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panzanella caprese
The other day, my friend Shannon and I were sitting at her table in her lovely home eating a panzanella salad made mostly of things from her garden. Her tomatoes were perfect, in all different colors and varieties, and I started to wish the whole salad were just the croutons and tomatoes and basil.
She said she liked the croutons the best too, and I thought it would be good to make my next panzanella with mostly those ingredients, like a caprese salad. All I did was take away the peppers and cucumbers, and added in some fresh mozzarella. It’s the best two salads all in one. I hope you enjoy it, too.
roasted beet salad with goat cheese and thyme
When Brooke and I were making assignments for this picnic, she said, “Ooh, you should do something with beets and goat cheese. . . If you want.”
“Oh, really?” I said.
“Yeah, but you don’t have to. But they’re so good with thyme.”
“Okay.”
“But you can do whatever you want. You’re the sophistimom.”
“No, that sounds good, do you want me to make something like that?”
“Um, sure. But you’re in charge. I know whatever you make will be great.”
After Brooke had mentioned the beet and goat cheese a third time when we ran into each other down town, I knew I could not let her highly recommended flavor combination be passed over.
tarragon chicken salad with cashews and béarnaise dressing
Want an idea on how to use the chicken I posted yesterday? This is what I did with it.
Many chefs use tarragon to flavor chicken, and I wanted to make a salad with it. Since it is also a major flavor component in béarnaise sauce, I wanted to incorporate those flavors, too. But do you really think I wanted to go crazy making a béarnaise sauce, with the egg yolks and the vinegar? Mm, not so much. Not today, anyway. Besides, I needed something a little less runny for a chicken salad. Basically I just started with mayonnaise and added shallots and tarragon. Et voilà, I came up with a béarnaise flavored dressing, perfect for a chicken salad.
mâche and jicama salad with edible flowers
Sorry for being gone so long. We didn’t have the Internet for a few days.
I spent about a half an hour roaming around the produce section of Whole Foods the other day, trying to find the makings for an interesting salad. The first thing I saw was the edible flowers. I absolutely love how they look. Many edible flowers are quite peppery and pleasantly floral. However, the box I bought had some varieties I had never tried, and I knew some had the possibility of being bitter. If that were so, I didn’t want to add fruit to the salad, as I was afraid it might contrast too strongly against the bitter flowers and create some discordance. Instead I went with a more analogous flavor scheme. I chose vegetables ranging from peppery radishes, to nutty mâche, and finally to neutrally sweet jicama. I introduced some fruity tang later with the vinaigrette.
harvest salad with spiced pumpkin seeds
You ready for something healthy after all that candy? Don’t worry, this salad won’t take you off the sugar cold turkey. It’s a little like eating a candy salad, which happens to be the way I like mine.
egg salad sandwich
What you see in the picture is not what we ate.
When I was making the egg salad, the kids pulled the kitchen chairs up to the island to watch. Everything was in the bowl, ready to mix, when I went to get a spoon. As I turned my back, I heard a sound, like sand pouring out of a glass. Then my two-year-old started shouting, “I did it! I helped you!”
In the bowl was a mountain of salt.
I thought I got it all out, but as I stirred, I heard the crystals scraping along the bottom of the bowl.
A word of caution: be careful with the salt. You can always add more—you can’t always take it out.
tomato cucumber salad with orange vinaigrette and nectarines
I found these cherry tomatoes this week. Aren’t they beautiful? They look like mini heirloom tomatoes. While I was trying to think of what I could do with these, I noticed I still had some nectarines, and remembered a cold soup recipe in an old Martha Stewart Living magazine (June 1999—it was the issue that came out a month or two after I got married, and the first issue I ever bought. I have probably made more recipes from that issue than any other magazine in my life!). The soup was made with heirloom tomatoes and peaches. Perfect! I tossed in the nectarines and some cucumbers that were lying around, et voila! Tomato Cucumber Salad with Orange Vinaigrette and Nectarines! It was better than I expected. Hope you all enjoy it!
