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Standardby Julie58 Comments

As I may have mentioned before, salads aren’t my forte. Although I know that virtually anything has the potential to become a salad, or at least an element of one, spread out or layered or tossed, I can’t shake the old lettuce-tomato-cucumber combo of my childhood. Juicy pink grapefruits -the best of the year- were 28 cents apiece last week, and so I bought four. To populate my fruit bowl, as it turned out. While I love eating them, I’m not a fan of fileting the things. In this case, extracting the segments released enough sweet-tart juice to make a vinaigrette, with a glug of olive oil, splash of rice or white wine vinegar, dab of grainy mustard and a pinch of sugar. I came across the salad of butter lettuce, pink grapefruit and avocado, three ingredients I just happened to have at the same time – at Not Without Salt. It pushed me out of my spring mix rut. The deep ruffles of smooth,Continue reading

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Standardby Julie67 Comments

It’s too hot for words today, and besides, any words I do have must be reserved for actual paycheck-type work, assignments that come from editors and have deadlines and some days feel a little like homework. OK, a lot. Not that I’m complaining. If I didn’t have homework looming, I’d never get things like laundry and dusting done. Wait – I don’t. I came across this recipe in the Calgary Stampede Centennial Cookbook, which seemed fitting this week. It’s the sort of thing I’d most often flip by, but this time I decided to give it a go, and was glad I did. The seared scallops (I skipped the wasabi) were divine, and I’d never have thought to make a creamy dressing out of fresh peppery arugula and Key lime juice. I love an interesting salad, one that counts as dinner without feeling like “just a salad”, and this is one. Don’t you think Stampede should have an intermission? Maybe a day or two? IContinue reading

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Standardby Julie55 Comments

Happy Pop’s Day! I do love my dad. I wish I could pass on stories of and recipes for the elaborate homemade meal I whipped up for Mike tonight, but I did no such thing. It was easy to okay W’s request to take him to Five Guys for burgers – having spent the week in Kelowna (after a week in Ontario) and having woken up at 5 am yesterday for the 6:30 flight home after a late night at Tantalus Vineyards with Cam and Dana of Joy Road in the kitchen, I then spent the day yesterday at Beef – the Festival at Heritage Park talking up all that is good on a cow. Early this morning we went for brunch at my mom & dad’s, where I helped cook the bacon and pass around my sister’s pull-apart cinnamon buns, but didn’t actually assemble anything from scratch myself. Despite being out of the kitchen for so long I was perfectly happy not to cook,Continue reading

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Standardby Julie62 Comments

Salads are not my forté. I realize their potential, and creative additions often occur to me (cubes of cold frittata! soft goat cheese rolled in ground spiced nuts!), but I’m not great at building one, unless it’s the grainy, beany kind. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But my greens – they’re growing! I need to keep up. I’ve recently discovered the appeal of the plated salad – perfect for just three, and just as perfect for more – you start with a long plate or small platter, make a nest of greens and layer interesting things on top. I always wind up with too much when I fill a salad bowl, and this way the greens are there, but don’t take over the party. I have the BBC to thank for this one, although I did make some changes – I like roasting potatoes rather than boiling them (you don’t lose nutrients to the water that way), and I swapped the pine nutsContinue reading

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Standardby Julie70 Comments

Look, I have something for you! That’s not baking, nor dessert. Something that can be called into service for barbecues and potlucks all summer long, or hang out in your fridge and wait for you to need a scoop of something real instead of a handful of chips or another piece of raisin toast. I feel like I’ve been shortchanging you lately, and when I was reminded of this salad – and how delicious it is – I got all tingly (as W said this morning when he woke up with his hand asleep for the first time: “it feels all sparkly, like a fuzzy peach”) – and wanted to rush home and tell you about it immediately. This is a salad my mom and I came up with years ago – decades – to bring to a baby shower, and we’ve been making it ever since. It has orzo, and spinach, and purple onion, and lemon… we tossed things in without measuring, and whenContinue reading

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Standardby Julie71 Comments

I’m a little smitten with quinoa salads right now, y’all. Maybe that’s not new. I’ve always loved a good tumble of quinoa with black beans or chickpeas or sautéed leeks or kale. Usually with feta. OK, so totally not new. This one though? Totally is. The same but different. I know apples are out of season. Most everything is. But I’m starting to grow little green things in my kitchen – like sprouts and basil – and either would be fab torn and tossed into a quinoa salad. As green things begin to poke out of the ground, you can pluck them and toss them in. That’s the beauty of these beany, grainy salads – anything goes. This is one I did awhile ago for Swerve, and I can’t get enough of it.

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Standardby Julie151 Comments

Back in December when I was bedridden with a back that capsized on the day of our cookiepalooza, which resulted in Mike bringing up Oreo truffles and shortbread at hour intervals, I started to fantasize about big salads, and would have paid $100 to anyone who delivered a hefty dose of kale. I started flipping through food sites and blogs, looking for pictures of green things. Guys, I had it bad. I bookmarked this kale and quinoa salad with cranberries and feta, and swore I’d make it the minute I could stand at the kitchen counter again. I didn’t of course, and then it was Christmas, and the new year, and now February. So today, amongst it all, I made it for lunch. No biggie. The great thing about a quinoa salad – besides its obvious deliciousness and ability to transform hard core leafy greens like kale – is that you can keep it in the fridge and have something great to dip into atContinue reading

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Standardby Julie47 Comments

The above (and below) is an illustration of what can happen when your fridge is full and yet lacking inspiration, when you drag yourself to your computer and unenthusiastically type in “kale” because you have a sad bunch in your fridge and you think you should. And you’re just not that into said kale, even though you should be. I came across this, and it turned into this. I made a batch of mayo (easy to do with a hand-held immersion blender – I’ll show you sometime) then added an enormous clove of sticky garlic, lots of pepper, an extra squeeze of lemon juice and lots of freshly grated Parmesan, and blitzed it again. As I tossed it with the kale it occurred to me that bacon would do well here. Even better – prosciutto: when you cook it up it turns crisp and salty without being greasy and chewy, like bacon can be (not that there’s anything wrong with that… except when there is)Continue reading

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Standardby Julie65 Comments

You really should know about this slaw. It seems altogether very lowbrow, what with the bagged coleslaw and shredded chicken and thousand island dressing (which was made from scratch, including the mayo, if that counts for anything), but somehow it works. It’s crunchy and creamy and sweet and tangy, and perfect to pack in a container and take with a folding chair down to the river to nibble with your feet in the water while the boys and dog splash. (Bonus: It isn’t quite as alluring to random canines as previous snacks of peanut butter and cheese have proven to be.) Remember when I used to post what I made/bought/ate for dinner every day? Me too. Now I’m not sure I can remember what was for dinner any given night since Thursday, when we finally (after approximately a decade of saying we would) took Mike’s mum to the Banff Springs for afternoon tea. Friday was pizza and wine for lunch, more of the same forContinue reading

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