Oscar's Chicken Salad

This post features two vintage pics! Whoopee! Check out my growth as a photographer...



When I was at Hull House, I worked with a lot of cool people. It almost made it okay that the president's secretary was an out-of-hand, psychotic bitch who would forget that she asked you to do something, and then scream at you for doing it. Almost. Anyway, there was this guy named Oscar who made the greatest chicken salad for the potluck occasions.

I know it may not look that appealing, but it is really tasty. He would boil a chicken, pick it, then add mayo, cayenne to taste, lots of paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper, a drained can of peas and carrots (you heard me right), and chopped boiled potatoes. When I make it, I pick a cooked rotisserie chicken. I ain't boiling no chicken.

I like to serve a couple scoops of it on a bed of romaine lettuce with some French or Western dressing drizzled around the edges, like so:



The salad is like a one-dish chicken dinner, and it is never too hot outside to eat it.

Is it a Mexican thing to do to put the peas and carrots in salads? I'm wondering, because when I was in school last year, I saw another student eating tuna salad that her husband had made. It had peas and carrots in it, and I said, "Is your husband Mexican?" She said, "Yeah! How did you know?" Huh!

Hooters Hot Wings

Chris and I both like buffalo wings. My favorites are actually the ones my brother used to fry up in the kitchen at Ruby Tuesday's, when he and I both worked there. That was twelve years ago now (wow.) He would always make his crazy off-the-menu hot, not so hot for me.

Now Ruby's is under new ownership (the whole chain, that is), and I dunno if their wings are the same or not. Chris likes the wings at the Ram Brewery, and they are actually the ones that remind me most of the ones that David used to make back when. But you know what? I think my favorites are the buffalo wings at Hooters. (I'm taking you to the menu here, sparing you the chatty waitress on the homepage. Click on "chicken wings.") They are breaded (you can get them without), and more like fried chicken. The hot sauce is sort of inside the breading, so you don't get the sauce all over your face (but if you're me, you get the bleu cheese there, anyway.)

Remember when opening a new Hooters was the talk of the town? I remember a big hoopla when they first opened one in Champaign. I dunno why people complained. I'm not really into women being objectified or anything, but I'm just saying that no one seemed to have a problem with the strip clubs just outside of town. The Hooters waitresses are dressed, after all. Somewhat.

I started eating at a Hooters when I lived in Nashville. It was literally in my backyard. I was shy about going in at first, and soon I was going by myself to sit down to a beer and some wings on the way back from work. The menu was more limited then... I seem to remember maybe burgers, an open-faced steak sandwich, the wings, and not much else. Chris likes their burgers.



Now Hooters has salads, healthier options, blah blah blah. I'll probably never try any of those things, because I don't know if I can go in there and not get the hot wings.



Chris accompanied me on a recent trip to get a replacement part for a sofa I had purchased out at Woodfield Mall (I can never buy a piece of assembly-required furniture that doesn't have a broken piece, it seems) and I practically hijacked the car when we drove past Hooters. I know he's been worried about the amount we've been eating out/driving through lately, but what can I do? When baby wants wings, baby wants wings.

Actually, I wonder if it was the hooters baby wanted...