Sometimes I have too much time on my hands. I use that time to cook experimental food that I’ve seen made on whatever cooking show I just watched or read a recipe for on-line. I end up riffing on what I’ve seen because I’m that sort of cook. As a result, we don’t often have the same meal twice. We used to eat repeat meals when my kids lived at home because it was easy to make the things they enjoyed and asked me to make. I also didn’t have to think about it when we were too busy to stop for creative dinner. Lately, I’ve been trying to remember what we ate. I’ve been married and cooking for 30 years, so that’s a lot of time to recall.

This has resulted in me thinking about the ones we may miss. The new recipe here for chicken salad is one of those. I was looking for something that would be an easy dinner, good for a summer evening. This is great on croissants, sourdough bread, or right off the plate.

It’s different from the usual chicken salad (I think) for two reasons. One, it has the addition of tart dried cherries and carrots (adds crunch instead of the usual nuts) and two, I use yogurt for the creamy part (not a fan of mayonnaise at all). Not trying to do shameless ads here, but if you do try this, use a really good quality yogurt for best results. I used the new Oui brand from Yoplait in vanilla for 1/2 of the yogurt and Fage 0% fat for the other 1/2 cup. Sounds unusual, but trust me, it’s the right blend of sweet and savory!

My only regret is that I neglected to take a picture of the final result on the sourdough we enjoyed it on.