cleaning, so maybe freshly cleaned and organized blogs will be just the same!

Happy cleaning!