Steak Salad with Feta Vinaigrette

A few weeks ago, Antoinette and I cooked dinner for our families together - SO fun and SO delicious! Antoinette made a similar salad to her Mediterranean Orzo Salad which uses this awesome feta vinaigrette. Tasting as we went, we both joked the feta vinaigrette should be made by the gallon! It's so good, and I've been putting it all over everything. Now that BBQ season hit the Pacific Northwest early, we've made a couple of tri-tip roasts on the grill and a couple more in the smoker. Left over tip is great in a bunch of things - eggs, burritos, salads. I've been making this chopped salad with most of our left overs since our garden lettuce is going nuts, and the feta dressing is perfect!

Steak Salad with Feta Vinaigrette
Serves 2

1/4 cup crumbled feta
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice - about 1/2 a lemon
1/8 teaspoon bouquet garni or herbs de Provence
Fresh ground pepper

1 head of lettuce
2 carrots, julienned (since all of Pintrest went Paleo, I bought a julienne peeler - AWESOME. I love it!)  
1/2 cup peas
1/2 cup sliced cherry tomatoes
1 cup chopped cucumber
5 basil leafs, chopped
4 ounces chopped left over tri tip or other steak
2 tablespoons sunflower seeds

I've taken to making the salad dressing in the bottom of the serving bowl. It makes for one less thing to wash, and I'm guaranteed to get all of the dressing on the salad!

Next, I add the other ingredients to the salad bowl, topping everything with the lettuce last.

Toss everything together, top with the sunflower seeds and enjoy!

This salad can go so many ways depending on what's in season, but I really love adding the fresh basil. It's such a great flavor!

Things made this time last year...

Soy Glazed Salmon

Crab and Kale Manicotti

Ginger Soy Chicken Breasts

Mango Guacamole and Homemade Salsa

Basil Butter

Why is it that every time you buy basil you have to buy an entire plant’s worth???  I always have at least half of my basil go to waste…but not anymore!  I have the perfect recipe for any of that leftover basil you have.  It’s my Basil Butter.  You can put it on anything that you would use regular butter for and it adds nice brightness and color. 

Remember that the best way to store basil is in a vase on the counter with water (like fresh cut flowers).  I think it lasts longer this way than wrapping it up with paper towel and a plastic bag in the refrigerator.  Plus, it adds a little décor to the kitchen.  How can you go wrong? 

Basil Butter

Ingredients:

½ c unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

6 tbsp finely chopped fresh basil leaves

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 small garlic clove, minced

In the bowl of a mini food processor, combine the butter, basil, garlic, salt and pepper.  Pulse until combined.

Use immediately as a spread or use plastic wrap to shape basil butter into a log. Refrigerate until very firm. 

I use this basil butter on a lot of different things but my favorite is on rolls.  It just takes bread and butter to another level!  This time, I added some of the basil butter to cooked orzo with Parmesan.  It was a great accompaniment to stuffed chicken breasts I got from Trader Joes.  (The chicken breasts are stuffed with ricotta and baked with marinara on top…yum-O!)  The next thing I plan to do is to bake salmon with the basil butter on top.  I can’t wait and my mouth is watering just thinking about it! 

Make sure and comment to tell us what you plan to use your basil butter for!  We encourage creativity :)

Bruschetta Pinwheels

The very first time I got in a fight with a mandolin was making a pinwheel appetizer. I lost. Luckily, that was a while ago and my relationship with the mandolin has improved. Double lucky, this recipe doesn't need a mandolin! These cute pinwheels are really tasty and super easy to make. The hardest part about these is letting the puff pastry come to room temp - that takes at least an hour. Waiting is the worst. Bruschetta Pinwheels are worth it.

I default to a cheese platter with some good crackers for appetizers, or grilled artichokes if we are outside, but sometimes, a warm from the oven, bite-sized treat is so nice to have! Puff Pastry makes this kind of thing so very easy.

Preheat oven to 400
Makes ~20 bite-sized appetizers

1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 sheet puff (1/2 a package)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
olive oil
Salt and pepper

The trick to these is seeding the tomatoes. Too much pulp would risk the puff pastry being soggy and gross. I was using these cute multicolored cherry tomatoes, so I just cut them in half and squeezed the pulp into a little discard dish. Then I chopped through the remaining tomato meat until they were diced pretty small, about 1/4. 

After the tomatoes are seeded and chopped, mix with garlic, basil and a bit of salt and pepper. Place a sheet of puff pastry on a lightly floured surface and stretch it out to make a rectangle. 

Spread the tomato bruschetta all over the puff pastry leaving about an inch on the closure side. Roll up and press the seam to seal - I ran a wet finger across the seam before sealing the edge to really lock in all the tomato goodness.

Once everything is rolled up, slice into about 1/2 inch slices and place on a silpat or parchment lined baking dish. Brush or drizzle (I drizzled) on a bit of olive oil and bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Slices may need to be rearranged to bake evenly - the middle should puff and it should not look like damp dough.

A few things about this recipe...
 
I made these to take to a friends house. I baked them up at our house, left them on the pan and re-toasted them at their house. Double baked, double delicious!
These would be great with a spread of pesto, or some proscuitto.

Puff Pastry also works great with sweet things - I made a super quick cookie with the extra sheet of pastry.

Makes about 20 cookies
Preheat oven to 400 

1 sheet of Puff Pastry
1 tablespoon melted butter
3 tablespoons vanilla sugar (or cinnamon and sugar mixture)

Flatten out a sheet of Puff Pastry, and brush with melted butter. Dust on vanilla sugar, or cinnamon and sugar. Roll up each side to meet in the middle and press down the middle to make a more distinct heart shape. Slice and bake at 400 on a lined baking pan for 15 minutes or until nicely toasted. YUM!

Things made this time last year...
Miso Ginger Quinoa Salad

 
Apple Almond Muffins

Chopped Kale Salad with Pecorino, Raisins, and Walnuts

Smitten Kitchen is one of my favorite food blogs (other than NPC of course).  Deb is amazing.  She takes amazing pictures and has great recipes that I can relate to and really enjoy.  Not to mention, she does all of this amazing work in a tiny little NYC kitchen.  I can only hope that NPC will be where Smitten Kitchen is one day! 

While scrolling through recipes for Easter, I came across a kale salad that just looked delightful!  I needed at least one dish that was “atypical” for Easter and was sure to please since I was hosting for about 12 other people that day.  After all, my NPC reputation is always on the line!  This chopped kale salad turned out to be a hit…and I even earned a “fancy” label J  Go figure!  I’ll take that any day!

Chopped Kale Salad with Pecorino, Raisins, and Walnuts

½ c walnut pieces

¼ c golden raisins

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tbsp water

¼ c panko

1 tiny clove garlic, minced or pressed

kosher salt

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 bunch Tuscan kale

2 oz pecorino (ground in food processor)

½ lemon, juiced

black pepper

Toast walnuts in a dry skillet over low-medium heat, tossing occasionally.  Let cool.  In a small saucepan over low heat, simmer white wine vinegar, water, and raisins for 5 mins, until plump and soft.  Set aside in liquid.

Toast breadcrumbs and garlic in a skillet together over low-medium heat with a pinch of salt until golden.  Set aside. 

Note: Garlic will be fragrant once it is properly toasted.  However, garlic burns quickly and turns rancid.  Be sure to stir constantly to prevent burning.

Trim heavy stems off kale and remove ribs.  Add kale to bowl of food processor and pulse a few times until chopped.

Modification: Chopping the kale is one of the changes I made to the original recipe.  I decided to chop in a food processor because it literally takes a few seconds to do.  Also, since kale is so bitter, it helps to get small bites of kale with the other salad ingredients for an amazing combo that isn’t overpowering.

Put kale in a large bowl.  Add pecorino, walnuts and raisins.  Add olive oil and lemon juice and toss until all the kale is coated.  Taste and adjust seasonings with salt, pepper, and leftover vinegar mixture from raisins.  (I used all of the vinegar mixture.)  Let sit for at least 10 mins before serving.  Top with breadcrumbs just before serving.

Shredded Salsa Chicken

My husband and I are serious DIY house project folks. We've done a LOT of projects in our home and are still working on finishing a few things off. Today my amazing husband powered out the last bit of tiling we needed to do in the kitchen. We had a patch of backsplash that had been just painted, and now it's covered in lovely white subway tiles! Yay husband! As awesome as house projects are, kitchen projects tend to leave you sans fully functional kitchen for some lengths of time. Today I cooked in a corner just the size of my Crockpot. 

This is a super easy Crockpot recipe, great for dinner and perfect for cooking ahead for weekday lunches. This chicken makes great tacos, burritos, and salads. I'll be eating this for lunch salads most of next week.

Shredded Salsa Chicken
Makes 6 servings

For the Chicken
4 chicken breasts
1 cup salsa (I used mild this time so my toddler will eat it)
1 15oz can black beans
1 cup frozen corn kernals
1 tablespoon oil
Salt and Pepper 

For toppings
Sour cream
Chopped red onion
Chopped cilantro
Avocados
Salsa

Place chicken and 1 cup of salsa in a crockpot. Cook on high for 2 hours. Turn down to low and cook 1 more hour.

When the chicken is 20 minutes shy of done, drain and rinse a can of black beans and set aside. Heat a pan to very hot and add 1 tablespoon of oil. Add corn kernels to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook until lightly charred. 

Add corn and black beans to the chicken and cook for the last 20 minutes. Shred chicken with forks and enjoy in tacos, burritos or on salad! I like to top my salad with sour cream, chopped onions, avocado slices, cilantro, more salsa and some hot sauce. Delicious!

Things made this time last year...
Dutch Baby

Chicken Cacciatore

Cranberry Pistachio Energy Bars

So I was flipping through my April issue of Cooking Light and came across a recipe that called for such an awesome mix of ingredients that I just had to try it!  Also, I think (for the first time ever) I either had every ingredient or a perfect substitute.  I swear that never happens to me! 

These Cranberry Pistachio bars looked beautiful on the page and when I saw almond butter, chocolate, agave, cranberries, pistachios, and coconut – I was SOLD!  Not to mention, it called for healthy whole grains like oats and quinoa.  These bars are delicious, and I had 3 other people vouch for that.  I made a couple of slight modifications but Cooking Light deserves all the credit for this one!  Kudos!

Cranberry Pistachio Energy Bars

1c uncooked old-fashioned rolled oats

¾ c uncooked quinoa

¾ c sweetened, dried cranberries, coarsely chopped

½ c salted, dry-roasted pistachios, chopped

1/3 c flaked, sweetened (or unsweetened) coconut

2 tbsp chia seed meal

1/8 c dark chocolate chips, finely chopped

½ c unsalted creamy almond butter

6 tbsp agave nectar

1 tbsp vegetable oil (or almond or coconut oil)

½ tsp salt

cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350F.  Spread oats and quinoa on a baking sheet.  Bake at 350F for 8 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool.  Place oat mixture in a large bowl, and stir in cranberries, pistachios, coconut, chia seed meal and chocolate.

Tip: Make your own seed meal!  The original recipe called for flaxseed meal but I only had chia seeds on hand.  Making your own meal is super easy.  Just use a coffee grinder, bullet, or powerful blender to break seeds up into meal.  Seeds often pass through the body whole, so breaking them down into meal allows the body to absorb more of the nutrients from the seeds.

Combine almond butter, agave, oil, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil. Cook 1 min, stirring constantly.  The mixture will thicken slightly.  Pour almond butter mixture over oat mixture; toss well to coat. 

Note:  I used my hands to thoroughly mix in wet ingredients to coat the dry ingredients as it was pretty thick and would have taken forever with a spoon.

Press mixture into an 8” square glass or ceramic baking dish coated with cooking spray.  Bake at 350F for 13 mins or until lightly browned.  Cool completely in dish.  Cut into bars or squares.