Heritage Tomato Salad

For those of you who don’t know what heritage tomatoes are or those who haven’t tried them yet;  a word of caution.  You probably won’t experience a “WOW” moment.  While some of these tomatoes are very good; most are just over-priced.  Having said that, they look really great in a salad.  This is one of those salads that adds color to your meal and provides a chance to add your own ideas; adding your special touch to everything from burgers to fresh grilled fish.

Don’t have feta, add blue cheese or shaved Romano.  Like olives, add them; like capers add them.  Got some bread laying around, make croutons and add them.  Add grilled chicken, shrimp or steak for a great lunch.  Support your local Farmers’ Market and buy some tomatoes.

More salads and great meal ideas at emealsforyou.com

Spinach Salad

This was the weekend of  “food”.  The trip to NJ to pick up my mother-in-law went without any problems with the exception of an hour delay on Rt. 70 for a truck accident.  We planned the meals in advance; after all this is a meal planning website,  so in line with my mother-in-laws love of everything “salad”  they were a big part of the weekend.  We started with a refreshing Watermelon Salad on Friday with grilled burgers.  Saturday was a 2 salad day with an Italian Salad with lunch and the Spinach Salad with the dinner of Chicken Piccata.  Rounding out the weekend was a wonderful Caesar Salad with grilled porterhouse steaks; served with a Gorgonzola cheese sauce.

The spinach salad is always a favorite with the tart dressing mingling with the sweet sour cranberries and toasted pecans.  My brother-in-law came out to spend some time with us and drove my mother-in-law back to NJ.  As a special treat for their ride back I made, you guessed it, chicken salad sandwiches.

Spinach Salad

Lightly toast pecans. Place all ingredients in a large bowl and toss.

Catch these salad ideas along with a bunch more at emealsforyou.com.

Watermelon Salad

Do you love watermelon but just think it may be time to try it in a different way?  This recipe is for those who are looking for a refreshing salad to serve on a hot summer’s eve or maybe an easy lunch on the deck served with some homemade muffins.  Either way it is a great way to get the kids eating salads and good enough to serve as a surprise for guests.  Quick to make and easy to serve this is one I know is a keeper.

For those watermelon “freaks”  out there try the Watermelon Gazpacho with Crab Salad at emealsforyou.com

Warm Chicken Salad

It was warm in the Ohio Valley this weekend; and after a couple of days of running errands we settled in for a nice, light dinner on Sunday.  Trying to figure out what we felt like proved difficult until I mentioned a Warm Chicken Salad, something we have in the summer and always find just right.

There is something special about a nice big salad topped off with a few pieces of warm chicken.  Just the right amount of food to keep us happy without the heavy feeling of over-doing it on a warm night.  Besides, we had room for a Klondike Bar a few hours later.

Caesar Salad

We are just back from our quarterly trip to New Jersey.  As is the custom we ended our stay with the traditional T-bone steak dinner including the always demanded Caesar Salad.  I have made the ” Julie Child’s” caesar in the past but like the ease and freshness of this salad.  The charm of the old-fashioned Caesar Salad was that in most good restaurants the salad was made tableside, by a waiter who would take great pride in preparing the salad as a robust performance in the culinary arts.  Alas, it has gone the way of Crepe Suzettes, Dover Sole and Steak Diane.

I avoid anchovies, those hairy little fish, as I call them and the customary raw egg.  I find they are not needed to make a salad that never fails to satisfy my guests.  Probably best served with a side order of breath mints; if you like garlic like we do.  Maybe you could try making it tableside as well.

Caesar Salad

In a large bowl place oil, lemon juice and garlic, press garlic into bowl with a wooden spoon to distribute. Whisk ingredients together. Cut baguette into 1/4 inch slices, spray with PAM and place in a 350-degree oven for 4 minutes or until gold brown. Tear (don’t cut) lettuce leaves into small pieces and place in bowl on top of dressing. When you are ready to serve, toss salad and add romano and toss again and add croutons broken into halves.

Chef Rick tells me he must have anchovies, if your wish, add four anchovy filets to the bowl with the oil, garlic and lemon.

More salad ideas and the Steak Diane recipe at emealsforyou.com.

Panzanella Salad

We have a salad with just about every dinner meal, so making different salads is important.  We are on our second planting of lettuce in the garden and the tomatoes are just now turning; but I found some great plum tomatoes at the market.  So when  my wife asked if we could have a Panzanella salad for dinner; I was more than ready.

Panzanella salad can incorporate any number of ingredients.  Make it with fresh veggies, grilled yellow squash or even substitute canned tomatoes.  Add capers, olives or just about anything else in the fridge. Toast the bread if it is too soft or fresh.  This works well when you forget to put the bread in a bag after dinner the night before and now you have all this stale bread laying around.  Need to fill those teenage boys up, this is the thing; using inexpensive ingredients and they will be eating veggies without complaining.

Give this a try and I bet you will come back for more.

Roasted Beet and Pear Salad

This weekend was a “soup” weekend.  The weather is changing and as Fall arrives I start to think about soups.  Once I get into this mode I usually don’t stop until I either run out of room in the freezer or run out of containers to put the soup in.  So on Saturday we had our choice of Chicken Noodle, Leek and Potato or French Onion soup.  The chicken noddle is especially good to make and have in the freezer during this flu season.  Nothing says neighborly like a container of chicken soup delivered to a neighbor who is down with the sniffles.

I needed a few things to put a large pot of vegetable soup simmering on the stove so off we went on Sunday to the market.  Long story short we got what I needed for the soup and at the same time I picked up some beets and pears.  I had this thought rolling around in my head, and yes I know this is strange, about putting roasted beets, pears and watercress together for a wonderfully attractive and deliciously light salad.  The beets take awhile to roast so you have to think about this in advance but it was well worth the effort.  The secret is to slice both the beets and the pears as thinly as you can, I use a cheap mandolin, but if you take your time, a very sharp knife will work just as well.  Don’t tell the kids that the pretty “fruit” in the salad are beets and you just may slip this one by them.

In line with a recent post Why We Cook – A Rant I wanted to add surprise to the equation. Sometimes it’s fun to add something to the meal that is unexpected, something that appears to be one thing and winds up being a totally unexpected treat.  One night in New Jersey I made seckel pears.  These are small pears that are only available in the early fall, roasted with goat cheese, black pepper and honey as an appetizer for a group of macho cops, EMT’s and RN’s.  The unexpected taste of the tart pears with the smooth goat cheese and sweet honey was a huge hit.  The fresh cracked pepper added to the visual.  These are similar to the full size pears I make for dessert but the small size makes them ideal as a quick and unexpected appetizer.

Another visual trick is my watermelon salad.  Served in a large bowl with other various salads on a buffet, the guest assume that it is a tomato salad.  Watching the look on their faces as they popped the watermelon into their mouths was very satisfying.  The combination of crisp sweet watermelon with the salty feta cheese, pinenuts and red onion makes a wonderful surprise addition to any meal.  Now that watermelon is available all year long; this is not just a summer treat.  Once the word got around about the watermelon salad it completely disappeared in a matter of minutes.

So, mix it up a little, try something different and surprise your guest.

Roasted Corn Relish

A couple of nights before we left New Jersey last week my mother-in-law decided we should have some easy, comfort food.  She suggested burgers and said, “dress them up any way you wish.”  Now I like burgers, fries and a salad but the “guest list” kept growing and I wanted to make a few things that would stand out.  For the non-meat eaters I made some Salmon Burgers but the meal still lacked that one surprise dish that makes people happy.

Checking out the local market I found some avocados and fresh corn, the last of the season and decided that a roasted corn relish might just be the right thing, besides I had the grill fired up for the burgers anyway.  My goal was also to use up all the “leftover” desserts, flourless chocolate cake, profiteroles with hot fudge sauce and some cheese cake.  My sister-in-law finished the leftover bourbon Gelato, sneaking it in the kitchen so no one would see her.  Anyway, I thought the desserts would be the hit but seems the roasted corn relish caught everyones’s taste buds.  Enjoy the last corn of the season and why not in a delicious relish.

Roasted Corn Relish

Husk corn, roast on grill for 7 -9 minutes until browned but not burnt. Cut corn from cob. Cut tomatoes in half, cut pepper, mangoes, and avocados into bite size pieces. Slice onion very thinly. Place all in a bowl. Add oil, lime, cilantro and vinegar. Stir and let marinate for 1/2 hour. Salt and pepper to taste.

Note: To remove corn from cob try using a bundt (tube cake) pan, place the pan right side up on the counter, place ear of corn resting in hole in middle of the pan. Use a sharp knife to cut kernels from cob; the bowl of the bundt pan will catch all the corn.

Note: Buy mangoes and avocados that are not fully ripe, they will be easier to cut. Put limejuice on avocados as soon as possible to avoid them turning brown.

Heritage Tomato Salad

I am a little late in getting this post written, I have been in New Jersey doing some of my mother-in-law’s (to do list) and cooking up a storm for family and friends. Caesar salads, Salmon Roulades and many of the “usual” suspects have been flying out of the kitchen.  My Chicken Paprikash was especially good last night.

We had an interesting dessert the other night.  I started out making Vanilla Gelato and when I got to the part where I am supposed to add the vanilla I found out my mother- in-law was out of vanilla.  I had the custard in the pan so I reached for the honey and good ole Jack Daniels.  A gurb of the honey and a spritz of the Jack and we were in business.  We later found a large bottle of vanilla in the cupboard but my wife says forget the Vanilla Gelato and go with the Jack Daniels gelato every time.

Sadly it is the end of summer and soon we will be getting into the Fall cooking season, not that I don’t like all the soups, stews et al that goes with cooler weather; just that I really like the summer veggies, especially the tomatoes.  Get out and find those last of the season heirloom tomatoes and put together a quick and really good salad to celebrate the good tastes of the summer.