A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Home-Made Buttermilk Herb (Ranch) Dressing

 I know that in some circles "ranch" dressing or dip is considered passe' but, to me, it ranks up there will all my favorite comfort foods like mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, chicken pot pie, and all the rest of the delicious, non-pretensious things that are so lovely and comforting to eat.  I do admit, though, that ranch dressing out a bottle from a grocer's shelf doesn't thrill me but making it home-made with fresh herbs is definitely the ticket! 

It's also much better for you.  Think about it.  Sure, it's a little more work to put the ingredients together but when you make it from scratch, including the mayo, you're talking about eating eggs, cold-pressed oil, buttermilk, dill, parsley, garlic, etc., all whole foods  not tons of chemicals and preservatives. That, and the fresh creamy herby taste make it worth every one of those 15 minute spent preparing it.

Home-Made Mayonnaise in the Blender in 5 Minutes; Garlic & Parsley Aioli 1 More Minute

I've often talked about what rotten brats my brothers and sister and I were as kids, not because we were inherently mean, but because we were so spoiled by our Mom's creativity and know-how in the kitchen.  As an adult, I appreciate the summers we spent gardening and all the home-made great food we ate but as kids we were the frowny faces who whined to our cake-decorator Mom "Please, anything for my birthday but cake with decorator frosting!" See? Brats!

We also had home-made pancakes (not from Bisquick or a mix), home-made caramel sauce for our ice cream, and home-made mayonnaise on our sandwiches. Did we appreciate it?  No! We whined for Bisquick pancakes, white store bread, caramel sauce that comes in a Smuckers jar, and Miracle Whip!

I laugh now, and hope she's laughing in Heaven with the unappreciated Moms!

I've been making a lot of buttermilk herb (ranch) dressing lately and since that's all from scratch, it seemed a shame to keep using commercially made mayo (I'm a Hellman's girl) when I know how to and how easy it easy to make home-made mayo before proceeding to the buttermilk dressing stage.  Mayo, like all dressings, is a relatively simple concept with a variety of ingredients that can be used for slightly different tastes. I'll give the basic recipe and add some of the ingredients that can be exchanged for the basics to 'fancy up" the basic eggy, creamy, rich concoction that is mayonnaise. I may not have appreciated it as a kid but I do now, Mom!

American Classics: Julia Child's Deluxe Chicken or Turkey Salad

 

Nobody's perfect. We all have the opportunity to learn and grow our skills in everything in life.  Gene has admitted a couple of times over the years that my chicken salad is, well, a little boring.  He likes the way I make potato salad, devilled eggs, and tuna salad, but says my chicken salad is "just okay".  Not that he's a jerk. He's my most enthusiastic supporter and eater, and over 25 years my cooking has put 20 lbs on his once too-skinny frame, so I take no offense.  He loves my cooking but I took this as an opportunity to improve my skills.

I added a rotisserie chicken to his grocery list this weekend while I was working, just for this purpose, and decided to go back to the basics and re-learn how to make a good, basic, no frills, chicken salad.  Who better than Julia Child to teach me? 

After reading over a dozen recipes that were either similar to my way or added more frills (pineapple, grapes, nuts, pasta, etc) than I wanted for a classic dish, I hit upon Julia Child's "Deluxe Chicken or Turkey Salad from her book The Way to Cook.  The ingredients are basic but the preparation is not.  Julia uses a two-step method with a ten minute recess that does, indeed, produce a classic, no frills, but delicious and flavorful chicken salad perfect for the classic all-American "Iron Kids" sandwich.  With Julia's method, she tosses the chopped meat with olive oil, herbs, and seasonings, and lets those ingredients get comfy with each other before coming back and binding it together with the mayo.  The two step method makes a world of difference in how the final dish's flavor resonates. The chicken and herb flavors take the lead and happen to be bound together with mayo rather than mayo flavor dominating.  Adding the fruit, nuts, etc, would also work well with this recipe but for those like my hubs who like it on the "classic" side, this is the recipe and method we'll be using, and he agrees. (Personally, I love the walnuts in it--I love the crunch!)

In four days, August 15th will be the 100th anniversary of Julia Child's birth. We are all better cooks for her enthusiasm and her career. Thank You, Julia!

Cauliflower Salad with Grapes

If you like the broccoli raisin salad, you'll like this, it's very similar.  I created it out of desperation. With only two of us in house, it's hard to make batches of things I can't eat by myself if the hubs doesn't care for it.  Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying he's super picky or that he won't try new things, he just doesn't like broccoli.  But. What I have found is that when I substitute cauliflower in some of my favorite broccoli recipes, he loves it as much as I do.

For me, I love both broccoli and cauliflower so this is another great salad with that sweet, sour, creamy, bacon smoky flavor combination I crave.

 

 

Appetizers with Style: Christmas Tree Veggie Plate

My friend, Jennifer, sent me a pic of the appetizer plate she made for a Christmas work party. I LOVE this!  What a great way to turn a simple veggie tray into a festive wrok of art!

It's as straight-forward as it looks: She halved one broccoli spear, leaving about 3 inches of "trunk" and then laid in bite-sized floret bites to form the tree itself.  Next she decorated with yellow pepper slices for garland and then added cherry tomato ornaments. The final touch is a treetop star cut out of yellow pepper using a small cookie/hors d'oeuvre cutter.

Thanks for sharing, Jenn!

 

 

 

Auntie's Fruited Salad with Orange Marmalade Vinaigrette

 

Isn't Auntie Miranda's salad for Dexter Dinner Premiere beautiful?  I'll let her tell you in her own words how she did it from the email she sent me explaining the PERFECT dressing:

 

"On the salad dressing - I knew that I was going to put mandarin oranges in the salad - so I did a Rachel Ray trick when I made the dressing (at home).  I started with a couple of tablespoons of orange marmalade and melted it in the microwave.  I added about a tablespoon of Dijon mustard and a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, salt, and pepper.  I added about a quarter of a cup of EVOO....and here's a trick I learned from Ann the other day.  Rachel always whisks her EVOO in - but I'm like Ann.  When I do that I never get a very good emulsion.  So I put it in the jar and shook it up and it emulsified in no time.

 

You can change out the marmalade to match whatever fruit you're going to put in your salad - strawberry, pineapple, grape, etc.  I just like a little sweetness in the dressing if you're going to put fruit in the salad."

Thanks Auntie!

Eat Clean Diet: Cole Slaw

I'm crediting this recipe to Eat Clean Diet. I could have sworn I found it, or something very similar, in either one of the ECD books/cookbooks or on the ECD web site, but going back, I can't for the life of me find it again.  Wherever in my brain, on the net, or in an ECD book it came from, this is what I wrote down so I know wherever the original recipe came from, this is how I ended up making it.

Let me give a caveat. This is not your grandmother's cole slaw but it is very good, much cleaner and crisper tasting, but you have to go into it not expecting the same mayo-tongue feel.  The bite of the yogurt is a perfect match with the other ingredients and it was wonderful on top of a pulled pork sandwich and as a side to meatloaf. It's lightness and bite worked in its favor with the heavier meat entrees I ate it with.

Wilted Lettuce: A Healthy Update to a Classic Salad

I think of this salad as "The Nannie" salad. Not Fran Drescher, but MY Nannie, my grandmother. I don't remember my mom making it very often but I remember my grandmother making it all the time.  As a kid I thought it was pretty good, you know, for something that was supposed to be good for me. I loved the bite of the vinegar, the sweet of the sugar, and trying to hog (I know, bad pun) all the crunchy, salty bacon pieces out of it. Now I love it for all those reasons plus the emotion that it is one of the defining salads of spring, not to mention that by the time you wilt a bucketful of lettuce I feel so good about myself for eating that huge vegetable serving without even realizing it had I not been the one to wilt it.

However, for all the healthy goodness of the fresh lettuces, the big no-no to this salad is the half pound of bacon my grandmother fried to use the grease to make it.  Last night at dinner, after watching me prepare this with olive oil as a base, Gene commented "My grandmother used bacon grease for this."  I said "So did mine but our grandmothers didn't have your heart disease and they didn't know better."  He laughed and said "It was just an observation" and he left nary a leaf in his bowl when he was done so I guess olive oil works just fine.

I admit I love the bacon too but there has to be a better, healthier way.  There is. It's easy if you substitute olive oil for the bacon grease and use Hormel or Oscar Meyer real bacon pieces for the crunch and flavor.  The packaged cooked bacon pieces are real, just the lean parts of the bacon and they only have 25 calories and 1 gram of fat per tablespoon.  It's a substitute I can definitely live better with.

Lemon Cream Dressing

 

A friend who is on a low oxalate diet for kidney stones gave me this salad dressing recipe to try out and it's a winner. I like that it has the richness of a creamy dressing without being heavy and the brightness of a vinaigrette, which makes it perfect over the wonderful assorted greens I brought home from the CSA Tuesday.

Click for the Honey-Mustard Curry Chicken recipe, one of Gene's all-time favorites.

Did You Eat Your New Year's Day Black-eyed Peas? Cowboy Caviar

I love traditions and so for years I've tried to be a good little New Year's girl and eat my black-eyed peas but the truth is I don't really like 'em.  Until now. I finally found a recipe that I feel like enhances the taste so that I'm willing to down them not only on New Year's Day but on other days of the year as well.

The recipe is called Cowboy Caviar and there are a million variations. This is mine. I tailored the idea of a cold bean salad to accommodate my personal tastes and to incorporate some of my new eating principles.  There are beans, veggies, and olive oil, a trifecta of good for the body and a treat for the tastebuds.  I served this as a side dish on New Year's Eve but we also played around with it as a salsa-type appetizer eaten with tortilla chips, and I mixed some with some cooked brown rice I had in the fridge that I'll be taking in my lunch box at times this year as an entree and eating for lunch on New Year's Day today.  Yummy and versatile.