.spinach salad w/ blue cheese and walnuts.

This is the spinach salad for our Valentine dinner cook-along. I love a good salad and this one definitely hits the spot. You want to make sure you use really good ingredients. Make sure your blue cheese is a good brand with nice veining throughout the wedge. You won't need much because it's such a pungent cheese, so don't buy more than you think you'll use. If you aren't a fan of blue cheese, you can sub with parmesan. My daughter had cheddar on her salad.

I made this with a warm bacon shallot vinaigrette. The sweet and sour dressing was a perfect compliment to the creamy cheese and nutty flavor of the walnuts.


Slice two shallots.












Chop up two strips of bacon. I used thick sliced bacon.











Put the bacon in a skillet. Fry over medium high heat.











When the bacon is halfway done, add the shallots and let saute for 3-4 minutes.











Add 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar. If you find there isn't a lot of "dressing", add a little olive oil.

Season with 1/2 tsp sugar, salt, and pepper. If it's too sour, add more sugar. If it's too sweet, add more vinegar.

That is all this is needed for the dressing. I transferred to a bowl and kept in a low temp oven.

Slice some of the blue cheese and break into pieces.

I used one of those pre-packages of spinach that you can find in your produce section. I like these because the spinach is already washed.

Make the viniagrette a day in advance. It will save you a lot of time. Reheat in the microwave just before serving. You can also toast the chopped walnuts the night before too. Trust me. Do as much as possible before hand so you aren't killing yourself in the kitchen.

To plate: Tear some of the spinach on top of a plate. Sprinkle around some blue cheese and walnuts. Spoon the bacon-shallot vinaigrette over the top. Serve immediately.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_136ffs6dtdv

.grilled shrimp and mango salad.

A couple years ago I was in Chicago for a scrapbooking event. It's a big thing for the craft and hobby industry and I was along for the ride with a company I was designing for at the time. I shared a hotel room with three other ladies and one night while out to dinner, my friend Bek ordered this grilled shrimp and mango salad. It looked FABULOUS! Since I'm all about salads, I thought I would try remaking it here at my house.



It's quick and easy and so deliciously refreshing. A light cilantro lime vinaigrette tops this off. The dressing can be made ahead of time and held in the fridge for future use.





Begin by taking however many shrimp you want and rinsing them well. Pull of the tails if they still have them on.





Season with seasoned salt.





Skewer up the shrimp and turn on the bbq.





Grill each side. When they're pink, they're done cooking. Don't let these overcook because the shrimp will be tough.

Peel and grate a couple carrots.

Seed and dice a tomato (or two).

Peel and slice a mango. If you're making this for a crowd, then dice the mango so it stretches further.

Slice some red onion.

Thinly slice some cucumber.

And finally, grate some cheddar cheese.

You can mix all these things together in a bowl with some lettuce (I used iceberg and romaine), or you can plate it like I did in the photo at the top. Drizzle lightly with cilantro-lime vinaigrette.

CILANTRO LIME VINAIGRETTE:

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (key limes are good)
1 small jalapeno pepper, ribs and seeds removed, coarsely chopped (leave in some seeds if heat is desired)
1 small clove garlic, halved
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/8 teaspoon honey
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 pinch ground cumin
1 pinch salt, to taste
1 1/2 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro

Put all of the ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth.

.steak salad w/ strawberry peach salsa.

I stumbled across a recipe for strawberry peach salsa and thought, "Oooooooooh! I wonder what I can make this with?" Then I thought I could try it with a scrumptous steak salad.

This is light and refreshing. Perfect for a summer dinner and only took 45 minutes to an hour to make! Even better!


In a bowl put 2 diced peaches (peeled), 6 sliced strawberries, 1 diced jalapeno, a little chopped cilantro, 1/2 lime juiced, and 1/2 tsp honey. Season with a little kosher salt and stir well. Set aside.


In a bowl, mix together 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, 2 Tbsp olive oil, 1/2 lime, juiced, a little chopped cilantro, salt and pepper.


Spoon a little of the sauce over the steak and brush all over the surface. Sprinkle a little thyme and rosemary.


Put on a grill and cook until medium or medium rare.

Set aside.


Slice some red onion.


Peel one avocado and slice.


Holding your knife on the diagonal, slice your steak thinly.

To assemble, put some lettuce (I used a spring salad mix) on a plate. Sprinkle with red onions. Fan out the steak all pretty like, and the avocado in front of it. Put a handful of the strawberry peach salsa on last.

You don't really need a salad dressing for this, but if you really want something, use raspberry vinaigrette.

You could also add a little cheese if you want. Maybe something like bleu or gorgonzola or plain ol cheddar. Enjoy!

.jerk chicken salad w/ grilled pineapple salsa.

I'm always looking for new things to make. It seems I make the same things over and over from two or three ethnicities. Chinese, Mexican, Japanese...

Well, while I was perusing blogs, I came across one where the guy made a jerk chicken salad. It looked so good. I've only had Caribbean food a couple of times. Jerk food only once and WOW!!! It's so hot!!!!!! I like spicy food, but not spicy spicy where you can't even enjoy it, you know? But I loved the blends of hot and sweet, the cinnamon and allspice flavors mixed with citrus. So I thought I could temper the flames if I made the dish myself.

I tempered the flame so much.. it wasn't spicy AT ALL. I was a bit bummed because I thought there would at least be a little "pow"... so I'm going to adjust *my* recipe so it's more spicy. Here's how I did it.


JERK MARINADE:

In a blender, put:
2 scotch bonnets, seeded and roughly chopped
1 onion, chopped
the juice of 1 orange
the juice of 1 lime (including some zest)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp allspice
1 Tbsp thyme
1 1/2 tsp pepper
3/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rum
1/4 cup white vinegar

I cut this recipe in half because I didn't want a ton leftover. I wasn't sure when I would actually use it again. :)

Make sure when you handle these peppers that you wear gloves or use a piece of plastic wrap to keep from touching it. The oils and seeds will burn your skin horribly. If you do happen to get some on you and it's burning your fingers, soak in milk.

Puree all of the ingredients until nice and smooth.


Put chicken breasts (1 per person) in a ziploc. Pour the marinade in and let sit for 30 minutes on the counter, or in the fridge overnight. The longer you let this marinate the better!


The other day I made pineapple mango upside down cake. This pineapple is left from what I used for that. I diced it up the other night where I probably should have or could have left them in ring form. Whatever you have, put on skewers. We're going to grill the pineapple for the salsa. Don't used canned pineapple!!!


We are going to need some diced avocado. My friend, Marie left a comment asking how to get the seed out so I'm going to take a quick minute to show you how to dice an avocado. Cut it in half, around the seed. Sometimes the seeds pop right out. But you don't want to go digging around it to get it. Take the blade of your chef's knife and knock the seed with a little force to get the blade to stick into it. Twist it a little and then pull out!


Carefully use your fingers to pull the peel off. You want firm but not hard avocados. If they're too hard, they're going to have a very stringy tough texture. To ripen them up, sit them on your window sill a day or two where they will get sun. Once slightly soft, put in the fridge. If they're too soft, they aren't good.. and are usually even a little too over ripe for guacamole.

Lay the flat side of the avocado down on the cutting board and cut up and down, then side to side. This will dice it up!

Set the avocado aside. We'll need it for the salad.


Chop up a little cilantro and set aside.


Put half of a olive oil rubbed red bell pepper on a hot bbq grill. We want to blacken the skin up.


Take two thick slices of onion (I used spanish onion for this, but you can use any kind. Red onion would be prettier!) and skewer. Rub with olive oil and put on the bbq grill. Grill until soft.


Put your chicken on the grill and sear each side. This locks in the juice. Turn down the heat and continue to cook with the lid down until they're slightly firm. If you push the thick part of the chicken and it's no longer spongy, it's done. Don't cut into it as that will release all of it's juices.

A few minutes before the chicken is done, put the pineapple on the grill and cook until nice grill marks form and the pineapple is slightly soft.


When the onion is done, pull off skewers and chop up. Put in a bowl.


Pull the skin off the bell pepper, then cut into a small dice.

Put in the bowl with the onion.


Add the grilled pineapple, the cilantro you chopped, and squeeze half a lime in.


When you pull the chicken from the grill, let it sit for a few minutes. Then slice on the diagonal.


To assemble the salad, put some spring salad mix on your plate. Scatter some of the avocado around, then sprinkle a handful of rinsed pinto beans around too.

Put a handful of salsa right in the center.


Put the chicken down the center and drizzle lightly with mango vinaigrette (recipe below). Serve immediately.

MANGO VINAIGRETTE:
1 cup mango, diced
3 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
juice of one orange
2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp dijon mustard

Put all of the ingredients in a blender and puree until no lumps appear.

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_87cbth5psz

.udon salad with pan seared ahi.

This is my first entry using my point and shoot camera. It didn't do too bad a job. I had to re-learn some of the features because it's been about a year since I've used it. Sorry for some blurry shots! With time, I will get better. :)



I am a big fan of The Next Food Network Star on the Food Network. One of the challenges, contestant Lisa had to make a dish with the ingredients received. In her basket there were udon noodles, lemon, beets, cilantro, and chicken. She made what looked like an amazing udon salad.



I kind of recreated that salad tonight using different components and changed out the chicken (which I *ALWAYS* use) with delicious ahi. Ahi is yellowfin tuna. It's firm and meaty which I really like with the lightness of the salad.



I will tell you right now that this dish can be made in 30 minutes. I kid you not. We've been working on the wood flooring in our kitchen this weekend (read: FUN! -- NOT!) but we needed some things from Lowe's before we could move appliances (oven and fridge) back into their places. So I dashed to the store and got home 45 minutes before hubby had to leave for work. He's on nights this weekend. yuck-o! I didn't want to leave him dinner-less, and the tuna needed to be cooked tonight, so I quickly raced into the kitchen and got started so he could take dinner in with him. Here's what I did.



Start with a pack of Udon noodles. They didn't have true udon at the commissary so I went with these. They do say Udon on the package, but they're not as tubular as the original. Cook them according to the directions on the package. When they're done cooking, drain the water off and rinse well with cool water.



Grate a carrot or two.



Chop up one bunch of green onions or scallions. Cut them on the diagonal to make them look pretty. It's all about presentation ladies (and gents)!



Thinly julienne (or slice in sticks) some red bell pepper. I used half of the pepper.



Use about 1 cup snow peas and put in a shallow pan of water. Bring to a boil and let cook for a minute. Drain quickly and then plunge these into some cold water to stop the cooking. This is called blanching.



When the peas are cool, drain again and then cut them in half on the diagonal.



Time for the dressing. This is a soy ginger vinaigrette that was just awesome on this salad.



In a bowl put:
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/8 cup sesame oil
1/8 cup olive oil
1/8 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp gingerroot, minced finely
1 Tbsp garlic, minced finely
2 tsp brown sugar
and some fresh cracked black pepper.



Mix all the ingredients well and set aside.



Put your drained noodles in a large bowl.



Add all of the prepped vegetables and the dressing into the bowl. Toss to coat.



Taste and season with sea salt and more cracked black pepper, if needed.



Take your ahi and sprinkle both sides with sea salt and cracked black pepper.



Get your skillet nice and hot over medium heat on the stove.



When it's hot, drizzle a little olive oil into the pan and then quickly put your tuna in. You want the pan hot so it sears the outside. This will leave the inside nice and moist because it locks in the flavor and moisture. Cook for 3 minutes.



Flip with a spatula and cook on the other side for 3 minutes.



To serve, plate some of the udon salad then top with the tuna steak. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and a sprig of cilantro.



This can be served warm or cold. If you want to make this up ahead of time, go right on ahead and do it! If you're feeding a crowd, slice your tuna once it's been cooked. It will go further.

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_79nmc9jwdj