Iceberg is so great for texture, and arugula has that nice peppery bite. My favorite dressings are a parmigiano and one that is gingery, I'll have to look them up tomorrow.
Well, I hate to interrupt the leafy green discussion . . . but, damn, I made something delicious last night. Is stopped on the side of the road and I got a big basket of fresh strawberries last week. Bright red, plump, sweet and delicious, right off the farm - literally, the guy who picked them just set them on the table as I pulled up. Since I can't eat that many, I gave some away, but was also coming up with other things to do with them. I sliced 6 or 7 of them and made a light glaze. One powdered sugar donut on a plate, pour the glaze and strawberries on top, topped with whipped topping. Boom. Easy and yummy.
Hey! I had strawberries for dessert last night too. 1/2 lb sliced strawberries ~1/3-1/2 cup coconut milk 1 tsp sugar Mix together. Eat your heart out. Have a cigarette afterward.
Of course, bacon bits are optional - today I threw in some cubed ham, but it can be sans meat. I usually dress it with a feta cheese, vinegar and oil concoction I get at the store salad bar. Haven't looked it up at home yet.
A great salad granish are Parmesan chips. Buy a wedge of aged Parmesan or Pecorino' and shred it into a pile on a waxed paper and put in the oven at 350 for a couple minutes.
Found the dressing recipes. Both of these dressings I would probably eat a ridiculous amount of salad as a vessel for the dressings. They are also easy to make - the parmigiano one is the easiest. The ginger one is easy too, except I tend to be whiny about grating ginger so the husband usually ends up doing it. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/salmon-cakes-with-creamy-ginger-sesame-sauce-recipe.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/elli ... ecipe.html</a> <a class="postlink" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/recipes/radicchio-salad-with-crumbled-barone-rosso-and-creamy-parmigiano-dressing/11454/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/recipe ... ing/11454/</a>
I buy little jars of grated ginger at this Korean/Japanese market by my house and it has been life changing. I LOVE ginger, but you're right, grating it is a pain in the ass. Now I go out of my way to put ginger in things because it is amazing. And now I have a new dressing to try!
Oooooh, thank's for the tip! FYI - the ginger-sesame recipe is really a sauce for the salmon cakes in the link, but we always have leftover sauce and so I would use it up as a dressing in salads.
The husband has been watching BBQ Pittmasters recently and was inspired this weekend to smoke a chicken. He explained to me, almost as if he were reading a script from the show, that what we have been calling barbecued chicken all these years is actually just grilled chicken with barbecue sauce on it. The real way to make barbecued chicken is to smoke the chicken and then dip it in barbecue sauce right before presenting to the judges....I mean, sitting down to dinner. I smiled and nodded, not wanting to dampen his enthusiasm, but still having internal reservations because it seemed to me that the chicken would turn out tough and overwhelmingly smoky flavored. I was wrong. So, so wrong. I weep for how delicious it was. We have some leftover smoked chicken and I plan to experiment with making a smoked chicken salad using chunks of apple and our homemade chipotle mayo (cutting it with the regular mayo because it is pretty spicy) and maybe also some toasted pecans.
Has anyone smoked wild turkey before? I'm not yet sure what I'll do with the breasts from the bird I got this past weekend but am thinking the thighs and legs might belong in a smoker with cherry wood.
Brine it first, inject with butter, smoke at high temp, around 325 or 350. Pull it off at 155 internal. Cover loosely with foil and let it rest for 10 or 15 minutes. Use a BBQ rub or something you like, Plowboys Yardbird is great stuff.
You had me at "inject with butter." Sounds great. Do you baste or spritz on anything while it's smoking?
Nope once my meat is in the smoker I don't fuck with it. After you inject the butter rub some more butter all over the outside and then apply you seasonings.
There's a salsa contest at the office tomorrow. Any suggestions for a crowd-pleaser? It can be mild to wild.
Try a cactus salsa. There are a million recipes out there. I made some and honestly it doesn't change the overall taste of the salsa much but it's kinda cool to try out.
I think a plain ole pico de gallo is the best. Not fancy at all. Simple, fresh, the best thing on a taco. 2 medium tomatoes diced 1/3 medium onion diced small 1 jalapeno chopped real small 1 handful bunched cilantro 1 ounce lime juice salt/pepper I also make a Mango salsa almost the same as above, but with a chopped mango. You can throw in grilled peach too. Charred Corn and black bean salsa with queso. This site has a ton of salsas: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.closetcooking.com/search/label/Salsa" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.closetcooking.com/search/label/Salsa</a>
Interesting... I wonder what options the grocery store has. Simple is good too. I can do two entries so one will likely be a good ole pico style salsa and I can get funky with the other. Thanks for the suggestions!
Whatever you do, get the best/freshest ingredients you can. Don't use dried/bottled herbs/spices, get fresh. That makes more of a difference than a lot of people realize. Also, taking a quarter of a tomato, burning the skin (hold it over an open flame on a natural gas stove), and then using a pestle and mortar to mix it with the fresh herbs, etc., gives it a deep, smoky flavour.
Watermelon pico is one of my favorites. ^this recipe, but replace the tomato with diced watermelon, add a bit of diced radish for added crispness.