When I heard that shrimp toasts are a typical item on dim sum menus I needed to make them immediately. (Dim sum happens to be one of my obsessions). Last weekend I was in the mood for a night at home filled with wine, appetizers and the hope of staying up past 10pm. Yes, you read that correctly and sadly, no, that wasn’t a typo. Ten-o-clock-pm. I blame daylight savings but I was really struggling to stay awake past 9 last week.

The wine and appetizers at home turned into (hurry up and make some appetizers while you still have enough light to photograph it) and an impromptu California wine tasting. Appetizers were eaten pre, during, and post-wine.

The shrimp toasts totally remind me of dim sum so I kind of fell in love. The shrimp mixture is a bit spicy (though I could have used a touch more sriracha had it been just me) and the perfect topping for buttery toast. It would also be a delicious filling for homemade dumplings…maybe they are in my future?

I’m a little obsessed with chicken salads.

Ok, a lot obsessed.

The most recent obsession was inspired by a lunch from Clementine, a cute little cafe a few blocks away from my office. I love getting 2 or 3 of their fresh and seasonal salads from the deli case. Everything I’ve had has been great, and I had heard good things about the chicken salad on their fall menu. I never pass up chicken salad and this one did not disappoint.

As I was eating, I realized that there are reasons that restaurants and cafes have ridiculously delicious chicken salads:

• Not as many veggies. I always try to cram in WAY too many veggies. There is something to be said about some veggies for crunch, but I usually overdo it.
• Real Mayo. Not light, and definitely not fat-free. Sigh. Oh and lots of it never hurts.
• Shredded chicken. It has to be shredded in my opinion, cubed chicken just isn’t the same.

I’m not really sure why I’m considering this a fall chicken salad (the apples?) but apples are a fall fruit and I’m finally ready to embrace fall so just go with it, ok?

In order to get the “lots of mayo” flavor without all of the calories, I used a combination of reduced-fat mayonnaise and greek yogurt which ended up being the perfect amount of each. The salad will last 3-4 days in the fridge – perfect for a week of lunches!

Nutrition Facts: