Spring in the desert means two things: the tomato plants are growing, and the temperature is starting its annual assault on human comfort. It was 95 on Tuesday. By June it'll be 110. The window of pleasant weather in Twentynine Palms is approximately three weeks long and occurs entirely in March.
The tomato plants have survived. All four of them — Dad was wrong about losing two, which I told him with the smug satisfaction of a daughter who has beaten the odds. He said, 'Don't get cocky. Wait for the fruit.' He's right. Sprouts are one thing. Fruit is another. The desert hasn't had its say yet.
Caleb is two and four months and has entered the phase where he narrates everything he does. 'Caleb running!' 'Caleb eating!' 'Caleb cooking!' He uses his name instead of 'I,' which is developmentally normal and also deeply endearing. He says 'Caleb cooking' every time I'm in the kitchen, whether or not he's actually helping, because in his mind, if cooking is happening, he's involved.
The book is in copyediting. Clara sent me the copyedited manuscript this week with approximately four thousand corrections that I'm supposed to approve or reject. Missing commas. Inconsistent capitalizations. The copyeditor changed 'Mom' to 'mom' throughout, which is WRONG — she's not a generic mom, she's MY Mom, capital M — and I'm rejecting every single one of those changes.
Mom is a proper noun in this family.
Blog this week: 'Spring Cleaning Your Pantry: What to Keep, What to Toss, and What to Cook Before It Expires.' A practical post about rotating pantry staples — the military wife skill that keeps your kitchen functional and your budget intact. Check dates. Rotate stock. Cook the oldest things first. Treat your pantry like inventory, because it IS inventory.
Four thousand views. Practical posts don't go viral. They go steady. And steady is what builds a readership.
Made Mom's spring chicken salad tonight — the one with grapes and pecans and cranberries. The first spring recipe of the year. In the desert, spring chicken salad is aspirational — it's 95 degrees and chicken salad says 'gentle warmth' not 'surface of the sun' — but the taste is spring regardless of the thermometer.
Caleb ate the grapes out of the salad and left everything else. Strategic. Efficient. Abernathy.
The chicken salad I made tonight was inspired by Mom’s classic — the one with grapes and pecans and cranberries that signals, in our house, that spring has officially arrived. This version swaps in blueberries for a brighter, more summery note, which felt right for a week when the manuscript finally moved into copyediting and the tomato plants are still, against all odds, alive. When Caleb inevitably picked out every piece of fruit and declared himself done, I took it as high praise — the kid has taste, even if he’s only interested in one component of it.
Blueberry Chicken Salad
Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 15 minutes | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 3 cups cooked chicken breast, shredded or chopped
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
- 1/2 cup red grapes, halved
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped
- 2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
- 3 green onions, sliced
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- Butter lettuce or croissants, for serving
Instructions
- Mix the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, honey, lemon juice, salt, and pepper until smooth and well combined.
- Combine the salad. In a large mixing bowl, add the shredded chicken, blueberries, grapes, dried cranberries, pecans, celery, and green onions.
- Dress and toss. Pour the dressing over the chicken mixture and gently fold everything together until evenly coated. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
- Chill (optional). For best flavor, cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving to let the flavors meld.
- Serve. Spoon onto butter lettuce leaves or pile onto croissants. Serve immediately.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 390 | Protein: 28g | Fat: 22g | Carbs: 20g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 410mg
About the cook who shared this
Rachel Abernathy
Week 261 of Rachel’s 30-year story
· San Diego, California
Rachel is a twenty-eight-year-old Marine wife and mom of two who has moved five times in six years and learned to cook a Thanksgiving dinner with half her cookware still in boxes. She married young, survived postpartum depression, and feeds her family of four on a junior Marine's salary with a freezer full of pre-made meals and a crockpot that has never let her down. She writes for the military spouses who are cooking dinner alone in base housing and wondering if they're enough. You are.
