chicken salad

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 large apple, cored and diced
• 2 stalks of celery, chopped fine
• unseasoned sliced almonds
• adobo
• cumin
• mayonnaise
• Dijon mustard

Season chicken with adobo, cook until done, then chop into small pieces. In large bowl combine cooled chicken, apple, and celery with about two tablespoons each of mayonnaise and mustard. Season with a couple of shakes of cumin and 1 or 2 shakes of adobo. If salad appears too dry, add equal amounts of mayo and mustard until desired consistency is reached. Serve on your favorite bread with fresh greens or on top of a fresh salad.

The dish: Although they're stories for a different time, there were two separate weeks of my life where I lived on nothing but store bought chicken salad. Eat one thing for a week straight and you'll be amazed at how much of an expert you become on that dish. While tasty, I always found the bought stuff to be a little lacking in flavor and usually dripping with too much mayonnaise. I'm pretty sure I'm past the point of eating any one thing straight for a week, but I don't mind making a big batch of this as the unique flavors can be enjoyed for a while. Like tuna the longer this sits the better it becomes.

turkey with mixed spring greens and apples on rye

• thin sliced turkey breast (I roasted and sliced my own)
• 1 red delicious apple, slice thin
• mixed greens of your liking
• good quality mustard
• good quality rye bread

Assemble sandwich in this order: bread, mustard, turkey, apple, greens, top piece of bread. My many years in deli work have made me nutty with always making sure that condiments go on the bottom and veggies always go on top. Any greens will work, but if you're near a Hannaford pick up the spring mix with herbs. Likewise, use whatever mustard tickles you, I had some spicy brown Grey Poupon which rocked. I roasted and sliced my own turkey breast, but if your kitchen doesn't look like the inside of a deli any good turkey will work, but I avoid Boar's Head like the plague as their meats are nothing but a celebration of funk and salt.

The dish: I really miss the 90s sometimes. It could just be short term nostalgia but things really seemed so much newer and brighter in the decade that introduced us to cell phones and Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Although one part of the 90s I certainly don't long for anymore is what I like to call Seinfelditis, the tendency in almost any conversation for someone to make some analogy using an episode of the fabled TV show: wow, you like junior mints too? this is just like that time on Seinfeld... In the decade since Jerry has gone the way of the beanie baby and the phenomenon has mostly died out. That is of course until someone finds out I own a deli slicer, and then I always get remember the Seinfeld where Kramer feed the cat with the slicer? I'm not much of a TV person to begin with and the show never struck a chord with me, but the slicer episode is one of the two I've actually seen (the junior mints one being the other) and it was pretty funny, but slightly tragic when Elaine leveled her heel with the blade. Truth be told, the occasional bout of Seinfelditis is a small price to pay for the convenience of owning a slicer. Whether it's making my own lunch meats, slicing vegetables, or cutting perfectly even pieces of crostini for fresh bruschetta, the slicer is a must have for the red room. I highly advocate picking one up, just like Seinfeld you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.