Salads – Page 3 – Rosemary and the Goat

Asian Salad with Chicken

Thanks to BJ Brewhouse for this recipe.

I don’t know about you but I expect certain things in an Asian Salad; cabbage (red and savoy or Napa), Mandarin oranges, almonds, green onions just to name a few.

BJ Brewhouse use to have to best Asian salad but for some reason they changed their cabbages to lettuce and that does not work in an Asian salad for me so I no longer order it. Recently I ordered an Asian salad from Pei Wei (owned by Pf Changs). Not good and I told them about it (not in person of course; I do not have that much nerve). Their salad was made of lettuce, and tomatoes. I’ve never had an Asian salad with tomatoes and it didn’t even have an Asian salad tase. It was more like a “house” salad that they threw in some fried wonton strips and called it a day. No longer will we be going to that restaurant either. I’m really not that picky I don’t think.

April 10, 2019 By Sherry

Salads

Avocado Bacon and Egg Pasta Salad

What’s not to like about ABE in anything?

Anything that has avocado, bacon and egg together has to be good. Can’t say why this recipe jumped off the page at me but my first thought was boy does that look like a good “potato” salad. And then after another look I thought it was tortellini pasta and then finally after looking at the recipe I realized it was a trottole (spinning top shape) pasta.

I love potato salad and I can’t tell you the last time I’ve made it. My Cauliflower Potato Salad kind of took the place of my traditional version. When I make the cauliflower version now I like to add just one potato to the recipe to give it a little more dimension in flavors. This recipe I think will be the best of both versions; potato and pasta but with more of a potato salad taste.

So, if you can’t find the trottole (Kroger sells it) I would probably use orecchiette (little ears), giggle (little flowers is beautiful), or even a rotelle (wagon wheels) to add some visual interest to the dish.

January 20, 2019 By Sherry

Fruit Dishes/ Morning Foods/ Salads

Winter Fruit Salad & Spiced Yogurt Dressing

Just in time for a holiday meal.

We had some old friends (Jackie & Ron) visit from Colorado recently and it was so much fun catching up with each other lives. Ron said he still remembers hushpuppies I made them years ago and I told him my hushpuppies were much better these days.

For dinner one night I made some stuffed dates (dates I brought back from Israel) and my Prosciutto and Gruyere Palmiers, Redfish Imperial, Fiery Angel Hair Pasta, Grilled Asparagus and for dessert was Julia’s Mixed Berry Clafoutis.

So, how did it turn out? Well my stuffed dates were probably cooked a little too long, I put too much of the crab topping on the redfish and forgot to give it extra time under the broiler and my clafoutis which was suppose to be part custard/cake really turned out a little more solid than I wanted because I left it to warm in the oven too long. But, good friends are forgiving and they enjoyed the dinner and I kicked myself all night because my dessert wasn’t just right.

December 17, 2018 By Sherry

Salads/ Side dish

Brussel Sprout and Date Salad

My Israeli dates made a wonderful salad.

I didn’t expect to see so much agriculture in Israel but we saw field after field of dates, olives, pomergrantes, and limes. All of their fields have drip irrigation; I guess that explains growing in the dessert.

Our first day of our tour (or I guess third if you count the two days getting there), we had rain the night before. It was their first rain in seven months and the morning ride on the bus still had us being sprinkled on — what did we see? The most beautiful, vivid rainbow I have ever seen. It was from end to end and you could see the lines of color so clearly and what happened next took us all by surprise — another rainbow appear on top of the first rainbow. What a way to start our trip.

November 16, 2018 By Sherry

Salads

Pasta Spinach Salad with Mandarins and Cherries

Michigan cherries, yum!

Longest road trip ever back in August; Texas to Missouri, to Chicago, then Mackinac Island, Traverse City, then reverse that order and back to Chicago (it’s 1100 miles around Lake Michigan) to see son and family few more days then back to my sister’s in Missouri then after a few more days back to Texas.

I don’t do well in a car for more than three hours but give me my iPad with internet access and I can survive any road trip. Do I sound like someone’s kid or what? So I have plenty of time to research recipes.

I found this salad recipe while looking for something different to make over the summer and I ended up saving the recipe because I wanted to use some Michigan dried cherries I would be buying on our trip. Sure I could buy died cherries here, but what fun would that be I wanted to drive 1,600 miles to get mine from the source. And, since Fall is fast approaching I opted for roasted pepitas (pumpkin) seeds in place of the pine nuts that are so often used in salad recipes.

October 17, 2018 By Sherry

Salads

Trofie Pasta Salad with Bacon and Avocado

Is macaroni pasta or not?

Who doesn’t love a good pasta/macaroni salad and this one made an appearance at our annual fall craft circle potluck.

I love potlucks because it gives me a chance to try out some different recipes knowing that there will be a lot of ladies there and I won’t be bringing much home, if anything?

This recipe I saw over at Damn Delicious website. I love her recipes and they are always so beautiful. I’ve tried quite a few of them and posted some on this site. Sometimes I will mess with a recipe and sometimes I just leave it alone and maybe tweak it a little next time I make it.

September 5, 2018 By Sherry

Salads

Basil Pistachio Salad Dressing

Looking for a new salad dressing?

How is your summer going? Ours is going by pretty fast. Daughter/family home for visit for Memorial day weekend, then the next weekend son from Austin came with family/friends, then next weekend daughter back for class reunion, then next weekend picked up two of the grandsons from Austin and this weekend they will swing back through The Woodlands on their way back from beach trip. They have been my guinea pigs for the past few weeks with a few new recipes I’ve been wanting to try out on someone.

Summer is the perfect season for any kind of fresh, crisp, green or pasta salad and who isn’t looking for something healthy and light for lunch/dinner. Add some roasted or grilled chicken or seafood to this salad and you have a very light, not filling dinner.

July 18, 2018 By Sherry

Salads

Couscous Salad with Strawberry, Avocado and Lime Vinaigrette

Israeli couscous!

So, we’re going to Israel in October and I’m wondering how much couscous I will be eating; I’m sure it will be the Israeli variety, or I hope so anyway. I know I will be eating a lot of hummus; good thing I love the stuff. Especially love my version with white beans. Never had falafel and I guess that will be on the menu too. The only thing I have been warned not to try is “Jesus fish” and I’m kind of picky about the kinds of fish I like so I will NOT try that; I’ll let HUB try it and he can tell me how bad it is.

Back to the subject of this post — couscous. I’m not sure when couscous came on my food radar but maybe somewhere in the last 8 years or so. I always thought it was a grain I guess because the small variety looks like it could be a grain. But couscous isn’t a grain at all it is a pasta. I’m not fond of the small variety of couscous; too many little pieces and it just doesn’t show up that well in a salad and mine tends to mush together.

July 12, 2018 By Sherry

Salads

Pasta Salad with Asparagus and Shrimp

Who says a pasta salad can’t be fun.

I picked up this interesting package of pasta on my Sante Fe trip last September and I’m just now getting around to doing something with it. The pasta is called Organic Leftovers Colored. All kinds of interesting shapes from Castles to bow ties, tubes, wheels, Viking helmets and shields. I knew this was going to be a fun pasta to eat. Here is one from Amazon that even looks prettier than the one I bought.

I really like all the different shapes in one package. When my sister and I were kids we use to eat Campbels Alphabet Soup. We would pick though it and try to spell out things with the pasta letters. Maybe I’ll pick through this pasta and pull out all the castles, horses and wine glasses and set up a little Games of Thrones Salad.

June 24, 2018 By Sherry

Salads/ Side dish

Green Pea Pasta with Vegetables

Green and gluten-free!

While in Hot Springs a couple of months ago going to the horse races I found this gluten-free green pea pasta at one of the shops down town and since my son and family were visiting the next week I wanted something new gluten free to make for my daughter-in-law.

I purchased a red lentil pasta and this green pea pasta. My first thought was a pea pasta salad with green peas and some other green ingredients. I just happened to have one potato so I cut it into small cubes and boiled and added to the pasta salad.

There are so many gluten-free pasta out there now and once you add all your other ingredients you would never know it was GF. I was never a fan of gluten-free recipes (especially sweets/pastries) when they were starting to appear all over the internet. Seems like they were all made from just almond flour and to me everything tasted like almonds. I like all the new blends of flours and especially the pastas made with vegetables like this green pea pasta. This one comes from Abruzzo, Italy and you can buy it here or find it in a specialty shop.

April 25, 2018 By Sherry

Salads

Sensation Salad with Avocado

Sensational salad!

I first had a sensation salad with my friend, Janice, at Magnolia Cafe in St. Francisville, LA. My first thought was boy is this a simple salad — lettuce and dressing and some cheese. Simple is good sometimes when you want a salad to go with say, pizza and don’t want to fuss about a lot of ingredients.

From my search, I found almost all recipes were the same. Most recipes tore up the greens but what I remembered about my sensation(al) salad was that the lettuce was kind of shredded like you would for tacos but maybe not as thin. Of course, I just had to mess with the original and I thought that some fresh avocado would be great with the salad and the dressing and of course the pizza that we were doing on our Kamodo Joe smoker. Ok, so I couldn’t quit thinking of what else to add to this salad. With all this shredded iceberg lettuce that is traditional, why not add another shade of green by adding some shredded romaine; and why stop there? I threw in some good blue cheese with the Romano. And, next time I might throw in some tomato and fried bacon bits. Maybe that wouldn’t still be called a Sensation Salad but it would taste SENSATIONAL!

April 13, 2018 By Sherry

Salads

Cucumber Zucchini and Pineapple Salad

Healthy spiralized noodles.

I don’t know if spiralizers are as popular as the Instant Pot or Air Fryers but mine as been in my pantry a little too long without being used. So, if you have one and it’s been neglected, get it out and try this recipe.

This recipe can be made with or without the oil. It’s not that much oil if you decide to use it and won’t wreck your diet for sure.

February 18, 2018 By Sherry