Tarragon Chicken Salad & a Tasty Tangy Neighbor Gift for Christmas

This summer I started a project that will be completed this weekend. My family will be giving out bottles of tarragon vinegar as neighbor gifts, a small reminder of this beautiful Christmas season and how much we appreciate their friendship.

The vinegar wasn’t difficult to make, I quite enjoyed the process of harvesting the fragrant herb from a generous neighbor with a terrific green thumb. After stewing the vinegar with fresh herbs of tarragon, chives and a bit of oregano the liquid steppes for two to three weeks in a cool dark place. Put it into bottles, add a fresh sprig of tarragon, seal jars with wax and add a label. The result is simply delightful.

One of my favorite ways to use tarragon vinegar is in a chicken salad with a tart apple and grapes. The recipe comes from The Foster Market Cookbook that was pointed out to me by a dear friend. It has just the right mix of flavors and is worth the effort it takes to make the tarragon mayonnaise. I’ve eaten a similar salad at a local eatery, Pinon for years- maybe you have a favorite cafe' that has a similar salad?

Wishing each of you a memorable, meaningful holiday that’s filled with delicious things to eat and time to enjoy them with your loved ones.

Greek Pasta Salad, and the Salt Lake Greek Festival!

Everyone has something they look forward to as school begins and September rolls around.One of the things on my list is the Greek Festival in downtown Salt Lake City. Years ago my dear friend Jill introduced me to this energetic event and I have been in love with it ever since.Where else can you go to see dancing, live music and eat the best Greek food in town? Well, the best food might be in your own kitchen . . . but the entertainment is really worth the cost of the entrance price. If you go here you can print up a free ticket to get in and save your dollars for the goodies inside.

I ran across this Greek Pasta Salad on two of my favorite blogs last week, Pam at For the Love of Cooking and Cathy at Wives with Knives. I made it up and it’s just delicious. Tomorrow I’m serving this salad at a ladies lunch and I’ve added greens. I’ll report back on how it was received. This can be made with or without the chicken and I recommend eating it within 24 hours after you’ve mixed it together. Printable recipe below.

Do you have a Greek Festival in your community?

Balsamic-Rosemary Syrup and a Multitude of Ideas of How to Use It

One of my favorite things to have on hand is my bottle of Balsamic-Rosemary Syrup. I keep it in a squeeze bottle in the side door of my refrigerator and you’d be amazed at how often I put it out.It’s so simple to make and the flavor is a power punch that can send a simple meal into the extra special category.

So how do I use this deliciousness in a bottle?

· A flat bread with feta cheese, dried tomatoes and olives with just a drizzle of Balsamic-Rosemary Syrup to finish it off.

· Strawberry Crepes with powdered sugar with an aioli on the plate of Balsamic-Rosemary Syrup.

· Dress simple greens with some crunchy croutons and garden vegetables

· Drizzle it over pork chops and you have a perfect finishing sauce

How about an appetizer made up of cubes of fresh mozzarella, grape tomatoes, your choice of black or green olives threaded on a skewers, drizzle Balsamic-Rosemary Syrup on top, just before serving sprinkle some chiffonade basil on top and add another few additional drops of the syrup. Your guests will love you for it. I served it at this memorable event.

Do you have a delicious sauce that is your favorite multi-tasker?

If you haven't had a chance to check out my give-away, take a minute to look at the great cookbook with Melissa Peck's beautiful artwork. I think you'll fall in love, I did.

Beautiful Bear Lake & Cobb Sandwiches and Basil Mayonnaise from Foster's Market Cookbook

This past weekend my extended family spent time together at our favorite gathering place, Bear Lake. The blue water always makes me feel younger than I am and reminds me of how much I love my family. I’ve been going there since the day I was born, my ancestors helped settle the area in the 1860’s. What about the color of this lake?

What family reunion doesn’t include food? We spent a wild and windy day on the North Shore trying to boat and jet skiing on Friday afternoon where we had lunch out of coolers. I brought a sandwich filling that turned out to be quite delicious and a perfect travel meal. The idea began from a cookbook loaned to me from a dear friend, Bonnie. The original recipe called for layering the ingredients like a regular sandwich, I decided for ease on the beach to make it into a filling. The basil mayonnaise that I used came from The Foster’s Market Cookbook as well. So far all the recipes I’ve tried from this book have been excellent, I may have to get my own copy.

We ended up eating the filling in some creative ways. As sandwiches, lettuce wraps and just as salads! If you do eat it on a day of high wind on a beach, remember to hold on the top of your sandwich it may blow away . . .

What is your favorite thing to eat at the beach?

Cabbage Salad with Cilantro Dressing & Michael Pollan's Food Rule # 22

If you haven’t picked up the quick easy Food Rules by Michael Pollan yet, grab it at the library or at your favorite bookstore and take a peek. His simple advise for eating healthy in short simple phrases stay in your brain. Take rule number 22:

EAT MOSTLY PLANTS, ESPECIALLY LEAVES.

Did you know that in countries where people eat a pound or more of vegetables and fruits a day, the rate of cancer is half what it is in the United Stated?

This tasty cabbage salad with cilantro dressing was introduced to me from my sister-in-law Deanna. She is a wonderful in the kitchen. Deanna found this recipe in The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook. I loved the salad for it’s flavor, crunch factor and of course the vegetables!

How do you get vegetables into your diet?

Making Fresh Fruit Salad a Step Up from Ordinary with Pineapple Cardamom Dressing

What is better on a hot afternoon than a fresh fruit salad? Not much. Easy to prepare and beautiful to look at and even nicer to eat and share. There are only a few jobs the cook has:

1- choose the fruit wisely

2- mix and match the fruit well

3- and if you feel like it put a dressing or dip with it to top it off.

When we had Helen over for a garden party I made a fruit salad that had a dressing on it that I quite liked. I made it from fresh pineapple, added a bit of honey and cardamom. It made the fresh fruit just a bit out of the ordinary. Mixing a dressing up is simple. Use the fresh juice that comes from the fruit that you are using in the salad or do what I did and blend some of the fruit you are using in the salad, add honey, Greek yogurt, whipping cream, a favorite herb or spice and you’ll be amazed at the tasty dressings or dips you’ll come up with.

What are your favorite combinations to put into a fruit salad?

The Perfect Salad for Summer Entertaining, Garden Tortellini Salad

Once in a while you run across a wonderful new recipe at a ladies luncheon or BBQ. This good fortune happened to me a bit ago and my good friend Jenny shared her recipe with me. There are a few changes from her original recipe. Garden Tortellini Salad is perfect for a gathering you’re bound to be going to sometime this summer. It makes a large bowl that will serve 25 or more depending on what you serve with it. It can be made ahead of time to free up hostess responsibilities on fussier items. The tortellini I've used is purchased at Costco, and the entire 3 pounds go into the salad. My daughter and son-in-law made it this past weekend for an event at their home and shared their pictures with me. Believe it or not it actually tastes even better than it looks, and it is beautiful!

What is your favorite summer salad?

picture credit codefin

Winter Pears, Citrus Greens and a Pine Nut Pilaf

What tastes better in the winter than a perfectly ripe pear? Not much. I love a good pear. It doesn't matter if it's a bosc, comice or the beautiful red and green anjou. For some tips on how to ripen and choose your pears go here. Here is my favorite line from the article-

After years of study, scientists have found that a really juicy pear is best eaten while naked, in the bathtub, so that you needn't be concerned about the abundant juice streaming down your chin.

Last winter I had this hardy salad at a ladies dinner and I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. I'm posting it because I've taken it out to a number of places and everyone keeps requesting the recipe. So here it is folks! It has this fabulous rice pilaf and a dressing that has a kick of citrus and ginger that is a perfect compliment to the pears and greens in the salad.

Right now I can pick up pears at some of my favorite local markets. Emigration Market and Liberty Heights Fresh both have several varieties to choose from to make dreary winter days feel ever so much better. Where do you go to get your pears?

Quinoa Black Bean, Sweet Potato and Lime Salad & my First Give Away Redmond Real Salt!

Along with many of you, I've made a few goals for this new year. One of them involves looking for and supporting more local business. I'm lucky to live in a place where there is a plethora of wonderful farms, ranches, orchards and great business to support- some of which I just need to go on a walk to enjoy. Not only do I prefer eating local food because it keeps the money in my community, but it is fresher, often organic (whether certified or not) and hopefully by making this effort now-- my grandkids will have something safe to serve their kids fifty years from now. To see a list of some of the places and business I'm talking about click here.

There is one business here in Utah that is world famous, Redmond REAL SALT. Real Salt is an all-natural, kosher-certified sea salt extracted from deep within the Mother earth. It has flecks of color from the result of more than 50 trace minerals essential to our good health. Better than that- it tastes good- not processed, because it isn't! And I get to give some away- $35 worth of their wonderful product. All you have to do is comment on my blog about YOUR favorite local business or food. Where do you like to shop? Do you have a local business you support? I want to hear about it and why! The contest is open to all my blogging friends and I will do a random drawing. A winner will be announced the beginning of February one month from when I started blogging.

Now to the recipe: I used Real Salt of course in this wonderful salad that we ate as a main course. I found the recipe at Basil and Ginger and went on to make my own changes. The dressing is wonderful and compliments the other ingredients nicely. My son thought it went well with his tortilla chips . . .

On the edge of my chair to see who get's the REAL SALT

and what your favorite local's are!

Citrus Chicken Salad

A few blogs back a put up a recipe for Fresh Strawberry Dressing and promised to add the salad recipe that went along with it. Thank you Anjie for reminding me to follow through on getting this "go to" salad up here. Not only is this a salad, but the grilled Citrus Chicken can stand on it's own. Serve it with a baked potato and some grilled veggies and everyone will love you.

This salad has been served at family gatherings as well as to social events. It's perfect because you can make it in stages and then just throw it all together when the crowd arrives for the party. It is a perfect main course for a bridal or baby shower and it won't leave you drained and wilting because all the prep work is done in advance.

Image of citrus fruit are from http://tipnut.com

Image of salad is fromhttp://embracedinner.com

Cast Iron Orange Chicken Salad

One of the fastest ways to a delicious dinner is your cast iron skillet. It cookes up as quickly as it cleans up- who can complain about that? This salad is fresh and appealing with its crunchy nuts and lettuce and the dressing is dynamite. From beginning to end you can put this dinner together in 20 mintues, clean up an additional 3 minutes. Just think, if you choose this menu for dinner tonight you'll have time to do something else on your list . . . have I convinced you to try it yet? I originally found this base recipe in a magazine, Better Homes and Gardens.

Stitchin' in the Kitchen

Lorken Food Finery has teamed up with Pine Needles quilting store to bring you Stitchin’ in the Kitchen—a new series of classes. Each class will include a cooking demonstration, a sewing demonstration, and a delicious lunch. It’s a perfect mix of both worlds where participants leave with new ideas and knowledge of something to cook and something to sew.

Light, Lively, and Luscious

Tuition $30

Join us on May 12th from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. for our first class in the Stichin’ in the Kitchen series. Light, Lively, and Luscious. Join us for:

· LIGHT Meals. You will learn some great ideas for spring brunches and showers.

Menu includes:

Blackberry Pear Salad & Vegetable Cheese Strata

Braided Apricot studded Cardamom Bread & Cornmeal Berry Scones

Citrus Pound Cake with Mango Lime finishing sauce and stabilized cream

· LIVELY Quilt demonstration. You will learn how to piece a lattice sashing, create scalloped boarders, as well as other tips for making this beautiful quilt. Kits can be purchased at Pine Needles, for either of these darling quilts. Mary Engelbreit fabric lines were used in both- could they be any cuter? These kits are bound to fly out of the store!

· LUSCIOUS lunch. There isn’t a better way to end the morning (guaranteed).

Between the great recipes and the new sewing skills you’ve learned, your table will be ready for your spring party. Please consider setting some time aside on May 12th and joining us for an enjoyable morning learning some new skills and having lunch with some new friends. Cooking and sewing and fine food! Talk about good pairing . . .

Never Say Never & Fruit Dip Deliciousness

This afternoon while preparing for a family Easter egg hunt and BBQ I did something I have told classes a number of times would never happen. I can hear myself saying "If you want to give your kids a tool to cut with that is fool proof, one that they can't injure themselves with, hand them a pair of kitchen sheers."

Bad advice. I was cutting some grapes into clumps, thinking about the other 10 things I needed to do, talking and SNIP. My finger got in the way of the grapes! It happened so fast. Grateful for adult children and a friend that came to help, we decided it didn't need stitches, but what a mess and such a bother!

Lesson: kitchen sheers are more safe than a sharp knife, but not fool proof, especially if someone is distracted, talking or doing too many things at the same time.

Despite the interruption, the family gathering was great. Every last grape was eaten, and so was all of the fruit dip that went with the salad.