Busy Month…

Well, it’s going to be a busy next few weeks, so I’m not sure how much I’ll be food grooving it. My parents are bringing my nephew out for a visit on Thursday, and our plans include a small league ball game, checking out the big lake, going to a water park and celebrating [...]

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Caprese Salad…

One of my absolute favorite dishes this time of year is an Insalata Caprese style salad. I use fresh basil from my balcony garden, along with fresh tomatoes from the local farm market. Add some fresh mozzarella cheese and a drizzle of olive oil… Mmmmm! I do prefer to chop and cube my ingredients, but that’s just me.

Another variation that I adore adds grilled eggplant. In this dish, I slice the ingredients and layer them on pieces of crusty bread. It’s also good warmed a bit under the broiler… just enough the melt the mozzarella slightly. I’ll have to make it that way soon!

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Nothing New…

I didn’t originally plan on doing much, if any, cooking today. But in the car this morning on the way home, I was trying to figure out what I might be able to make for dinner this evening… an extra bonus would be if there was enough for some lunches too for the next [...]

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Bean Cheddar Tomato Lime Salad…

I was planning on making this salad of sorts the other night, when I discovered that I did not have any black beans. The horror! Black beans really are the one requirement for this dish, in my mind at least. So, it went unmade, though it’s on my list for soon. Here’s a repost of this recipe from last year…

This picture may look a bit cheese-heavy, but it’s really not. It was just the last ingredient I added before snapping the pic, and apparently I could have done a bit more mixing. I’ve made many variations of the original recipe over the years, and I always love it. I’m not sure where I found it at first… the recipe is currently written on a lime-and-oil stained index card. I think that’s the mark of a truly good recipe… where it’s written down is speckled with smatterings of the ingredients used therein. Anyway, here’s the original recipe, source unknown, with a few of my variations to follow:

Three-Bean Cheddar Salad with Lime Dressing

• 1/4 cup Lime Juice
• 1/3 cup Olive Oil
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/4 tsp Ground Red Pepper
• 6 cups Mixed Greens
• 1 can Black Beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can Cannellini Beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can Kidney Beans, rinsed and drained
• 3 Plum Tomatoes, diced
• 1 Red Pepper, diced
• 1/2 cup Green Onions, minced
• 1 Jalapeno Pepper, minced (I’m a heat-lightweight, so I substitute diced Green Chilies here)
• 8-oz. Sharp Cheddar Cheese, cubed (Smoked Cheddar or Smoked Gouda is also quite tasty)
• 1/4 cup Cilantro, chopped

1. In a large bowl, whisk together lime juice, olive oil, salt and ground red pepper.

2. In a separate bowl, toss salad mix with 2 Tbsp of the lime juice mixture.

3. Stir beans, tomatoes, pepper, green onions, jalapeno, cheese and cilantro into remaining lime juice mixture. Place greens on each plate, and top with three-bean cheddar salad.

Variations:

• I have really come to enjoy replacing the mixed greens with Brown Rice. In fact, it’s probably been a few years since I’ve made this as a salad with greens. Brown Rice might sound like an odd substitution, but it makes the meal a bit heartier, and also very enjoyable in the wintertime. With the rice, I often warm it up some, just enough for the cheese cubes to start getting soft… Then, it really mixes well together.
• Perhaps somewhat obviously, I usually mix up the bean combinations. With our current bean salad, I used 2 cans of black beans. That was the mood we were in. Same sort of goes for the red pepper… I don’t always toss it in, basically depending on whether I feel like it or not.
• I try to use smoked cheese in this salad. I find the smokiness goes very well with the meatiness of the beans, as a general rule.
• Oh, I have mostly given up on using chopped cilantro here. It seems to drive me crazy during the chopping phase. The leaves get everywhere and all over everything, so I’ve been leaving it out the past several times I’ve made this. Cilantro leaves must have become a pet peeve of mine or something…
• And tonight, we are trying something completely different. To the leftover salad, I will be adding artichoke hearts and whole wheat capellini pasta. We were looking for a cold pasta to go with tonight’s meal, and since we had the beans leftover, we decided to add it all together. I think the artichoke hearts, with their lemony flavor, will go nicely too.

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Basil and Baby Lettuce…

Well, the basil is growing very nicely. So nicely, in fact, that I’m going to have to start making some pesto pretty soon! I have been using it fresh, which I love doing, but there’s enough of it now that pesto time is in order. So, I will be adding that to my list.

I’m pleasantly surprised with this baby lettuce mix. It’s now of a size where I could pick some and use it on a sandwich. Not quite enough yet for a salad, which is how I’m really looking forward to using it. So, I will continue to water and watch it grow!

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Southwestern Pasta…

Quick and easy, and flavorful too… that’s how I’d describe this dish. It’s almost a quirky mix of ingredients, in my opinion, mostly because it’s a pasta dish with salsa and such. But it’s a fun way to mix it up a bit. And as I said, it’s tremendously quick and simple, yet there’s room for variation or doing it a bit more from scratch. Tonight, I was looking for fast and that’s what we got! Makes about 8 servings…

• 1-lb Pasta of choice – I used medium shells this evening
• 16-oz jar of Salsa – I used mild
• 4-oz can Green Chilies, drained – I used the pre-diced variety
• Green Onions, chopped
• 2 15-oz cans Black Beans, rinsed thoroughly and drained – I used organic*
• 2 cups Cheese, shredded – I used a Monterey Jack and Cheddar blend
• Optional: Lime Wedges – I opted
• Optional: Fresh Cilantro, chopped – I opted out tonight

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil for the pasta and cook as directed.

2. In a medium saucepan, combine salsa, green chilies and black beans. Warm over medium heat until simmering. Keep warm as pasta cooks. (I’m guessing this step could even be omitted and the ingredients mixed in with the pasta once it’s finished cooking.)

3. Drain pasta. Add salsa-bean mixture, followed by green onions, and stir together. Add cheese and stir. Serve with a sprinkling of lime juice on top, if desired. Enjoy!

*I had two different brands of black beans, and I noticed quite a difference in the sodium content between the two… one can had 440 mg, while the other had 140 mg. Either way, thoroughly rinsing canned goods helps rinse away some of the excess.

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Chopped Salad with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette…

Yesterday, I saw a comment on Twitter that reminded me… I’ve always wanted to try making a chopped salad of my own, but I’ve never gotten around to it (yet). Our history with chopped salads comes solely from The Outback Steakhouse, but we’ve really liked the ones that we’ve had from there, so I’ve been wanting to do one at home. Yesterday was the day, and it was pretty darn good! I’m not sure what exactly it is, but a chopped salad is quite appealing. Perhaps it’s because everything is already cut into bite-sized pieces, or perhaps it’s because the dressing can coat the ingredients more evenly, or perhaps it’s because it’s simply a slightly different way of presenting a ’salad’… Whatever it is, we enjoyed it!

I cheated a little bit and bought 2 bags of a pre-cut salad mix with romaine lettuce, red cabbage and carrots. Even though it was pre-cut, it wasn’t pre-chopped… So, I chopped about 1/2 of a bag at a time, using my handy-dandy rocking chopping knife:

Next, I added 1/2 of a medium red onion and a handful of green onions, after chopping both, of course… Then, some bacon too. Finally, I added the blue cheese vinaigrette dressing and mixed it all together. I did a Google search for The Outback’s recipe and found this copycat one, and that’s how I came up with the dressing. I must say, it is a delight to make one’s own salad dressing. I know exactly what is in there, and all I have to do is whisk everything together. I will definitely be using this one again!

• 1/4 cup Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup White Vinegar
• 1/4 tsp Balsamic Vinegar
• 2 tsp Dijon Mustard
• 2 Tbsp Sour Cream
• 2 Tbsp chopped Fresh Basil
• 1/2 crumbled Blue Cheese

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Chopping Fresh Basil…

I do enjoy the task of chopping fresh herbs… I actually have this curved knife from Alaska – you use a rocking motion to cut and/or chop small items, and it works wonderfully! (I love using it on cilantro… it’s perfect for that!) Sometimes I enjoy just using the big butcher’s knife too. And sometimes, I wish the task was quicker because I just want to get something chopped now. But recently, I came up with a quick and clean way to chop basil leaves… I’m sure it’s been done before, but it just hasn’t been done by me before. So, I thought it was pretty darn cool!

First, stack approximately 6-8 fresh basil leaves together and then roll from side to side as tightly as possible.

Next, cut the rolled basil leaves to your desired width. Then, cut the rolled leaves in the opposite direction. If necessary, pile together and give them a few more cuts.

These steps should give you a nice-sized chopped herb of choice. Here, I added the chopped basil to some orzo.

The rocking-knife that I sometimes use results in a finer cut, but I’ve found the above method to be quite useful when a rough, yet small-ish cut is desired. It’s a good size for the many caprese-style salads that I will be making this time of year. And I’d imagine that it’s a good way to cut other leafy herbs and greens… But for now and for so far, it’s worked very well for me with my basil. Just see here.

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