Summer squash & quinoa salad with goat cheese

That husband of mine, let me tell you -- he's a gem!

He's funny and smart (and a smidge nerdy, which I adore), patient and selfless, and so handsome that I sometimes have moments when I check him out and think, "Man, that guy is hot!"  And then I remember that I'm married to that guy.  He's legally bound to me.  How did I manage to trick him get so lucky?  Best keep quiet before somebody notices and cries foul play.

Aside from all of those wonderful meaningful traits, there are so many superficial and silly things I love about Matt.  Like how he giggles like a schoolgirl at the sight of pugs.  And how his hair gets this crazy cowlick on one side of his head.  And how his appetite for goat cheese knows no bounds, especially when it's paired with zucchini.

Southwest pulled pork salad

 

Every now and then More frequently than I should admit (being a food blogger and all), I make a dish that I go absolutely gaga over and you're none the wiser.  It's not that I'm knowingly keeping delicious food from you.  It's merely that my brainstorming for that week's meals was a little fuzzy, and I didn't think that particularly meal would be worthy of fussing and photographing.

Like the sweet & spicy pork chops.  And the Thai mango salad.  Oops.

Sometimes, I have the bright idea to make it again and document the process-- sheer brilliance!  I diligently plan, stage, and snap step-by-step photos, and present it to you in a timely fashion.  No matter if it's the second or seventieth time I've cooked that frittata.  At last, you can make it, too.

Chicken Caesar salad flatbread

Have you ever loved a dish so much that you see it everywhere you go?  I don't mean spot it literally, like on a menu, but envision the possibilities of where it could be.

Thus is the Caesar salad for Matt and me.  We love Caesar salads and try 'em everywhere we go.  We've had classic versions, kale versions, dressing-made-tableside versions, and rare but so delicious whole anchovy-topped versions.  In other words, Caesar salads for miles.

...and therein lies the problem.  The more you're exposed to something, the easier it is for you to spot a good version and a not so good version.  Inadvertently, you become a snob regarding a food you once loved so much.

Everything but the turkey: Farro with butternut squash & cranberries

It's day #2 of "Everything but the turkey" week around here, and boy, have I got a doozy of a recipe for you.  The bread basket is taken care of, thanks to the fluffiest sweet potato biscuits I shared with you on Monday.

Today's recipe is a true side dish that's got a little something to please everybody.  It's packed with as many mouth-watering flavors as it is healthy ingredients.  The name is a bit of a mouthful, but you won't be able to stop talking about it once you try it: warm farro salad with butternut squash & hazelnuts! 

Deconstructed reuben salad (round 2 recipe)

Fellas, pay attention.  I've got a salad that's right up your alley.  It's got beef and cheese!

(Ladies, you'll love this, too, but your attention span is much longer and the word "salad" won't scare you off.)

Yesterday, I shared with you my first experience with roasted cabbage.  It was cheap, sweet and garlic-y, and utterly delicious!

But there were leftovers.  As much as I wanted to polish off the rest of the wedges, cabbage is fill-ing, with a capital F.  I'm already at a slight disadvantage being petite and having the stomach capacity to match, and there was no way I could eat 1/2 of a green cabbage.

Half of a cake or a quart of ice cream?  Absolutely.  Cake is really half air, and there's always room for ice cream.

Chicken, sweet potato, and pecan salad

By now, I think I've made it pretty clear that I don't actually hate salads.  As it turns out, I actually love them, especially the mile-long salad bars at restaurants.  (I'm looking at you, Hello Bistro and Eat 'n Park.)

Make-your-own salad bars are totally my jam these days.  There's always something that appeals to me, regardless of my mood and appetite, like fresh peppers and mushrooms, avocados, a bajillion varieties of cheese, and so.many.crunchy.things.  It's enough to make you question the presence of any lettuce in your salad at all!  (I've done it, so there will be no judgement if you do the same.)

But, a produce buffet my kitchen is not.  Unless I plan ahead and raid the bulk bins at the grocery store (they are the best for just the right amount of various toppings, FYI!), a salad will most likely consist of spinach, chicken, and dressing.  Any produce in our fridge is likely there because it's meant for another recipe, something Matt complains about again and again, but that's neither here nor there.

Cranberry and walnut chicken salad

I feel like chicken tonight this week!  I've got one more chicken recipe to share with you, and it's a tried and true classic: chicken salad.  If the curried chicken salad recipe was the rebellious, leather-wearing, motorcycle-riding teenager, this recipe is its clean-cut, all-American, jeans-and-polo-shirt-wearing older brother.

Reminds me of neighbors from my childhood -- can you guess which brother I had a major crush on?

I've made this chicken salad at least 20 times in recent years and keep returning to it, again and again.  Just. So. Delicious!  It's creamy and slightly sweet, loaded with all kinds of goodies and textures.  Crunchy celery, salty walnuts, and sweet and chewy cranberries.

I made and served this for our Mother's Day lunch, and, as expected, it was a hit with everyone.  Some enjoyed it sandwiched between fluffy potato rolls and others dolloped scoops onto iceberg lettuce leaves and wrapped and crunched their way through the meal.  I highly recommend both methods.

If macaroni and cheese is winter's ultimate comfort food, classic chicken salad is most certainly that of spring!

One year ago: Garlic salmon with tomato basil relish
Two years ago: Steak and goat cheese sandwiches
Three years ago: Ham apple and brie sandwich


Cranberry and Walnut Chicken Salad
(adapted slightly from Smitten Kitchen, who adapted it from Gourmet)
-makes 6-8 servings

4 cups cubed (1/2 inch) cooked chicken
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 cup small diced celery
1 shallot, small diced
1 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup light mayonnaise
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (white wine vinegar is fine, too)
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh tarragon (or 1 Tablespoon dried tarragon)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and toss to combine. Serve and enjoy! Leftovers can be covered and refrigerated for up to 5 days.  (It gets even better overnight, I promise!)

Curried chicken salad

Good morning!  I hope all of you had a fabulous weekend.  I want to wish a belated happy Mother's Day to all the deserving ladies out there!  My very own mom and dad visited Pittsburgh yesterday for a lunch that my sister and I hosted at our apartment.  We included some of her favorite recipes, one of which I plan to share with you this week.  It was a relaxing afternoon spent with the people I love most -- doesn't get much better than that!

Speaking of ladies, it's fitting that Mother's Day should lead off what I've determined will be Chick Week around these parts.  Chicken, to be exact :) 

A few months ago, I read an article proclaiming chicken to be the most popular animal protein in America.  That didn't come as any surprise since I know we are a chicken-loving household.  We also eat a fair amount of fish, pork products, and ground beef, but chicken takes the cake.  (That sounds weird, but you know what I mean, right?)

Fast Friday: Kale salad

I think it's high time for some real talk, wouldn't you say?  Fridays tend to seem like the perfect time for it.  Heading into the weekend, we should shed ourselves of any worry and guilt and get ready to enjoy the next two days... possibly rife with guilty pleasures :)  Sounds like a fantastic plan to me!

This real talk isn't exactly heavy stuff, but it has been weighing on me for the last week, so here goes.  I've realized that over the past few years, I've painted myself as some kind of salad hater.  Sure, I'll occasionally post recipes for a creamy BLTA salad or a kickin' beef taco salad, but those recipes are months and months apart from one another.

Roughly once a month, I'll pack a salad for lunch: spinach, a chopped chicken breast, some black beans, and a little salsa is my pathetic go-to concoction.  My coworkers will see me retrieving it from the refrigerator and immediately chuckle while muttering something like, "Uh oh, Katy packed a salad.  You know what this means."  It means that I will grumble before and after every bite and wind up feeling incredibly unsatisfied when I'm finished.

Apple cider quinoa salad with sweet potatoes, black beans & onions

"We eat first with our eyes."  If that saying is true, then it would appear that I had three servings of dinner last night.  Three!  Gulp.  But, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let me begin from the top.

What started out as a plan to create a super seasonal quinoa dish turned into a glamour shots session for one of the most photogenic and autumnal dishes I've ever made!  Sweet potato quinoa with apple cider dressing for the win!

For days, I wrote and rewrote the recipe for a fall quinoa salad.  My primary goal was to create the most flamboyant color scheme dinner has ever seen.  No room for subtly here.

Besides, since when have I ever been subtle?  I barely know the meaning of the word.  It's pronounced sub-tull, right? :)

All (bad) jokes aside, you've gotta try building a recipe around the colors of the rainbow sometime.  Turns out it's fun!

Strawberry & chicken spinach salad

Raise your hand if your eyes are sometimes bigger than your stomach.

[raises hand]

Next, raise your hand if your eyes are sometimes bigger than your stomach, your husband's stomach, and your refrigerator.

[raises hand again]

And that's exactly what happened this past weekend when Matt and I handpicked strawberries went to Costco.  Strawberries were at the top of our list (hint: always take a list!) and, wouldn't you know, there were free samples of 'em... the sweetest strawberries we've had yet this season!  At that moment, we convinced ourselves that we absolutely could tackle four pounds of berries... right?

Bacon, lettuce, tomato and avocado salad

I've noticed that Matt and I have been dining out much more often lately, namely on the weekends.  Maybe it's because, at the end of a long work week, we want a little time out of the apartment to enjoy each other's company and take a break from cooking.  Remember our Friday pizza tradition?  It's gotten a facelift in recent weeks.

This is how it goes down: On my walk home from the gym, I'll notice how pleasant it is outside -- birds chirping, a light breeze, and so much sun that a mental note of "find your sunglasses" gets posted in the forefront of my mind.  As soon as I get home, stomach growling, I'll test the dinner waters with Matt.

me: "So, what do you want to do for dinner?"
Matt: "Doesn't matter to me.  What do you have planned?"
me: "Well, nothing, really."
Matt: "Oh, I can find something to eat then.  Don't worry about it."
me: "Yeah, or... I was thinking we could go stroll for food since it's so nice outside."
Matt: "Yep, we're doing that.  You put the idea in my head.  Let's go."

An hour later, we're perched on a bench in the park, he with McDonald's or Szechuan Express, and her with sushi or Panera.  Two hours later, we're home, on the couch watching some bad Friday TV, and regretting said dinners juuuuuuust a bit. 

We finally got to the bottom of our complex of craving restaurant food on Fridays.  It's because I've used up all of the new and exciting dinner recipes earlier in the week, and Friday's menu is usually something a little less exciting like a piece of roasted salmon and vegetables or chicken tenders and broccoli.  Delicious but hardly a celebratory beginning-of-the-weekend kind of meal.

Last week we played food psychologists and nipped that burgeoning complex of ours right in the bud with a yummy and wallet-friendly Friday night dinner that was anything but boring: BLTA salads!

Beef taco salad with chunky tomato dressing

According to Wendy's, it's there.  Don't you love that the company has revived it's famous slogan from 1984?  I hear that was quite a great year :)

Finding myself in search of beef but not quite willing to give in to fast food so early in the week (it was only Tuesday!), I thanked my lucky stars and planning prowess that I had the makings for a spicy and hearty beef dish.

Beef taco salad!  Trust me.  You want to make this right now.  So glad I dismissed that craving for Wendy's because this was a million times better!... and without any guilt!!

Smoky seasoned lean ground beef and black beans.  Crisp chopped romaine hearts.  Sharp white cheddar cheese.  Yum!

Chipotle steak salad with homemade dressing

Happy Friday to you!  I hope you're doing well, swell even.  Rather than a list, I've got a question for you: have you heard of the the Pioneer Woman?  I kinda have a major girl crush on her.

Isn't she lovely?  She's kind of a big deal, too, and rightfully so.  I mean, the woman is the hip midwest theoretical love child of Oprah and Martha Stewart.  She does it all!  But, no offense to Ree, I've only got eyes for one thing: her cooking.

Ohhhhhh, her cooking!

You may remember the cinnamon roll craze of spring of 2011.  Dear Lord, those cinnamon rolls.  If I had to choose between my right hand and those cinnamon rolls, well, I can't say I'd be calling myself an ambidextrous individual anytime after that.  (Yes, the cinnamon rolls are that good.  Do yourself a favor -- and prove me right -- and make them immediately.)

Watermelon, arugula & goat cheese salad with balsamic drizzle

I'd never complain about eating rabbit food again!  I know I'm about to eat my words, but -- gulp -- I love this salad!  That's right, s-a-l-a-d!  This cool, crisp, tangy, peppery, sweet, creamy summer-on-a-plate salad. In fact, I'd order this over a steak any day of the week.  What, can't a girl change her mind? :)

After a weekend of grilling, grilling, ice cream, and more grilling, I just wanted something light, juicy, and cold.  (And that used minimal dishes because I finally started packing last night.  So far I've got nine boxes filled... with movies, books, and games.  Tonight's adventure is kitchen items!)  Thankfully, future Katy somehow got through to past Katy and made her incorporate a salad into this week's meal plan.  Well played, self!

Red, white, and delicious!

Nothing like the Friday of an extra long holiday weekend to put some jump in your step!  Some treats to fix for your holiday get-togethers this weekend.  In the tradition of a Friday list, let's see what's out there on the great interwebs

1. Classic caprese salad.  Check out The Pioneer Woman's absolutely s-t-u-n-n-i-n-g photographs -- they're practically art! -- and amusing commentary while you're at it.

2. Firecracker whoopie pies... or moon pies... or gobs, depending on your beliefs, on Annie's Eats.  

3. Refresh yourself and others with a tall glass of watermelon lemonade courtesy of Confections of a Foodie Bride.  Have you ever seen a brighter more summery looking drink?  I think not!

Crispy prosciutto & white bean salad with ciabatta croutons

Before I get to this rockin' recipe, I've gotta ask -- who watched The Bachelor finale last night?!  Did your favorite win?  I won't spoil the ending for you, but for my first season of watching the show, I'm pretty happy with the outcome.  Looooove her!  After almost 3 months of investing my Monday evenings into this show, I can honestly say that I won't do it again.  It was entertaining as can be but I feel like I've lost brain cells in the process :)

Now, to this salad.  This is a carry over from last week's dinners-for-one series.  A recap of the previous recipes:

• Proscuitto-wrapped chicken with roasted green beans
• Scrambled eggs with guacamole
• Cheesy chicken and broccoli casserole
• Orange brown sugar chicken

On Friday night, after a grueling session at the gym normal work day, I came home and got to work creating this salad to remember.  To be honest, I've never been to Italy, but this reminded me of something I'd order from a little cafe along the street and enjoy outside, watching the locals go about their daily lives.  With ingredients so fresh they were plucked from adjacent markets and stands just that morning. 

Warm spinach & corn salad with lime dressing

Happy Monday, minions!  Did you have a pleasant weekend?  I definitely did.  Friday I went rogue and totally skipped the gym or any semblance of exercise.  Instead, I headed to happy hour with friends -- gasp!  I've had Mad Mex and its legendary margaritas on my mind for months, so I finally indulged a little and enjoyed the warmer weather by walking there.  Certainly one of the perks of city life :)

At least that lowered the bar for the rest of the weekend so my stint as a sloth wasn't too disappointing.  Saturday morning started off on the right foot, I swear.  I was full of energy and, by 10:30, had made breakfast, cleaned the apartment, and organized my closet.  And then, out of nowhere, the motivation fairy came and took all that I had left.  What followed was the laziest day that I can remember... at least since college.

Shrimp & spinach salad with warm bacon dressing

Oh, Monday!  I'm actually somewhat excited to see you.  This weekend was one of those packed to the brim with fun that I feel any more would've exceeded my allowance and made me an irresponsible adult.  Talk about a sign that you're getting old... when you have fun guilt.  Pfffff.  Thank goodness I did some cleaning and meal prep last night before bed, or I would've been all id this weekend.

Yesterday Matt and I went to visit my parents' for brunch and QT, then I did the usual zen food trip (am I the only person whose happy place is the grocery store?).  Friday was my favorite kind of Friday -- came home after a tough workout, made a great dinner, did a little organizing and then bummed around watching TV.  The next day, the fiancé (!!!) and I made a nice little Saturday of running errands, shopping, dinner, and a flick with friends -- Black Swan.

Have you seen it?  Let's just say it wasn't quite what I expected.  Freakishly disturbing.  A tad racy.  Intense.  And a bit scary at times.  But, good, in an unconventional not my typical cup of tea kind of way. And, daaaaaaaaaang, Natalie Portman has some serious acting chops.  She portrayed all kinds of crazy Nina Sayers the ballerina so well.  Come on, you can't say you'd take one look at her with those red eyes and think anything other than "psycho town", right?

Dippy eggs over greens & mushrooms

As detailed here, this weekend was a bit of a gluttony fest.  Oh, you better believe I relished every single second of it, be it the fried potato pancakes or the various cold treats or the heaping piles of lobster.  But I found myself craving a light simple breakfast on Saturday morning before the onslaught of food began for that day.  And, since I hadn't yet been to the grocery store (bananas, oh how I miss thee!), I was working with very limited supplies.  Somewhere, possibly in Julia Child's My Life in France or an Ina Garten article, I once read about a type of salad the French serve featuring sunny side up eggs over mixed greens.  Sounded a little odd, but I had the goods to try it for myself.

And boy, was it exactly what I wanted.  Mixed greens, a few sliced raw mushrooms, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, two dippy eggs, and a little salt and pepper.  That's it.  Yum!  Breaking the yolk and letting it dribble over the crunchy lettuce, mm.  I never thought I'd want a salad for breakfast, but this felt so satisfying and even a little high brow :)  A quick tip for cooking eggs like this -- a pan over low heat and eventually covering the pan for a minute or two, so the heat circulates and cooks the top of the egg, too. 

What do you call eggs that look like that (above)?  Dippy?  Sunny side up?  Or something else? People always laugh when I call them dippy eggs, but that's what I grew up hearing, so that's what they shall forever be!

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Today's going to be another hot (94 degrees) and humid (75%) day in the city of bridges.  About 5 minutes into my morning run, sweat was literally dripping off my face.  It was totally worth it, though, since there was a cold bowl of overnight oats waiting for me after my cold morning shower.  Yum :)  I'm going to wager that tonight's dessert will probably involve some neglected as of late popsicles...