California Barbecue

The Northwest has been experiencing a record breaking heat wave the last few days (107 degrees today!) With no a/c in the house, not even I am crazy enough to cook in this weather, so I thought I would post a recipe from my trip back to California last weekend. As always, we barbecued! Californians love to barbecue, especially my family, and especially tri-tip. On a 4 day trip we had tri-tip 3 different days, cooked by 3 different relatives, and served 3 different ways: My grandma barbecued hers beforehand and then warmed it back up in the oven for a wonderful pool party lunch, my sister cooked hers in the oven to very well done, cutting holes in the meat and filling the holes with Worcestershire sauce, and my dad barbecued his rare, pouring apple cider vinegar on top (he is on a apple cider vinegar kick these days!) After all that tri-tip we still weren’t tired of it, or of barbecuing. I mean, what’s not to like about sitting outside enjoying great food with friends and family? California barbecue is meant to be fast and quick, allowing you to cook with drink in hand and then sit down and enjoy a meal with your guests. There is no special process or method, just a few required ingredients: fresh food, a nice cut of meat, good wine, and some friends!

My step mom Diane made this salad with the seasons first zucchini, this is an adapted version of a recipe she got from the health section of the New York Times. The salad is creamy and delicious, you would never know it was actually good for you ! The salad made an excellent side dish to the barbecued chicken and fresh grilled corn. If you wanted, you could leave out the lettuce and then the dish would be more like a salsa that you could serve with chips!

Zucchini-Avocado Salad

Makes 8 side-dish servings

1 Head Romaine lettuce, chopped for a salad
1 Medium zucchini, finely diced
5 Medium tomatoes, chopped
2 Jalapeño peppers, seeded and finely chopped
1/2 Cup chopped cilantro
1 Large avocado, finely diced
3 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Salt

Croutons (optional)

Sprinkle the zucchini with salt, and drain in a colander for 15 minutes. If the zucchini tastes too salty, give it a rinse. Combine the tomatoes, peppers and cilantro in a serving bowl. Mix the zucchini, avocado and lemon or lime juice in another smaller bowl. Season to taste with salt. Add zucchini/avocado mixture to tomato/cilantro mixture and toss gently. Toss in lettuce leaves and season to taste. Garnish with Croutons and serve!

Homemade Ranch Dressing

Growing up in California, you eat a lot of ranch dressing. Ranch dressing is a permanent part of the California food culture, and it certainly was a part of mine as a little girl. I admittedly took it a little too far as a child, refusing any other kind of salad dressing, dipping everything from carrots and chicken tenders to French fries in the stuff. French fries with a side of ranch. Now that is quite possibly my absolute favorite way to eat ranch dressing, with fried artichoke hearts running a close second. In California, ordering French fries with a side of ranch, doesn’t bat an eye. Up here in Oregon, 90% of the time you are accommodated, but try ordering that in the Midwest, and then wait for the strange looks. In Europe, well forget about it, they don’t serve ranch there….I am glad nobody told me ranch dressing wasn’t as widely available everywhere else in the world back then, because at that age, I might never have left…..

Has all this talk of ranch dressing made you want some? Well I hope so, because it is ridiculously easy. I wish I had known how to make some years ago, I could have cut down on the home sickness! Homemade ranch dressing is also much better than that stuff from Hidden Valley.

I “borrowed” this recipe from the Gluten Free Girl , who had borrowed it from somebody named “Cookiecrumb” and I am sure Cookiecrumb borrowed it from somebody else, it is after all just a basic ranch dressing, classic and at its best.

Makes 3 cups

1 Cup buttermilk
1 Cup mayonnaise
1 Cup whole fat yogurt
1 Teaspoon dried dill
1 Teaspoon dried oregano
1 Teaspoon dried garlic
1 Teaspoon kosher salt
1 Teaspoon pepper
Juice of ½ a lemon

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Pour into container and refrigerate. Let dressing sit for 1 day before eating, this allows all the flavors to blend together! (This is important! Leave it alone, or it won’t taste right!) Serve with anything and everything =)

These veggies are just begging for some Ranch lovin!

Ode to Strawberries Part 2: Strawberry, Walnut, & Goat Cheese Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette

The weather yesterday was crazy, like a scene out of the Wizard of Oz. Sofia and I were cruising the farmers market (a mini one in the park behind my house, just started, yay!) and buying strawberries. Well I was the one buying while Sofia was “sampling” more like grabbing at all of them on the table and trying to stuff them in her mouth…Anyway, it was hot and sunny, humid, and downright uncomfortable. We walked back to the house and I stripped my little bug down to her designer Costco diaper, filled our glasses with ice water, opened all the windows and tried to cool off. Then within minutes, the wind picked up, the sky turned dark, lightning and thunder ensued and it began to hail. Yikes! Then again, it did add a dose of excitement to our day. The power in the Pearl District (where Jon works) was knocked out still today so Jon got an impromptu 3 day weekend….

Those strawberries? Well, I made a salad with them. The type of salad that makes a fantastic lunch, but add some grilled chicken and you have dinner. It is also the type of salad that comes in handy if say a thunderstorm rolls through and your power is knocked out….

Riesling would go very well with this salad!

3 Ounces goat cheese, crumbled
½ Pint sliced strawberries, sliced
½ Cup walnut halves, toasted
10 Ounces fresh spinach
¼ Cup apple cider vinegar
½ Cup olive oil
1 Tablespoon pomegranate molasses or syrup*
1 Tablespoon honey
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

* You might be asking yourself what you would do with the rest of a bottle of pomegranate molasses, besides making the obvious vinaigrette. Pomegranate molasses actually makes an excellent marinade for meats (I have coated a turkey in it several times) and also can be used in mixed drinks.

Whisk together the apple cider vinegar, olive oil, honey, pomegranate molasses, and thyme until emulsified. Season to taste with salt and pepper, set aside.
Place spinach in serving bowl, top with strawberries and walnuts. Sprinkle with goat cheese, and drizzle the vinaigrette over! Serve!

"Take Me to a BBQ Salad": Lemon Penne with Tomatoes, Bell Pepper & Feta

Several years ago, I made a version of this pasta salad for a barbeque but I had since lost the recipe. With this weekend’s gorgeous weather I decided to try and recreate something similar to what I remembered. This salad turned out delicious and would be a great addition to any summertime picnic or get together, plus it keeps really well and makes for excellent leftovers! You also wouldn’t have to worry about it getting too warm, because there is no mayo involved. To elevate this pasta salad from a side dish to a meal, add some store bought rotisserie chicken. Let’s get real, during a hot summer day the last thing you probably feel like doing is turning on a hot oven.

Lemon Pasta Salad with Tomatoes, Red Pepper & Feta
Serves 4 as a meal, 8 as a side dish

For the dressing:
7 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
3 Tablespoons whole grain mustard *I actually used whole grain mustard with garlic. If you don’t have whole grain mustard with garlic, then use 2 tablespoons whole grain mustard with 2 minced garlic cloves.
4 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

For the Salad:
12 Ounces Penne pasta
2 Cups grape or cherry tomatoes halved
2 Red bell peppers, chopped
10 Ounces crumbled Feta cheese

Start a large pot of salted water to boil.

Whisk oil lemon juice, mustard, garlic, and lemon peel in a small bowl until emulsified. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Cook Penne pasta in boiling salted water until al dente, about 11 minutes. Drain pasta. In a colander, rinse pasta with cold water until cool to the touch. In a large bowl, toss pasta with tomatoes, bell pepper, and feta cheese. Pour dressing over and toss until well coated. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

* If you have it on hand, top with some chopped fresh thyme.

We might see a lot of rain during the other 3 seasons of the year, but the Portland summers can't be beat! Lovin' it!

Tuna & White Bean Salad : Legume Recipe # 1

So I have decided to do a 3-part recipe series, on beans. Yes, beans. Maybe I will call them legumes just because it sounds better….The reason I have been trying out recipes using legumes, is because beans are high in fiber and high in protein but don’t have cholesterol. The protein part is key because it means, they actually fill you up. Normally I just breeze right past any recipes that include beans. All fart jokes aside, just due to the fact that I didn’t like them. After testing out some recipes though, I have found that you can actually make some pretty tasty stuff using beans. The benefits to cooking with them? 1. They are good for you. 2. They satisfy (I.e.; fill you up!) 3. They are an inexpensive protein. 4. And probably most important at least to my family, they don’t have any cholesterol.

All 3 recipes I am going to use come from spin offs of Giada De Laurentis recipes. They are changed only slightly because her recipes just don’t need that much tweaking! The first is a tuna & white bean salad. I make this salad and then put it on a Ciabatta sandwich roll (like the kind they sell @ Costco) with some Romaine lettuce. This salad is really tasty and eliminates any need for mayonnaise. (Shocking!) Tuna does have some cholesterol, but it is the good kind, loaded with Omega 3’s. You can eat it without the bread, but I feel like turning it into a sandwich leaves everyone walking away from the dinner table full. Personally speaking, if I try to limit my dinner I just end up snack binging later on in the evening.

This recipe serves 4 easily:
2 (5 oz) cans chunk light tuna in OIL
2 (14 oz) cans canellini or white beans , drained and rinsed
½ pint grape tomatoes (halved)
3 tablespoons capers (drained)
1 small red onion thinly sliced into half circles
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon pepper
6 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Place beans, tomatoes, capers, onion , canned tuna IN ITS OIL, S & P all together in large bowl and mix. Pour red wine vinegar over salad and mix again. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Place salad on one half of Ciabatta. Place Romaine leaves on other half and put together like a sandwich. Easy & tasty!

Maximizing Your Budget

Happy St. Patrick’s Day Everyone! Don’t worry this won’t be an Irish recipe…..there is a very good reason the Irish are famous for their whiskey and Guinness..... This post is about making the most out of your food budget, so hopefully you will have enough money left over for that pint of green beer! Slainte!
Recently, I was watching a DVR’d episode of Oprah and she had (Iron Chef) Cat Cora on talking about how to get the most value out of your grocery shopping. Chef Cora said when you “don’t eat leftovers or let produce go bad it is like folding up a $20 bill and throwing it away.” That really rang true with me! In a time where every dollar counts in most households, it can be challenging to make it out of the grocery store under budget and still have tasty meals. So I decided to do a 2 part blog about how to get the most out of leftovers by stretching a simple rotisserie chicken into 2 different meals. The idea is to utilize the same protein two nights in a row, but use completely different flavors & textures, so as not to feel like you are having two boring (ugh!) chicken dinners in a row. Rotisserie chickens can be found in just about every market these days, but I prefer to buy mine at Costco when I can. (At Costco they are priced at $4.99 versus the supermarket which is usually more in the $7 range.) The first thing you will want to do with the chicken when you get home is separate the white meat from the dark. Put the dark meat in a Tupperware container and save it for tomorrow’s recipe : Black Bean & Chicken Empanadas. Put the white breast meat aside and choose which recipe you are going to make: Chicken Salad with Lime Vinaigrette or Chicken Soup, Mexican Style.

The chicken salad is very simple, it really is what you want to make of it. What makes it special is the vinaigrette for the salad. I “borrowed” the fresh lime vinaigrette recipe from my friend Gavin, who is the author of the blog the Haute Kitchen. See sidebar or go to http://thehautekitchen.com/the-simplest-vinaigrette-ever/ for more details. For this salad, I mixed baby romaine, cherry tomatoes, avocado , cucumber , croutons and then topped with the vinaigrette. I just used what I had on hand, there is no real “recipe” to the salad. We like a lot of dressing on our salad so I doubled Gavin’s original recipe below:
Fresh Lime Vinaigrette:
Juice of 1 lime
4 TB Seasoned Rice Wine Vinegar
½ c Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper to taste
*Whisk together until well blended!

Chicken Soup, Mexican Style:
4 Tb Olive oil
1 Yellow onion , chopped
4 Cloves garlic , minced
2 Jalapenos , seeded & diced
1 (28 oz) can chopped tomatoes
Shredded Cooked Chicken (2-3 cups)
4 Cups low sodium chicken stock
1 Tb Worcestershire sauce
1 Lime
1 Tb Dried oregano
1 tsp Cumin
1 Cup cooked rice
Optional Toppings: Sour Cream & Cilantro
Heat oil in soup pot over medium heat. Add onion & sauté for 2 minutes until translucent. Add jalapeno & cook another 2 minutes. Add garlic , cumin & oregano and cook another minute. Add tomatoes , chicken , Worcestershire & chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and cook 20 minutes. Meanwhile, cook up 1 cup rice in a separate pot. (Instant is fine). After 20 minutes, squeeze the juice of the lime into the pot. Add cooked rice and simmer another 5-10 minutes. Season with S&P. Garnish with sour cream & cilantro. Enjoy!
Any extra white meat chicken that wasn’t used can be added to the Tupperware of dark meat chicken. Check back tomorrow to see how to use the leftover chicken in Black Bean & Chicken Empanadas!

Light & Easy Avocado & Red Grapefruit Salad....Maybe it will make the rain go away

As I mentioned in a previous blog, my husband has high cholesterol. With that being said, it means that sometimes I make small (albeit big for animal fat loving me) sacrifices to serve healthy, cholesterol -free meals. So from now on when I am posting recipes, if possible I will also note changes you can make to the meal to cut the cholesterol .

One evening I had Costcoed up on avocados and needed to use them before they went bad so I came up with this easy salad. We had this for dinner, but I think it would be a lot more satisfying as a brunch/lunch dish or as a side dish. The vinaigrette really complimented the grapefruit, (it cut the tartness) in fact you could even omit the avocado and add more grapefruit and just have a grapefruit salad. This salad serves 2 as a meal.

Ingredients:
2 Avocados
1 Ruby Red Grapefruit
Chopped Almonds (optional)

Vinaigrette:
The juice of 1 lemon (Tip: if you don’t have a juicer just twist a fork inside the lemon to get all that juice!)
1 tb mustard (I used Guldens brown mustard but a whole grain or Dijon would work just as well.)
1 tsp kosher salt
Pepper to taste
¼ cup olive oil
Combine first 4 ingredients and then whisk in olive oil slowly until emulsified.

Directions:
Cut open avocados, pit and slice. (You will get about 6 slices out of each half of avocado.) Segment the grapefruit, removing any peel. Place avocados on plate and then top with grapefruit. Pour vinaigrette over. Sprinkle with chopped almonds for added crunch.