Recipe(tried): Mother's Day Cooking for One or Two

MOTHER'S DAY COOKING FOR ONE OR TWOI must never forget one of my favorite message boards at The Kitchen Link, COOKING FOR ONE OR TWO. If you are contemplating to share your Mother's Day with your partner or husband or by yourself, you deserve to have the best possible time with the less possible effort. This year I will go to Vega Alta to share the important day with my mother. Maybe next year I will be by myself, but no matter what, I will try to have the best possible time. Here is a Menu for two, which I hope you will enjoy. Buen Provecho!

CHICKEN DIP FOR VEGETABLES.

1 cup chopped cooked chicken (1-6 oz can, drained, can be substituted)
1/4 cup chopped celery
3 TB sliced almonds, toasted
3 TB finely chopped onion
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp. curry powder
2 tsp. lime juice (lemon for us)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 TB white Worcestershire Sauce

Mix all ingredients in a glass bowl that can go directly to the table. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour, so those flavors can be mixed. Serve with julienned carrots, celery and zucchini or with mixed crackers. Remember that this is a Special Day, therefore you deserve a good bottle of white wine or champagne to accompany the dinner. Also, perhaps, a big slice of Manchego cheese. Serve a Robert Mondavi Chardonnay or a Veuve de Cliquot Brut Champagne.

SHRIMP AND CORN CHOWDER
I will serve this excellent chowder as main dish.

3 cups strong chicken stock
1 1/2 lbs. shrimps, shelled and deveined
1 TB olive oil
1 TB butter
1/2 onion minced
1 celery rib minced
1/2 green bell pepper minced
1 can white corn, drained
1 TB arrowroot dissolved in 1/2 cup cold milk
Salt, pepper and Tabasco to taste
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 carrot sliced paper-thin
1/2 sweet red pepper cut into small cubes
2 slices of bacon, fried crisp and crumbled

Bring half of the chicken stock to boil in a saucepan. Add shrimps, return to boil, cover, remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Reserve 12 shrimps and cover with 1/2 cup of hot stock. Put remainder of shrimps through food processor with remaining cold stock. Heat butter and olive oil in skillet; add onion, celery and green pepper and saut over low heat for about 3 minutes or till vegetables are soft. Add corn to shrimp mixture and cook over medium heat for 1 minute, stirring. Add saut ed vegetables and arrowroot to mixture, bring to a brisk boil, and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, add seasonings to taste, cover, and let stand for 30 minutes. When ready to serve, bring chowder to the boil, add heavy cream, carrots and red pepper cubes and taste for seasoning. Pour into elegant soup bowls and add 4-6 whole shrimps plus a sprinkling of crumbled bacon to each portion.This nourishing soup can be accompanied with a substantial vegetable dish. I suggest the extremely elegant:
POTATO-SPINACH DUMPLINGS WITH STILTON SAUCE

4 medium boiling potatoes
3/4 stick butter
Salt and pepper
Nutmeg
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs
1/4 cup spinach
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 TB Stilton Cheese, crumbled

Puree spinach in processor. Boil potatoes in salted water until tender. Peel them and transfer to a mixing bowl. Mash them. Heat 1 cup water in the saucepan, add 3 TB butter, plus salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste, bring to a boil and remove from heat. Beat in flour gradually, and then beat in eggs, one at a time. Combine mixture with the mashed potatoes, blend in spinach puree, and form dough with lightly floured hands into 2-inch bowls. Drop balls in batches into saucepan of boiling salted water, cook them for exactly 15 seconds after they rise to surface, and with a slotted spoon, transfer dumplings to paper towels (this can be substituted for store bought gnocchi's, but it is not the same). Preheat the broiler. Heat remaining butter in a skillet over low heat, add the cream and crumbled cheese, and cook mixture till cheese has melted and the sauce is smooth. Place dumplings in a baking dish, run momentarily under the broiler to brown slightly and cover with the sauce.

For dessert, just fresh fruit. Buen Provecho!