"Angry" Pasta

The "angry"-ness of pasta arrabiata refers to the peppery spice of the red sauce. Tonight, the spice was small dried red chilies and a mess of red chile flakes. I briefly considered tossing some tobasco in but decided against it since it has a distinct tobasco sauce flavor that I wasn't looking for.

While cooking, I thought it was going to end up too spicy so I took the whole chilies out halfway through. It ended up being just right: a warm tingling spice that envelopes your mouth and lingers for a while after you've swallowed.

Curried Chicken Salad

With the leftover chicken from last night, we made this curried chicken salad. We had first made this with leftover turkey from last thanksgiving and it is certainly worth repeating. The sauce has a mayonnaise base with curry powder, lemon juice, and honey for flavor. I added a touch of champagne vinegar in place of some of the lemon juice and it seamed to work nicely.

My friend Kate stopped being a vegetarian just for a chicken salad like this. I stopped by to see her one day and found her sitting on the kitchen counter with a big tub of curried chicken salad between her legs and a bit of a crazed smile on her face. According to the recipe, it makes enough for 6, but after Nadia and I finished with it for lunch, there was only one serving left. It's that good.

sauce
3/4 - 1 cup mayonnaise
2 tsp curry power
1 tbs honey
2 tbs lemon or other acid

essential bits
1 whole chicken breast, shredded by hand
2 celery ribs, diced
chopped parsely or cilantro

options
raisins (golden are best) or other dried fruit (cranberries?)
long grain/wild rice
walnuts or pecans
diced red onion
chopped scallions