Three Bean Salad
Lovely. Bright. Colorful...
No, I'm not talking about myself. I'm describing a really good Bean Salad I made Monday. Really simple and really easy. (No, I'm still not talking about myself!)
Yes, I know all about the controversy surrounding canned beans and have at least a half-dozen different dried bean varieties in the cupboard that I use regularly. But I also have a half-dozen canned varieties. They're one of my guilty convenience-foods. Everyone needs a couple, and I always rinse them well.
Bean salads, rice or grain salads, pasta salads, can all come together the same way. The parts are all interchangeable.
Bean Salad
- 4-5 cups cooked beans, rinsed and drained (3 cans of different beans rinsed well and drained or your choice of dried beans that have been soaked, cooked, cooled, etc.)
- 2 stalks celery, chopped fine
- 1/2 cup bell pepper, chopped fine
- 1/4 cup parsley, chopped
- Fresh herbs, as available, chopped
- handful of raisins
- white balsamic vinegar
- olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
Mix beans with celery, bell pepper, parsley, and fresh herbs, if using. Drizzle with while balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Mix well. Taste, and add S&P, if required. Serve cold or at room temperature.
The beauty of salads like this is they are great for getting rid of those little leftover containers in the 'fridge. Any and all vegetables can be added. Diced cooked meats, cheeses, a handful of chopped nuts... Really... anything can go in. And the beans can easily become rice, wheat berries, lentils, pasta... Whatever you have or feel like having.
Parsley and/or other fresh herbs are really good because they add a fresh pop and really do freshen up older leftovers. And different vinegars can really change the complexion, as well. The white balsamic is great for Spring and Summer - as are fruit vinegars or white wine vinegar. Fall is perfect apple cider vinegar time, and Winter can handle a heavier balsamic.
It really is that simple!
Spring Salads
By the time March hits, I'm usually craving salads. Usually, the weather isn't cooperating and I'm still making soups and stews.
Today, the weather is cooperating. It's 72° outside. I'm making salads.
I love big ol' salads for dinner. Fresh vegetables, juicy red ripe tomatoes, and something off the grill - chicken, beef, pork... It really doesn't matter - they're all good.
Tonight's gastronomic delight started with a bed of romaine lettuce. Onto it went grilled asparagus and broccoli florettes that had been marinated in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and garlic. Very basic, very simple, very tasty. Next was an avocado half and half a New York tomato. (No Florida tomatoes in this house!!) Next went a grilled chicken breast that had been marinated in red wine, garlic, and olive oil. Again, very basic, but also very good.
And it was topped with a homemade 1000 Island dressing. We generally don't buy bottled dressings. Even the "good" ones generally have more ingredients than I need. Tonight's was mayo, ketchup, dijon mustard, chopped pickle, and a bit of cream to thin. Salt, pepper, garlic powder. The other nice thing about making your own dressing is not having numerous science experiments growing in the 'fridge. Make just what you need with ingredients already in the house and it's always fresh. And less expensive!
It actually looks like we're in for a couple more days of Spring-like weather, so I'll have to see what other warmer-weather ideas come to mind.
An Indoor Picnic
You may have heard that it's been a bit warm the past few days. It's true. It's been a bit warm. In fact, it's been downright hot. As in H-O-T.
Of course, nothing says hot back here better than high temperatures and high humidity. When you hear someone say "it's not the heat, it's the humidity" there is an element of truth to it. Right now, when we walk outside, it's like entering a primordial swamp. The biggest problem is that I no longer have gills. It would be much easier to breathe if I did.
I remember ridiculously hot 113°+ in Bakersfield as a kid. I don't remember it feeling this bad. Granted, 50 years can blur a bit of memory, but other than those 2pm-6pm hours when the sun was at its hottest, we spent most of the day outdoors. Sweet youth, indeed.
So we're living in a cave with air conditioning. Even with the dual-paned windows we installed a few years back, drapes are closed. (That big bow window in front is still single-pane. When we get a spare $15k we'll think about replacing it.) But keeping everything closed really is helping - the AC isn't running non-stop.
So cooking just isn't at the top of my list of things I want to do. Eating is. I don't think I've ever lost my appetite - ever - but cooking and especially grilling are just not going to happen.
Enter the indoor picnic!
I did do a bit of cooking for this but poaching some tuna chunks was the extent of it. Unless you count making toast.
Fresh tuna really does make a great tuna salad. I poached the chunks in white wine, water, garlic, and bay leaves for maybe 10 minutes. Just long enough to cook it through. I then chilled it, shredded it, and mixed it with celery, red onion, pickle, and mayonnaise. Really good.
The rest of the indoor picnic was slice-and-serve. Baguette, Belletoile (a triple cream, bloomy rind cheese made by the French fromagerie Hutin. Both rich and mellow in flavor, Belletoile Triple Cream is a spreadable cheese that is creamy, buttery and luscious.) plus Secchi salume, pepper jack cheese, crackers, toasted rye bread, and fresh figs.
And a beer. (NA, but it quenched the thirst.)
We don't graze like this often enough. I really do like having a variety of fun foods on the table, but get into that meat-starch-vegetable rut way too often.
Bein' that this weather isn't going anywhere soon, I may have to think up a few more picnic ideas. I know those candied cherry tomatoes from the other night would be perfect with a spread like this.
Time to put the thinking cap on...
In the meantime, there's ice cream for dessert.
Summer Salads
I've been going a little overboard on the summer fruits... Melon, raspberries, blackberries, peaches,, nectarines, blueberries... There's only the two of us and even we can only eat so much!
I knew I had to get a bit more creative, so dinner tonight was salads with melon and berries and grapes, hard cooked eggs, artichoke hearts, grilled flank steak, and a quick homemade 1000 Island dressing.
The dressing was just mayonnaise, sour cream, ketchup, and dill pickle relish. Nothing else.
And everything was on a bed of crunchy iceberg lettuce. And for all of you out there who would never - ever - sully your plate with lowly, non-nutritious iceberg lettuce... it has the exact same nutritional values as romaine. Think about it next time you pick up those over-priced packages of romaine hearts.
We definitely needed to do salads tonight because I made a chocolate raspberry torte for dessert.
I still have to put it all together but it should be ready in time for Final Jeaopardy!
Summertime Salads
When I got into the car after work today, the car thermometer read 107°. The thermometer in the back yard hit 102°. (It's always in the shade - never gets direct sunlight.) The desktop weather widget read 98°. And it's so muggy you can drink the air.
Welcome to mid-August.
Once again, we have gone from winter to summer without ever really seeing spring. No fair. Spring is my favorite season. Gently warming after the freezing winter months - and months - it's supposed to slowly acclimate us to the unbearableness that is summer.
Except it never seems to happen that way.
I admit to being a weather wuss. When it gets this hot, I don't want to do anything. I turn into a complete slug. Of course, we still have to eat (it takes a lot of work to maintain these figures!) but I just don't feel like getting über-creative.
Time for salads.
Salads are great. They can be clean-out-the-refrigerator or planned in advance. Or a combination of the two.
Tonight's was the latter.
Happy Hal's Black Bean Bruschetta, sliced tomatoes, hard-cooked eggs, avocado, marinated artichoke hearts, and thin slivers of asiago cheese, topped with a grilled chicken breast and a simple red wine vinaigrette. And croutons.
Possible thunderstorms tonight as it cools down to the mid-70's. And only 90° tomorrow. Downright balmy.
Oh well... There's nectarine and apricot crisp and vanilla ice cream for dessert later on.
That should make everything better...
The Royal Salad
I think I was almost the only person who didn't get up in the middle of the night to watch The Wedding.
I just kinda felt the same way I do about any strangers wedding... I wish them luck, and all, but it's not like I have a personal stake in any of it. I mean, it's fairly unlikely that we'll be running into them at the gym any time soon, ya know?!?
But it was definitely all the buzz at work. Early in the day two women were talking and one of them was sobbing - sobbing - because Diana wasn't there to see it. I have to admit that I though that to be just a tad extreme.
Maybe it's just that I'm a bit bitter because they got to celebrate their wedding at Westminster Abbey, officiated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in front of a world-wide audience, and it's recognized as legal throughout the world. Our own wedding was slightly less elaborate - no one wore hats - and is recognized in six states and the District of Columbia. I wouldn't want to be them - I couldn't imagine being hounded by the paparazzi 24/7 - but I wouldn't mind our marriage being as legal as theirs.
So we go from Royal Wedding to Royal Salad.
We had almost Spring-like weather today and salads and greens were calling my name. This particular one started with a bed of greens and sliced strawberries, blackberries, and cucumber on one end, a caprese salad - tomato, fresh mozzarella, and basil - on the other, sauteed belgian endive, micro greens, and thinly-sliced grilled beef. The dressing was strawberry white balsamic vinegar, olive oil, herbs d'Provence, salt and pepper.
As for the royal couple, the palace said guests would be served a selection of canapes, including:
- Cornish crab salad on lemon blini
- Pressed duck terrine with fruit chutney
- Roulade of goats' cheese with caramelised walnuts
- Assortment of palmiers and cheese straws
- Scottish smoked salmon rose on beetroot blini
- Miniature watercress and asparagus tart
- Poached asparagus spears with Hollandaise sauce
- Quails eggs with celery salt
- Scottish langoustines with lemon mayonnaise pressed confit of pork belly with crayfish and crackling
- Wild mushroom and celeriac chausson
- Bubble and squeak with confit shoulder of lamb
- Grain mustard and honey-glazed chipolatas
- Smoked haddock fishcake with pea guacamole
- Miniature Yorkshire pudding with roast fillet of beef and horseradish mousse
- Gateau opera
- Blood orange pate de fruit
- Raspberry financier
- Rhubarb creme brulee tartlet
- Passionfruit praline
- White chocolate ganache truffle
- Milk chocolate praline with nuts
- Dark chocolate ganache truffle
Buckingham Palace added that guests would be served Pol Roger NV brut reserve champagne - along with other soft and alcoholic drinks.
I'm equally glad I no longer do catering.
Birthday Lobster Salad
It's Victor's Birthday, today. With all the things we've done this month - from new granite counters to iPads and family parties, today is almost anti-climatic. I got the truck inspected (Ka-CHING!) and made a Dr appointment for next week, and Victor is working late. Almost like a normal day around here.
But I did make a fun screen-saver, call, sing, and bring home flowers. And pulled a couple of lobster tails out of the freezer. (Yes, we had lobster tails in our freezer. Julia Child always spoke of having a well-stocked larder.)
I thought of a dozen different things to do with them, but salads really were just the thing for dinner. It's gone from winter to summer overnight. At almost 80° the weather just screamed fresh fruits and vegetables.
The lobster salad, itself, was pretty basic... I cooked the tails and chopped them and added lemon zest, lemon juice, onion, garlic, celery, pickle, mayo, salt, and pepper. Very simple. I wanted to still be able to taste a bit of lobster in them.
The salad was greens, blueberry chevre, tomato, cucumber, strawberries, and blackberries. Dressing was strawberry white balsamic vinegar, grapeseed oil, salt, pepper, and a bit of thyme.
Really light, bright, and flavorful.
I love the fact that we can be both extravagant and low-key. It's just fun to be fun.
In an hour or so, we have Carrot Cake that need to be consumed. And three types of ice cream. Ice cream is just about my favorite food group. And it's Victor's birthday, after all.
Springtime Salads
My body is saying "thank you" a million times over tonight. It's finally salad weather.
I know and understand that in today's world of produce being grown and flown in from all over the planet, I can have a salad any time I want. Problem is, when it's cold outside, I don't want to eat a salad. I want soups and stews and homemade bread and casseroles and good things like that. But as the temperature rises the thought of soup gives way to leafy greens and anything else I can think of to top them.
Tonight it was a grilled pork tenderloin.
I marinated the tenderloin in the Honey Clementine BBQ Sauce I made earlier, and grilled it from the top rack of the grill. Came out great.
The Honey Clementine Salad Dressing worked perfectly.
So... off-topic a bit... When did "wax beans" start getting called "Yellow Beans?" I was surprised to see them labeled that way at the produce store, today. And when did "string beans" lose their string?!? I haven't been paying attention!
I blanced the two types of beans and a bit of broccoli, boiled a couple of eggs, sliced a tomato and chopped a green onion. All on a bed of mixed greens.
We're going to be seeing more and more of these as the months progress...
Who knows... maybe I'll even drop a pound or two.
It could happen.
Salads and Wedding Bell Dreams
21 months ago Proposition 8 put a halt to our wedding in my hometown of San Francisco. Everything was planned, invitations had been sent, the whole family was ready and waiting. And then the impossible happened. Proposition 8 passed by a slim margin. Our wedding was not to be.
Regular readers will recall our train trip from San Fransisco back here to Pennsylvania - what was supposed to be our honeymoon trip. We made the best of it - hell, we had already paid for it - but it was bittersweet.
Disappointment doesn't begin to describe our feelings. Bitter and angry were more like it. And I've been carrying that bitterness and anger around since November 4, 2008.
Today I finally felt a bit of that bitterness and anger leave... 9th Circuit District Court Judge Vaughn Walker issued a 136 page decision overturning Proposition 8.
While it's far from over, his ruling gave me back a feeling of dignity and pride that was ripped away from me by the original vote.
Most of you out there probably don't really grasp what it is like to have your life put up to popular vote. It's a feeling that is pretty indescribable. And it is not something I would ever wish upon another. Judge walker stated the same thing in his decision:
Perhaps the most important political finding that Walker made was his conclusion that the fact that Prop 8 passed as a voter initiative was irrelevant as "fundamental rights may not be submitted to [a] vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections."
I hope this continues to hold true. I'm getting too old for this stuff.
And I write about this today - in my food blog - because for the past almost 5 years I've been writing this, the focus has always been about food and family. Both passions of mine. Food and Family. Family and Food. Our Family.
I think it's quite obvious that Victor and I are probably more married than the majority of the heterosexual population. But while we have the same obligations as the rest of the population - paying our bills, our taxes, concern over an aging parent, the lack of that marriage certificate has seriously hampered our legal status as a couple. From hospital visitation to health insurance, to rights of survivorship, we have to legally plan for every sort of situation - and still face the very real prospect of our legal forms being ignored.
How many of you married people out there had to submit your marriage certificate to add your spouse or children to your medical plan?!? None, right?!? We have to not only submit domestic partner registration, we also have to pay tax on the cost of the insurance. So much for separate but equal.
So... we celebrate today's ruling the best way we know how... with a simple salad. Grilled steak atop greens with homegrown tomatoes, peaches, plums, black grapes, avocado, bean salad, and a homemade ranch dressing.
Ranch Dressing
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp minced parsley
- salt and pepper
Mix everything together and chill.
And then we had some garlic bread made from yesterday's loaf of homemade bread. Because it is all about food and family, family and food.
And legal recognition.
Chicken and Sweet Potatoes
I've been dreaming of Sweet Potatoes. They're one of my favorite foods - yet, like a lot of things, they tend to get overlooked. They're almost always in the house - and almost always just get popped into the oven and baked. Until tonight.
I actually peeled one, sliced it thin, and made a sort of galette out of it. I'm going to eventually fry some sweet potatoes, I know. But not tonight.
Sweet Potato Galette
- 1 large sweet potato
- 3 tbsp butter, divided
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 3 tbsp flour
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- salt and pepper, to taste
Peel potato and slice thin. Mix potatoes in bowl with brown sugar, spices, and flour. Mix well. Add 2 tbsp melted butter and mix.
Melt 1 tbsp butter in an 8" skillet and layer potatoes evenly, overlapping in concentric circles.
Press down, cover with foil, and place a 425° oven for about 45 minutes. Remove foil for last 15 minutes of cooking.
The cicken was marinated in olive oil, red wine, garlic, salt, pepper, and herbs d'Provence and then grilled over indirect heat for about 45 minutes.
I made the bean salad yesterday.
Fresh Bean Salad
- 1 1/2 cups shelled cranberry beans (or a can of beans of your choice, rinsed and drained)
- several ounces of fresh green beans, trimmed
- 1/2 red onion, sliced
- 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- fresh basil
- fresh oregano
- salt and pepper, to taste
Cook beans until soft. Blanch green beans. Place both in ice water to stop cooking and quickly chill.
Drain. Mix in bowl with remaining ingredients. Serve chilled or at room temperature.
And I used up the last of the bread dough in the 'fridge for a fresh loaf of bread.
Time to mix up a new batch tomorrow!
Chicken Salads and Homemade Bread
When I cooked yesterday's chicken, I had tonight's dinner in mind. I knew I was going to make salads - I just wasn't sure what was going to be in (or on) them.
Cold chicken started me thinking about ham. Victor had boiled some eggs, so A Cobb-type salad was formulating. And then some ravioli, or tortellini, or something...
I settled on perline pasta mixed with a red pepper and eggplant dip I had in the cabinet. Quick and easy pasta salad.
The bread was a take on the no-knead breads I've been making for a while. I finally got a copy of the actual book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day. (It was a freebie using Zoom Panel points.)
Fun.
There was a recipe for a rustic bread using whole wheat and rye flour. Since I just happened to have both in the cabinet, I made a half-batch of the dough last night. When I got home today, I formed the loaf, put it outside into Mother Nature's proofing box, and in 30 minutes it was in the oven!
Half-Batch Rustic Bread
- 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
- 1-1/2 tbsp yeast (1 packet)
- 3/4 tbsp kosher salt salt
- 3 cups flour
- 1/4 cup rye flour
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
Mix all ingredients. Let proof about 2 hours.
Refrigerate. (Dough is ready at this point but handles better when chilled.)
Preheat oven to 450°.
Form grapefruit-sized ball of dough into loaf.
Let rise about 30 minutes.
Bake for 25 minutes.
Cool before slicing.
It was pretty good!
A Green Goddess and a Loose Loaf
A few days ago, a wonderful friend of ours commented that she had found Green Goddess salad dressing at her little corner grocer in her even smaller small town. For those of us with access to mega-supermarkets and specialty food stores, galore, finding a bottle of salad dressing probably wouldn't make the list of exciting things that happened, today. But I remember being up at the north shore of Tahoe back in the '70s and being held hostage to what the local Safeway had to offer. We actually did our big shopping down in Reno because the pickin's were so slim. And Reno was no gourmet metropolis.
Now... we all know that the odds of me buying a bottle of salad dressing today are between slim and none. But that Green Goddess kept calling to me. I honestly couldn't tell you the last time I had Green Goddess dressing. It may have been out of a bottle in Tahoe.
I had to make some.
It's a really basic, simple dressing - mayonnaise based - that anyone can whip up in a minute or two. And I have to tell ya. This one just rocked.
I took a couple of liberties with the recipe - how unusual - but I didn't have tarragon vinegar or chives. I used white wine vinegar and a whole green onion with all the green top. And dried tarragon.
We get anchovy paste in a tube and keep it in the 'fridge for those few times when I need one or two anchovies. But canned anchovies in oil will keep indefinitely in a little tupperware container.
Here ya go:
Green Goddess Dressing
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 2 anchovy fillets
- 1/2 green onion
- 1 tsp parsley
- 1 tsp chives
- 1-1/2 tsp tarragon vinegar
- 1/2 tsp fresh tarragon
Place everything in the bowl of a small food processor or blender. Mix well.
This would also work great as a dip!
Yum.
I put it on iceberg lettuce salads with grilled chicken breasts. I marinated the chicken in a bit of olive oil and herbs d' Provence since I was using the tarragon in the dressing.
Oh... and for all of you who eschew iceberg lettuce because it's so common and low on the nutrition scale but buy romaine hearts, butter lettuce, greenleaf, etc?!? Guess what?!? None of those have any nutritional value, either. Sorry to burst your bubble.
And then I baked the last loaf of bread from the most recent batch of no-knead dough. I do not know what was up with this batch, but it was the wettest dough I have ever made. I even added an extra cup of flour to no avail. It was just l-o-o-s-e.
This loaf glued itself to the peel and refused to come off. Half-in and half-out of the oven, I just scraped it off with my hands and piled it on top of itself.
It came out tasting great!