What Did You Eat?

Weekend herb blogging: Vietnamese chicken salad

Last night I was leafing through Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid and saw their recipe for Vietnamese chicken salad.  I love this salad, but it's been years since I ate it. How does something like that happen?  At one time, I had it for lunch all the time when I worked in Sacramento. As I remember, it was the Big Thing at various restaurants, but they often called it Chinese Chicken Salad. I think I abandoned this salad when I discovered spicy noodles with peanuts.   High time for me to rediscover an old friend.  And the salad contains a lot of mint, so it would be perfect for Herb Blogging Weekend.  Go over to Kalyn's site and have a look at the other Herb Bloggers.

Sweet potato cornbread

I don't normally like sweet cornbread. I like my corn bread in true Southern style with no sugar in the batter and cooked in an iron skillet until it forms a nice crust. It's cornbread, not cake.  This recipe for sweet potato cornbread has a texture like the most delicate cake, and is slightly sweet.  But, what would you expect when the recipe calls for one pound of sweet potatoes?   I certainly wouldn't eat this with butter beans and collard greens. But, it's nice for a change of pace.  And adding special ingredients to cornbread always shoots a little buzz into a meal.  You tell people sweet potatoes are in their cornbread, they sit up and take notice.