Apple and Blue Cheese Coleslaw

In my mind this started as pear, blue cheese and walnut coleslaw, but something happened. The first, and most idiotic thing, was I simply forgot to ask hubby to get walnuts at the market. The second, my husband picked the very best pears the store had to offer and by golly you could play baseball with them. They were little and hard and I wasn’t about to use them. Luckily he got some wonderful cameo apples so I developed a plan B. I still want to try this with the pears, but that is for another day. However, the other thought I had was that it would be great with some pineapple and cilantro… just a thought folks.

1 bag of the coleslaw mix by fresh express (or about ¼- ½ a cabbage shredded and one carrot)
1 apple cut into small pieces
3 heavy tablespoons of blue cheese crumbled
2 tablespoons minced onion
5 sliced of bacon cooked and chopped
½ cup mayo
¼ white vinegar
1 tsp sugar
¼ c. sunflower seeds
Salt and heavy pepper

Mix all ingredients and let set for 1 hour.

Quinoa and Currant Salad

I didn’t expect this to really be a standout so I never bothered to take a picture of it. My husband chided me as he wolfed the last bits of it. When will I ever learn?

3 cups of beef broth
1.5 cup uncooked quinoa
½ cup currants
2 tbs of minced mint
Juice of ½ a lime
A good bit of pepper
Salt to taste


Bring broth to broil and throw in qinoa and currants, let cook to package instructions (mine called for 12 minutes), let cool. Add mint, lime, salt and pepper. Let stand in the refrigerator for 45 minutes to an hour.

Beet and Blue Cheese Salad

I have gotten a bit behind on the blogging of late. If it gives you any clue this is something I made January 18th. This is a really simple salad and quite pretty. I used a simple olive oil and lemon dressing, but any vinaigrettes would work.

This made four salads:

1 large beet, boil until tender and pop the skin, let cool then grate
¾ c. blue cheese
½ c. toasted walnuts
4 cups lettuce or mixed greens
thinly sliced onion

On four plates put on cup of lettuce or greens. Top with ¼ (for each plate) blue cheese and walnuts. Add onion to taste. Put ¼ of the shredded beets and top with dressing. Do not toss.

Orange and Goat Cheese Salad

I hope everyone had a great holiday and enjoyed time with friends and family. This year for Christmas Eve dinner I did a seafood lasagna. I am quite sure some of you might desert me if I write up one more thing containing orange or orange zest. I love citrus though. I believe citrus is the most underutilized powerhouse of the kitchen. Don’t believe me? Next dish you make, sweet or savory either squeeze some fresh lemon, lime or orange unto it or use a little fresh zest from one of these beauties. It just picks up a dish. It adds a layer of flavor that makes all the difference in the world. The only key with citrus is to add it at the very end. It gets bitter if cooked too long.

This is just a simple salad. It contains only lettuce (your choice), onion, toasted walnuts (pine nuts would be great too), orange and goat cheese or feta. I made this salad twice. The first time I simply used a very good EVOO and a ton of fresh pepper. For Christmas Eve dinner I used a bit of vinegar, EVOO and again a ton of fresh pepper. It was the perfect salad for a seafood meal and pretty as well.

Goat Cheese and Pine Nut Spinach

1 tbs olive oil
1 bag spinach
¼ c. soft goat cheese
2tbs pine nuts
Salt and pepper

Heat oil in skillet. Add spinach, turning often. After about 2 minutes. Add goat cheese and nuts and cook for about 1 more minute. T

The doneness of this is based on your preference. I like my spinach, just wilted. However, you might like it cooked through. I will say, if you like it a bit less done, take it off the stove before you think it is done because it will keep cooking. A good rule of thumb is about the moment you think, “One more minute and this will be done.” Take it off.

Another way of doing wilted spinach and a favorite of mine as well is:
2tbs olive oil
2 tbs balsamic vinegar
¼ blue cheese
¼ c toasted walnuts

Heat oil and vinegar in skillet. Add spinach turning often. After about 2 minutes add cheese and nuts and cook for about one more minute.

Cilantro Salad/Tabouli

1 c. bulgur
2 c. boiling water
¼ onion
2 medium tomatoes
1 bunch cilantro chopped
¼ c. lemon juice
2 tbs olive oil
Salt, pepper
Put bulgur in boil and cover with boiling water. Stir and cover bowl. Let stand about ½ hour or until water absorbed. Add remaining ingredients and refrigerate for about an hour or moor until cool.
I owe this recipe to my cousin. I was a tabouli purist. Then one time I went to visit her and she had put corn and carrots in her tabouli. How odd, I thought. It was so good. From then on I got much more experimental with what I added to my bulgur. However, I realized the other day… I always used parsley. Why… why not cilantro. I have to say, if you like cilantro…and I do, try it. You will wonder why you didn’t before.

Wild Rice Salad

My Aunt, god bless her, goes with her husband on these remote camping trips in Alaska. While I imagine lovely, as I have stated before, not my cup of tea. Lucky for me she brings back this great wild rice and I don‘t have to suffer a life without bathrooms to have it. The type she normally gets takes quite some time to cook. The type she brought back this time cooked in much less time. So good. This really came out good and is totally guilt free. If you don’t have the bulgur, brown rice would work. If you don’t have the wild rice, try the wild rice packages, just leave off the seasoning.
1/3 c. bulgur
1/3 c. wild rice
1 celery stalk chopped
2 TBS onion chopped
¼ large cucumber chopped
1 carrot chopped
Juice of one lime
1 TBS olive oil
Salt Pepper
1 tsp dill
Cook bulgur and rice and let cool. Combine and add celery, onion, cucumber and carrot. Mix. In a bowl combine lime, dill and oil. Mix and poor over rice. Salt and Pepper to taste. This doesn’t make a ton, so if you are making this for more than four adults or trying to use it for more than just a side, make double.

Fig Salad

I don’t know where you are but here it is fresh fig season. The figs that are grown locally, are not super flavorful, which is the reason for “drying” them in the oven to concentrate the flavor. The dressing is the most complicated part of this simple salad. It is really good, and very pretty. If you don’t like goats cheese, use feta.

Dressing
10 figs sliced
½ c. balsamic vinegar
¼ c, oil
2 tbs raisins
1 tsp brown sugar

Heat oven to 250. (note below this is a good time to toast walnuts) Line a baking sheet with sliced figs and cook for 1 hour. You still want them moist, you are just trying to concentrate the flavor. Put into blender of food processor. Add all other ingredients and mix until fairly smooth. This will be a thick dressing.

Salad
Bag of spinach
¼ of onion thinly sliced
¼ c. walnuts
½ c. goat cheese
3 fresh figs

Toast walnuts in oven for about 10 minutes. Set aside. Combine spinach, onion, goat cheese in a bowl. Top with walnuts and garnish with slices of the fresh fig. I would serve into bowls and put a dollop of dressing in the middle of each salad.

Sautéed Turnips

Okay this is nothing sexy other than it is new for me. I have to admit, I Vanessa, have never had a turnip. Turnip greens yes, turnip no. So I was at the store the other day and I saw these beautiful vegetables. They were this creamy white topped in a beautiful purple. They were not the size I think of turnips as being. I think of a turnip as being about the size of a baseball. These were between the size of a Clementine and a tennis ball. They were just so pretty, so I thought to myself, could something so lovely, really deserve the terrible reputation it has received? Why not try them, it is only food after all. So I did. So I got these lovely little globes at home and then realized I had NO idea what to do with them. I began to look through recipes with very, very mixed reviews. So then I thought to myself, “ now how are you going to know which recipe you would be interested in if you don’t even know what they taste like. “ So I tried a thin slice raw. Wow, this was good, but packed some heat. Imagine, radish meets horseradish. (I plan a salad with them in my future). However, people always cook them I thought, so lets see what this tastes like cooked. I sliced it thin and in the pan it went with a wee bit of olive oil. I sautéed it for about 3-4 minutes and tried it.. These were good, a bit sweet. Really a lot like sweet onion. So that is where this recipe was born. So many recipes a I read talk about the turnip overpowering the dish. I always was told it was ammonia-y. I did not find this to be the case at all, however, they were very small turnips and looked very fresh. Maybe that was the difference? But man am I glad I tried them!!
1 whole sweet onion sliced
3 small turnips
2 tbs butter
Salt/pepper
1 tbs lemon juice
Slice onions and start in skillet with half the butter and cook medium low. Meanwhile slice turnips as thin as you can and once sliced throw in skillet with the rest of the butter. Cook medium low for 5 minutes and reduce to low and cook until soft. Once done, season to taste. Sprinkle with lemon, toss to coat and serve.

Browned Butter Brussels Sprout

Say that ten times fast! These are good and a different way of having Brussels Sprouts.
4 tbs butter, browned
1 lb Brussels sprouts
Salt/pepper
1tsp lemon juice

Using the slicing side of the grater, grate Brussels Sprouts. If you don’t have a grater, starting at top and working to bottom core slice. It should resemble a coarse cole slaw. Set aside. Put butter in pan and over medium heat melt butter and keep on heat until it browns a bit. This gives a very distinctive nutty flavor to the butter, if you are not sure, under brown, over browning will just burn it. Add about a ½ tsp of salt to butter, then add sprouts and pepper and stir to coat. Cover and cook about 10 minutes or until it reaches the doneness right for you. Sprinkle with lemon juice, stir to coat and serve.