Midwestern Nicoise Salad

Every Tuesday I get a little anxious as the anticipation of trying to eat up another box of vegetables from our CSA rolls around.  I have been getting more and more creative and feel less overwhelmed now but it is still quite an effort.  This Midwestern Nicoise salad is a collaboration between me and my mom.  We put it together after I brought over a bag of veggies for our weekly Sunday night dinner.  This is a pretty vague recipe because well, it is a salad so feel free to improvise.

• Ingredients for vinaigrette:
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh tarragon
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions for vinaigrette:

• To make the vinaigrette: combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Whisk vigorously to emulsify. Set the dressing aside while preparing the salad so the flavors can marry.

Ingredients for the salad:
2 Grilled chicken breast
1/2 of an avocado
A bunch of green beans
A bunch of snap peas (we left them in the pea pods)
2 large tomatoes
3-5 baby new potatoes
Salad greens
Parsley
Chives
Maybe some mint


Directions for Salad:

• Grill chicken breast.  You may add BBQ sauce if you wish. Cut into bite size pieces
• Slice avocado
• Boil green beans and snap peas for about 4 minutes and then immediately run under cold water to stop the cooking process.  
• Boil potatoes until soft and slice into discs
• Slice tomatoes
• Chop parsley, chives and mint and use as a garnish over the salad
• Combine all ingredients and dress with the vinaigrette.  Sprinkle with a little pepper and enjoy!

• 
  
• 
  

Caramelized Onions

Image: Simply Recipes

Caramelized onions are my new favorite thing to have on hand.  They are incredibly easy to make, keep fairly well in the fridge and are a delicious topping for so many things.  This week our CSA basket delivered 2 large onions so I caramelized a big batch and plan on eating them through out the week on:
- sandwiches
- salads
- in skillets with potatoes, eggs, and tomatoes
- on top of flatbread
- in bruschetta
- warmed over brie cheese as an appetizer with some good crackers


Ingredients:
- onion
- olive oil

Directions:
- slice an onion into discs and use your fingers to separate them out into individual pieces
- heat a non-stick pan on high for about 1 minute
- add a couple teaspoons of olive oil and turn the heat down to low
- cook the onions on low until they turn a light brown color.  By this time they will have reduced down in size and their flavor will condensed to be sweet and mild.
- eat warm from the pan or store in the fridge to be reheated throughout the week

Enjoy!

Cookie Dough

Next Saturday July 28, 2012 is a very big day.   Two of my very best friends will get married to each other.  I have been counting down the days to this wedding for what feels like years!  There are a lot of great things happening at this wedding: a bowling party, live band, really thoughtful decor and the best part a soft serve ice cream machine for dessert.  In an effort to be just a little bit helpful, I offered to make/bake whatever was needed for this eventful weekend.  My friend requested cookie dough to go with the soft serve ice cream sundae bar.


So, I went online and searched for a good tasting, eggless, safe to eat raw cookie dough recipe.  I found one that is meant for cookie dough truffles and modified it slightly for my use.  Pulling this dough together was a little too easy.  I need to be careful that I don't turn cookie dough making into a habit...


Here is the recipe which was adapted from Bakerella.com


Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup good quality chocolate chips ( I used Ghirardelli)

Directions:

• In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars with an electric mixer until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes)

• Mix in milk and vanilla

• Add flour and salt and mix on low until combined

• With a wooden spoon or spatula stir in chocolate chips

• Chill dough in refrigerator for about 30 minutes until firm enough to roll or scoop into bite size pieces.  Freeze until ready to serve.

Enjoy! I know I will.

Review: Kemp's SnoBlitz soft serve

During a recent trip to my local grocery store they were sampling a new Kemp's ice cream treat called the SnoBlitz- a soft serve ice cream treat.  I had to give it a try.  I have two weaknesses in life: soft serve ice cream and sheet cake.  

The SnoBlitz comes in a malt cup and is contains 2.5 servings each about 140 calories.  There were a few varieties available: brownie batter, cookie dough and cookies and cream.  Overall, I thought the ice cream was tasty and the brownie batter bites were also pretty good.  

As for the texture, it was interesting.  I anticipated the texture to have the smooth, icy, texture of a soft serve from a machine.  The texture of the Sno Blitz is more of a whipped quality.  It is pretty light but it was missing the smooth, creaminess that you normally get with soft serve.  

Overall, I think it was worth a try but I will not be running back for more.  This just wasn't soft serve ice cream for me.  It was whipped ice cream.  The next time I need a soft serve fix I think I'll try DQ.

Tuna "melt" with cabbage

We recently joined a CSA and have been drowning in a sea of cabbage for the last three weeks.  Seriously,  I have started eating cabbage at almost every meal.  I have put it in smoothies, salads, sandwiches, and stir fry.  One of the most satisfying new cabbage recipes is a crunchy tuna salad.  Adding cabbage gives the tuna salad a great texture and adds a lot of good nutrition.

Here is the recipe I loosely follow

Ingredients:

One 5-ounce can tuna, drained
2 cups finely chopped cabbage
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1/4 cup minced chives or onions
1 pickle chopped into very fine pieces

1 tablespoon mayonnaise
3 tablespoons yogurt

1 tablespoon honey mustard or regular mustard

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Shred the tuna with a fork and stir in the rest of the ingredients. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste.  Adjust this recipe as you wish.  I will even add some cajun seasoning to this for a little extra "kick."

To make a tuna "melt" I assemble this on a everything baglethin, top with a tomato (also from our CSA) and you can add cheese if you like. ( I do not like cheese and fish together but love this sandwich warmed under the broiler)  Put under broiler until the edges of the bagel turn brown.  

The remaining tuna salad can be refrigerated for up to two days.

Roasted Almonds

I am always a sucker for a good deal.  This recently led to my purchase of a 3 POUND bag of almonds from Costco.  The price was too good to pass up and almonds are a great source of protein.  Below is a recipe for toasted almonds.  This is a very loose recipe that you should feel free to improvise.  Also, I use my nose more than anything to decide if the almonds are roasted enough.  When your kitchen is filled with a very fragrant scent, the nuts are done.

Ingredients:
Almonds
Honey or Maple Syrup
Salt
Seasoning of your choice: cinnamon, cocoa, sugar, brown sugar, chili powder

Directions:
Heat oven at 350
On a cookie sheet, spread almonds out so that they are not overlapping
Drizzle honey or maple syrup over the almonds.  You need less of this than you think because it will melt in the oven.
Stir almonds until evenly coated
Sprinkle with salt
Sprinkle with seasoning
Stir again if needed
Bake for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally
When almonds are done baking, use a spatula to spread them out onto a greased piece of parchment paper and allow to cool.  At this point I will taste one and adjust the seasoning if needed.
Enjoy!