NO COOKING AT ALL. ALMOST. HARDLY
Interesting Recipes for the Lethargic Gourmet

CHICKEN SALAD
           
      roast chicken
      small red onion
            a few sticks of celery
      1 cup mayonnaise
      juice of 1 1/2 limes
      lettuce leaves
     
      Coarsely chop the chicken, red onion and celery. Mix with mayonnaise and lime juice. Add more mayo if necessary. The red onion and lime makes this chicken salad mix tasty. Serve the salad wrapped in lettuce, two portions per plate.
     
      CHOPPED PINK SHRIMP
     
      1 pound shrimp
      1/2 cup mayonnaise
      3 tablespoons ketchup
      dash Chinese hot oil
      dash of pepper
      18 endive leaves
     
      Boil the shrimp until they turn pink; drain, and let cool in their liquid. Mix the mayonnaise, ketchup, oil, and pepper. Peel and chop the shrimp and stir them into the sauce. Chill.
     
      Put the mixture in endive leaves, three leaves for each guest, arranged on small plates for a first course.
     
      COLD EXOTIC SPINACH
     
      A wonderful and unusual first course! We have always called it “Pittsburgh, 1919” because that is where and when it was served to my mother. Alas, as I said earlier, she was not much of a cook, but she had somehow remembered these ingredients. It’s one of my favorite recipes and I don’t think you will see it in any other cookbook.
     
      Some people think this dish sounds disgusting, so you might not announce what it is made of until everyone is smacking their lips with pleasure.
     
      3 cans spinach
      2 cans sardines, drained
      2 cans anchovies (drained)or 8 inches anchovy paste
      5 hardboiled eggs
      1 cup mayonnaise
      1/4 cup milk or cream
      10 rounds of toasted bread or Melba toast
     
      Drain (squeeze!) the spinach. Put it with the sardines and anchovies in a blender or Cuisanart, mix well and chill. Stir mayonnaise with milk till smooth; chill covered. About an hour before serving, make 10 little mounds of the spinach with an ice cream scoop onto a bread board.
     
      Peel the eggs. If they are to be adornments, gently make a small cut lengthwise to extract the yoke without demolishing the whites. Cut the yolk in half, put one half on top of each spinach mound. Cut the white into narrow strips and drape them around the base of the mounds. You may skip this task if you wish, but do use the yolks.
     
      Put the toast rounds on plates, top with the spinach mounds and slather each with a very large dollop of the mayonnaise mixture.
     
      The last time I served this I cut the toast into small pieces before putting the spinach on it...no knives were needed and it was much easier for the guests to deal with.