Grilled Oregano Shrimp-Caesar Salad with Tomatoes and Crostini

Honest is the best policy:  I was too hungry to take much time with a photo.

It seems when I'm out with friends on some version of the protein and vegetable diet, they often end up with a Caesar Salad and Grilled Chicken or Grilled Salmon, if they're lucky.  I don't eat Caesar salad in restaurants a lot because they're often goopy-- soft and unappetizing.  And, truly, I love my own salads. Even more, I love homemade vinaigrette.

Yesterday Dave and I were at the grocery looking at fish for supper and I saw a great buy on large, gorgeous uncooked shrimp.  (Since shrimp takes two minutes to cook, why is there so much pre-cooked shrimp for sale?)  I remembered I had a bag of cleaned romaine at home in the frig, and asked for a pound of that shrimp for $9.99.  When the shrimp are large, there aren't that many in a pound; I figured whatever was leftover, we'd have the next day for a snack.

Rice and Vegetable Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette--Favorite Salad of the Summer or It's Good to be Home?

If I had to pick one thing to live off of this summer, this would be it.

 Dave and I are blessed to live in two places or at least to own houses in two places. I have to admit it doesn't always feel like a blessing; the economy has done such things to a lot of people.  Job one place and house in another.  One making money and the other spending it all.  But the beauty of a double life is that you, if you can manage it, maintain relationships in more than one place--unlike an out-and-out final, never going back move.  Then it's emails or Christmas cards and the rare visit.  As we have lot of friends in both places and even family, we're pretty much at home in both Minnesota and Colorado.  When we say, "It'll be good to get home," we could be on our way to either spot and are perfectly honest.  It makes the concept of home confusing sometimes.  Is home really one place?  Is it a place at all?

Caprese with Lemon Green Beans or Garlicky Shitake Mushrooms

I'm not a vegetarian, but I adore vegetables in ways I perhaps don't adore meat, grains, dairy, or fruit.  If you do a simple, but random, google search of varieties of vegetables and then do a similar search for, say, meat, it's easy to see how the variety, color, texture, taste, and infinite possibilities draw me close, lasso me in, and tie me to the garden fence.

I also like what I call, in the summer, "Shop and Chop" meals--a quick slice or dice, perhaps a fast saute or grill (if any cooking at all), and there's dinner.  A cold bottle of wine and I'm outside under the trees for supper.

Steak Cobb

One of the happiest cooking moments is to create something out of leftovers that you like better than the original meal. (A theme lately for me.)  Maybe you make chicken so you can have chicken sandwiches.  Or meatloaf for meatloaf sandwiches.  (I clearly remember my first meatloaf sandwich at Danny Izzo's house while I was in college; my mom didn't make meatloaf sandwiches.)  Grilled salmon for scrambled eggs, omelet, or frittata.  Roast pork for tacos.  Roast beef and/or baked sweet potatoes for hash.  Easter eggs for deviled eggs or egg salad. Steak for salads like the one above/below and lots of other meals.

We usually don't eat steak at all through the winter, but wait (as we do for hamburgers) for grilling time.  And then I cook two steaks anyway.  Because we like steak and eggs, steak sandwiches, frittatas with leftover potato, steak, and vegetables, or steak hash.  Or a new favorite of mine, Steak Cobb.

Now I don't know if anyone else makes Steak Cobb. I had the ingredients and it sounded good to me.  It makes leftover restaurant steak into a lovely, beautiful salad or gives you a reason to make an extra steak on the grill any time at all.  Here's how if you need directions other than from the photos:

steak cobb for one

• two cups fresh greens (I like spinach for this)
• 2 ounces leftover cold steak, sliced thinly
• 2 scallions (green onions-green and white parts) sliced very thinly
• 1/4 cup chopped red pepper
• 1-2 strips bacon, cooked crisply and chopped
• 1 boiled egg, sliced
• 1/2 - 1 cup sauteed vegetables (or fresh) of your choice   
• 1/2 tomato, sliced
• 1-2 tablespoons blue cheese dressing
• kosher salt/fresh ground pepper
• fresh lemon juice

1. Arrange greens in a large shallow bowl and top with steak and scallions.
2. Place bacon at one corner, sliced egg at another, vegetables at the third and tomato at the fourth.
3. Spoon dressing into the leftover space.   Don't toss this salad.  Dip its elements into the dressing and only use what you need; the blue cheese will overwhelm everything else otherwise.
4. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and squeeze lemon juice over all.     

Things that make this fast and simple--mostly pantry info:
 I keep Nueske's bacon in 2- and 4-piece packages in the freezer so I can unthaw and cook it quickly in the microwave when needed.
  I "boil" eggs in the microwave for quick salads like this:  Spray a deep cereal bowl with PAM or grease lightly. Crack egg  in and, using a sharp knife, pierce yolk once and white several times.  Cover tightly with plastic wrap and microwave on full power for one minute.  (Tightly being the important word here.)  Carefully remove bowl from oven, let sit a minute, tip out onto cutting board and slice.



 I keep blue cheese in the frig and make dressing in the food processor while the bacon cooks:
2 ounces blue cheese, 1-2 cloves garlic (chopped), 1/4 cup mayonnaise, pinch salt and pepper, 2 shakes hot sauce, 2 tablespoons milk blended well and tasted for seasoning. (approximate amounts)
Of course you can make this without a food processor:  Mash up the blue cheese with a table fork.  Crush the garlic with the flat side of a chef's knife and chop it well. Beat well with remainder of ingredients and adjust seasonings.
I am only without lemons if I'm leaving tomorrow on a plane and usually not then. 
When I cook vegetables, I cook enough for a couple of days or more--such as sauteed onions, peppers, zucchini, asparagus, green beans,  garlic, mushrooms, etc. 
I have pasta bowls perfect for composed salads and believe this makes a difference.  This will work on a plate, but not as well.  The ingredients are lost in a jumble, though they'll taste good, if you toss this up in a chili bowl.

... ... ... ...

If you're interested in helping solve a current and immediate hunger need, please read this blogpost on LEAVE IT WHERE JESUS FLANG IT.  Margaret Watson is an Episcopal priest on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota where many--elderly, handicapped, grandparents raising kids-- are hungry due to sequester cuts;  her own cupboards and freezer are bare.    Please write your congressional reps to end the sequester where it is creating more and more hunger or pain and/or drop a note in the comments on Margaret's blog to see how you might personally help.  Here are her own words:

But more importantly, the clients themselves have been cut off --they have received no monies since the beginning of March. They are coming to my door asking for heating fuel, food, clothes, diapers. Children are at risk. There are no Tribal programs that can assist these folks, they are mostly disabled, elderly with grandchildren in the home, or are desperate for work. Last night, after a funeral, I delivered left over food to people's homes. Funeral food to a family of six of baloney sandwiches, biscuits, two apples, two oranges and some chocolate cake.
I cannot afford to feed all the people who come to my door asking for help. I have emptied my own freezer, my own cupboard in order to help these desperate folks.

...    In the last six months, I have done 40 funerals --six infants, two teen suicides, and many, many folks under the age 40.

And food, shelter and heat are not the only problems here --the Indian Health Services were also part of the Sequester cuts. And the cuts are affecting the Head Start programs.

---from Margaret's post Shocked and Depressed.

... ... ... ... ... ...

Please help?
Alyce

Shrimp-Quinoa Salad with Feta and Tomatoes

Hot nights:  if you skip the quinoa and buy cooked shrimp, this is a no-cook dinner.  Another option is microwave rice.

Coming back from Colorado (where we spent most of the summer with Dave working on our old house and me writing the soup book), we took mostly back roads. You can go all the way from Colorado Springs to St. Paul almost without super-highways.   Perhaps it's possible to go all of the way, but we opted for a bit of interstate here and there.  (Once you get near the Twin Cities, it's a bit tougher to accomplish since someone changed the routes from roads to vrrrooomms years ago now.) What we saw, almost all the way, was dead corn.  Miles and miles of it.  Dried out, brown, or with sprigs and shadows of green here and there.  In some cases the farmers were just cutting it down unharvested.  The photos and stories of the drought when seen on tv are one thing; feasting your eyes on hundreds of miles of it is another.  Sad.  I occasionally tried to get a photo, but nothing really came out from the car window.  My mind kept going to increased fuel prices, food prices, and hunger.

Blue Cheese-Chicken Chopped Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

I have an awful habit of chopping up all kinds of salad come summer, but never writing them down.  I did write this one up and am actually going to make it again.  It's so simple and can be made with a variety of vegetables and leftover chicken, shrimp, or even sliced beef from the deli.  This time of the year, it's sometimes almost too hot to stand and cut up anything.  But I think you'll be happy if you try this:

Salmon on Greens and Berries with Maple-Balsamic Vinaigrette

So good to be home and cooking again...

This so-fast dinner is a riff on "Simon's Favorite New England Salad with Berries and Goat Cheese" from Linda and Martha Greenlaw's now out-of-print Recipes from a Very Small Island (2005:  Hyperion.)   There are a few copies available through amazon.com, but I was more impressed with this:

 Linda Greenlaw, America's only female swordfish boat captain, was featured in the book and film The Perfect Storm. She has written three New York Times bestselling nonfiction books about life as a commercial fisherman as well as a cookbook and two mysteries. 

Fried Potato and Egg Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

No matter how hard you try to be healthy, sometimes you have  a yen for fried potatoes.  Maybe fried eggs.  Ok.  Let's do that.  But we'll add a few veggies to the mix for this wilted salad.  And it won't seem so bad.  So unhealthy.  Oh, geez.  At least there's no bacon in it.  Though you could add it. This is kind of a picture recipe....

Black Bean and Ham Salad with Lemon-Lime Vinaigrette

I notice the loved ones in my life who live alone eat a lot of chicken.  As do folks on the South Beach Diet or any diet.  (I've been there.)  Maybe everyone who's not a vegetarian eats a lot of chicken.  Granted it's one of the most inexpensive and versatile proteins and is low in fat.   I'm on the bandwagon, too; I eat chicken often.  I roast a whole chicken probably twice a  month or more.   I occasionally buy a deli chicken on Tuesdays from Whole Foods.   I  like to make breasts on the bone for salads, casseroles (we call them hot dish in Minnesota and hot dish is singular or plural), sandwiches (though I don't eat a sandwich in two months unless it's a veggie burger on half a bun), or in omelets.

(Above:   Make my Greek Chicken Salad sometime.)

Canned Salmon Salad or Simple Pictures are Best

While I'm not hard-pressed for grocery money ... right now.. at this moment...I have been.  I spent years feeding six of us and, before that, had fifteen bucks a week to feed two hungry adults.  Really.  I know from cheap eats and, btw, canned salmon salad is cheap eats.

Lately, I find I'm just heart-sick over the cost of groceries.  And I only have to feed two people and two dogs.  Everyone I know complains about it.  One friend recently described a woman speaking on NPR about wanting to eat healthily--to eat vegetables.  Her words were something like this:

Help! I've Got Leftover Take-Out Rice and Don't Know What to Do with It

Leftover Take-Out Rice Salad

Do you leave all that extra rice at the Chinese place?  (What do they do with all that rice?  Make fried rice!)  When you pick up take-out and there's two of those "little" boxes stuffed to the gills with white rice, do you eat it all?  Do you soy sauce it up with a scrambled egg for breakfast? That's one idea.  Throw it in chicken broth with chopped green onions, a drop of soy sauce, and shredded deli chicken?  That's another.

Vietnamese Chicken Salad

Ready?  Set?  Eat.  I'm about all written out this week, but I haven't forgotten Dinner Place.  And when I thought about you, all I could think about was this Vietnamese Chicken Salad.  I made it twice this week--once with chicken and once with tofu and shrimp.  If I had my druthers, I'd say do the chicken.  We just wanted to eat and eat this.  Which is ok.  It's light and healthful.  Good to pig out on.  If you like, you can use rotisserie chicken; I know a lot of solo cooks buy a chicken a week.  Or  roast one yourself; here's how.

 vietnamese chicken salad  (courtesy Nigella Lawson/Food Network)
                        2-3 generous servings

Ingredients

• 1 Thai chile, seeded and minced (I used 1/2 a jalapeno, minced)
• 1 large garlic clove, peeled, minced
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons rice vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Vietnamese or Thai fish sauce (nuoc nam or nam pla)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 medium onion, finely sliced
• Freshly grated black pepper
• 7 to 8 ounces white cabbage, shredded
• 1 medium carrot, shredded, julienned, or grated
• 7 ounces cooked chicken breast, shredded, or cut into fine strips (I used 3 boneless chicken breasts)
• 1 bunch mint, plus extra for garnish, leaves roughly chopped  (I used about 1/2 cup chopped mint.)
• Salt

Directions

In a medium bowl, stirring with spoon, combine the chile, garlic, sugar, vinegar, lime juice, fish sauce, oil, onion, and black pepper, set aside for 1/2 hour. In a large bowl combine cabbage, carrot, chicken breast, and mint, tossing with tongs. Pour cabbage mixture over the dressing, tossing with tongs, slowly and patiently so everything is coated. Add salt, to taste. Serve on a flat plate with mint for garnish. 

Solo Cook's Notes:

If you make this whole recipe (and why not), divide the undressed salad in half.  Dress and eat one half and store the other half separately from the dressing in the frig.  Otherwise, the salad is soggy the next day.  Unless you like soggy! 

Slice the cabbage thinly by hand.

Make the dressing and marinate the pepper and onions.

Avoid tough chicken:  Sear well-seasoned, oiled boneless breasts over high heat 1 minute on each side, turn down to low and cook partly covered  until done.

Toss with chicken and dressing.  Eat as long as it holds out.

If you liked this, you might like:

My Lenten Journey blog.  Lent 2012:  40 Thoughtful Days.

This week on More Time at the Table, I've blogged a bunch of desserts and Darina Allen's Irish Soda Bread.  Take a peek!

Have fun cooking and taking care of yourself,
Alyce