Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad

I had never touched a real beat in my life, I don't think, until last summer.  I had seen canned beets, but the consistency and shape left me unsure of what the actual vegetable in it's natural form was really like.  You know, in the wild.

Then all of the sudden they show up everywhere.  I am helping my sister apartment shop in a big city, and we stop in this tiny little restaurant with 8 tables and even few things on the menu, and I look down and see a "Roasted Beet Salad."  I was intrigued, and the intrigue was rewarded with a warm, delicately flavored salad with the most beautiful color I had ever seen in my life.  Then next, in a quick trip back to see the family, I try a new restaurant and HOLD THE PHONE they have a roasted beet salad too, with goat cheese.  Let me tell you, my mind was going places, here. Finally, on a trip to the farmers market where the most beautifully red beets you have ever seen stared back at me from the small little stand and actually screamed at me (I really think I heard them) "You must take me home and cook me right now!", so I did.

I learned a few things. First, your hands will be red for the rest of the day, so just go ahead and accept that. Second, they're really good (I actually knew that already, but I was reminded of it). Third, beats tend to be a little polarizing. I made this for a large group of young women, and many of them didn't venture out far enough to try them, which was a shame.



Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad

• 4-5 red or golden beets, peeled
• olive oil, for drizzling
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter
• goat cheese, sliced into approximately 0.25 inch slices
• Spring mix, or your favorite salad greens
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon honey

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the beets into wedges (approximately 6-8 per beet).  Place the wedges, some olive oil, salt, and pepper in the mixing bowl, and stir until evenly coated. Pour the wedges out onto a large sheet of aluminum foil in a single layer--have enough aluminum foil that you can fold over half of the foil over the beets and cinch off the edges, creating a large envelope, and keeping the beets in a single layer.

Place the beets wrapped in foil in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until a slight crisp edge forms and the centers are tender when pierced. Be careful when opening the foil--retain as much of the oil and juice from the roasting as you can, because you'll add it to the dressing.

While the beets are cooking, place the walnuts in a dry frying pan on the stove on medium heat. Keep them stirring and moving so they don't burn. After a few minutes, add the butter and brown sugar, and stir to coat. You want to form a beautiful candied layer on the nuts. Stir for 3 minutes or so, until slightly carmelized.

To make the dressing, add the olive oil, lemon juice, honey the roasting juices, and some salt and pepper, and whisk until mixed. Toss the dressing with the lettuce, and arrange on plates. Top with cheese, beats, and the nuts.

Pears with Asiago, Cashews, and Balsamic Vinaigrette

This recipe was an accident.  I was trying to make just a quick salad to go with some pizza, but I completely forgot to buy any lettuce.  In our American, "iceberg lettuce + ranch = salad" minds, this may have been seen as a terribly tragedy.  However, will just a little mind-freeing, creativity, and reassurance that these flavors actually do work together surprisingly well, the salad was prepared and presented sans lettuce.  The show must go on.  It actually worked really well.  The sweet pears and salty cheese work together really well, and the vinaigrette and cashews are a great accompaniment.

So forgot the lettuce.  You don't need it.  Take all of the good tasting things in the salad (which typically isn't the lettuce), and serve that with just a little dressing.  All of the goodness without the fluff.  Go on--live dangerously.  You can do it.

Pears with Asiago, Cashews, and Balsamic Vinaigrette

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• pinch salt
• 3 large d'Anjou, Bartlett, or comice pears, cut lengthwise into slices
• Asiago cheese,  made into curls with a vegetable peeler
• roasted cashew halves

Whisk together the oil, vinegar, honey, and salt.  Toss gently with the pear slices. Layer the pears slices on a serving planner or individual dishes.  Top with the cheese curls and cahsews, and serve immediately.

Orange and Goat Cheese Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

This is a quite elegant yet simple salad. The sweetness of the orange and honey compliment the goat cheese quite well, and the little burst of lemon in the dressing pulls the whole thing together. I used arugula as the greens, which may be a little much for some people, but I really liked it. I'm sure any baby lettuce would work well.

As with almost any salad, I'm just going to let you figure out quantities of ingredients based on your preference and the size of your dinner party. I also cheated just a little and used orange slices rather than supremes, but supreming citrus is a lot of hard work.

Orange and Goat Cheese Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

for the candied walnuts

• 1/2 cup small walnut pieces
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  

for the dressing

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon honey
• salt and pepper, to taste

for the salad

• baby green lettuces
• oranges slices, peel and pith removed
• goat cheese, cut into rings
• honey, for drizzling

Candy the walnuts
In a flat-bottomed pan, toast the walnut pieces over medium heat for a few minutes until fragrant, stirring regularly. When they are becoming browned, add the butter, and stir to coat. Then add the brown sugar, and stir to coat. Cook for a few more minutes until golden brown.

Make the dressing
Whisk together all the dressing ingredients. Salt and pepper to taste.

Compile the salad
Toss the greens with some of the lemon vinaigrette until lightly coated. Layer on the orange and cheese slice, then drizzle the fruit and cheese with honey. Garnish with candied walnuts.

Asian Coleslaw

This is a little twist on the traditional southern sidedish (which I love, mind you, but I still don't mind a twist on it every now and again). It has a definite sweetness to it, and a nice crunch from the peas and the cashews. It makes a bit batch, though, so you could easily half the recipe for smaller-scale partying.

Asian Coleslaw

for the salad

• 1 head savoy cabbage, cut into quarters and the hard stem cut out
• 2-3 stalks celery
• 2 carrots
• 1 bunch green onions
• 1/2 pound snow peas, ends trimmed
• 2 11-ounce cans mandarin oranges, drained
• Salt and pepper
  
• about 1/3 cup cashew halves

for the dressing

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1-2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger

In a food processor with the slicing disc, thinly slice the cabbage and celery. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. With the food processor shredding disc, shred the carrot, and transfer to the bowl. With the metal chopping blade, pulse the green onions until uniformly chopped. Add to the mix. Add the peas (retaining a few to put on top) and half of the oranges. Salt and pepper the vegetables well.

In a small mixing bowl, combine all the dressing ingredients, and whisk together. Immediately before serving, pour the dressing over the salad and mix well to coat evenly. Top with the remaining peas, oranges, and cashews.

Broccoli Salad

People, I don't measure. I'm sorry. Sometimes I try to measure, knowing full well that I'm going to have to write up a list of ingredients to put on the blog, but it's just not that easy. As you go along, you realize that you need a little more of this, or you just use handfulls rather than measuring cups. Sometimes you measure all the ingredients, but then you throw a little more on top as a garnish at the end. People, I just assume that you are intelligent and creative and will add more or less onion if you feel like it.

So, with that out of the way, let's talk about the recipe.

I don't particularly think of this as anything fancy or special--you can find this is the deli isle of almost any grocery store on earth next to the cole slaw and potato salad--but I pulled this one out at a church potluck, and people loved it. To mean, this salad screams summer, grilling, outdoors, picnics, etc. Most of the time, the bacon and cheese are most prominent in this salad, but I really like it to be a little sweeter with more emphasis on the cashews and cranberries. Hopefully you like it, too.

Broccoli Salad

for the salad

• About 2 pounds broccoli crowns, chopped into small, bite-size pieces
• 1/2 red onion, finely chopped
• 2/3 cup dried cranberries, plus additional for garnishing
  
• 2/3 heaping cup roasted cashew halves, plus additional for garnishing
  
• about 1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I pretty much just garnish with it)
• 2-3 slices crispy bacon, chopped

for the dressing

• 1.5 cup mayonnaise
  
• 1.5 tablespoons fruity vinegar (I use a raspberry white balsamic)
• 2 heaping tablespoons sugar

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the dressing well. Immediately before serving (you don't want the nuts to get soggy), fold the dressing into the salad, stirring until well-coated. Top with retained cranberries and cashews.

Baked Apples

Baked apples are a rocky tradition in my household. For years we made them, but they had a rough track record. Maybe 60% of the time they were bad, really bad. I personally didn't care for them, and I kind of hoped the tradition would die a silent and painless death, leaving us to enjoy hot chocolate and clam chowder and eggs benedict and cherry chocolates and It's A Wonderful Life in peace. Mom even gave away the special apple baking dishes to a thrift store, hoping to seal the sad fate of the apples. Dad and the internet came to the rescue, however, and more apple baking dished magically showed up on our doorstep.

Determined to make them not gross this year, I kind of exerted a little "I have a cooking blog and I know what I'm talking about" attitude, thinking it would be met with some respect. I got none. Anyone who knows my family can imagine what happened next. Six type A personalities descended on the kitchen with yells of "Put a pie crust on it!" "Nobody wants raisins!" "Peel them!" "Ginger? What are you talking about?" It disintegrated into a contest of who could put an ingredient into the mix before someone else stopped them, but boy were the results good. Unfortunately, there was no recipe followed and no measurements made, so this is approximate. Sorry 'bout that.



Baked Apples

Ingredients

• Baking apples (we used Rome, but Macintosh work well, too)

for the apples

• A bowl of melted butter, to coat the apples
  
• A mixture of cinnamon and sugar, to taste, to coat the apples
• Raisins
• Nuts (we used almonds, but walnuts or pecans would probably be great, too)

for the topping

• A mixture of equal parts oats, brown sugar, flour, and butter, pulsed a few times in the food processor

for baking

• Orange zest and the juice of 1 orange
• A mixture of about 6 parts water to 1 part vanilla (a few tablespoons per individual baking dish, or just enough to coat the bottom of a large baking dish if you're doing them all together)

Peel and core the apples, then coat in the melted butter and cinnamon sugar. Place in individual baking dishes or all together in a large casserole. Stuff the open cores with the mixture of raisins and nuts.

Sprinkle the oat, sugar, flour mixture over each apple. Sprinkle a little orange zest and orange juice over each one. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the water/vanilla mixture in the bottom of each baker, or just enough to coat the bottom a the large baking dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Pears with Gorgonzola

Anyone who has read a little of this blog, or who just knows me at all, will probably have noticed my slight obsession with pears and gorgonzola. Recipes featuring that combo have popped a few times on this blog already (like here, or maybe here), and dinner parties of mine have featured it quite a bit, also. There's just something about the sweet-tangy combo of the cheese and pears that just works. Throw in a few walnuts or cranberries and you've got a happy boy right here.

I really kind of even hesitate to call this a recipe, because it's really just layering a few things together and serving. I don't really have amounts for everything: it's totally up to you on the proportions. However, it looks pretty elegant, tastes really good, and will make your life better.


Pears with Gorgonzola

Ingredients

• 4 large soft-but-not-mushy pears (I recently discovered and fell in love with comice pears: you should, too)
• A few ounces crumbly gorgonzola cheese (as much or as little as you want)
• 2/3 cup walnut pieces
• a few tablespoons butter and brown sugar for caramelizing the walnuts
• honey, for drizzling

Caramelize the walnuts by melting a few tablespoons of butter over medium heat in a heavy, flat-bottomed saucepan. Add the walnuts, and stir constantly for a few minutes. Add a few tablespoons of brown sugar and continue to stir until the sugar hardens around the nuts.

Core and slice the pears. Layer the slices in a bowl with the cheese and walnuts, periodically drizzling with some honey. Serve quickly, so the pears don't brown.

Pretending-to-be-Southern Banana Pudding

In my increasing quest to become more southern, I've been playing around with some of the local cuisine. Some of my attempts have been proving more successful than others. This one, "Not yo' mama's banana pudding," was a find, let me tell you, from Paula Deen, the national face of televised southern cooking.  I've made a few tweaks, and added some decidedly non-Southern garnishes.

Banana pudding is something of an institution here in North Carolina: the perfect conclusion to a meal of barbecue pork and hush puppies. Although there is precious little "cooking" involved in this recipe, the results are pretty amazing. The texture is a light lighter and more fulfilling than a run-of-the-mill from the box pudding, and the flavor is a lot deeper, too. My native southern friends were impressed (one even said it was better than Grandma's, and that, my friends, it a compliment I will proudly accept).

Paula's recipe has you make all these separate combinations of ingredients, then add them together at the end, but I have always just made it in a Kitchenaid stand mixer, adding one ingredient at a time, and it's turned out great for me.

Now, when you defenders of Southern cuisine look down at the list and become irate at instant pudding mix (vanilla, nonetheless), even the suggestion of nuts and chocolate, or the lack of any kind of heat source, just remind yourself of the prep time: 10 minutes, tops.  I know that Grandma probably spent hours over the stove, slowly simmering the pudding to banana perfection, but I have quickly whipped this up as a last-minute dessert enough times to know that sacrificing a little authenticity is definitely worth the payback in awesomeness and easiness.  


Pretending-to-be-Southern Banana Pudding

Ingredients

• 1 8-0z package cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 5-oz box instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2 cups cold milk
• 1 12-oz container whipped cream
• 2-3 cups vanilla wafers or other-similar cookie (chessman, butter cookies, graham crackers, etc.)
• several sliced bananas

 Optional garnishes:

• About 1/2 cup toasted almond slices
• Chocolate shavings (I use a vegetable peeler on the side of chocolate bar)
  

With a hand-mixer or stand-mixer, blend together the cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk until smooth and homogenized. Add the pudding mix and the milk, and continue to blend until smooth. Carefully fold in the whipped cream, and layer with the cookies and sliced bananas. The pudding will firm up as it cools.  Just before serving, top with fresh banana slices, cookies, and nuts and/or chocolate (if desired).

Pear - Gorgonzola Crostini

First of all, sorry for the rough picture: it was an emergency photo shoot in a low-light, party-in-progress situation. Don't let the picture sway you, these little bites are pretty awesome. The interplay between the tangy cheese, the sweet honey, the crunch in the walnuts and pear, the little zing of the olive oil: wow. I'm not gonna' lie, these were a last-minute idea. A quick search of Epicurious yielded a recipe for these zippy little crostinis. However, who in the world has figs? Well, I'm sure a lot of people do, but I didn't at the moment. I know that I like pears and gorgonzola, so a quick little substitution, and these bad boys were served. They're quite easy, and people liked them.


Pear and Gorgonzola Crostini

Ingredients

• 1 French baguette
• Olive oil for drizzling
  
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 3 - 4 ounces crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
• 1 pear, cut thinly into small slices
• honey for drizzling

Slice the baguette on the diagonal into about 15 - 20 slices. Drizzle or brush with a little bit of olive oil, and toast in the oven at 350 degrees for a few minutes (maybe 6-7). In a bowl, break up the walnuts into small pieces and mix it together with the gorgonzola crumbles. Kind of smush it together a bit. Once the bread is done, place a spoonful of the cheese-nut mixture onto each slice. Place back in the oven for about 7-8 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Top with the pear slices, and drizzle with the honey.

Pear and Gorgonzola Salad

This salad has got some personality. Gorgonzola is on the milder side of the blue cheeses, but boy, it's no sissy. There are some great flavors working together in this perky little number.



Pear and Gorgonzola Salad

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup candied walnuts
  
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 head romaine lettuce (or other type of lettuce)
• 2 ripe pears, sliced
  
• 1/2 - 1 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
• 1/2 - 1 cup dried cranberries
  
• 1/2 cup honey mustard vinaigrette (click here for recipe) or some other mild dressing

Candy the walnuts by melting the butter in shallow pan. I like to break up the walnuts into much smaller pieces, but you can leave them whole if you'd like. Add the walnuts and brown sugar, stirring constantly. Cook until fragrant and golden brown. I burn them 100% of the time, so please be careful. It's really upsetting if you let it go too long. Let them cool before putting on the salad.

Chop the lettuce into bite-size pieces. Mix in the pear slices, crumbled Gorgonzola, and cranberries. Add the dressing and walnuts immediately before serving.

If you're serving individual plates at a fancy dinner party or something, try this for some presentation points. Pile the lettuce in the center of a plate, then place some of the pear slices in a fan shape up against it. Instead of crumbling the Gorgonzola, cut it in a slice or a wedge and then lean it up on the pear. Sprinkle the cranberries and walnuts on top, and serve with the dressing.

Cranberry-Pear Tart with Macadamia Phyllo Crust

So for Thanksgiving this last year, my family had an iron-chef challenge. I was assigned cranberries, and I decided early on to bring my 'A' game. After 2 months of experimentation, brainstorming, and tempting intermediates (cranberry-brie wontons being the most promising), I decided on this amazing entry.

It's a combination of two different recipes--one from the Whole Foods website and one from the back of a box of Athens Phyllo dough--with a lot of variations.

Now the important questions, did I win the iron chef challenge? In all technicality, no, I came in second; however, it was discovered after the fact that the winner (my sister's fiance, with Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes) used cake mix, and thus, I feel should be disqualified.


Cranberry-Pear Tart with Macadamia Phyllo Crust

The Crust:

• One half-box (20 sheets) frozen phyllo dough (paper-thin sheets of dough for Greek pastries; usually in grocery store frozen foods with the puff pastry, pie crusts, etc.)
• One half-cup macadamia nuts, finely chopped or ground
  
• 1 stick melted butter

The Filling

• 4 bosc pears
• Several tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 12-oz bag of fresh cranberries
• 1 or 2 spoonfuls of raspberry jam
  

Out-of-the-ordinary equipment

• Scissors
• Tart/quiche pan with a removable bottom (I use an 11-inch pan)
• Brush or something to spread melted butter
  

NOTE: the phyllo dough is really temperamental and will dry out/crack if you're not careful. Keep it covered when not using.

Using the bottom of the tart pan as a pattern, cut a large circle out of 20 sheets of the phyllo dough (usually a package has two sleeves of dough, each with 20 sheets). Before using each sheet, brush it with melted butter. Layer the sheets in the tart pan, making sure to cover the sides of the pan, also. In between every few layers, sprinkle some of macadamia nuts (being sure to leave some for the final topping). Don't let the crust come up much past the edge of the pan: it'll just burn in the oven.

Peel and slice the pears into 1/3 - 1/2 inch wedges. Melt enough butter to cover the bottom of a pan, and saute the pears till slightly translucent at the thin parts and slightly browned. You'll probably need to do it in 2-3 batches. Retain as much of the liquid as you can in the pan. After you're finished with the pears, add the cranberries to the pear juice / butter in the same pan. Check over the cranberries because sometimes they still have stems attached. If you need to add a little more butter, go ahead. This is Thanksgiving, you can splurge a little. Cook until the cranberries start to pop and break open. Add up to 1/4 cup sugar to taste (I don't really like it super-sweet). Add the raspberry jam, and mix well. It should be pretty gloopy at this stage.

Pour the cranberry gloop into the phyllo crust, and then arrange the pear slices on top making it presentable: this is a competition, after all. Sprinkle the top with the leftover ground macadamia nuts. If you want some presentation points, put 2-3 whole cranberries and a whole macadamia nut in the center of the tart on top. The heat of the oven with brown the nuts and cause the cranberry to pop a little, making a cool little garnish.

Bake the tart at 350-degrees for 15-20 minutes. Watch carefully, though, because the phyllo can burn easily; watch the edges of the crust, and if they're getting dark, you tart's probably about done.