Nicoise, Very Nicoise

1. tuna
2. potatoes
3. green beans
4. eggs
5. tomatoes

This was a plenty good and serviceable dinner served warmed with the leftovers reassembled into a plenty good and serviceable lunch served cold. Or room temperature really. Have I ever mentioned that I don't refrigerate my lunch? Ever? You probably should. And you too. Especially you. Do as I say, not as I do and all that. Food safety! Salmonella! PLAGUE! Certain. Death. But if you don't die, there's just something awfully special that happens when hard cooked egg meets mustard vinaigrette with the snap of a green bean, the smoosh of a potato and the pop of a tomato and it isn't cold or hot but just right.

See those tiny potatoes? I've been buying those from Fresh & Easy and I love, love, love them. They are so tiny, and cute, and little, and small, and oh, you know, but they cook SUPAH fast and they're kind of sweet and there's even a purple one in the mix. I have a vague suspicion there might be some serious genetic engineering going on there but I'm gonna choose not to dwell on it. Because they are just so damn cute.

Oh, I should tell you about the dressing! I sometimes make vinaigrette in the blender but usually in a bowl with a whisk. Mainly because I don't want to have to wash the blender. You might think a lazy person like myself would just put everything in a jar and shake it and have even less to wash. You'd be wrong. Until now anyway. I'm officially a shaken vinaigrette convert so it's kind of my duty to proselytize - you might think it's the most obvious thing in the world but clearly SOMEONE failed to let me know about it so there could be others out there. People like me. People who have no idea. This is my mission. My destiny.

Mustardy Vinaigrette Dressing

30ml apple cider vinegar
120ml olive oil
1 T coarse ground mustard
1 clove of garlic smashed hard
1 lemon, squeezed
1 quick squeeze o' honey (a teaspoon tops)
big pinch of salt
bigger pinch of pepper

Pour everything into your vinaigrette making container with a tight fitting lid cleverly marked in mls on the side for your measuring convenience. You might know this by it's other name, "water bottle". Apply lid. Shake like mad. Pour over your food. Eat. Store leftover dressing in the fridge in the, wait for it, same container you used to make it in. I know, right???

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Is There a Season for Salmon?

1. grilled salmon
2. fennel and grapefruit salad
3. chunk of bread that wasn't nearly as big as it looks

Sometimes I think my enjoyment of a particular food item is inversely proportional to it's cost. But enough about expensive fish that's probably out of season or whatever - should probably just remind myself that I live in the middle of the freakin' desert. Anyway, check out those grill marks! That pan was worth every penny of the 20 bucks I paid for it. And the salad? That I could eat again and again. Crisp and cool and just different enough to feel a teeny bit exotic. You can make it too!

Fennel and Grapefruit Salad

Chop up a small red onion and a head of fennel in the smallest dice you have the patience for. Supreme out a grapefruit and hack that up too. Mix up your favorite vinaigrette*, dump it on top and stick in the fridge for an hour. Fancy fennel frond garnish is entirely optional.

I used a citrus vinegar from Trader Joe's in this and let me tell you it was lovely.

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Old School Taco Salad

1. taco salad
2. tangelo

When I was growing up there was some fast food place in the next town over, can't remember anything else about it but I do remember the taco salad. I also remember loving that taco salad. They served it in a rectangular shaped aluminum foil container. After much trial and error I think I've come up with a pretty close copycat recipe.

Layer the following items in a bowl or foil dish.

Lettuce
Corn chips
Chili
Chopped onion
Cheese
Jalapeno slices on the side

Eat with a plastic spork.

OMG, I almost forgot to tell you what I've been reading!

The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright
Seven pages in the wife dies in bed of a heart attack and by page eight the terminally ill husband gives it up and dies next to her. It was downhill from there. No, actually it's kind of a cute book. The husband wrote a letter to the wife every Wednesday the entire 40 some-odd years they were married. Their adult children find the letters after their death and through them find ... redemption? At least that's what you're led to believe from the -letter- pasted in the back of the book from one of them. I don't know, it was Cute. Capital C. I'm over it.

Clearing the Aisle by Karen Schwartz
Classic chick lit but I loved it. Know why? It was a Jewish wedding with lots of juicy little Jewish wedding details. I love that shit. There's always those certain things that continue to fascinate. Judaism, polygamy, nuns and boarding school are mine.

Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger
Not her best effort.

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Sometimes a Salad is Just a Salad

and sometimes it's a salad with a side of yogurt. Okay, not very often, but sometimes. And that sometimes may very well coincide with the sometimes that you really need to go grocery shopping. Sometimes.



1. lettuce
2. goat cheese
3. beets
4. Sporadic Cook squash
5. almonds



1. yogurt
2. dried fruit and nuts

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BBQ Salad

A few days ago a co-worker brought in a BBQ Chicken Salad from somewhere made with lettuce, corn, black beans, chicken and cornbread croutons. Cornbread croutons! Why didn't I think of that? Well, this salad isn't that.

This salad is just a mess.

1. lettuce
2. baked potato
3. some beans
4. pulled pork

It was still pretty damn good though. Even without any cornbread croutons.

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Better Than Raw Chicken

1. egg salad sandwich on squishy bread with basil
2. pea salad
3. 53 cents worth of tomato

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When Chicken Tartar Fails

Okay, okay, the Chicken Tartar didn't fail. I did. Alright? I'm D. U. M. M. Dumm.

How's some nice grilled chicken sound? Maybe with a caprese salad? Sounded good to me too. Too bad I didn't take the chicken out of the freezer.

Rosati's to the rescue!



1. leftover deep dish
2. caprese salad with some three dollar tomato and the last of the balsamic reduction

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Delicious Cliche

1. salad with beets and goat cheese and glorious beef
2. focaccia
3. olive oil underneath there somewhere
4. chickie full of reduced balsalmic vinegar

About that vinegar reducing business. Do NOT, I repeat DO NOT lean over and inhale deeply mid-reduction. Really.

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Don't be a Hater

Boy took his girlfriend out for Korean the other day and made a swing through the market next door afterward. What can I say? He's a kid of habit. Anyway, he found this cute lunch set and bought it. For me. He's pretty much the best Boy ever. And then I filled it with some awesome leftovers!



1. roast chicken and vegetables
2. Big Love salad
3. glorious chard
4. dark chocolate

Add this to an eye roll free weekend and I'm ridin' the first Mommy high I've felt in a long, long time.

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I Am the Walrus

No I'm not.

I am the Eggman!

Not really.

I bought eggs from the Eggman!

Okay, EggWOMAN. Whatever.

Gaze!



Are they not beautiful?

Are they worth 4 bucks a dozen?

I think so.



1. egg salad sandwich
2. mixed greens
3. mixed grapes

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Those Who Can

1. salad (with beets!)
2. spinach dip
3. bread
4. fudgey brownie bite

Those who can do, those who can't, imitate. I do have standards though - I only imitate the best. And only if it looks easy. White on Rice Couple recently posted about a stovetop spinach dip. I like spinach dip! And it's easy. So I made it.



No water chestnuts though, because really - what's the point? Oh, and I used bacon fat instead of oil because, well - it's bacon fat! And I didn't have enough Paremesan. But! I did have a can of that powdered stuff leftover from the great Pioneer Woman debacle of aught seven. It was pretty clumpy so I closed it up and shook it. Hard. Repeatedly. Sounded like there was a hockey puck in the can. And maybe I was a little angry. Anyway. I'm not what happened exactly but the next thing I knew a disk of compressed cheese powder went flying over my shoulder and I was literally covered in the stuff. Know what? The odor. It lingers. The dog couldn't get enough of me. And Him? Nearly had to get the hose out to get Him off my leg.

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Poached Salmon & Potato Salad

1. salmon
2. potatoes
3. cute accessory
4. random pieces of romaine lettuce
5. blackberries and Greek style yogurt with honey

I poached the fish using a recipe from Simply Recipes subbing chives for the dill, cause that's what I had. Too bad I didn't catch the part about covering the pan - ended up spoon-sloshing the liquid on top to get it to cook :)
The potatoes are just quartered and boiled with some butter and chives. I put a little Caesar dressing in the chick.

Have I mentioned my new found love for the Fresh & Easy? Let me mention it again. See that salmon up there? Know where I got it? I'll tell you - Fresh & Easy. Ten ounces for $3.99 and as fresh as I'm ever likely to taste living here in the desert. Cooking and eating fish just isn't something I grew up doing. Where I'm from there's only one kind of fish, and that's catfish and you eat it dredged in cornmeal and deep fried and if you're smart you go out for it so you don't mess up your kitchen. And that - while delicious - is nothing like this. I don't know where I was going with that.

Anyway, Boo loves fish so I try to fix it for her at least once a week. Unfortunately she slept through dinner so the Boy snagged half of her fillet and the rest ended up here. This is just the sort of lunch that I love packing for work. So much better than anything I'd have time to run out for plus the added benefit of being very nearly free!

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Steak Salad

1. yellow grape tomatoes
2. steak
3. baked potato
4. green beans
5. red peppers
6. cucumber
7. vinaigrette in the red tomato

Bet you can't guess who had steak, baked potato, green beans and salad for dinner last night!

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Steak, Salad & Seduction

1. sliced ribeye on salad
2. Japanese sweets
3. little bottle of love potion


Do you know Tigers & Strawberries? If you don't you should. Go there now - this can wait.

So here's the dealio. I was reading Barbara's post titled Seduction on a Plate: Fraises a l’Aziz and became completely and totally enamored of the idea of a vinaigrette made from pomegranate molasses. Meaning that I had to have it, and I had to have it NOW. Seduction indeed! So I decided to grill a steak, slice it thin, and serve it on lettuces with walnuts and raspberries and dress it all up with a fabulous pomegranate vinaigrette. Sounds lovely, no?

Well yes, in theory anyway. In reality the damn molasses wouldn't blend. I mixed and mixed and mixed and blenderized and blenderized and blenderized until it damn near boiled and I'm pretty sure that my blender was whimpering. I gave up. I tossed the salad in the nicely flavored oil and drizzled the gloopier stuff over with a spoon. SO. disappointing. But you know what? Still tasted fan-freakin-tastic. If anyone tries this and figures out a fix - please let me know. Please. I need this. Please.

Speaking of seduction, there's still plenty of time to Haiku that Blog!

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Grilled Tuna Salad

1. slices of grilled albacore on salad with mango salsa
2. bread and cheese
3. panna cotta

Sometimes I get such a craving for something that it almost turns into obsession. Like panna cotta. Not that I'd ever actually had panna cotta before mind you. How does that happen? Or is it just me? Nevermind.

Panna cotta - essentially milk jello. Doesn't exactly sound craveable now does it? Oh but it is. It's every thing I hoped it would be. Smooth, cool, creamy, decadent and light all at the same time. I flavored it with vanilla bean and topped it with toasted coconut. When we ate it at home we topped it with sliced almonds and poured a little smidge of amaretto on top as well but because I ate this at work I didn't add the liquor - though lord knows only copious amounts of alcohol would sure make the day more bearable.

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More of a Good Thing

Not a Good Thing ®, but a good thing nevertheless.

1. salad
2. goat cheese
3. beets
4. smoked turkey
5. balsamic vinaigrette

Speaking of more of a good thing: Sharpen your pencils and get out your dictionary - it's almost time to Haiku that Blog!

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That's so 2003

A few weeks ago I was food shopping with the boy. He asked if he could pick the fish and I said sure. The last time I did this we had halibut. At 24 bucks a pound. But whatever. Anyway, one of the choices was orange roughy. He'd never heard of it and asked what it was like. I realized then that I hadn't seen orange roughy in years. It was one of those hot menu items back in the late 80's though. Remember? Every piece of fish slapped on a plate was either orange roughy or red snapper. Blackened. And then it was gone. Weird how that happens no? As it turns out we did get the roughy, and as it turns out the boy prefers halibut. Naturally. Not that I blame him, I've had tastier fish sticks.

Today I read Garrett at Vanilla Garlic describe theRockstar Ingredient Theory, the comments are interesting - seems everyone agrees that ROCKSTARS exist but no one really knows how something gets to be a ROCKSTAR to begin with. Like ramps. Seriously.

Of course sometimes things are popular and trendy because they just taste so damn good. Like beets and goat cheese. I do so love the two tastes together. (Even the beet hating boy agrees!) If beet and goat cheese salad hadn't achieved ROCKSTAR status I'd probably never tried it on my own. I suppose the same could be said for ramps, but did anyone ever really think orange roughy was good?



1. steak, rare
2. *'burnt potatoes'
3. vanilla yogurt with blackberries
4. retro salad with beets, goat cheese and walnuts with, wait for it, balsamic vinaigrette on the side

*burnt potatoes aren't really burned, it's just what we call them to differentiate between other kinds of fried potatoes. They are sort of pan fried with onions, but not really messed with so the bottom gets brown and crispy and the middle steams.

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Basketti & Meatballs

I have a habit of picking up different lunch containers as I come across them whether I really need them or not. This particular container is a two peice plastic "tiffin" made in India that I found at a local dollar store. I really like this set - it's perfect for this type of meal.



1. spaghetti with a giant halved meatball and shaved parmesan
2. green salad with dressing in the small bottle

Here's what it looks like all stacked up and ready to go.



There's still time to enter Haiku That Blog! v1.0

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Muliple Personality Disordered Bento

A little bit of this and a little bit of that and some of the other too! And what's with the Easter egg? Don't the children know it's Christmas?




Mine had...
1. krab sushi
2. sliced cucumber and red bell pepper
3. leftover potato salad
4. leftover grilled pork chop on picks
5. celery
6. Easter egg





Boo had the mostly the same except she didn't get the cucumbers and peppers but did have Kancho (aka Butt Poke) cookies and dip for her celery.

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Chi Chai Monchan - Dig?

1. rice stars
2. lettuce
3. yellow pepper rings
4. P&P loaf on picks
5. grape tomatoes
6. Chi Chai Monchan onigiri
7. vinaigrette pig

Is SO Chi Chai Monchan! No arguments.
I accidentally put his bananas on upside down but otherwise it looks just. like. him.

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