Pasta Salad

06-22-14-pasta-salad One of the Rites of Summer is a bottomless bowl of pasta salad in the 'fridge. I usually leave the pasta-salad-making to Victor, since he's such a whiz at pulling odds and ends together to make delicious dishes. Pasta salads in their most basic form, are clean-out-the-refrigerator items. We don't go to the store and buy things to make a pasta salad, we open up the refrigerator and start pulling things out that need using up. I mean... there's always some sort of pasta in the cabinet, there are always vegetables, there are always cans of tuna, a jar of roasted red peppers... Olives - jarred or canned. And this salad has the distinction of being the first dish where we used our Sicilian olive oil... We only brought home a liter - fresh-pressed right up the road from us. I wish we had a way of getting more. And more. It was only €10 per liter - less expensive than Colavita. And absolutely delicious. Grassy-green sweet, mild but rich and full-bodied. Delish. It will be gone soon enough, but we're going to take full advantage of it while it's here.

Pasta Salad

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  • cooked pasta
  • eggplant
  • roasted red pepper
  • sun dried tomatoes in oil
  • fresh tomatoes
  • garlic
  • cannellini beans
  • tuna in olive oil
  • black olives
  • bell pepper
  • celery
  • red onion
  • freshly-grated Parmesan cheese
  • salt and pepper
  • olive oil

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Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain, rinse, and cool. Chop everything and mix with pasta. Drizzle with olive oil, to taste. Stir in cheese. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.

Every batch is slightly different, depending upon the items in the 'fridge. Any and all fresh vegetables - broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, squash, whatever - can and should be used. Add some fresh herbs if you like. There are no rules. And no matter how you do it, it's going to come out great!


Spring Salads

04-22-14-salads

We're both salad-eaters and love dinner salads. Alas, our roommate doesn't. I usually don't like cooking one meal for us and another for Nonna, but, tonight I was really craving a salad and there really is no other way around it.  It wasn't a huge departure from our dinner - I cut up some of the tri-tip for her with tomato salad - she loves tomato salad - and cooked her some rice.

It's a bit of a psychological game, making sure she doesn't think she's getting different or lesser food than us. It's also a matter of making sure she gets a variety of foods. At 88, her tastes are set and there's no introducing a lot of new foods or flavors into her diet, although I do try and sneak them in now and again. Plus she has decided she no longer likes a lot of things she liked in the past. It's part of the aging process and just is what it is.

As much as we try and make sure she's eating right, she tries to get around us, as well... like a couple of weeks ago, when Victor was out of town, I gave her several choices for lunch. She said "I'll just have a banana and a couple of biscotti."  I said "uh-uh." She then said grilled cheese. She got a grilled cheese - with a half of a banana - and an hour later, she got her biscotti. She had tried the exact same thing with Victor the day before. With the same result.

Tonight, while Nonna had her plate, we had tri-tip atop greens, tomatoes, avocados, and fat raw onion rings - and a few chipotle deviled eggs I forgot to bring to Easter dinner. I used a store-bought dressing -  quelle horreur ! - because laziness got to me. Not that it's even remotely difficult to make a dressing from scratch - but laziness got to me. It happens.

It really did hit the spot and set the stage for more to come.  As the weather turns warmer and produce becomes more local, we'll be doing salads a lot more. I can't wait to see how creative we can get with the roomie...


Frog Commissary Scallops

06-02-13-scallops

 

Many moons ago when we gave away all of our cookbooks, we didn't really give away all of them. There were a couple dozen that made the cut - and the Frog Commissary Cookbook was definitely one of them. I never ate at The Frog or The Commissary, but I love the cookbook.  It's written in a fun '70s sort of way - using real ingredients - and it has great illustrations.

The restaurants were in full swing when Victor owned his restaurant - Montserrat - at 6th & South Street back in the '80s. It was a time when all the restaurateurs knew one another, when cooks, bartenders, and waitrons jumped ship on a whim, and recipes were stolen and improved upon with aplomb.  Liquor flowed like water. I was opening hotels all over the USofA. Victor was in the heart of the Philadelphia Food Renaissance. We are so lucky we met each other after-the-fact..

So back to cookbooks... This one has been down in the basement with a score or more of other books, but it caught my eye when I was looking for The Italian Baker for a loaf of bread - that I passed over for the Bob's Red Mill Cookbook.

It all seems to have a purpose.

Anyway... I knew I was making salads tonight with scallops, but that was as far as it went. When I opened Frog Commissary and saw "South American Scallop Salad with Lime Dressing" I knew I had dinner.

As is my modus operandi, I didn't really follow their recipe, but I did make a variation of the lime dressing - and it totally rocked!

Lime Dressing

  • 1 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 1/4 cup lime juice
  • 2 tsp lime zest
  • 1 clove minced garlic
  • 1 jalapeño pepper, minced
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Place everything except mayonnaise into a blender and process until smooth. Add mayo and blend well. Place in bowl and chill until ready to use.

I marinated the scallops in olive oil and lots of fresh garlic and then quickly grilled them. The salads, themselves, were greens, yellow peppers, tomatoes, red onion, black olives, artichoke heats... Leftovers from Mike and Barbara's visit. Waste not, want not, and all that sort of stuff.

And Frog Commissary did not let me down. The dressing was stellar and it went perfectly with garlicky scallops. Creamy, rich, refreshing, and with just a hint of heat.

Tomorrow I'm going to make their famous Apple Sour Cream Streussel Pie. After a mere 18 1/2 years, I found out tonight that it is one of Victor's most-favorite desserts. He had the recipe years before the cookbook ever came out.

I think I'll actually try and follow the recipe as written. Wish me luck.

 

 


Spring Salads

05-10-13-chicken-salads

Tonight I decided to see how far I could push the the dinner envelope. With the thermometer at 83° and slightly muggy,  this was a salad night. Back in the day, Nonna used to make a salad every night when she cooked us dinner, but I couldn't recall when I last saw her actually eat one. I kinda had a feeling she may not be crazy about them, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, and all those other platitudes...

I went with the basic lettuces - iceberg and romaine - and then added grilled chicken, cubed fontina cheese, chopped tomatoes, hard-cooked eggs, shredded carrots... I figured I'd go as basic as I could. Victor make a simple oil and vinegar dressing.

She ate everything but the lettuce. She's just no longer a fan of lettuce. Tomorrow is her 87th birthday. If she doesn't want to eat lettuce, she doesn't have to eat lettuce.

Since we both really like our dinner salads, we were momentarily concerned, but then told her that whenever we do dinner salads, we'll just make her a nice plate of all the stuff that goes onto the lettuce. We just won't put the lettuce on the plate, first.

Simple solution.

And speaking of simple solutions... we had a bit of leftover risotto.

Victor made risotto balls.

05-10-13-risotto-balls

They're really just risotto rolled into balls, rolled in bread crumbs, and fried. Hot and crunchy on the outside, creamy on the inside.

And they totally rocked. Nonna had three of them. To make up for the lettuce she didn't eat, I'm sure.

 

 


Salads and Sandwiches

04-06-13-chicken-sandwiches

A sunny Saturday - what a concept!  The perfect weather for a trio of salads and sandwiches.

The salad concept was a bit of clean-out-the-refrigerator necessity. The eating patterns have changed a bit and I'm still trying to get a handle on it all. Naturally, I'm producing too much food, because if I made too much for two, adding another person  just means I have to make even more. Never mind the fact that if I didn't increase my amounts at all, all three of us would still eat and Cybil would still get leftovers.

And it's not like I'm not trying to cook less. I am. It's just that some things have a habit of getting away from me.

Like salads.

My first salad today was a beef and bean.  I had some tri-tip left over, and I thought a little Mexican-inspired salad was in order.

04-06-13-bean-and-beef-salad

I cubed the beef, added a can of black beans and a can of shoepeg corn, and then I thought some diced tomatoes would be good, some chopped roasted red pepper, salsa... Next thing you know I have a big bowl of salad. I didn't start out making a big bowl of salad, but...

Beef and Bean Salad

  • 1 lb cooked beef, cubed (Give or take. Amount can vary significantly.)
  • 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 can shoepeg corn, drained (or any canned corn or 1 cup frozen)
  • 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
  • 1/2 cup roasted red peppers, diced
  • 3/4 cup salsa
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Mix ingredients thoroughly. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.

This really is a clean-out-the-refrigerator salad. You can add bits and pieces of anything you like. The salsa dressing pulls it all together.

And then, because I had fennel that needed using up, I thought I'd make a salad from the fennel and lentil dish I made a while back with pork tenderloin. I tweaked things around a bit and it made a good cold dish!

04-06-13-lentil-fennel-salad

I really, really like lentils and was rather hoping Nonna would, too. She likes lentil soup but the jury is still out on the salad. I'll probably be doing some lentil side dishes without a lot of other things in them to get her used to the idea.

Lentil and Fennel Salad

  • 1 cup dried lentils
  • 1 fennel bulb, diced
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • 1/2 small onion, diced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 6 basil leaves, minced
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  • olive oil
  • sherry vinegar (or vinegar of choice)
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Cook lentils in 3 cups water until done - about 20 minutes. Drain, reserving a bit of the cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, saute diced fennel, diced, onion, diced carrots, and minced garlic until vegetables are crisp-tender. Add a half-cup or so of the lentil cooking liquid and stir and cook until liquid evaporates and vegetables are tender. Remove from heat and mix in lentils.

Add basil, cranberries and chopped pecans (or any fresh herb, dried fruit, and nut combination you have) and mix well. Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar to taste. You definitely don't need a lot.

Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.

This worked well. The lentil/fennel concept can be taken a million-and-one ways - hot or cold. I see it happening, again.

And then, because I really wanted to make sure there was at least one salad Nonna liked, I made a basic macaroni salad.

04-06-13-macaroni-salad

Elbow macaroni, celery, mayonnaise. I forgot to add the hard-cooked eggs. Oh well. She didn't miss them - and she ate a hefty helping!

Macaroni Salad

  • 1/2 lb elbow macaroni
  • 2 celery stalks, diced
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 1 pickle, minced
  • garlic powder
  • mayonnaise
  • sour cream
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Cook macaroni. Drain and cool. Mix in celery, carrots, pickle, and a bit of garlic powder. Add about 3/4 cup mayonnaise and 1/4 cup sour cream. Mix well. Add more mayo or sour cream iof salad seems too dry.

Check for seasoning and add S&P, as needed.

Nonna tried the other two but this was the one she liked the best. There's something to be said about familiarity...

The sandwiches were thin-sliced chicken breast drizzled with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and then quickly grilled. Served on whole wheat burger buns.

Nonna had tomato and mayo. Victor had lettuce, tomato, and mayo, and I had avocado, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. A perfect soft, ripe, and creamy-luscious avocado.

Yum.

Did I mention I also made an apple pie for dessert?

 


A Spicy Salad

I just came across a recipe I ripped out of a magazine many moons ago.  I've been trying to get a handle on recipes most of my life.  I see them, clip them, file them, and forget them.  Repeat.

A few months ago I went through a folder and tossed a bazillion recipes I knew I would never make - often wondering what could possibly have been going through my mind to have saved them in the first place.  One that made the cut was a spicy Argentinian marinade and dipping sauce.  I'm not exactly sure what magazine it came from - possibly Bon Appetit or Gourmet - but it surfaced again, yesterday, when I moved the file and it happened to fall on the floor.  How fortuitous.

Two things always struck me about the recipe - Sherry vinegar and LOTS of cayenne pepper.  I don't have any sherry vinegar at home because every time I see it at the grocery store it costs more than I'm willing to pay.  And considering how much I've paid for other things, that says a lot.  It's just ludicrously expensive for dinky bottles.  But I always have lots of cayenne pepper - and hot Hungarian paprika.  And sweet paprika and smoked paprika...

I decided on salads tonight and had a small piece of top round steak that needed marinating.  This was definitely it!

Spicy Argentinian Marinade and Dipping Sauce

  • 1/2 cup Spanish sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 1/2 tbsp hot paprika
  • 2 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Mix ingredients well.

I sliced the beef into thin strips and marinated them for about 45 minutes.  They then went on the grill for just a few minutes.

The salads were pretty basic - romaine lettuce, a tomato from the garden, green onions, avocado, mushrooms, and - because I needed to cut the heat a bit from the beef - a creamy dressing.  Mayo, catsup, and dill pickle relish.

I toasted a couple of the homemade rolls from the other night, and dinner was served!


Dinner Salads

It's still a billion degrees outside.  The air is so thick you need gills to walk outside.

Time to grill.

I avoided grilling yesterday, but it's difficult to avoid two days in a row.  I like my grill.

I marinated a pork tenderloin in soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, and rice wine.  Onto the grill it went.

Meanwhile, I made up a huge bowl of fruit salad.  'Tis the season.  I am definitely a summer fruit person.  Peaches, apricots, plums - and berries of every stripe - are my mainstay.  I very seldom buy fruit out of season.  Once in a blue moon I'll pick up strawberries in the winter, but I really do like my fruits to be local as possible - at least the same continent.  It just tastes better.

The pork went on a bed of greens along with an avocado and tomato.  A simple balsamic vinaigrette.  And a bit of yesterday's potato salad.

I hate the fact that I'm buying tomatoes but ours just aren't doing that great.  They really don't like the humidity, either.

There's still a lot of growing time left, so we shall see...

 


Chicken Salad Sandwiches

It's about a million degrees outside with a zillion percent humidity - give or take - so I thought it prudent to eschew grilling and cook indoors.  The cooking involved boiling potatoes for potato salad and poaching chicken for chicken salad sandwiches.

I used mini pitas for the bread and first stuffed them with some nice, ripe avocado.  Then the chicken salad.  The salad was really basic - chicken, onion, celery, pickles, mayo, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  It's hot outside and I'm still injured and on drugs.  I definitely don't want to tax myself too much.

Apricot Clafoutis for dessert.

 


Salads and Salsa

I've had a hankerin' for salsa all week.  And when our friends Lori and Ev were talking about making fresh homemade tamales yesterday, I knew that salsa had to be made today.

Fruit salsas are one of my most favorite summertime treats.  Stone fruits - peaches, apricots, plums, nectarines - along with strawberries and other berries, make for some really fine eating when mixed with onions and hot peppers.  A couple of minutes of dicing is all it takes.

I just wanted enough to top a pork tenderloin tonight, so I picked up two plums, two apricots, and two jalapeño peppers.  Jalapeños are notoriously wussie around here.

I diced up the fruit, a bit of red onion, a bit of cilantro, a squeeze of lime, and one pepper - seeds and all.  As I said, jalapeños are notoriously wussie around here.

Well wouldn't ya know...  I finally found a hot one!  A really hot one!  This one was just short of uncurling my eyelashes.  I had even taken a bite off the tip of the pepper and it didn't seem  hot at all.

I had some strawberries in the 'fridge so i chopped them up to add just a bit more sweetness and to dilute the heat a bit.

It worked.  The end result was hot - but a sweet, edible hot. And it all went perfectly onto a salad.

The salad was mixed greens with a diced zucchini and a really fresh and ripe tomato.   Victor made a creamy dressing with mayonnaise, sour cream, chili sauce, diced pickle, and grated garlic.  I grilled a pork tenderloin and set that on the greens and then added the salsa on top.

It was just spicy enough and the creamy dressing calmed everything down.

I saved the rest of the salsa for chips tomorrow.

Yum.


Burgers and Farro Salad

I'm lovin' me some farro!  I tend to like it better as a cold salad, although I've been known to make a mean risotto with it.   Versatile.  that's what I like.

Tonight, it was a simple salad.  This could be made with lentils, beans, rice, pasta, or any combination of the above.  It's just adding chopped vegetables to the grain and adding a bit of oil and vinegar.  Have some fresh herbs?!?  Chop them up and add them.  It's a clean-out-the-refrigerator salad.  Anything will work.

Trust me.

And we had burgers and fruit salad along with it...

The burger was an open-faced concoction sitting on toasted Italian bread with sliced tomatoes, pecorino toscano cheese, and bacon.  Yumlicious.

Tomorrow is going to be even more salads - and ribs.

Can't wait.


Bean Salad

Time to start cooking, again.  Except when it's this hot...  who wants to cook?

That's where canned beans come in handy.  A can of cannellini beans, a can of pink beans, chopped red onion, chopped celery, some frozen peas, herbs from the garden - oregano, basil, and lots of parsley - and a splash of red wine vinegar and olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Five minutes to prepare and enough for several meals.

The new plate is one of our Italy treasures.  We bought a couple of small platters and a nice-sized bowl for pasta or salads - not counting the dinnerware that's being made.  When in Rome...

Food pictures are going to get a lot more colorful...


Simply Salads

We are coming into my favorite time of the year - fresh fruits and vegetables season!  I am just so tired of seeing produce from New Zealand and tomatoes from Florida.  I want stuff grown and raised locally!  Or, at least, on this continent.

I know I'm getting old when I lament the fact that one can buy fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc., 365 days a year.  I remember as a kid biting into those first strawberries of the season, the first peaches, watermelon...Biting into a juicy peach and having the juice run down your arm.  Being a sticky mess - but it was okay.

It was gastronomical magic.

Food is so taken for granted, today.  We have everything available every day.  The only thing lacking is flavor.   We've paid a price to have blueberries in December and blackberries in February.  Not just the ridiculous environmental cost.  They're flavorless.  Produce is now grown for shipping and storage - not flavor and eating.

Bah.  Humbug.

So I'm bah humbug-ing but just made a salad that literally came from around the world.  The cheese was from Italy.  The beef from the midwest, lettuces and strawberries from California, tomatoes from Canada.  Pineapple from Costa Rica, blackberries from Mexico.  I have no idea where the watermelon came from - probably California.  The only thing local were the Pennsylvania eggs.  The olive oil and vinegar came from Italy, as well.

Evidently, I'm a bit of a hypocrite.

I can always say that if it wasn't there I wouldn't buy it, but... it is there.  And my not buying it isn't going to change that.

I think what I really miss is the anticipation.  Seeing the first strawberries of the season come in and having to wait - because we never bought the first ones.  They weren't ready.  And kids today will never know the joy of that first really ripe and perfect plum.  How as the months rolled along we went from one fruit to another - having your fill and then moving on to the next. With everything available all of the time, nothing is special, anymore.  It's all the same.

So I guess I'll just be my normal crotchety self and bitch and moan about the good old days.

The reality is, of course, they weren't always all that great.

But the peaches were.