Two Salads and a Sandwich

I either need to stop cooking so often or start making blog posts more often.  I think the second one sounds better.  SOOOOOO far behind in my blurry phone food pictures.


I recently made a trip to the fruit and nut store and got a bunch of ingredients for granola (post/recipe coming soon) so that Zach can have granola and yogurt for breakfast again after a long, long drought.  I remembered my long-unvisited love for walnuts, bought some, and have been putting them in various salads, etc. lately.

The salad in this picture looks pretty much like just spinach; thankfully I remembered to write down what was in it so I wouldn't just be guessing.

 

 

Spinach salad with gala apple (a REALLY good one that I got from Sanfillipo Produce), chopped Calamata olives and capers, manager's special "Spicy Asian" chicken breast, diced avocado, raw walnuts, lemon juice, and kosher salt.

 

 

Another recent trip to Sanfillipo's got me 10 lbs. mushrooms, 8 lbs. strawberries, 5 avocados, 2 bunches green onions, 1.75 lbs. arugula, and 2 red bell peppers for $15.  And it just so happens that I had bought 2 lbs. mushrooms on manager's special at Kroger not twenty minutes before going to Sanfillipo's.  12 lbs. of mushrooms is a lot.

 

(This is only about 5-6 lbs of mushrooms)

 I had sautéed mushrooms and zucchini for lunch that day, sautéed, garlicky green beans and mushrooms in whole-wheat tortillas with hoisin sauce and Sriracha for dinner that night, sautéed mushrooms, green beans, asparagus, and yellow bell peppers (which I think might be the ultimate combo of sautéed vegetables) with dinner last night, and the following salad for lunch today:

 

 

 

I started by roasting some cauliflower (a manager's special, of course, from like two months ago...I'm glad cauliflower keeps so well!): two heads cut into flowerets, tossed in 1 tsp. canola oil, curry powder, smoked paprika, and 1/2 tsp. kosher salt, roasted on parchment paper at 400 degrees until they were browned as much as I wanted them to be (10-15 minutes?).

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, I assembled the rest of the salad and medium-boiled an egg.

 

 

Arugula, spinach, corn (thawed), mushrooms, cucumber, onion.

 

I added the cauliflower and egg, dressed it with lemon juice and kosher salt, and ate it.....gooooooooooooooooood.

 

 

Last night for dinner, along with the brilliant sautéed vegetable medley, we had pork bocadillos (I say "bocadillo" instead of "sandwich," because they were inspired by the sandwiches made for us by last year's Spain team, and I say "pork" instead of whatever pork is in Spanish, because I don't know what pork is in Spanish off the top of my head).

 

 

 

A whole wheat bun, buttered and toasted.  On the bottom bun: mayonnaise, leaf lettuce, sweet pickled jalapenos, sliced tomatoes, and thinly sliced pork loin marinated in garlic, oregano, coriander, salt, red wine vinegar, and olive oil (then pan-fried).  Sometimes I add a fried egg.

 

 

 

On the top bun was more mayonnaise, sliced cucumber, mustard, and Sriracha.

 

 

 

Mmmmmmmm.



 

 

A Few Good Salads

When you are no longer able to take pictures of your cute niece and nephew because your phone is already full of photos, you know it's time for a blog post.  I dug deep into the recesses of my phone's memory and found a few salads.

 

 

 

Salad #1: Boring Salad with Eggs and Asparagus

 

 

Mixed greens with sliced onion and sections of clementine, tossed in my usual go-to dressing: fig balsamic, olive or canola oil, salt, and pepper.  On the side is green and white asparagus with crispy garlic.  Also soft boiled eggs and whole wheat toast. 

 

This was a good manager special day at Meijer.  The asparagus, the greens, AND the clementines.  Probably other things as well, but I don't remember.

 

 

As usual, we mash the egg and some of the greens onto the toast.  Zach was particularly impressed with these eggs.

 

 

 

Salad #2: Fried Cheese Salad

 

Once upon a time, I found some goat cheese on manager's special, and remembering a salad I had had many years before, I fried it and put it on a salad.  Zach loved it.  Since then, whenever I find a good deal on goat cheese, I pick some up and make a salad or two.  For this particular salad, I had also found some fresh mozzarella on M.S. and had some Cheddar on hand, so I decided to fry those up as well.

Since there are more components to this salad than just cheese, here are some other ingredients:

Red and Green Leaf Lettuce

Roma Tomatoes
Frozen Sweet Corn (thawed)

Grapes

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Avocado
Toasted English Muffin with Butter

 

 

To make fried goat cheese:
cut well-chilled cheese into rounds about 1/2-3/4" thick.  Dip into flour seasoned with salt and pepper (taste a bit of the flour to make sure it tastes lightly salted), then into beaten egg mixed with a little milk.  Finally, dip them into bread crumbs, then either fry right away or, for best results, put them untouching on a plate and chill them for 15-30 minutes.  To fry, cover the bottom of a skillet with about half an inch of oil, heat to medium-high and fry until toasted on each side, flipping after about two minutes.



Salad #3: Steak and Asparagus Salad

 



 I don't actually remember this salad.  It happened around the same time as the first asparagus salad, because I have only had white asparagus once.  I don't remember why I got steak.

Greens, arugula, onion, fig balsamic vinaigrette, sautéed asparagus and zucchini, steak, avocado, whole wheat toast.

 

 

 

Salad #4:  Asparagus, Avocado, Summer Squash, and Mushroom Salad with Egg

 

 

 Yet another salad during the White Asparagus Days.  The White Asparagus Days coincided with the opening of  Lucky's Market in Clintonville.  There was a good sale on red and green leaf lettuces there, along with avocados and many other things.  It's the kind of market where you can't actually afford anything unless it's part of a fantastic sale, but at least some of the sales are indeed fantastic.  The steak in salad #3 may have been from a good Lucky's sale.

 

This salad was made from the said leaf lettuces with raw onion and red wine vinegar.  On top of the greens were sautéed summer squash, white asparagus, and mushrooms, along with diced avocado, a fried egg, and whole wheat toast.  The oil from sautéing the vegetables made up the oil part of the vinaigrette when everything was mixed together.

 

 

Salad #5: Amazing Salad

 

(Not pictured)

 

Had I known I was going to do a post on salads, I would have taken pictures of some of the AMAZING salads I had for lunch recently.  Once again, steak was involved, leftover from the Russian dinner.  Most of the salads were exactly the same, and basically great, thanks to really good manager's specials.

 

 

Amazing Salad Recipe (serves 1)

2 oz. steak

1 Lime

Kosher Salt

1 oz. Whole Wheat Linguini

2 c. Mixed Greens

1 c. Arugula

5 Mushrooms, sliced

1 Radish, sliced

Onion, 4-5 thin slices

8 Sugar Snap Peas

1/4 Green Bell Pepper, sliced

1/2 Avocado, diced

 

 

Cut the lime in half and squeeze the juice from one half onto both sides of the steak.  Sprinkle it lightly with kosher salt on both sides, set aside.  Cook pasta.  Meanwhile, assemble the salad ingredients.  Once pasta is done, drain it and add it to the salad.  Cook the steak on both sides to desired doneness.  Let rest for 5 minutes, then slice.  Squeeze remaining lime half over salad, sprinkle with about 1/4 tsp kosher salt (or to taste), mix well, top with lime.

 

I had this salad once, and thought it was fantastic, but that it had to be a fluke.  So I tried it again the next day, and the next, and the next, and the next, and IT WAS STILL GOOD!

 

(I ran out of steak after day 2 and started using ground turkey, and I started running out of other ingredients and doing lots of supplementing, and eventually the salads weren't as good anymore)

 

 



Not Much to Say About This One

 Whole wheat linguini with yellow peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, and greens.  Tomato salad with onions, cucumbers, and balsamic.

Choose Your Own Adventure

This picture makes me crave iced tea.  It may also make me crave the other things in this picture, if only I could figure out what they are.

Whole wheat penne with:

a) chicken thigh with Cajun spices

b) chicken breast with Cajun spices

c) pork chop with Cajun spices

d) chicken thigh with generic Susannah spices (probably paprika, garlic, black pepper, salt, thyme)

e) chicken breast with generic Susannah spices

f) pork chop with generic Susannah spices

g) none of the above

I'm going to go with d or g.

Spinach salad with:

a) onions, gorgonzola, and dill

b) onions, feta, and dill

c) onions, weird pieces of apples or something, and dill

d) none of the above.

Probably a, perhaps in a lemon dressing.  I'm not sure why the dill is there; it throws me off a little and makes me wonder what I might have put with the chicken/pork/other.

All I know for sure, is that I probably should have added a soft-boiled egg somewhere.

Entering the Era of the Soft-Boiled Egg

Once upon a time, there was a couple who really liked to eat eggs.  In particular, ones with runny yolks.  One day, they realized that they had never soft boiled an egg, which seemed unbelievable at first, given their love for runny-yolked eggs.  Once they had tried the first one, they continued to have soft-boiled eggs added to many of their meals.  They took blurry pictures of these meals, and posted them to a blog months later, after they had pretty much forgotten what the meals were.

This is one such meal:

It appears to be a spinach salad with chick peas, tomatoes, and probably onions.  And a nice, glistening, soft egg on top.  Next to the egg, there appears to be a pale rectangle of some sort.  Feta?  Chicken?

And next to the salad, there is what is likely an Uzbek hot dog without the hot dog: chewy white bread warmed in the microwave, slathered in mayonnaise and spicy ketchup, and filled with Korean carrot salad (left over from the Russian party)  (<-- I made a link!).

Mmm, that "hot dog" was good.  The salad was also, though if I recall correctly, this egg was more medium-boiled.  It took a few tries to get the timing right.

Russian Dinner 2013

Every winter, I throw a Russian dinner party.  When Russians have dinner parties, they have LOTS of little salad plates all over the table with a large variety of "salads" (mostly mayonnaise based).  These are the 2013 Russian party salads (and other foods):

Cabbage salad with dill.  The only healthy salad.

On the left is what I call Korean Potato Salad, with a caramelized onion and garlic vinaigrette.  On the right is a crab and rice salad with corn.

Piroshki, stuffed with pork and onions, are the star of the show whether I want them to be or not.

The salad on the left is Frantsuskiy ("French") Salad.  The sections on the outside are julienned carrots, cabbage, cucumbers, beets, shoestring french fries, and seasoned beef.  In the middle is a dollop (sounds better than "glob") of mayonnaise.  After it makes an appearance on the table, it gets mixed all together into a tasty purple salad with surprising bites of fry and warm beef.  It's a Fath family favorite.
The salad on the right is a Korean carrot salad.
 Obviously there would be at least two Korean salads at a Russian party. :o)

This is one of the weirder Russian salads.  It's called Mimosa Salad, named after the delicate yellow and white flower rather than the brunch beverage.  There is a layer of mashed tuna (it should be sardines) encased in a mount of potato/boiled egg white/onion mixture, and garnished with grated egg yolk.  This party was soon after that meteor hit Russia somewhere, so I used an extra egg yolk to look like a meteor (see the blurry little "craters?") and dill fronds to look like little trees bent over from the meteor.  Weirdos.

Another Fath favorite!  We call these "El Dorado Tomatoes," named after the restaurant where we had them.  Imagine this goodness: a thick slice of tomato, topped with a layer of garlicky mayo, topped with a layer of white cheese, topped with a single pea as a garnish.  Does it get any better than that?

The most classic Russian salad: Olivye.  Potatoes, eggs, carrots, pickles, dill, and, of course, mayonnaise. 

Layered honey cake (medovnik) for dessert!  Long ago I started a post on the making of this cake, but never finished it.  It will come eventually.

Look at those lovely layers!

In past years, I made an entree as well, but eventually learned that everyone really just wants to eat lots of salads and piroshki.  For the 2014 party, however, I am planning to unlearn that lesson and make borscht as well.  Is that how you spell borscht?