Searching through my salad recipes the other day, I rounded up about 5-8 recipes that I’ve made before (but prior to when I started photographing all my cooking) or haven’t made, but want to. As soon as I saw the piece of paper this recipe was on, it flooded back fond memories. Back in the days when I was working. Once in awhile we’d have a potluck lunch. We had some goooood cooks amongst our staff, and I count a number of my favorite recipes as products of those potlucks. Among them, that I have blogged about: Vicki’s Harlequin Pinwheel Cookies, Kathy’s Monterey Scalloped Potatoes, Kathleen’s Almond Custard. Others that I haven’t blogged:  this, Joanne’s Syrian Bread Salad. Also her Triple Chocolate Cookies. And Debbie’s Apple Pie. Or yes, Kathleen’s Pretzel Dessert, and Eileen’s Pineapple Cream Cheese Dip. Audré’s Curried Deviled Eggs. And on and on it goes.

Joanne is Swedish by heritage, and the last I heard, she was living outside Paris with her hubby and family. She used to kid herself that she’s a SAP, a Swedish American Princess. She married a successful businessman, who happens to be Lebanese by heritage. So Joanne learned to cook a lot of Lebanese dishes including this salad, which is often called fattoush (pronounced fah-toosh). Joanne brought it to several of our potlucks, and we all loved it. It’s tart (from the lemon juice dressing), crunchy (from the pita) and altogether very refreshing (from the combo of cucumbers, green onions, tomatoes, parsley and mint). It also has the addition of zahtar. Since I assume that some of you don’t know much about zahtar, you’re about to be educated.

Zahtar is to the Middle East like curry powder is to India. Meaning that it’s ubiquitous to that region. But, zahtar is also a combination of herbs and spices and can be different from one cook to another, just like curry powder. If you’re interested in a lot of history, read Wikipedia’s explanation of zahtar. But suffice to say that zahtar is generally a mixture of oregano, hyssop, marjoram and thyme. My zahtar (that I buy from Penzey’s) contains sesame seeds, sumac (which gives it the red color), thyme and salt. So, you can see how different purveyors will make a different product.

The salad is very easy – providing you have the fresh lemon juice (check), the pita (check), the mint (I prefer fresh, check), tomatoes (check), green onions (check), and parsley (Italian, check). I always have the other stuff on hand (lettuce, in this case romaine, cucumber, garlic, scallions, olive oil, zahtar and ground allspice). Since I’m a huge fan of lemon juice in salad dressings, there’s no question I love this salad. The original recipe didn’t indicate it, but I toast the pita bread pieces in the oven for about 4-6 minutes until just beginning to turn golden brown. That way they’re a bit crunchy in the salad.  I also prefer the fresh mint (a lot of it, actually, and I use more than the recipe indicates). The two recipes Joanne gave me had one with fresh and one with dried. So, your choice. Although the salad is called a bread salad, the pita chips aren’t predominant in the salad. It’s a green salad, but with the lovely crunch of toasted pita chips. And the delish lemon dressing. And mint. Well, you all got it. I love this salad.
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I know, the name is odd, isn’t it? I suppose I could just change the name and claim the recipe as my own, but that’s not fair to the originator of this sauce, so I’ve always referred to it by her title. It’s not just any old spaghetti sauce, as we’d be likely to call it, and surely Camille Stagg meant for us to take notice. This isn’t your ordinary red – either the wine OR the sauce. Camille Stagg is a well-known journalist, travel writer, and must live in Chicago, as she’s written a book about gourmet haunts in that town. She consults with some wineries and wine distributors (clubs), as I found other recipes listed by her in a couple of places on the internet.

Many years ago we used to have two bottles of wine delivered to us each month by a small company up in Emeryville, California. And each month the wine purveyor included a write-up about the wines in the box, AND a recipe suitable for that wine. Likely this recipe came in with a box of zin, since it calls for the wine in the recipe. It sounded so intriguing, I had to try it. We were going to have a wine tasting at our home a week or so later, and I asked each guest couple to bring a bottle of wine and food to serve with it. Specifically, they were to bring something that would complement their wine type. We stood around our kitchen island with 4 (small) glasses of wine in front of us, and sampled food with each wine. It was fun, and we really liked this sauce.

Having not made this for several years, I had to refresh my memory about what was different about it (it uses nearly a whole bottle of zin for 5 pounds of sausage). Once you combine the sausage, onions, mushrooms, garlic and seasonings, you can either simmer it on the range, or put it in a crockpot for long, slow simmering. I did the latter and kept it at high for about 4 hours to help boil off the wine. The sauce is thin to start, and must be simmered down to reduce it. Obviously, it’s a heavy sauce, redolent with the winy taste, and complemented with a large quantity of mushrooms. It’s an extremely dark-colored sauce – zin wine certainly stains nearly anything it touches anyway, so the meat takes on the dark red color as well. You can use your own combination of sausage – the recipe calls for half hot and half sweet. It’s zesty, I’ll give you that! Zinfandel is a zesty wine in and of itself – most people describe it as spicy. And the hot/spicy sausage ups the ante. If you don’t like spicy sausage, use all sweet Italian. This freezes well. Over the years I’ve increased the recipe volume – you can certainly halve it easily enough. I like to have leftovers to freeze. Linguine is my pasta of choice for this. I also increased the amount of wine in the recipe, but not by much.
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Strawberries are on the wane here in Southern California. They’re really at a peak of ripeness and sweetness, though. So I bought two big boxes of berries to use for a company dinner. First I made my much-loved Strawberry Gazpacho. Since I’ve written it up before, you can click on the recipe title above and get to the original posting for it. With super ripe berries, the gazpacho had a wonderful sweet taste.

The remaining I used in the dessert. No longer do I have the original recipe for this. My notes, though, tell me it was in a Sunset Magazine. Since I found it listed in one of my military officer’s wives’ cookbooks dating back to about 1968, I know it’s at least that old. I even remember when I first made it – I was living at Whidbey Island, Washington – learning to cook and enjoying the compact kitchen I had in the small but new home I was living in at the time. Strawberries make their entrance there in late May or early June (my recollection anyway) and once the main crops were picked, the fields near Oak Harbor opened up for people to pick their own “jam” berries. But even those were very tasty; they were just small. Perfectly ripe, however.

Making this over the years (but not for at least 15-20) I’d forgotten some of the procedures, and had to refresh my memory. My typed up recipe also contained an error; fortunately, however, I recognized something was missing and went to look it up on the internet. I found several sources for this recipe, and with the exception of two ingredients, they were all the same. The differences were in the original recipe too, as I recall. This can be made with frozen berries if you want – in which case you decrease the amount of sugar. A more recent version suggested using Cool Whip instead of heavy cream if you prefer, so I included that in my recipe, although I’ve never made it that way.

First you make a sweet crumb mixture. While it’s baking you can work on the filling (strawberries, lemon juice, egg whites and heavy cream or Cool Whip). Once the baked mixture is cooled and crumbled up well, 2/3 of it is sprinkled on the bottom of a 9×13 pan. I stuck that in the freezer while I finished up the filling. The recipes all said to combine the berries, the egg whites, sugar and lemon juice and whip it all up until soft peaks form. I thought that sounded so very odd – the sliced berries would be totally decimated. I wanted them to remain in a more solid form, so I only folded in the berries at the end. Then you combine the whipped cream or Cool Whip with it, carefully spoon it over the crumbs in the pan, sprinkled the remaining crumbs on top and freeze. When ready to serve, you can decorate the square with some additional strawberries, even drizzle some strawberry juice around the plate.

What I did forget was that once frozen, this dessert needs to defrost a little bit before you even attempt to cut it up. Ten minutes out didn’t seem to be enough time. It still cracked in odd directions, and is hard to eat. It still tasted good, but with mostly frozen chunks of berries in it, it really needs that defrosting time to make it easily edible. None of the recipes I found online indicate that, and it’s been too many years since I made this to remember. So, whatever method you use, fresh or frozen berries, cream or Cool Whip, this is a refreshing dessert, and really quite easy to make.
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It was time, again, for me to bake something for my DH(dear husband)’s Bible study group. I flipped through the options and came upon this one, which was very simple. That’s what I needed, as I was short on time. And I had one big Braeburn apple waiting to be utilized in something. I was supposed to use a Granny Smith, but I didn’t have one. Braeburn would have to do! There was only one problem. The recipe was mostly in metric (milliliters and grams). I managed, primarily because I have a kitchen scale that will convert the two. Good thing since I was rushing.

But for you, my friends, I’ve made it easy. I went to a website and did all the conversions for you, so you needn’t worry about having a special scale to compute the measurements.

As for the scone, it was very nice. A drier kind of scone, but since this is from a European blogger, she likely likes a drier type recipe. I tend to prefer a more tender crumb but that’s just my personal preference. Don’t misunderstand – it was delicious. I liked it. And I liked that I just plopped it onto a large baking tray (Silpat lined) and scored the top. Didn’t have to pat it out and cut rounds. The apple contained within the dough (which is mushed into it after it’s mixed up in the food processor – see, I told you it was easy) gave it a nice moistness. The fellows nearly ate the whole thing, but we had enough for breakfast instead of toast. I’d make this again just because it’s so very easy.

The recipe came from a blog I read regularly – Buerre et pain – and she got it from Morning Bakes, a breakfast baking cookbook by Linda Collister. I did have to make another adjustment – I didn’t have any whole wheat flour, so substituted additional all-purpose. I’ve altered the recipe for that, but you can substitute about ½ cup of the whole wheat if you’d like. And I’ve included just a tad more butter in the mixture than was called for in the original. Once the round is patted out, you sprinkle the top with some demerara sugar – I used turbinado. That gave each wedge a nice little crunch. I liked that part. I’ll make this again! You can also split a wedge and toast it, although the scone is very crumbly – even more so the second day.
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You won’t find very many recommendations on this blog for frozen foods. Especially fish. Although Trader Joe’s stocks a wide variety of frozen fish, I’m usually disappointed. The fish is usually watery and cooks up dry and not all that tasty. But I was stopped in my tracks when I saw this box of Morey’s Wild Caught Alaska Salmon (I think I bought it at Trader Joe’s, not Costco). I rarely buy farm raised salmon, or hardly any other farm-raised fish. After watching a documentary some years ago about how those poor creatures are raised in very confined beds, having to eat their own poop, I consciously decided not to buy the stuff. So, when I see a label that says wild caught, I home in.

In the photo above you can see the cooked product (larger photo). In the photo that I inset at the left you can see the exterior of the box and down below are two of the individually sealed  fillets. When you defrost it, it’s ready to cook, marinated and everything. There are six in a box. Remove the fillet from the plastic sack and place on a baking sheet (I lined it with foil), bake 15-22 minutes and you’re done. It was very nice. I overcooked it a little bit (18 minutes), but the flavor was delicious. I suggest you try it, if it’s available near you.

And now I’ll tell you about another product I buy via mail order. Albacore Tuna. For some years we’ve been warned about the mercury in tuna, so I started buying tuna from Carvalho Fisheries (Pacific Northwest) because they only catch small albacore tuna. These fish are still young, so haven’t ingested as much mercury. Carvalho’s tuna is deliciously tasty stuff. It’s what I use when I make Joanne Weir’s Sicilian Tuna Salad.

Yes, it’s expensive. Certainly more money than we pay at the grocery store for albacore (the albacore hold more mercury than other of the tuna species). But their tuna contains a fraction of the mercury as we’d get from the grocery store brands. I buy it by the case and it lasts me many months.  But then, I only make tuna salad sandwiches every couple of months. I also buy Carvalho’s smoked albacore. A special treat. I have fond memories of time with family friends years ago. He used to catch tuna and have it smoked. It was a frequent offering for appetizers – with small rings of red onion and Ritz crackers. Delish. (tuna photo from Carvalho website)

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Last week we invited a friend over for dinner. She’s trying to eat healthy, so I decided to skip the main course and make a hearty appetizer, a soup, a salad, and low calorie dessert. In the last few days I’ve posted all the recipes from that dinner: Layered Hummus & Eggplant Appetizer, a cool Cream of Cucumber Soup, this salad, and Lemon-Ginger Frozen Yogurt served with the cookies that Kathleen brought along to share with us – Cashew Caramel Cookies. I had a stack of salad recipes to choose from, but thinking through the flavors and textures in the other dishes, I decided this salad was the best fit. I had several poblano (also called pasilla) chiles in the produce drawer that needed to be used.

The salad itself is cinchy. It’s just the poblano chiles that take a bit of time, but not all that much. I cut them into large semi-flat pieces, removed the stems and seeds, laid them flat on a foil covered tray. I sprayed them with olive oil spray, then broiled them for about 8 minutes on the first side, and about 3-4 on the 2nd side. Once roasted, let them cool so you can handle them, then cut up into bite-sized pieces. The recipe indicated peeling them; I didn’t. Set aside and add later. The salad itself is nothing but greens with a simple salad dressing (balsamic and oil, cumin and coriander) that takes no time at all to concoct.

The recipe comes from Katherine Kagel, the owner of Café Pasqual’s in Santa Fe, New Mexico. One of my very favorite restaurants.

If I make this again I will add some other texture to the salad – it was too “soft” for me. I like crunchy stuff in my salad. But I didn’t think this one wanted radishes or celery or carrots. You want to taste the chiles – they are the star player in this salad. But I think I would add some peppered pecans, which I make every once in awhile anyway. If I’d had some on hand, I’d have added them. They’re so very simple to make. The salad was very good – I liked it. Relatively easy too.
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Admittedly, I’m a fan of ice cream. I came to this anomaly honestly. My Dad was an out-and-out obsessive-compulsive about the stuff. I grew up eating dessert after nearly every dinner, and I can still remember (and hear it in my head) my Dad’s spoon against the side of the bowl, systematically scraping around to get the very last possible speck of it. After going around once, he’d change the angle of the spoon and scrape around one more time. Remember, my Dad was an engineer, so methodical was his middle name. His favorite dessert was vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce, or rocky road, just plain.

We go for periods of time with no ice cream in the freezer. As summer months approach, though, and the last of our home grown Meyer lemons reach mid-to-past maturity, I need to use some of that lemon juice. So, a new recipe streaked past the recipe trove – from Bon Appetit, May, 2008. It sounded delicious. And indeed it was.

You simmer water, sugar and freshly grated ginger, strain out the ginger, then chill. Add the yogurt, buttermilk, fresh lemon juice and some grated zest and freeze in your ice cream maker. Freeze further for a couple of hours and serve.

The ginger flavor does not predominate at all. In fact, if you weren’t TOLD it was there, you might not be able to identify it. I adored the elusive flavor. A lot. Enough that the next time I make this I’m going to use a bit more ginger, but not much. The frozen yogurt/ice cream has more of the texture of sorbet – to me anyway – although it does have more dairy (buttermilk and yogurt) than water. It was very, very refreshing, and with a bit of crystallized ginger on top (and maybe mango as suggested in the recipe), it’s an easy dessert to make. Next time I may try using 2% yogurt, just to see if there’s any difference. In any case, it’s a very low-calorie dessert, but lovely enough for guests. I’ll be making this again.
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Don’t know if you’re aware that Martha Stewart has just published a new cookbook – called Martha Stewart’s Cookies. A really thick tome, it contains 175 new recipes with super photos. This one was delicious! My friend Kathleen brought them the other night when she came to our home for dinner. Kathleen’s a good writer, so I asked her if she’d like to guest-write this posting.

Happily for me, she agreed. You can find the recipe on Martha’s site. I wrote up another of Kathleen’s recipes some time back – if you’re interested, check out her Almond Custard. Here’s Kathleen’s write-up about the cookies:

• I am a Martha Stewart junkie. Even her checkered past doesn’t dampen my enthusiasm for everything Martha; I just can’t get enough. I also love technology, especially if somebody else installs and troubleshoots it.
• So here’s how technology connected me to Martha’s Cashew Caramel Cookies: I listen in my car to Everyday Food Editor Sandy Gluck’s show on the Martha Stewart channel on Sirius radio. Sandy raved about Martha’s latest book, Martha Stewart’s Cookies, so I previewed it on Martha’s website, logged on to amazon.com and ordered it. It’s great to get exactly what you want without ever having to set foot inside a store. I guess I’m the perfect example of someone who is fully plugged into the Martha Stewart distribution network. I even asked my husband to record all of Martha’s television shows for me so that I can watch them in the evening.
• So far, each recipe that I have tried has been simple to prepare and delicious. When relatives recently came to visit, they loved the cookies so much that they even ate them for breakfast. I sent the book to my niece and she is having similar successful results. I hope you enjoy your copy of Martha Stewart Cookies as much as I do mine. I swear that I am not on her payroll, though perhaps I should be!

The cookies have a salty tang to them (because you use roasted, salted cashews) and the drizzle of caramel on the top is just a lovely finale to each cookie. They look wonderful, and taste wonderful. Thanks, Kathleen!
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Chilled Cucumber Soup, with just the hint of thickness to it. You can garnish it with fresh dill if you have it, or do as I have, sprinkle the top with some toasted sliced almonds (good for the crunch).

It’s been years – eons even – that I’ve been making cold cucumber soup. And I always thought my recipe was just the greatest. Well . . . until I tasted my friend Jackie’s soup recently. It was a lovely bridal shower at her home, and this cold cucumber soup was served as a first course. It was absolutely wonderful. Smooth. Extra smooth, with a different texture than mine has. Jackie graciously shared the recipe with me (thank you, Jackie!), and come to find out this is a COOKED soup (mine is a raw soup only, although it also has buttermilk added). And this one has the addition of Cream of Wheat (just a little bit) to thicken it very slightly. You have no idea it’s there, but that’s what the elusive texture was.

You cook up some green onions with butter, then add chicken broth, vinegar and dill weed (fresh), also some Cream of Wheat and finally the chopped-up cucumbers. The soup is smoothed twice in the blender and sour cream is added at the end. Then you garnish it with a bit more dill weed. I did make it with full-fat sour cream. Next time I might try it with low-fat just to see how it tasted. A lovely soup. Try it. Highly recommended.
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About eight years or so ago I tasted homemade hummus for the first time. Served to me by a friend who is Armenian (she’s a Parisian – not Persian, but Paris-ian, but she’s Armenian, and she lets you know you’d better not forget it!). My taste buds hit nirvana. I’d had nothing but ready made previously, and didn’t realize how incredibly easy it was to make. Or how delicious it could possibly be. Not long after that I attended a cooking class and the instructor demonstrated this method. Oh my gosh. It was so gosh-darned delicious!

The appetizer is not all that difficult, but it does have a moderate amount of work involved. I wish I could tell you there wasn’t. But, you can do most of it ahead – even the day before if you’re pushed for time. Because it has so much work involved, I tend not to make this when I’m doing a company meal with several courses. But, I’ll tell you, nobody has ever come away from the platter without oohs and aahs. Guaranteed.

Here’s what’s involved. One, you make the hummus in the food processor with canned garbanzos, garlic and tahini (sesame seed paste). Two, you slice up the eggplant and sauté it in batches in olive oil. Three, you concoct a simple balsamic vinaigrette which gets tossed with the eggplant once it’s chopped up. Mound the hummus on a lovely platter, then mound the eggplant on top of that and garnish with a bunch of chopped cilantro (or Italian parsley) and toasted pine nuts. That’s it. I serve it with toasted pita chips. The eggplant takes on a very rich mahogany color and when you serve this on a big platter with the eggplant on top, it’s very colorful. You don’t use all of the dressing, so the nutritional information is misleading.

This recipe is one of my all-time favorites and will be so marked on my recipe page (click Recipes in my right sidebar). We had a friend over for dinner last night and she helped with the preparation of this dish (thanks again for your help, Kathleen!).
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