Salad with Nectarines and Pecans

 I was talking with my older sister a few days ago and we were talking about inherent talents...our own and those of people we know and love. One of the things that we agreed on was that very often we are unaware that something that we are good at is also something that not a lot of people are good at...but because we have always been good at it, we just assume that everyone is good at it. Why is it hard to admit to ourselves that we have something that we have always been good at that we just take for granted?

A good example in my world is making salads. I rarely include salads in posts because I've always considered salads something that everyone can just throw together. Wrong. It's something that is easy for me but not so easy for a lot of people.

Tonight I made a really delicious salad, better than my usual pretty good salads, and it included a nectarine, an avocado, some blue cheese, toasted pecans, and two kinds of lettuce mixes, plus a bottled blue cheese dressing. I was worried that it would miss the mark because when I was making it, it seemed to have too much nectarine. When it came time to eat it, however, the amounts were just right, so I don't know everything about making salads!

So it turns out that part of my talent is having a sense for the proportions of the different ingredients. Since I never measure, this recipe is a lot of guessing. Hope that it works for you! If it doesn't taste right, just try adding a bit more of one of the ingredients. Still not right, a bit more of another. Save the 'bit more' of the blue cheese for last. It's such a strong flavor, you really just need a small amount to have a big impact.

Nectarine and Pecan Salad with Blue Cheese
Serves 4

4 cups mesclun (mixed filed greens)
1-2 cups romaine (mine came mixed with a small amount of purple cabbage shreds)
1 avocado, peeled, pit removed, and cut into bite sized pieces
1 nectarine, cut into 1-inch wedges, then each wedge cut into thirds, pit discarded
1-2 tablespoons blue cheese crumbles (start with the smaller amount)
12 pecan halves, toasted, cooled and broken into small pieces
Enough blue cheese salad dressing (I use Boat House) to just moisten the salad mixture

In a large bowl place the mesclun, romaine, avocado pieces, nectarine pieces, blue cheese crumbles, and broken toasted pecan pieces. Toss with clean hands to mix. Add less blue cheese dressing than you think you need and toss well with salad tongs or servers. Add additional dressing, if needed, a little at a time. Be sure to toss thoroughly to coat the lettuce leaves.

Serve at once and enjoy!

Good and Green

Cinco de Mayo has come and gone but it is still avocado season around here and limes are still plentiful, too, so I made guacamole the other evening. You may be watching the playoff basketball games, or finally be enjoying spring weather on the deck, porch, patio or in the park. Maybe you are looking for something to bring to a potluck or celebration for graduation or other end-of-the-school year event. Never fear, this is a delicious and fairly easy dish and always welcome...at least that has been my experience.

Guacamole is a combination of ripe avocados, garlic, salt, lime, cayenne pepper or hot sauce, cilantro, green onion and something creamy like mayo, yogurt, or sour cream. You scoop it up with tortilla chips and it goes great with drinks like beer, lemonade, or margarita.

Every recipe differs just a bit, so I'll just give you mine. Because a really ripe avocado tastes different from a almost ripe one, I ask that you add salt to taste instead of specifying an amount. The same goes for the cayenne or hot sauce...some like it hotter than others. I also add just a cherry tomato or two to give spots of color and just a little bit of tomato taste now and then. Add more if you like. In fact, change the amounts of any ingredient to please your taste buds.

For those keeping up on things, Sweetie is doing much better. It no longer hurts when he sneezes or laughs, although he is still sleeping in his lounge chair since lying in bed is still painful. Fortunately we still have the joys of eating things like this guac.

Elle's Guacamole
enough for 4 for an appetizer

3-4 ripe avocados
zest from 1/2 lime
juice from 1 lime
1 green onion, chopped finely, green and white parts
1-2 teaspoons finely chopped cilantro
1-2 cherry tomatoes, finely chopped
2-3 tablespoons plain, unsweetened yogurt
1/4 cup sour cream (I used Tofutti soy based 'sour cream')
1-2 clove(s) minced garlic
salt to taste
cayenne pepper or hot sauce to taste

Serve with tortilla chips

Cut the avocados in half and remove the seed by whacking a sharp knife into the seed, give a twist and pulling the seed out. Carefully remove seed from knife and discard. Repeat with each avocado.
Run the sharp knife edge along the middle of each half to cut just the skin, then peel the skin off. Put the halves in a shallow bowl. Use a fork to mash the avocado to desired smoothness. I like mine a bit chunky, but some like it really smooth.

Add the lime zest, lime juice, green onion, cilantro, tomato yogurt, sour cream, garlic and mix to combine completely. Taste. Add salt and cayenne pepper and/or hot sauce to taste. Serve at once.

(If you need to hold off serving it, sprinkle additional lime juice over the surface of the guacamole, then cover with plastic wrap and chill. At serving time, stir to distribute the extra lime juice into the mixture.)

Comfy

When I was madly hustling to move the office and convert it to a guest room last month I longed for some down time to just be lazy. Careful what you wish for, right? With a tickle cough and frequent need for tissue to blow my nose it is all too easy to rue the hours I'm spending in bed. I do get to read a lot (when I'm not sleeping...this cold seems to require a lot of sleeping) but even that gets boring. Even oceans of hot tea is not a comfort. At lunchtime I decided it was time for true comfort food that was also quick and easy...a great combination.

A while back one of the favored party dishes was call Seven Layer Dip, a quasi-Mexican plateful of layers of refried beans, cheese, guacamole, olives, tomatoes, sour cream and tortilla chips. This is my variation on that dish, scaled down to a personal portion. If you have the ingredients, a microwave and about 10 minutes, you have a warm, gooey, savory, salty, crispy, tangy plate of deliciousness before you know it.

Start with a microwave safe plate. Add about 1/2 cup refried beans, spread out in the middle of the plate. I use non-fat traditional but there are lots of varieties to choose from. ( I happened to have in the fridge some ground turkey which had been cooked with some chopped onion, so I heated that up and added it, but usually I just go with the beans.) Top the plate with some waxed paper and microwave on half power about a minute to heat the beans.

While the beans are heating, cut an avocado in half and peel the part without the pit, then roughly dice it. The second half can be stored for another use and keeping the pit in helps it keep from going bad.

Once the beans are hot, remove the waxed paper and sprinkle on a handful of grated sharp cheddar cheese. Replace the waxed paper and microwave until the cheese is just melted, about 1 minute at half power.

While the cheese is melting, remove the stem end from a small to medium tomato and dice roughly, then add to the avocado, tossing gently to combine. If you have it you can sprinkle this topping with some lime juice.

Once the cheese has melted, remove the waxed paper and discard it. Top the beans and cheese with the avocado/tomato topping.

Spoon dabs of yogurt (I like Greek style) or sour cream around the dish and sprinkle on a bit of cayenne pepper...a lot if you like spicy heat, a dash if you are more timid like me.

That's it! Scoop up the warm/cool mixture with crunchy salty corn tortilla chips and enjoy your easy, comforting snack or lunch. That's what I did. I don't think I can credit this dish - it's probably helped by the nap I just woke up from - but I'm feeling better.

Snack Points

It's well past football season, but we still have months of basketball ahead for the sports fans, so there is still a need for snacks.

This one is a variation of one I saw sometiime in the past two months, but don't remember where. I apologise to the author in advance. Should have written down who created it, but didn't even write down the recipe. Why? Because it is so simple.

In my version, I used egg substitute, right from the carton, to act as paste for the little seeds on the snack points. I think in the original it was either an egg white wash or an egg yolk wash. With any of them, the seeds stick to the tortilla and they get golden when they bake and those are good things.

I used a flour tortilla made with olive oil, (zero trans fats) which are pretty tasty all by themselves. With the addition of the flax seeds (do I get extra points for including popular flax seeds?), poppy seeds, and sesame seeds, they taste delicious.

The dip is made from black beans (another one of those foods we are supposed to eat more of to stay healthy), some shredded cheddar cheese (a food to stay away from in quantity, so I guess that balances the beans or something). On top I put diced avocado, non-fat sour cream dabs for zing, and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper for even more zing. If I'd had tomatoes, they would have been included, but, sadly, it is far from tomato season, so best to skip them.

Warm beans and cheese, cool avocado and sour cream, some heat from the cayenne and the crisp, seedy snack points all add up to an addictive and relatively healthy snack.

How's our team doing? The dip is gone. I'll get some more...

Snack Points

For each dozen points:
1 flour tortilla
1/4 teaspoon egg substitute, egg white, beaten, or egg yolks, beaten
Sprinkle (about 1/8 teaspoon) flax seed
Sprinkle (about 1/16 teaspoon) poppy seed
Sprinkle (about 1/8 teaspoon) sesame seed

Preheat oven to 225 degrees F.

Lay tortilla on the work surface - a cutting board works well. Using a pastry bursh, brush the egg wash (whichever kind) over the tortilla, all the way out to the edges. Sprinkle at once with the seeds.

Cut the tortilla in half, cut those halves in half, then cut each quarter in three. Place the snack points on a baking sheet lined with parchment, leaving room around them. Bake for about 25 minutes, until the points are crisp and just golden. Don't overbake or the seeds might burn.

Bean Dip with Avocado

1 14 oz can black beans, drained
1/2 cup finely shredded cheddar cheese
1 ripe avocado, peeled, pit removed, diced
1/3 cup non-fat sour cream
Ground cayenne pepper to taste

In a microwave safe shallow bowl or plate, place the drained beans. Mash them well with a fork. Spread the mashed beans out into a thin layer and sprinkle the cheese evenly over. Top the dish with waxed paper or vented plastic wrap. Microwave on half power, a minute at a time, until beans are hot and cheese is melted. Immediately top with the avocado dice, distributing it over the bean mixture evenly, then, using a spoon, dab on small globs of the sour cream all around the bean mixture, then sprinkle with as much cayenne as you enjoy. Serve immediately with at least two tortillas worth of snack points.