Warm Summer Salad

Summer is a great time for dinner salads. Yes, it is bikini season, and I'm sure some of you are concerned about things like that. I've never ever ever ever been seen outside of a department store dressing room with a bikini on. And probably never will. I choose bacon. Enough said.

And that is why I love this salad. 

It involves that swimsuit-body-destroying deliciousness. That combination of goodness that makes you decide that if all salads tasted like this, then perhaps being a skinny person wouldn't be so bad. And then you add more blue cheese dressing....

Not that I would ever do or think such things.

Ha.

Start with the lettuce. I use butter lettuce cause it's my favorite. It tastes good and fresh even after a day in the fridge. I find a lot of lettuces get bitter. Blech. I prefer butter!

Next, get that bacon made. Thick slices of bacon, a bit of brown sugar, some smoked paprika, and a dash of cayenne. Baked in the oven until you can smell their goodness. Cool, then chop into bite sized pieces.

Slice up some peaches. Sprinkle a touch of sugar on them (if they aren't sweet enough for you) and run them under the broiler for a minute or so.

Fry up an egg or two, just cooking the whites but letting the yolks stay runny. 

Combine everything on a plate.

Drizzle with blue cheese dressing. 

Decide that maybe you'll think about swimsuit shopping next year.....

Warm Summer Salad

Serves 2

1 head of butter lettuce

4 slices of thick-cut bacon

1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

dash of cayenne pepper

2 yellow peaches

1 tsp sugar (optional)

4 eggs

Blue cheese dressing (or ranch, or whatever)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place bacon on a cooling rack over a foil-lined pan with sides. Mix up the brown sugar, smoked paprika and cayenne. Sprinkle over 1 side of the bacon and cook for 15 minutes, or until cooked through. Cool and chop up the bacon into bite-sized pieces.

Slice the yellow peaches up and sprinkle them with the sugar, if desired. Broil them for a minute or so, until just charred. Chop up the head of lettuce. Fry up the eggs, letting the whites set but the yolk stay runny.

Compose the salad - lettuce, bacon, peaches, eggs. Top with blue cheese dressing.

Toasted Kale & Coconut Chips

Kale chips - who'da thunk? 

Put kale in the oven for 20 minutes or so and voila! It crisps up like nothing you've ever tasted before.

Now, add a bit of coconut and Asian flavors. You seriously can't find any better snack for a lazy afternoon. Or any afternoon for that matter. 

This recipe is ever so slightly adapted from Ms. Joy the Baker. She suggested that you turn this into dinner. Add faro, and call it a meal. She even suggested that it could feed a man. 

Perhaps she knows different men than I do. At the mere suggestion, I could sense a revolt starting. Mr. S was definitely not going to be having a bowl of greens, coconut, and some weird grain for dinner.

For a healthy snack though? He was totally game. (Don't worry, there's bacon on the board for dinner.)

Start off with the curliest kale you can find. The one with all the fluff at the ends. Cut out the ribs and tear it into bite sized pieces. 

Get your flavoring agents out:

Into a bowl they go! Drizzle in your olive oil and whisk it like you mean it.

Toss the kale and coconut together on a large baking sheet. Parchment lined is helpful. 

Pour the oil mixture over it all and work in with your hands. Make sure all the leaves look shiny!

Into the oven they go, for 18-20 minutes. When you're 5 minutes from done, take them out and toss them so they all crisp up. 

Yum!! Into the bowl they go. Not that they stay there long!

Toasted Kale & Coconut Chips

Barely adapted from Joy the Baker

5 c. kale, with ribs removed, torn into bite sized pieces

1 c. unsweetened, large flake coconut

2 tbsp soy sauce, low sodium kind if you can find it

3/4 tsp sriracha

3/4 tsp sesame oil

1/4 c. olive oil

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix kale and coconut on the baking sheet. In a small bowl (or jar), whisk (or shake) together the soy sauce, sriracha, sesame oil, and olive oil. Pour the oil mix over the kale and coconut. Toss to coat, until every piece of kale looks shiny.

Put in the oven for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and toss. Return to the oven for another 3-5 minutes, until all the kale is nicely crispy.

Hearty Chardy Pasta

Farmers' markets are in full swing in the South Bay. Fruits and veg are practically spilling out of everywhere around here.

I will soon have my own plant-related problems. I have to figure out what to do with at least 8 serrano peppers, a mountain of thyme, and *hopefully* 3 or 4 tomatoes. My balcony garden may be small, but my dreams are big!

And since I've only got 3 pots of plants to my name, I stalk the local farmers' market. Mmmmmmm. Greens! Berries! and Squashes, oh my!

This week I walked away with a beautiful bunch of swiss chard. Not that I had any idea what to do with it. 

So I started off with bacon. Like one always does with any sort of greens. (Can you tell I'm from the South?)

Then pull out the crisp bacon and toss in an onion and chard stems, diced up small. Let cook for 5 minutes or so.

Add in garlic and a touch of red pepper flake. Saute for another couple minutes.

Add in the olives and roughly chopped chard. Cover the pan. It only takes a few minutes for the chard to wilt. 

Once the chard it wilted, add the bacon back in. Squeeze the lemon over the pan and mix everything up.

Hopefully you've got the spaghetti cooked.... Save a 1/3 cup of that pasta water.

Chard mixture goes in with the pasta, toss in feta cheese and the pasta water. Toss until combined. 

Dig in!

Hearty Chardy Pasta

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Serves 3-4

3 strips of bacon

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 bunch, swiss chard

8 kalamata olives, chopped

pinch of red pepper flakes

juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 small container of crumbled feta

spaghetti

salt

Rinse and roughly chop your chard. Dice the stems into small pieces. Separate the stems from the leaves.

Cut the bacon into large bite-size chunks. In a large pan,cook the bacon until crisp.

Add the spaghetti to a pot of boiling water. (my spaghetti takes 12 minutes to cook)

Remove the crisp bacon from the pan and dump the diced onion and chard stems into the bacon fat. Allow to cook for 5-8 minutes, until onions are translucent. Add in the garlic and red pepper flake. Cook for another 3-4 minutes. Add in the olives and chard leaves. Allow the chard to wilt. When chard is wilted, squeeze the lemon over the mixture.

Drain the spaghetti, reserving a 1/3 c. of the pasta water. In a large serving bowl, combine the spaghetti, chard mixture, reserved pasta water, and feta cheese. Toss until combined.

Serve!

Sloppy José

I miss slap bracelets. I miss neon socks. 

I do NOT miss homework.

Another thing I miss? Sloppy joes. We didn't eat them at home very often (ahem, never), so when they showed up on the cafeteria menu I was always elated.

Then I became a grown-up. And I too forgot about the sloppy joe goodness.... UNTIL NOW!!!

And I gourmet-afied them by changing the meat to chorizo, adding an egg and some herbage. So they are legit adult food. Boo-ya!

Start with onions, garlic, and a bit of serrano or jalapeno pepper.

Add a chub of chorizo.

Crack in some eggs and fry them up. 

Toast up your bread...

 Assemble El Sloppy Jose: Toast, chorizo, egg, grated cheddar cheese, chopped cilantro and toast. 

 Dine in elegant style! 

Now, where's my pink scrunchie?

Sloppy José

Serves 2

1/4 of an onion, diced

1 clove of garlic, diced

1 inch of a serrano pepper, diced (or less, or use a jalapeno for less spice)

1 chub beef chorizo

4 slices of bread

1/2 c. grated cheddar or other cheese

chopped cilantro for garnish

Saute the onion, garlic, and serrano in a little olive oil for a few minutes. Throw in the chorizo and brown it up. Once the chorizo is cooked, crack in the two eggs. 

Toast up your bread. Create the Sloppy José!

Bread - chorizo - egg - cheese - cilantro - bread.  Yum!

Cherry Lattice Deep-Dish Pie

It's cherry season. 

Doesn't that just send you running to the grocery store!?!?..... I guess it's just me. And Mr. S. 

Quick story! When Mr. S and I first got married, we would go to the grocery store together all the time. We called them grocery dates. One fall day, Mr. S wanted some fruit. The cherries (from some country in South America no doubt) looked really good. He grabbed a bag, weighed it, put the price sticker on it, and handed them to me. The cherries were over $14 for a smallish bag. I looked at him and said "You really want cherries?" He casually said yeah, so I put them in the cart... Thinking that I had either married a moron or Mr. Big.

When we got to the register and the lady rang us up, he was flabbergasted that our bill was so high. He mentioned that when we got into the car, so I pulled it out and showed him. $14 for cherries. He hadn't even looked at the price when he grabbed them, weighed them, and tagged them. Doh!

Mr. S has now committed the price of cherries to memory. He knows seasonal highs and lows. And the low was reached last week. 

Back to pie. We bought a truckload (almost) of cherries, so the only rational solution to use them all up was pie!

Start out with the crust. Use the Smitten Kitchen Pie 102 recipe. Literally step for step.

Dries get put in a biiiiig bowl. You'll need the space. 

Next, chunks of super cold butter get cut in with a pastry cutter. 

Add some ice water.

Just a 1/2 cup. 

Stir it in quickly - just till the dough begins to form clumps.

Using your hands, gather it up into a ball. Quickly. The name of the game is - don't touch the dough! The more you touch it, the tougher it will be.

Divide the ball in two.

Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour and a half. Seriously. Let it chill. Pick up that book you've been meaning to read. 

Next, make the cherry filling. It's super easy. Dump everything in a bowl. Stir. 

Roll out your first dough ball. 

Drape it into the pie dish. Then fill it with the cherry mixture.

Roll out the second ball. Cut the circle into strips. Use every other one to make stripes on the pie.

 

 Take the other strips and weave them into the first set.

Pinch around the edges to seal. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Then at 350 for another 30.

Until it's golden brown and bubbly. Let it cool for at least 2 hours.

Slice and nosh. Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

Cherry Lattice Deep-Dish Pie

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Crust:

Smitten Kitchen Pie 102 recipe. Literally step for step.

I may have also added a few grates of nutmeg and some almond extract.

Cherry Filling: (if you've got a regular pie plate, reduce the cherries to 4 c., cornstarch to 4 tsp, etc)

6 c. pitted sweet cherries

6 tbsp corn starch

3/4 c. sugar

1/4 tsp salt

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1/3 tsp almond extract

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

10 grates of fresh nutmeg

Make the crust as Deb tells you to. Including the resting period in the fridge. Don't skip it. 

While the dough is chilling out, make up the filling. Dump everything in a bowl and stir. Preheat  your oven to 400 degrees.

Roll out the first half of the dough, leaving the other half in the fridge. Make sure it's bigger than the pie dish. Hanging off the edge a little is a-ok.

Pour the cherry mixture into the crust-lined pie dish. If you don't like your pies wet, leave most of the sugar juice in the bottom of the bowl. If you don't mind things a little soupy, pour it all in.

Roll out the second dough ball. Make it slightly larger than the pie plate too. 

Use a sharp knife and cut the dough into 1 1/2 inch strips. Taking every other strip, lay them an inch and a bit apart, one way across the pie. Take the strips you've got left, weave them into the pie. Over, under, over, under, etc. 

If you run out of dough strips, cut off some of the overhanging parts of strips you've already woven in and pinch them together to create another strip. No one will notice any wonky looking strips.

Trim off the excess dough and pinch all the way around the pan, creating a crimped edge. 

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, then back the oven off to 350 and bake another 30-40 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the cherries are bubbling away. Allow to cool for at least 2 hours. 

Enjoy!

Blue Cheese Dressing Biscuits

There are some ideas that shoot down like bolts of lightening. Altering your very core. Ideas that give you a new perspective on life. 

This is one of them: Use salad dressing to make biscuits. 

Many of the store-bought dressings I like now a days are from the refrigerated section and are yogurt based. Which means.....

BISCUITS!!! Ranch biscuits, blue cheese biscuits, the options are ENDLESS.

They totally have some sort of dairy in them. Cream, sour cream, etc. Why not sub in something like blue cheese dressing???

Now that I've blown your ever-loving minds, here's the quick and easy -

Drys - flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt.

Cut in shortening and butter. Use your fingers to integrate it till it looks like coarse sand.  Make a well in the middle.

Get out the dressing. Mine was the yogurt based kind. Not sure if regular dressing works, if you try it, let me know!

Measure out a 1/2 cup. Add some half & half. Then some blue cheese crumbles to kick it up a notch.

Pour the wets into the well in the drys. Mix it together with your hand real fast.

Toss is out onto the counter.

Pat the dough out into a 1" high circle and dig out your grandma's biscuit cutter (or the one you picked up at a garage sale in Iowa for a nickle).

Quickly cut out your rounds and put them on a cookie sheet.

Bake until golden brown. Yum!

Blue Cheese Dressing Biscuits

Makes approx. 1 dozen

2 c. flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp  baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp cold butter, cubed

2 tbsp shortening

1/2 c. yogurt-based blue cheese dressing

1/2 c. half & half

3 tbsp blue cheese crumbles

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Add in butter and shortening. Work in with your fingers until the mixture looks like coarse sand. Dig a little well in the middle.

In a small bowl (or measuring glass), mix dressing, half & half, and cheese. Pour into the well of the other mixture. Incorporate with a few swift strokes.

Dump mixture onto a lightly floured surface and pat into a 1" thick round. Quickly cut biscuits and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 9-12 minutes, or until golden brown.