Cooking up a storm

My idea of a good, long, holiday weekend? Cook a lot. Better if you have someone to cook for. I thought I was cooking for two guests tonight, but only one showed up, so I have lots of good leftovers.

The menu: chicken rolls—a mix of chicken, mushrooms, scallions and cream cheese in crescent roll dough, drizzled with butter and sprinkled with crushed croutons. I thought the croutons were an especially nice touch. The rolls puffed up and turned out larger than I expected, plus were so rich I could only eat half of one. I served them with a mix of sautéed asparagus and mushrooms and a fruit salad. With oatmeal raisin cookies for dessert.

Last night, I prepped some of tonight’s meal--baked the cookies, skinned and boned the rotisserie chicken breast—I love to get the breast only instead of the whole chicken. When I washed the mushrooms, I had what I thought was a brilliant idea. I diced the stems to put in the chicken rolls and saved the caps to slice and sauté with the asparagus.

In addition, last night I fixed myself steamed spinach and salmon cakes for supper. Salmon cakes are one of my favorite dishes on earth. My mom called them croquettes and shaped them into little logs, which I have always found hard to brown evenly. I shape them as patties. And Mom rolled the final product in crushed crackers—I decided that was trouble and the crackers didn’t stick to the filling, so I just use crushed crackers in the patties and don’t coat them. Seems to work well. I love those salmon cakes cold the next day, with lots of lemon and a bit of mayonnaise. Ate two today, which may be why I wasn’t really hungry at dinner.

So today, for supper I cut up the fruit salad—started with cantaloupe and an orange and realized I had a sort of pale, orange-colored salad. A banana, done at the last minute, would add some variety, and Jean brought blueberries at my request, because I said the salad needed color. Whereas the chicken was too rich, the fruit was bright and just right—I ate two serving. Asparagus and mushrooms proved to be a great combination. All in all, it was a menu I’m proud of.

I’m probably through cooking—at least until next weekend—but I have a lot of rotisseries chicken left. I’m thinking a pasta salad with chicken would be really good. Do I miss the barbecue and traditional foods of Memorial Day? A bit but not too much.

What’s on your weekend menu?