Make this right now, with all those plump ephemeral strawberries lurking around. (If you are making this out of season--gasp--consider adding a small pinch of sugar to the berry puree to help boost the flavorless winter berries). If you can make it past eating it directly from the mixing bowl, serve this dressing over a spinach salad with toasted pecans or walnuts and some crumbly goat cheese. Or dip some grilled chicken into it. Or grilled pork. Or duck. Or heck, put that on the salad too. Oh, and do yourself a favor: get some really good balsamic vinegar.
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With rhubarb's glorious reign quickly coming to a close, I wanted to give it one last hurrah, before it is replaced in the fruit bowl with stone fruit of a multitude of dizzying hues. I made this rhubarb vanilla ice cream with (generous) dark chocolate chunks to bring to dinner with friends recently, and was giddy with how it came out. So giddy in fact, that I fell ill (no relation) and my husband had to courier the ice cream over to the gathering on my behalf. A testament to this great recipe, in all the "hellos", "she's not feeling well", "she'll be fine", and "yes, thanks I'd love to stay for one glass of wine", he forgot to tell the ladies what flavor of ice cream it actually was. So when dessert rolled around, and he had long made his exit, there was a marvelous guessing game, as I was told, as to what they were actually eating. The chocolate chunk part, fortunately, was obvious, but the tangy, slightly fruity, slightly vegetal, very rich and creamy rest of it elicited guesses from mascarpone to peach to lemon curd, in an email steam entitled "Mystery Ice Cream". (more…) | ||||||||||||||||
![]() Last night I was having dinner with some of my favorite lady friends, and we were talking about salad dressings, as you do with your lady friends. They were saying that they each always make their same standby dressing, and were enjoying this new blog feature to help get out of their ruts. We shared what each of our quick, don't have to think about it, dressing recipes are, and I had forgotten that for the longest time this one was mine. The mellow rounded sweetness of the sherry vinegar and the rich roasted nuttiness of the hazelnut oil are a combination that is tough to beat. It also makes one of my favorite birthday or hostess gifts. A bottle of each, and perhaps some great salad servers, have yet to make anyone unhappy. Use this dressing as an excuse to use up any hazelnuts that are left over in your pantry from some long-forgotten holiday cookie recipe. I love subtly mirroring the dressing in the salad ingredients.
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![]() For another step in my continued fight to close down the salad dressing aisle in grocery stores, I'll offer you a homemade salad dressing recipe each week. Fresh oregano certainly has a pronounced flavor, but actually so much more mellow and herbal and complex than what dried drab green flecks and pizza restaurant shakers have lead you to believe. We had this dressing last night on crisp fresh red leaf romaine, a small handful of fresh sorrel leaves (both sliced into ribbons, both from our garden), cucumber, and a generous handful of toasted sesame seeds. This vinaigrette would also be incredible on a salad of baby spinach, chickpeas and sliced hardboiled egg, or as a base for a potato salad. Also, P.S., oregano is probably the most idiot-proof herb to grow, super hearty, pops up first in the spring and faithfully returns each year. Grab a plant and stick it almost anywhere in your yard now for years of salad dressings and marinaras to come.
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