SENSORI

Cobb Salad Hosts the Final Summer Tomatoes

Swept up by the trend to grow our own food, I planted my first vegetable garden this year late in the spring season.  I had very low yield but the flavor and texture of the fruit that the garden bore was excellent.  I harvested Asian eggplant (a few of which were stuffed and others were factored into mixed grills or curries), jalapeno peppers, hungarian peppers and tomatoes.  The tomatoes, along with the jalapeno peppers, helped to make mouth-watering salsa.  And on hot summer afternoons, the tomatoes made the perfect lunch sliced, placed on white bread or a lightly toasted pita with a drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper.  Yum!

I pulled the last three Celebrity tomatoes off the vine a few days ago (pictured left are slices from one of the tomatoes) and used them in a deconstructed cobb salad (pictured above).  My version of this salad is a tribute to the deconstructed cobb on the menu of DC Coast, a restaurant in Washington, D.C. known as a go-to  power meal spot for the tasseled Gucci-loafered lobbyists in town.  A detailed history of the Cobb salad (which dates back to 1930s Hollywood), including its original ingredients, can be found on Wikipedia.  I haven't dined at DC Coast for a while, so I prepared my salad from a foggy recollection and gut instinct.  The preparation of the ingredients is so simple that I'm not addressing preparation steps.  Appearing left to right on the salad plate pictured at the top of this page are the following ingredients:

•     crumbled blue cheese
•     diced tomatoes
•     chopped spinach
•     chopped bacon
•     diced cucumber
•     chopped grilled chicken (or you can use chopped chicken from roaster leftovers)
  
•     chopped egg

And across the top of the plate is diced, ripened avocado.  The dressing I used for this salad is a honey mustard and grapefruit champagne vinaigrette that is spicy and bright and a delicious contrast to the rich ingredients of the salad.  The ingredients for the dressing are:

• 1/3 cup of Honeycup Uniquely Sharp Mustard
• 1/4 cup of mayonnaise
• 1/2 teaspoon of white, refined sugar
  
• 1/2 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• 1/2 tablespoon of finely minced fresh garlic
  
• 1/8 cup of champagne
• 1/8 cup of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
  
• Pinch of dry oregano
• Salt and pepper to taste

NOTE: the Honeycup brand of mustard is central to this dressing.  No other honey mustard will do.  Add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl and whisk until fully combined and the dressing is emulsified.  If you don't have champagne at the ready, a splash of dry white wine is a good substitute.  You also may add a little water to the dressing to tone down the flavor or thin out the consistency or you may add sparkling water if you'd like the effervescence of champagne but don't have any handy.  Remember, the key to improvising is tasting your product along the way.  Whisk the dressing after every adjustment, dab a drop of dressing on your forefinger and taste to determine whether you are satisfied or more adjustments are needed.  If you can't pluck the last of this season's tomatoes fresh from your garden for this salad, consider buying from your local farmers market.  But, hurry -- grab them while supplies last!

Knocked out by knock-out roses

After being on the road for a few days, I came home to find the knock-out rose bushes in our front yard e-x-p-l-o-d-i-n-g with blooms.  I couldn't get my bags in the house fast enough.  I rushed to get my pruning tools and started clipping stems of roses.  Look at the splendor! I've made a few arrangements for our neighbors and one for our house, but these roses looked their absolute best when first cut.  You might be able to see dew on the petals in the photo (you can click on the photo to enlarge it).  And they smell soft and powdery - just delightful!

Pasta Salad Sits Pretty Aside a Juicy Grilled Burger

Grilling outside this past week has been a treat.  We didn’t have to run inside to warm up after turning over the food.  In fact, we had to find some shade to avoid the sun!  We grilled hamburgers and they turned out thick, juicy and yummy (see photo right; doesn’t that burger look dee-lish?!?).  It’s a given that my husband Baxter will have french fries with his hamburgers.  He loves fries and is lean with a super high metabolism so he can eat whatever he wants without consequence.  Under the guise of eating something healthier than french fries, I made a pasta salad for myself.  And yes, Baxter ended up eating my pasta salad, too.

Friends, don’t buy store-bought pasta salad or make it from a boxed pasta salad kit.  Most store-bought options contain overdone pasta and soggy vegetables that are swimming in oil.  The boxed kits are overpriced and contained spice packages that are loaded with sodium and other additives that don’t contribute much to flavor.  With a few fresh ingredients and a creative flair for adding things like cheese, you can easily make a pasta salad at home that suits your tastes, looks gourmet and screams “I’m fresh!”   Start with a pasta shape that makes you smile!  For the pasta salad pictured above, I used fusilli or corkscrew pasta, but you can use farfalle/bowtie, shell, elbow shaped pasta or even cut spaghetti.  Just remember **don’t overcook the pasta.**  Cook your pasta al dente or it just won’t taste good.

Choose some fresh vegetables and herbs for your salad.  For the pictured salad, I used a combination of diced tomatoes, cucumber and green bell pepper and chopped parsley.  I seeded the cucumber and tomatoes to avoid adding too much water to the salad.  You can find a great, quick how-to YouTube video on seeding a tomato posted by the Chatelaine Test Kitchens if you need a few seeding tips.  Instead of fresh tomatoes, try grilled or sun-dried tomatoes.  You also can try a variation of grilled, steamed or blanched asparagus tips, roasted eggplant cubes, steamed broccoli or cauliflower, chopped carrots, mushrooms . . . the possible vegetable variations are endless.  Let your imagination and palate lead you.   Lightly dress your salad with olive oil and a little vinegar if you choose.  Or you can use lemon juice or the juice of any citrus fruit instead.  Add salt and pepper to taste, and you might try adding dry Italian or Mediterranean herbs.  Then top your salad off with some cheese.  I used grated parmigiano-reggiano on the salad pictured above.  Other options are mozarella, feta and chevre.  Be creative and choose a cheese that pairs well with the other ingredients you’ve selected for your masterpiece!  Toss your salad ingredients gently before serving, then dig in and enjoy.

Cranberry white chocolate chip cookies: can you say "crackberry" cookies?

My friend Alisa recently won the top prize for cookies in a bake-off with her cranberry white chocolate chip cookies.  It was exciting news.  The competition benefited a public elementary school in Washington, D.C., so the bakers were doing good works to support their community, and Alisa got to shine a light on her baking skills (skills I didn't know she had).

I am not a white chocolate fan but I do like cranberries so I was intrigued.  Alisa shared her winning cookie recipe with me and I didn't waste time baking up a batch (see photo above).  These cookies are da' bomb!  No kidding.  Taste one cookie and it's easy understand why Alisa took first prize.  The tart and texture of the cranberries are perfectly complemented by the creamy smoothness of the white chocolate chips.  I added chopped walnuts to my batch, and they provided a delightful touch of salt and savory.

Over the past decade or so, cranberries have increased in popularity.  Cranberries are a uniquely American fruit, and dried cranberries appear more and more in recipes for salads, entrees and baked goods.  Perhaps this is due in some part to the mass-appeal and availability of Ocean Spray's dried, sweetened cranberries called Craisins.  Even the Girl Scouts have caught on: their newest cookie is Thank U Berry Much, which is a cranberry cookie (pictured right).  No offense to the Girl Scouts and their cookies -- I've tried a few Thank U Berry Much cookies.  They can't compare to Alisa's Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies.  So, here's the recipe, slightly modified by me.  Give it a try and please let me know how you like them.  But here's a WARNING: You can't stop eating these cookies once you start!  They are deliciously "crack-ish."

Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour    - 1 tsp. baking soda

- 1 tsp. salt                                - 2 sticks butter, softened

- 3/4 cup granulated sugar        - 3/4 cup brown sugar

- 1 tsp vanilla extract                - 2 eggs

- 2 cups white chocolate chips   - 1 cup of chopped walnuts

- 1 cup of dried cranberries (Craisins are recommended)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.  Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla together in another bowl.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after adding each.  Gradually beat in flour mixture.  Stir in chips, cranberries & walnuts.  Drop rounded teaspoon-fulls onto an ungreased cookie sheet and cook for 9-11 minutes. Cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes before removing.

Alisa in her kitchen.

An Imprecise Cook's Cold Weather Menu

This past week, Norfolk was blanketed with six to eight inches of snow, which is a lot snow for a town this far south on the Atlantic coast.  I worked up an appetite shoveling the driveway and trudging through the snow on a walk with my dog.

  

The view from our street and my pup romping in the snow.

The weather and my hunger were the perfect prompt for making a pot of steaming hot soup.  So, I prepared pasta e fagioli (in Italian, “pasta and bean”) soup and served it with a gooey, grilled cheese sandwich.  I didn’t follow a recipe for the soup.  I just gathered, chopped and threw in ingredients.  Here’s an approximation of what I used:

• 1 pound of browned, ground Italian sausage
• 1 16 oz can of diced tomatoes
• 1 can of tomato paste
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 2 cups of chicken broth
• 1 cup of water
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 4 small to medium-sized white potatoes, diced
• 1 16 oz can of dark red kidney beans
• 1 lb of kale, cleaned and chopped
• 1 cup of orzo pasta

Brown the sausage in your stockpot.  Add the cup of water and scrape off the sausage reduction on the bottom the pot.  Throw in all the other ingredients, save for the pasta.  Simmer until all the ingredients are cooked and tender (about 20-25 minutes).  Add the orzo and extra water if needed to thin out the broth (remember: the pasta will soak up a lot of your liquid).  If you'd like a pasta e fagioli recipe with accurate ingredient measurements and preparation instructions, try Giada De Laurentis' recipe or this traditional vegetarian recipe that calls for ditalini pasta.

 

I used a half-slice each of muenster and cheddar cheese for the grilled cheese sandwich.  The combination of the buttery, soft muenster and sharp cheddar cheeses was perfect.  When grilling a cheese sandwich, cover your pan with a lid so the internal heat will melt the cheese, but remove the lid soon after the cheese begins to melt to prevent your bread from getting soggy.  Mmm mmm good!