Well, this is awkward. I suppose it’s a little late to give a heads up that posting will be sparse until my show opens in August…? Also, the dog ate my homework, and the check is in the mail.
I’m sure you will forgive me for failing to post a new recipe for (gasp!) an entire month, when you try this righteous salad. It’s bright and fresh, yet satisfying, with a perfect balance of salty, sweet, and sour. It’s so delicious that with one bite, you’ll forget entirely what a lazy slacker I am. The recipe is from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman. Do you have this book? You need this book.
The day I prepared this salad is pretty much a blur—I was so rushed making dinner for Mom and Handsome Greg that I barely had a chance to take photos of the meal. So I’m sorry to say that my sad pics don’t begin to do this recipe justice. Just another reason to pick up The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook; the photos are so beautiful you’ll have to resist the urge to devour the actual pages. The only change I made from the original recipe was to omit the tablespoon of fresh, minced ginger, because, as I mentioned before, I’m deathly allergic. If ginger doesn’t send you to the ER, then I suppose you ought to add it to the dressing as Deb suggests. She knows what she’s talking about.
It’s official! My dear imaginary friends, this summer I’ll be singing again. My little theater group won a spot in the 2013 Minnesota Fringe Festival, and we will present a brand, new show this August. Details will be forthcoming; keep your eye out for Blue Umbrella Productions’ premiere of Are You There, God? It’s a New Musical Revue!
To kick off our first production meeting of the season, I prepared for my collaborators, Tall Paul and Hurricane Windy, a wreath of fresh vegetables and crackers surrounding a bowl of creamy, flavor-packed sun-dried tomato dip. The silky, tangy spread was equally charming atop celery sticks, pita chips, and the next day’s turkey bagel sandwich for lunch.
Every once in a long while, when my hair is lacking in shine and my fingernails are especially raggedy and I’m feeling a little insecure, I can’t help but wonder if my sharing recipes here at Galley Kitchen is little more than a desperate plea for the validation of strangers. I mean, why else would I bother with stats on page hits and click-thrus?
And why, other than the steaming pot of self-doubt simmering on the stove, would I feel the need to bring up my recipe for pepperoni-stuffed chicken breasts, my most popular recipe of 2012? Sure, I served today’s simple pasta scampi alongside the “famous” chicken parmesan variation for Handsome Greg’s birthday dinner, but that’s a pretty slim excuse to draw a big, fat arrow pointing to my number one recipe.
I hope you’ll forgive my blatant exploitation of the chicken, and take a look at the simple dish I served with it. The tender pasta is coated in butter with a little acidity from white wine, a lot of freshness from Italian parsley, and a punch of heat from red pepper flakes.
And ultimately, it doesn’t matter that this simple pasta is wearing a modest house dress. It’s going to the homecoming dance with the most popular poultry in school.
Happy Holidays, imaginary internet friends! And congratulations on surviving the end of the world. Now I’m off to Barnes and Noble to demand a refund for my Mayan wall calendar. Wish me luck!
In the meantime, I hope you’ll take another look at the 10 most popular recipes I shared this year.
S’mores Fried Ice Cream with Chipotle Chocolate Sauce
Asparagus Lasagna with Pancetta, Goat Cheese, and Lemon
Baked Churros with Cinnamon Ice Cream and Dulce de Leche
The conniving nightshade sneaks into salsa, it prowls in pasta, and it lurks in jambalaya, waiting to make its deadly move. Just one bite of a bell pepper and I’m a pathetic wheezing heap, my lips swollen like a Hollywood collagen job gone terribly wrong.
For years I avoided green salsa in every Mexican restaurant, for fear that the lovely olive color might be enhanced by the scoundrel bell pepper. And as a sad consequence, I never tasted the delightful tang of tomatillos.
Until now. I made this recipe for Mom and Handsome Greg, and instantly fell madly in love with the tart tomatillo sauce warmed through with a healthy teaspoon of smoky cumin. I filled corn tortillas with a luxurious and creamy chicken mixture, then doused them with the silky tomatillo sauce and topped them with a generous handful of gooey cheese.
Next time I make this dish I’ll use white cheddar – the orange cheese with the green salsa was a little off-putting. Otherwise it was perfect.
Last night I dreamed about a barbecue. I dreamed of hungry friends lining up alongside a red gingham-swathed picnic table filled with alfresco favorites as far as the eye could see. Bowl after CorningWare bowl of potato salad, deviled eggs, fresh watermelon, baked beans, pasta salad, coleslaw, mac and cheese…and nary a saucy rib nor chicken breast in sight.
Even in my dreams, I don’t know how to grill meat. I don’t have the tools and I don’t have the experience. Gas or charcoal? Direct or indirect heat? Lid up or lid down? The only thing I know how to grill is a cheese sandwich. One day I’ll conquer my fear and learn to grill meat, but in the meantime, I’m sharing summer side dishes, starting with my favorite garlic and herb corn.
This simple side (it comes together in minutes) is packed with flavor—it’s sweet, buttery, herbaceous, and garlicky. This is loud corn. This is corn on the mob.
Whew! Thirty posts in thirty days – I made it through National Grilled Cheese Month. And though I made some delicious discoveries (Cinnamon Roll Grilled Cheese, anyone?), I’m a little cheesed out. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m ready for bright, fresh spring flavors. And some roughage.
I originally made this dish for Mom and Handsome Greg as part of an Argentinian-inspired meal that began with corn and bacon empanadas and ended with baked churros, cinnamon ice cream, and homemade dulce de leche (recipes coming soon, I promise!).
For our main course, we enjoyed crispy romaine leaves filled with luscious summer salad and tender grilled chicken, and kissed with garlicky parsley pesto. Fresh and bright, hearty but not heavy.
In honor of National Grilled Cheese Month, I’m posting a different grilled cheese sandwich every single day through the month of April. You’re welcome.
Congratulate me, Friends: I created a grilled cheese and serendipity sandwich.
One very special day, I’d had bacon for breakfast, which left me with a couple tablespoons of liquid gold, i.e. rendered bacon fat. I decided to re-purpose that fat to roast a couple cloves of garlic. After roasting the garlic, I was left with garlic-infused bacon fat, so, really, what choice did I have but to re-re-purpose it to grill my sandwich.
And oh, what a remarkable, ridiculous sandwich it was. It tasted like a bright, fresh caprese salad got loaded on tequila and cheese fries, and woke up in a strange apartment, unsure of just who was posting true confessions on her Facebook wall all night long. It was delicious, and a little embarrassing.
Bacon-Roasted Garlic and Sun-Dried Tomato Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Author: Bake Up, Little Suzy
Recipe type: Sandwich
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Servings: 1
It tastes like a bright, fresh caprese salad got loaded on tequila and cheese fries, and woke up in a strange apartment, unsure of just who was posting true confessions on her Facebook wall all night long. It’s delicious, and a little embarrassing.
Ingredients
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons rendered bacon grease
2 slices challah bread
Italian 4-cheese blend
Sun-dried tomatoes, cut in short strips
Basil, chopped
Instructions
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Remove two cloves from a head of garlic, but do not peel off the papery skin. Place the cloves on a small square of foil and drizzle on about a tablespoon of bacon fat. Wrap the cloves tightly in foil, and roast for 25 minutes, until the garlic is squishy.
Reserve the garlic-infused bacon fat.
Remove the garlic cloves from the peel and spread onto one slice of the challah.
Top the garlic with shredded cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and basil.
Close up the sandwich, and brush the outsides of the bread with the reserved garlicky bacon fat.
Griddle on medium-high heat until the cheese is melted and the bread is golden brown.
In honor of National Grilled Cheese Month, I’m posting a different grilled cheese sandwich every single day through the month of April. You’re welcome.
Welcome to Day 5 of my cheesy, grilled adventure! I started with the classic dish, Chicken Cordon Bleu, and turned it into a flavor-packed grilled cheese sandwich.
I don’t really care much for the traditional Swiss cheese, so I replaced it with Muenster, and it melted like silk sheets under the blanket of chicken and ham. (And now I kind of want a chicken and ham blanket for my bed, like Lady Gaga’s meat dress, except linens.) The roasted garlic mayo gave it a luxurious richness (because it clearly wasn’t rich enough with just ham, cheese, chicken, and butter), and the scallions popped with a stinging, grassy freshness. The flavors were almost as delightful as the textures — crunch, crunch through the bread then tear through the ham. Pull away and a string of mild, milky cheese slaps your chin.
