Orange Fennel Salad

No baby yet, but any day now!

I'm doing great for someone 39 weeks and 4 days preggo, with ankles as swelling-free as before baby.

I am still craving sweet foods like crazy, and citrus is one of the few things other than chocolate I really want to eat these days.

How perfect is it that our farm box had a half dozen oranges and a fennel (which, at least in seed form, is supposed to increase milk supply) bulb last week?

This is one of my favorite salads. It's easy to put together, looks glamorous, and keeps well for up to three days in the fridge as the fennel softens and the flavors marry.

You will need:

• One fennel bulb with greens
• Several navel oranges or similar variety
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Sea salt & fresh ground black pepper
• A large bowl to serve salad
• Additional salad leaves like butter lettuce of romaine if desired

1. Peel off outer layer of fennel bulb, slice off the thick root end, and chop off greens an inch below their base. You want the cleaner, thinner inner part of the bulb for this salad.
2. Chop and reserve a couple table spoons of the fennel greens.
3. Cut the trimmed bulb in half from top to bottom, then very thinly slice against the grain into half moons, you want the fennel as close to paper-thin as possible. Lay your slices of fennel in the large bowl. Keep in mind that you'll want about equal portions of fennel and orange, give or take depending on your own taste.
4. Peel and halve oranges, then thinly slice them into half moons as you did with the fennel, only orange slices should be about 1/4 inch thick. I recommend using a flexible plastic cutting board to you can poor the orange juice into the salad bowl as it pools.
5. Once you have your orange and fennel in the bowl, drizzle with a 1/2 teaspoon or so extra virgin olive oil per cup of salad, sprinkle lightly with sea salt, chopped fennel greens, and ground pepper.
6. Gently toss salad to mix ingredients, the olive oil and orange juice mix to create the dressing.
7. Either serve as is, or lay atop a bed of torn romaine or butter lettuce leaves.

Alternately, you can lay round (instead of half-moon) fennel and orange slices on a platter and drizzle them with the olive oil and juice, much as you would a caprese salad.

strawberry balsamic salad

I love that brief time of year strawberries are in season.*

When there are too many to just eat, even by the handful, and they're so perfectly ripe they won't keep more than two days. I'm sure a normal, rational person would freeze some for later in the year, but, honestly I just thought of that, and when drunk on ripe fresh strawberries it's hard to plan ahead.

So I've been trying to eat up these perfect strawberries in as many ways I can.



Here's another version of the salad I posted last year, now with pictures!

Strawberry Balsamic Salad:
(serves 2 as dinner with a side)

• 12 medium strawberries
• 1/2 red spring onion, thinly sliced
  
• 1.5 tbsp EVOO
• .5 tbsp golden balsamic vinegar
• 1.5 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• capers to taste (if your taste is against capers leave 'em out, I used 2 tbsp)
• salt & pepper
• field greens (or baby spinach, or bib lettuce, or red leaf, or...)

1. macerate 1/2 the strawberries with a pinch salt and the balsamic vinegars
2. stir in oil, onion and capers
3. fold in greens
4. salt & pepper to taste
   
5. slice remaining strawberries on top
   

For dinner we ate the salad with green garlic cheese bread, recipe to follow.




*Note-
the kind of strawberries that make you sing this

almost summer strawberry salad

This week we received two baskets of strawberries in our farm box- with the warning to EAT RIGHT AWAY since late rain can make the fruit spoil quickly.

I decided to make a salad with some of them and it was fantastic!

You're going to need:

• lots of delicious ripe red strawberries
• a clove or two of garlic
• anchovy paste (really, trust me, unless you're a vegetarian, then leave it out)
• balsamic vinegar
• olive oil
• mixed greens (spinach, red leaf lettuce, etc I think any leafy greens except iceberg lettuce will work)
• raw almonds
  

I started by mincing the garlic clove with the anchovy paste (maybe 1/8 a tsp worth) in the awesome garlic mincer J. got me. If you don't eat meat (or are afraid of anchovies) I'd use just a little sea salt in place of the fish paste.

Then I put the garlic anchovy mixture into a large bowl and whisked in about three Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. Next whisk in a Tbsp of balsamic vinegar.

Now slice or chop up your strawberries into sizes and shapes that make you happy. I cut mine in half the long way then made little half moon shapes out of those. I used about 2/3 a little green basket of strawberries.

Toss the berries in the vinaigrette and let the marinating begin. I kinda randomly mashed at a the strawberries a few times to encourage their juices to flow.

Grab a large handful of raw almonds and smash them up into little pieces (I use the side of a ball-peen hammer and a ziploc bag I keep on the counter solely for nut smashing) or you could be fancy and buy almond slivers.

Toss torn hand-fulls of your greens into the large bowl with the dressing, mixing as you go.

To finish it up sprinkle the salad top with the almonds, either in the large bowl if you're serving it that way, or in individual bowls if you swing that way.

Enjoy!

(Feeds two adults one heaping bowl each)

I've been terrible about taking pictures of food lately, so you'll just need to imagine how vibrant and beautiful it was.

Tuna Salad

I was thinking the other day, that egg salad and, even more faithfully, tuna salad are the foods that most people make exactly like their mothers.

I remember going over to a friend's house, and being utterly creeped out by the mayonnaise-soaked-chopped-celery-full concoction her mother served. Why was it so soupy? what were those strange crunchy bits doing, calling such attention to themselves, didn't they know they didn't belong there?

Standing in the kitchen I realized that my own children will either be at a terrible advantage or disadvantage, depending on your point of view--because I almost never make tuna salad the same way twice.

Sure I started out making egg salad and tuna salad the same as my mother did. I even made them both the same.

• chop up the protein
• mix in enough mayo to wet
• add as much pickle relish as you want (sweet or dill)

Most of the time I still make egg salad this way, but my tuna cravings have varied. Last night I found success:

• Albacore tuna
• mayo & olive oil combination to wet
• chopped up red bell pepper
• lots of capers
• chopped up hot red pepper

mix it all up and enjoy

summer salad

When that's what's in the farm box, and that's what's growing in the garden, everything you make comes out the same colors.

for the salad mix:

• fresh corn cut off the cob
• red onion
• cucumber
• bell pepper
• shredded carrot
  
• finely diced sour plums
  

for the dressing mix:

• dijon mustard
• minced garlic
• paprika
• olive oil
• minced fresh sage leaves
• honey
• champagne vinegar
• kosher salt & fresh ground pepper
• diced chili pepper
  

three bean salad

Mix together in large bowl in amounts that please your senses

• 1 can black soy beans
  
• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 can green beans
• marinated roasted red peppadew peppers, torn to pieces
• small onions marinated in balsamic vinaigrette (can be found sometimes in the olive bar area of yuppie grocery stores) torn to pieces
  
• pepperoncinis, torn to pieces
• chopped garlic
• powdered garlic
• fresh parsley
• fresh oregano
• dried thyme
• red pepper flakes
• kosher salt
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar
• white vinegar

serve garnished w/ fresh French baguette pieces topped w/ ricotta, fresh ground black pepper and fresh grated nutmeg.

salad (jevan calls it mixed veggies)

1. .25 yellow onion
2. large handful baby carrots
3. handful asparagus spears
4. hot harissa to taste
   
5. garam masala to taste
   
6. honey
7. dijon mustard
8. 1 egg
9. olive oil
10. kosher salt to taste
    

• finely chop .25 yellow onion
• mix spices, oil, honey, mustard and onion in large bowl
  
• blanch baby carrots & asparagus
• boil egg
• finely chop or rice egg, cut asparagus spears in half
• mix it all up in the large bowl

Yum.

early winter salad

• 1 cup chopped parsley
• 1 cup chopped celery
  
• .5 cup grated carrot
• .25 cup chopped walnuts
• squeeze fresh orange juice
• olive oil
• salt & pepper

1. blanch parsley and celery in lightly salted water, not so long that celery loses its crunch.
2. strain veggies and toss everything together in a large bowl.
   
3. serve warm.
   

Corn!

When there's fresh sweet corn I love to make this:

• 2 ears fresh raw white corn, cut from the cob
• 1 green bell pepper, julienned then strips cut in half
• 1 tsp finely diced ginger
• 1 clove finely diced garlic
• 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
• .5 tsp sesame oil
• dash sea salt
  
• shake red pepper flakes for color (optional)

1. toss it all in a bowl
   

Slaw

food experiment from last week

the slaw:

• thinly sliced/ chopped Napa cabbage and 1/4 as much romaine heart -about 3.5 cups total
  
• .5 cup shredded carrot
  
• .25 cup diced pickled pepperoncini
• .5 inch diced fresh jalapeño
  
• chopped cilantro to taste
  
• toss it all in a bowl w/ dressing (below)

the dressing:

• 1 tbsp mayo
• 1.5 tbsp sour cream
• 1 tbsp fresh squeezed orange juice to thin
• pinch sea salt
• .5 tbsp olive oil
• the smallest amount of molasses you can get on a whisk
  
• whisk above together in small bowl
  

Of course everything is really to taste, I just tried to come up w/ proportions. This was surprisingly good & got compliments. Went well w/ chile verde, spanish rice & black beans.