Guido Dressing, Eggplant Croutons and Persimmon Mojitos

Sometimes I find a recipe that replaces an old favorite.  More often than not, though, I make a different version and really wish I'd made the old favorite.  So, it's always a tough call.  Do I try for the BBD (bigger, better deal) or do I stick with old faithful.  When it comes to a basic vinaigrette I've always done the red wine vinegar, tarragon, sugar, Dijon mustard and extra virgin olive oil one.  But, recently I've been experimenting.  First it was a vinaigrette with maple syrup.  Then, one with cumin.  And, then another with sherry vinegar.  Now, I'm pretty well convinced that my favorite vinaigrette is EVOO, sherry vinegar, cumin, maple syrup and Dijon.  And, ya know what?  One of my favorite sister-in-law is named Sherry.  And, she goes by Guido.  So, this is Guido Dressing.  And, BTW, I have six sisters-in-law.  They're all my favorites so don't even THINK I'd play favorites here.  But, I will say that Guido and Ken are amazing cooks.

Now, the next thing I've found is eggplant croutons.  I was feeling pretty darned smart to have thought them up.  Then, after serving the salad tonight, just for grins and giggles I looked them up on the internet.  Yup, a whole herd of recipes for eggplant croutons.  Oh, well.  

I failed miserably on the photo front here.  I was down to my last eggplant crouton and said, "OOPS."  So, you'll just have to visualize here...  And, no, I didn't measure for the dressing.  So, taste it and make sure it meets your taste.

Salad with Eggplant Croutons and Guido Dressing

Ingredients:
Serves two

spring mix
1 large leaf Swiss chard
2 oz. semi-hard cheese - we used a Tomme but Swiss or Gruyere would be just fine
2 small beets
1 chicken thigh
1/2 small eggplant
milk
1 egg
panko
Creole seasoning


Guido Dressing
1 T maple syrup
1/2 t cumin
1 t Dijon mustard
3 T sherry vinegar
3 T EVOO

Directions:
Put a handful of spring mix in each bowl.  Dice the chard leaves and the stems separately.  Toss the leaves on top of the spring mix.  Dice the cheese and toss it on the greens.

Pan saute the chicken in a small amount of olive oil.  Just as the chicken is done, toss the chard stems into the pan and let them soften a bit.  While the chicken is cooking, make the eggplant croutons.  Peel and dice the eggplant into about 1/2" pieces.  Toss them first in a milk and egg mixture.  Then, into some panko with a bit of Creole seasoning tossed in.  We make our own Emeril's Seasoning.  Brown them well in olive oil.  I put enough in the pan to have it about 1/8" deep then turn the croutons regularly until they're nice and brown and crispy.  

Cook the beets while you've got everything else going on.  My beets were really small with very thin skins so I just cut off the tops and bottoms and popped them into a bowl with a bit of water and nuked them.  Once they'd cooled a bit, I chopped them up and tossed them on the salad.  

Once the chicken is done, shred the meat and put it on the salad.  Top with the dressing and then the chard stems followed by the eggplant croutons.  

While we were cooking we enjoyed a cocktail.  It's about the fifth time we've made this particular cocktail.  Connie actually processed the last couple persimmons and popped the pulp into the freezer so we can have some more soon! 

And, I can't post this without telling a great story.  We went to a new place for dinner the other night.  I ordered a cocktail with bourbon and toasted marshmallow syrup.  Connie ordered one that was their take on the Mai Tai.  It had  a HUGE sprig of mint.  He took it out and wrapped it up and I tucked it carefully into my purse.  It went into the fridge and is happily helping us make cocktails!

Here's what he had to say:

Loosely borrowed from KANGARHUBARB at food52.com

Being from Boston, I wouldn’t know a persimmon from a lychee.  However, in Indiana, this is a display of total ignorance.   Persimmons are adored and persimmon pudding is ambrosia, the food of the gods.  Kate proved this by taking it to my cousins’ Thanksgiving feast a number of years ago.  What is this, they asked?  It didn’t matter.  They gobbled every last bit.

The persimmons came from a tree we planted at our prior house.  The tree is still there but the persimmons are no longer ours.  Alas, but we have planted another, and in 10 years or so, we will have our own persimmons again, unless the stupid squirrels eat them all before they fall to the ground. 

Undaunted, Kate bought some Fuyu persimmons at Costco and tried to make the best of it.  It was not the same.  Okay, but not great.  Trying to salvage the persimmons, we turned to cocktails.  This actually worked out very well, but we didn’t follow the prescribed process, so I’ll give you our take on persimmon syrup and a persimmon mojito.

They tell you to make a persimmon syrup, which involves boiling water, sugar and persimmons.  

Instead take a Fuyu persimmon, remove the stem, quarter it, add 4 oz of sugar and pulse it in a bullet or mixer.  Now you have persimmon syrup.

And, at least I did get a photo of the drink.  Lousy photo, but something to post!

Persimmon Mojito (for two)

Mint leaves (it’s December, I found enough off my plants to satisfy, do your best)

Lime zest (they call for a pinch, not too much, not too little)

Muddle those

Add 4 oz of persimmon syrup and a “pinch” of ground ginger, cinnamon, clove and nutmeg

2 oz spiced rum (we used Captain Morgan)

2 oz lime juice

Shake with ice and strain into a glass

Add club soda if you wish (we did not)

Toast the one you love and enjoy

Roasted Strawberry Cobb Salad

While we were on vacation I had a couple of salads with strawberries strewn across the top.  It is that season, after all.  When you get the ripe, juicy perfect strawberries.  And, not the Styrofoam things that look like strawberries but taste like, well, Styrofoam!  While on our way home from the office on Sunday I suggested to Connie that we stop at the stand down the street.  First I checked out the bargain table.  Each box is $1.00.  I scored two heads of perfectly fine iceberg lettuce in one, four bell peppers in another and a mountain of peaches in yet the third.  Then, the clamshells of strawberries were buy one, get one free.  Score!  $6.00 and I had everything I'd need for dinners and lunches this week.  That's in addition to my Imperfect Produce box that had a couple of roma tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, kale and a bunch of other goodies. 

The first dish that came to mind was a wedge salad.  We love my version of blue cheese dressing:  mayo, sour cream, dry mustard, cider vinegar and loads of blue cheese whirred through the bullet.  That and the duck breasts with cherry sauce I'd been wanting to make.  But, until we went to Jungle Jim's I couldn't find duck breasts.  We bought four there and since we split one for our entrée, we're good to go for a couple of months.  Ok, that was dinner Sunday. 

Lunch Monday was the next issue.  Salad with strawberries.  How about a strawberry vinaigrette on top of the strawberries?  I used eatyourbooks.com and hunted and hunted. Finally!  On closetcooking by Kevin Lynch I found it.  Roasted strawberry vinaigrette.  It sounded perfect.  And, it was.  Given that we had an avocado to use up and I'd fried bacon for the wedge salads and we had rotisserie chicken at the office, it sounded like a strawberry Cobb salad was in order. I added in some bourbon basted pecans that I read about in one of the cookbooks I bought on vacation.  Tried going back through the indexes and couldn't find the recipe listed so I made it up...  It drives me crazy when some cookbooks don't separately list the recipes inside the recipes.  Oh, well, at least I can usually recreate!

Roasted Strawberry Cobb Salad


Ingredients:
lettuce, chopped (I used iceberg because that's what we had.  You can use spinach, romaine...)
avocado, diced
strawberries, diced
bourbon basted pecans
blue cheese, crumbled
chicken, diced (I used slices of breast meat from a rotisserie chicken)
bacon, cooked and crumbles
roasted strawberry vinaigrette

Bourbon Basted Pecans
Toss a handful of pecans with about a tablespoon of bourbon.  Allow them to sit until the bourbon is absorbed.  Toss the pecans with a knob of butter (I used about a tablespoon) and a good sprinkle of seasoning (I used Emeril's but many would work.)  Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes stirring regularly.  You could also do these in a small skillet.

Roasted Strawberry Vinaigrette
makes enough for four salads
1 c strawberries
1/4 c balsamic vinegar
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
1 T Dijon mustard
1 t honey
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper

Homerun Dinner

When an eight year old requests herb crepes with ham and cheese and hollandaise sauce, Grammie makes the dish.  We had headed over to Columbus, OH to celebrate grandson Bradley's 8th birthday.  Because we were going to get there late on Saturday and then spend all day Sunday at various sporting events, the only cooking I'd done was a worm cake.  More on that later...  Saturday evening went as planned.  Dinner at the Dublin Village Tavern.  Home of the incredible Village Chowder that I've semi-successfully duplicated.  And, the Irish eggrolls with corned beef.  That I can only wish I could duplicate!  Sunday morning was a hockey game.  Fortunately that was inside since the weather was more than a little nippy.  Said weather meant that part of Sunday's activities were cancelled.  That also meant that we'd be at the house for long enough for me to fix lunch.  Bradley confessed to Grampie that what he really wanted was the crepe dish I'd fixed when we visited for Rosie's birthday.  That morning I'd made the crepes for the adults and strawberry pancakes with cake sprinkles for the kids.  Bradley and his mama traded plates and both were VERY happy.  Herb crepes necessitated a trip to the grocery.  Thin sliced ham, Dubliner cheese (gruyere works,) butter and eggs for the hollandaise, and five packages of fresh herbs: oregano, thyme, basil, chives and rosemary.  I made Mom's blender hollandaise to nap them.  And, on the side a salad with baby kale, spinach, chard and beets topped with tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, mushrooms and a Greek vinaigrette.  Dessert was the worm cake. 

Here's the short version of how to make the crepes...  Assemble your herb batter.  I've used two different recipes and the first was the best.  That's the one I can't put my hands on...  The second was Bobby Flay's recipe.  It was good.  Just not as good.  Put the batter in the fridge to rest for an hour.  Grate a good pile of sharp cheese.  I used Dubliner this time because I didn't see Gruyere.  Lay the thin sliced ham in a skillet.  Make the blender hollandaise and set it aside. Once you start making the crepes, turn the heat on the skillet to VERY low.  You just want to warm the ham, not cook it.  As the crepes come off the heat, sprinkle each with about 1/4 cup of shredded cheese and top the cheese with a slice of ham or two.  Roll the crepe up and set aside.  As you serve them, nap each crepe with hollandaise.  Photos were scarce thanks to a tight timeline and lack of sous chef :-)

So, I promised I'd tell you about the worm cake.  I made a pound cake in a tube pan.  Once it was turned out and cooled, I cut it in half and arranged it on a foil-lined platter.  Then, I frosted it with a butterscotch ganache.  For the ganache I used butterscotch morsels and made the ganache stiffer than the chocolate ganache on the mounds bars.  Then, I made some buttercream frosting, dyed it green and drizzled it over the cake.  Gumdrops went on as did some licorice stings and M and M's for eyes. 

Now, the moral of the story is that I had five packages of leftover herbs.  Herbs are expensive.  I hate to waste them.  That meant figuring out a way to use them up.  My first thought was an herb salad I'd made a couple of years ago.  It was fabulous.  But, it called for mint which I didn't have.  Then, I started thinking about herb pasta.  Then, inspiration struck in the form of a cookbook I'd picked up at Goodwill.  On Thursday three appointments rescheduled.  One fellow had to drive to Huntsville, AL.  Another had a mother-in-law who was on the verge of being hospitalized.  And, the third works PRN and got a gig.  All of the sudden I was free to run three errands on the west side of town.  So, I headed west.  As I was heading from Mom's to The Garden Center I spied the Goodwill.  And, I couldn't resist.  Among several cookbooks was one titled The Frugal Foodie Cookbook.  It was a paperback so it was 99 cents.  Sold.  Friday morning I started leafing thru that one on the way to the office.  Connie drives.  I read cookbooks.  Nice deal, huh?   One of the first recipes I saw was garden salad with lemon herb dressing.  Friday we actually escaped the office for lunch.  Turns out we needed to deliver something to Mom's CPA and they're a hop, skip and a jump from Caplingers Fish Market.  Our go-to for anything fish or seafood.  We stopped and got cod sandwiches for lunch and a flounder fillet for dinner.  And, smoked tuna salad for Saturday's lunch. 

We got home Friday evening and debated.  Yard or house?  We'd worked our fingers to the bone in the yard on Thursday evening.  Our neighbor, Christina, had (totally tongue in cheek) come over and said, "I thought you guys were going to plant some bulbs?"  Here's what she was looking at when she said that.  LOL. 

Connie wanted to get the gladiolas planted.  I wanted to get the house straightened.  So, since we'd done yard the day before, we worked on straightening the house and fixing dinner.  I pulled out Mark Bittman's FISH cookbook and hunted for something simple for the flounder.  Broiled flatfish with mustard and thyme sounded perfect.  The rosemary would be perfect with red potatoes.  And, the rest of the herbs would go into a salad dressing.  But, I wanted to use hearts of palm and not bell peppers, carrots and the like.  What would complement the hearts of palm and the herb dressing?????  Ah, yes, beets.  Connie found a can of julienne beets.  We were in business.  I started the potatoes, then made the dressing and tossed the vegetables in to marinate.  Then, I made the sauce for the fish and worked on cleaning up the kitchen while the potatoes got happy.  As soon as the fish went under the broiler, I shredded, rinsed and dried some romaine lettuce.  That was topped with the marinated vegetables. 

What did we think?  We loved the fish.  The sauce was the perfect complement.  Not so much that it overpowered the fish but enough that it added some pizzazz.  The dressing, too, was perfect.  The Dijon and sugar took the edge off the citrus but still allowed the herbs to shine.  I will say that the original recipe called for dill, tarragon, cilantro, parsley and green onion.  I used oregano, thyme, basil and shallot.  Connie was a bit scandalized at my wanton substitution but it worked just fine. 


Lemon Herb Dressing

Ingredients:
4 T fresh herbs (I used basil, oregano and thyme and because they're so strong used 3T instead)
1 T green onion or shallot
1/2 c extra virgin olive oil
3 T lemon juice
1 t sugar
1 t Dijon mustard

Directions:

Mince the herbs and shallot.  Mix with the other ingredients.


Broiled Flatfish with Mustard and Thyme

Ingredients:

2 lbs flatfish fillets (flounder, plaice, dab, sole)
1 T oil or melted butter ( I omitted this)
1/3 c Dijon mustard
1 T sugar (sounds like a lot, trust me, it works)
1 t minced fresh thyme
1 T fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat your broiler.  Mix the mustard, sugar, thyme and lemon juice.  Put the fish on a broiling pan.  (I couldn't find the rack so mine went in sans rack...)  Slather the fish with the oil or butter or omit that if you'd like.  Slather the fish with the mustard sauce.  Broil for about 6 minutes or until the fish flakes.  The recipe says you can also bake it at 450.  I loved the little bit of caramelization that the broiling caused so would recommend that over baking...

adapted from FISH by Mark Bittmann

Henri's TasTee Dressing Clone

Some things are just plain meant to be.  This month for Blogger C.L.U.E. Society I was assigned A Palatable Pastime.  Unlike a lot of the bloggers in the group, I've not been well acquainted with Sue's blog.  So, it was a lot of fun to get to stalk her and figure out what'd go best with CELEBRATE!  Yes, the theme of our December posts is celebrate.  That left out SO many fabulous posts.   Baked Apple French Toast, Mediterranean Chickpea Salad (sounds healthy!) Candied Walnut and Grape Salad, Bacon Cheddar Deviled Eggs...  Yes, several of these will find their way to our table when we're once again home often enough to really cook.  For now, we're into the easiest things we can figure out that don't involve calling Donatos...

We've had pretty much the perfect storm at the office.  First and foremost, our right hand assistant, Teresa is out thanks to a knee replacement.  That's about 24 hours a week that we've had to take back.  Into a week that stretches to seven days of work anyway.  Then, there's the fact that Social Security changed the rules of the road and I'm having to work my way back through a couple hundred plans.  Add in the fact that we've taken over the care for my aunt and uncle (ages 85 and 97.)  And, several dinner parties.  Including the entire Girls Night Out crew and their hubbys or significant others.  And, Christmas Eve for my family.  And, about 26 hours of continuing education that needs to be done by year end.  And, and, and.  I'm overwhelmed.  So, quite honestly, the idea of a major celebratory dinner was out of the question.  I was looking for something that was easy, a bit decadent, a bit festive and that would be wonderful while we decorate for Christmas.  Smoked salmon dip.  Perfect.  But, I didn't quit reading.  Then, I found homemade Henri's TasTee Dressing.  Did that ever bring back memories. 

Way back in the mid 70's I was a management trainee at Lincoln National Bank in Fort Wayne, IN.  Every year there was a gift exchange and pitch-in.  Marcie, the president's assistant, brought a dip that I absolutely swooned over.  I still have the recipe card where I wrote the recipe.  And, I still make it for parties when I can.  Oh, you know, here's the gift I got at that exchange.  It's sitting on the shelf right above the computer monitor where I'm typing this post.  The little blue and white china box. 

And, it still makes me smile to think of the good times I had back there.  Now, what I've not said is that Marcie's Dip calls for Henri's TasTee Dressing.  We can't always find it.  Needless to say I'm one unhappy camper when I can't find my Henri's.  Now, I don't have to.  I have Sue's re-creation.  Oh, yes. 

So, I made the dressing but I used it as a salad dressing since I didn't have the Buddig Chipped Beef to make the dip.  You see, I'd bought all the ingredients for the smoked salmon dip.  Now, typically I'd give you a link to the recipe on the blog but I can't find it again...  I've looked thru Sue's index and it's not listed that I can see...  So, thank goodness I printed it out!!!

Henri's TasTee Dressing Clone Ingredients

1 c sugar
1 T celery seed
1 t salt
1/4 t ground white pepper
1/4 c onion powder
1 1/2 t dry mustard
1 t turmeric
1/4 c vinegar
1-2 c mayonnaise

Whisk it all together.  This makes a fabulous coleslaw dressing.  Or, salad dressing.  Or smoosh it with 8 oz of cream cheese, a bag of Buddig chipped beef (finely diced,) some pickle relish and a bit of mustard and you've got a great dip!

So, with many thanks to Sue, I can now recreate one of my favorite dips whenever I want!!!  Here's a list of my friends from Blogger C.L.U.E. Society who also have some fabulous celebratory recipes!

• Liz from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Kate from Kate's Kitchen
• Christiane from Taking on Magazines
• Stacy from Food Lust People Love
• Lisa from Authentic Suburban Gourmet
• Christy from Confessions of a Culinary Diva
• Azmina from Lawyer Loves Lunch
• Kim from Liv Life
• Lea Ann from Cooking on the Ranch
• Anna from annaDishes
• Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Debra from Eliot's Eats
• Kathy from A Spoonful of Thyme
• Rebekah from Making Miracles
• Lauren from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Sue from A Palatable Pastime

Greek Green Bean Salad

What happens when you have a professional photographer over for dinner?  You get professional shots of your food!  SCORE!  My friend Stacy met me at our old house to take some new photos for the listing.  As a pro, she's got the equipment to take some wide angle shots so she was able to really do justice to the old place.  After photos, we were off to the new house for a tour.  She loved the kitchen and the master bathroom in particular.  So do we.  And, all the windows and all the trees.  Yes, we do love our new home!!! 

I'd had Connie pick up some salmon, green beans, strawberries and cherry tomatoes.  The basis for a really fun meal.  We made our favorite  Salmon with Marmalade Glaze

and my mom's parmesan noodles.  Except, I used truffle cheese in place of the parmesan.  Oh, la la! 

Along side that I made a salad with strawberries and a green bean tomato salad. 

Let's start with the salad with strawberries.  There's a place called Queen Creek Olives outside of Phoenix in Queen Creek.  Addictive.  Highly addictive olives.  And, olive oil.  And, balsamic vinegar.  And lots of other wonderful things like barbecue sauces and cheese spreads and chutneys.  Oh, yes.  I order their stuff by the case.  And, we inhale it.  Last time I was in Phoenix I went to one of their stores and taste tested.  One of the combos I bought was rosemary olive oil with a cranberry balsamic glaze.  I heated a bit more than a tablespoon of the olive oil in a skillet and added cored, halved strawberries.  When they'd warmed through a bit, I poured some of the cranberry balsamic glaze in.  Connie had thinned the mesclun in the garden so I mixed that with some chopped beet greens.  The warm strawberries and dressing were poured over and served. 

The noodles are medium egg noodles cooked then tossed with butter, fresh parsley and shredded cheese.  Couldn't be simpler.  And, every time I make them Connie tells me how much he likes them.  Me too!

Last but not least, the green bean and tomato salad.  I'd read a blurb in a magazine recently about green beans, tomatoes and feta cheese.  This was served with a bottled Greek vinaigrette.  Um, thanks but no thanks.  There are very few bottled dressings I'll use.  Most of them taste old and stale to me.  Probably thanks to all the preservative crap they put in them...  Oh, well, I'd make my own.  I went on food.com and found a recipe by Sue Lau.  She mentioned using her dressing on kalamata olives.  Bingo, I'd add those.  And, we had a jar of pickled garlic that was just screaming to be opened.  Now, the recipe called for oregano.  But, I wanted to use basil.  Don't ask me why because oregano is the quintessential Greek seasoning.  But I did so I did.  LOL.  That's the benefit of being the chief cook around here.  My kitchen.  My rules.  To quote a coffee mug from fine young stepson Matthew. 

We loved the whole dinner.  Ate it out on the deck.  Watched the hummingbird come and drink many times.  Loved the view.  And, loved the break from the heat and humidity.  I know it'll be back but for one evening it was delightful. 

So, here's the recipe:

Greek Green Bean Salad

Ingredients:

for the salad:
1 lb green beans, trimmed and cut into 1" lengths
1 pint cherry tomatoes
4 oz feta cheese
1/2 c Kalamata olives, chopped

For the dressing:

2 T red wine vinegar
2 T fresh lemon juice
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 t oregano (I subbed 6 basil leaves, minced - added to the salad, not the dressing)
1 t kosher salt
1 t Dijon mustard
1 t sugar
1/2 c extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Bring a medium saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil.  Blanch the green beans for a couple of minutes.  Drain them and dump them into an ice bath.  You want them dark green and slightly crunchy.  Quarter the cherry tomatoes.  Crumble the feta cheese.  Drain the green beans and toss the salad fixings together.  You might want to add pickled garlic (chopped) or pepperoncini (chopped) or if you're adventurous, minced jalapeno.  Mix all of the dressing ingredients except the olive oil.  Slowly whisk in the olive oil so the dressing will emulsify.  Pour the olive oil over the salad ingredients.  Toss well and serve.

adapted from food.com by Sue Lau

Lisa's Brussels Sprouts

This post was supposed to be about a shredded Brussels Sprout salad.  Well, it is.  But, it's also about Maple Bacon Braised Brussels sprouts.  I'd gone through over a year's worth of recipes on Lisa's blog and finally ran out of time.  I had a list of dishes I'd like to make.  Ok, let's be honest here.  Just open up her blog and start cooking.  Really.  It's that good.  I've visited her blog for several years now and have made maybe half a dozen recipes.  All of them have been wonderful.  I'd decided that the salad would be perfect since we have three gorgeous Brussels sprouts plants in the garden.  And, we've had a first frost so they should be just at the peak of perfection.  We'd been at the office all day and I'd printed the recipe out there.  I forgot to take it home.  Darn the luck.  Back to her blog to hunt.  So, one of the Brussels sprouts recipe that comes up is Maple Braised Brussels sprouts.  I HAD to try that too.  You know.  Just for scientific purposes.  LOL.  You believe me, don't you?

So, what did we think?  The Maple Bacon Braised Brussels Sprouts were a five on a scale of one to five.  We don't give fives out very often.  This one deserved every bit of that score.  Even if you think you don't like Brussels Sprouts, you owe it to yourself to try these.  Fabulous!

The salad was VERY good.  Still, when compared to the glazed sprouts it was a four.  Of course, you need to realize that NOTHING could compare to the glazed sprouts...  The salad was a great combination of crunchy, soft, sweet, salty, tart.  I'm going to toss some deli ham or rotisserie chicken into the leftovers and call it lunch...

Both of these recipes will be made again soon.  Thank you so much, Lisa!

Now, you're probably wondering who Lisa is.  She's the lovely blogger behind Authentic Suburban Gourmet.  Typically, she posts a Friday Night Bite once a week.  Those tend to be yummy appetizers.  Like the bourbon apricot meatballs we have started for later this week.  They were her Halloween post.  Then, if you're lucky, she'll post something else during the week.  Like the Brussels sprouts.  Lisa is from the San Francisco area.  She's an executive with a Bay area human capital firm.  I've been reading her blog since she started it in 2009.  She loves to cook and loves to entertain and loves wine.  Personally, I'd love to live next door to her!

And, you may be wondering what Blogger C.L.U.E. Society is...  We're a brand new group of bloggers.  All of us have been cooking and blogging for quite a while now so we've got some great recipes on our blogs.  Every month we'll have a different theme.  This month it's Thanksgiving side dishes.  For December it's going to be recipes your grandmother would make.  And, for January we'll be sparkling  -champagne, glitter - anything that sparkles.  All of my fellow bloggers are listed below.  I do hope you'll stop by their blogs and see what yummy creations they've come up with!

Ok, on to the recipes!

Maple Bacon Braised Brussels Sprouts
serves 4

Ingredients:

4  Brussels Sprouts, cut in half
6 strips Applewood smoked bacon, diced
3 T butter, cubed (I reduced this from six)
4 T real maple syrup (I used my beloved shagbark hickory syrup)
salt and pepper to taste (actually, we didn't think these needed any salt or pepper)

Directions:

In a medium skillet, brown the bacon until crisp.  Remove it from the skillet with a slotted spoon and drain the bacon on paper towels.  Pour out all but a tablespoon of the bacon fat.  Add the butter to the bacon fat and melt it.  Over medium heat, add the Brussels Sprouts.  Cook each side until they're browned.  Add in the maple syrup and cook until it's a glaze.  Serve topped with the bacon bits.  Lisa's recipe called for adding the bacon when you add the maple syrup.  I didn't want to cook the bacon any more so left it until I served the dish. 

Here's how the finished dish looked:

Shredded Brussels Sprouts Salad

Ingredients:

for the salad:
1 1/2 lbs shredded Brussels sprouts
1 1/2 c orange segments (I used tangerines)
1/2 red onion, sliced VERY thinly
3/4 c walnuts, roughly chopped and toasted
1 c Israeli couscous, cooked and rinsed
1/2 c dried cranberries
1/4 c port
1 c ricotta salada (or feta if you can't find the ricotta salada,) crumbled


for the dressing:
2 small shallots, finely minced
2 large or 4 small garlic cloves, finely minced
1 T Dijon mustard
2 T honey
6 T champagne vinegar
1 C extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

While you're prepping the rest of the salad ingredients, put the dried cranberries in a small saucepan with the port.  Simmer them until the port is absorbed and the cranberries are nice and plump.  Mix all the dressing ingredients with the exception of the olive oil.  Drizzle that in, whisking as you pour.  Set the dressing aside for an hour to allow the flavors to meld.  You can either serve the salad as a layered salad or tossed.  It looks beautiful either way.  Here's how mine went together:

Liz from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
Kate from Kate's Kitchen
Christiane from The Mom Chef
Debra from Eliots Eats
Lisa from Authentic Suburban Gourmet
Ramona from Curry and Comfort
Janet from From Cupcakes to Caviar
Christyfrom Culinary Diva
Alice from A Mama Baby and Shar-pei in the Kitchen
Azmina from Lawyer Loves Lunch
Kelli from Kellis Kitchen
Kim from Liv Life
Susan from Create Amazing Meals
Aly from Cooking in Stilettos
Lea Ann from Cooking on the Ranch
Kathy from Bakeaway With Me
Anna from Anna Dishes
Stacy from Food Lust People Love

Blue Cheese Dressing, BJ's Brewhouse, Chef Josephs, The Lockerbie...

We've had a couple of really fun cooking adventures recently.  Actually, I've had more than Connie.  He played bridge while my friend, Stacy, and I fixed a German meal.  But, that's not what came first.  The truffle came first. 

It'd been another of those killer weeks.  Monday I was sick.  Like come home from the office at 10:30 and go to bed sick.  Tuesday I had to feel better since I was teaching a Social Security class in the evening.  By the time everyone left the office about 9pm I was ready to collapse.  Fortunately, we'd taken along Cobb salad fixings so we'd had a good dinner before class.  I'd used my favorite blue cheese dressing which I discovered, much to my consternation, was not on here.  Now, we first made this in 2006 long before I'd thought about blogging.  Consequently, there's an image of a recipe with no attribution.  And a REALLY old photo...  So, here it goes:

Blue Cheese Dressing

Ingredients:
2/3 c crumbled blue cheese
1/3 c sour cream
2 T mayonnaise
1 T milk
1/2 t Worcestershire
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1/4 t ground mustard
1/4 t garlic powder

Directions:

The original recipe calls for whirring all of the above in a food processor.  I prefer to take about 1/4 c of the blue cheese and hold it out so I get nice, chunky dressing.  I also tend to double/triple the ground mustard, Worcestershire and garlic.  This is so easy to make and so much better than the jarred/bottled stuff!!!

Back to our adventures...

Wednesday it was time to meet our friends Pete and Shirley for dinner.  Pete had decreed that he wanted us to try his favorite brew pub - BJ's Brewhouse.  Neither of us was excited.  It's a chain, after all.  And, it's in a mall.  But, it was Pete's turn to choose so we showed up at the appointed hour.  Were we ever wrong!!!  We had about the best mac and cheese ever.  A little chipotle and bacon and a perfect sauce. 

And, the pulled pork sandwich was almost as good.  That's turkey club in front of the pulled pork.  It was good but not worthy of a special trip. 

Let me tell you, if there's time that mac and cheese is going to be lunch when I'm in my Greenwood office!

Thursday was a wine dinner at Chef Joseph's.  We got to sit with our friends, Steve and Colleen so had a lively conversation and great time.  Joseph did his usual amazing dishes.  The most incredible was dessert.  Goat cheese flan with lemon and pink peppercorns.  Yeah, it was beautiful and tasted amazing.  The evening was also a fund raiser for Little Red Door.  They offer loads of services for cancer patients.  We wound up with tickets to Theatre on the Square and a gift basket of wine and beer to go along with some beer signs and such. 

Friday night after work we headed downtown to Goose the Market to pick up our truffle.  We splurged and spent $23 on a fresh truffle.  Home it came.  Wrapped in a paper towel in a sealed container.  We opened it and took photos and sniffed. 

Didn't smell much like truffle.  So, I shaved off a little piece.  Kind of like eating a little nibble of wood.  Not much flavor and very dry.  Hmmm, maybe it'd be better cooked...  So we made steaks with a cognac/truffle sauce and mushroom risotto with shaved truffle on top.  Again, not much truffle flavor.

 

 

 

So, we tried again Saturday evening and made truffled scallops and crabmeat over butter lettuce and roasted beets.  This time I put truffle oil and the dressing and viola we had truffle flavor.

Sunday we were meeting Chef Joseph and his partner, Juan, for lunch at the Lockerbie Pub.  Time for some pub grub.  Here are two photos from a couple of months ago when we flew by the Lockerbie and picked up tenderloins to go:

I took along what was left of the truffle along and handed it to Joseph.  Was it good?  Well, this time of year they are hard as rocks, he said.  If you want to get some real flavor out of it, soak it in some brandy.  Ok, now I know. 

Sunday evening we were both still stuffed from our pork tenderloin sandwiches.  I put some short ribs from Goose in the dutch oven and let them simmer away.  I'd planned to make truffled mac and cheese but decided plain old smashed potatoes would be better.  We nibbled at the short ribs and left most of it for lunch later in the week.  That's ok.  It'll reheat REALLY well.  And, with the leftover hangar steak for another lunch and the leftover sauerbraten for yet another, we'll be having some fabulous lunches!

It looks like I'm running out of time and creating a monster post before even talking about our German feast  So, let me say to be continued...

Cilantro Avocado Salad Dressing

For once, I'm just not sure where to start...

The elections are over and I'm in mourning.  Our friend, John McGoff, was defeated in the Congressional primary.  The gal who defeated him is someone I've known for many, many years.  She'll do a fine job.  But, we wanted John to win because we thought he was the best candidate.  I took the 6am-9am shift at our polling place and Connie took the 3p-6pm shift.  We handed out a boatload of literature.  And, saw lots of our neighbors.  And, met some new friends.  Then, that evening after I taught a Social Security class, we went to what we'd hoped would be a victory party.  It was not to be.

Garrison Keillor was here for one evening.  Connie loves to listen to him so I bought tickets.  Very good tickets as it turned out.  We were smack dab in the middle seven rows back.  Turns out our friends Don and Diane were sitting two rows behind us.  It was fun to be able to pick their laughs out of the crowd.  And, I will say two hours of laughter certainly helped lighten my mood.

My mood needed lightening.  A friend's 21 year-old son was killed in a car accident last weekend.  The calling was this week.  Mom and his grandma were pledge sisters.  I've known Trish since we were infants.  She's a sorority sister.  We see each other at Kappa events but don't tend to socialize otherwise.  But, there's a bond there that you just don't have with someone you've known a year or two.  Mom drove part way and I picked her up and we drove to the calling.  It was a tough afternoon.

Now, one of the other things that lightened my mood was running into some folks who looked familiar.  They were also at the Garrison Keillor show.  I asked if they lived in our neighborhood and they said no, they live a couple of streets over but we probably recognized him from running past our home.  Then, the light turned on and he realized we're the ones with the gardens and yes, he'd stopped to talk with us.  At that point, she said she always slows down to take a good look and enjoy the flowers when she goes by.  It felt great to know our hard work is enjoyed by others!

Speaking of hard work, we're getting some new veggies out of the garden.  Radishes have become a regular fixture in our salads.

And, we've just started to get some teeny, tiny pea pods.  I'm looking forward to more goodies as the summer goes along.  For now, we're still ahving to buy zucchini and all of the later summer veggies.  But for the most part the plants are out and a lot of the seeds are planted.

One of the salads we enjoyed very much this week was a BLT Salad with Avocado Cilantro Dressing.  It was totally a desperation move.  We had a huge head of lettuce in a garden walkway.  Either it got picked or mowed.  Bacon needed to be used up.  Avocados were getting mushy.  And some cilantro was going to seed.  Let me say that we put in a little patch of cilantro several years ago.  Last year, we put one packet of additional seeds in the herb garden.  We now have roughly 15 cilantro plants in various and sundry places they're not supposed to be...  Plants in places they're not supposed to be are called weeds, aren't they?  I just can't bear to call any cilantro a weed so keep putting up with it's aggressive ways. 

Since we had seven minutes to eat and dash out the door to head to Civic Theatre and see Guys and Dolls, a photo of the salads was not, umm, in the picture.  Here's what the dressing looks like:


Let me just say this was a fabulous salad.  It's open to interpretation.  Pretty much whatever you've got on hand will work.  We may use the leftovers as a dipping sauce for shrimp...

BLT Salad with Avocado Cilantro Dressing

Ingredients:

for the salad:
lettuce (I used butter lettuce)
avocado (I used 1/2 per person)
bacon (diced and browned)
cheese (I used cheddar)
nuts (I used cashews)
tomatoes (I used grape tomatoes)


for the dressing:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 c lowfat sour cream
1 t red wine vinegar
3 sprigs cilantro
2 cloves garlic
1 avocado