Who Knew? Celery Leaf and Radish Salad

Last night I made my favorite "go to" veg and tofu noodles recipe and a lovely springtime salad with an ingredient I'd never tried before: celery leaves.

I had some celery killing time in my fridge for a while, and I was just going to throw the leaves into my usual veg stock batch, but then I remembered reading somewhere that you could eat them.

I hadn't eaten celery leaves since I was a kid, when I used to pluck them off of the heads of celery in our fridge (I have a vivid memory of doing that when we lived on 2nd street, remember Mom?)

To that, I added some lovely little radishes, some freshly-squeezed lemon juice, a tiny drizzle of grapeseed oil and a slight dash of salt. So clean and refreshing! It was Spring-tacular.

One of Wichita's farmer's markets opened last weekend. I went solo (hubs was still asleep). There were several more booths this year than the first day last year. I ended up with some lovely little tomatoes (delish!), a jar of sand plum jam, and a jar of homemade mild salsa that came with a big bag of chips. It was nice to get out into the sunshine.

And for the request to see more pictures of our dog, Enu, I give you this gem:

{Enu atop all 4 couch throw pillows}

Jes

"Who Put This On?" "Some Random..."

That has really nothing to do with this post, just that the food is a bit random and it made me think of a quote from one of my favorite movies.

First random dish: Brussels Sprouts Casserole with Romaine Salad topped with Cranberry Vinaigrette

Second random dish: Brothy No-Chicken Soup

I adapted the casserole recipe from the Food Network Magazine from several months ago. Pretty tasty, but needs adapting some ore. Used some of the leftover Cranberry Vinaigrette (these were made in December...). The second random dish was made when I was under the weather. Brothy soups are the BEST for when you are ill. This one was made from No-Chicken bouillon cubes, mushrooms, cut spaghetti noodles, chopped onions, and julienned carrots.

Tomorrow, work begins again (le sigh...). And then classes begin again in about 2 weeks. Perhaps my last semester in the program--time flies!!!

Jes

Cranberry Vinaigrette, FTW!

Here I sit, Sunday morning--dishes done, laundry underway, veg stock boiling away on the stove, more acorn squash bread on the agenda, eating a second round of my dinner from Saturday night. And WHAT a dinner it was...

I had been blabbing about making my cranberry vinaigrette for a while now, at least a week or two, and I FINALLY got around to making it. Do you have leftover fresh cranberries? MAKE A VINAIGRETTE!

There are really three steps to this recipe. First, you make the "jelly;" then you make the actual vinaigrette; and finally you make the croutons.

First, the "jelly:"

1 bag fresh cranberries (I used Ocean Spray brand)

1 cup turb. sugar

1 cup water

Bring the sugar and water to a boil in a pan, making sure the sugar has completely dissolved. This is essentially a simple syrup. Reduce heat.

Add the bag o'cranberries (good to rinse and drain them first though). They will begin popping after about 30 seconds or so. The addition of a lid would be great at this point, unless you want to get popped with hot syrup! Cook the cranberries in the syrup for about 10-12 minutes and then let cool a bit off of the heat. Strain the pulp through a sieve into a dish that you can fit into the refrigerator to cool completely. This will not really set into a firm jelly, but it works for the vinaigrette. I imagine you could probably save the remaining pulp for something, maybe a bread, but I just tossed mine out.

After the "jelly" has cooled in the fridge, it's time to build the vinaigrette!

1/2 cup cranberry "jelly"

1 cup oil (I used olive for this)

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 of a minced shallot

S & P

chopped, fresh dill (maybe 1 tbsp?)

It is best to have an immersion hand blender for this, but you could whir it in a food processor or blender as well. First add the cranberry "jelly," shallot, and vinegar and whir. Then add the dill and salt/pepper and whir again. Then add the oil while the mixer is on, if you can. What you get will be a wonderfully PINK dressing that looks splendid on any salad!

Also, I made some shallot-crusted croutons for the salad. I used two slices of the artisan bread I had sitting around from the grilled cheese sandys earlier this week. Cube the bread, toss with oil, S&P, and oregano. Spread out the cubes on a pan. Combine half a minced shallot and a spot of oil in a bowl and use a brush to coat/spoon the mixture onto the bread cubes. Don't worry if some makes it onto the pan instead of the bread. Those will turn out well, too :) Bake at 250deg. for about an hour, checking every now and then.

After those have cooled, it's time to make the salad! You can go in any direction with this, I am sure of it, but here is what I did:

romaine, chopped

alfalfa sprouts

dried cranberries (bringing in the theme of the vinaigrette...)

sliced almonds

sliced mushrooms

topped with the croutons and cranberry vinaigrette

Look at that GORGEOUS cranberry vinaigrette!

Another benefit: now I have leftover cranberry syrup to use in smoothies, desserts, what have you! And I'm still working through the vinaigrette...thinking of putting it on roasted veggies...why buy a bottle of stuff when you can make it??

Bon appetit!

Jes

Salad, with a Side of the Blahs

Holy shiz, you guys. It's been a long a** week. Next week, those of us who celebrate Thanksgiving (U.S.) will be confronted with dead flesh, which makes for another icky week. I'm going to try to get past it with little confrontation, questions about my choices, and quizzical looks. Good luck, all.

In the meantime, today was pretty uninspiring, so after coming home I ate a regular ole' salad from the supermarket. At least it had some dried cranberries on top, which made me want to figure out how to make cranberry jelly from scratch (the jelly WITHOUT cranberries in it...just jelly). That was my FAVORITE part of Thanksgiving dinner as a kid--the jelly out of a can, cut into slices, still retaining the can shape. Sounds white trashy, but I LOVED it. One Thanksgiving, several years ago when my mom and I used to do marathon cooking, I turned said jelly into a WICKED awesome vinaigrette and topped a superb salad with it. My mom and aunts still talk about it. Maybe I'll try to replicate that this coming week.

THIS is NOT that legendary salad but was still tasty nonetheless:

Raise your hand if you dig marinated mushrooms!

I was inspired, however, to create my Vegan MoFo Tribute, to debut either tomorrow or Sunday, whichever day I find the time to complete it. It's gonna rock your chopsticks.

Jes