I was in charge of bringing a salad to a friend’s house the other night and had a few ingredients that I knew I wanted to include. Organic, local green and yellow wax beans were in abundance at Whole Foods and pine nuts, nuts of gold, as I believe the woman checking me out referred to them as, were both part of my master plan. Why have I never noticed that pine nuts are so expensive until now?

Never one to let price get in the way, and yes, that is problematic as I feel like the woman who has an obsession with Manolo Blahniks, except that my stilettos come in the form of truffle oil, fruits from the jungle and pine nuts. I forged ahead nonetheless, toasting those pine nuts to perfection.

The salad was the ideal accompaniment to grilled steaks and tuna, grilled veggies, good friends and wine. Oh and the amazing home made peach & blueberry pie!

Toasted Pine Nut & Green Bean Salad – 6-8 servings

• 1 pound green beans
• 1 pound yellow wax beans
• 3 small heads frisee
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 4 oz gorgonzola crumbles
• roasted garlic dressing

Wash beans and cut off ends. Cut into about 2 inch pieces. Add to boiling, salted water and cook for about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and cool with cold water. Set aside.

Wash and clean frisee, drying completely in a salad spinner. Set aside.

Heat small pan and add pine nuts. Stirring often, toast pine nuts until golden brown and fragrant.

Assemble salad: layer frisee in large bowl. Top with green beans, cheese crumbles, pine nuts and dressing. Toss to combine and serve immediately.

Roasted Garlic Dressing

• 4 cloves roasted garlic
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
• 2 tsp dijon mustard
• salt & pepper

Whisk all ingredients together, breaking up garlic cloves.

For someone who makes salad almost every day, I’m not sure why it took me so long to purchase this $20 kitchen gadget. I can tell you that after spinning one batch of lettuce and herbs, I’m hooked. I don’t even know how I survived without it! Drying lettuce on a towel no more!

It produced nice crisp greens that even after being refrigerated for days, still stayed crunchy and ready for lunch-time salads.

This, along with my new wok, are still sitting on the kitchen table, homeless and willing to settle for a less-than-ideal home…I’m hoping to find one for them soon or something else has got to go.

Do you have a cheap, but can’t-live-without kitchen gadget?

I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since I’ve last made Spring Rolls. What have I been eating?!  With a few twists on the Asian staple, I managed to combine Asian flavors with Southern ones, and when rolled up together, made for a delicious outcome!

Southern-Style Spring Rolls

• 1/4 pound shredded BBQ Beef
• Cucumber, julienned
• yellow pepper, julienned
• cilantro
• shredded cabbage
• romaine lettuce leaves
• spring roll wrappers

Layer a small amount of each ingredients onto rice paper and roll into the spring rolls. For more complete directions, please see this. Serve with dipping sauce.

Sriracha-Soy Sauce

• 1 part soy sauce
• 1 part sriracha

Sometimes life calls for cocktails. And when life calls for cocktails, I generally listen. Ok, who am I kidding,  I always listen.

For some reason when Ryan at POM contacted me about sampling POM juice, the only thing I could think of was cocktails. Now, in my defense, I have used one bottle for straight sampling and I plan on adding a bottle to a smoothie next week, so it hasn’t been all cocktails, but I do realize that I  need to expand my pomegranate thinking a bit.

I thought the juice was very interesting, I’ve had the pomegranate arils before and I’ve had Pama liquor before, but the juice was very tart, reminding me of cranberries. Like an upscale cranberry cocktail. With more antioxidants than my beloved red wine.

Maybe POM cocktails aren’t such a bad idea after all…

pom & blueberry cocktail

• 1/2 cup POM juice
• 1 cup organic frozen blueberries
• vodka
• soda water (I used lime)

Blend POM juice and blueberries together. Pour mixture into ice molds and freeze until frozen. Fill glass with pom & blueberry ice cubes and add 1 oz vodka. Top with soda water.

*Omitting the vodka also makes for a delicious mocktail!

Happy Weekend!

Because it’s summer and there are important things to do such as eating hot dogs, with a bun, and ice cream with strawberries. I’ve been craving hot dogs for way too long and when some local grass-fed beef hot dogs caught my eye, I knew just what would be on our grill next.

While it was the hot dogs I was craving, I was much more interested in what I could top with them. The possibilities are endless, but I’m a new fan of topping a hot dog with everything I can think of.

Hot Dog Topping Ideas:

pickles
coleslaw
peppers
minced onion
jalapeños
chopped tomatoes
blue cheese

Do you stick with the basic ketchup and mustard or go all out with topping your burgers and dogs?

The name drunken noodles apparently has quite a few meanings. I’ve read that it is used to cure hang-overs and I’ve read that it is so spicy, it is an implication to how much you will drink while eating it. Through experience I’ve found that neither of these are really necessary to enjoy some nice drunken noodles. Hangover or not, alongside a beer or not, these noodles are just plain good.

It all started as an innocent trip to the neighborhood Thai restaurant and ended as a full-on obsession with these noodles. “Were getting drunken noodles on Sunday!” I (soberly) exclaimed on a Thursday night. We didn’t get them that Sunday, but I’ve been thinking about them ever since, wondering if a home-made version would be anything like that flavorful bowl of chewy rice noodles I had at the restaurant.

The recipe inspiration came from an old Bon Appétit but there was some major tweaking that occured.  I didn’t get the chance to stop by an Asian market so I used my low-sodium standard soy sauce instead of the “black soy sauce” and the “light soy sauce” which to me sounds like when mixed together it makes regular soy sauce? Someone, please enlighten me. From the general idea of the sauce I took it to a veggie-filled meal that tuned out to be just as addicting as those take-out noodles.

Drunken Noodles – 2 servings (As I’ve mentioned before I generally only make about 2 servings (which is probably more like 4 actual servings) of pasta or we eat too much

• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 jalapeños, chopped *I like spicy food, if you don’t want it too hot, decrease the amount of peppers!
• 2 Tbsp canola oil
• 2 servings rice noodles (wide ones)
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1/4 white onion, chopped
• 2 cups spinach
• 2 Tbsp fish sauce
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 pinch sugar
• 4 leaves basil, thinly sliced

Prepare the rice noodles as directed. Set aside.

Prepare the sauce: mix the fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar and set aside.

Heat the oil in wok over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add garlic and jalapeños and stir-fry for about 3-4 minutes.

Add sauce, peppers and onions and stir-fry until peppers are crisp-tender, another 3-4 minutes.

Add noodles and spinach and toss until spinach has wilted and noodles are coated with sauce.

*I served our noodles with some crispy tofu instead of adding meat to the noodles.

I used my new wok to prepare this meal, which was sent to me by CSN Stores as part of their preferred blogger program. Thoughts on the wok? It did seem a little easier to stir-fry, although certainly not necessary, and there was definitely less stove top clean-up as it kept everything in the pan! And I did feel like a professional The pan itself was also very easy to clean up, now I just need to find somewhere to put it!

You may recall that I told you a few weeks ago that I’m trying to learn more about wine, especially how to pair wine with food. Many of you gave me some great resources – Thank You! I also recently received an invitation to attend a Macy’s Culinary Council event featuring Andrea Robinson, renowned Master Sommelier, author and chef. Just what I needed. (I also got to meet Melissa!)

I can say, without a doubt, that I loved Andrea Robinson. She was engaging and warm without an inkling of being haughty.

I really appreciated her “rules,” the first being that there are no “rules” when it comes to pairing food and wine.

it’s not the protein, it’s the prep that you are matching

body with body – to acheive balance

pair intense herbs with intense, big reds

the fermentation element in foods (vinegar, cured meat, etc.) pairs well with the fermentation process that wine undergoes

everything goes with bubbles

In addition to being one of 16 female Master Sommeliers, she is the author of a number of books on wine and food, (I purchased Great Wine Made Simple), chef and most recently, the developer of a new set of wine glasses, The One. She prepared some delicious food to go along with some delicious wines for us to sample!

First was an edamame pesto that I will be making soon, it was delicious and fresh-tasting. The St. Supéry Sauvingon Blanc that was paired along with it was excellent as well. It was delightfully citrusy and refreshing on a 90 degree day. This pairing was an example of the similar fermentation elements between food and wine (ie. the toasted sesame oil and wine both being aged in a barrel)

While the proscuitto & sage crusted pork was very good, it was the last dish she made that I’m still thinking about. Skeptics of the world, the chocolate & chorizo toasts were my favorite of the evening. Salty & Sweet is a combination I’m sure I’ll never grow tired of, but the creamy chocolate with salty chorizo was the ultimate of sweet & salty. I can’t wait to make this again…I’ve just got to find a crowd with an open mind. Any takers?

There are times when I like my salad to have some meat to it. Literally.  And this salad fits that bill precisely.

It is filling and flavorful, an easy way to fit in your vegetables and incredibly easy to put together. When I make salads for lunch I need them to keep me satisfied for a few hours and I also need them to come together in a pinch so I don’t spend hours the night before on my lunch. (Someday I’ll start making peanut butter and jelly) The pulled pork came from Brasa, a local rotisserie, and so any part of this salad that would have taken any time was done for me. The rest required a bit of chopping and I was left with an amazing brown bag lunch.

Cuban Cobb Salad - 2 servings

• 10 cups romaine and baby romaine lettuce
• 2 cups cucumbers, chopped
• 1 cup yellow pepper, chopped
• 1 avocado, mashed
• 1 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup sweet butter pickles, roughly chopped
• 4 slices smoked ham, thinly sliced
• 1/4 pound pulled pork
• dijon dressing, see below

Layer all ingredients over lettuce and drizzle with dijon dressing.

Dijon Dressing

• 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp honey

Whisk all ingredients together.

It seems like every time I turn around, we’ve got another Summer get-together on the calendar. In Minnesota it is completely normal to hibernate throughout the winter and then spend as much time outside as possible, in addition to socializing with your friends, during the summer. (Yes, the winter is that cold and we do what we can to not leave home.)

While I always enjoy and appreciate these get-togethers, between drinks, desserts and burgers, my normal eating habits seem to struggle a bit. Here are some tips to keep some balance to your diet in the midst of summer parties!

• Don’t stand by the food table! If you are there, you will nibble.
• Keep the drinks to a minimum – once you move past two drinks inhibitions will be lowered, not to mention the calories will start adding up!
• Decide what you really want to eat – is it a burger? Is it your Mom’s famous cupcakes? Pick one and then keep everything else on the healthy side.
• Skip the bun! Buns are rarely worth it to me.
• Fill up on veggie sides – I like to bring either a side dish, salad or snack that has veggies so I know I have some.
• Enjoy the company! That is the real reason for get-togethers after all, isn’t it?
• If you overdo it, move on and wake up the next morning to a new day!

Do you have any tips to add?

You can say any of these words (truffle, brie, mushrooms) and it is a guaranteed swoon. But when you put them all together? It gets a little tricky to hold back. And it seems any desire to hold back is left by the wayside.

It actually wasn’t my intention. You see I was planning on adding some thyme from my “garden” but that truffle oil and salt always seems to catch my eye at the most perfect moments.

Would it be too much I wondered? Too rich and too ridiculously over-the-top it was not. There was definitely swooning and not just by me.

Warm brie, truffled mushrooms and crispy bread – I’m not sure if I can think of many other combinations quite like it. But then again, I’ve got everything I need right here.

Wild Mushroom & Truffled Brie

• 8 oz wheel of brie
• baguette slices, toasted
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 8 oz mushrooms, roughly chopped (I used an exotic variety of baby bella, oyster and shittakes)
• 1 tsp truffle oil
• 1 small pinch of truffle salt

Pre-heat oven to 375°. Remove wrapper from brie and place back in bottom half of cardboard. Bake on a sheet pan for about 10-15 minutes, until brie is soft.

Heat large pan over medium heat. Add olive oil to pan. When hot add shallot and saute for about 2 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook for about 5-7 more minutes, until mushrooms are tender. Remove from heat and add truffle salt and oil, stirring to incorporate.

Invert warm brie on platter and cover with mushroom mixture. Serve alongside baguette slices.