Watermelon, Queso Fresco and Mint Salad

 

This salad is SO refreshing.  I used a melon baller since not only is it easier than trying to get the watermelon out of the rind, it also looks pretty.  The recipe didn’t specify the size of the cubes so I made both the jicama and queso fresco cubes about ¼” max.  The recipe also said to mix the dressing separately.   I didn’t do that.  And, I added the watermelon juice to the whole mix.  Then, at the table we added some Penzey’s Pico and Salsa salt-free seasoning.  That was to make up for the lack of salt in the dish.  Thanks to our low-salt diet!

 

 

Ingredients

8 c cubed watermelon

1 c peeled and cubed jicama

¼ c coarsely chopped fresh cilantro

¼ c chiffonade of basil

1 T freshly grated lime zest

1 T chopped fresh chives

1 T sliced scallions, white and pale green parts

1 jalapeno chile, seeded, deveined and minced

3 T extra virgin olive oil

2 T freshly squeezed lime juice

1 T freshly squeezed lemon juice

Salt and pepper

½ c crumbled queso fresco

1 T chopped fresh mint

Directions

Mix well. Serve chilled.

 

Adapted from Casa Marcela

Cherry Clafouti, Peach Sour Cream Pie, Lamb Pasta, Jalapeno Cucumber Margarita and Chile Lime Watermelon Wedges

Last week was a zoo.  Total, complete and entire.  I was so ready for Saturday so I could head to the office and have no phones ringing and where the email deluge would slow down.  I got up early and headed to the living room and sat down at the computer and started to work on the week's menu and grocery list.  Plus the obligatory check of the weather and Facebook.  I'd planned to start this post...  But, at 8:12 we got a call from the idiots at the Fraternal Order of Police.  I hung up on them.  Grrrrr.  Connie woke up and started puttering around.  I'd had all of about half an hour of quiet time. 

While Connie went to the farmers market and grocery and TJ's, I headed to the office to start in on the mountain on my desk.  The bad news is I'll be there all day Sunday too.  So much for brunch at Chef Josephs!

The fruits and vegetables are wonderful this time of year.  So, I've got corn on the cob, watermelon, zucchini, tomatoes and cucumbers on the list.  A couple of weeks ago we scored a box of fresh cherries.  They were amazing.  My kitchen was covered with cherry juice by the time I got done pitting them.  About half went to a boozy cherry dish from a friend's blog.  The other half went to the amazing cherry clafouti from A Kitchen in France.  That's this Sunday's recipe from Weekend in a French Kitchen.  I've made clafoutis before and we've thoroughly enjoyed them.  This one was a bit lighter and more flavorful than it's predecessors.  I made half a recipe since we're not into sweets too much.  In fact, despite the fact that this was really wonderful, about a third of it went into the trash.  Sweets just don't get eaten around here...  Here's what it looked like:

Clafoutis are pretty darned easy to make.  First you put the fruit in a buttered baking dish.  Then, you top it with a custard of flour, sugar, vanilla, milk and eggs.  Pop that in the oven and bake it for about 45 minutes total.  Cool it (if you can wait) then dust it with confectioners sugar to serve.  I confess that we didn't wait.  It just smelled too good!


Let's see, in addition to the clafouti we 've had the most amazing cocktail:  Cucumber Jalapeno Margaritas.  An absolute five in my book.  I got the recipe from Better Homes and Gardens.  One of the magazines I quit taking eons ago but that is now on nextissue.com so I skim it...  I think next time we'll make our own margarita mix and avoid all of the chemicals and preservatives that come with the prepackaged stuff. 

Here's what the recipe was:

Jalapeno Cucumber Margarita
10 servings (needless to say, we cut the recipe to two servings!)

Ingredients:

1/2 medium cucumber, sliced
1 jalapeno pepper, stemmed, seeded and sliced
3 c margarita mix
1 1/2 c gold Tequila
3/4 c orange liqueur

Directions:

In a cocktail shaker, muddle the jalapeno and cucumber with 1/2 t kosher salt.  Add the margarita mix, Tequila and orange liqueur along with several ice cubes.  Shake well.  Strain and serve over ice.


We also had a lamb pasta sauce that was incredible.  It was supposed to be lamb meatballs in spicy sauce.  My ground lamb was frozen.  Pasta sauce was the best alternative.  I doubled up on the spices (not the herbs, just the spices) in the sauce since the ground lamb wasn't seasoned as the meatballs would have been.  The only change we'd have made is adding more cheese.  It's a recipe I got from the New York Times.  The original measurements are given below.

Lamb in Spicy Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

1 lb ground lamb
1 medium onion, diced
1 28 oz can whole tomatoes
1 small sprig rosemary
crushed red pepper flakes to taste
1/2 t fresh thyme leaves
1/2 t ground cumin
pinch ground cinnamon
pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 t sugar
1/4 c orange juice (I used 1/4 c of frozen concentrate)
crumbled feta cheese
farfalle


Directions:

Brown and drain the lamb and onion.  Crush the tomatoes.  Add them along with the rest of the ingredients.  Simmer for about half an hour to reduce the liquid.  Serve over cooked farfalle.  Top with crumbled feta cheese.



Mid week our friend Diane stopped by to pick up the bike her boyfriend, Craig, had bought from Connie.  We made antipasto salads.  Well, kind of.  Let's see, no provolone and the truffle cheese (which was provolone based) had mold on it, so I used cheddar.  No chickpeas so I used black beans.  No salami so I fried some bacon.  LOL.  Talk about substituting!  Diane is the ultimate baker so I was a bit hesitant to make a pie.  But, since we had help to eat this one I pounced on the opportunity.  Peach sour cream pie.  It looks like it came from All Recipes.  It tasted as wonderful as it looked.  And, made a mighty fine breakfast too!

Peach Sour Cream Pie

Ingredients:

pie crust
4 fresh peaches sliced 1/4" thick (you can substitute a 16 oz bag of frozen peaches, thawed, drained and patted dry)
1 T lemon juice
3 egg yolks
1 c sugar
1/3 c sour cream
1/4 c flour


Directions:

Prebake the crust in a 425F oven that's been preheated.  It'll take about 15 minutes for it to get golden brown.  Allow it to cool for about 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temp to 350F.  Toss the peach slices and the lemon juice.  Lay the peach slices in the pie crust.  Mix the other ingredients and spoon the custard over the peaches.  Bake for 50 minutes.  The original recipe called for tenting foil over the pie for that 50 minutes then removing the foil and baking it for an additional 30 minutes.  I didn't use the foil and skipped the last 30 minutes because the filling set up enough for my taste. 


adapted from All Recipes


Last, but not least, watermelon wedges.  With all kinds of wonderful things sprinkled on them!  Now, this is one that I saved in nextissue.com also.  BUT, it doesn't reference the magazine.  My guess is Cooking Light.  I put the spice mixture together for this and cut a couple of wedges.  The cilantro was chopped and ready to go but I totally forgot that and the olive oil the first round.  So, I made another wedge.  Connie liked it better with the cilantro and olive oil.  I preferred just the spice mixture. 

Chile Lime Watermelon Wedges

Ingredients:

grated rind from one lime
1 t ancho chile powder
1 t ground cumin
1 t kosher salt
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper
8 - 8oz wedges seedless watermelon
2 T extra virgin olive oil
3 T chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

Put the lime rind in a cake pan or on a half sheet and bake it at 200F for 10 minutes.  You want it to be slightly dry but not dry enough to lose it's flavor.  Mix it with the chile powder, cumin, salt and pepper.  Lay the watermelon wedges on the dish you'll use to serve them.  Sprinkle them with the lime mixture.  Then, drizzle them with the evoo.  Finally, top them with a sprinkle of cilantro

I think this is adapted from Cooking Light.  I got it from a magazine on nextissue.com - one that doesn't show attribution...

Thai Watermelon Salad

Yup, it's fall.  Connie didn't even ask me if I wanted to eat out on the screened porch.  It's our summertime favorite spot.  We finish our dinners and head to the rockers and finish our wine and talk.  Now, though, it's cold and rainy.  Good thing I made comfort food for dinner - potato, bacon and cabbage torte.  There's enough left for lunch day after tomorrow.  That's because I'm having lunch with a client tomorrow.  Connie will get the leftover sesame noodles while I eat something not as good... Today we had leftover duck risotto.  That was amazingly good stuff.  Dinner on Tuesday will be appetizers at a beer tasting.  And, Wednesday's dinner is almost done and in the fridge.  I won't have to dig into the freezer at the office this week at all.  Best of all, by the time the week's over we'll have tried at least six new recipes.  Thus far, the five we've tried have all been keepers.  I love it when that happens. 

So, let's talk about the recipes...

French Toast with Peaches.  I blogged about this for Secret Recipe Club.  REALLY good stuff!

Jeni's Pear Riesling Sorbet.  There's an ice cream shop in Columbus, OH (Dublin, OH if you want to be really specific) called Jeni's.  For the most part, Connie and I have very similar tastes.  We love cheese, anchovies, smoked oysters, salumi.  We dislike milk.  But, I love ice cream and he doesn't.  When we're in Ohio visiting our grandkids, we frequently head to Jeni's.  Yup, it's typically my suggestion.  I have a heckuva time deciding what to get.  There are so many incredible flavors to choose from.  Connie, not so much.  He gets the Pear Riesling Sorbet.  So, thinking that I might try to make some ice cream like Jeni's I bought her cookbook.  Lucky day!  It has the Pear Riesling Sorbet recipe!  Now, I wound up dumping the mix in the freezer and leaving it overnight.  So, what I really have is a frozen block at this point.  But, scraping with a spoon allows a spoonful at a time to be enjoyed.  And, I've got to say it's just the same flavor. 

Duck Risotto.  A lot of folks find risotto intimidating.  I'll confess that I felt the same way way back when.  Now, risotto is clean up the kitchen for two.  We've not made risotto in forever.  Then, one of my blogger friends mentioned the fact she was making duck risotto.  So, Heather Tallman, aka Basilmomma, this is ALL your fault.  I took my typical mushroom risotto recipe and changed it up just a bit.  The initial olive oil was replaced with duck fat.  A duck confit leg was shredded and added with the mushrooms.  And, of course, the duck skin was crisped and put on top.  YUM!!  At some point I've got to check Heather's blog and see how she made hers...

Then, we had two totally new recipes. 

The first was sesame noodles.  Pretty basic stuff.  A peanut butter, soy sauce and sesame noodle dressing over thin spaghetti, chicken, red bell pepper and snow peas.  I got the recipe in a Martha Stewart email.  We've had several similar dishes and loved all of them.  Best thing is that since the recipe is to be served at room temperature or cool, it makes fabulous leftovers!

 I'd been hungry for the watermelon salad with feta and red onions.  That was until I read Jamie Oliver's Thai Watermelon Salad recipe in Jamie's Dinners.  This was amazing.  I ate the leftovers the next day for lunch.  The peanuts were kinda yucky.  But, the rest of the salad was still killer.  This will absolutely be a regular in our home.

Thai Watermelon Salad

Ingredients:
1/2 of a small, seedless watermelon
1 bunch cilantro leaves
1 handful of mint leaves
1 small bunch of radishes, thinly sliced
1 large handful peanuts
1- 2 oz feta cheese, crumbled

for the dressing:
2 t grated fresh ginger
2 T soy sauce
6 T extra virgin olive oil
1 t sesame oil
juice of two limes
salt and pepper

Directions:

Mix the dressing ingredients.  Toss all the salad ingredients.  Mix with the dressing and serve immediately.

Blueberry Watermelon Salad

This was the side dish that got kicked to the curb by the crab boil potato salad. No longer is it at the curb. Late in the week, I had another long day in a week of long days. Late afternoon, two of my intrepid employees and I headed for my home. One had brought her truck and the other was "furniture shopping." She was thrilled with my old family room furniture so we loaded what we could in the truck and they took off for her house. Once that was dropped off, the truck went to a friend's house to pick up a couple of bookcases. My truck driving employee wanted one and we'll use the other in the basement. Then, once our bookcase was unloaded, the truck was reloaded with a couple of kid's desks and some stools that we'd had in our storage unit. At that point I suggested we all eat dinner. I'd made the thai ribs from my friend MomChef and knew I could put those on the grill. And, I had the LaBrea Tar Pit chicken wings. Oh, and I had a wonderful dip that I blogged about for the Secret Recipe Club on Monday. Appetizers we had. Plenty of meat. No sides. Now, did I mention that we're in the midst of having a new kitchen floor installed? That means all of my pantry goodies are in boxes. Boxes and boxes and boxes. I needed something that I had all the ingredients for AND that I could find said ingredients. All the ingredients were handy for this and it sounded wonderful. Score.  Here's my living room/pantry right now.  UGH!

What did we think? This is my new favorite way to eat watermelon. Don't get me wrong, I still love watermelon and feta salad. Lots. I just love this a little more. The lemon really kicks the flavor up. The watermelon and blueberries play very nicely together. A super double bonus is that this is really easy to put together.


Blueberry and Watermelon Salad


Ingredients:

1/4 c sugar

1/4 c water

3 mint sprigs

zest and juice of one lemon

pinch of salt

2 c blueberries

3 c cubed watermelon (I own a melon baller so used that instead)



Directions:

Mix the sugar and water in a saucepan. 

Add the mint springs. 

Gently heat they syrup until the sugar has dissolved. 

Remove it from the heat and allow it to steep for ten minutes.  Add the juice and zest of one lemon.  Put the blueberries and watermelon in a large bowl. 

Pour the syrup over and gently toss the salad.  Allow it to sit for ten minutes so the flavors will meld.

Adapted from Everyday by Rachael Ray










































adapted from Food Network Magazine