Strawberry Goat Cheese Salad

A great salad for a hot, summer day.

Tear spinach, radicchio, and romaine leaves. Add sliced strawberries, pecan pieces, and goat cheese. Top with olive oil and fig balsamic.

I'm a huge proponent of cleaning veggies before serving. This is a great salad spinner and a perfect way to dry your washed greens.

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January Dinner

I started with small peppers stuffed with ricotta, chorizo, parmesan, parsley, -- the usual lasagna type filling. I got tired of stuffing the peppers before the filling was gone so I took some egg roll wrappers, filled them with the ricotta mixture, rolled them and dumped some tomato sauce on them. Both the peppers and the lasagna rolls took about 20 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees.


The salad is spinach leaves, parmesan, and onion topped with Tessemae's Lemon Garlic (dressing - marinade - dip). Added some cracked pepper and it was good to go.


The lasagna rolls were a bit starchy and could have used some hot sauce so I'll try them again using flat lasagna noodles instead of won ton wrappers.

OBX not Burning Man

I decided to spend the week in the Outer Banks of NC instead of joining Mark at Burning Man. I'm happy with my decision but had a few pangs of sadness/regret during the week. I cured one of those pangs with Seared Sea Bass topped with a yogurt dill sauce, sauteed spinach and garlic, and homemade rice-a-roni. 

Oh yeah -- added a great glass of wine (Biale Zinfandel) and a good book (One Thousand White Women)!

First CSA Pick-up of the Season

I'm glad I went with the CSA medium share. It looks like just enough for two people. This box included: baby lettuce mix, broccoli, spinach, new red potoatoes, green onions, and strawberries.

The newsletter included this recipe and after reading it, wasn't sure if it would be wonderful or horrible. Decided to take the risk, and wonderful won. Whew. The recipe below reflects my changes, not the exact recipe I received.

Spinach Colcannon

1 bunch chopped spinach
1 cup chopped green onions
5 cloves garlic
4 bison hot Italian sausages - casing removed
8 cups potatoes - diced with skin on
1/2 cup milk
2 Tbls butter
Salt and Pepper
Mixed grated cheeses

Pre-heat oven to 350

Cook potatoes in water and salt until tender.
Drain and mash with milk, butter, salt and pepper
After mashed, mix in some of the green onion tops

Brown sausage in a pan -- do not overcook bison - stop before you think it's done because it will bake also
Add green onions and garlic - continue to cook a minute or so
Add all the spinach and cover the pan
Turn off burner and let spinach wilt

Butter a 9x13 pan
Add drained sausage and spinach from pan
Spread mashed potatoes over the sausage mix
Top with a mix of shredded cheese (I used a 4 cheese Italian mix and a Mexican mix)

Bake until cheese is melted - about 30 minutes

I like to move it to the top rack and broil on high until the cheese starts getting brown and bubbly.

A New Take on Stuffed Peppers

For dinner tonight, I took the tops off of small yellow peppers ...

and stuffed them with a mixture of spinach, mushrooms, mixed cheeses, sour cream, nutmeg, and salt & pepper. 


Baked them at 375 for about 15 minutes. 


I'll make these again!

Flavor Bursts

I owe it all to Aida (Food Network "Ask Aida") for this simple recipe with complex flavors.

I don't measure, but I used all of her ingredients, except the cheese. This burger achieved the most highly rated response from family, "Write it Down." Spinach in the burger, and pickled onions on top ...

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aida-mollenkamp/big-bacon-burger-recipe/index.html

Wish I had a Cute Name for this Salad

The primary ingredients are orzo, spinach, and grilled salmon. There's also radicchio, pine nuts, and sun dried tomatoes (and S&P of course). I topped it with a lemon/garlic vinaigrette and shaved Parmesan cheese.

A few ingredients I thought adding but didn't:

• capers
• black olives
• tomatoes

This took more effort than I expected but I think I may have gone overboard when I trimmed the stem from every leaf of spinach before tearing it into the salad.

I think this might be good with grilled tuna or chicken, too.