Monday, December 16, 2013

Lady's Choice Christmas Fruit and Nut Twisted Macaroni Salad

Are you done listing all the dishes you will be preparing for the Christmas eve dinner with the family? For me I started to sample some of my ideas and dishes I am going to prepare and one of which is this  Christmas fruit and nut twisted macaroni salad I made, this is also my official entry for Lady's Choice Real Mayonnaise best macaroni salad dish. 



                            
                         Christmas Fruit and Nut Twisted Macaroni Salad

Christmas Fruit and Nut Twisted Macaroni Salad

Ingredients:

1   - pack 200 grams twisted Macaroni pasta
1   - cup of Lady's Choice Real Mayonnaise
1   - small can pineapple slices (4 rings)
1/2- cup All-purpose cream (chilled)
1   - small bottle of Maraschino cherries preferably with stalk
2   - tbsp minced white onion
2   - tbsp Julienne strips of carrots
1   - cup rough chop assorted nuts ( almonds, pecan, walnut, and cashew)
1/2- cup candied fruit
1   - tsp sugar
dash of salt and ground white pepper to taste
stalks of parsley to garnish

Cooking instructions:

1. Boil water in a large casserole with a pinch of salt and teaspoon of corn oil or any cooking oil available. Once it started to boil pour in a pack of twisted macaroni pasta, cook until Al dente approximately 6-8 minutes ( or you can follow cooking instruction of the pasta in the package),
2. While the macaroni is cooking it is time to prepare the dressing and other ingredients. 
3. Open a can of pineapple slice, drain and set aside.
4. Mixed one small white onion peeled and chopped ( you can use electric mincer or food processor to have a consistent size of chopped onion and you can save more time too.
5. Peel one small carrot, cut and slice it into Julienne strips. Wash, drain and set aside.
6. Mix assorted nuts (almonds, pecan, walnut, and cashew) rough chop it in a wooden chopping board using the sharp edge of the knife.
7. When macaroni pasta is cooked drain and wash it in a running water to stop the cooking process and also by doing this it will prevent the macaroni to become sticky.
 8. Prepare the macaroni in a large bowl where you can mix everything in it. Pour in all the dry ingredients. First the minced onion, sugar, salt, and pepper, carrots, half portion of the assorted chopped nuts ( leave the other half portion for garnishing).
9. When all dry ingredients are mixed the fun part of mixing the macaroni pasta and Lady's Choice Real Mayonnaise plus the all-purpose cream together. Mix it scooping from top to bottom in a circular motion. Do not over mix. Cover it before placing it inside the refrigerator to chill before serving.
10. Place four crystal pasta bowl just enough, Garnish it with pineapple slice cut into half, sprinkle some chopped nuts and some whole almond nuts and add some candied fruit on the sides. Add a cherry with stalk and garnish it with parsley. 

And there you have it! 

My Christmas Fruit and Nut Twisted Macaroni Salad. 
A lighter version of the typical meat loaded macaroni salad this Christmas season. Best paired with any roast beef or even your favorite barbecue. 

The crunchiness of the assorted nuts and the creaminess of Lady's Choice Real Mayonnaise is just perfect with every spoonful.

You can always substitute nuts depends on what is available, dried seedless raisins can be a substitute instead of candied fruit. 
Serves 4-6.
Cooking and preparation time18-20 minutes. 

Photo entry with watermark by aadelacruzphotography
Camera used: Canon 60D
Lens: 18-135mm

Thank you for reading. A very Merry Christmas to all! :)

Love
BitsEnPieces


Monday, December 9, 2013

Accident after Accident

I guess my kids are just so prone to hitting their accident level area. Just this morning as I was helping my daughter to prepare for school... Our usual things we do every school day. She caught up with an accident at home, I told her to go down to wear her school shoes because the school service will arrive anytime. As I hear her sing while leaving her room and me grabbed her bed cover and fixing her bed... I heard this loud blag sound for about six times. I knew that she fell from the stairs ( so scared while I hurry to see how she was). 

She was at the end of the stairs starting to cry.. Hurriedly picked her up and she almost couldn't breath. She slipped missing the third step from the top and fell 6 or 7 steps down. :( 
I made her drink a sip of water so she can calm down and told her to relax because I got her already. I was holding her while trying to inspect her body... We sat and checked to see is she had any broken bones or anything bad. 

Thank God! Nothing serious happened to her, though she complains of a little pain on her right shoulder blade. I made her skip the morning class and I didn't report for work too. Gave her cold compress and pain reliever round the clock. She was able to go to school in the afternoon and she is home now. 

I just couldn't imagine the worst thing that can happen to her, I just can understand how accident prone they are lately. Now, I need to remind them over and over again to take that extra care when they do stuff even when they are inside the house.