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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Finding a new salad dressing recipe is always a good thing in my book. I could have made one of my tried and true recipes the other day, but when there are so many other NEW ones to try, I’m easily swayed. I’m so glad I was, as I’ll be making this over and over. I love lemon juice-based dressings. And the addition of oregano was so extra good. It’s nothing difficult – I made about a quart of it because I was making a huge, HUGE salad to serve at our son Powell’s 40th birthday party. Oh, gosh, does it make me feel OLD to now have a 40-year old son. He’s successful, happy, has a darling wife and they have an adorable young baby, so life is good for him. That makes us proud.

This recipe started from one published in Gourmet, April 2006, and it was from the Signature Room at the 95th, a restaurant in Chicago. I changed the recipe a little bit – added more garlic, did my usual crush-the-garlic-with-the-salt thing that I do with several of my other salad dressings. Other than that, it’s the same recipe. You should try it.
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Salad dressings. A mixed bag, for sure. If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you may know already that I’m very picky about salad dressings. There’s really only one bottled dressing I’ll buy (Brianna’s Blush Vinaigrette) and I use it only occasionally, when I’m simply too lazy to make a fresh dressing. I thoroughly enjoy green salads, and the dressing certainly adds to the enjoyment of them.

But I despair sometimes finding anything that’s lower in calorie. So, when I find something that IS delicious AND lower in fat and calories, I whoop for joy. This is one of those recipes. And you’ll note, there’s just a trace of fat in it. I like those nutritonal statistics.

I found it at egullet.com a year or so ago and put it aside to try. Ideally, you’ll want to make this when Navel oranges are in season (like now). I doubt it would be so good using Valencia oranges. And it isn’t a recipe you can whip up in 3-4 minutes because you have to remove the orange segments and finely mince the jalapeno chile, then cook the mixture before pureeing in a blender. But if you have a few minutes and would like to try something quite different, this is your ticket. The first time I used it I made a regular green salad (regular for me, that is, means the salad contained a variety of chopped fresh vegetables). I thought the dressing was lost in the mix, as the vegetables predominated. The next time I made a simple salad with only greens, and we both enjoyed it very much. The greens only allow the orange and jalapeno flavors to come through. It would likely be very good on a salad mixed with some fruit, like apple slices, maybe a few raisins even. Or dried cranberries.

I didn’t have honey blossom vinegar, so used seasoned rice wine vinegar instead.
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Hello. My name is Carolyn. And I’m an oil, vinegar and dishes addict. I need a 12-step program, I think. They come out with some new flavored oil or vinegar and I’m a sucker. Hand it to me. Gotta have it. I’m embarrassed to say that I have way too many, and more often than not, when I’m making a complex salad dressing (I usually make my own, since I dislike most bottled dressings) I don’t even GO to my cabinets for these specialty oils or vinegars because I think the flavor will be wasted (as well as the money I paid for them) in the dressing.

So, now you know. I’m flawed. It’s a good thing I don’t really have a food budget. My DH probably wishes I did. I do remember the days when I really had to watch what I spent, but thankfully life has been good to us. I do look at prices, but if I want some kind of food item, I’ll usually buy it. The only time DH complains is when I buy dishes. I do love buying new dishes. I have to just slap my hands sometimes when I get into a TJMaxx store or Home Goods and I see some darling little set of 4 plates. No salad plates with them. Maybe 2 bowls. Or, maybe a couple more soup bowls would be nice. I just have to talk to myself. Where will I put them. Will I really, really use them? I walked in the door the other evening with a set of 8 salad plates. Since DH washes almost all of the dishes, I couldn’t fool him by hiding them somewhere and pulling them out in a couple of weeks. He’d know. So I confessed right up front. WHAT?, he said. This wasn’t a what, dear, kind of response. It was a loud WHAT? Then I reminded him that our little set of 4 dark green salad plates that kind of went with our everyday dishes now was a set of 3. We can’t use a set of 3 plates. They’re going out into the donation bag in the garage, I said. So these are to replace those. But why 8, he said? Well, because when I bought the other four, that’s all they had. The new ones had 8, so I bought them all. They were only $2.99 each, I said. As if that would make much difference. He sighed. And washed them. I reminded him that I don’t have many vices. Buying books and cookbooks maybe. Spending time on the computer, yes. And probably this blog too. I think I’m forgiven. I think.

So what brought this all to mind was making a salad dressing yesterday. I’d read about the dressing over at Culinary Fool, and thought it was so festive and holiday-ish. So I got out all the ingredients and went to my vinegar cupboard. You want to see?

Yup, those are ALL oils (mostly in the left two) and vinegars (mostly right). The shelf at top right is awry because it’s where DH stores his wine essentials (corkscrew, cap remover) so it sits cattywampus because I need the height for the bottles below.

When we had our kitchen remodeled there was this space at one end of the island, facing our family room. The cabinet maker was going to just put in blind ends there. They’d have looked pretty, but I knew there was about 4-5 inches of depth in there. Crying out for just the right things to store on shelves. Aha. Oils and vinegars. Perfect home for them. One cupboard is a bit deeper, so I can get 2 layers in there. I made the cabinet maker put in cupboards. I don’t want to know how much extra that was. I’m very happy with my oil and vinegar cupboards.

But, I’ve digressed; back to the salad dressing: Searching through the vinegar options, I found a citrus vinegar, a specialty one. Perfect, I thought, to go with the orange juice in the dressing and the cranberries. I like all the pretty shaped bottles they use for vinegars these days. I have a couple of balsamic bottles that are too tall for these cupboards, so they have to live in the walk-in pantry. But I forget about them in there.

This dressing isn’t appropriate for every salad. With the fruit (cranberries) and juice (orange) it’s best suited for a simple salad. I used half sugar and half Splenda, to keep the carbs down a bit. Apples, just a few, sliced in a simple salad would be nice. Or pears. Dried cranberries are so popular to toss into salads, but I think they’d be too sweet in this case. Certainly some toasted nuts would go well. I added walnuts. My salad came together, then, with arugula, head lettuce even, sliced apple and walnuts. Very yummy. Thanks to Culinary Fool for this one. It’s a keeper. It’s better used up immediately.
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On previous posts I’ve mentioned the cooking school in San Juan Capistrano, Our House, South County. It’s been in business several years now, but unfortunately the owners are planning (trying) to sell it. Perhaps it will remain a cooking school and event venue; perhaps not. I am very sad to contemplate the closure of Our House.

What’s unusual about it? It’s particularly charming for a variety of reasons. It’s owned by 3 people: Carole & Craig (a couple) and Sarah. Read more below about them, or go to their website (link above). Carole & Sarah try to serve people something to eat soon after arriving for the class. The room for the students (it’s all a demonstration class) is festively decorated, Carole and Sarah talk about the food, prepare some part of it, then the helpers whisk plates of food in front of us. One of these days I’m going to write up something about why it is I go to cooking classes, but that will be another day . . .

Carole is very talented, creative and fun. She MC’s the “show” so to speak, talking about the food. She knows how to stage tables and serving, and has quite a knack for decorating. And maybe more than anything, she buys lots of house kinds of stuff that are placed all over the house and the barn – items that are for sale. Things we never seem to see in other stores. Things I buy. Lots of things I buy.

Sarah, her cohort in crime, so to speak, is as cute as can be. Scottish by birth, Sarah was hired by Carole & Craig as a nanny, many years ago. The children are now grown and mostly gone, but Sarah has stayed. Sarah also became the family cook, chef, and bottle washer, most likely, but she’s a complete member of the family. She and Carole have a wonderful repartee.

The recipes they do are usually easy, but very high on flavor.

They serve plenty of food – you never go away hungry, that’s for sure. And usually they serve at least 2 desserts, sometimes 3, with one being a take-away one to remember them by.

The summer barbecue classes were great fun – Cherrie and I included our husbands, and we invited our son and his wife also. We all had a good time.

The subject here is salad dressings. I guess I’m a sucker for one more recipe. I don’t much like bottled dressings. Whether it’s the additives they have to include to give them shelf life, or something else, but they never seem to taste anywhere near as good as home made salad dressings. I do have one bottled one I keep in the refrigerator – Brianna’s Blush Wine Vinaigrette – but I only use it when I’m out of home made and don’t feel like making any. Carole & Sarah made this vinaigrette at the last class, and I enjoyed it very much. It has a little bit of honey, which makes it different than most totally savory vinaigrettes. That tiny amount of honey makes a big difference in the overall taste of the dressing. I’ve made it twice since then, and like it a lot. It’s not necessary to use the blender – I make it in a lidded jar and just shake it up. Just mush up the garlic well – you don’t want chunks of it, especially if it hasn’t been allowed to sit and mellow for several hours or overnight.
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A citrus dressing is not always the appropriate fit for every meal. But when it is, this recipe is my go-to citrus dressing. It may not be the right fit for a side green salad either, depending on the ingredients with which you compose your salad, i.e., I wouldn’t use it with tomatoes, fennel, onions, or many of the other myriad vegetables you might use in a salad. The flavor of the citrus is just so BRIGHT in this salad, it needs to stand almost alone. I have no doubt you’ll like it if you try it.

This came from a cooking class Cherrie and I took at Our House, South County, the cooking school in San Juan Capistrano, which we frequent with some regularity. Actually, I found this exact recipe on RecipeZaar, so perhaps the cooking school found it there too. Unless you have an extensive citrus garden, you may have to plan ahead to make it since it requires limes, lemons and tangerines. When tangerines are in season, freeze some juice in ice cube trays, then put them in a double plastic zip bag, so you’ll have it on hand. I’ve also made this with blood oranges instead of tangerines. I almost always have shallots on hand, and y’all know how fond I am of garlic, so that always exists in my pantry too. I usually use Splenda as the sweetener instead of sugar, although I didn’t include it in the recipe. We have a Valencia orange tree on our slope, and a Meyer lemon tree, so I freeze juice and zest every year, so I don’t waste much of the fruit.
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Do you have go-to salad dressings like I do? My repertoire contains a list of about 8 dressings that I rely on, depending on my mood or a particular meal when I want a specific flavor addition to a meal. This is one of those, and it’s been a keeper since I first tasted it at the Mexican Village Restaurant, a 1960’s vintage restaurant in Coronado, California. I loved this dressing whenever I went to the restaurant, and was overjoyed when, in the 1970’s the San Diego Union Tribune printed a recipe, purportedly the original, but maybe it was somebody’s interpretation. Why it was called “Mock” Caesar, I really don’t know. It does have garlic, Parmesan, oil and anchovy paste in it (no lemon juice, though). It’s really just another style of garlic-Parmesan-blue cheese vinaigrette. But whatever it really is, it’s really tasty. I go-to to this often.

Note: I have received an email message from one of the daughters of the original Mexican Village family. She says my recipe isn’t anything like the one at the family’s old restaurant. Oh well. She said she and her family are trying to produce the dressing and other food items from the “old days” of the restaurant. I don’t live in San Diego, so don’t know if they’ve accomplished that goal or not. But the recipe – at the time I thought the newspaper recipe was similar. And, by the way, the Mexican Village has re-opened in its same Coronado location, but it is not owned by the previous family. The new owners just bought the name. And I’ve not heard any good comments about the food.

It keeps stored in the refrigerator for several weeks. It is at its best during the first few days, but it’s really just fine for a long time. Years ago I used to make this with the Kraft dry, crumbled Parmesan cheese in the paper can, because I sure didn’t know much about the real, Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. I use the latter now, but it’s certainly possible that the Mexican Village used the paper-can type themselves. It’s certainly cheaper!

SIDE NOTES ABOUT WHITE WINE VINEGAR: In the photo above, you’ll notice at the top right is a gray bottle. That’s my white-wine-vinegar jar/pot. I have this white (well, gray) one and a red one. Into those bottles go any dregs of wine that doesn’t get consumed. Initially I started with about 1/2 cup of white vinegar and 1/2 cup of wine in each bottle. I let it marinate (room temp is fine) for several days to allow it to develop, then you merely add more wine remnants. It can go months without additions. These bottles just reside on my pantry shelves. Don’t use sweet wines. And occasionally taste the mixture – if it’s not sour or tart enough, add 1/2 cup of vinegar to the bottle.
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In most things in my life I’ve learned moderation. Like when a recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of crushed thyme, I know to use 1-3 teaspoons. Not 3 tablespoons. Or if it calls for 2 teaspoons of Madras curry powder, I won’t use 2 tablespoons. Now cookbooks are another matter. Well, I’ve never learned moderation there, as my sagging family room bookshelves can attest. And when it comes to garlic, there’s hardly ever enough. If a recipe calls for 1 clove, I’ll generally use 2, maybe even 3 cloves. And I like to buy good-sized heads – I can’t stand those little, puny cloves that need microsurgery to remove the skins and chop. I seek out a couple of markets that always have good, fresh garlic where each clove is the size of a thimble. We’re not talking “elephant garlic” here, but just your everyday garlic. And it’s a rare day when my kitchen is without at least one or two heads in my kitchen-counter bowl. Hence, I have numerous recipes for garlic-enhanced salad dressings. And the more the merrier.

So the next question is, how do you like your garlic – minced, mashed, chopped, squeezed through a press, food processed or blended? I suppose each method would have its proponents. For me, it depends on what it’s in. Bigger pieces go into stews and braises. Minced and chopped might go in a salsa. Food processed I don’t do much anymore because my trusty Cuisinart doesn’t always get the pieces uniformly cut. So what’s that leave? Ta-da:

THE BLENDER METHOD: So, some years ago I heard or read about a method for enhancing garlic flavor. Salt, as we know, can suck the juice out of most things, and that’s exactly what it does here. Using a chef’s knife I mash the clove of garlic with the side of the blade just to remove the skins. Drop the clove(s) into the blender and then add table salt. Whiz briefly (lid solidly affixed) and let it sit for about 5 minutes. That’s while you go collect all the other things that go into this dressing. Measure things out, and you’ll be ready to finish it. I’ve made this with olive oil, but find the olive flavor overwhelms the dressing, so I prefer using Canola oil or other unflavored vegetable oil.

This recipe was given to me in the 1960’s by a family friend. And it’s become one of my standard dressings ever since. Although I’ve tried making the salad itself with lots of different vegetables, I keep going back to the way it was originally served to me – the salad must contain mostly head lettuce, small florets of cauliflower, some shaved almonds and crumbles of Feta cheese. I like the way head lettuce holds a lot of that garlic-whammy dressing. And I will add, although this dressing keeps, it’s the very best an hour after making it.

What’s GOOD: the garlicky flavor is just wonderful – it’s the mingling with the salt that makes this, I’m convinced. A good all-around dressing. You’ve gotta like garlic, however! This is one of my favorite dressings that I make over and over and over.
What’s NOT: if you don’t like garlic, pass this one by. The only downer to this dressing is that the pungency of the garlic dissipates after a day and after refrigerating it. It keeps for a week or 10 days, but still, it’s not as garlicky as it is within an hour or so of making it.

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