The other day I got an email from one of the nice people at Freida’s Produce. They’ve contacted me a few times over the last couple of years, offering to send me some new or interesting produce to try, and hoping I’ll mention it here on my blog. I’ve always said yes, because I do like their products. Generally they offer me some unusual things, which I enjoy trying. This time it was potatoes. Really? Yup. I knew they were small potatoes, but that was about it.

They sent me two packages (1 1/2 pounds each) with the above being one of them. Called the “Terrific Trio,” because (pictured below) it had white, red skinned and purple potatoes in it. They come from a small producer in Canada, actually. A company called The Little Potato Company. Run by a WOMAN! Good for her!

What I liked about the first package I tried was the potatoes were already washed and ready to cook. All I had to do was clip open the bag and I was ready to go. This particular package I liked because of the variety of potatoes all in that one package contained – the yellow, white and the purple. There’s something fun about eating a purple potato, don’t you think? And I liked the small package size – just enough for a meal for 4. There are other packages from the same company – single potato types, not the mixture. They’re available at Ralphs during this potato season.

Down to brass tacks . . . did they taste different? No. But they’re uniformly small, and I liked the fact that I didn’t have to wash or scrub them. I ended up cutting them in half to make the below roasted potato mixture, because I like those cut edges with the crispy browning on them. I will seek these out – mostly because of the 3-potato variety all in one bag AND the fact that it’s a small package. I won’t have to buy 3 or 5 pounds of potatoes. According to their website, they also offer a product called Zingers – a small, microwaveable package with a seasoning packet inside – pop the package in the oven with the seasoning and you have potatoes in a matter of minutes.

So what did I make with them? Roasted potatoes, but with a little twist to them. What could be different about roasting potatoes, you ask? Well, just a little technique of roughening-up the potatoes a bit so they crisp up more in the oven. A great idea. One I’ll use again.

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Oh my, yes! Juicy. Tender. Perfectly cooked. Easy. Hooray for Cook’s Illustrated. They finally figured out how to do it and have given us the technique. I don’t know about you, but I never seem to be able to get a roast chicken to look or taste like the ones you can buy from the rotisserie at the grocery store, or Costco. Those always seem to be golden brown and juicy (unless they’ve been sitting there too long).

The recipe came from the most recent issue of the magazine (Sept/Oct 2011). Unless you are a subscriber to the online version (a different fee from being a hard-copy subscriber as I am) you can’t access this recipe online. So I’m going to have to give you a synopsis.

The short story is: heat a 12-inch frying pan in a 450° oven. Dry, oil, salt & pepper a whole chicken. Set chicken in the hot frying pan breast side UP with meat thermometer. When breast meat reaches 120° or thigh at 135°, turn oven OFF (yes, really). Leave in oven until breast meat registers 160° or thigh 175°. Remove from oven, tent lightly 20 minutes. Carve and serve.

Every time I read an article in Cook’s Illustrated I’m astounded at the creativity of the staff. They come up with innovative ideas to solve cooking problems that I certainly can’t. In this case it’s all about having the thigh meat get a jump-start in the cooking process, since it usually takes longer to reach 175° than it does to get the breast meat cooked to 160°. As we all know, if we wait until the thigh is done, usually, the breast meat is past its peak and dry. Why didn’t I think about putting the thigh meat in contact with a hot frying pan surface?

The preparation is SO simple. The baking is easy, as long as you have a good meat thermometer – one that will beep at you when something reaches temperature. You don’t want to go beyond the temps or you’ll end up with overcooked chicken. I had a really large chicken, so the approximate timing was a little longer in both parts of the baking process, but the results were fantastic. I’m so happy!

What I liked: how easy it was; hot delicious it was – tender, juicy. No question, this is going to be my new method of roasting a chicken. The leftover meat was tender as could be, both breast meat and thigh.

What I didn’t like: well, it wasn’t quite as golden brown as I’d hoped. But overall, it was fantastic, so I don’t want to complain that the skin wasn’t quite as brown as I’d have liked. We don’t eat the skin anyway.

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Will you just trust me on this one? Make it, please. Providing you like tomatoes. And cheese. And fresh corn. And pie crust. Oh, it’s so utterly delicious.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a long time, you may remember that I posted a similar pie two years ago. It was called a Savory Tomato & Gruyere Pie. And, in fact, this one is also savory, also full of tomatoes, and gruyere cheese. But after I made that pie in 2009 I also made another one – a Tomato & Corn Pie in a Biscuit Crust. I particularly liked the corn in the 2nd rendition. But I thought the first one had better taste. So this time I had both recipes handy and decided to make some changes. All for the better, I assure you! I think this recipe has all the best of both recipes in it. If you’d prefer to use the biscuit crust, by all means do so.

I made a short crust tart shell (you can either roll it out and place in the pie plate, or press it in if you’re piecrust-challenged) and put it into my 9-inch pie dish. I sautéed some onion, added the fresh corn cut off the cob, and a little bit of Sriracha sauce. After the pie shell baked for awhile, I spread the bottom of the crust with about 3 ounces of garlic-and-herb Boursin cheese. It’s a protective layer to keep the moist veggies from soaking into the tender, flaky piecrust. And I used Boursin because I didn’t have any cream cheese in the refrigerator. This worked just fine. The pie shell was still fairly warm, so the cheese really softened a lot. Then I poured in the onion-corn mixture and spread it around. Meanwhile, I’d cut up about 2 1/2 cups of fresh heirloom tomatoes. I cored the tomatoes, cut them in wedges, then squeezed the dickens out of them and put them on some paper towels. Then I squeezed them again to get almost all the juice out of them but still keep the pieces intact. Then I cut the tomatoes into pieces and placed them in the pie and sprinkled the top with a small handful of sliced basil. Then I mixed up the Gruyere cheese, mozzarella cheese and mayonnaise (sinful, I know) and dabbed little pieces all over the top of the tart. There isn’t enough to really spread; besides, the mixture is very sticky, so I used my hands and dropped little bits of it all over the top, then used a spatula to sort-of spread it more evenly. There will be a few holes here and there.

That’s it – bake for about 30 minutes – until the cheese is bubbling away. I let it sit for a few minutes (letting it rest for about 10 minutes would be best – it will cut better), slice and serve with a few more bits of fresh basil on top. I made a green salad with some soft butter lettuce and my latest Lemon Sherry Vinegar Salad Dressing. Perfection. My DH raved.  And raved. I cut us each one slice for dinner and it was all we could do to keep our forks out of the pie plate to have more. We were good. But I had it for lunch the next day, heated in the microwave for about 45 seconds. More perfection!

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If you’d like to try my short crust shell, this is the recipe I use most often (and that isn’t often because I rarely bake pies, but when I do, this is my go-to recipe). It’s one I got from a Joanne Weir cooking class eons ago (probably 10-15 years) and once I saw how easy this was (even for me who is sometimes piecrust-challenged) I’ve made it many, many times. Sometimes I roll it out, other times I use the press-in technique in the recipe.

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Every once in awhile we grill pineapple to serve with a dinner outdoors. To go with a pork roast, for instance, or pork chops, or grilled chicken. Or grilled fish. This time as I was flipping through recipes in my to-try pile (actually it’s in a 3-ring binder, 1 of 2 that I have, and recipes are slipped inside clear sleeves, maybe 3-4 to each side) this one sounded like it might be fun for a brunch. Indeed it was.

If you’re not familiar with Nutella, you should be. In writing this I went to Nutella’s website and found out a whole bunch of info about it. It was first developed in Piemonte (the NW region of Italy). It’s pronounced new-tell-uh. What’s available here in the U.S. of A. is manufactured in Canada. It’s gluten-free. And kosher. And peanut free. They’re meticulous about that. And they use non-hydrogenated palm oil to emulsify it. Each 13-ounce jar contains about 50+ hazelnuts, sugar, skim milk and a tiny bit of cocoa. It all got started in the 1940’s because Mr. Ferrero, a pastry maker, couldn’t afford to pay the high (war time) taxes on chocolate – and because hazelnuts grow in abundance in Piemonte, it was a natural for him to devise a new spread. In the 1960’s Ferrero’s son started marketing it to consumers. It’s quite similar to the guianduja (an Italian product that’s 50/50 hazelnuts and chocolate) which you often see as a gelato flavor (it’s my favorite gelato).  Its most popular use is spread on toast (sorry, I don’t care much for Nutella that way – it’s too sweet – but most consumers disagree with me there). One of Nutella’s benefits is that it should not be refrigerated, although you do want to use it up within soon time frame – there is a use-by date on each jar. If you want some other options for using up the Nutella, there’s a website devoted just to World Nutella Day (February 5th).

Originally this recipe came from Giada de Laurentiis way back in 2004. Then, I took liberties with the recipe, but it’s still generally Giada’s design. I think this would make a great dessert with a little scoop of vanilla ice cream in the middle. And if you want to make it Giada’s way (with mascarpone instead of the crème fraîche, and adding vanilla and some whipping cream) then click over to her version. Mine is just a bit simpler.

If you want to serve this as a dessert, you’ll likely use all of the Nutella mixture; but as a brunch side dish I didn’t overwhelm any of the pineapple slices with too much Nutella. So I ended up with leftover Nutella. Not a bad thing, but I don’t eat Nutella in other things. However, I will say when I was craving just a tiny sweet something after dinner the other night I stuck my spoon into the leftover Nutella mixture. Mmmmm, good.

What I liked: this was SO easy to make as long as you have a little tub of crème fraîche on hand and the Nutella, of course. It’s very pretty too.

What I didn’t like: not a thing, really, Just don’t use too much of the (sweet) Nutella mixture; you want to be able to taste the pineapple!

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I’ve been glued to the TV on Saturday mornings watching Ree Drummond on her Food Network 6-episode show, The Pioneer Woman. I’ve been a follower of Ree’s blog (also called The Pioneer Woman) for several years. She has such a verve for life, and has so many photo opps with her family on the hundreds of acres of land they farm. Talk about Kodak moments! She home schools her 4 children. She has numerous pets, including Charlie the Bassett Hound (who is also the subject of her children’s book recently published). Ree’s husband Ladd (he’s always referred to as Marlboro Man on her blog – now we know his name – and no, he doesn’t smoke – Ree is in love with his derriere and physique) and his family run a big cattle ranch in the hinterlands of NE Oklahoma. I recorded all the shows so far (3) and yesterday I even sat my DH in front of “my” TV with the Tivo attached, so he could watch the shows. He loved them. He really did. He was salivating over the chicken fried steak, cream gravy and mashed potatoes. And probably admiring the very pretty Ree!

Truly, I thought I’d laugh myself silly reading a blog piece she did a few days ago about the newest little kitten to join the menagerie. If you haven’t seen it, you just have to check out this post. It is SO funny. Ree is a very clever writer and has a delightful sense of humor.

So yesterday’s show was about a girl’s dinner she did for her geographically closest group of women friends and relatives. She did an easy goat cheese appetizer with fresh dill, and a fig and prosciutto pizza. With an arugula salad on top. Charlie got in on the act at the last moments too.

The pizza looked really good. It just so happened I had a package of prosciutto I’d bought a couple of days ago. It just so happened I had half a package of full-fat Mozzarella (not fresh, as Ree used). I didn’t have arugula, but I did have Romaine. I had a nice big flat of fresh figs too. Ree used fig jam. Nope, not me. Fig jam is not my thing. Just like Fig Newtons won’t ever cross my lips again. My dad used to adore them and he tried so hard to get me to like them too. Nope.

So I improvised. Here’s what I did: (1) I made a partly whole wheat pizza dough in my bread machine. That took 55 minutes and about 3-4 minutes to add the ingredients into the machine; (2) the fresh figs were roasted in a hot oven (see photo at right of raw figs top, roasted figs on the bottom). I cut them in half, oiled the cut surfaces, sprinkled them with dried thyme first; (3) when the dough was ready I used my rolling pin to help get the pizza into a big round shape. I used my pizza stone, though I didn’t preheat it; (4) pesto went onto the pizza first, then the roasted figs, then the slices of Mozzarella. It baked for about 20 minutes; (5) then I sprinkled little pieces of prosciutto all over the top of the hot pizza to let the heat warm up the cured meat; (6) meanwhile, I tossed a bit of Romaine lettuce with a little lime juice based vinaigrette and piled that all over the top of the hot pizza; (6) sliced it and served!

As it happened, yesterday was an odd weather day here in So Cal. First thing that happened was we had a huge thunderstorm. I mean huge. For us to have thunderstorms in September is just about unheard of. Here’s a photo of our jacuzzi during the middle of the downpour.

I don’t suppose that looks like much – but the uneven surface is because the pool is being plummeted with big, huge raindrops.

Within about 10 minutes of this picture we had a LOT more lightning and thunder and rain. So much so that our power went out. And no, this is not the power outage that hit Arizona, San Diego and southern Orange County two days before (that was operator error from some technician in Yuma, Arizona – this obviously was a lightning strike and a separate incident). We were without power for about 3 1/2 hours, but it was during daylight hours so it didn’t hamper our ability to do much except I couldn’t use a computer nor could we watch TV, obviously. I did some reading and some cleaning instead. Am finally moving most of my clothes back into my closet(s) from where they’ve been stored in our 3rd floor studio area, piled up on top of furniture there during our bathroom remodel.

Here’s another photo of the rainstorm. That’s a picture looking out our front door, up the steps and our driveway up to the road on the far right top. We share a steep driveway with our next door neighbors – that’s why there’s a wall there in the middle. And, I guess you really can’t tell, but it’s raining very hard in this picture!

The good news is that our drains all worked perfectly. Whew, is that ever a big relief!

All that was to tell you that because of the rainstorm, the weather yesterday was blessedly cool. I don’t think it even hit 75 all day. It was delightful. Today looks to be similar. We slept with blankets over us last night. Nice. So, I didn’t mind heating up the oven to 425° on a day like that. It barely warmed the kitchen air.

What I liked: the textures – the sweet from the figs – the crispy, light pizza crust – the crunchy of the salad on top. When I first had a salad on top of a pizza (at California Pizza Kitchen about 20 years ago) I thought it was such a GREAT idea. Still is.

What I didn’t like: I’m not crazy about thicker-crusted pizza – I like thin crust. I tried my best, but I still had some puffy edges. Dave ate them all, so I needn’t be concerned.

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If you’re my age (I hit a milestone birthday recently and am now officially feeling “old”), then you’ll remember back in the 50’s ice box cakes were all the rage. They were made with the new (then) box cake mixes and new (then) boxed pudding mixes or Jell-O and Cool-Whip. At the time, everyone, just about, was making them. Originally they were somewhat plain, but as months went by some innovative cooks came up with different combinations, but still using all of those boxed products. I have an old community cookbook from the early 60’s, and it’s got a couple dozen variations on the box-mix-box-pudding or Jell-O ice box cake. The one I remember most was one with pineapple in the topping. My mother must have made it because I was mostly too young to do much cooking.

Back then these cakes were known for being easy. And moist. And transportable – you can take them along to a barbecue, the church social, or a picnic. This recipe you’re seeing today, though, is NOT a typical 1950-era ice box cake. I read about it at The Weekly Dish back in 2008, and she credits the recipe to April Fulton, on a 2007 episode of NPR’s Kitchen Window. If you go read the Kitchen Window blog piece you’ll be pulled into her story about inheriting her grandmother’s 3×5 recipe box and the nostalgia that goes along with that. I could identify. Totally.

What’s different about this ice box cake? Several things: (1) the white cake is a homemade one; (2) instead of pudding or Jell-O, she uses freshly made lemon curd, although this version is a looser lemon curd than usual – so it will seep down into the holes you poke all over the cake; and (3) the frosting, instead of Cool-Whip, is a mixture of mascarpone cheese and whipped cream. And if that wasn’t enough, I’ll certainly tell you that it takes a whole lot more time to make than the box mix versions! I was lucky, though, our daughter Sara and our granddaughter Sabrina (and grandson John) all contributed their labors to make this cake. I was swamped with things to do for our birthday brunch, and they were happy to make it.

The cake is sturdy. Maybe sturdier than I’d hoped – I thought it was going to be more like a sponge cake (in fact, if or when I ever make this again, I think I’ll search out a similar batter-size sponge cake recipe). It’s just a plain white cake. Maybe it’s white wedding cake type, to stand up to a goopy filling (the lemon curd) and a frosting. There’s nothing wrong with the cake, it’s just more dense than I’d hoped. The lemon curd, using some of the very last of my 2011 Meyer lemon crop, was easy enough, although Sara and I both thought the curd didn’t thicken as much as we expected. It wasn’t creamy colored, either, but clear. Although it did meet the test of coating the back of a spoon, so we finally decided it must be “done.” Lemon curd always thickens some once its chilled, but it never did get creamy colored. We thought that was odd.

The frosting is easy enough to make (mascarpone and whipping cream with more lemon juice) and it’s spread over the top. It doesn’t have much quantity to it, but it does give it a little tart topping to just add to the sweet lemon curd part. The original recipe suggested you wouldn’t use all of the lemon curd, but we did. In fact the holes we made (probably about 20) weren’t filled up – that’s what I expected. A few were, but most were not. Some of the lemon curd oozed down the sides – which was okay since that gave each cut slice with an outside edge a bit of the extra tart lemon curd.

What I liked: oh, the lemony, tart flavor – from the lemon curd. And the frosting for sure.

What I didn’t like: well, the cake part wasn’t memorable. Maybe I should have uses a boxed white cake after all. Not exactly what April Fulton had in mind, trying to update an old boxed-mixture that contained all kinds of food additives, but am sure the cake would be lighter, fluffier. I just found the cake to be too dense.

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I know, I know, what’s so special about a grilled chicken salad! Well, let’s just say it’s all about the dressing in this recipe. If you don’t care about the salad part, that’s fine, but you do need to try the dressing on a salad of your choice.

Wanting a cold salad for dinner in the summer is certainly standard fare around here. I dug out this recipe that I think came from a cooking class I went to in the mid-80’s. It’s that old. And the recipe for an artistic salad such as pictured above, was on the cutting edge at the time! My notes say this recipe came from Jean Francois Meteigner, at Cicada (an L.A. restaurant). At the time the restaurant was on Melrose. There is still a Cicada, but it’s in downtown L.A. and somebody else is the chef. Meteigner has moved on to another restaurant in Santa Monica. In any case, this is his recipe and it’s a good one.

I made the dressing an hour ahead and let it sit out at room temp so the garlic would infuse a bit more. Afterwards I refrigerated what was left and used it up within a few days. As for the salad, it’s a mixture of baby spinach, arugula and mixed salad greens. Then you add some cucumber, fennel, fresh corn cut off the cob (or use frozen if that’s all that’s available), toss the salad with the dressing, then add the decorative touches – fresh wedges of tomato, avocado, green onions and artichoke hearts, if you’d like. When I served this as a main dish salad I added the chicken. The next day I served a lovely green salad  (pictured above) with some crumbled blue cheese, some toasted pecans, and the dressing.

So, first is the salad dressing. As you can see from the ingredient list, it has some sweetness to it. Not too much, but enough that you know it’s sweet. The original recipe called for honey – I used agave nectar instead. Otherwise, I stuck to the recipe as written. It’s delicious. Several people asked me about it- they couldn’t tell what was in it – the sherry vinegar adds a different taste. And the lemon juice gives it a nice tartness, although the agave certainly balances it. Worth making.

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Then, if you’d like to make the chicken salad part, with all the delicious fresh veggies that go along with it, here’s that part.

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This recipe has been residing in my to-try file for a long time. Years, I think. And perhaps I read about them on somebody else’s blog, but my copied recipe doesn’t indicate. So, I went online to make sure this was still a viable recipe as printed. I’m trying to remember to do that as often as possible – especially for recipes I know are online. At Paula’s website the recipe was the same, but nobody seemed to have any beef with the baking powder.

On the Food Network site, though, there was a lot of discussion about these biscuits. When Paula first made them on air she used self-rising flour. In the translation from the demo on the show and the recipe printed online the producers or recipe writers went from self-rising flour to regular flour with baking powder and salt added. That’s when the dissention ensued. Lots of folks were successful making these. Other people weren’t. Some were ticked off that the recipe was changed. Some said the 4 tablespoons (yes, tablespoons, not teaspoons) of baking powder had to be wrong. The recipe (now, at least) says 4 teaspoons. Some complained they couldn’t taste the sweet potatoes (I couldn’t). Others complained the biscuits didn’t rise (mine did). Others thought they were hockey pucks (nope, not mine). Numerous cooks thought even 4 tsp of baking powder was too much. They thought it was a misprint. After reading every single comment online I went with the existing recipe, as written, and had not a single problem with it.

However, I did do a few things – I briefly heated the sweet potato in the microwave to bring it to room temp or maybe a bit warmer. I did sift the baking powder and salt in with the flour to make sure it was mixed properly. I also mixed the dough very gently. VERY gently. Biscuit dough doesn’t like to be “handled.” It wants the fat (butter, oil, whipping cream) to be added and just mixed in as little as possible. The more of that fat that stays intact, the more flaky the dough will be.

Actually I forgot to add the rosemary in the dough, so at the end I sprinkled it liberally all over the top of them, which worked out just fine. We ate them when they were just barely cooled to room temp, with a little bit of butter. We thought they were delicious. Tender and flaky. And truly, I’d never have known there was sweet potato in them. They don’t rise a lot, but they did rise some. I used the light colored – golden – yam or sweet potato, not the orange one. If I’d used the orange type the biscuits would have been much darker colored.

What I liked: they were easy to make; tender and flaky; a good use of some leftover sweet potato if you had some, especially right after Thanksgiving or Christmas. Do note that this is not a high-fat biscuit – only 5 grams per biscuit. Not like a lot of Paula’s recipes . . .

What I didn’t like: not a thing; enjoyed them very much.

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Usually, when we have a gathering of friends at our house, I research new recipes to try. I’m fairly fearless about that, actually. There might be a few things I wouldn’t tackle without trying it first, but normally I’m game to try new combinations and new recipes anytime! But this particular time I didn’t. I used tried-and-true recipes with just one exception, the dessert. So, what did I make for this dinner? Thought you’d never ask . . .

First, I made an old standby, Layered Hummus and Eggplant, tossed with a balsamic vinaigrette. I sent my DH out that afternoon on a mission to go buy some sangak bread. I didn’t take another photo of the sangak – it’s an Iranian thin, stretchy and chewy yeast bread, kind of like super-thin pita but it comes out of the oven about 3 feet long, hot, steamy and I couldn’t believe it, Dave didn’t even snack on it on the way home. It made a great vehicle for digging into this appetizer.

Then, we had pork chops. Oh my goodness, did we have pork chops. I’d ordered them from a local meat market, and I KNOW I told them 1 1/4” thick. When I opened the package two days later just before our meal, I discovered they were cut 2” thick. Oh my goodness! Each single pork chop was about a pound (with bones). What to do? I didn’t think it would be very nice to cut the pork off the bones to have smaller pieces. I couldn’t cut them in half because I don’t have a saw capable of that. I just had to go with it – I informed Dave that these were going to need longer on the grill. I seasoned them with smoked paprika, salt, pepper and a bit of grapeseed oil patted on last, according to the recipe from Aaron McCargo on the Food Network. When my friend Darci had told me about the recipe, she’d made it with pork chops. I’d made it with some leftover pork roast that I cut thick, sort of like pork chops.

The chops are reddish from the smoked paprika that I rubbed on both sides. Makes the grilled sides look gosh-darned purrrty! And tasty.

Making the lemon shallot chutney was easy. I doubled the recipe this time and added segments from one orange in addition to the lemons (just because I had an orange that needed using). When I’d gone out to the garden to clip the fresh tarragon and chives, I spotted the lavender blooms and decided to throw in a few of those too. Why not, I said?

The chutney/relish was served separately so people could scoop as much as they wanted onto the pork chops. There was just a smidgen left.

‘Tis the season for tomatoes, so I decided to serve the marinated tomatoes that I’ve not made even once so far this summer. DH bought some beautiful heirlooms, and I had a big chunk of Italian parsley, and the vinaigrette that goes over it is easy to put together.

We had both yellow and red tomatoes. Ample salt and pepper goes all over it, the parsley, then the vinaigrette is drizzled over it. You marinate it for an hour or two, then let it sit out at room temp for an hour before serving.

A friend gave me a butternut squash she’d grown in her garden. What fun! I’d planned on making my roasted sweet potato black bean salad with jalapeno dressing, that’s been a favorite for several years. So I thought, why not use the butternut squash instead of the sweet potato. I don’t know that it was quite as good (it wasn’t as sweet, I’ll say that), but it was good.

I used the same technique as the original salad, roasting the butternut squash in the oven along with the red onion. Then it was tossed with the drained and rinsed black beans and lastly, the lime juice jalapeno vinaigrette.

The dessert I made, a sticky chocolate sponge pudding will be “up” on my blog sometime soon. If you simply cannot wait, here’s the pdf for it.

Was it good? Oh my goodness, yes. I’d make it again any day. And in fact, I tried this recipe a few days before, gave away most of it, then made it again for this dinner party.

The full story/recipe won’t show up here on my blog until October. I’m way ahead on stories for my blog, so you’ll just have to be patient.

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Imagine my surprise a few months ago, at a cooking class with Phillis Carey, when she looked over at me and said, “this is your salad dressing, Carolyn.” Wow, really? Phillis came up with the salad components, but she used my Creamy Blue Cheese Garlic Dressing. It’s one I’ve been making for years (it’s probably my favorite salad dressing), but just recently put up on my blog, purely an oversight that it hadn’t been “up” on my blog before. It’s one that isn’t overwhelming with the blue cheese. It’s more like a creamy blue cheese vinaigrette, really. You can see from the photo above – it’s not a gloopy sour cream based dressing as there isn’t any sour cream or mayo or anything “creamy” in it except 2 ounces of blue cheese – so all you see is oil and lime juice on the lettuce. It has a bunch of other stuff in it too, but it’s a simple dressing.

Anyway, I was quite thrilled. Thanks, Phillis! Now on to the salad. Phillis has you season a nice, big sirloin steak with a Cajun/Creole seasoning mix. If you don’t have a jar of something on hand, click over to this site for a recipe for a Cajun (spicy hot mixture) to make your own. In my recent reading of Mary’s site, Deep South Dish, she uses a seasoning mix she buys, called Slap Ya Mama. Our local stores here in Southern California usually carry some of Emeril’s jars, but not much else. I may have to order some of this mixture just for fun. As with any kind of spice mixture, you know, don’t you, that once you mix up a variety of spices they tend to become one and they lose their pungency within a few months. Five different spices kept separate will keep fresh for at least a year (oh, I keep mine far longer than that) but once combined give it just a month or two at most. Keep that in mind.

Several years ago I made up a batch of the the spice mix I use for my grilled Corn with 10-Spice Rub. I thought I was so clever – I made a really huge batch just at the beginning of corn season and put it in a small pint sized plastic bag and set it on a shelf in my walk-in pantry. Mistake #1 was putting it in a plastic bag – should have been sealed in a tight lidded jar. Anyway, I used some of it a week or two later. And again. Then it sat on the shelf for about 3-4 weeks. This time I walked 15 feet to my kitchen island and realized a steady stream of the spices were in a trail on my hardwood floor. Oh my. As I held the bag in my hand, it was moving. Eek! Yikes. The bag was just crawling with critters. This was back when I had an infestation of different kinds of critters in my pantry – not only weevils, but another kind of tiny speck of black bugs that ate my chocolate. If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile you read all about it. I had to throw out many, many pounds of food (pasta, flours, grains, spices that weren’t sealed in cans or jars, and about 20 pounds of chocolate). THAT was a painful lesson. Now nearly everything is either jarred, canned or sealed up in big plastic bins in my pantry. The Container Store was my best friend back in those days.

There are differences between Cajun and Creole cuisine – Cajun tends to be more spicy (although it doesn’t have to be), Creole has more subtle flavorings (often tomato-based and with more French or Spanish heritage). Spice Hunter does make a single combo mixture of both seasonings, if you can find it. If you’re interested in learning more about the differences, I found a website called ochef, which explains a bit more. According to his information, as years have gone by – and a century or two of cooking, the two styles have married and intertwined a lot and there’s less and less distinction between them.

This salad is just perfect for a late summer harvest of vegetables – the corn, heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, etc. If you prefer a really tender steak you can use a ribeye or a New York. If you stick with the sirloin, you might want to tenderize it a bit – marinate it in some kind of acid (like a vinaigrette) for an hour before grilling, then add the Cajun seasoning. Sometimes sirloin steak can be a bit chewy – it may depend on what part of the steak you get on your plate!

What I liked: all the flavors in this salad – and topped off with the blue cheese dressing. If you’re a lover of blue, you could also add a few small chunks of it to the salad. You will hardly know there is any blue in the vinaigrette.
What I didn’t like: not enough onion! I just adore roasted or grilled red onion, so I’d add more to the salad. That’s it!

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