A lot, I'll bet. There is an amazing variety of lettuces out there, not to metion everything else with which a salad can be made. And, with all the dressings available these days... but lettuce and dressing does not a proper salad make. It takes... love... feeling... understanding the greens, the accoutrements, and above all, the dressing. The flavors must meld together perfectly, creating a balance of sweet, savory, sour, and salty. The texture should be varied - soft, crunchy, smooth, rough.

You know I'm totally full of shit, right? Salads are like the easiest thing to make next to pouring a glass of milk. While not necessarily something one would serve to guests at a non-vegetarian-un-hipster-non-minimalist dinnerparty, this first salad offering is easy to make and effing lovely to eat. I persent to you Steak'n Salad:

Continue reading "How much Lettuce can one eat?" »

Posted at 6:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The weather here in sunny Boise Idaho has turned for the worse. For the past 3 days, the heat (95°F!!!!) has been leaving me ignoring the kitchen, prefering to eat out than to deal with the heat. It looks like gazpacho and multitudes of cold salads are in my future, starting with this one.

The only "cooked" part is a piece of chicken, and one totally doesn't need to be in the kitchen to watch chicken cook in the oven. The finished product was exactly what I was hoping for, and I'm thinking about making the exact same thing tonight. So awesomely good!!

Continue reading "Ch-ch-chinese Chicken Salad, bitchez" »

Posted at 6:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is what I had for dinner the other night. Ben was out of town, and I was eating late, so I didn't actually want to cook anything. The mother-in-law had given me the fixings for some Caprese salad a couple of days prior, so I thought it was the perfect time to toss it all up and eat something lovely. Here is a generic Caprese salad: fresh mozzarella, tomatoes (oh the tomatoes at Costco! So lovely!), fresh basil, S&P, olive oil, and vinegar.

I, however, wanted to spice it up a bit. I had some oregano leftover from a main dish made for the first seder, so I threw some of that in, too. Then I looked at all of my leftover fuji apples (originally for charoses), chopped one up, and tossed that in. Now, normally Caprese salad is made with balsamic vinegar, but I accidentally locked mine up in the chametz cupboard, not to open until tonight, so I used some red wine vinegar. All the rest was the same. And I cannot describe to you how bloody good this was. The sweetness of the apple balanced the tartness of the vinegar perfectly. The addition of fresh oregano was genius, adding a more earthy flavor to the rest of the standards. I will definitely be bringing this at whatever BBQs/Parties to which I am invited this summer.

Posted at 4:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After Havdalah on Saturday night, I had a hankerin' for some good roasted chicken. The problem is that I didn't have any accoutrements that would normally go on/in a roasted chicken - so I made this up:

Burnt Honey-Mustard Slow-roasted chicken with Garlic wilted spinach, Curry carrot puree, and a last-minute Crunchy green asian salad.

The origins of the chicken are simple: I'm not a fan of most chicken skin. Every once in a while, I'll roast a chicken perfectly, and will really enjoy eating the skin, but I tend to just peel it off and toss it to the side, like a used up kleenex. So, thought I, why not just burn the crap out of the skin, but make the insides all juicy and lovely (hopefully without making the fire alarm go off)?

The origins of the sides are also simple: I was out of most everything I normally have with which to accompany vegetables and the like. Nevertheless, they all turned out wonderfully, and my notoriously picky-eater husband went back for seconds. If that doesn't sound like the cheesy "Cook of the month" quote from Better Homes and Gardens magazine, I don't know what does. Here're the recipes:

Continue reading "Back on track: A lesson in improvisation" »

Posted at 9:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)