OMG a Recipe: Easy-Breezy Summer Daze

You watch those food/lifestyle television shows with the perfect hostess/cook who's throwing a perfectly elegant multi-course summer dinner with all the trimmings...and you just want to fling some of their perfect, sun-ripened tomato gazpacho all over that perfect summer-white maxi dress they're wearing with unnerving ease.  A summer-perfect party sounds like a grand idea until you realize you wind up being stuck in the kitchen, madly prepping dishes so they can be served at just the right time, or you're hovering over a hot grill the whole time, searing perfect grill-marks on an endless parade of meatly delights. Is the truly simple summer dinner party a myth or can this winged-unicorn-wizard truly exist? Wonder no more... behold: the Nearly Cook-Free Easy-Breezy Summer Menu!

Bacon Balsamic Summer Sliders - Photo by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: Cold Weather Feasts and the Brown Food Conundrum

I'm guilty of making a lot of Brown Food during the winter. You know what dishes I speak of -- stews and soups, the cold weather dishes that always seem to hit the comfort zone, but inevitably look like a big slow-cooked, braised bowl of BROWN. And don't get me wrong -- I'm totally down with the brown (food), but sometimes the plate needs some color, especially in the gloom of a cloudy day. So I'm offering up some cozy comfort that isn't brown, and -- gasp -- winter-friendly salads.

Spanokopita-Casserole... Spanokopitarole? Spanokassarole? - Photo by Wasabi Prime

UnRecipe: Here's to Your (Un)Health

Leave it to Wasabi to make a salad unhealthy. It's not like I made it out of marshmallows and peanut brittle, covered in chocolate sauce, but when I made a batch of cornbread muffins and mixed them into a salad with roasted walnuts, crispy bacon bits and creamy goat cheese, well... it just goes to show that I can destroy anything that had the intention of being good for you. This is why we can't have nice things, Wasabi -- you just ruin everything, including the hopes of eating healthy!

Cornbread salad-wich - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I think Panzanella is the secret Italian code word for Sounds Better Than Calling it Carb Salad. Don't get me wrong, I love a good panzanella done the proper way, with in-season vegetables like ripe tomatoes, fresh cheese, mixed with a good bread to soak up all the liquids and get almost like a pudding -- it's definitely a seasonal dish that has the flavor of summer. Maybe my version with cornmeal chunks and walnuts tossed with bacon fat and toasted in the oven is more like the salad of winter, where there's no danger of bikini body weather coming around anytime soon. It was all roasty-toasty warmth, with the heat of the toasted bread and crisped bacon lightly wilting the spinach greens. I made a balsamic and olive oil vinaigrette and warmed it slightly, just to further the wilting. Having a mix of heat and cold in a salad is such a great mouth-feel. And it helps soften the giant chunks of goat cheese crumbled on top. I also added slices of warm, roasted beets -- for my salad, of course, the Mister wasn't having any of it! But the beets added a nice texture and flavor to the mix. Go Beets!

So what the heck brought about this flavor explosion, set off on this poor, unwitting salad? Fresh-baked cornbread muffins, mostly. I made this a while back, right after the ice storm and power outage -- I think it was a combination of the desire to celebrate the fact we had power and just bask in the warm glow of central heating, filling the house with just-baked goodness. Isn't that just pure, instant Prozac -- the smell of something baking in the oven, whether it's bread, muffins or cookies? It's warm, sweet and comforting. It lets you know something really good is about to happen and you're in the safety of your own home to enjoy it.

Happiness is an oven working overtime - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Yes, "shame on me" for cooking up a bunch of bacon and saving the fat to toast the cornbread and walnuts to crispy goodness, but it sure made the salad mighty tasty. It was a reminder that salads don't have to be boring or a consolation prize meal in lieu of something else. You can of course make it as unhealthy as you like, dousing it in an avalanche of ranch dressing, but even with health-conscious ingredients, you have the opportunity to pick and choose the flavors and textures you want, making a salad as hearty as you like. You can use slices of fruit -- raw apple and pear are great for salads if you don't have a lot of fresh greens. A mix of dried fruit like cranberries and some crushed walnuts give a nice mixture of chewy sweetness with nutty crunch. I've never understood those sad-looking side salads made up of boring iceberg lettuce chunks, a few shreds of purple cabbage and maybe a carrot shaving or two. Even though I went overboard with all these rich ingredients, it does prove that a salad can be a main course without the feeling that you're eating like a rabbit. I definitely wasn't hungry afterwards, that's for sure!

And for no other reason than to be silly, enjoy this The Office/Battlestar Galactica meme. I stare at this every day, as it's the background for my computer screens, so maybe that's why I always have beets on my mind. And yes, I totally can't wait for Emerald City Comicon in late March, because Fact: I am a Big Fat Nerd.

UnRecipe: The Salad Days of Summer

Weather can affect everything, even what you feel like eating and cooking. Or not cooking when it comes to the case of the odd summer days of sweaty heat. I'll go through periodic salad binges, usually when it's too hot to turn on the stove and when it's too busy to think about what the heck to make for dinner. A produce shopping spree resulted in bags of fresh greens, a multitude of vegetables, and a few different options for salads, leading to the satisfying result that yes, a salad can indeed be a meal.

Fancy chop-chop salad, Wasabi style - Photo by Wasabi Prime

One of my favorite salads to order is a chopped salad. I know it seems like a weird thing to call "a favorite." It's literally random bits of cold cuts, veggies, maybe some garbanzo beans, and romaine lettuce, Slap-Chopped into oblivion and served up at the price of an entree. I'm fairly sure restaurants would just call that "leftovers," but hey, it's tasty. I think I mostly like it because it's a mix of favorite flavors and textures - salty, fatty, creamy, with a nice crunch. It's also pretty easy to prepare at home, as all you basically need is a giant crisper full of random veggies and some lunchmeat. For this at-home version, I put an extra ooh-la-lah on it by roasing some roma tomatoes and stuffing with herbed goat cheese. I had some extra pesto made from our surplus of garden herbs -- always a nice plus -- and just mixed it with some goat cheese. Stuffed in halved/seeded roma tomatoes, they roasted nicely and made the chopped salad a bit more hefty.

Because this is an UnRecipe post, for the Wasabi Chopped Salad special, the ingredients that got chopped up included: romaine lettuce, cucumbers, salami, ham, Asiago cheese, red peppers, tomatoes, pepperocini, kalamata olives (sometimes), and a hefty sprinkle of garbanzo beans. For something this flavorful, I just drizzle the bottom of a metal bowl with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, some salt and pepper, and whisk it before tossing all the ingredients in to fully toss and coat. The roasted goat cheese-stuffed tomataoes are of course optional, but it's a nice way to dress up a salad to make it more of a full meal.

A cobb-ish salad for dinner - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Another meal-sized salad that uses most of the same ingredients is a cobb salad. I have my own Wasabi-style that may or may not include avocado, depending on whether or not I have it handy. I think the only thing that really makes my at-home salad somewhat cobb-ish is the boiled egg and some crumbled blue cheese. For this UnRecipe cobb salad, it tends to include chopped romaine, English cucumber (I hate seeding/peeling), ham, turkey, Provolone, chopped tomatoes, boiled egg, blue cheese and crumbles of bacon. For this salad, I tend to use my kitchen shortcuts, which is to say I boil the eggs ahead of time, usually four or five at a time, and instead of cooking the bacon in a skillet, I lay a couple of slices between paper towels and microwave them till crisp -- usually about four minutes in our microwave. The quickie dressing I use is a honey mustard vinaigrette, which has a squeeze of honey, salt and pepper, a dollop of dijon mustard, a splash of vinegar, and whisked with some olive oil to emulsify the whole bit. I do this in a large metal bowl first, trying to coat the sides before all the chopped ingredients go in, so it helps distribute the dressing better.

Overall, salads for dinner are a nice way to have a big meal without feeling stupid full afterwards. My eyes are often bigger than my stomach, but at least with a giant pile of chopped veggies and some protein, it works out nicely for dinner, my doctor is happy I get my roughage, and I have the indulgence of having a bit of bacon or cured meats for dinner. I know it sounds like a lot of ingredients to have on-hand and chop for a single salad, but to save on time, you can slice up things like the meat or cheese ahead of time and keep in a container. Chopped cucumber and bell peppers can be pre-chopped and stay fresh for maybe a couple of days. For the most part, it's a relatively quick preparation for an all-in-one meal, and it's a relief to not have to turn on the stove on a hot summer day.

Salads make for happy meals - Photo by Wasabi Prime

FoodTrek: It's Always Beer O'Clock at Redhook Brewery

We live out in Duvall, so going to neighborhing Woodinville to visit the Redhook Brewery isn't like climing Mt. Rainier, but it was a nice way to escape the weekend summer heat. Given the weeklong heatwave, such a task is like climbing a neverending mountain. We had been driving around, looking for a particularly hard to find meadery that will remain unnamed, so we relied upon the chilled ales and porters at the Forecasters Public House to cool our heels.

Welcome to Redhook Brewery, where it's always time for a brewski - Photos by Wasabi Prime

The smell of hamburgers and other meaty delights were tempting, but we wanted to keep it light in lieu of the heat, as well as save room for a delicious summer BBQ at a friends' place later that night (thanks, K + J!). We kept with the salad days of summer and ordered a chopped salad and a sliced steak number with gorgonzola cheese. But let's get down to brass tacks -- this place is about the beer, and Brock got a tall, dark and handsome glass of the Blackhook Porter, and I got a frosty beverage by the name of Sunrye Summer Ale.

A handsome couple indeed! Blackhook Porter and Sunrye Ale - Photo by Wasabi Prime

As far as summer beers go, I like a wheaty, cloudy hefewizen or a nicely crisp, clean ale, which is what the Sunrye is. True to the name, it's like a little beam of sunshine whose lightness of flavor won't clash with any heavy BBQ foods like burgers or ribs. The Blackhook is a nice porter that's good to just sit and sip for a spell; I like ordering Redhook's version of an ice cream float, where they put a creamy scoop of ice cream in a glass of the porter and it turns into a murky mix of deliciousness. Although, I think the light flavor of the Sunrye would be just as good with a vanilla/caramel ice cream -- per some experimenting at the BBQ later that night, even vanilla ice cream and PBR tastes mighty fine!

Along with a visit to the Public House, we wandered over to a lonely trellis that's set off to the side of the building. Hops grow all over it, as a visual aid to those curious about where beer ingredients come from. Brock has taken to growing hops at home, so we wanted to see how the little sample hop trellis at Redhook was doing compared to the very young growth in our backyard. The Little Trellis That Could at the brewery made us green with hop-envy! It was awash with vines weaving in and out, creating a mad canopy of foliage and hop cones! It's quite a sight to see, and if you pluck one of the pinecone-shaped blossoms and rub it between your hands, you can get that aroma of floral bitterness that makes beer so distinctive. If you live in the area or visit the Redhook Brewery, go visit that lone trellis off to the side of the restaurant, and get a look at one of the signature components of the beer you know and love.

C'mon, get hoppy! - Photos by Wasbi Prime

UnRecipe: I Hope Hell Has a Salad Bar

The house is almost ninety degrees and it's 10pm at night. Earlier in the afternoon, I looked outside and the tall evergreens looked like they were wilting from the oppressive heat. It's official: the Pacific Northwest is in Hell. I'm not entirely sure what mortal sin the Puget Sound Area committed, but it must have been pretty serious to cast us into the flaming pit of Hades without easy access to air conditioning. All that being said, a girl still needs to eat, so I had another dinner, sans heating element.

It's gettin' hot in herrre... so have a salad - Photo by Wasabi Prime

By the Power of DJ Spinderella, I remixed the Gettin' Figgy With It meal ingredients and made a couple of salads. One featured a roma tomato sliced thinly, sprinkled with goat cheese crumbles, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and some slices of proscuitto on the side. Not quite a caprese salad, but a similar idea. I had already shorn our basil plants down, and figured they needed some time to recover their foliage for another meal.

The other salad was a rerun of what we did on the weekend -- heirloom cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, snowpeas, and feta instead of goat cheese. It was nice to take a moment and enjoy the two cool, fresh salads, and dream of better days ahead. Hello, Autumn? Are you coming anytime soon...?

The salad days of summer - Photos by Wasabi Prime

* Post Script - Thanks to Food Photo Blog for posting the almost-caprese salad photo on their site! Grazie!

* Post-Post Script - Thanks to Foodie View for posting pics of the heirloom to-mah-toes and the split snowpea pic!