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!

A Flaky and Delicious Savory Handpie

Inspiration comes from many places. I get newsletters from a few cooks and bakers and sometimes I use the recipes that are included. A few days ago my email had a newsletter from Lukas Volger in Family Friend and the recipe was for a filo, blue cheese and spinach dish which he was suggesting as a vegetarian entree for Thanksgiving. It is something that you can make the filling for ahead of time, the dish can bake at the same time as rolls or even a casserole, and it would also taste fine at room temperature.

As is often the case, I used this as a jumping off place for my own dish. I had most of the filling ingredients on hand except for the leek and the parsley, but I didn't have any filo dough. I had the frozen spinach, ricotta, and blue cheese, but I also had one leftover chicken thigh, already grilled, that needed using up...so this wouldn't be vegetarian. I had a roll of ReadyCrust pie dough, so that was an easy substitute for the missing filo. This also meant that I didn't have to use any melted butter.

I used half an onion instead of the leek, some dried thyme instead of the parsley, and I made this as two large hand pies. You can cut each of them in half to serve, so this serves four and uses half the quantities of the filling. It does take a bit of work, but I think you'll enjoy this entrée. The photos show the baked but uncut hand pie. If you are really hungry, don't cut them...in which case this recipe will serve 2, not 4. I served ours with a mixed greens salad with lots of veggies in it and a balsamic dressing. The sharpness of the dressing was a good foil for the fairly rich and cheesy filling and buttery crust.

You can make this vegetarian by leaving out the chicken. If you make this after Thanksgiving and you roast a turkey, you can make small cubes of cooked turkey to replace the chicken and it will still be delicious...and use up some leftover turkey!

Spinach and Blue Cheese and Chicken Hand Pies
based on the Spinach & Blue Cheese Phyllo Pie in Lukas Volger newsletter Family Friend

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 large onion, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon table salt
5 oz. frozen spinach, thawed
1 large egg
1/2 cup whole-milk ricotta
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
black pepper to taste
2 oz. blue cheese, crumbled
1 cooked chicken thigh, cut into 1-inch dice
1 round ready made pie pastry like Pillsbury ReadyCrust, at room temperature
1 teaspoon flour
egg wash of 1 egg plus 1 teaspoon water, beaten together

In a skillet over medium heat add the oil once the skillet is hot. Add the chopped onion and the salt and stir to coat with the oil. Cover and steam for about 5 minutes, then uncover and continue cooking until the onion is soft, 5-7 minutes more. Set aside.

Drain the thawed spinach and then squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Add to the onion mixture and stir. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, then whisk in the ricotta until smooth. Add the  thyme, black pepper, blue cheese, chicken and spinach/onion mixture and combine. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the pie dough circle. Using a rolling pin, increase the size to about 12-inches in diameter. Using a sharp knife or bench scraper, divide the dough in half, cutting across the middle.

Take one of the half circles and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Mound half the spinach filling mixture on the one side of the half circle, leaving a little more than an inch of uncovered dough all the way around. Flip the half with no filling over the half with filling, matching the straight side with straight side and the curved side with curved side. Use a pastry brush to brush some egg wash on the uncovered dough next to the filling. Press the top dough down all around to seal all sides. Use the tines of a fork to press the edges to seal completely. Use the pastry brush to coat the top of the hand pie  and the sealed edges with egg wash.  Cut a steam slit of about an inch and a half in the center top.

Repeat with the second half circle and the rest of the filling.

Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown and the filling bubbles a bit at the steam vent. Cool for about 10 minutes. Slice each hand pie in two to make two pie wedges. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

For a vegetarian version, omit the chicken.

A Bread To Love

 

This is going to be my last Bread Baking Babes bread for a while, because I find that I don't make bread much anymore and Sweetie has no willpower to not eat fresh bread and is happy I'm baking less. Better for our waistlines, too. I'll still be blogging and checking on the 16th of each month to see what the others have been up to...and you should too.

The good news is that I'm Kitchen of the Month for December 2023 and I chose a wonderful bread - Fougasse. This one is often called Leaf Bread, too, because the bread is shaped like a large leaf (or Christmas tree!) and you cut the leaf veins so that this sort of flat bread looks like a leaf and tears or breaks apart for sharing very easily.

I made two versions of fougasse for this challenge. The first, which ended up being shaped similar to a Christmas Tree, was with chopped rosemary and topped with more rosemary and with sea salt. It makes your house smell delicious as it bakes and is quite tasty.

The second fougasse was shaped like a verrrry wide square-ish leaf and was flavored with both chopped walnuts and crumbles of blue cheese. That made a nice combination and went well with our bean soup. That's the photo at the top. You can see that it's an unusual shape for a leaf...and that the blue cheese melted and ran, which made it taste even better, I assure you.

The recipe given makes enough dough for 4 fougasse of about 450 grams each. Before you decide to cut the recipe in half or quarters, remember that if your fridge has room, this dough can sit in your fridge for many days, getting a better flavor each day, so you can bake the four loaves over a week or so and have lots of fresh, delicious, fragrant bread.

Fougasse is pretty flat but it should be fairly fluffy inside but it does have a lot of thin crustiness because of the cuts that create the veins. 

If you bake along with us and want to be a Buddy, be sure and email me your URL and a photo and a short description of your bake and I'll send you a Buddy badge. You have until Dec. 29th to get that to me at plachman -at-sonic-dot-net.

Be sure to check out the bakes that the other Babes have done, too. We have a very creative and supportive group and I will miss the monthly bakes and especially the bakers!

I forgot to mention that this bread makes a great gift, too...which is handy as it is gift giving season.

Let's think about baking this...You can use sourdough starter or dry yeast, you can flavor it with rosemary and sea salt...my favorite...but you could use other seasonings like oregano, basil, lemongrass...or use seeds like poppy seeds or sesame seeds to enhance the bread. Consider adding cheese, like a good strong blue cheese, and maybe some walnut pieces. Maybe you would like citrus zest added, or perhaps olives.

Let's see what you come up with. The basics of the challenge are to make a leaf shaped, slashed bread, preferably with the recipe(s) below, but you decide the shape, flavorings, and if you will use sourdough starter or not.

Fougasse with Rosemary and Sea Salt

Preferment:
1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 cups lukewarm water (not hot), divided
2 cups bread flour, divided

Mix together 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast, 1 cup lukewarm water and 1 cup bread flour in a bowl. Cover lightly and let sit for 1 hour. Add an additional 1 cup lukewarm water and add additional cup bread flour and mix until all new ingredients are incorporated. Let sit for at least an hour for flavor (or refrigerate overnight, then bring to room temperature).

Dough

all of Preferment

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 cup water, divided
1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
4 - 5.5 cups unbleached bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
2-3 tablespoons olive oil from brushing

1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

1/2 - 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary for top of dough

1-2 tablespoons sea salt for sprinkling

In the bowl of a stand mixer place the Preferment.  Add 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and mix briefly just until the oil is mixed in.

Make sure the water for the dough is lukewarm, not hot. Take 1/4 cup of it and add the dry yeast in a small bowl. Let sit 5 minutes until foamy.

Add the rehydrated yeast, the rest of the warm water, and about half the flour (2 cups) to the mixture in the stand mixer bowl. Mix with the paddle.

Switch to the dough hook. On slow speed add the remaining flour, a half cup or so at a time, adding only a few tablespoons at a time toward the end. The dough will be soft. Add the salt and then knead with the dough hook on low to medium low speed for about 6 minutes, until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl and is smooth. If necessary, add up to an additional cup flour so that dough is soft but firm. Turn kneaded dough out on a lightly floured board or counter and knead a few turns to make sure all flour is incorporated.

Form the dough into a ball. With the remaining tablespoon olive oil, oil a large bowl and turn the dough ball in the oil to coat. Cover with oiled plastic wrap or a clean shower cap and place in a warm place and let rise until doubled in bulk. This usually takes a couple of hours but check often. Dough is ready when a finger poked into the dough leave an indent that stays.

Shaping: About an hour before baking the fougasse, punch dough down, and turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board. Knead a few times to get rid of the extra trapped gas. Divide it into four pieces weighing about the same. Take one of the pieces and knead in the chopped fresh rosemary, then press it out into a leaf shape. Use your clean hands to press it to about 10-11-inches on a side and about 1/2 - 1-inch high. Wet hands if necessary, so that dough doesn't stick. (I shaped it into a tall triangle.)

Place the shaped dough onto a piece of baking parchment which has been placed on a baking sheet. Using a bench scraper or stiff plastic scraper or something similar, cut into the dough to make leaf 'veins' - see photo at top of post. Use your fingers to gently spread out the dough to open up the cuts. Keep the leaf shape. Repeat if desired with the other pieces of dough, making four leaves, which can be flavored differently if desired, or store rest of dough, covered, in fridge, until ready to use.

Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap, oiled side down, and let rise for about 30 minutes. Leaf will get puffy. If holes close up, gently open them again with your fingers after removing the plastic wrap.

While leaf is rising, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. If you have a pizza stone, put it in to preheat too.

Use a pastry brush to lightly brush the surface of the leaf with olive oil, then sprinkle with some fresh rosemary and sea salt.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until dark golden brown. Remove from oven, cool a bit on a wire rack after having removed it from pan and parchment. Serve while still warm, breaking off pieces of the leaf, or cutting into portions.

Don't care for rosemary and sea salt? Just replace those with your favorite enhancements.

or, for Sourdough:

Sourdough Fougasse
2 cups 100% hydration sourdough starter
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 cup water, divided
1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
4 - 5.5 cups unbleached bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
additions like cheese, nuts, herbs, citrus peels, olives, etc.

In the bowl of a stand mixer place the sourdough starter. Add 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and mix briefly with the paddle attachment just until the oil is mixed in.

Make sure the water is lukewarm. Take 1/4 cup of it and add the dry yeast. Let sit 5 minutes until foamy.

Add the yeast, the rest of the warm water, and about half the flour. Mix with the paddle.

Switch to the dough hook. On slow speed add the flour, a half cup or so at a time, adding only a few tablespoons at a time toward the end. The dough will be soft. Add the salt and then knead with the dough hook on low to medium low speed for about 6 minutes, until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl and is smooth. Turn out on a lightly floured board or counter and knead in most of the rosemary, leaving about a teaspoon for the top.

Form the dough into a ball. Oil a large bowl (not metal) and turn the dough ball in the oil to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm place and let rise until doubled in bulk. It took mine four hours, but even my 'warm' place wasn't as warm as it should have been.

Punch dough down, turn out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface, knead a few times to get rid of the extra trapped gas.

Use the Instructions for Shaping and Baking in the recipe above.

Elizabeth gave us the recipe to include weights. I'm a complete fool when it comes to conversions, but I think Elizabeth knows what she is doing. Thank you Elizabeth!

FOUGASSE WITH ROSEMARY AND SEA SALT
(for 4 fougasses)

PREFERMENT
1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast [0.75 grams]
2 cups lukewarm water (not hot), divided [480 grams?]
2 cups bread flour, divided [240 grams]

DOUGH
all of Preferment [720 grams?]
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided [50 grams]
1 cup water, divided [240 grams]
1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast [0.75 grams]
4 - 5.5 cups unbleached bread flour [480-660 grams]
2 teaspoons salt [12 grams]

TOPPING
2-3 tablespoons olive oil from brushing
1-2 tablespoons chopped rosemary
1-2 tablespoons sea salt for sprinkling

SOURDOUGH VERSION:
2 cups 100% hydration sourdough starter [720??? grams]
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided [50 grams]
1 cup water, divided [240 grams]
[strike]1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast[/strike]
4 - 5.5 cups unbleached bread flour [480-660 grams]
2 teaspoons salt [12 grams]
additions like cheese, nuts, herbs, citrus peels, olives, etc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If I were going to make a wild version, I think I might be a bad BBBabe and try following this previous wild yeast one I made, but leave out the poppy seeds:

https://etherwork.net/blog/wild-fougasse-with-poppy-seeds/.

Karen converted the starter, flour and salt for half the original recipe to grams. Thank you Karen!

1 cup starter = 227 to 241 grams
2 to 2 3/4 cups flour = 240 to 330 grams (I used 260 grams)
1 teaspoon table salt = 6 gram

Cathy of Bread Experience has a great post which includes instructions and photos for shaping, as well as a delicious spelt and asiago cheese version!

Bacon and Dates

According to my sources, bacon wrapped stuffed dates have been a popular appetizer for a while, but I guess I missed that. Perhaps I don't eat at the right restaurants.

For Thanksgiving I was asked to bring stuffing and an apple crisp. I also brought a pecan pie because pie and Thanksgiving just go together. My lovely daughter brought the stuffed dates, although I helped heavily with the making of them.

We started with moist, large, pitted dates. If your dates aren't moist you may want to steam them briefly before starting, because some of the moisture is cooked off while the bacon cooks.

I like blue cheese with walnuts and since the recipe called for walnuts, we included a nubbin of good quality blue cheese, too. Warm melty cheese is always a treat. Each slice of bacon was cut in thirds and used to wrap three stuffed dates, so make sure you have enough bacon. If your bacon strips are short ones, you may even need to only wrap two dates per strip of bacon...extra bacon can be used for other purposed, right?

I pre-heated some cast iron skillets in the oven and added the stuffed dates to them which helped crisp up the bacon. They weren't fully cooked because we re-warmed them at the home where we were dining.

I warn you, these can be addictive! Who can resist warm and crisp bacon, soft and sweet date, crisp and mellow walnut and piquant blue cheese, all in one bite? Not me.

Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Dates

24 large moist medjool dates
8 or so walnuts, broken
1 oz. blue cheese
8-12 strips bacon - cut in two or three pieces depending on the length

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. If you have them, place two cast iron skillets in to preheat.

If dates have pits, remove the pits by slicing carefully from one end to the other with a paring knife and then removing the pit with the tip of the knife. Be sure to only cut the top of the date, NOT all the way through to the bottom. If your dates are not moist, steam them briefly before starting.

Stuff where the pits usually live with pieces of walnut and a nubbin of the blue cheese. You can use goat cheese if you prefer it to blue cheese.

Wrap a strip of bacon around the date, putting the stuffed part face down onto the bacon, overlapping the ends of the bacon on the opposite side. Secure with a toothpick.

If not using a cast iron skillet for baking, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the finished dates on the parchment.

Bake on the baking sheet or in the preheated skillets for about 8-10 minutes, turning over halfway. Bacon will start to turn golden and get slightly crispy on the edges. If you prefer, cook for another minute to cook the bacon a bit more.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 10-15 minutes before serving. Dates should be warm, not hot. They can also be served cold.

If you make them in advance, reheat them for a minute or two in the microwave if you prefer them warm.

Savory Mushroom Burgers with Blue Cheese

I love marinated and grilled portabello mushrooms. They are meaty and juicy and carry the flavors of the marinade...usually red wine, garlic and fresh rosemary. When I serve them instead of meat burgers there are never any left. Still, I got to thinking that putting them on top of a burger and adding some good blue cheese would be even better.

We've made them twice now. The first time we scarfed them down so quickly that I didn't get any photos at all. This Sunday I managed to get a couple of photos, but I also found out that the wine you use in the marinade really makes a difference.

The first time I used a fruity light red wine and I really liked the result. This last time I used a spicy zinfandel and it wasn't as successful. Both were still delicious, but the zinfandel soaked mushroom was more assertive, so the burger and cheese were a bit overwhelmed with the strong flavor of the wine. Next time, and there will be a next time because these are that good, I'll use a milder, fruity red wine again and perhaps a bit more blue cheese. We put them on toasted hamburger buns and added nothing else. If you don't care for hamburger, just make the mushrooms, toast the buns, melt the cheese on on side of the buns, add the grilled mushroom and any fixins you like...lettuce, bacon, tomato slices, onion, etc and you will still have an awesome sandwich.

The mushrooms do well when you allow enough time to marinated them for at least 8 hours. I put them into a ziploc bag with the sliced fresh garlic and 3-4 springs fresh rosemary, then add about 1 1/2 cups red wine. I put the bag into a shallow bowl to encourage the liquid to be near the mushrooms, not out at the corners of the bag. Once about 2 hours have passed, I turn the bag over so that the other side gets marinated, then over again in 2 hours, and over again the final two hours. When you are ready to grill the mushrooms, drain them well, brush with olive oil and grill them long enough to heat them all the way through, plus to get some grill marks and char. Discard the marinade. If you like you can put the rosemary sprigs in the barbecue to create rosemary smoke, but that's optional. The mushrooms have plenty of rosemary flavor from being soaked in it.

I made these with ground beef, but you could use ground turkey or chicken, or a mixture of ground meats. For the blue cheese, use the kind you like the most and the amount you prefer. We only had a little left from the previous time we made these, so it was a little less than I like, but still gave that wonderful blue cheese flavor. For the buns, again, use the kind you like to use with burgers. If you can make your own and it will be even better!

Mushroom Blue Cheese Burger Stacks
Serves 4

4 medium portabello mushrooms, stem removed and wiped clean
3-4 stems fresh rosemary
1 clove garlic (or more if you like), peeled and sliced
about 1 1/2 cups red wine
gallon ziploc bag or large plastic bag and twist tie
flat pie plate or bowl
freshly ground black pepper to taste
olive oil
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
your preferred hamburger seasonings
2 - 4 oz gorgonzola or other blue cheese
4 hamburger buns

About 8 hours, but at least 4 hours before you plan on eating, begin to marinate the mushroom. Place the mushrooms, rosemary and garlic in the plastic bag. Add the red wine and any pepper. Seal the bag and shake to distribute the ingredients. Place the bag in the pie plate or shallow bowl so that the mushrooms are flat in it and the marinade surrounds the mushrooms as closely as possible. After 2 hours, turn the mushrooms upside down and again place the bag so the mushrooms are flat and surrounded by the marinade. Continue to marinate and turn every two hours. When you are ready to cook them, drain off the marinade and discard it. Brush the mushroom smooth side with olive oil.

Season the ground beef as you prefer for hamburgers, then shape into 4 patties. Slice the blue cheese into thin slices and put next to the patties, but not on them. Take the drained and oiled mushrooms, patties and blue cheese, plus the buns, to the barbecue. Grill the mushrooms and burgers until done, turning once half way through. Again, the burgers should be prepared the way you like burgers. Toast the buns on the grill, too. When it is almost time to remove the burgers, top them with the blue cheese, close the grill and let the cheese melt.

Stack a grilled bun bottom, mushroom, smooth side down, burger, grilled bun top. Serve at once.

Veggie Skewers and Pluot Appetizers

This has been a great week for the farm box. There were ears of fresh, sweet, juicy white corn. There were multicolored Gypsy pepper, sort of like bell peppers, but with a thinner wall. There were amazing ripe apricots and pluots, plus two kinds of squash, fingerling sweet potatoes...I know...who knew sweet potatoes could be tiny and super sweet, plus a lovely honeydew melon, and Nantes carrots. Probably the perfect farm box for late spring...and very inspiring, too.

We used the Gypsy peppers and the squash for veggie skewers to go with the yummy Persian flatbread that I made as part of the Bread Baking Babes challenge for June. I used some Meyer lemons that a friend had just given me in the dressing for the veggies and it added just the right bright note. Sweetie cooked them on the grill just long enough to char them here and there, but not so much that they had a soggy texture (a problem sometimes with squash).

A few days later I sliced that same flatbread very thin, brushed each slice on both sides with olive oil, and Sweetie grilled them so that they crisped up. I used them as the base for an unusual appetizer inspired by something similar I had at the Camilla Tea Room in Benicia. Fresh, ripe, juicy pluots ( a cross between an apricot and a plum, but you could use plums instead) are cut into a small dice and doused with balsamic vinegar. I added a touch of cardamom as a counterpoint to the sweetness. Once the mixture marinates for at least 1/2 an hour you spoon some onto the toasts. Chopped, toasted walnuts are sprinkled on, lending a toasty crunch. Blue cheese bits are crumbled on as a nice contrasting zing to the pluots. It has it all...crunchy, sweet, sour, salty, toasty, nutty and zingy from the cheese. Quite a mouthful of delight.

Who knows what recipes the next farm box will inspire. The recipes below are written so that you can size them for the number of people you are serving. Have fun and, if at all possible, use fresh, local produce.

Pluot or Plum Bruchetta

Very thin slices of flatbread or focaccia (about 3 per person)
olive oil
1 pluot or small plum per person
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar per pluot or plum
dash of cardamom per pluot or plum
1 teaspoon chopped toasted walnuts per pluot or plum
about 1 tablespoon blue cheese crumbles per pluot or plum

Brush the thin slices of bread with the olive oil on both sides. Grill or toast each slice until toasted and crispy. Let cool.

Finely dice the pluot(s) or plum(s). Place in a non-reactive dish and add the balsamic vinegar and the cardamom. Stir to combine. Let sit for at least 1/2 hour or up to 4 hours.

When ready to serve the bruchetta, place a slice on work surface. Spoon on the plums with a slotted spoon, leaving some space on the bread slice for the walnuts and cheese. Sprinkle with the walnuts, then the cheese.

 Serve at once. There will be about three slices per person.

Veggie Skewers

wooden skewers - two per person
veggies cut into chunks...I used zucchini squash, pattypan squash and Gypsy peppers, but you could also use fresh corn on the cob, cut into chunks, cherry tomatoes, or any other veggie that will thread onto a skewer.
Marinade for two people:
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Soak wooden skewers in water for at least 1/2 hour.

While skewers are soaking, mix together the marinade in a non-reactive bowl and add the veggie chunks. Stir to coat the veggies. Let veggies marinate, stirring occasionally, until you are ready to grill them.

Thread the veggies on skewers, leaving room at the bottom (for holding) and top (so veggies won't fall off the top). Brush with the marinade and grill on one side until charred. Turn to other side, brush with marinade, and cook until desired doneness.

Serve at once.

Stormy Weather

Glad we buttoned up the new construction on Sunday because in the wee hours of Monday morning we had a huge thunder and lightning storm, followed by rain. Pi was frantic. I guess the noise is really awful for dogs. Xam used to have the same reaction. First there is the barking, as if warning off whoever is making those 'bowling' noises. Then comes the whimpering and shaking, probably from fear as the flashes continue and the noise gets louder. It went on from about 12:30 am to a little after 6 am. I think I was awake for about four hours of that. At one point we were all bundled up on the bed, trying to comfort the dog. I heard on the news that there were 400 lightning strikes in our area during the storm! According to the old timers, we rarely get a thunder storm that lasts longer than about an hour, so 6 hours is some kind of record.

The weather today was much different...low 80s and sunny. Today I joined a friend for some 'broken plate' mosaic fun. We worked in her garage, with a nice breeze blowing through. It was a welcome break from working on the entry construction and kitchen planning. I almost finished a table top in shades of blue and green, with a little butter yellow here and there and a few pops of terra cotta for contrast. I'm hoping to use it on the deck off our bedroom as a place to hold a mug of coffee or two in the morning and maybe a glass of wine or two in the evening. Sweetie already bought two chairs to go with it. It should be ready to using in a few days, so I'll post a photo then.

I brought the salad for our lunch today. Romaine lettuce is OK for me, even though I would prefer mesclun, so I threw together a bunch of bite size romaine leaves, some sliced celery, chunks of cooked chicken, chopped toasted pecans, sliced fresh local strawberries and a sprinkle of blue cheese. It was refreshing and just substantial enough. My friend provided iced tea and some nice toast spread with her own lemon curd. It actually went well with the salad, probably because of the strawberries in the salad. For dressing my friend's hubby and I had blue cheese dressing and my friend had honey mustard. This is a great salad for strawberry season, but you could substitute peaches or plum later in the year and I know that pears rock in this salad...but use walnuts instead of the pecans.

Strawberry Pecan Chicken Salad
Serves 4

6-8 cups romaine lettuce, washed, dried, and cut or torn into bite sized pieces, chilled
2-3 stalks celery, washed and sliced
1-2 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite sized chunks
1/2 pint strawberries, washed, dried, hulled and sliced
1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans
1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles or small pieces
dressing of your choice, but blue cheese and honey Dijon work well

In a large bowl combine the lettuce, celery, chicken, strawberries and pecans. Toss to combine. Serve on large plates or salad bowls. (Photo at top is up to this point, with no blue cheese on top yet, or dressing.) Top with the blue cheese to taste. Dress lightly with preferred dressing and serve.

You can make a few hours ahead and keep chilled. If you know those eating the salad love blue cheese, you can toss it in with the rest of the ingredients, otherwise pass the cheese with a spoon so each can add as much or little as desired.

Cheese

Nope, I'm not going to take your picture. I just want to rave about one of my favorite foods, cheese.

When I was pregnant with my son, who was born 30 years ago this coming Sunday, I found out that I was lactose intolerant. Any kind of dairy would leave me with bloating and gas and feeling very uncomfortable. It became a sort of game to find the dairy products in foods...you would be amazed where one finds things like whey and casein. As it turned out, Max was the one with the lactose intolerance, not me, so I kept off of dairy products until I finished nursing him.

The dairy product I missed most was cheese. I love the bite of a good sharp cheddar, the creamy texture of a ripe brie, the savory tang of good blue cheese, how Parmesan seems to make anything better, and how the mellow nuttiness of Swiss is good at enhancing all sorts of ingredients. Feta cheese is wonderful in salads and by itself for a snack. I love all of them and many more.

Today I splurged a little and had a toasted cheddar cheese (Dubliner) sandwich with fresh from the garden tomatoes and basil. The cheese melted, the tomatoes heated up which intensified their wonderful summery flavor and the basil added its unique fragrance and flavor. This kind of sandwich is one of the pleasures of summer time. The bread was a nice 7-grain loaf with some crunch once grilled a bit. With a handful of ripe Bing cherries and a cup of Irish Breakfast tea I was a happy woman.

Do you have a favorite cheese or favorite recipe using cheese? If you send me a photo (to plachman at sonic dot net) I'll post it here.

In the meantime I'll share a photo I took of a white lily that is sending its heady fragrance into the kitchen from the windowsill. I still have a few lilies that haven't opened. Lilies are one of the pleasures of the season, too.

Beef Salad to Mashed Potatoes

It's amazing how much I take for granted, like being able to chew my food with enjoyment. A few days ago I had a wonderful salad for lunch which included lots of field greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, and slices of some left over grilled beef...I think it was boneless short ribs but Sweetie cooked them before I saw the packaging. I used a tablespoon of blue cheese dressing to dress the leaves and veggies, then topped the dressed plated salad with the beef slices. Very tasty indeed.

But what does that have to do with mashed potatoes you may ask? Well, the salad was chewy and, because I can always find something else to do than go to the dentist, some bits of the greens seem to hide out at the back of my jaw, but the truth is that I did the right thing and had a procedure at the dentist yesterday that will help solve that little problem and keep me healthy yadayadayada. Bottom line? today for breakfast I had mashed potatoes with a little sharp cheese melted in because all that being healthy also led to a sore set of gums and sore jaw...and no interest in chewing anything. Tea and coffee and water seem fine, but no orange juice...too acid according to the dentist... and I just decided that today I'll keep my choices to soft ones. It was packaged mashed potatoes, too, because they are truly soft...no lumps. I had them on hand for adding to bread doughs. Lunch will be soup and dinner might just be custard. Good nutrition can start tomorrow.

Hope your days are pain free and include lots of enjoyable chewing.

Beef Salad
Per person:

2 cups field greens
1 small or 1/2 of large tomato
1 small or 1/2 of large cucumber
1 small or 1/2 of large carrot
prepared blue cheese dressing to taste
slices of grilled beef that has been seasoned with salt and pepper - to taste

Wash and dry the field greens, wrap in a towel and chill to crisp.

While greens are crisping, cut the tomato into wedges, cut the cucumber into dice after removing the seeds. I used Persian cucumber, so left the peel on. If you are using cucumbers with waxed or tough peel, then peel it before dicing. Also cut the carrot into coins or 1/2 coins.

Remove the crisp greens from the 'fridge and place into a large plastic bag. (I save the bags I bring produce home from the stores in.) Add the dressing and close the bag. Toss the greens until the leaves are coated, then pour from the bag onto your plate. Add the tomato, cucumber and carrot. Arrange slices of the beef over all and serve. This salad goes well with chilled mandarin oranges on the side.

Gremolata and Blood Oranges

My mind usually turns to baking and making sweets. Guess it's both because I have a sweet tooth and because I'm endlessly fascinated with the process of baking...turning butter and sugar and flour and more into delicious treats.

But sometimes I get a notion of something I'd like to cook that isn't sweet. That happened the other day as I was driving home from work. I'd recently read a recipe that used gremolata as a finisher to the dish and I thought that it would be interesting to take the chicken thighs that I knew were in the fridge at home and cook them in the manner of osso bucco, but with red wine instead of white, and then finish them off when I served them with a nice sprinkle of gremolata.

O.K. first off, gremolata is a combination of minced parsley (I use Italian parsley for the good strong flavor of it) and minced fresh garlic and freshly grated lemon zest. When combined the flavor is zesty and refreshing and a nice counterpoint to a slow cooked entree which usually has mellow flavors. This whole post is dedicated to Natasha because she has been waiting patiently for the recipes.

Now that I'd daydreamed an entree, I turned to what should go with it. A roasted beet salad on field greens with some small chunks of a good blue cheese seemed like it would go well with the chicken dish. Here is a dish of roasted, peeled beets and some blood orange halves.

A citrus dressing would be seasonal and add some fruitiness, too. Around here it's the season for both blood oranges and Meyer lemons so I picked up some of each at the farm stand I pass on my way home. The next day I bought the organic beets and the blue cheese, plus some tricolor potato gnocchi that looked good. Everything else was already in the fridge or pantry. I started the chicken about 1 pm and once it was simmering I joined Sweetie down the hill where he was putting new boards on the farmhouse deck. By the time we had all the boards attached...and I did learn how to use the impact driver by the time I'd done all the fasteners in the middle of the deck!...the chicken was done and the beets I'd roasted earlier were cool enough to peel.

Blood orange juice is a lovely light fuchsia color so the dressing is pink even without any beet juices.

Both the chicken recipe and the vinaigrette recipe are ones where I've pulled bits and pieces from a number of recipes I found online. The vinaigrette in particular was a work in progress as I made it...less olive oil than I had originally planned, blood orange zest added...something none of the recipes I looked at had included which is odd when you consider how much flavor the zest has...less honey, too.

That evening we truly had a feast. The chicken was so tender it fell off the bone. The sauce created by the wine, chicken, herbs, and vegetables was great over the gnocchi, and the gremolata did the job of brightening up the dish. The salad was an excellent combination of flavors. I later wished that I'd added some toasted nuts...maybe hazelnuts or walnuts...but there was none left once we enjoyed it.

I cut the beets in wedges and marinated them for about 15 minutes in the blood orange dressing but if you are short of time you could slice them quickly and pour a little of the vinaigrette over them after you lay them over the dressed greens.

Slow-cooked Chicken Thighs with Gremolata

4 chicken thighs...I used bone-in thighs but boneless work well, too.
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1/3 cup chopped carrots
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons dried rosemary or 1 stalk fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme or 3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 can diced tomatoes in juice
about 1 cup red wine
salt and pepper

Gremolata

1 clove garlic, finely chopped,
Zest of one lemon (I used a regular lemon, not a Meyer lemon)
1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
Mix the three ingredients together until well combined.

Rinse and dry the chicken thighs. Heat a skillet or Dutch oven over high heat and add the olive oil. Brown the chicken thighs, turning once after about 5 minutes. Once browned remove to a plate and set aside.

If you have used chicken with skin you may have to pour off some of the fat from the pan. 1-2 tablespoons is all that is needed to sauté the vegetables.

Sauté the onions, celery and carrots for about 5 minutes, until onions are translucent. Spread the vegetables out on the bottom of the pan. Top with the browned chicken thighs.

Add the herbs to the pan, putting some on top of each piece of chicken. Pour the tomatoes and juice over everything in the pan. Add the red wine until the thighs are at least 2/3 covered. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Cover the pan, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Chicken will be very tender.

Serve over gnocchi, rice, noodles or mashed potatoes, spooning some of the juices over. Sprinkle the chicken pieces with Gremolata and serve hot.

For the Roasted Beet Salad with Blue Cheese and Blood Orange Vinaigrette I tossed field greens with some of the blood orange vinaigrette, put them on a salad plate, topped with the marinated roasted beets, sprinkled on about 1 teaspoon of crumbled blue cheese and served the salads. Toasted nuts would make a nice addition.

Roasted Beets

4-5 small to medium beets, well scrubbed to remove dirt

Cut the root end off the beets and the leaves if your beets come that way. No need to peel the beets now. Lay the beets on a sheet of aluminum foil. Bring two sided together and fold over a couple of times to seal. Bring the ends up and over the packet. Roast in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 1/2 hour, or until beets are tender when pierced with a sharp knife tip.

Let the beets cool. Slip the peels off and cut into wedges or slices. Any leftovers should be kept refrigerated.

Blood Orange Vinaigrette

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (I used raspberry infused)
1/3 cup blood orange juice
zest from 1 blood orange
1/2 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon Dijon style mustard
1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Put all ingredients into a jar with a screw top lid, put the top on tightly and shake until ingredients are fully mixed and mixture thickens slightly. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed. Serve at once. Can be stored in the refrigerator for a week.

Seasonal Salad

The green salad is a boon for keeping the calories at bay and adding some nutrition to the meal at the same time. I tend to use mesclun, a mix of small sweet and bitter lettuce. It's sold at our local store as 'Spring Mix', even when it ought to be 'Fall Mix' because you know those tiny leaves have not been growing since the spring.

One of my favorite ways to uses these cute greens is to mix in some sort of cheese, some sort of fruit and some sort of nut. Recently I made a salad that seemed perfect for the autumn. To the lettuce mix I added some slices of 'Red' Gravenstein apples from the tree down by the garden...they have a little more red on the skin and they ripen later than the greener Gravs...plus some tangy blue cheese crumbles and walnuts from the tree out back. I toasted the walnuts first to bring out their flavor. A handful of chicken chunks from an earlier meal (although you could buy a cooked chicken at the market and use some of that, too) added some more protein and flavor. I dressed the salad with a sprinkle of rice wine vinegar that was seasoned with a little balsamic vinegar. The salad was refreshing, savory, and seemed just right for Fall. (I know there is no chocolate in this post...a girl has to have low calorie meals sometimes... but there will be some soon :)