All posts in salads

memorial day, part two: the recipes.

by shannon on May 28, 2013 in mains, salads, sides with 22 Comments

memorial day: the recipes.

As promised, here are some of the recipes from Memorial Day, all of which we thoroughly enjoyed. None of them requires much in the way of ingredient-purchasing or time committment, which is great when you’re putting things together on a lazy weekend. There’s a few strategies I employ for weekends like this past one, where I want to relax and not spend my entire day in the kitchen; I know some of us really enjoy hunkering down into a flurry of cooking and baking, but during the warmer months, I find myself wanting to do other things as well. It’s important to never feel trapped in the kitchen while everyone else is kicking back outside, and these tips will help you do just that. Continue reading →

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peeled pear + winter greens salad with dill vinaigrette.

by shannon on April 8, 2013 in brunch, mains, salads with 24 Comments

peeled pear + winter greens salad with dill vinaigrette.

This post may either bring us closer or cause some unsubscribes, although I hope it doesn’t do the latter. Because it’s a post about a salad, but it’s also a post about a very polarizing public figure.

Gwyneth Paltrow.

Don’t go away; let’s just sit down and talk about this for a few minutes. She’s been getting a borderline crazy amount of flak over her new cookbook, It’s All Good: Easy Recipes that Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great. At first, a few people popped up with some mean little reviews, but now it’s everywhere; and you know what? It’s gotten pretty nasty. I’m not a huge fan of that, even when I don’t particularly like someone, especially because there’s really no call for it. This is not the latest Thomas Keller cookbook masterpiece; nor does it claim in any way to be. Do I think Gwyneth is a little crazy? She sure is, but I think lots of us are a wee bit off the deep end with things we like to do; we’re just not all famous, so no one hounds us about why we’re doing a juice diet for a few days or why we tried Bikram yoga. Because hey, guess what? Those things were considered to be tremendously weird at one time, also. Continue reading →

red seasonal salad.

by shannon on November 20, 2012 in mains, salads, sides with 11 Comments

Listen: it’s the Tuesday before Thanksgiving (in America; Canadians, I realize this is just an average Tuesday for you.) Many of you have made your shopping lists, discussed where to get the best of everything, and are now getting ready to go out and procure all the food necessary to make your Thanksgiving dinner. If my markets are any indication, today is the day when things get nuts, so get out there early, use the buddy system, and don’t lose it on the multitudes of people gathered in the baking aisle standing, inevitably, right in front of what you need. It will all be okay: you’ll make it out of the store with everything you need, eventually, and you’ll probably only need to head back out 5 times for things you managed to forget. Like celery and pepper. And yams, oddly enough, because one of your best blog friends decided to pull out this amazing pumpkin pie which looks so perfect that you’ve filled out the necessary forms and submitted them to your family in the hopes that it will be allowed on the table this year. Continue reading →

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chinatown turkey salad.

by shannon on November 9, 2012 in mains, salads with 24 Comments

I don’t know how everyone’s Thanksgiving holidays go, but ours go a little something like this. We begin with the best of intentions. We roast a giant turkey with loads of side dishes and desserts, and every time a food item gets called into question with the inevitable “but there’s four of us: do we really need all that?” it gets answered with “but it’s okay, because we’ll have leftovers!” Thanksgiving happens. wonderful piles of food are eaten, and we are thrilled. That evening, we are thrilled with our turkey sandwiches. The next day, we are happy, but not thrilled. By the following day, we’re noticably less thrilled and one of us is rifling through takeout menus to find anything – anything – which does not resemble our Thanksgiving meal.  Continue reading →

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farmers’ market monday: caramelized onion + apple pizza salad.

by shannon on October 15, 2012 in appetizers, mains, salads with 27 Comments

Have you ever managed to completely avoid something, or a genre of something, because you just know you’ll be terrible at it? Or rather just assumed, without bothering with the try/fail nonsense, to forgo a project based on your (imaginary) future failure? I have; I do it all the time. Think back for a minute; have you ever seen a croissant on this blog? A Danish, perhaps? Pain au chocolat? A nice loaf of thick-sliced bread, maybe dinner rolls? No? No, you haven’t. Because I’m scared of two things: yeast-based baking and failure. Because in my life, the former typically begets the latter. And I do not embrace failure with open arms. Continue reading →

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basil + walnut pesto.

by shannon on October 5, 2012 in mains, salads with 18 Comments

It’s the week of quick posts, people. I would hate for you to have to wait for practical tips on things, like how to make individually-sized Guinness chocolate cake in muffin tins. Or how to make enough pesto to feed the population of China, which is what I did yesterday. My garden has had its ups and downs this spring and summer, but the basil crop? Stellar the entire season. It has proliferated all over the place, even in the unbearable midsummer heat and subsequent drought, and I’ve made caprese salad after marinara trying to use it up. I’m proud to say that none of it has gone to waste, but it’s taken some work to keep it under control. When i saw on the news that a pretty snappy cold front was coming in today, I knew something had to be done with the rest of my beloved herb.

 Yesterday, I made a gajillion batches of freezer-bound pesto. Now you can too. Continue reading →

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farmers’ market monday: jicama + carrot slaw.

by shannon on August 13, 2012 in salads, sides with 8 Comments

August seems like such a transitional month for everyone. KIds are outside trying to burn through their last vacation days, acting like it’s the end of the world. I’ve been bumped into by at least 57 moms at the store, all face-down in their brightly colored school-supply lists, anxiously searching for the exact right kind of colored pencils. Everyone is waiting to start something. I feel like no one really enjoys August; we all seem far too busy either waiting for fall to arrive (hey!) or lamenting the inevitable end of summer. Continue reading →

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farmers’ market monday: greek-inspired zucchini ribbon salad.

by shannon on July 30, 2012 in salads, sides with 10 Comments

It seems as though everyone is on board the zucchini train right now, and I don’t blame them; you can’t walk into a farmers’ market or grocery store without seeing piles of them waiting to be purchased. I don’t know if the midwest is the hardest hit, but every year we have a massive quantity of locally grown zucchini to find homes for; it’s really quite stressful finding good families for them. This year, I’m doing my part for Operation: Adopt a Zucchini by offering up not one, but rather two recipes to help you with your homeless veggies. After all, it’s not their fault there’s so many. Thank heavens they’re so versatile.

Before you take to Google, there is no actual “Operation: Adopt a Zucchini” program. Although it’s worth considering as an idea.
Continue reading →

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farmers’ market monday: mission fig + prosciutto salad.

by shannon on July 10, 2012 in salads with 9 Comments

Well, I’ve done it: I’ve succumbed to vacation and all its pitfalls. Like not knowing what day it is. Because who cares what day it is when you’re on vacation? You do what you want, when you want. There is no schedule to stick to, no routine to go with, no calendars or watches to check. It’s almost impossible to check a calendar or watch anyway when you’re face-first in a Neil Gaiman book atop a blow-up raft island, anyway. Remembering what day it is when you’re 2 weeks into vacation is tremendously difficult; thankfully, this salad is not. Continue reading →

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fish market monday: cilantro-lime slaw for fish tacos.

by shannon on July 2, 2012 in salads, sides, Uncategorized with 9 Comments

Wait a minute; did I say Fish Market Monday? That I did. Because, people, I’m so on vacation right now it’s not even funny. And when you’re this close to the ocean, your head gets a little wobbly. You feel different, because hey; you can relax. And eat outside on a pool deck. And grill fresh fish. Not the “fresh” fish I am blessed with in my normal landlocked location which hops a flight to get to me, nooooo. Like, FRESH fish. Fish that shakes my hand when I walk up to it fresh. Fish that is up for a game of beach volleyball fresh. Fish that has never seen ice or the inside of a cargo hold fresh. The fish I never, ever get to have except when I am near some sort of ocean. Continue reading →

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