Dressing Up

My favorite salad dressing for a long portion of my life - ranging from the age when memories first start up until the end of highschool- was Ranch dressing made from the dry mix. It was the official Meier household salad dressing, sworn in by Mom, who said it tasted better than bottled Ranch (she was right.) This was long before olive oil and balsamic vinegar and flax oil made it into our kitchen and long before any of us knew to feel incredibly guilty about eating ingredients like Maltodextrin, Monosodium Glutamate,Modified Food Starch, Casein and Hydroxypropyl MethylCellulose (mixed with mayo and buttermilk, of course).

It pleases me, though, that whenever I go home there is still an orange Tupperware container in the fridge filled with Ranch dressing. With all due respect to the farmer's market shopping-healthy eating-locavore dining-Michael Pollan disciples out there, (I can say this, because I am actually one of them) sometimes modified food starch and maltodextrin mixed with mayonnaise still tastes really good. Standing in the kitchen late at night reading a magazine and eating summer lettuce and a grilled chicken drumstick doused in Ranch dressing is much more fun than doing the same thing while eating micro-greens and sprouts doused in lemon juice. This is an irrefutable fact.

But as they say, you can't go back. Ranch dressing made from a dry mix is no longer the official household dressing at my parent's house; it is an indulgence for meals when the body is so overloaded with healthy omegas from flax oil that it can't take any more. In my own kitchen, I long depended on balsamic vinegar to dress salads then turned to fresh lemon when I moved to a city where lemons grew on trees outside the door. But lately, I have grown salad weary. I simply can't eat another bowl of such plainly dressed greens. I need a salad with a little more style. I want something that tastes good but doesn't make me feel guilty. This search will continue all summer I presume, but for now I have been satiated by a Mango-Avocado dressing that's incredibly easy to make. This recipe makes a few cups of the dressing and after a few days in the fridge it gets a little thick, so eat it sooner rather than later.

Mango-Avocado Dressing

In a blender mix:
1 peeled mango
1/2 of an avocado
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/2 of a jalapeno pepper, minced
1 Tbsp cilantro (or parsley)
1 Tbsp lime juice
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Eat Yur Bitter Greens

Bitter gets a bad rap. The dictionary doesn't do the word any favors (having a harsh, disagreeably acrid taste; grievous; distressful; piercing; stinging...you get the picture).Neither does life (usually used to describe exes we never want to see again.) But bitter happens to be a flavor I often enjoy (talk amongst yourselves about what this says about my personality) and I wish for the word that its definition was a little kinder.

Because it isn't, though, wine sellers stoop to using words like "pleasing astringency" instead of bitter, as writer Evan Spingarn explains in his piece about Wine for Adult Tastes. The world "sweet" is often tagged on to "bitter" when describing chocolate to make it more palatable. And when it comes to bitter greens they're often simmered for hours and drenched in fat to smooth out the very thing that makes them great: bitterness.

It is because of this long tradition of cooking bitter greens beyond recognition that greens such as mustard, collard and kale are often thought of as winter food. But when cooked with a lighter hand - a quick saute, a drizzle of olive oil, a paper-thin slice of prosciutto - greens are as summery as any salad out there.

Mustard greens are for the hardcore. Kale is for a more-sensitive palate. Collards are somewhere in between. I'm willing to bet you've passed over kale every time you're in the produce section. This week, don't. Grab one bunch (it wilts down to serve 3 people), chop it roughly and give it a rinse and dry in the salad spinner. Heat some olive oil (add mushrooms, onions or garlic if you like. Add a little prosciutto or bacon if the dish looks a little too green for your liking) and throw the kale in. Saute until the moment the greens wilt and the bright green color fades to a darker hue.

In the summer months, I like serving sauteed greens with fish (salmon is especially good) and white beans warmed right out of the can with fresh herbs sprinkled on top.

Beauty over Practicality in the Kitchen

I'm really into glass jars these days. I was forced into it, as I'm living with an interior decorator right now who loves everything beautiful and banishes all ugliness (which includes despicable things like plastic tupperware containers and toilet paper holders. She said if she could, she wouldn't even have toilets in her house). I don't have anything against toilets, but I can see her point about the Tupperware. Practical, yes. Aesthetically pleasing, not so much. I had to send The Husband to work last week with a glass jar of oatmeal and strawberries for breakfast. Not the easiest container to carry to work, perhaps, but there was something really nice and old fashioned about it. I've always been a fan of Crate & Barrel's glass storage bowls but now I'm hooked on regular canning jars as well. Try bringing a salad to a BBQ this weekend in a tall glass jar (like the thai chicken salad below that I'm totally in love with right now).


Or at the very least, use a glass jar to make and shake-up your dressing.
Dressing:
1 jalepeno pepper, seeded and diced
3 Tbsp fresh lime juice
2 Tbsp Asian fish sauce
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp sugar or honey
1/4 tsp salt

Salad:
1 lb. chicken breast
1/2 head napa cabbage (or regular cabbage) sliced into thin strips
3 carrots, peeled and cut into rounds (or grated)
1 cucumber, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 cup roughly chopped cilantro
1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh mint

Whisk dressing ingredients together or put in a glass jar and shake. Saute chicken breasts in a pan with olive oil, salt and pepper, or grill it outside. Let chicken cool and then cut into small, bite-sized pieces. Toss vegetables and herbs together in a large bowl. Add chicken and dressing. Toss well.

This chicken salad is also really good as a sandwich, on a baguette with a little mayo

Fiddlehead Ferns

I've always been a little bit afraid of Fiddlehead Ferns. Being an urban forager who roams through cute gourmet shops is quite a different thing than being a forager forager who actually goes into the woods and picks things. But I've been wanting to cook fiddleheads for years - so when I was hiking near Seattle on Whidbey Island and saw them growing wild, then soon after saw them in a grocery store in Connecticut, I knew it was a sign. Suddenly, Fiddlehead Ferns were showing up everywhere in my life. I had to eat them.

Sold for an affordable $6.99/lb, I bought a half pound plus some angel hair pasta and prosciutto. I still felt a little bit of unease - I'm mean, look at these things in my sink! - but I got passed it when I realized how easy they are to cook. Simply give the ferns a quick swim in boiling water (3 minutes or so) and then saute them into whatever dish you like. The flavor is a lot like asparagus and the texture is similar as well but crunchier.

The recipe below serves 2. The prosciutto can be subbed out for mushrooms. This pasta would be delish with a Sauvignon Blanc or Albarino wine.

Fiddlehead Ferns with Pasta and Prosciutto
1/2 lb. Fiddlehead Ferns
1/3 box of angel hair pasta
6 pieces of prosciutto, sliced thin and torn into shreds by hand
2 Tbsp olive oil
Grated Parmigiano or Pecorino cheese for garnish
Salt and Pepper to taste

Boil enough water to cook the pasta. Add Fiddlehead ferns first, boiling for 3 minutes. Remove the ferns from the boiling water and then put in the pasta to cook. Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a pan. Add ferns and a pinch of salt and pepper. Saute ferns 4-5 minutes, then add prosciutto and another Tbsp olive oil. Turn off the heat, add the cooked noodles and cover the pan. Let sit 1-2 minutes, then serve pasta garnished with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino.
Recipe by Jennifer Meier

Behold, the Humble Vegetable Peeler

We all have that kitchen utensil that we dread using. It's the one that never works right and causes us to swear and grumble and not have as much fun in the kitchen as we should be having. And yet, we never throw this utensil away. We never buy a new one. For no reason other than human laziness (and sometimes cheap-ness) we just keep using the crappy utensil we hate. In my case, this is a vegetable peeler. The Husband swears that if you press down with one finger and hold it at just the right angle it works just fine. This is also the man, however, who thought the vacuum worked fine even though to make it work he had to push down on the top of it with one foot and hop around the room on the other foot while he vacuumed.

I hate our vegetable peeler. It was not until yesterday however, when I used a friend's OXO Swivel Peeler that I finally saw the light. The peels practically flew off the carrot! I was done peeling in record time! Suddenly, I loved peeling vegetables!

This week, go through your drawers. Take out that peeler or knife or spatula or pan that you've always hated and throw it away without a bit of guilt. Cooking is hard enough without unnecessary irritations slowing us down.

Old Mother Hubbard . . .

. . . went the cupboard to get her poor dog a bone. When she got there, the cupboard was bare and so the poor dog had none.

I've been reaching deep into the bowels of my cupboard this week, opening cans and boiling noodles and grains that have been in there for who knows how long. Yes, it is good to keep a well-stocked pantry, but it is also good to flush out the pantry now then. Spring is the perfect time to do this sort of cleaning and so is the week before you leave on extended time away from your apartment, which happens to be my motivation. I vowed to buy as few new groceries this week as possible and to shop only from my own cupboards and refrigerator. I've had some admittedly bad meals (the night of sardines and quinoa was rough) and some good ones, like this easy salad of cabbage, carrots and garbanzo beans in sesame-soy dressing.

This recipe can be adapted for whatever vegetables you have in your fridge. The egg can be left out if you like; I just happened to have one lonely egg sitting in my fridge that needed to be used. The garbanzos can also be subbed out for other forms of protein: chicken, salmon or tofu would be good.

Vegetable Salad with Sesame-Soy Dressing
1/4 of a cabbage, finely chopped or grated
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 egg, either scrambled or hard boiled.
1/2 cup roughly chopped cilantro
1/4 cup sesame seeds
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 scallion, finely chopped
1 tsp brown sugar
dash of red pepper flakes


Combine the cabbage, carrots, garbanzos and cooked egg in a large bowl. In a pan over medium heat, toast the sesame seeds for 3-5 minutes until very lightly browned. Sprinkle the sesame seeds and cilantro over the vegetables. In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, sesame oil, scallion, brown sugar and red pepper flakes. Pour the dressing over the salad, toss well.

Ode to a Mini Kiwi

Even in our over-sized culture, I still believe that smaller versions of anything are always irresistible. This is true for inedible objects (baby shoes, VW bugs) and edible ones (cupcakes, kumquats). It is for this reason that I believe the mini Kiwi will be the next "in" fruit, charming everyone from innovative chefs to mothers desperate for something new and healthy to put in their kid's lunch. The mini Kiwi is showing up in more and more produce departments, forcing consumers to ask themselves some tough questions, such as: "why am I still buying big, hairy Kiwi fruit that are hard to peel when I can buy cute little bite-sized kiwis that can just be popped right into my mouth?" and " why am I taking the time to slice a big Kiwi fruit into a fruit salad when I can just throw mini Kiwis right into the salad?"

What is there not to love about the mini Kiwi? They taste exactly like regular Kiwis, except maybe a little sweeter. The outside peel is edible and you can easily tear or slice off the tiny stem. They are about the size of a large cherry. The only down side is that miny kiwis don't keep very long, so I don't advise buying and then forgetting about the little guys in the back of your fridge for a week like I did. But if you do, just throw 'em into a smoothie, which adds a healthy dose of Vitamin C.

So cute. So not-furry. Mini Kiwi, you are the fruit of the future.