Waldorf Salad - Revisited

Waldorf Salad - a mixture of apples, raisins, nuts, and celery held together by a mayonnaise dressing. It's a simple dish, but there is nothing wrong with simplicity. In our overcomplicated lives, simplicity is a good thing.

Food to Live By contains an updated Waldorf  Salad recipe - California Waldorf Salad. This version contains curry and is mixed with greens or spinach. I made a batch and took to my church potluck. I think it passed the test. (There wasn't much left to bring home - and someone took the leftovers.) Now that is a winner in my book.

Here is my version of the dish. I left out the curry, but feel free to add it to yours (2 teaspoons).

California Waldorf Salad

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon grated lime zest
2 Tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon honey
1 bag (5 ounces) baby spinach or mixed greens, rinsed and dried
1 apple, unpeeled and cut into cubes
1/2 cup thinly sliced celery
1/2 cup dried fruit, such as raisins, cranberries or tart cherries
1 cup seedless grapes, cut in half
1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, toasted


Directions:

1. In a small bowl combine yogurt, mayonnaise, lime zest, juice and honey. Stir to combine. Set aside.

2. Wash spinach and place in a large bowl. Top spinach with apples, celery, dried fruit, grapes and nuts. Add enough dressing to coat. Toss and serve.

A New Year, A New Start

I've been writing about starting to cook for quite some time. So far, I'm just short of preaching. I don't mean to nag. But I believe there is value in preparing one's food at home. Food is communal. We create memories in the kitchen. A lot of our lives revolve around the kitchen. 

For me cooking is creating. I like knowing that I can make something. And I do enjoy it when people like something I cook. I cook for my enjoyment and for the enjoyment of those I feed. All my dishes are not masterpieces or works of art. Sometimes I just need to get dinner on the table. So I have a few things like eggs and pasta that I frequently fall back on.

Convenience ingredients are great for getting meals on the table. Try rotisserie chicken, bagged salads, frozen vegetables (without sauce), canned beans, fresh pasta, and pre-made pizza dough.

If you need a scientific reason to cook, here's one. According to a paper published in Public Health Nutrition, adults who cooked dinner 0 - 1 times per week consumed 2300 calories on an average day. Those cooking 6 - 7 times per week consumed 2163 calories on an average day. While that is only 136 calories, multiply 136 calories by 365 days. Get the picture?

Here is my recipe to help you get started. It is a Stromboli.   A Stromboli is an Italian-American sandwich of pizza dough wrapped various fillings. I chose spinach, onions, ham and cheese. 

Spinach and Ham Stromboli

Serves 4.


Ingredients:

½ medium onion, chopped
Olive or vegetable oil
4 ounces deli ham
1 package (16 ounce) frozen chopped spinach
6 ounces grated cheese, about 1½ cups
1 container (13.8 ounce) refrigerated whole wheat pizza dough
Pizza sauce

Directions:

1.  Heat about one tablespoon of oil in a medium skillet. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.

2.  Remove onion and set aside. Add ham to skillet. Cook until ham has dried out and begins to brown. Remove from skillet and set aside.
3. Add another tablespoon of oil to skillet. When oil is hot, add spinach. Cook until spinach until most of the water has evaporated. Set aside.
4.  Coat a work surface lightly with flour. Unroll dough onto floured surface.  Roll dough into a rectangle, about 11 X 14-inches.
5. Brush dough with oil. Top with cheese to within one inch of the edge.  Add onions, ham and spinach.
6. Roll dough up jellyroll fashion. Place bottom of dough on cookie sheet. Brush top of dough with oil. Bake at 400°F until crust browns, about 20 to 30 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes. Slice into 1-inch slices. Serve with pizza sauce.

Note: Onions, ham, and spinach can be cooked in advance (one to two days) and refrigerated until ready to use.

Spinach – It’s not Just for Popeye, the Sailor

Ok, so you grew up with canned spinach and don’t like spinach.  Well, now that you are an adult, it may be a good time try spinach again.  Your taste buds have matured and spinach is available in a number of forms.  Canned is no longer your only option. 

You may be wondering how I got on this spinach kick after all I the fattening stuff I write about.  Would you believe I was looking for something a little redeeming?  Ok, you are not buying that.  Here is the truth.  A colleague of mine has an abundance of spinach.  She is up to her eyeballs in spinach and needed a few suggestions for spinach.  So I thought why not blog about spinach.  Maybe give a few ideas for using and preserving spinach for those of you lucky enough to have an abundant supply.

Spinach Ideas.

1.     Spinach wrap – Use larger leaves as a wrap, the same as you would for lettuce.  You can wrap a vegetable or meat based salads.

2.    Make a frittata – For each person, use 2 eggs, 2 ounces cheese, seasonings (garlic, onion, salt and pepper) to taste, 1 cup firmly packed spinach.

3.      Spinach pesto – Use spinach instead of basil to make pesto.  Use with spaghetti or lasagna.

4.      Stuffed chicken breast – Combine spinach with cheese such as ricotta, parmesan, goat and stuff inside a chicken breast and bake.

5.     Salad on-the-go – Toss spinach leaves with your other favorite salad ingredients.  Add your favorite dressing and put inside a pita. 

6.       Twice baked potatoes – Add sautéed spinach to baked potatoes.

7.     Spinach fruit salad – Spinach pairs nicely with a variety of fruits, like, strawberries and mandarin oranges.

8.       Sautéed spinach – Sauté spinach with garlic and olive oil.

9.       Creamed spinach – This is an old favorite.

10.   Toss spinach into a stir-fry.

Thai Inspired Spinach Wrap

Ingredients:

4 cups rotisserie chicken, skinned and boned
2 celery ribs, cut into small dice
2 medium green onions, thinly sliced
¼ cup chopped peanuts
Juice of one lime
2 Tablespoons Asian fish sauce
1 Tablespoon grated fresh ginger, squeeze to remove juice
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 Tablespoons minced fresh cilantro leaves
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves
Large spinach leaves

Directions:

1.     In a medium bowl, mix chicken, celery, green onions and peanuts.  In a small bowl, whisk lime juice, fish sauce, ginger liquid, sugar, red pepper, cilantro and mint.

2.     Toss dressing with chicken mixture.  Allow individuals to place desired amount of salad in a spinach leaf.  Roll.  If making ahead of time, hold together with a toothpick.

 If you still have too much spinach, here are a few suggestions for using the"excess".

Fruits and Vegetables – More Matter - http://www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov/month/spinach.html

University of Nebraska Lincoln – Extension - http://food.unl.edu/web/preservation/freezing
National Center for Home Food Preservation - http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/freeze/greens.html

Cooking at the Library

I love the library. But this week (April 10 -16) I have an especially good reason to love the library. This is National (Public) Library Week. Libraries around the country are celebrating in various ways. We thought what better way to showcase our library (http://bit.ly/fMmaXM) than with a posting on cookbooks at the local library.

It’s actually fun to read through the library’s cookbook collection. I also like using the library to “test drive” a cookbook. If I don’t like a book, I don’t have to purchase it. I talked with our local librarian in charge of purchasing cookbooks. While people are purchasing electronic versions of other books, we still want a hard copy of cookbooks. The library has actually reduced the purchasing of cooking DVDs in favor of hard copies of cookbooks. During the recent economic downturn, the sales of cookbooks actually increased. People are also checking out more cookbooks from the library. When people cut back on dining out, they started to cook at home.

Our library purchases about ten to twelve cookbooks per month. If there is a book that you would like, the library welcomes your suggestions (http://bit.ly/fe0fvx).

When visiting my library, I picked up a copy of Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. I decided to make one of the pasta dishes. I chose to make a spinach sauce with ricotta and ham. I chose this one because most Americans seem to think only of pasta with tomato sauce. Italian food is much more than pasta and tomato sauce.

Spinach Sauce with Ricotta and Ham

Serves 4 to 6.

Ingredients:
2 packages (10 ounce) frozen chopped spinach
¼ cup butter
2 ounces ham, chopped
Whole nutmeg
½ cup ricotta cheese
½ cup parmesan cheese, preferably freshly grated
1 pound pasta, preferably penne or rigatoni

Directions:
1. Preheat a large skillet. Add 1 tablespoon butter. Add spinach to skillet once the butter has melted. Cook until spinach is dry. Remove spinach and set aside.

2. Add ham to skillet. Cook until ham starts to brown. Add spinach back to skillet. Remove from heat and add the nutmeg, no more than ⅛ of a teaspoon.

3. Cook pasta as directed on the package. Toss pasta with spinach and ham. Add ricotta, remaining butter and Parmesan. Serve immediately, with additional cheese, if desired.

What We Thought of the Recipe: We liked it. We also felt that garlic and/or onions would have been nice additions to the recipe.