Addictive Watermelon Salad

Was going to a potluck event a couple weeks ago. Wanted to take something different than normal. People tend to bring hummus, guac, etc. It’s summer so watermelon popped into my head. I also didn’t want it to be just basic watermelon. So I started googling some recipes and many came up. I’d had some with balsamic before but wanted a change. Then I found a perfect one for a warm summer afternoon.

Watermelon Feta Salad with Mint

Ingredients (serves 8)

  • 8 lb. whole seedless watermelon, chilled (about 12 cups of cubed fruit)
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 whole limes, juiced — used bottled
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped
  • 1 1/2 cups crumbled feta cheese (sheep’s milk feta preferred) — I used crumbled goat because it’s what I found when shopping

img_4865

InstructionsNote: This salad is best made just prior to serving. Prepare one hour or less before your meal.

1) Cut rind from  watermelon, then chop the fruit into 1 inch chunks. Place chunks in a colander to drain as you chop.

2) In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, fresh lime juice, salt, and black pepper to create a dressing.

3) Place watermelon in a large salad bowl. Pour dressing and chopped mint over the watermelon and toss gently to coat. Pour the crumbled feta into the salad bowl and stir gently to integrate the cheese into the salad. Serve.

img_4867

This was delicious. I have made this 5 times in 3 weeks already. So refreshing, light and easy to make. Definitely a keeper.

Dax Farmer’s Market

I have been off the blogging scene recently because of an oh-so-rough trip to Ireland and France.  I am now starting to recap said vacation…

One of the best parts of the trip was why I went — for a friend’s wedding in SW France, in a small town named Dax.  It’s about a 90 minute drive from Bordeaux.

franceMy friend’s fiance had told me about the must-do the morning of the wedding, the local farmer’s market.  It ended up being about 2 blocks from the hotel.  WOW.  The place was making Pike Place look weak on some levels.  Some 3+ hours later we returned to the hotel with lunch to enjoy outside.  I grabbed Paella, as this town is close to Spain so they get some of their influence.  Others grabbed cheese and sausage, bread, veggies, some had nice flatbread-like pizza.  And, of course, wine!

Almost too good to be true.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Avocado Salad with Peaches

Was looking for something fun, super fresh and relatively easy to make for dinner. I remembered this salad from Bon Appetit that I found a few years ago. Avocados, peaches and arugula…some of my favorites. It was the perfect thing to make and pretty simple.

Avocado Salad with Peaches
4-6 Servings

Ingredients

1/2 red bell pepper, cored and seeded
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped (I got SUPER lazy and used liquid vanilla)
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 almost-ripe avocados
8 cups arugula or sorrel
2 peaches, diced and peeled

a1

Preparation

-Roast bell pepper (I do it on my gas stove – so easy).

a2

a3

-Peel and chop pepper; puree with red wine vinegar, vanilla and sugar in blender (I used the mini-prep) until smooth.

a6

-With machine running, gradually add olive oil. Season with salt & pepper.

a7

-Halve and pit avocados and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and place cut side down on and medium-hot grill until nicely charred, about 5 minutes (ok, so I don’t/can’t have a grill. So, I put foil over a burner on my gas stove and made it work. Creativity in the kitchen). Peel and thickly slice.

a4

a5

 

a8

-Toss with arugula or sorrel and peaches. Drizzle dressing over top (I just toss all of it together — dressing and everything).

a9

I served this with shrimp. Delicious!!!

Strawberry Hullin’

Kitchen gadgets can be so much fun!  I went to a business lunch and there were door prizes.  I never win anything.  Most of the giveaways were gift cards, anyway, and as nice as essential cash is (they were Visa cards), I knew I wouldn’t win.  Well, suddenly I heard my name.  But, I didn’t get a GC.  The stars aligned and I won the kitchen gift bag.  The rep giving this one away had been to Sur La Table and had a field day.  WOW!  I was in luck.  So, I got all sorts of new toys that I would totally never go buy for myself but loved getting.

The one I’ve played with the most is the Berry Pincher (that’s the formal name I give it).  The manufacturer, Chef’n, calls it the StemGem.  You can remove the leaves from strawberries and clean all sort of other things.

straw1

You just plunge the sharp teeth of this thing right in the top of the berry.

straw2

You give it a little twist.

straw3

And yank it out.  The motion makes the picture a bit fuzzy!  Sorry.  The website has better pics.

straw4

The other great toys I got in my bag were:

peppermill

A Kuhn Rikon Pepper Mill with Ratchet Handle — so cool with the handle!

garlic

A Joseph Joseph Rocker Garlic Masher — SMASH!  Great fun, you can also use it to get rid of the odor in your hands.

herb

And the last toy, by the same producer as the strawberry toy, I got the Zipstrip Herb Stripper.  I haven’t actually gotten around to using this yet.  I needed it the other day and of course was cooking in somebody else’s kitchen when I was looking for it!!

So if you want so new additions to your kitchen, consider checking these out.

 

Honey See, Honeydew

It’s summer, which means it’s melon time!  Bon Appetit came a couple weeks ago and I was flipping through it, of course, and there was a recipe with honeydew.  I haven’t seen many recipes with honeydew in them.  The most I’ve ever done with it is either (1) cut and eat or (2) the aforementioned topped with prosciutto.  So, this recipe was game!  This delectable food-bearing treat I keep mentioning is Shaved Honeydew, Fennel, and Olive Salad.  The last two key ingredient are some of my favorite foods!  It’s a no-cook (in the sense of no heat) recipe which is great this time of year.  And, gluten free, dairy free and vegetarian.

Ingredients

  • 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
  • 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
  • 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling
  • Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
  • 1 ½ pounds honeydew melon, rind and seeds removed, shaved on a mandoline 
  • ½ fennel bulb, shaved on a mandoline, plus 2 Tbsp. coarsely chopped fennel fronds
  • ¼ cup brined green olives, 
such as Castelvetrano, pitted, 
very coarsely chopped

honeydew11

Directions

Zest the orange (and then make sure you don’t add this to the dressing!!!).  I carefully took it out of the bowl after I more carefully read the directions.  Why should you read ahead, right?

honeydew10

 

honeydew9

Whisk orange juice, lemon juice, and 
2 Tbsp. oil in a large bowl; season with salt and pepper.

honeydew8

Shave the honeydew…hmmm….what’s the best way to take the skin off the melon?  Carrot peeler, not that great, knife ended up being the best bet.  Then I quartered the melon and it took awhile.

honeydew6

honeydew7

honeydew5

Next, you do the same thing to the fennel.  Much easier to prep/cut!

honeydew4

honeydew3

Add melon, shaved fennel, 
and olives to vinaigrette and toss to coat. Top salad with orange zest and fennel fronds, drizzle with more oil, and season with salt and pepper.

honeydew2

Final product (VERY green!)

honeydew1It was very light and refreshing, though it seems like it was missing something and I can’t tell if it was lemon juice or S&P.  I did add more S&P at the table so don’t know if it was the lemon.  But overall, very nice.  Perfect for summer!  Was served with scallops and some delicious grains.  Would highly recommend it.

Fruit Heaven!

I just went to the grocery store to pick up some fresh fruit for dessert at a friend’s place tonight.  I was thinking maybe strawberries or a watermelon.  I walked through the door and it was information overload!  Sales left and right on prime fruit!!!  #1 — RAINIER CHERRIES!  Heaven on earth at a great price.  Then, the personal/small/baby watermelons on sale.  Berries — raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, all on what felt like a blowout.  Pineapples all screaming ‘pick me, pick me.’  I barely knew what to do!

I had to control myself.  For dessert for two people, I left with a small watermelon, cherries, blackberries and raspberries.  Sure, it’s a lot, but it’s fruit!  I had to be very good and not eat to many while rinsing/prepping.  Now, we have to get through dinner!

Summer is such a great season to take advantage of everything we can, from fresh fruit to fresh veggies and enjoy their flavors as much as much as possible.  Bon appetit!

fruit

Peach Picking

It’s an absolutely beautiful day at the end of August (high 70s, low humidity?!?!?) so my friend and I decided to go peach picking at a local farm.  This place is amazing.  You can head out there almost year round to pick seasonal fruit at your leisure.  It is dangerous in the sense that you pick and pick, maybe take sample to refuel, then pick and pick.  When you eventually get to the register you realize you have pounds and pounds of amazing fruit.  When you go to the grocery store you’re aware of what you get.  But, oh well.  This is FUN!  This place is called Homestead Farm and is located in Poolesville, MD, about 30-45 minutes outside of DC.

Peach1

You start by picking your box to collect your goods.  Why not go with the big one today?

Peach8

You can get a ride to the peach trees or you can walk.  It’s such an amazing day, we had to walk.  Once there, we saw there were about 5 rows of peach trees.  We had to go fairly deep in the rows to find trees that still had the goods.  Then, let the picking begin.

Peach2 Peach7

As mentioned, you just go and go.  I worked to get some not-so-ripe ones so they’d last longer.  I was also thinking I can chop some and put them in the freezer.  My friend and I did sample a couple to keep us going.  We eventually decided to call it quits.

Peach9

We headed back to the main entrance to check out.  They also have a ton of other veggies.  I picked up some cherry tomatoes.  (Oh, the peaches were $1.79/lb).

Peach12

Per the Farm, apples are available for picking next week.  That will be some Labor Day weekend fun.  Bring on the fruit.

Kale Mary!

Summer is here, temps are high, so cooking extreme meals isn’t really the most appealing thing to do.  I love kale chips but right now don’t feel like turning on the oven so was looking for something else to do with that health-benefit-bearing kale.  Though I don’t really enjoy it raw when it’s in large pieces, I learned a couple years ago to take it to the food processor!

Was trying to clear out some stuff from my kitchen and came up with the following combo based on my mood:

-kale
-frozen mangoes (chunks — love the ones from Trader Joe’s)
-peanuts
-basic seasoning of garlic, onion powder, lemon juice, S&P, olive oil

So, I just put the kale (stems removed) in the food processor bit by bit to get it to the texture I like.  Then I threw the frozen mango chunk in there and just pulsed a couple times and it got them into smaller, yet still good size pieces.  Threw the spices in and perfect.  Removed it from the food processor and stirred the peanuts in.  Then tossed in some canned tuna.  So good, very filling and healthy.

What’s great about this quick recipe is that there are so many options.  You just need the base of kale and can change the rest around:

-Any fruit, fresh or dried (have used apricots and cherries before)
-Any nuts (almonds, walnuts, etc)
-So many spices!
-So many meats, if you even want them.  How about a nice grilled chicken breast or seared tuna steak to serve on the side?

IMG_1207