Southwest Salad

I like to always serve a salad with a meal. My favorite foods tend to be carb-heavy and laden with cheese, so I always need something fresh and crisp to counterbalance that.

For last year's Cinco de Mayo, I came up with this Southwest Salad. It's a pretty hearty one that could easily become a main dish with the addition of chicken or shrimp. A little bacon wouldn't hurt either. 

Southwest Salad

2 heads of romaine lettuce, cleaned and chopped

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

½ cup frozen corn, defrosted

1 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

Large handful tortilla chips, or bag of tortilla salad strips

Chipotle ranch dressing (you can buy, or add some chipotle powder and lime juice to your favorite ranch dressing)

In a large bowl, combine lettuce, black beans, corn and cherry tomatoes.  Line bowl with tortilla chips.  Serve with chipotle ranch dressing.

Strawberry Margaritas

I've been trying for years to come up with the perfect margarita- slushy, limey, not too sweet- but always failed. The ice would turn into chips, or disappear completely, leaving me with a watery, not slushy, drink. I had issues with lime juice too; the bottled stuff tasted like crap but squeezing fresh juice took a dozen limes and a lot of time.

So I switched my goal from the classic plain lime margarita to a fruity one, and now I've been successful. I use frozen fruit, which really helps to increase the slushy consistency, and I crush my ice in the blender before I add the rest of the ingredients. And since the drink's focus is now fruit (strawberry, in this case) I only need the juice of two limes, so I'm not standing there trying to squeeze out paltry amounts of juice from a million limes.

Strawberry Margaritas, adapted from Cooking Light

3 1/2 cups frozen strawberries (you can swap in other fruits too, like peach or mango)
2 1/2 cups crushed ice
3/4 cup tequila
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice (about 2 limes)
1/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp Triple Sec
1/4 tsp salt (let's be honest, there isn't a chance I measured this. I shook my salt shaker a couple times into the blender)
Lime wedge for garnish

Fill your blender with ice, and crush. Remove to a separate bowl, and measure out 2 1/2 cups.

Combine all other ingredients, through salt, and process until smooth. Pour into a large pitcher, and garnish individual glasses with lime wedge.

Makes only four margaritas, so go ahead and double it.

Make Ahead: You can make this up to 45 minutes before guests arrive and keep the pitcher of margs in the fridge. Any longer than that and your slushy consistency might start to melt away.

Tropical Fruit Salsa

Despite having absolutely no cultural affiliation to the holiday, my parents take Cinco de Mayo very seriously. 

 

I’m not sure where it started, but years back, my dad suddenly decided this had to be a holiday we celebrated.  He bought sombreros for everyone, a string of jalapeno shaped Christmas lights, a CD of cheesy music, and of course, a boatload of Corona.  We grilled steak and hot peppers, drank margaritas, and lined up empty Corona bottles on the deck, and it became a yearly tradition. 

 

Now, each year we try out new recipes, and I wanted to share some of my favorites.  Today’s recipe is for Tropical Fruit Salsa, a festive, healthy, and delicious addition to the party.  I used this as a dip for chips, but I think it would also be extremely delicious spooned over grilled chicken, or maybe combined with brie into a (admittedly not very Mexican) quesadilla.

 

Take care with dicing your fruit, this is meant as a dip for chips so you want to dice it into very small pieces. 

 

Tropical Fruit Salsa, from Martha Stewart’s Hors d’Oeuvres Handbook

1 medium ripe papaya, small dice (¼ - ½  inch pieces)

1 medium ripe mango, small dice

½ a pineapple, small dice

1 medium jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, minced (taste your jalapeno first- sometimes they’re super mild and sometimes they are crazy hot! Know what you are working with before you move forward)

1 small red onion, small dice

1 tbsp fresh chopped cilantro

1 tbsp lime zest

1 tbsp lime juice

Coarse salt

 

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients.  This can be made up to an hour ahead, but add the papaya just before serving.

 

Guitar Cookies

I love decorated cookies. Every Christmas and Valentine's Day, I start to see lots of cute ideas popping up on blogs- frosted snowmen, big red hearts, glittery snowflakes- and I always get inspired to bake.

And then I remember how much work it is. Ten minutes into planning out how many frosting colors I'll need and how much powdered sugar to buy, I give up and move on to oatmeal raisins, or something easier.

The only thing that can motivate me into making these is my husband, because they're (of course) his favorite. I recently bought a guitar shaped cookie cutter, and was excited to put it to use. 

  

So here's a tutorial on making guitar cookies. I'll warn you, it's labor intensive. I give my final product a B, it's decent but it lacks that real professional, neat look. Maybe one of you out there might be able to execute a neater cookie. (If so, please tell me how!) 

You will need:

• Sugar cookies that have been cut in the shape you want, and allowed to fully cool. I always use Carole Walter's Scalloped Sugar Cookies from her book Great Cookies. I've provided the recipe at the end of this post, but if you are a baker, I really recommend this book. It's spectacular.
• Royal icing, for outlines and details. I use the recipe from Bake at 350. You will have to tint this brown, black, and reserve some plain white. I like Wilton gel food colors.  
• Flood icing, which is a thinner icing used for filling large areas of the cookies. I make mine with 2 cups of powdered sugar, 1 tsp corn syrup, and water. I start with 1 tbsp of water and keep adding in very small amounts until I reach the right consistency. The right consistency is when you can drip some icing back in the bowl with a spoon, and have it hold its shape for a second or two before it melts back in to the rest.
• Disposable decorating bags, couplers, and Wilton tips #1, 3, and 12.

Still with me? Let's get baking.  These are my guitars, naked:

And this is what I used for inspiration- my husband's guitar collection, conveniently visible from the kitchen.

Step 1: Tint a small portion of your royal icing dark brown, and add it to a piping bag fitted with a #3 tip. Outline each guitar. The neck will be a different color from the body of the guitar, so draw a line separating the two, as shown:

Step 2: Tint another small portion of your royal icing black, and fill a piping bag fitted with a # 12 tip. Squeeze a black dot in the middle of each guitar. Reserve leftover black icing.

Step 3: Make a big batch of flood icing. Tint half of it medium brown, and half dark brown. Fill the neck of the guitar with dark brown, and the body with medium brown.

Step 4: Get tired and annoyed when you drop your favorite mixing bowl and it shatters on the floor, ruining your icing and mood. Wonder why you started this monstrosity of a project. Grab a beer and annoy your husband while he cleans junk out of his closet. Drink, but don't help him at all.

Step 5: Go back to your reserved black icing, and fit it with the #3 tip. Draw a straight line under the dot.

Step 6: Take your last bit of reserved white royal icing and put into a piping bag fit with a #1 tip. Use it to pipe strings, and add tiny white dots at the top of the guitar.

Done! Enjoy your cookies.

Neil's Scalloped Sugar Cookies,

 from Carole Walter's Great Cookies

1 3/4 cups flour

3/4 cup confectioner's sugar

2/3 cup (1 and 1/3 sticks) unsalted butter, cubed and very cold

3 large egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 or 2 tsp cold water as needed

 

Combine flour, sugar, butter in bowl of food processor, fitted with the steel blade. Pulse to combine, then process for approximately 10 seconds, until the mixture is the texture of fine meal (it will look crumbly and not much like dough).

 

Combine the yolks and vanilla in a bowl, and add to the processor's work bowl. Pulse to combine, and then process for about 10 seconds until a mass forms. If it looks very dry, add a tsp of water. Empty the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a disk. It will seem rather dry and crumbly. Don't worry.

 

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or up to 3 days. You can freeze dough at this point.

 

To bake: Preheat oven to 350. Line cookie sheets with foil.

 

Working with 1/4 of the dough at a time, roll out on floured surface until about 1/4 or 1/8 inch thick. Using your cookie cutters, cut into your desired shapes.

 

Place on cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until edges are golden brown.

 

Cookies can be frozen for a month or two. To refresh, simply defrost and bake in a 350 degree oven for 5 minutes.

 

Risotto La Fritedda

This particular version of risotto is my mash-up of two Italian recipes, and not an authentic Italian dish.  

 

I was flipping through my Marcella Hazan cookbook, and came across a recipe for la fritedda, a Sicilian combination of peas, favas, fennel, artichokes, and onions.   I thought this would be a delicious topping to a classic risotto.  Plus, I’ve been on this kick of researching my family history, and we’re Sicilian, so I enjoyed pretending that maybe this was something my ancestors ate.  I have no idea if this is the case or not, but I know my grandparents finished their meals with fennel, so let’s go with it. 

 

Marcella, as always, is bossy about the ingredients, warning that you should really use freshly picked young peas, favas, and artichokes, lest you wind up with a weaker version of the dish. I’m inclined to agree with her, but as winter is never ending here and the farmer’s markets have yet to appear, I resorted mostly to the frozen stuff. Sorry Marcella. 

 

I did prep the artichokes myself, though I feel frozen would taste exactly the same in the dish, so that is what I call for in the below recipe. I probably wouldn’t use canned though, I kind of hate that watery, salty liquid they sit in. 

 

Risotto La Fritedda

We’re working with two recipes here, one for the risotto and one for the fritedda. You simply prepare them both and top the risotto with the fritedda. 

 

La Fritedda, adapted from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

1 cup frozen artichoke hearts, thawed

½ cup frozen fava beans, thawed

½ cup frozen peas, thawed

½ cup white onion, sliced thin

½ cup fennel, sliced thin, handful of fronds reserved for garnish

¼ cup olive oil

Salt

 

This can be done while making the risotto. Using a large skillet or heavy bottomed pan that can hold all the ingredients, put the onion, olive oil and fennel in and cook on medium low, until translucent. 

 

Once translucent, add in the artichoke hearts and cover the pot tightly. After five minutes, add in the peas and favas and cook another five minutes, tightly covered. You may need to add in small amounts of water to keep everything from sticking.  

 

Taste and correct for salt. Let sit until risotto is ready.

 

Risotto, from Everyday Italian by Giada de Laurentiis

1 ½ cups Arborio rice

½ cup white wine

5 cups chicken broth (if you need more, use water)

¼ cup chopped white onion

3 tbsp butter

½ cup Parmesan cheese

 

Bring chicken stock to a simmer in a small pot. 

 

In a large saucepan, melt butter and add onions. Saute until softened but not browned, about five minutes. Stir in the rice and let it toast in the butter and onions for a minute or so. Add wine and cook until absorbed, stirring constantly, about 3 minutes. 

 

Add in ½ cup of broth and stir until absorbed. Then add another ½ cup and stir again until absorbed. Keep going until the rice is creamy and firm to the bite, with no hard white center. It will take about a half hour.  

 

Mix in the Parmesan, top with the fritedda, and serve.  

Recent Reads: Thrive, by Arianna Huffington

 

Photo from Amazon

A $22 credit appeared in my  Amazon account the day Arianna Huffington’s new book, Thrive, came out, so I immediately purchased it.  I’ve been attempting (and failing) to work my way through the ever-popular Lean In, and I wanted to see what Sheryl Sandberg’s peer had to say. Sandberg has a message of jumping into work, and Huffington has a metric of adding more balance to working hard, an idea I like better.

Huffington calls thriving the “third metric” of success, after money and power. She explains that she, and many other top CEOs and execs are considered “successful” based on standard parameters like money and power, but their lives reflect exhaustion, a lack of interpersonal connection, and poor health.  She says money and power are two legs of a stool, and without the third metric of thriving, a successful person’s life is unbalanced and they’ll eventually topple. 

The purpose of the book is to expound on what thriving actually means, and how we can attain it in our overworked, overscheduled lives.  Huffington divides thriving into four pillars: well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving.  Experiments, science, research, and personal stories (both hers and other high powered execs) underscore the importance of focusing on these four items in everyday life. 

My favorite chapter was the well-being one, which delves into the benefits of meditating, mindfulness, exercise, and connection.  Huffington talks about the idea of a centered place of peace being within each of us, and how to get there.  It’s a truth that’s seen in a lot of religions, including my personal one of Catholicism, and something I definitely need to continue to work on.   Reading this chapter, and the rest of the book, reminded me to put my focus on the moment I was living, and helped me to calm down a bit and stop jumping ahead to the future.  It alleviated some of the constant “rush-rush-rush” I feel in my daily life. 

It’s important to me to see a successful woman in charge of a powerful company discussing the need for us to all take care of ourselves. Too much connectivity, too much working, too much phones and Internet drives me a little crazy and I think has a lot of negative impacts on humanity, and a private sector leader getting behind the idea of calming it down could hopefully be the start of cultural changes.  

What I liked too about this book was that it was kind of an ode to her late mother.  Huffington’s mother seems full of wisdom and insight, and the little clips and stories added a great human touch to the book. 

Loved this one and recommend everyone read it!!

Easter Menu

Easter will be at my cousins’ this year, but that hasn’t stopped me from putting together my own little Easter brunch menu. Below, some of my favorite recipes from this blog that make a perfect Easter afternoon.

 

The Menu:

Frittata
Arugula, Orange, and Fennel Salad
Prosciutto Wrapped Pork Roast
Green Beans with Favas and Parmesan
Lemon Blueberry Tart

What's on your Easter menu?