Chives in my garden. I have tons! The beautiful purple flowers are edible, too.
Fine cooking friend and local caterer par excellence, Patti White, and I banded together to develop a recipe for this main dish salad to serve 40+ guests for a fun Saturday evening event at First Congregational Church, Colorado Springs. During a trial run last Wednesday, we took my spring fave More Time at the Table Asparagus-Potato Salad , oven-roasted instead of boiled the potatoes, added Patti’s tender lemon-grilled chicken breast along with a tender bed of well-seasoned baby spinach and fresh basil leaves, then topped the whole thing with a piquant, mustardy vinaigrette showered with a fine dusting of freshly-ground pepper. Garnishes? For sure and always. Kalamata olives for the brine; Parmigiano-Reggiano for the salty umami; halved cherry tomatoes for color, texture, and a fresh element; and YAY!! chives from my garden just because. Did we like it? We so, so did… (I love it when Patti and I work together.)
Et voilà, a handsome, toothsome, whole-meal salad was born. While it was awesome for a large crowd (wedding shower, anyone?), I’m thinking it might be just about perfect for you and a few close friends or you and a partner with a couple of extra meals thrown in. Let’s think a simple spring or summer supper, shall we? Scroll down for DINNER PARTY ideas.
While I’m a bit late to the gate getting started on lenten –or any other time–FRIDAY FISH recipes, this one’s worth waiting for. I’ve been making it for a few months, though the story begins with just the vinaigrette. Ok; it’s a tish long of a story but worthwhile. Wanting to escape the traditional high-calorie olive oil vinaigrette … there are 480 calories in 1/4 cup of olive oil … I had paid close attention one day when my mentor Jacques Pépin (he doesn’t know he’s my mentor) mentioned something about using cream for a vinaigrette as it had 50 calories per tablespoon rather than the 120 for olive oil! Well, this little WW follower stood up and took notice, filing that away for posterity, but really for me. Not long afterward, making a salad, I thought about the yummy Daisy Light Sour Cream that saves my bu** so often while cooking. (I often stir a dollop into a bowl of pureed vegetable soup and skip the high-cal and fatty heavy cream too many cooks stir in at the end of cooking.) And, why, I ruminated, couldn’t I use it for a vinaigrette? If heavy cream was good enough for my man Jacques, why not light sour cream, which weighs in at 35 calories per tablespoon, for me? So, the next time I made salad, I made my vinaigrette just like always BUT — I whisked in Daisy Light Sour cream instead of extra virgin olive oil. Eureka!!! Voila!!! Bingo jingo!!! A lower-calorie, creamy vinaigrette was born. Hello, huge salads and maybe even caloric deficits.
When you still want chips and dips but feel you should lean a little more into the healthy lane…
I can’t imagine who would name a recipe something like, “Chippy Dippy Hummus Salad.” Surely not me but here I am. It’s the silly, but sticking name that came first to mind when I threw this little baby together as a combination appetizer-salad course to go with two big grandma pizzas Dave made for our Florida family on New Year’s Eve using my Pizza Class recipe. I began by whirring together my take on Jacques Pépin’s basic hummus recipe, meanwhile planning on chopping up a big green salad as well. But as I sliced up a few fresh veggies for dipping, I thought, “Why not dollop — or doll up– this dreamy hummus down the center of a big bunch of arugula seasoned within an inch of its life and stand up the perky veggies around the sides?” I grabbed a 3-quart, rectangular Pyrex casserole from my sister Helen’s pantry and began to put it together, only wondering a minute later about sticking the casserole in one of her large baskets for appearances’ sake. And, if I was going to do that, why wouldn’t I include a few tortilla, pita, and Kettle Salt and Pepper chips for good luck? And, if I’d gone THAT far, how about adding an on-the-rocks glass full of onion dip (I had to make that quick like a bunny), as well as one with pico de gallo, which I’d bought premade at the market? I mean, there was all that extra space needing filling. Sure, I could do that. And did it get eaten pronto? Yes, it did!
I’ll tell you a little about the pizzas and, in the meantime, you can think about the hummus salad for dinner now that you’ve just about decided to embark on healthy January. Haven’t you?!
When I first made this pretty fall recipe, I posted a junky quick photo to facebook with the words, “Did they tell you to bring a salad to Thanksgiving dinner?” My longtime food blogging and fb friend, Mary, piped up that no one in HER family would ever ask someone to bring a salad!!!…and…she’s mostly right. On the other hand, fine Minnesota friend Lani quipped, “I’m saving this!” So, the jury’s out. For now. Salad, however, really is not the first thing we think of for Thanksgiving, is it? (Didn’t we used to have jello salads? Sure, we did. Long ago and far away. For years and years. Mine had cranberries, apples, and pecans in it. I’ll bet some people still make them.) Thanksgiving is all about turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, vegetable casseroles, rolls and butter, pie, and all things crispy on the outside and tender on the inside–including mac and cheese, they say, though I wouldn’t know. (I do make a first course vegetarian soup lately in a feels-like almost useless, spineless effort to serve a curated meal.) It’s also about feeling thick as an ugly tick and wondering if you should just live on cold pumpkin pie, spiked hot tea, aspirin, and Tums the next day. Which is my way of saying that a little fresh something or other isn’t going to hurt anyone and could be the one thing you go back for when it’s time for seconds. And, playing the grandma card here, some fiber might be exactly what’s needed alongside all that mushy food and free-flowing wine. There. Well, now that that’s out of my system, you can serve this sweetish, peppery, briny, “meaty,” salad featuring butternut squash, mushrooms, and arugula anytime. But if you serve it at Thanksgiving, you’ll be happy!
Travels well to 4th of July picnics, under-the-weather friends, or campsitesJump to Recipe
Early in our marriage, best sous husband Dave and I somehow fell upon a simple summer recipe for pasta –let’s face it, that was spaghetti back then — topped with lots of fresh, diced tomatoes, shrimp, chopped feta, and dried oregano. (Not to be confused with the more current uber-popular feta sheet pan meal.) For a few years, we served it a lot to ourselves and also to anyone who came to eat outside on the deck in warm weather, of which there was plenty in northern Virginia. Compared to the cookout meals we were used to in the midwest (i.e. burgers and dogs, baked beans, and huge bowls of potato salad and slaw), this felt like sophisticated fare indeed. And while we adored the shrimpy spaghetti, we later put it aside for a few years as seafood-averse children came and went, houses were bought and sold, and moves were made only 25 times or so. Occasionally, it would pop back up in the summer repertoire, but only briefly. I’m sad to say I don’t even think there’s a copy of the recipe in the house, though a recipe probably isn’t necessary. I just might have to put it on this summer’s desirable meal list.
For the last month, I’ve had a note on my fridge (where all important information in life resides) to make a chickpea and pasta salad that I thought I might stuff in halved sweet peppers or …. I don’t know. Somehow, it didn’t get made right away as we had so much cool, rainy weather, but the thought kept perking. Chickpeas, as you’d know or maybe not, have been having a moment for a few years now. It seems chickpea salad recipes keep flying across my social media feeds and, when I look back at my own blog, these peas (beans?) have found a home here, too. Just in case you think I don’t get trendy. But as I finally got around to creating the salad –which I knew would contain feta because I love it — the old Virginia summer spaghetti routine passed through my brain and, I thought, “Why not add shrimp and tomatoes to this chickpea goodness?” And that’s how you’re getting my Chickpea-Pasta Salad with Shrimp + Feta, along with a tasty oregano vinaigrette that could also grace a cold chicken sandwich or a grilled lamb chop.
Good dish to take to a friend in need. Skip the garnish or let them add it.Jump to Recipe
Now, I really like mayo. There’s just something about it. As a kid, I once ate an entire jar of it and was later very sorry. Now, I’m good just licking the spoon. (I know folks think they like mayo because it’s creamy and fatty; it’s also salty-addictive and no one ever mentions that. Dijon mustard – same way. Just taste them both all on their own or look up the sodium content and see.) My best sous and husband, however, LOVES it. When we were first married, his favorite snack was saltines smeared with mayo. A whole sleeve of them. Even now, 50 years later, he’s never happier than when offered a lunchtime egg salad sandwich, for instance. So we are both totally ok with something like cold Tuna Mac, which is just macaroni salad with an ocean of mayonnaise plus tuna. It’s especially welcome when we’re hungry and there’s little time or other ingredients at hand. You’ll probably see it at our house once or twice a summer and we’ll eat off it a couple of meals without complaint. But these days, we’d mostly rather have something we now call pasta salad dressed with some sort of vinaigrette rather than mayonnaise — despite pasta salad’s bad rap. (Were you raised with the word pasta? I didn’t grow up with that word. There was macaroni and there was spaghetti. That was it. Mostaccoli and shells later on, I think. So glad things changed.) And while we’re at it, why not some teensy-weensy, cute pasta like orzo or ditalini?
As the end of More Time at the Table FRIDAY FISH season approached, I had one remaining idea that had yet to hatch. For weeks, I’d kept a list of ingredients, on the fridge even, that might make a delicious canned tuna pasta salad without using too many ingredients. I know; you don’t believe that for the first minute but it’s true. And while I pared down the list to a few had-to-have, truly compatable elements, I also knew the whole thing would go to h_ _ _ in a hand basket without a doubly perky vinaigrette. (Nothing is worse than bland or overcooked pasta salad.) I went to work on that first. I’ve made many a lemon vinaigrette and it’s one of my favorites as it’s so simple –basically equal amounts lemon and oil. Here I figured in the zest of one of the lemons to really move the salad into my corner. It worked beautifully! Tuna, asparagus, tiny pasta, briny olives, red onions, fennel, sweet peppers, parsley, and extra lemony vinaigrette; was that all it needed? It was, along with a garnish or two, though you can scroll down to CHANGE IT UP and bathe in a plethora of other additions or substitutions you might employ and enjoy. I’ll be cheering you on.
It is fairly, if not universally true: Wherever you go in the world, there is a Caesar Salad on the menu. You could be in a dive bar, a drive-in, a fast food place, a diner, a London hotel (as was I recently) or an honest-to-God halfway decent restaurant with your lunch girlfriends and there. it. is. A no longer cheap basic Caesar Salad is listed and then, at the bottom of the salad section– at least here in the U.S.– you’re told you can add the ubiquitous grilled chicken (or salmon, shrimp, or steak). Because I adore a well-made, simple no-chicken Caesar, I ordered it at a sweet place in Napa the last time– a few years ago now– our wine group visited. I was the happiest clam because this was not only one of the best Caesars I’d ever had (barely out-of-the-garden lettuce and the perfect Chardonnay in Napa, sigh) but it was bewitchingly showered with young, green-green, perfectly minced chives. Was anything ever better? Not that day! (Menu down below.)
At home, I make a few differently styled Caesars but don’t typically layer on protein except for copious amounts of salty Parmiagiano-Reggiano. My wannabe Caesars may contain a few different vegetables for health, happiness, and texture. But this last week, as I wondered how to use some of the three pounds of tilapia I’d scored for under $20 total at Costco, I realized I was going to throw together a Tilapia Caesar. Why not? If restaurants can put all that (ahem) grilled boneless chicken on their Caesar salad, why couldn’t I slip on a little fillet of nicely seasoned, tender white fish?! The tilapia, which my best sous and husband Dave had divided into 3 (1 lb.) packages, would, I know thaw quickly in a pot of cold water and cook in mere minutes. It would be not only good for us but cheap and fast. Nice.
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, March 5and goes through April 17, 2025.(Easter is April 20, 2025)Some Christians fast from meat voluntarily on Fridays during Lent. I blog fish at that time as a spiritual discipline and learning opportunity, though I could also include vegetarian dishes, if I chose–and I might! This year I celebrate 10 years of FRIDAY FISH on More Time at the Table. Up your fish game with me for the next few weeks! Glad to have you on board.
At our house, Friday night is date night. I realize that for other folks, this means running out to a restaurant, movie, concert, or maybe even ordering in a sweet meal to share in front of the fireplace. For best sous and husband Dave and me, it’s a thoughtful meal cooked right here in our own kitchen and served in a quiet dining room complete with paired wine, candles, music, comfy clothes, no phones and also… our own private restroom just across the hall–wink, wink. We rarely eat dinner in a restaurant unless traveling, and, if we do, it’s not during crowded weekend nights. Do I choose arduous recipes? Not typically but our dinners often– though not always– feature 3 or 4 painless courses, red meat, and an entire evening devoted to one another.
Here’s our Table for Two at home.
If I’ve presence of mind enough, I might say on Thursday, “Any requests for Friday night?” Dave usually leaves it up to me (he chooses wines, btw) but last week he said, “What about shrimp? Or maybe steak?” With that disparate mix in mind, I thawed shrimp for an appetizer and two hefty filets leftover from a birthday meal last October. When Friday rolled around, instead of old school shrimp cocktail, which was my first thought, I threw together a simple grilled shrimp and arugula salad that still included our favorite shrimp cocktail sauce — a spiced up Louie — as a dressing. Because I had olives out from a Friday afternoon glass of wine with good friend, Patti, I chopped those up and skinny-sliced a red onion. (If your onion is too hot, soak it in water or vinegar for 8-10 minutes before draining, patting dry and adding to salad.) This could be sounding vaguely like a Shrimp Louie salad to you aficionados –and you’d be right–but I made it out of what was on hand skipping the usual suspects of romaine, tomatoes, hard-cooked eggs, and avocado. Without the weightier ingredients and just a few shrimp, our salad was more first course-style than a typical main course Louie, which can feel something like a Cobb in size and heft. “Louis,” by the way, is right, too, but however you’d like to spell it, it’s pronounced LOO-ee. Turned out light, elegant (Dave’s word), pleasing, along with sooo appetizing. In other words, we didn’t spoil our dinner. From whence came Shrimp Louie?
One of my favorite blog dinner recipes of the past several years has to be my Chicken-Mushroom Bolognese. With the full flavor of a big meaty bolognese but without the red meat beef factor or long cooking time, it hits all the right notes for a fab weeknight meal but also makes happy cooked-ahead dinner party fare. For a reason I can’t now remember (and perhaps I should rework this but haven’t yet), the recipe calls for an odd amount of meat — 1 1/4 pounds. Occasionally I’m able to buy just that amount but I often end up buying two pounds of ground chicken and using the extra for sausage or burgers or tacos. Last week, I split the difference and used 1 1/2 pounds in the sauce, leaving 1/2 pound for ____? Best sous and husband Dave voted burgers but not in buns — he wondered if we couldn’t toss up a salad? I like nothing better than a kitchen challenge and while I seasoned the meat and grilled the patties right away (ground chicken doesn’t keep well but cooked ground chicken lasts 3-4 days in the fridge), I didn’t make the salad until the next night. Chicken Cheeseburger Salad is now definitely on the Pete and repeat list. Roll your eyes now; that’s definitely an old dad joke!
You’re right. If you’re a regular reader, you might say this looks more like FRIDAY FISH (my 7-week Lenten posts)than August but August it is. Where is the summer going?! After over a month away from the blog (scroll down to LIFE GOES ON) getting ready for, celebrating, and taking a family trip for our 50th wedding anniversary, it’s feeling just plain old good to be home and to share a new –to me–dinner with you.
As always, when I arrive back home, I’m focused on making big over our 10-year-old flat coated labradoodle, Rosie; getting the unpacking/laundry going; stocking up at the grocery store; reading the mail and email; and enjoying my own coffee pot and bed. This time, as fall approaches (school starts in one district here today), I also did a good check of the freezer to see what needed to be used before its yearly defrosting and readying for fall cooking–think soup, of course. A big bag of partially used shrimp stuck out, oddly placed on the top shelf with baked treats and baguette. Time to do something fun with it before it turned all icy-crusty, as shrimp will do. There are a lot of shrimp recipes on this blog but right off, a quick burger came to mind as summer will soon be tapering off and burgers often feel like summer to me. I read through my blogs for Pepperjack Cheese Fish Burgers and Crab Burgers, as well as the one for Caprese Salmon Burgers to find a quick path to dinner. A run to the store for buns and some produce for the Fennel-Cilantro Coleslaw and I soon had dinner on the table. Both dishes, for speed, depend on the food processor but can also be done by hand if that’s your druthers.
