Not-So-Old-Fashioned Chicken Salad

While out on a bike ride this morning I started having summer flashbacks to my childhood. Do you remember those days? Spending all day on your bike, riding miles and miles around the neighborhoods with your friends...maybe to the town pool for a swim ($.50 to swim all day). Then at the end of the day coming home to the warm, inviting smells of homemade peach cobbler made with fresh summer peaches. The pitcher of cold, fresh-squeezed lemonade sitting on the table. Beautiful half-moons of bright yellow lemons bobbing in the pale golden liquid, condensation droplets rolling down the outside of the container.... Ahhh forget it, I didn't grow up in that house either. My lemonade came from little paper packets stamped with the words 'KOOL' and 'AID', and peach cobbler....never happened. Hey a girl can dream, right? What I do remember about summer is family vacation. Long, long, long camping trips. I'm still traumatized. The food I associate with long, long, long camping trips is boiled chicken stuck between two pieces of white bread with some mayonnaise and salt. The chicken was over-cooked and the bread was mush. I am embarrassed to admit this - especially here - but I can still taste those sandwiches and I kind of have fond memories of them. Please don't think less of me. Chicken salad was something I had probably heard about but the word 'salad' in general, was missing from our vocabulary. Chicken Salad ala Bosworth (it doesn't really have a name) is something else entirely. Like many of my created recipes, this one came about to get rid of stuff we had in the refrigerator. In place of chicken, I have substituted roasted or grilled pork tenderloin, steak and shrimp. Let me save you some time by saying the shrimp was pretty awful - don't waste your energy. My son Will used to request this chicken salad as his dinner every single night. He has moved to a more-conservative two or three times a week now, but still continues to ask for it. This chicken salad is so easy and refreshing. Grill or roast the chicken earlier in the day (or buy a rotisserie chicken from the super market) and assemble it whenever you get a minute. Simple!

Chicken Salad (feeds 6)

5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cut into 1" pieces (or shredded)

1 1/2 cups grapes, cut in half

1/2 cup nuts (I LOVE salted cashews in this, but any kind of nut will work), chopped

6-8 scallions, sliced and chopped (can use entire scallion) - chopped onions also work

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 tbsp (or to taste) curry powder (optional)

Combine all ingredients. That's it.

I like the flavor of the curry powder, my husband and a couple of my kids do not.

This meal is a constant pack-n-take. Easy to make ahead of time and travels well. (My kids take it to school for lunch a lot too.)

Thumbs up all around!