Chef's Salad with Spinach, Chicken, and Gouda

 

Having a salad for dinner is one of those things that always seems like a good idea... in theory. It's easy, it's healthy, and it generally doesn't require heating up your kitchen in the middle of August (that last part is particularly crucial if you blow a fuse every time you try to run the air conditioner and the TV at the same time--the apartment above an Italian restaurant is becoming less quaint by the day, people). But when it comes down to it, salad for dinner is kind of boring, right? This salad... definitely not boring. We've made this quite a few times this summer and it is going to stay in the regular dinner rotation.

In addition to the Gouda cheese mentioned in the title, we've also got some bacon and avocado going on in this salad. We've used turkey bacon a few times to make it healthier, but I suggest using the real stuff here. And while store bought croutons will save you some time, I highly recommend making your own (unless you have the aforementioned air conditioning problem and don't want to turn on your oven). Not only is it a nice way to use up some leftover bread, but they have a much more appealing texture than the croutons from a box (I made mine with some rosemary focaccia). This recipe makes more croutons than you'll need, so save the extras in an air tight container.

M&M Blondies

I wanted to bake some blondies to bring to a coworker's baby shower, so I set about looking for an easy recipe. My first stop was, of course, my Cook's Illustrated bible (aka, The New Best Recipe). The recipe was indeed pretty simple, but it called for walnuts and white chocolate chips. Those ingredients are all well and good in other applications, but I feel like when it comes to most baked goods, they are wasting valuable real estate that could be taken up by chocolatier things. So I did what any chocolate-candy lover would do and swapped them out for M&M's. And the results were kind of amazing.

Note that the second step of the recipe asks you to fit your baking pan with foil. This is a nice technique to get the blondies out of the pan easily, but if it seems like too much work for you then please butter and flour as per usual.

Guacamole Salad

Avocado is one of those foods I had almost no interest in until a few years ago. Now I feel like I'm making up for all those wasted, pre-avocado years... if an entree at a restaurant comes with a mere slice of avocado, I'll probably order it. I love to find ways to sneak it into my sandwiches and salads (Ever try a bacon, avocado, and tomato sandwich? Nom.). If you swoon over avocado too, you'll want to try this guacamole salad.

This is kind of a deconstructed guacamole (yes, I have been watching a lot of Top Chef): diced tomato, avocado, jalapeno, and onion are tossed in a lime dressing. And just to make it different, the recipe also calls for some black beans and yellow pepper. If you can get local tomatoes, try out the yellow ones... they are so sweet and tasty. This is one of those recipes where you can easily play with the quantities to suit your tastes (I used less jalapeno and onion than the original, and also added some fresh cilantro).

Salted Caramel Ice Cream

It was 104 degrees earlier this week. What other option did I have?

This honestly wasn't the easiest ice cream I've ever made, but it was definitely best. There were lots of mixing bowls involved. It required making both a custard and caramel on the stove top. It took forever to chill the mixture before I could put it in the ice cream maker. But I'd do it all over again-this was crazy delicious.

Here's a tip for you other caramel-making novices: when you add the cream to the sugar, keep the heat at medium. It bubbles like crazy, so I made the mistake of turning the heat down a little bit, and the caramel siezed up. I almost cried got a little worried, but turning the heat back up fixed the problem. It took a little while to melt it all down, but no harm was done.

We just ate this by itself, but I think it would be amazing scooped on a brownie or alongside some apple pie.

Portobella Mushroom Burgers with Shoestring Fries

Tonight's blog post is a new favorite of ours, portobella burgers!  Since the farmers market opened over a month ago, I've made it a point to stop by the local mushroom guy's booth every week and buy some fungus.  Usually it's the oyster / shitake blend, sometimes its the giant portobella caps.  We made these a few weeks ago and sadly didn't take pictures (we do that a lot), and they were so good that we knew we'd be making them again.  The portobellas are nice and meaty and the combination of the dijon mustard, swiss cheese, and avocado is quite tasty!  I suggest anyone who's afraid of mushrooms, or isn't so sure they like them, to try this recipe, it's a guaranteed thumbs up.

We needed a side dish and what better side is there with a burger than french fries?  I've made these a couple times, and I'm a big fan.  They couldn't be easier to make, and are quite tasty with just salt and pepper.  You could go nuts and add all kinds of seasonings to them, but we'll stick to the tried and true recipe here.  The trick is to soak the fries in water before you bake them, it has something to do with the starches and helping them cook better, I don't know, but I know it works!  Hey, I read it in Cook's Illustrated, and I'll believe anything they tell me. ;)

30 Minute Tortellini Salad with Cherry Tomatoes, Arugula, and Pine Nuts

I don't know about you,  but I have no desire to eat a bowl of hot pasta when it's almost 100 degrees outside. I do, however, have no issue with scarfing down a bowl of cold pasta. This tortellini salad is a great meal for those summer nights when you can't bear to eat anything hot.  This is quick and easy to throw together, and it's got two of my favorite summer foods: tomatoes and basil. You could easily play around with this recipe to suit your tastes. Don't like arugula? Use baby spinach. Can't bear to have a meal without meat? Add some grilled chicken. And may I suggest some feta in place of the Parmesan?

It's supposed to be scorching hot all week, so give this one a try.

Healthy Banana Blueberry Muffins

Yes, these muffins are kinda healthy. They contain whole wheat flour, bananas, blueberries, and even wheat germ. I made them even healthier by swapping out half of the butter for yogurt (I needed the rest of the butter to slather on the finished product. Obviously.). And by some miracle, they do not taste like tree bark. In fact, they are delicious. It must be all of the sugar.