Salads – Page 10 – Rosemary and the Goat

Italian Chopped Salad

Those little white beans are great in this salad!

When it starts to get hot, nothing sounds better than some kind of good salad with a light dressing and maybe a piece of grilled salmon. This is the time of the year in Texas that we start grilling most of our meals and eating outside.

Growing up a salad to me meant head lettuce, cottage cheese, tomato and a chopped boiled egg covered with French dressing. Yes, the French dressing that is orange and comes in a bottle. We called that salad a Combination Salad and that was what you asked for in a restaurant. That is the only salad I remember ever eating until I got married and started experimenting with recipes. I still love that salad but would not serve it to anyone I know except for my husband.

Coleslaws, yes. Potato salad, yes, no macaroni salad and no salad using anything but iceberg lettuce. Honestly, I don’t remember any other lettuce being sold at our grocery. Of course, I didn’t grocery shop so I don’t know what was sold. I forgot about a salad my mother use to make — Wilted Lettuce Salad. My dad had a terrific garden and she would pick his curly leaf lettuce add some green onions, bacon and a boiled egg and heat up the bacon fat with a little sugar and vinegar and pour it over the salad. Now that was and is a good salad and I make that occasionally with fond memories.

I love salad and just about anything you can put on a salad. It’s exciting too to be able to go out in my herb garden and pick some lettuce, arugula, chives or herbs to go into a salad I’m making.

I think this salad could be served as a main dish salad by adding some shredded grilled chicken. I have made this salad many times and always forget to double the dressing recipe when I use the whole head of romaine. I also use a soft sun-dried tomato instead of the oil packed ones then I chop them up and add to the dressing.

May 10, 2011 By Sherry

Entree/ Fish/Seafood/ Salads

Avocado Shrimp Salad

Cool and easy for a hot summer day.

Our temperatures here in Texas get really close to 100° on most summer days, and I don’t like hot weather and can hardly wait each evening to get in the pool with a glass of wine and a noodle to float on, and that is the best part of the day.

To me, it’s a challenge to try and come up with recipes to cook in warmer months that don’t involve me standing in the kitchen all day over a hot stove (ha, not going to happen). Lucky me, my husband loves grilling and smoking things outside. So, come summer, he is stocking up on charcoal, and woods like apple, cherry, hickory, and alder. He does absolutely the best salmon I’ve ever had and his pulled pork is the best I’ve tasted here in Texas. So, I am not putting him to work for this dish — no smoking involved.

So, if you are looking for something lighter for a lunch, brunch or dinner, try this Avocado Shrimp Salad recipe. It’s quick and really easy, and maybe make some of my Thyme Onion and Chive Muffins to go with it.

April 11, 2011 By Sherry

Salad Dressing/ Salads

Wedge Salad On A Different Angle

No matter how you cut it, it is still a wedge salad!

Even though iceberg lettuce has almost no nutritional value, I think most people really like the wedge salad.

There are so many different types of lettuce in the markets now — butter, romaine, chicory, purple, curly leaf, arugula (one of my favorites), red-tip leaf lettuce, radicchio, spinach, Swiss chard, curly endive and the lowly iceberg head lettuce. Seems like iceberg lettuce always gets a bum rap when it comes to nutritional value and even taste. It is good on tacos and ????? Can’t think of anything else that I really want iceberg lettuce on. BUT, when it comes to a wedge salad and you want a nice crisp piece of lettuce to put your bacon, tomato, cabbage and cheese on, then you definitely want iceberg.

A couple of years ago we were in NYC and had dinner at DBDG Kitchen and Ba r. I remember having a duck dish and also individual baked Alaskas. And with all that over the top food we had that weekend, I remember their wedge salad and I have made mine this way ever since. Instead of doing the typical wedge, cutting a head of lettuce into 4 wedges, they cut their lettuce across the head so you have a nice 1″ thick round slice (not a wedge). I like it this way because you are not chasing the salad all over your plate and all the topping don’t slide down the side of the wedge.

So for my version of DBGB’s Wedge Salad I’m adding some finely sliced red cabbage along with the “slice” of iceberg lettuce, some tomato, bacon, a little finely sliced green onion, crumbled blue cheese and a blue cheese ranch dressing. If you want a crisp slice of lettuce, wash in cold water, drain, and then wrap in paper towels and refrigerate until you are ready for your salad.

February 16, 2011 By Sherry

Salads

Cilantro Slaw

Slaw, slaw, slaw. What can I say?

I plopped this into my herb garden for a quick picture before I put the dressing on. I don’t have cilantro growing right now but do plant it in the spring.

Slaw is one of those things that you can put with any meal or make a meal of it by topping with some chopped BBQ (my daughter and I use to do this for a quick lunch). Slaw is basically shredded cabbage with maybe some carrot thrown in or anything that suits your fancy from fruit to jicama. Just the word “slaw” doesn’t really tell you what is inside the salad does it? You would think that anything called “slaw” would have shredded cabbage as it’s main ingredient. But what about “broccoli slaw”, and I’m sure there are a lot of other variations out there that I have never heard of.

February 9, 2011 By Sherry

Salads

Potluck Macaroni Salad

A great addition to any potluck dinner!

Have you ever wonder why there are so many differ shapes of pasta?

Well, I have always wondered that because growing up I knew macaroni and spaghetti and I think that is about it. We never had homemade noodles; we had homemade dumplings.

In case you are still wondering about the pastas, maybe it all started in Italy and homemakers got tired of the same old spaghetti day in and day out and they started experimenting with different pastas. OR, maybe the different pasta shapes serve a different purpose.

There are small pastas like orzo which looks like rice but cooks very quickly in just a few minutes and fit perfect in spoons for small bites. There are hallow pastas that work great for thick sauces to get into the crevices. There are pasta shells like manicotti or shell pasta shapes that one can fill with wonderful savory fillings. There are pastas shaped like little ears and even sombreros (I call those Pinocchio hats). There are thin noodles like angel hair pasta that are so delicate for light sauces and then there are thick noodles like linguine or lasagna that can stand up to just about any kind of sauce. Take something like ziti and penne and the difference is the cut end and how it affects how much sauce gets inside the pasta.

December 20, 2010 By Sherry

Salads/ Side dish

Rainbow Slaw with Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

There are probably eight million recipes for slaw and this is just one of them.

Ok, this is really dating myself (again). But, back in the 50’s there was a TV show called the Naked City and the tag line for the show was “There are eight million stories in the naked city, and this is has been one of them”.

Happy Halloween everyone. I should be posting a pumpkin recipe I guess but this recipe with roasted, salted pumpkin seeds is as close as I’m getting to a pumpkin today.

Ya know, there are probably a million recipe for slaw/coleslaw out there in the universe just circulating through the Internet and I can’t believe I have never posted a slaw recipe because I probably have at least a gazillion in my recipe files. This recipe for Rainbow Coleslaw with Roasted Pumpkin Seeds is a beautiful slaw with colors of the rainbow. The purple and green cabbage along with the orange carrots and green onions make this a very attractive addition to any plate of food.

Growing up my mother would make several types of slaw. One I remember was called freezer slaw (or really a refrigerator slaw). That particular recipe had shredded cabbage, onion, green onions and green peppers and the dressing was a boiled dressing of sugar and vinegar and a few spices. The dressing would get poured over the slaw and you could keep it refrigerated for at least a month and it would stay crunchy and fresh.

There is also a hot slaw I make that is cooked shredded cabbage with tomatoes, onions and green peppers and lots of black pepper. Now, don’t ask me why it is called “slaw” since it is cooked, but that is the name of the recipe. My mother-in-law always had a special type of slaw she made when she cooked fish for us — a mustard slaw. Her recipe had a little mustard, mayo and a little sugar to sweeten the slaw a tiny bit. For BBQ dinners I like a slaw that doesn’t have mayonnaise in it. And, who doesn’t love KFC coleslaw. I have learned the secret to the thin dressing is adding some milk to the mayonnaise. One of my favorite slaw recipes is one I’m sure everyone has made that has Ramen noodles and sunflower seeds. A friend of mine always makes that when I ask her to bring slaw and it is delicious with the toasted nuts and noodles added in right before serving.

October 31, 2010 By Sherry

Dessert/ Morning Foods/ Salads

Frozen Fruit Salad

A treat anytime of the year.

I love fruit and this recipe pleases anytime of the year. It’s great for brunch, dessert, or snack anytime of the day and I think I’m going to go have one right now.

Back in the early 70’s we moved to Ft. Madison, Iowa. We were living in Louisville, KY at the time and I remember people telling us we were moving to the “Florida of Iowa” area of the state. How wrong that statement turned out to be. We had 100 days of snow cover one year and if it wasn’t for joining the Welcome Wagon club and church functions I would have gone crazy. When I first heard doctors on TV talk about “cabin fever” I didn’t know what they were taking about. But, when you are huddled in a house with three kids all day trying to stay warm and keep them entertained, then you catch on quickly. (We weren’t really huddled in the house staying room, but it was too cold for the kids to go out and play.) My daughter use to ride her trike in the basement because it was too cold to go outside. We had lots of Easter egg hunts inside because of the weather.

This Frozen Fruit Salad recipe was one that we did at a Welcome Wagon brunch one year. I have never forgotten it. When my kids were younger I use to make this and have in the freezer for snacks. About 15 seconds in the microwave and a few chops, you have a nice slushy snack for anytime of the day.

September 8, 2010 By Sherry

Salads

Orange, Avocado, and Watermelon Salad

Cool and refreshing to go with my b-b-q ribs!

I was laying in bed this morning thinking about the baby back ribs my husband was going to smoke tonight. I knew they would be delicious because he does the best bar-b-q around. I think my dad taught him well and over the years my husband has put his own spin on smoking/grilling by using all sorts of different woods to get a great smoke flavor to his meats.

So, on with the story. I was trying to come up with a salad that would be cool and refreshing to go along with his hot and spicy ribs. I was thinking about a watermelon that our neighbor, Anne, just gave us and what might go with that to make a delicious salad. Watermelon, orange, maybe some red onions, avocado and some toasted pine nuts. I thought about putting this on a bed of baby spinach for extra color. And, for the dressing, you can’t go wrong with balsamic, maybe a little lime juice and cilantro, shallot, some olive oil and perhaps toss in a little cumin to add a touch of spice to the salad to compliment the ribs.

I remember years ago when we would go to Florida for summer vacations, my grandfather would pull over at local farm stands to buy some produce. Whether it be watermelon, oranges, or peaches, he always wanted to taste the fruit before buying it. Of course, we only bought the ripest and most flavorful fruits. Wonder, why we aren’t allowed to taste our produce in the grocery stores? Guess they only sample the things they know are tasty OR we wouldn’t be buying all the hard, tasteless fruits and vegetables we get at certain times of the year.

July 30, 2010 By Sherry

Salads

Tuscan Bread Salad (Panzanella)

Have any left over bread and vine ripen tomatoes?

Panzanella is a tomato bread salad that is made with left over crusty bread and the freshest tomatoes and basil you can put your hands on. You can also use that leftover bread to make tomato bread soup. If you find yourself at a farmer’s market, pick up some extra tomatoes to make this salad.

When we were Italy several years ago we ate this salad and also made a wonderful tomato bread soup in a cooking class we took one day at the villa where we stayed. I hope to make the soup in the fall and will share that recipe with you.

Now in our house, if I were to make Italian bread or any kind of homemade bread, there would not be any left over the next day to make either of these dishes and certainly not even enough to feed to the birds. When my kids were younger that was their favorite part of the meal was homemade bread, cornbread, biscuits, and muffins. Growing up we always had homemade biscuits and cornbread. I never attempted to make Italian Bread or French bread until after I got married. I love making bread. There’s just something about getting flour all over the place and myself.

July 11, 2010 By Sherry

Salads

Blackberry Spinach Salad

I went blackberry picking a few weeks ago and found all of these wonderful plump blackberries.

I love picking berries whether it’s blueberries or blackberries. When my kids where younger I used to take them to pick strawberries. All I remember about those outings is they seemed to stomp on more berries than they actually helped to pick or they were chasing each other around the berry patch.

When we moved to Texas we had berry patches all over the place where we could go pick. But, the one problem was the heat. I remember being able to talk at least one of the kids at a time to go picking for at least 2 hours. After that, they were done and never returned to the berry patch. So now that their berry picking days are behind them, I have to talk a friend into picking with me.

I picked 11 lbs. of blackberries the day we went to this local field and now I’m ready to go pick some blueberries.

June 27, 2010 By Sherry

Salad Dressing/ Salads

Spring Salad with Grapefruit and Avocado

I love Spring mix lettuce. That along with some grapefruit, avocado, jicama and red onion makes a beautiful salad.

A good friend of mine gave me this recipe for Spring Salad with Grapefruit and Avocado Salad which is great for any spring and summer luncheon or dinner. It is full of color and interesting taste and textures.

Homemade Poppy Seed Dressing or you can just buy it already made.

There’s something about having a good friend who loves to cook as much as you do. We’re on the same wave length when it comes to food and cooking. We cook together at each other’s homes and when we travel together, you will always find us in some neat little corner grocery, husbands in tow, looking to see what local markets are selling. On a trip to Italy a few years ago, we found several little groceries that peeked our interest. (See pictures at bottom of this post.) I remember one little store in Santa Margarita that had some meats that we did not recognize and the butcher explained the different cuts and the unusual looking one was rabbit. I’ve bought rabbit before but it was frozen and in a box. This was as fresh as it just hopped right up to the meat case.

So, we don’t go any where that we aren’t searching out local market places, whether it be Italy, Napa Valley, New York and San Francisco’s China Town.

May 8, 2010 By Sherry

Entree/ Poultry/ Salads

Asian Chicken Salad

I love all the flavors of Asian food and this has them all.

I remember the first Asian type salad I ever had and it was sitting by myself in a pub in Truckee, CA. Years ago, our family had gone on a ski trip during a spring break from school. One day they were skiing at Squaw Valley and since I don’t ski (been there, done that, hurt knee, surgery, all that stuff–afraid now) I decided to drive myself over to Truckee to shop and have lunch. I didn’t know it at the time but later I found out that about 100 movies have been filmed in Truckee –Misery and True Lies were two of them.

Anyway, I went to this little pub for lunch. They had this great Asian Chicken Salad and I remember they had these fried won ton chips in and around the salad. I love this addition to the salad and now I make the little chips all the time for salads. When I set out to make an Asian type salad, I hardly ever remember what I put in it from one time to the next. So, I’m always coming up with something new to add to the recipe. Sometimes I use red cabbage sometimes the radicchio. You can pretty much put anything you like it in and it will be delicious.

February 24, 2010 By Sherry

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