Munchie Mondays: Cindy's Spinach Salad

As Claudia once pointed out, I put pecans into everything and it's true. Pecans grow natively around here and I have pleasant memories from childhood picking up the mature nuts that had fallen off of the bare trees around our house during the fall. I give kudos to my mom for coming up with an activity to keep her kids quiet as cracking these fruits and harvesting the meat was quite a challenge for my brother and I as it required some manual dexterity and concentration.

Another thing I attribute to Fall are tree ripe apples from Ithaca, NY (where I met my hubby.) I spent a short amount of time up there while in graduate school and I still recall being able to buy all sorts of these fragrant beauties by the bucket full on road side stands. The apples I'd seen were smallish, about the size of a lemon but packed with tons of flavor and crunch. You really don't see apples down here like those.

Anyway, as this is technically the first day of Fall, we might as well celebrate by making a salad featuring these fall fruits!

Cindy's Spinach Salad
feeds 2

3/4 cup of shelled pecans
1 tbs of butter
3/4 cup of brown sugar

1/4 cup of dried tart cherries, cranberries or raisins
1/4 cup of crumbled blue cheese
2-3 artichoke hearts roughly chopped
1 small apple (Pink Lady is my favorite)
4 cups of baby spinach
oil and vinegar, salt and pepper for dressing

What makes this salad is the candided pecans. Don't get to bent out of shape with "hard ball" "soft ball" stages with this candy mixture. The longer you cook it, the more hard caramel like it'll be. The shorter time, the more it'll be like a praline. They both tasted good...You just don't want to over cook the mixture!



Melt butter and sugar in a heavy skillet over medium heat.





Beat vigorously until fluffy and almost frothy seeming. The butter and sugar should be well incorporated. This is when I add the pecans. Again, stir vigorously until the pecans are well coated.





Dump pecan candies onto wax paper to cool being careful to try to separate the pieces as much as you can. Please don't touch the caramel with your bare hands as you're doing this. As the pecans are cooling, slice apple into thin wedges or cube and arrange salad ingredients between two plates.

Dress with candied pecans, salt, pepper, oil and vinegar and you're good to go! You'll probably have more candied pecans than you care to use, but that's okay. Just wrap them up with the waxed paper once cooled and stick in the refrigerator. They'll keep for a couple of weeks.

Munchie Mondays: Tomato Basil Mozzarella Salad

So simple and so yummy. There are so many variations on this salad that I feel silly posting this recipe, but eating it brought so much joy to my taste buds, I just had to post! Right about now tomatoes should be growing out the wazoo. I used market roma tomatoes here, but any good tomato will do. If you don't have any sun dried tomatoes on hand (like today, for me), do without, but the fresh basil is necessary for this fragrant and simple salad. Along side rustic bread and some soup, you've got a complete meal. Be flexible with the ingredient amounts. As long as you have equal parts of cheese and fresh tomato, you're good to go.


Tomato Basil Mozzarella Salad
Serves 2

2 small tomatoes or 1 large tomato sliced
10-12 medallion slices of fresh mozzarella
1/4 cup of chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup of chopped sun dried tomato (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

dressing:
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 tbs of red wine vinegar
1 tsp of dried parsely
1 garlic clove crushed

Arrange fresh tomato slices and cheese slices on two plates. Top with basil and sun dried tomato. Mix dressing ingredients thoroughly and then drizzle on top of salad. Add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Simple eh?

Munchie Mondays: Party Food!

You don't get just one, but THREE recipies today! These were all items that I served up during my kick ass 30th birthday party (post forth coming).

First up we've got the Cindy Kiss. Yes, I made up the recipe some time ago. The joke being that it's red, kinda sweet, complex, easy to manage, but has a little bit of a bite to it.



Cindy Kiss Cocktail
serves 1 or 2 depending

1 shot of gin
1 shot of bourbon
1/2 shot of dark Jamaican rum
1/2 shot of Grenadine
1 shot of peach nectar

Combine above ingredients in a shaker with a couple of ice cubes until well encorporated. Pour over ice into tumbler and top off with sparkling water.



Guacamole
Serves 8

3 large ripened hass avacados
1 medium tomato
1 small red onion
1 bunch of cilantro chopped
juice of 2 limes
juice of 1 lemon
2 cloves of garlic crushed
1 tbs of garlic salt (or more for taste)
1 tsp of black pepper (or more for taste)
1/4 of tomatillo salsa
1 jalapeno pepper finely chopped (optional)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mash with fork or potato masher. Cover and chill for at least 30 mintues to let ingredients to combine. Serve with corn chips.



This is a SUPER EASY recipe that tastes great, packs well for pot lucks and makes a nutritious meal served atop rice.

Bean and Corn Salad
Serves 6

1 can of black beans rinsed and drained.
2 can of corn drained
1 can of diced tomatoes drained
1 poblano pepper finely chopped
1/2 small onion finely chopped
1/2 cup of cilantro finely chopped
1/2 cup of sour cream
black pepper for taste

Comine all ingredients in a bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to let flavours combine.

Munchie Mondays: Moroccan Parsley Salad

Do you seriously put sliced lemon, pith and all into this salad?

I get that question all the time and yes, you do and yes, it tastes just fine. I'm referring to a fairly typical Moroccan salad whose predominant ingredients are parsely and lemon. Sometimes you'll see this type of salad with chunks of sardines in it, but I decided to go without. Instead, it makes a great accompaniment with fish due to it's fresh and strong flavor.

Because the skin of the lemon is eaten, make sure to select unblemished fruit, preferably organic and unwaxed. Parsley can be curly leaf or flat (I like flat more but did not have any one hand). Don't worry too much about exact measurements. As long as you've got more parsley than lemon, you're good to go.

Moroccan Parsley Salad
serves 4

Ingredients:
1 bunch of parsley finely chopped
juice of 1 lime
1 lemon (1/2 juiced, the other half cut into paper thin slices skin and all)
1/3 cup of red onion thinly sliced or finely chopped
1 clove garlic crushed
3 tbs of olive oil
pinch of black pepper
1/2 tsp of salt



In a small bowl whisk citrus juices, olive oil, crush garlic and spices together. In a larger bowl lightly toss parsely, onion and lemon slices. Drizzle dressing on top and gently toss. Let sit for 30 minutes either in the refrigerator or at room temperature to allow flavors to mingle. I personally like this salad at room temperature. You can store it in an air tight container for up to a day.

This really good on a hot summer day with grilled or fried fish (course, it's hailing outside like crazy as I type this...)

Munchie Mondays: Carrot Beet Salad

Drat, this was probably the hardest finished food item I've ever tried to photograph!
Believe me, this fresh and gorgeous dish does not look like innards as my picture suggests:



Think more along the lines of rich deep fuschia red and bright happy orange intermingling with one another in a bowl of tangy succulent sauce. The mouth feel is just fantastic--the crunchiness of the raw beets and carrots is quite refreshing.



I just had to include a gratuitous stock photo from alaskagiant.com in order to make this page more enticing to look at. Sheesh! Just try the salad out, will ya?

Given that I don't have a decent Cuisinart blender, I did all the hand grating by hand with a cheese grater. My forearms is killing me. However, this salad was rewarding enough for the labor involved.


You can julienne them instead to make a crunchier salad if so desired.

Cindy's Beet and Carrot Salad
Serves 2

3 medium carrots peeled and grated
2 medium beets peeled and grated
1 garlic clove crushed
1 tbs of olive oil (or more to taste)
1 tsp of salt
pinch of pepper
Juice of 1 lemon

Mix all ingredients into a bowl and let stand at room temperature for at least 20 minutes to allow all flavors to mingle. Then serve. Easy eh?

Some people like this salad cold. I happen to think it tastes better at room temperature. Some also don't care much for the garlic. If that's the case, just omit and the salad tastes just fine. It's important to use the freshest possible beets and carrots around because these are not cooked. Look for firm roots with attached greens that are vibrant and healthy looking.

I wouldn't keep this salad for more than a day since it will get soggy over time as more of the olive oil lemon juice mixture gets absorbed.