Blueberry Salad Dressing

The kids and I went and picked 6 and a half pounds of blueberries yesterday.  It didn't even take long, the picking was that good. 

Oh, I'll make blueberry pie, and blueberry muffins, and blueberry pancakes, and blueberry smoothies.  Not to worry!  But we'd just picked up our CSA share and had a huge head of lettuce, not to mention other salad fixin's.  So salads it is for the next few days.

I've been trying to make more of my own salad dressings. I've found a couple of really great HFCS-free, artificial color- and flavor-free options for salad dressing at the grocery store.  But, it's just so easy to make salad dressing.  And I can jazz it up how *I* like it.  And only make enough for a day or two, instead of having bottles sit in the fridge for months.

It's quick, easy, and delicious.  The hardest part is cleaning the food processor after dinner!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup blueberries
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon (remember to zest the lemon BEFORE cutting and juicing!)
• 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon agave nectar
• ~4 or so mint leaves
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Salt to taste (optional)

Directions:

Add the blueberries, lemon zest and juice, apple cider vinegar, agave nectar, and mint leaves to a food processor.  Blend it all up.

Drizzle in the olive oil while continuing to food process.  Stop when it's salad dressing-y.

Serve over the salad fixin's of your choice (I had lettuce, arugula, cherry tomatoes, and radishes from our CSA, plus some avocado and sunflower seeds.  Then I threw in a handful of extra blueberries--believe me, with 6 and a half pounds in the house, I'm putting blueberries with every meal!)

Turn the ordinary into the extraordinary!

As my friend, Sally, said - 'When you have quality ingredients, even a simple meal tastes like a masterpiece'.  Such was the case when I found myself with a fresh loaf of oatmeal bread from Cricket Creek Farm, plus a head of fresh-picked leaf lettuce and pastured pork bacon from Holiday Brook Farm on hand. It was clear to me that my lunchtime mission was to prepare a BLT;  once I accepted this mission, I set off to pick up a lovely heirloom tomato from Berkshire Organics.

 
Now the realization that I had these ingredients on hand coincided with my desire to try the Baked Brown Sugar Bacon recipe in the Savory Sweet Life cookbook. I've been a big fan of baking bacon for quite some time.  It's the no-mess, set-it-and-forget-it method!  Normally, I would line my jelly roll pan with foil, lay the bacon in the pan and bake for 20 to 30 minutes at 375 degrees until the bacon is nice and crispy. 

For this recipe, you preheat the oven to 400 degrees and place a wire rack on top of a rimmed baking sheet (I used my standard jelly roll pan).  Toss one pound of bacon slices with 1/4 cup of brown sugar in a medium bowl.  then lay the bacon slices on the wire rack and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until crisp.
Note:  If desired, you can add 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne powder to the brown sugar for some added heat.

While the bacon was baking, I toasted two hardy slices of farm-fresh oatmeal bread.  Once everything was done, I assembled my masterpiece.  I slathered one slice of toasted bread with mayonnaise (which I'm going to try making myself with farm-fresh eggs one day soon)!  I topped this with with several leaves of lettuce, two generous slices of heirloom tomato, four slices of brown sugar bacon, followed by another piece of toasted bread.

PERFECTION!  The perfect combination of sweet and savory and oh, so satisfying goodness.  Fresh, local ingredients really DO make a difference.  In so many ways.

Bon Appetit!

Strawberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

Strawberry season!  What can I say, strawberries are one of those things that you can get all year in the supermarket, but it's just not worth it.  Nothing compares to in-season, just picked strawberries.  I'm starting to see local strawberries pop up in more and more places.  I picked up a quart of delicious tiny, slightly tart strawberries from Springdell Farm in Littleton yesterday.  Besides just eating them plain, one of my favorite things to do is add them to a salad.  Especially with the slightly tart berries like I got from Springdell.  And that's not a complaint--I love when the berries have that touch of sour to go with the sweet.  It's a great match for a vinegar-y salad dressing.

So here's a recipe for strawberry vinaigrette salad dressing.  I'm not going to give you a "recipe" for salad--just add your favorite salad ingredients.  I will, however, suggest you add some crumbled bleu cheese.  It's a great match with the strawberry flavor.  I picked up some of my favorite local bleu cheese:  Great Hill Blue.  Yum!  And I also like to include some sliced berries in the salad as well.  Delightful!

Ingredients:

1 cup whole strawberries, hulled
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 to 1/3 cup red wine vinegar (depends on how tart you like your dressing--I've been known to dress a salad with straight vinegar, so I like mine vinegar-y!)
Fresh thyme (lemon thyme if you have it)--about 1 tablespoon of leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon sugar (optional--I forgot it this time and didn't miss it, though as I've mentioned, I like a really tart dressing)

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a food processor.  Whiz it around until it's salad dressing.  Drizzle over your favorite salad.

Chicken Lettuce Wraps and Spinach Artichoke Au Gratin

Chicken Lettuce Wraps:


I very, very loosely followed this recipe. I made quite a few changes and while I was extremely happy with the results, the wraps weren't exactly similar to the P.F. Chang lettuce wraps. So if that's what you're looking for, you might want to go to the original recipe. Having said that, here's my version:

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground chicken
4 oz. water chestnuts, minced
6 oz. baby bella mushrooms, minced
1/2 medium onion, finely minced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
3 Tablespoons soy sauce
Splash rice wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons ketchup
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1 Tablespoon oyster sauce
1 Tablespoon spicy brown bean sauce**
Lettuce leaves (we used about 2/3 a head of Bibb lettuce)

Directions:

In a large skillet, brown the ground chicken. When it is about 3/4 of the way done, add the water chestnuts, mushrooms, onion, and garlic. Continue cooking, stirring often, until chicken is browned.

Meanwhile, mix all remaining ingredients (except lettuce) in a small bowl. Stir well.

When the chicken is done, add the sauce you mixed in the small bowl. Stir well to coat all the chicken and let cook for about 2 or 3 minutes until slightly thickened.

Place a spoonful of filling onto a lettuce leaf, then roll the lettuce up.

**As I mentioned previously, the original recipe linked above called for red chile paste, but the only brand I could find had peanuts in it, which is a no-go due to food allergies here. So I got House of Tsang brand spicy brown bean sauce. The final recipe was not quite spicy enough. I'd say either use the red chile paste if you don't have to worry about allergies, or add some red pepper flakes in addition to the brown bean sauce.

__________________________

Next I tried Fresh Spinach and Artichoke Au Gratin. I wasn't sure how it would come out using fresh, uncooked spinach...most recipes call for the frozen stuff. I almost steamed the spinach or blanched it, but ultimately, laziness ruled the day and I just used raw spinach. Worked out fine! Again, there's a recipe I used as a jumping off point (here), but made some significant changes.
Ingredients:

1/3 pound spinach, coarsely chopped
2/3 of a 14 oz. can of artichoke hearts (non-marinated, drained), coarsely chopped
6 oz. cream cheese
2 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Soften cream cheese and butter in the microwave for about 20 seconds until it can be stirred together.

Mix in artichoke hearts, spinach, and parmesan cheese. Transfer to a baking dish (or just make the whole recipe right in the baking dish from the get-go...that's what I did!)

Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Serve with chips, bread, and/or veggies for dipping.