These used to be called 7-layer salads? Remember them? I’ve seen several recipes recently, so I guess there’s been a renewed interest in them.

The layered salad is supposed to be made in a glass bowl so you can SEE the layers. Other than a trifle bowl I didn’t have a clear glass bowl so I needed to use my etched glass salad bowl. You can sort of see through the various vegetables silhouettes etched in the outside of the glass. I was making the salad to serve 5, so the various veggies didn’t exactly line up in layers because the bowl is quite wide. But, oh well, it was the idea that counted. The recipe I’d read recently was a Keto version, but I’d already decided I wasn’t going to make it a keto salad anyway.

Really, you can use ANY vegetables you want to in this kind of salad. Supposedly, it’s the colored layers that make it so pretty. Try to have some dark green (I used arugula on the very bottom), some light green (Romaine, sugar snap peas and green onions), some orange (carrots and yellow/orange baby peppers). Mine also had a layer of corn, just sliced off the fresh cobs. Red is another nice layer (tomatoes for mine but red bell peppers would be good too). You don’t want to put two green layers next to each other, so put in an orange layer or a red one in between. In the old-time salad there was always a layer of frozen peas put in as the last veggie layer. Instead I added 3 hard boiled eggs that had been chopped up. Then you spread the dressing (used to be just a big glob of mayo) on top and add a generous layer of shredded cheddar cheese to the top. Cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. See photo at left of the top view.

It’s great for taking to a picnic or a shared gathering or a backyard barbecue. The dressing I made was an equal quantity of sour cream and mayo, then I added about 1/2 teaspoon of dill weed (in the jar because I don’t have fresh) and just because . . . I added about 1/2 teaspoon of blackened seasoning. No real reason – just that the packet was already opened and you know that mixed seasonings don’t last. That was spread over the top layer and the grated cheddar was added last.

All I’ll tell you is that everyone at the dinner table went back for seconds on the salad. Me too.

What’s GOOD: that it can be made the day ahead. Just takes a bunch of chopping and layering. Loved the dressing mixture with the dill and blackened seasoning. Altogether refreshing salad, and yes, I’d make this again exactly as I made it this time. It was a good combination.

What’s NOT: only that it requires a bunch of chopping and mincing, layering, and it’s best if prepared the day before serving. I made it about 8 hours ahead, which was fine too.

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A vegetable-laden soup with chicken, plus croutons and a spicy sauce (it’s French).

A post from Carolyn. This soup recipe has been in my repertoire for a long time. Just now I looked at my MasterCook soup file and see that it contains 458 recipes. That’s both soup recipes I’ve tried and those I haven’t. This one came from a Phillis Carey cooking class many years ago – I’m guessing 15. And why I’ve not made it more often, I don’t know (maybe because of the extra steps to make the sauce?), because it’s full of good flavor.

Bouillabaisse (pronounced boo-ya-bess) traditionally is a fish and seafood soup. So why not adapt it to chicken, eh? What sets this one apart is the use of saffron and the spicy rouille (pronounced roo-eel). And it contains some bread to thicken the sauce (baguette, to be exact) and does involve that extra step to whiz up the rouille in a blender. I changed the recipe just a little bit – I like celery in soups, not only for flavor, but for texture. I had a whole red bell pepper and decided I wasn’t going to roast it (too much trouble) so I merely used some in the soup and some in the sauce. The recipe called for potatoes – I didn’t have any – and I’d usually leave them out anyway, but they are traditional. There’s also a strip of orange peel in the soup. That is unusual, too. Up top, in that picture, you can’t see the little baguette slices – they’re underneath the rouille that I dolloped on top. The rouille adds a TON of flavor to this – don’t even think about making this without doing the sauce. And you can drizzle the rouille all over the soup – not just on the little croutons – the soup is enhanced so much with the garlicky flavors from the sauce.

The sauce, the rouille, contains saffron too, along with lots of garlic, Dijon, mayo, oil, salt and a dash of cayenne. But you start with some of the broth from the soup – first you add that to a shallow bowl, add the saffron (so it will develop its unique flavors in the warm liquid) and the garlic, then the bread – so it soaks up the liquid. You let that sit for awhile and the garlic sort-of cooks a little (barely), then the batch goes into the blender container, along with Dijon, the red bell pepper, mayo, 1/2 cup of EVOO, and some salt and cayenne to taste. The bread gives the sauce a little bit of substance, a thickener, of sorts. Do blend awhile to make sure it purees the way it should and it emulsifies.

You can make the sauce while the soup is simmering. You’ll likely have more sauce than you need for the number of soup servings, and I recommend you use the leftovers as a drizzle on roasted or steamed vegetables – like broccoli, cauliflower, green beans – even potatoes! The sauce is SO good. The garlic predominates, obviously.

What’s GOOD: so many layers of flavor – the sweet from the onions, the nuance of the saffron, the texture from the celery and chicken. And then there’s the rouille – the star of the show, in my opinion, which is very garlicky.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. Maybe that it takes a little longer to make, because of the sauce, but you won’t regret it once you’ve whizzed it up in the blender. I have broccoli in the refrigerator now, which will be enhanced with some of that great leftover sauce.

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook file (click link to open recipe)

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A short post from Carolyn. No food in this post . . . just a little catch-up regarding the blog. Finally the blog platform is working the way it should, and those of you who have been long-time subscribers have been added to the new website that does subscription forwarding. It’s called follow.it, and they – of course –  are an online marketing website and offer a variety of tools to a user (like you) to “follow” various websites – news, or whatever. It’s up to you whether you utilize any of their other services besides the one you’ll get from the blog. You should receive an email in your inbox whenever there is a new post from tastingspoons. If you don’t get them, please email me – go to the contact page for how to reach me directly, or you can leave a comment on this post. I’m hoping they won’t be loading you up with more emails about their services – hopefully you can opt out of various notifications if it becomes a nuisance.

Chart above from flowingdata.com. If you want to see more charts describing changing food habits, click on See How Much We Ate Over the Years. It’s a fascinating article with multiple charts similar to the above. The one for vegetables was also very interesting. Are we surprised (the chart above) to note that chicken has taken over top spot for protein? Look where chicken was (on the left) back in the 70s and how it’s leaped up and up and up. Beef has moved into 2nd place, and pork into 3rd.

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Refreshing spring side-dish salad with Asian flavors

This is a post from Karen.  Back in 1976 when I was 9 our family and a number of others on our block hosted high school students from Japan.  Some of the students were game to host a potluck with dishes from their hometown.   Minoru was staying with our neighbor and he put together a dish his mother would make.  He enjoyed its simplicity and fresh spring flavors.  We enjoyed it so much, my mom made a  point to get the recipe from him.

It would be over a decade before we ventured into sushi, but our family has fully embraced that as well.  My dad and I even took a class on making sushi.  My son was 3 when I took him for his first taste.  He was starving after his Tae Kwon Do “Tiny Tigers” class and right across the street was what would become his favorite sushi bar, so I walked him in and let him order off of the picture menu.  He picked Ikura, which is the sushi topped with Salmon roe.  I had not ordered that personally because it was a texture I wasn’t into, and fishier than I chose to venture. I didn’t think I should be ordering something I grew up putting on the end of my fishing hook to catch trout!  I was about to stop my son from ordering it, but then told myself that I shouldn’t censor or bias his food choices just because they might not be mine.  Who knows, he might like it.  And guess what, he did!  I asked him what he liked about it and he told me, “It tastes good and I like the way the balls pop in my teeth!” For the next two years that was always the first thing he ordered.  The owner and the sushi chef were so delighted to see this American kid enjoying their sushi instead of asking for buttered pasta that they made a point to spoil him rotten and ensure that his parents brought him back, which we happily did for many years before we moved.  But I digress, back to the Harusame Salad and 1976:

Back then we didn’t have rice vinegar as an option, so mom used apple cider vinegar.  We used regular white sugar at the time, but now I’ve tried alternatives and settled on palm sugar.  Whichever one you use, I make the sauce first so the sugar has time to dissolve. I have listed one tablespoon of sugar, but the original recipe said 1-2 TBS.  One works fine for me.  If you only have access to thick-skinned and waxed cucumbers I would go ahead and peel those.

I have experimented over the years with different vegetables and proteins.  I was out of ham but had chicken.  And when I was out of cucumbers I used red bell pepper or carrots.  But I always stuck to Minoru’s premise that everything should be uniform in size, roughly 3″ lengths for the noodles, vegetable, and protein.  Once it is done, it’s all I can do to wait and give the flavors a chance to meld for at least 30 minutes.  It doesn’t last long after that because we all love it so much.  I do make a point to use chopsticks when I eat this.  They hold onto the noodles better than a fork can. I also use it up within 1-2 days.  Otherwise, the cucumbers get soft, releasing more of their liquid and ultimately diluting the flavor.

What’s good:  Very easy, fresh flavors, great texture between the crunch of the cucumbers and the chew of the noodles and ham.

What’s not:  It disappears too fast.  Will get watery and dull if not eaten within a couple days.

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These tacos arrive with the warmer weather and fresh fruit!

This is a post from Karen.  While there are dishes I rely on often, I allow a lot of my menus to be dictated by what is fresh for that season.  This week fresh mango and papaya wandered into my kitchen, bringing with them the memory of yummy light fish tacos we had done the last time they came to visit. Fortunately, I had some fresh-frozen cod in my freezer.  I’ve used sole in the past, but have been wanting to find more ways to work cod into our menu.  In this preparation, working from frozen is nice because after just a little thaw I can slice them more easily into uniform pieces for more even cooking.
I like that this dish doesn’t take long and that the salsa and fish can be prepped a few hours ahead to come together quickly later.  The Peruvian Chile Lime seasoning from Savory Spice is used for both the fish and the salsa.  I also love adding some to my fresh guacamole.  If you don’t have access to that feel free to try your own spice blend!  New for me this time was the Cholula Green Pepper Hot Sauce, thanks to my son who added it to my cart the last time we were at the market.  I have to be careful how often he goes with me, he can be a very enthusiastic shopper, but if I think he is going overboard I just tell him he can have it if he can pay for it…The sauce has quite a kick, and I loved topping my taco with a few shakes from the bottle.  Since jalapeno heat can vary, the amount I put in can adjust as needed.  Today’s batch was pretty mild, I could have safely added a third.

What’s GOOD:  An easy sell to Powell and Vaughan!  Comes together quickly, but if REALLY short on time Salsa can be prepped ahead.  Can substitute other white fish. Could change out tortillas for lettuce cups if still working off those Pandemic Pounds….like I am…

What’s NOT: People who don’t like fish.  erase erase erase, just kidding.  It’s a winner in our house.

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Hi there, I’m Karen.  I have enjoyed being Carolyn’s daughter-in-law for almost 20 years now.  Both sides of our family enjoy getting in the kitchen.  I love the holidays as much for enjoying what everyone brings to the table as I do for how it can bring us all together.  My husband, Powell, and I have one son, Vaughan and you will likely see our Bernese Mountain Dog, Shelby from time to time. (Yes, I have to sweep the Shelby hair out of the kitchen before I start cooking!) As you have seen from Carolyn’s previous entries, we are doing what we can to encourage Vaughan’s confidence in the kitchen too!

In addition to enjoying the kitchen, I teach piano and enjoy reading, camping, fishing, gardening, volunteering on the school district foundation, and a number of winter sports.  I used to do Tae Kwon Do regularly until my body decided I would have some arthritis in my hip.  So….I’ve adjusted my sights.  But I do miss that one!

Customers never saw the lovely backside of this machine. It had to face the wall in Dad’s shop.

So, what is with the picture of the espresso maker?  When Powell and I were getting married, my Dad had just retired from running his coffee business of 13 years.  I was visiting my parents one day, standing in the garage with my dad, who had just asked what I would like for a wedding present.  I looked over at the professional copper espresso maker just sitting in his garage and said – If that is going to just sit in here, I’d love the Espresso Machine!”  My soon-to-be husband thought I was nuts…until a few years later when we had the opportunity to install it and get it back in action.  I can’t say it is practical but it comes with a lot of great memories from my Dad’s store and has helped us create even more as we gather with friends and family.

I look forward to sharing my kitchen exploits with you- recipes coming soon!

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My family room – I should have lit the gas logs . . .

Recalling back many years ago when I first began reading blogs (about 2005, I think) I was always intrigued when the writer shared some little window into their family life. Whether it was a man, a woman, a couple, or a family. So here, above, you can see a little window into my world. My family room. Love my tree. It’s one I bought many years ago that comes in a flat box and you pick it up from the top, insert two interconnected metal tubes inside and set it into the stand. Plug it in, and it’s all ready for Christmas. My trick is trying to keep my kitty from playing with the lower edges. I’ve had to stack piles of cookbooks around the bottom to keep him from doing that. And I’ve had to resort to spraying him with water to keep him away. Poor little guy. His world is kind of narrow – he’s blind – and so anything at all that comes into the house that’s different is inherently fascinating to him. His sense of hearing is profound. And sense of smell. So this foreign “thing” that suddenly comes into his world once a year just has him intrigued. Now I have gifts stacked around the edges, so it’s even harder for him to try to reach the lower part. He likes to chew on artificial flowers or greenery, so obviously this tree meets all of his requirements!

There’s Angel (age 3) – he rarely perches himself next to my keyboard. In case you don’t remember, Angel was about 5 weeks old and was found one rainy night in a gutter, shivering and hungry. He had pneumonia, but he recovered. The vet said the mother cat probably abandoned him (presumably because of his blindness). He developed an eye infection en utero, so his eye socket is partially visible, but his eyes receded. He has no sight at all. But he doesn’t know better – he has a good life! Never fear. He knows every square inch of my house. Occasionally he accidentally runs into a wall, but his whiskers are his radar and as long as he’s not trotting too fast, his whiskers barely tell him to deflect and not run into a wall. He’s learned that warmth (the sun) comes through the front door and in the afternoons when the sun is streaming in, he knows to find a warm spot to sit.

Back to the picture at top .. . Most evenings you’ll find me sitting at right on the sofa (the sofa is covered with a blanket because Angel loves to sharpen his claws on the sofa itself). I do my every-other-day outdoor 30-minute walking routine around my house at about 4 pm, while it’s still light, but the sun has nearly waned. If I go later in the day I don’t have to put on sun screen. Once back in my house I give Angel his evening dinner, pour myself a cocktail or a glass of wine (most nights anyway), and I watch the network news. I was watching the weather report on tv last night when I decided to take this picture. We are supposed to have rain this weekend. Wow – first real rain of the winter.

On Friday, Christmas Day, I’ll be home by myself. My cousin Gary, who usually spends Thanksgiving and Christmas with me (he lives in Northern California) isn’t coming south this year because of Covid. Daughter Sara invited me to come for Christmas Day with them, but decided not to.

Because – the next day I’m driving to Palm Desert and will meet Sara and her family there. The three of us have just bought a small 2-bedroom condo, and it’ll be our first visit to the house since closing escrow. It’s fully furnished, so all we have to do is move in our clothes and food, and we’re all set. I’ll take some pictures once we have it situated. If you’ve been reading my blog for very long, early on, my DH Dave and I still owned a house in the desert. We sold it in 2010 because Dave couldn’t play golf anymore, and it was a big house to manage. Even though it was the right choice at the time, I’ve missed having a place there. I’ve shared pictures of staying at a friend’s home there for a week every winter for the last several. It was staying in Maggie’s house there that got me strongly interested.

Anyway, real estate in California is just going crazy. Hard to believe, but true. Anyway, we found the right place (just like Maggie’s) for us and now I’ll be able to go stay there whenever I want to. The condo is over 30 years old, but has two 18-hole golf courses on it, and every home has a golf course view. Ours doesn’t have a water view, unfortunately. Sara and John need a get-away from their stressful work week. I’ll use it more on weekdays, and they’ll use it almost exclusively on weekends. Sometimes we’ll both be there. We plan on having a steak dinner on Saturday, grilled on the outdoor grill that we hope is working properly (the home inspection didn’t include outdoor equipment, like the golf cart, the fire pit and the barbecue).

My grandson John returns to Virginia Tech in early January, so he’s hyped up about playing golf before he heads east. He’s definitely got some of his Grandpa Dave’s genes – he loves playing golf. And we’ll likely take drives in the golf cart to acquaint ourselves with the neighborhood. It’s a gated community, just like the place Dave and I owned, but a different one. There are numerous neighborhood pools dotted all over, many tennis courts, plus a clubhouse and dining area. I wasn’t thrilled with the food when my friend Ann and I ate there, so don’t know that we’ll use it much.

Yes, I believe. Remember the reason for the season, my friends.

Thank you for reading my blog and hope you enjoyed this little window into my world.

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You’re probably wondering, what? What does that mean? I toyed with “the curvy road becomes straight,” and “food enlightenment.” But they were out there. All the title means is that I’ve stopped eating the Plant Paradox diet. It’s possible I mentioned awhile back that I was getting very frustrated with the plan and my cravings for bread and an occasional dessert were vexing me a lot. It’s been 2 years. Once in awhile I did have dessert, but very little. And a couple of times in the 2 years I had something containing wheat flour. Well anyway, I was doing some research online and found a blog post by someone who was confounded by the whole notion of lectins in our bloodstream and the Plant Paradox plan. I began looking at more contrarian websites or posts here and there. What I discovered is that the eminent Dr. Gundry doesn’t always do his homework, OR he is vague about his sources. One learned scientist chastised him about being obtuse in his footnotes (you’re supposed to put chapter and page numbers when you use other studies as the basis for a thesis or medical theory, and he doesn’t do that at all). Apparently many of his footnote sites (of studies done by medical schools, etc.) don’t seem to exist. The final one I read that set me back on a more normal food track was a site that said Gundry drew a conclusion about human intestinal biology from reading a study of worms. Now worms are biologic, I know, but how can you say that if something happens to the gut of a worm and then conclude that the same thing happens in humans without having done the research on humans. And Gundry never disclosed that the study was of worms. I think that’s dirty pool. Maybe I was just “looking” for a reason to quit this diet. I haven’t vetted Dr. Gundry’s footnotes and don’t intend to. So I’m choosing to believe the contrarians. I could be wrong . . .

The truth is that I never did have intestinal difficulty as many people do who go on this diet. People with IBS or similar conditions, well, that’s another story. Maybe they should be following his diet. I didn’t and don’t, so I’ve gone back to drinking regular cow’s milk. I’m eating cheddar (yea!) and BREAD. I went right off the deep end a few days ago and had a delicious tuna sandwich on still-warm sourdough bread. With Best Foods mayo. Oh my, died and went to heaven. And I can have beans/legumes. And there’s squash in my refrigerator (zucchini). Next will be green beans. Gosh, did I miss green beans. Who’d have thought . . .

At the beginning of the diet I did lose 25 pounds. In the last month I’ve gained 3 pounds, so am not sure if it’s the bread, or what. I made tapioca pudding the other day, although I did use artificial sweetener in it. I’m still eating low carb, and will just need to be judicious about what carbs I do eat. And originally I thought the diet would be forever, because of wanting to improve my heart health. I don’t have a problem, but I have heart disease in my family. So, perhaps I’m shortening my life, per Dr. Gundry’s theories. We’ll see what my next blood work looks like. In the meantime I’m paying no attention whatsoever to lectins.

I made one of my old standby favorites, Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls. Used beef and pork, and made it in the Instant Pot. Used artificial brown sugar. Hmm. It was not very good. Maybe artificial sugar breaks down under pressure. Next I’m craving some chili (with a few red kidney beans in it). Tonight I’m going out to eat with a friend and we’re going to have Mexican food. I haven’t had any for 2 years. I think I’m ordering a chile relleno and a cheese enchilada. At least that’s the plan.

And, in March I’ll be giving up my job as President of my PEO chapter after two years. I’m very ready to step down and turn it over to someone else. So hopefully I’ll have more time. To cook. And blog.

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I don’t think I’ve posted a picture of this before. Bought the sign when daughter Sara, grandson John and I were on our cross country trip to deliver John to Virginia Tech. Found this at the gift shop at The Biltmore (Asheville, NC). My DH Dave would have absolutely loved this sign. He had a saying – – – don’t ever let a few facts get in the way of a good story. So when I saw this sign, there was no question I was buying it!

The photo was taken in my family room where I often sit and have a glass of wine in the evenings. Or a Fireball (like those?). Or a Fireball with a shot or two of Rumchata (oh my goodness, one of my favorites). Or an occasional Bailey’s with or without coffee. Over the last month I’ve been enjoying Trader Joe’s spiked eggnog.

New Years’ Eve will be spent quietly, I expect. A toast to 2020 to all of you, my faithful readers, that it will be a good year.

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