Summer Salad-Gorgonzola & Peach

Does anyone else feel like Summer is going too quickly? I do!

That is why I have decided to fully embrace the Summer-y-ness as much as possible. Especially the Summer-y-ness of fruits and vegetables.

I love the vast array of produce available this time of year. At ever farmer's market I see a beautiful selection of colors and flavors and I find that I am constantly inspired to create new dishes based on the visual beauty of the ingredients. Every once in a while this appearance-based creativity yields some delicious results. One of which I came upon today during lunch.

I hope you enjoy this Summer salad and put your own spin on it. It is easy enough to make for one or 6.

The Desperate Housediva's Gorgonzola & Peach Salad for one (or six if you can multiply.)
1/2 ripe peach, sliced into wedges and then those wedges halved.
1 large handful mixed greens
1 oz. gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
a few slivers of red onion
1/4 cucumber, peeled and sliced

combine all ingredients and drizzle lightly with dressing (recipe seen below.)

Dressing
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
s&p
Wisk together mustard and vinegar until well mixed. Then add as much olive oil as your tastebuds prefer. Mine like about 4 Tbsp of oil. Add s&p to taste.

Moving, Shaking, Brisket Making...

This poor blog! It is finally getting some attention (thank you, London Still blog for the shout out!) and in the meantime I find myself utterly consumed with shoots (of the photographic variety...) I drove all over the State of Ohio in the last three weeks. Truly. If there is a city then I was there shooting in it. Check out some of my latest work HERE

My home decor adventures are also steadily rolling along. Soon I will share with you the pillows I made to match the re-upholstered chair (I know, I know...you must be chomping at the bit for that one...)

It's supposed to be Spring here in Midwestia (AKA, Wooster, OH,) and while we enjoyed warmth and sunshine for a few days it's now back to a blustery Winter chill... I'm not happy about it. But it certainly gives me an opportunity to make a bit heartier fare than the warm temperatures require. I'll try to think of it as a last hurrah for braises and stews until Autumn...

Try as I might, I cannot give up beef. I know I need to limit my intake but I still just love the stuff. Good, organic, grass-fed beef is one of my favorite foods and I eat it, on average, once a week in various ways. Sorry, vegetarian and vegan friends :( But read on, there is an excellent cabbage slaw recipe that is worth 2x its weight in gold!

One of my favorite ways to enjoy beef is as a slow-cooked, pulled concoction (I blame my Jewish upbringing- every holiday included some kind of braised brisket.) The recipe I am sharing here is a Latin preparation. It's sort of a ropa vieja, pabellon criollo, pulled-beef variation and it's an instant favorite in our house. Professor hubs actually said he wished he could eat the following meal every day! No matter how delicious, I couldn't settle down with just one meal for the rest of my days...but this one will certainly be put in the regular rotation.

I recommend serving the brisket with cilantro lime rice, avocado salad, and the cabbage slaw recipe below. Or combine them all in small tortillas as tacos.

Desperate Housediva's Pulled Beef Brisket

based on a recipe found on SmittenKitchen

Serves 4, says the recipe; but we served 6, with leftovers for two more lunches the

next day...and if you served it as taco filling you'd probably be able to serve even

more.

3 pounds beef brisket (trimmed of excess fat)

sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

5 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed

1 Spanish onion, halved and thinly sliced

1 tablespoon chili powder

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 1/2 cups water

1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with their juices

1 to 2 whole canned chipotle chiles en adobo [Read: 1 or 2 from a can, not one or

two cans, m'kay? Many misread this amount!] (I used two peppers; two will give it a real kick!!!)

2 bay leaves

1/4 cup molasses

If using an oven (and not a slow cooker,) preheat oven to 300.

Season the beef generously with salt and pepper, to taste. Heat a large, heavy

skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil and heat just until beginning to smoke.

Add the meat and cook, turning once, until browned on both sides, about 10

minutes total. (If using a slow cooker, this would be the time to transfer the meat

to the slow cooker; otherwise put it in a dutch oven.) leave the skillet on the heat.

Add garlic, onion, chili powder, coriander, and cumin to drippings in the skillet and

stir until fragrant, about one minute. Add vinegar and boil until it’s almost gone,

scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Stir in water and pour the

mixture over the brisket. Add tomatoes with their juices, chipotles, bay leaves, and

molasses.

If using the oven, cover the dutch oven and cook for 3-4 hours at 300 until brisket

pulls apart easily with a fork.

If using a slow cooker: Cover the cooker, set it on LOW, and cook the brisket until

it pulls apart easily with a fork, about 8 to 10 hours.

To serve, you’ve got a few options: Leave the meat in the slow cooker and use two

forks to pull it apart and stir it evenly into the sauce; season with salt and pepper,

to taste. Remove and discard bay leaves. This is obviously the simplest route.

You could also strain the sauce, but then you lose some of the nice rustic veggie bits...

Green Onion Slaw

1 cup green onions

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 whole jalapeno (for a teensy kick)
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup pure olive oil
1 head purple cabbage, finely shredded
2 shallots
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves

Blend green onions, shallots, vinegar, chiles, mayonnaise, salt, pepper and oil in a blender until emulsified. Place cabbage in a bowl, and right before serving add the dressing and stir until combined. Fold in the cilantro and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Salad Days: Part III Mexican Salad (AKA: The most delicious salad ever)

How I do love these long Summer days!

And how I do love the beautiful produce which is displayed in Midwestia's amazing famer's market... Not to mention the gorgeous herbs reaching towards the sun in my little backyard garden. Lovely. Each and every one.

In this, the final installation of the Salad Days posts, I present you with the recipe for my salad piece de résistance; the Desperate Housediva Mexican Salad.

In a word: Yum!

This is the ultimate salad for people who don't find salads satisfying. It's quickly become Professor Hubs' (and Professor Hubs' whole family's) favorite Summer Salad.

It's customizeable, easily made completely vegan, and is naturally gluten free.

DESPERATE HOUSEDIVA'S MEXICAN SALAD

adapted from a recipe from my friend Claire and a recipe from SELF magazine...

(serves 4, generously)

2 heads romaine lettuce, chopped

1 can black beans, drained (preferable organic)

1 can sweet corn kernals (preferable organic and low salt) OR the kernels cut off of 2 leftover corn-0n-the-cobs.

12 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 jicama, peeled and chopped (or if you can't find it; 1 firm apple, peeled and chopped)

5 radishes, thinly sliced

1/4 cup of thinly sliced red onion or a handful of chives

handful of shredded cabbage

1 bell pepper (red or yellow) chopped

1 avocado, chopped

Handful of fresh cilantro, chopped

Handful or crumbled feta cheese (or not, for vegan cooks...)

Grilled protein of choice, cubed (Grilled chicken breast, grilled shrimp, grilled tofu, etc.)

Combine all ingredients and toss with dressing.

DRESSING

Juice of 4 limes + honey to taste (or 1/4 cup rose's sweetened lime juice)

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 garlic clove, minced

1/3 cup olive oil or more, to taste.

Wisk to combine and use at least half to dress salad. Add more to taste and save the rest for another purpose (another salad, a marinade, etc.)

Enjoy!!!

Salad Days: Part II Thai Basil Salad

What I've been up to (that's kept me from sharing recipes:)

-Driving

-Travelling

-Honeymooning

-Beach combing

-Relaxing

-Reveling

-New Car-getting

-Eating

-Bonding

-Cooking

-Singing

-Shooting

-Loving

-Grieving

-Resting

-Nurturing

-Reminiscing

-Returning

-Connecting

...and infinite other gerunds...

As I mentioned in the last post, Prof. hubs and I have been feasting on the most delicious and filling of Summer Salads... This one is inspired by a salad that I ate after an exhausting day trekking through San Francisco with a friend in 2004... I have been craving it ever since. It's the perfect combination of flavors and textures-so refreshing, so toothsome, a bit spicy... Perfection.

And now, the second installment of my soon-to-be famous Salad posts:

THAI BASIL SALAD

(makes 2 huge portions or 4 regular...)

1/2 package asian rice noodles (pad thai noodles, vermicelli, etc.) cooked per package directions (use one handful or the whole amount-it's up to you and it's all good.)

2 head romaine lettuce, chopped

2 large handful of shredded cabbage (I just use the bag of pre shredded cole slaw mix)

5 thinly sliced red radishes

1 small handful shredded carrot (I just use the kind that's already in the bag of shredded cole slaw mix...)

1 peeled and cubed cucumber

1 mango, diced

8 grape tomatoes, halved

small handful chopped peanuts

small handful of each of the following herbs, chopped:

scallions, basil, mint, cilantro

Protein of your choice (I like grilled steak but sauteed tofu is lovely for a vegan choice as is chicken or shrimp as a steak alternative...)

Combine all ingredients and toss with dressing. Enjoy!!!

SALAD DRESSING

Juice of 4 limes

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 Tbsp Thai fish sauce

2 Tbsp water

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp Shriracha sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

4 Tbsp canola oil (or other light, flavorless vegetable oil)

Wisk to combine well.

Salad Days: Part I Salade Niçoise

I've been on the road again as is evident from my lack of posts. First it was a stressful work week in NYC filled with photography work and voice lessons. Upon my return I was hostess to my sister-in-law for a week. We had a wonderful visit peppered with a few wonderfully successful cooking experiments but all of our traipsing around Midwestia and its environs left little time for blogging.

During my NY visit one of my dearest friends informed me that I was looking a teensy bit more 'happy and plump' than usual, which, combined with the poll results asking for more healthy, fast, and vegetarian recipes has me excited to share these next few posts. In short, as it is nice to look happy I don't want to look plump and I know that these salads can help :)

Salads. As I've stated before I'm not naturally inclined to love salads. In fact, until this past week I only really enjoyed three of them. But the past eight days or so have proven me wrong. It wasn't that I didn't like salad, it was just that I didn't like BORING salad. I love when a salad has so much flavor, texture, and heartiness to it that you don't feel as though you've joined a cult of asceticism but rather you've taken the first steps to living a life of European luxury. I think this first Salad is a perfect example of a satisfying meal that happens to be a made up primarily of vegetables. I first learned to make it during my time living in Paris and I can't stress enough how simple, delicious, and filling it is.

Salade Niçoise au Thon

(Nicoise salad with tuna)

(makes 2 very large portions or 4 rather small)

1 bag of Spring Mix greens

4 cooked red potatoes, cubed (from a bag of steam-in-microwave red potatoes or a few red potatoes from last night's roast.)

2 handfuls French green beans (from a bag of steam-in-microwave French green beans/haricot Verts or steamed on stove)

2 cans Tuna packed in olive oil (This is a MUST! It MUST be the rich and delicious kind packed in olive oil or it is decidedly un-French, un-decadent, and un-satisfying.)

2 Tbsp capers

10 niçoise olives (or your favorite black olives)

a few anchovies (optional)

2 hard boiled eggs, peeled and sliced

2 tomatoes, diced

a few slices of red onion for each salad

French Vinaigrette

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 Tbsp minced shallot

1 Tbsp minced garlic (optional)

1 tsp dijon mustard

3/4 cup good Extra virgin olive oil

s&p to taste

Combine all ingredients except oil until well blended. Then wisk in oil, slowly, until emulsified.

SALAD ASSEMBLY

Distribute ingredients evenly among plates. Drizzle with vinaigrette. Bon Appetit!