This recipe title is misleading. It isn’t really a salad dressing, which is what you’d think from the word VINAIGRETTE. According to wikipedia, the word can also mean a sauce or marinade. In this case it’s more like a sauce, but it’s a “fresh” sauce, not a truly cooked one, although it is cooked a bit. I know, very confusing . . . read on for a better description.

I have to laugh – within one week, at different times, once reading a newspaper, and another time reading Bon Appetit, I clipped out two recipes for cherry tomato vinaigrette. Having never heard of it before, it took me a few days before I realized that on one side of my kitchen island I’d put one, and on the other side I’d put the other. Only after I started making the one did I notice the other clipping. I compared the two. Hmmm. Almost the same (tomatoes, vinegar, S & P, olive oil and herbs). So I combined them both. One had you cook all the tomatoes. The other one had you cook half and add raw, whole ones at the end. I cut all of them in half and cooked half and added the other half at the end. One called for basil; the other one chives. I used both. One recipe did suggest this for a green salad, so I kind of made up what I wanted to do with it along the green salad line. I wanted these tomatoes to be the “star of the show” on a green salad with rather sturdy greens.

Tomatoes are just beginning to show up in ripe fashion at our supermarkets and at Trader Joe’s. I nearly bought a dozen gorgeous heirloom varieties the other day ($4.99/pound) but wasn’t sure what I’d do with them, so I held off. But I did buy a big box of mixed-color and mixed-variety cherry tomatoes at Trader Joe’s. They are SO sweet and delicious. The box contained 2-3 cups of them – just the right amount for this recipe.

First I fixed the tomatoes, which didn’t take long. If you’ve never used the quick and easy method of slicing cherry tomatoes, go to this youtube video and watch these 2 guys. I learned this at a Phillis Carey cooking class several years ago, but some people have never seen it or done it. It’s SO simple – it took me about 2 minutes to cut all of the cherry tomatoes in half using a serrated knife.  Then I sautéed the shallot in olive oil, added half the tomatoes and cooked them just a bit, then added the red wine vinegar. Once cooled, I added the other raw tomatoes (I wanted the texture of some raw and fresh tomatoes, not all mushy ones).

Do use it within an hour or so, otherwise refrigerate it (without the herbs). According to the recipes, you can serve this in a variety of ways – on top of a steak as a kind of salsa thing – in an omelette with Ricotta cheese – on top of pasta (I think I’d add a bit more oil) – or on top of a skirt steak or flank steak – or you can use it in a green salad as I did, below.

GREEN SALAD: I combined a variety of sturdy stuff – Romaine, some celery, green onions, sugar snap peas, a tiny bit of multi-colored mixed greens just for color, AND some goat cheese. First I piled the tomato mixture on top of the salad and tossed it. I tasted it that way, but felt there wasn’t enough dressing, so I added the last of my new favorite Molasses Honey Vinaigrette to the salad. Not very much, as it didn’t need much. Then I sprinkled the top liberally with chopped basil and chives.

The dinner also included a nice big chunk of pork that my hubby grilled. If you haven’t prepared this yet, do try it – Grilled Rack of Pork with Rosemary, Garlic and Sage (except I didn’t use garlic or sage this time, just rosemary and chives). I guess each Costco store is different, but at one of ours we can buy a long, long rack (about 14-18 inches long) of pork chops on the bone. I cut it up into manageable portions, vacuum seal it and freeze. We had a guest for dinner, so I pulled out a 3-bone roast, which took about half an hour on the grill. I also made a raw apple-sauce in my new Vitamix blender. It was delicious, although it turned an awful shade of brown. And I made one of my old favorites – a sweet potato and black bean salad. I’m going to write up a re-do of that recipe in the next day or two. It’s so darned good it’s worth re-visiting.

What’s GOOD: If you have an abundance of cherry tomatoes, this is a great way to showcase them. We all loved, loved the salad. It’s nice to be able to make the tomatoes ahead of time. The salad ahead of time too. Then you just have to toss it all at the last minute. Do have some dressing on hand in case it needs a bit more than what’s in the tomatoes.
What’s NOT: nothing at all.

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The cobbler part isn’t quite visible there under the small mountain of whipped cream. But it’s there. And the cream – well, it’s enhanced with some peach brandy. For me, though, it was the almond flavoring in the peach part that just “made” this.

The other day I asked my DH, on one of his trips to Costco, if he’d try to find a box of the I AM RIPE brand of peaches. Since peaches are officially in season, I hoped they’d have some, as I’ve been very, very happy with the taste of them the last two summers. Indeed, they did, and 2 days later those peaches were at their peak of ripeness.  Last summer I made a great peach crisp. And I could have used that recipe again, but after reading something about this one online somewhere, I had decided I wanted to try it because of the almond flavoring in it. This one is from the Silver Palate Cookbook 25th Anniversary Edition’>Silver Palate Cookbook, one of my old standby favorite cookbooks. I’d never made this version. In fact, I’d never even looked at the recipe, I don’t think.

This version uses one of the techniques I like with peaches – baking the peach portion for awhile before adding the biscuit/cobbler part. The sliced peaches are combined in a greased baking dish (don’t use the juices you’ll make while you’re peeling and slicing them – they will create enough juice on their own – they don’t need more!) with sugar, lemon juice zest and some almond flavoring. I used more almond than the recipe called for – I like almond flavoring. If you’re not-so enamored, cut the almond extract in half and it will be just subtle.

While the peaches were baking I whipped up the biscuit dough. Easy enough to make. The dough is spooned onto the hot peaches, sprinkled with granulated sugar and baked for about 15+ minutes, just until the biscuits were getting golden brown. They sat out for about an hour or so and I served the cobbler warm with the whipped cream. Yum.

What’s GOOD: the almond flavoring in the peaches. I really liked that. Also the peaches were at perfect ripeness, so they were exceedingly juice and sweet. I cut down the sugar just a little bit because of that. I really enjoyed the peach whipped cream too. I had Peach Pucker Schnapps in my liquor cupboard (something I’ve had around for about 4-5 years and rarely use) and it worked perfectly in this. But because it’s tart, not sweet, I added some powdered sugar. I also think some Amaretto would be lovely in the whipped cream too, in the event you don’t have any peach brandy (I don’t). Try to eat this up in one sitting (see below).

What’s NOT: we didn’t have tons of left overs, actually because we invited friends to come over for dessert that first night. So, the next night the biscuit part was quite leaden. I had removed them from the peaches and placed them on a piece of plastic wrap, right on top of the peach part so they wouldn’t get any more soggy, but even heating them up in the microwave a little bit they were kind of heavy. The peaches were VERY juicy. I need to remember next time to sprinkle just a little bit of cornstarch in the peaches before they bake. Not that it doesn’t taste good – it does – but I think ripe peaches just tend to juice-up a lot.

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It always comes as a surprise to me that some people (yes, that includes you, my friend Lynn!) don’t like cauliflower. It’s such a bland vegetable, yet it has a unique taste. And anything you put with it just enhances it. At least that’s my take, and I’m sticking to it.

Over at Food52 I read about this recipe and went right on by it the first time. Then I saw it on a couple of blogs, so went back and revisited it. Mine started out as Paul Bertolli’s version – and that one contained not a smidgen of dairy. After I made it, though, I tasted it. Hmm. Tasted it again. Added more salt. Added some white pepper. Hmmm. Added a couple T. of olive oil and stirred it around. Hmmm. Still not what I was expecting. So I sank into the dairy and added some heavy cream. Swirled that all around. And decided that I liked it cold. Very much.

Are you having summer yet? Gosh, we sure are, and have been for about 3 weeks. Way too early to feel that awful humidity here in California. So this soup has been a fabulous cooler-off-er before dinner. I’ve fixed it as my lunch twice. We’ve had it with dinner twice, and I still have some left. I’ve been loving it every single time.

If you want to make this true to Paul Bertolli’s recipe, by all means do. But if you want it to be off-the-charts, then go with my version with some added cream. I tried to drizzle just a tiny bit of EVOO on top, but I should have used a spoon. Instead I drizzled it out of the bottle and got a bit too much. Then I gave it several grinds of black pepper too.

What’s GOOD: the creaminess of it – of course yes, it has cream in it, but I mean the smooth-ness of the soup base itself. A blender makes easy work of it. It keeps for several days too. And I suspect you could freeze it easily enough too.

What’s NOT: nothing at all. I liked it a lot. The soup itself was very easy to make.

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If you can find fresh figs in your market, do buy some, make this salad with some of the firmer lettuces and a bit of cabbage, goat cheese and the Molasses Honey Vinaigrette.

There wasn’t a recipe, as such, for this salad combo – I just made it up. I’d purchased the figs, and made the Roasted Figs a few days ago. Then I’d made the Molasses Honey Vinaigrette too, which was just SO good, then I decided to make a combination salad and add in some soft goat cheese. If there hadn’t been a nut allergy in the family I’d also have added some Peppered Pecans. The salad was a big hit at the Father’s Day dinner we went to. It was so good that I made it a few nights later (the photo above) with the left overs (roasted figs, peppered pecans and the goat cheese). I still had some of the salad dressing left over too, and it just makes this dish.

Since this recipe is a combination of 3 recipes, I’ve re-written it (the links below) with all the ingredients included except the Peppered Pecans. If you want those, click on the link above and make those separately – and don’t add pecans into the salad dressing – the salad dressing recipe calls for toasted pecans, so that’s what is in the recipe below.

What’s GOOD: everything about it – the firmer lettuces, the goat cheese, the caramelized figs that have so much flavor, and the really tasty dressing with the molasses, honey and sherry vinegar. And I like the crunch from the pecans too. I’ll be making this salad again.

What’s NOT: Well, it will take a bit of time to put together – baking the figs, making the dressing, and the peppered pecans, if you decide to do those. Once you have everything done, though, it’s a cinch to put it all together. Don’t toss it until you’re ready to serve.

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A happy camper am I. Could that be a song? Camping isn’t required to make or serve this delicious salad dressing.

Scanning through my new favorite salad dressing book (I think I’ve made 3 or 4 of them from this book in the last 3 weeks) Vinaigrettes & Other Dressings: 60 Sensational recipes to Liven Up Greens, Grains, Slaws, and Every Kind of Salad, this one is a winner for sure. You don’t need a blender, just a wide-mouthed sealing type jar. It starts with a little bit of molasses and honey. I warmed them in the microwave since they were both viscous, for sure. Then I added in the other ingredients – sherry vinegar, minced shallot, salt and extra virgin olive oil. Chopped pecans are also in the ingredient list. Easy peasy. Shake it up and set aside.

With each and every recipe the author, Michelle Anna Jordan, recommends what kind(s) of salads each dressing – in her opinion – are best for. In this case she suggested a cold sweet potato salad and a root vegetable salad. Well, I thought it would be really good with a rougher lettuce salad – by rougher I mean some cabbage, even head lettuce, Romaine, but not the softer tender greens so much. I had some Savoy cabbage, celery and did mix in some arugula, Romaine and head lettuce. As I write this, I’m going to make this salad again – I still have some of the roasted figs left over. So tomorrow I’ll give you a little overview of the salad itself. I didn’t make the dressing with the pecans – we were going to a family dinner where there is a nut allergy, so I left them out, but when I make the salad this time I’ll add in pecans. Pecans are one of the few nuts that don’t seem to absorb dressing (and get soggy). Perhaps if I were making this to keep around for awhile I’d just keep the nuts out and toss them in when I toss the salad.

The recipe indicates the dressing will keep for up to 3 days. I don’t know why it wouldn’t be good for a week for sure, but that’s just my opinion. I haven’t tested the theory as the dressing was used up in just 4 days at my house.

What’s GOOD: it’s sweet and sour all at the same time. If you taste it alone, it has just a bit of an acid twang, but once mixed with a salad, it seemed perfect to me. I could pick out the sherry vinegar in it – I liked it. You can also add a bit more oil or honey, etc. to suit your own palate. It doesn’t have to be made in a blender – there isn’t anything in this dressing to emulsify it (like mustard or dairy), so it’s just fine made in a glass jar. I don’t believe I’ve ever made a salad dressing with molasses before, and I was little timid about that – wondering how it would taste! It really is delicious.
What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of. I’ll be making this dressing again for sure.

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Oh, yum. I hate to use that word, but there’s really no other one to describe how scrumptious these are. Just slightly caramelized and enhanced with some Grand Marnier, honey, fresh lemon strips and fresh thyme sprigs. If you happen to have fresh figs, please do try these.

The other day I saw fresh figs at the market. I’ve probably mentioned it here before, but I’m no fan of Fig Newtons, which was mostly my introduction to figs from my childhood. If you’re of a certain age, then Fig Newtons were just about the only kind of fig anything there was. Growing up, we had a fig tree in our back yard, and my mother never did anything with figs except put them in a fruit bowl for my mom or dad to eat them out of hand. Fig Newtons? My dad loved them. He could eat them day in and day out. Not me. I didn’t mind the occasional fresh fig, though.

So, on the rare occasion when I see figs – now’s the season – I don’t usually know what to do with them. But then I got the idea to roast them – seems like nearly every living plant life is enhanced by oven roasting. I did a search online for “roasted figs” and up popped a recipe from my favorite Paris blogger, David Libovitz. He did something wonderful – fabulous – with fresh figs. My plan was to use them in a green salad. We’d been invited to dinner at our extended family and my task was to bring a green salad. I wanted something different. Something kind of special. So I made a salad (I’ll tell you about that in a day or two) with these figs beautifying the top.

The figs . . . cut off the stems, halve them, then pour in the glaze stuff (Grand Marnier, warmed honey, fresh thyme, brown sugar). Toss them around gently, place them cut side down and roast for 15 minutes (if they’re really ripe and sweet) or longer, like 30 minutes (if they’re younger unripe figs) until they’re caramelized. I baked mine cut side up (I misread the directions) and ended up turning on the broiler at the end just to give them that golden crispiness. I let them cool to room temp (I did them a couple of hours ahead of time) and covered them with plastic wrap. I just placed them on the salad – on the top – so they’d look beautiful. But oh gosh, were they delish. I think they’d be wonderful with vanilla ice cream, especially with some of the saucy stuff drizzled over the top. Or served on the side as a garnish or condiment along side a pork roast or chicken, or lamb.

What’s GOOD: everything about them. Who knew roasted figs could taste so darned good, I ask? Succulent, seedy (of course, that’s what figs are all about but in a good way) and these are perfectly caramelized. I thought they were terrific on a green salad.

What’s NOT: nothing whatsoever.

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This just LOOKS like an ordinary bowl of rice. Oh my, no, it isn’t. It’s spectacular rice. You’ve got to make this if you are a risotto-lover and you also crave lemon in just about everything.

Why hadn’t it ever occurred to me to enhance risotto with lemon juice? It just hadn’t. But I saw Nigella Lawson make this recipe on one of her old-old TV shows, and when she put the spoonful in her mouth (and you wait for the oohs and aahs that every Food Network host makes), well, I just knew I had to try this version. The truth of the matter is that about 2 weeks ago I came down with the flu. I thought I’d managed to get through flu season, but no, I didn’t. I was down for 2 full days. I watched every single TV program on my Tivo and then some, although the first 2 days I couldn’t watch any food-oriented programs as my stomach lurched, but after 2 days that part improved – that’s why I was watching an old Nigella Lawson program. Anyway, for those first 2 days I couldn’t eat a thing, and even on day 3 I was only able to down some corn flakes and sip sparkling cider off and on all day. And even though it’s been 2 weeks (as I write this) I still have times when my stomach gives me a little turn. I’ve barely eaten any meat – a little bacon, a little chicken, one fish dinner that didn’t go down well. We spent the weekend at a lovely resort and I had difficulty eating some of the wonderful food. And yesterday my stomach revolted a little after I had breakfast. So when dinnertime came around, I craved carbs only. Not my usual shtick, for sure. I know . . . too much information, right? Sorry.

On to the recipe . . . there is nothing that difficult or unusual about this risotto. It contains shallots and celery (that’s a bit different), butter, Arborio rice, broth (I used chicken because I didn’t have any vegetable broth), a fresh lemon (preferably a home grown or organic one), olive oil, and the final fillip to this version – an egg yolk (that IS different), 4 T. of heavy cream, fresh rosemary and of course, Parmigiano. I added on the chopped chives to give the dish some color. The recipe calls for a quart of broth – I had to add about another cup of water because the rice wasn’t quite done, but that was easy enough.

This was all we had for dinner. No salad. No veggies. And it was so comforting. Oh yes! My hat’s off to Nigella for a spectacular recipe.

What’s GOOD: well, everything about it was fabulous. And I mean fabulous. This recipe is going onto my FAVs list if that’s any indication of how much I liked it. I’d use words like unctuous, smooth, silky, comfort food. I just loved the lemon juice and zest added in, and the egg yolk? Well, I’d never thought to add one, but when mixed with the cheese and little jot of cream, well, that’s how the dish went from ordinary to unctuous. Make this, okay?
What’s NOT: only the 30+ minutes of near-continuous stirring required, but I managed to keep it on a very low heat (I forgot to get out my battery operated Stirr thing that would have just kept the mixture moving while I did other things like zest the lemon, chop rosemary, etc.). I didn’t actually stir it continuously, it just seemed like it.

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Nothing revolutionary here except these have some lime juice and zest as well as lemon. And they’re certainly citrus-potent, sweet, acidic, textural from the shortbread type base and delicate all at the same time. Worth making.

Recently I met my friend Gwen for lunch. She, who still works in the big-mad-crazy 70+ hour a week corporate world, and always has oodles of fascinating stories to share about her work life. She flies back and forth to Chicago, meets with corporate attorneys, leads meetings, does long-term strategic planning, guides her staff, smooths CEO feathers and all those kinds of things. I keep telling her she needs to write a book. One of her rare down-time activities is baking, and she makes mounds of Christmas cookies each year, so when she mentioned these lemon-lime coconut macaroon bars she’d made recently, I knew I’d want to try them.

The recipe was in a very recent Sunset Magazine. And as I mentioned above, they’re similar to many lemon bar recipes, except there is toasted coconut in the pastry/cookie base part, and the filling is loaded with lemon and lime juices and zest from both.

What’s GOOD: well, the citrus-centric flavor, of course. These are very tart and sweet and loaded with flavor. I liked the coconut addition in the pastry base – it gave a nice – and different flavor to the bars that I enjoyed. The bars are on the wet side, so the powdered sugar dissolves onto the top – at least it did for me – within 10 minutes or so. Just sprinkle the sugar on before serving.
What’s NOT: nothing, really. Easy to make.

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No, this isn’t a Caesar dressing . . . it’s a simple vinaigrette but with an egg yolk added in to give it heft, unctuousness and to emulsify the dressing so it “holds.”

I’m on a tear, as the saying goes, trying new recipes for salad dressings from the new book I bought, Vinaigrettes & Other Dressings: 60 Sensational recipes to Liven Up Greens, Grains, Slaws, and Every Kind of Salad. So far, I’m loving this cookbook, only because it contains a whole bunch of new dressings with just one or two little things that make each one different. Love that! In this one it’s the egg and 2 T. of heavy cream. Not a lot, when you divide that up amongst several salad servings. I put it on a hearty green salad. The author suggests serving it on a leek salad, or a frisee salad with a poached egg on it, a grilled tuna salad, salad Nicoise or a grilled salmon salad.

Some people are fearful of raw egg – if so, you may not want to make this. Or, buy the pasteurized eggs that can be found in some stores. Or easier yet, take a look at this blog post about how to do it yourself. You merely have to get the egg to 138° in order to make it safe.

This dressing does require a bit of wrist action – you do have to whisk in the egg, the heavy cream, then the oil and vinegar (or lemon juice). Other than that, it’s cinchy easy to make. Get all the ingredients out and at-the-ready before you start and it comes together in a jiffy. I’ll be making this one again.

What’s GOOD: the smooth silkiness, the richness of it. Pretty color too. Delicious.

What’s NOT: nothing at all.

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So it is, each year somebody writes up a collective essay about the cookbooks from last year. This one about 2012. I read about it over at Eat Your Books (on their blog). The folks over at EYB write up frequent posts (and you don’t have to have an EYB account in order to follow their blog), always interesting, and this one particularly so. Since I assume you, my readers, are just like me, I keep saying I’m not going to buy any more cookbooks, and then something comes along that woos me to break that promise to myself. And since I have an amazon prime account (no shipping fees for most of their products), I convince myself that I’m saving money. (Sure!)

In addition to telling me about what cookbooks were the most popular sellers last year, they also quote some statistics about the buyers of cookbooks (more men? or women? what ages?) and this article also provided their take on cookbook trends. Their blog post was based on statistics in an article by PW, Publishers Weekly, but EYB just condensed it to the most important facts. So what did it have to say?

You probably already heard that Jerusalem: A Cookbook (above photo) won the IACP award for 2012. I’d read many blogs and magazine articles touting the recipes in the cookbook during the year, so I gave in and bought that a couple of months ago. So far I’ve not made anything from it, and I stuck the book on my bookshelf when we were entertaining recently, and intend to dig it out again and continue reading through it.

The TRENDS:

• Vegetarianism is ever-more popular.
• Middle Eastern cooking is the “it” cuisine at the moment. And it’s increasing.
• We are developing a greater respect for ingredients. We want to know where our food products come from and how it/they were raised so we can make a conscious decision about whether to buy.

And who buys cookbooks? The graphic at right I found at the Publisher’s Weekly website. You can (hopefully) read the fine print – 30-44 year olds buy more cookbooks than others. I thought it interesting that 13-17 year olds buy 3%. How about that? 69% of cookbooks are purchased by women (not surprising), although I suspect male buyers are increasing. I happen to love watching HGTV’s House Hunters and House Hunters International, and I would say that for at least 3 out of every 10 home buyers, men are the ones interested in having  a nice, big, updated kitchen because they do the cooking in the family.

Cookbook are certainly popular, and ever more so with each passing year. Here are the winners for 2012:

1. Barefoot Contessa Foolproof: Recipes You Can Trust , Ina Garten, Clarkson Potter, 428,105

2. The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier , (her 2nd book) Ree Drummond, William Morrow, 267,909

3. In the Kitchen with David: QVC’s Resident Foodie Presents Comfort Foods That Take You Home, David Venable, Ballantine, 264,953

4. Eat More of What You Love: Over 200 Brand-New Recipes Low in Sugar, Fat, and Calories, Marlene Koch, Running Press, 132,796 (a friend told me about this one – it’s a book that is often recommended through Weight Watchers because it shows WW points, although it is not sponsored by WW)

5. Great Food Fast (Best of the Best Presents) Bob Warden’s Ultimate Pressure Cooker Recipes, Bob Warden, Quail Ridge, 122,665

6. The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, Deb Perelman, Knopf, 114,547

7. The Chew: Food. Life. Fun., Peter Kaminsky, Hyperion, 109,020

8. The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl (her original cookbook), Ree Drummond, William Morrow, 103,751

9. Weeknights with Giada: Quick and Simple Recipes to Revamp Dinner, Giada de Laurentiis, Clarkson Potter, 95,040

10. Hungry Girl to the Max!: The Ultimate Guilt-Free Cookbook, Lisa Lillien, St. Martin’s Griffin, 86,656

Want to know about hardcover, vs. paperback, vs. e-books? Hardcover cookbooks still outsell all others, but as a portion of total unit sales, hardcovers dropped from 49% in 2011 to 42% in 2012. And e-book sales more than doubled, up from 9% to 22%. I don’t know about you, but I still prefer a hard cover cookbook to an e-cookbook. Obviously, I’m contrary to the trend, though.

The article talked some about how much the Food Network influences our cookbook buying, and never let it be said that any one of the stars on FN (or the Cooking Channel, for that matter) passed up an opportunity to monetize their shows. Hence new cookbooks appear on a regular basis. One of the newest ones to join the ranks is Mario Batali’s two sons (ages 16 and 14) who just published their own cookbook based on recipes they made themselves (apparently) and presented in a hand-made form to their dad on his 50th birthday. I won’t be buying it, but it’s a cute idea – The Batali Brothers Cookbook. It would make a cute gift for a teenage son or grandson.

FYI: I have an amazon associates account, and if you happen to buy a cookbook through any of the links above, I get a few pennies.

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