Pink of Perfection

One thing I can tell you about Argentina is that they’re not so into their salads. Rather, they are into their meat. And that’s a good thing––a really good thing. What is vacation for if not eating one cut of red meat after another and kicking back glass after glass of blood red wine? I’m not sure how this national diet would feel in the summer, but on South American winter days spent wobbling on cobblestones in long-forgotten tights, it was just the right thing.

That said, returning to a wall of New York humidity requires slightly different fare. As does my wardrobe, should I ever expect to slip into a pencil skirt or slim-waisted dress again. Ahem. (Learn from my mistake: Do not, I repeat, do not, schedule a bridesmaid’s dress fitting immediately upon your return from an over-indulgent vacation.)

What a delight to return to summer (especially raspberries, sweet raspberries) and all it’s green growing things. I’ve had my eye on this particular salad for awhile, but it seemed a perfect mix of hearty/filling and fresh/light. If such a combination can exist. I’m still a little unsure of the dressing, to be honest. I think my fatal mistake was skipping the feta cheese. Again, learn from my mistakes; don’t do that. The feta adds a sharp, slightly sour balance to the dark, smoky paprika. If you do make it, I’d be interested to know what you think. As usual, the reviews on epicurious are a little divisive.

Ah, chickpeas––it’s so nice to see you again.

PS I thought of you guys teasing me for my love of lentils at the Eva Perón museum when I saw this display of legumes.

Continue reading “Quinoa, Chickpea, and Spinach Salad with Smoked Paprika Dressing” »

I am not proud to tell you guys, when it comes to being sick, I am a really big baby. I expect the world to come to a grinding halt and my mother to be instantly transported to my side, bearing clean sheets and sympathetic words. Alas, the world marches on. There are meetings to attend and landlords to call back. But more than usual, when under the influence of a cold, I find myself pushing the limits of doing the bare minimum.

In my misery last night, I might have OD’d on the sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever so you can rest medicine. It held me in its raptures of deep, bizarre dreams and my-eyes-weigh-a-ton until, well, not so long ago.

This is all a long way of saying: poor, poor me. I am sick, and life goes on. Dinner must be served.

I picked up the fixins for this salad at the farmer’s market. I didn’t really have a recipe at hand, just an idea, which means there were plenty of delicious additions to this salad that didn’t get snatched up, like ginger, lime, and cherry tomatoes. I settled on ruby red radishes, long spears of green scallions, and stubby, dirt-covered carrots. There would have been pea shoots, but the line was too long. So it goes.

The strangest thing about being ill is my lack of appetite. You basically strip away 70% of life’s pleasures when you can’t look forward to the next meal, am I right? I have been slurping down spicy soups that feel good on my sore throat and help clear my head, but last night, I wanted to make use of the leftover steak we had sitting in the fridge and remember what it feels like to chew again. What resulted was a salad filled with, dare I say, the life force itself: vibrant, singing, herbs; sweet spicy dressing. It was enough to make me want to turn off Arthur and join the ranks of the living again.

Continue reading “Easy Thai-Style Beef Salad” »

On these shape-shifting spring days — in which one moment the tulips in my neighbor’s backyard bend in the sunny breeze and next the sky’s turned ominous and rain threatens — I long for something steady, something to rely on.

And I always come back to lentils.

They are a stalwart and steady friend in this house. They’ve been with me on days of faux luxury and days of deep poverty. And I can say I’ve yet to run into a way I don’t like them. My favorite is the red variety, velvety, comforting, and falling-to-pieces right along with you, if you need them to.

But then there are the green lentils from France, like poor man’s caviar, they say. “They” must be a little off their rocker, but I will concede there is a touch of understated luxury in this incarnation. More importantly, this is a lunch that feels properly grounded for these flitty days. There’s even a waft of civility in here. And if you don’t need a breath of that every now and then at lunchtime, you’re a better woman than I.

Continue reading “Spring Stalwart: Lentil and Arugula Salad” »

I love eating cold crisp salads even in the darkest days of winter, but the freshness of spring makes them absolutely apropos. My mom has always made a big green salad to go along with supper dressed with a puckery splash of olive oil and red wine vinegar. I think that’s why I love both of these salads, my go-tos for the past several months. Both have that familiar sour flavor I love, but are balanced out with rich cheeses to make them crowd-pleasers. I’m not the sort that can eat some greens and call it a meal, though; to round things out I’d add a hard-boiled egg and call it a day. The first combo was introduced to me in a local Italian restaurant and then reinforced at a cute place in Red Hook, Brooklyn; the second salad is courtesy of my friend, Weetabix.

Fennel, Apple, and Parmesan
Toss thinly sliced fennel and tart, green apple with mixed greens. Dress with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Shave parmesan cheese over top.

Feta, Apple, and Sunflower Seeds
Toss sweet, chopped apple with crumbled Greek feta, sunflower seeds and mixed greens. Dress with olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

I can feel it coming in the air toniiiiiight, oh lord. The humidity. The send-your-hair-into-kinks-and-fuzz-you’ve-never-before-seen-the-likes-of airborne dampness. This means that I have officially made the switch to iced coffee. And for lunch I am thinking of ways to keep cool and crisp as a piece of celery standing upright in a glass of water. It is not hot, and I do not mean to sound as if I’m complaining. It’s just that I’m a bit of a wilter. Not because I am in possession of a delicate constitution, but because I’m a hot-blooded American woman.

That said, earthy and ethereal girls alike can partake in what I think is one of the most elegant, ladylike things one can eat for a weekday lunch: chicken salad. I suppose that’s why I have written before about a tarragon chicken salad and a provençal chicken salad. And indeed, the chicken salad parade marches on, now with a kicky curried version sweet with red grapes, snappy with red onion, and oh, it is just divine. I even fooled my mayonnaise-loving husband into thinking this was a terribly unhealthy dinner. Only the truth is that there’s just a bit of mayonnaise to temper the tang of Greek yogurt. This is exactly the sort of quick, super simple recipe I could see myself making every two weeks and keeping in the fridge. In other words, I see this becoming a trusty standby.

Continue reading “Curried Chicken Salad” »

Has this week been intense for you? Mine’s been intense, like, whoa. A bit of intensity can be good, though. Instead of skating along on the surface of the day-to-day, you’re right in there, engrossed in your work, your relationships, affected deeply by the light, the poems you read, the music you hear. It’s a little exhausting to be so on, riding the merry-go-round of so many feelings. But it also seems sort of fitting right now.

I mark the time in my life by the willow tree on the next block. It’s a subtle sort of tree. It doesn’t suddenly spring into bloom like the more obvious show-offs in the neighborhood. Its branches take on a brittle look in the colder months, snap off, and collect on the ground around its trunk. And right now, it’s marked by just a faint coloring of green. In another month or two, it will be lush with long, feathery leaves and whispery when the wind blows. But I know from watching it even now that change is afoot.

Do you feel that way, too, as the seasons shift? Do you feel like you’re coming up from underground, waking from a long sleep?

Well…I’m not quite sure how to transition into talking about this salad, other than to say that the bright orange yolk of a runny egg feels like a new beginning, whether it’s eaten in April or February. But I love this salad deeply, and eating it transports me to a memory of something I’ve never even done: I am sitting outside a Paris bistro on a rickety chair in the sun, the traffic going by, lifting fork to mouth, this salad perched on the tines. I am wearing something impossibly, yet effortlessly chic. And I never, ever sweat. Isn’t this a fun game? By the way, the very best thick-cut bacon and the freshest egg you can find make all the difference here.

One more thing: thank you. Thank you so much for being the best blog readers out there and for making this not only fun but meaningful. Really. Thank you.

Happy weekend!

Continue reading “French Friday: Frisée with Lardon” »

Hello, rainy Monday. You are not the stuff that dreams are made of. You don’t contain even an iota of get up and go, and vim and vigor is not your thing. But all the same, here you are. You are good for Chopin and cups of tea sipped out of wedding china, I suppose, and that is no small thing.

The air has just been rife with humidity — and not just the rainy sort — for the past few days. There’s a chill that seeps into your bones and makes you want to light a candle, open the curtains (but keep the windows closed) and read The Wind in the Willows under a white coverlet. It’s the kind of weather that calls for a simple roast chicken by night and clean, honest salads by day. That, to me, is spring. And that’s where today’s recipe comes in.

I was quiet for the past week because I was in Dallas, my mouth full of queso. And when I wasn’t eating queso, I was asking for more hot sauce and fishing at the bottom of the bowl of chips. I simply can’t get enough of those fresh, hot flavors of Mexican food. But I came back, as enamored of those flavors as ever, but feeling a little too puffed up. This is where salads flecked with cilantro, fresh with lime, rounded out by quinoa and black beans save the day. A slice or two of avocado is like the cherry on top.

Continue reading “Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa Salad” »

As is well-documented on this site, I have no prejudices against canned fish. In fact, the spendthrift in me is practically speechless that wild Alaskan salmon ringing up at $16.99 a pound can be found on aisle 5 for pocket change. Certainly, sometimes nothing but a fresh, meaty fillet with do. But for all those other times, such as when you aim to eat fish twice a week in order to load up on blues-fighting omega-3s, those little tins can be a savior. And come dinner time, who isn’t looking for a hero?

This isn’t so much a recipe as a template with quantities that should be adjusted to taste — less formulaic and more fuzzy math. Like a little black dress, a simple salmon salad can be dressed up or down. Served on rye crisps and garnished with a bit of smoked salmon and a tiny feather of dill, it makes a quick nibble with drinks; on toasted sourdough, a perfect midweek lunch; tossed with white beans and served on shredded romaine, a hearty dinner salad. You get the idea.  Pretty soon here I think I will be ready to branch out to other more-maligned canned fish lower on the food chain, like sardines and mackerel. Stay tuned or consider this fair warning, depending on your own tastes for such things.

Continue reading “$5 Dinner: Salmon Salad” »