My baby, Lily Kate, turned 1 this past weekend. Sob.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m delighted she survived that first year with us as parents and she’s healthy and robust. But, like every parent who ever lived, I feel it’s going too fast. She’s almost not a baby anymore. She doesn’t walk yet and still prefers to be carried around, so I still count her a baby, but the time is running short.

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This is my second and last baby. Which gives me every right to be utterly ridiculous when it comes to her one and only first birthday party. My friend Kiley and I started discussing this event months ago, plotting and planning Miss Lily’s celebration. Kiley requested, er, suggested, brunch, which sounded delightful to me for a January baby’s birthday.

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And so I decided on a Winter ONEderland brunch for our friends to celebrate our girl’s big day. I knew several things right away: I knew it would be a sea of pink. I knew we’d have my mom’s French Breakfast Puffs, beautiful croissants from WheatField’s Bakery, and my friend Jessica’s amazing egg casserole.

But what else? What would we have on those clouds of flaky bread? Kiley, again, had a request: Miss Julie’s chicken salad.

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Miss Julie is the wonderful cook at The Ballard Center, where I work. We have all long revered Miss Julie’s chicken salad. Certainly it would make an excellent addition to our brunch menu, and the bonus of it is that it’s super simple. Sometimes more is less. I believe, in chicken salad, this is the case.

Miss Julie’s Chicken Salad
4 cups chicken
1 cup chopped celery
1 apple (I used Fuji – just make sure it’s sweet and crisp)
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1 cup mayonnaise, give or take
Salt and pepper

I like to use chicken breasts for this, though dark meat is also acceptable.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Liberally salt and pepper your chicken breasts and bake them for 20 minutes or until they’re cooked through. Mine weren’t huge, so they cooked in that time.

Dice them up and add them to the bowl with the rest of the ingredients. I don’t like too much mayo in mine — just enough to moisten and bind it. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve on good bread or a croissant.

Double the recipe. This is fantastic for leftovers and toting to work for lunch. See?

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