BaltimOregon

Nothing like a homemade pizza dinner on a Sunday night. I love making my own dough now (though it’s still somewhat soggy in the center, not as clay-oven crisp as I’d like it to be) though it does take time and make a mess in the kitchen, what with flour and cornmeal thrown everywhere. With whole wheat flour instead of the high-gluten Italian one she recommends, I made dough from Melissa McCart‘s recipe, which appeared in The Washington Post’s Food section (I carted the hard-copy all the way out to Oregon with me:). Sauce was from 101 Cookbooks (fresh lemon zest really brightens it up!) but with pureed tomatoes, instead of crushed, for that smooth pizza sauce texture. We topped the pizzas with feta and mozzarella, roasted garlic, rosemary-sauteed potatoes and spinach. No complaints here:)

For a light salad accompaniment, I drew inspiration from Mark Bittman’s recent post on this refreshing fennel-celery salad, with the sweet addition of a crisp, thin-skinned Asian pear.

I was thrilled when my dear Wendy called me in a panic from San Francisco tonight. “Help Laura! Dave will be home in a half hour and I need to make dinner.”

“Ok, we’ll do this,” I replied, the adrenaline pumping. “What do you have in your fridge?”

Salad, veggies, turkey bacon, beets and goat cheese. Great, roast beet salad. No, the beet had gone bad. Here was our solution:

-Fry up the turkey bacon. Sautee your bok choy greens in the leftover grease.

-Prepare a salad bowl with lettuce mix, chopped carrots and broccoli, dried cranberries, hard-boiled egg and goat cheese. Toss in the bacon and sauteed greens.

Then Wendy said she had fresh oranges. That prompted this dressing, probably the best part of the recipe. I drew inspiration from one we made at the magical Seasons of My Heart Cooking School in Oaxaca:

-1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
-1/4 cup olive oil
-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
-little honey if it needs sweetness
-1-2 cloves of chopped garlic
-salt and pepper

I felt so useful! Why is it so much easier to help other people plan their dinners (and lives!) than it is to figure out your own situation? The power of objectivity, I suppose.

Three Grain Salad Primavera with Lemon Vinaigrette

This is a hearty, nutty, soul-satisfying salad from my sister-in-law, Julia. She picked it up while attending a holistic culinary school in San Francisco. The best part: you can use up those remainders of random grains stashed in the back of the cupboard. I used soft white wheatberries from Stalford Farm here in Oregon (the same source of my locally-grown chickpeas), black wild rice and an Israeli couscous/quinoa blend. This is a recipe that’s hard to screw up, thankfully. I also didn’t have flax seed oil so just doubled the olive oil in the dressing. Dan threw in some grape tomatoes (which he purchased against my will. I’m trying to abstain from eating tomatoes outside the local season. Winter tomatoes or those from Mexico just don’t compare.)

Here’s the recipe for you to enjoy (feel free to half the portion, but it keeps well in the fridge for the week):

Three Grain Salad Primavera with Lemon Vinaigrette
(serves 16)

Grain salad options (you will need 1 cup of three of these grains):
spelt
quinoa
wheatberries
wild rice
bulglur
barley
Israeli couscous
Choose three of these or other favorite grains — you will want to end up with 7 cups
cooked product total

Vegetables for salad:
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1/2 yellow pepper, chopped
1/2 orange pepper, chopped (NOTE- i used 3 whole peppers- just eyeball it)
1/2 pound green beans or snow peas, slivered
1 small red onion, chopped
1/2 bunch scallions, chopped
1/2 bunch italian parsley, chopped
1/2 bunch fresh mint, finely chopped

Dressing ingredients:
1/2 cup lemon juice
4 teasponns dijon mustard
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup other vegetable oil like flax seed oil or safflower
2 tbsp warm water
2 teaspoons lemon zest, finely chopped

Choose three grains and cook 1 cup of each separately. Set them aside to cool while
preparing the vegetables and the dressing.  As the vegetables and herb s are chopped, put
them into a large mixing bowl.

Combine all of the dressing ingredients except water and lemon zest, and whisk together
or put in a blender or small food processor.  Cover and blend.  Add warm water and blend
until smooth while the machine is running.  Taste, adjust as needed, and then add the
lemon zest.  (Dressing will keep in fridge for up to 2 weeks).

Measure out 7 cups of the combination of cooled grains.  Add to the vegetables in the
mixing bowl and toss to combine.  Add 1/2 cup of the dressing and toss to coat the grains
and vegetables lightly.  Taste and adjust if more dressing is needed.  Serve chilled or
at room temperature.

Alas, come dinnertime I couldn’t find my precious recipe for “Autumn Salad with Apples, Comte and Hazelnuts” that I had clipped from The Baltimore Sun. These scraps get lost in a move. So I tried to recreate the apple cider vinagrette anyway and did the rest from memory. I used spinach greens, substituted walnuts for hazelnuts and sliced up some celeriac (celery root) along with the celery hearts. The syrupy reduced apple cider in the dressing and tangy raw milk comte cheese really make for a memorable salad I’ll continue to make.

Googling around, I remembered the recipe came from Susan Spicer’s Crescent City Cooking book of New Orleans recipes. I finally found the recipe reprinted on a blog (see below).

Hey all you turophiles out there, any other ways you recommend using comte? This one for comte and pear phillo triangles looks intriguing. The cheese just pairs so well with any kind of fruit.

Autumn Salad with Apples, Comte, and Hazelnuts
Serves 4

8 cups mixed greens, cleaned
1 medium apple, thinly sliced into matchsticks
2-3 ounces Comte cheese, cut in matchsticks
1/4 cup sliced celery hearts
1 cup Cider Dressing, recipe follows
Salt
1/4 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts
1/4 cup dried cherries or cranberries, optional

In a large bowl, use your hands or two wooden spoons to toss together the lettuce, apple, cheese, and celery hearts. Drizzle in enough dressing to lightly coat the salad; reserve remaining dressing. Season the salad with a little salt, if necessary, and divide among four plates. Sprinkle salad with hazelnuts and drizzle with equal portions of the remaining Cider Dressing.

Cider Dressing

1 cup apple cider
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon finely chopped shallots
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup pure olive oil or a mild vegetable oil
1 teaspoon hazelnut oil, optional
salt and pepper

Place the cider and vinegar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until reduced to 3 tablespoons of liquid. Pour it into a small bowl and add the shallots and mustard. Whisk to combine, then slowly whisk in the olive oil and the hazelnut oil, if using. Season to taste with salt and pepper.