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Haystack Salad with Maple Vinaigrette

I love my new julienne peeler. It’s such a nice little inexpensive tool, and it makes eating raw vegetables so much lovelier. And it’s kind of cathartic to julienne an entire zucchini with a little slicer, and also a bit of an arm workout. I also love this salad.

Many, many months ago, when I was quite pregnant and working downtown, I would frequently indulge in a hobbit’s second breakfast. And often this second breakfast would occur at Cafe Soleil, the former downstairs cafe/bakery of L’Etoile.

Alongside their croissant egg sandwich, they served a delightful little side salad of very finely shredded apples and carrots, with a light, sweet dressing. That is what inspired the recipe below. It’s a great way to use up some of your garden or farmer’s market produce, and it’s a fun way to eat your veggies.

Haystack Salad with Maple Vinaigrette

(you can use whatever amount of veggies you want, just dress accordingly)

I shredded 2 carrots, 1 small zucchini, and 1 large apple with my julienne peeler. You could also use the shredding disk on a food processor. Dress with maple vinaigrette.

Maple Vinaigrette

1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 T dijon mustard
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 T maple syrup
juice from one lime
salt to taste

1) Shake all ingredients up in a jar, or whisk everything up but the oil, and then whisk in the oil in a steady stream.

And don’t forget to enter the giveaway! You have until Sunday night to throw your hat in the ring to win a new cookbook.

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Posted 07 August 2010 | salad and salad dressings   seasonal   vegetarian   zucchini | Comments (7) Tagged: , , , , ,

My first giveaway!

If you’re a regular reader, you will know that I am a wee bit smitten with this cookbook. It contains recipes for dishes that would have turned up on your grandmother’s table, or at a potluck dinner in the fifties. Think olives encrusted in cheddar dough and World War II Chocolate mayonnaise cake. But bonus,  the recipes have been run through the test kitchens at Cook’s Country. The folks over at America’s Test Kitchen do nice things such as replace shortening with butter, or simplify cooking steps.

A very, very kind person noticed how much I enjoyed cooking from this cookbook, and gave me a copy for my birthday. I decided to pay it forward and get another copy to give to a lucky one of you.

I’d love to see who’s reading my blog now that it has been up and running for 5 months now. To be entered in the giveaway, simply leave a comment and tell me what your favorite seasonal veggie or fruit is, and your favorite way to enjoy it.

Please enter only once, and enter by Sunday, August 8th (midnight central time) to be eligible. The winner will be selected by random.org’s random number generator, and I’ll announce the lucky person on Monday.

Looking forward to hearing from you all!

anna

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Posted 04 August 2010 | giveaway | Comments (21) Tagged: , , , ,

Sour Cherry Ice Cream

Sour cherry season has come…and gone. Truth be told, I almost missed it. I had big plans to go to the Dane County Farmer’s Market to get a flat of sour cherries from Carandale Farm, but the cherries are only at the market for 2-3 weeks tops. AND I MISSED IT! Now that we live 45 minutes away, I’m not there nearly as often. With a new baby and an enthusiastic toddler, my hands are a bit full and the days just got away from me.

Luckily, a local produce store had sour cherries from Michigan. Not local, and a little bit more expensive – but they were pitted! I saved about 6 hours and my lower back with that. So now I have about 10 pounds of sour cherries filling up my freezer and I’m ready to get busy.  Honestly, we like them best plain and straight out of the freezer, but ice cream, ice pops, muffins, and pies are great too.

Let’s kick it off with some tangy, buttermilk sour cherry ice cream! Again, inspired by the ladies at A Little Yumminess and our concurrent obsessions for ice cream this summer. Think chocolate-covered cherries, and try this with hot fudge.

Sour Cherry Ice Cream

4 cups buttermilk
2 cups sour cherries
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 T sugar

1) Whir 2 cups buttermilk and sour cherries in blender until very smooth. Pour in bowl, and whisk in additional 2 cups buttermilk, condensed milk, almond extract and sugar.

2) Chill, and freeze in ice cream maker, following manufacturer’s instructions.

Extra Extra: On Friday, check out my guest post on tarragon over at Burp: Where Food Happens. They are interesting, fun, and inspired by local seasonal foods – my kind of folks! They are also fellow Wisconsinites (out of Milwaukee), which is fantastic.

And coming soon…my first giveaway! Be sure to stop back early next week for a chance to win one of my favorite things!

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Posted 30 July 2010 | cherries   dessert   seasonal   vegetarian | Comments (8) Tagged: , , ,

Honey Bacon Two Bean Salad

Now that you all weigh an extra 200 pounds after the recent spate of dessert posts, here’s a healthy salad (with the tiniest bit of bacon) to help you detox a bit.

Inspired by Honey Balsamic Bean Salad at 101 Cookbooks

Honey Bacon Two Bean Salad

1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 bunch romaine, chopped
6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 T honey
2 T sherry vinegar
juice from 1/2 lemon
2 tsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
2 tsp olive oil
salt to taste

1) Mix beans, romaine, and bacon in large bowl.

2) Whisk together honey through olive oil. Pour over salad, toss, and salt to taste.

We ate this for dinner all by itself, with some crusty bread. But it would make a nice side dish for something from the grill.

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Posted 27 July 2010 | legumes   salad and salad dressings   simple dinners | Comments (3) Tagged: , ,

Blueberry Pie Bars

OK, I’ve officially shaken all of the blueberries out of my pockets – the bushes are empty, the freezer is full, and I promise not to give you another blueberry recipe for…well, awhile. But, I’ve saved the best for last.

Blueberry Pie Bars. This dessert takes a mega-portion of blueberries, so you may want to find a friend or farmer with bushes, or head to Costco. If you’re trying to get your six cups with the tiny 1/2 pint containers from the grocery store, this will be a pricey dessert. But do your best to find them, because this dish is splendid.

It really is blueberry pie in bar form, with a thick layer of blueberries, swimming in a delightful almond custard. All sandwiched between a sweet, crumbly pie crust. This may be my new favorite summer dessert (at least until I get my hands on some sour cherries)  and it will make you the God/Goddess of any potluck you attend.

Blueberry Pie Bars adapted from Joy the Baker, who got the original recipe from the Pastry Queen cookbook

crust and topping

3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 sticks cold unsalted butter, diced
zest from two lemons

blueberry filling

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp almond extract
3/4 cups flour
pinch salt
6 cups blueberries

1) Crust and topping: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan. Pour sugar onto a large cutting board, and rub the lemon zest into the sugar with a spoon or bench scraper.

2) Whisk together lemon sugar, flour, and salt. Cut in cold diced butter with pastry cutter or two forks until it looks like coarse meal. I typically finish by rubbing the butter in with my fingers – its messy, but faster.

3) Set aside 1 1/2 cups crust mixture for topping. Press the rest into the bottom of prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown. Let cool while you prepare the filling.

4) Filling: Whisk the eggs, then add sugar, sour cream, almond extract, flour and salt. Gently fold in blueberries. Pour over cooked crust. Sprinkle the remaining 1 1/2 cups of crust mixture over the top, and bake for about an hour until top is golden brown. Cool before slicing.

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Posted 21 July 2010 | baked goods   blueberries   dessert   seasonal   vegetarian | Comments (2) Tagged: , , , ,