You-Can't-Believe-It's-This-Good-Kale-Salad

I hate kale. Or, at least I thought I did until my husband made me this salad. I also thought that I'd never be able to eat salad without salad dressing, but his simplified tossing with lemon juice and olive oil really allows you to fall in love with all the veggie flavors. The key to this salad is having homegrown - or close to it - veggies. Marginal produce is going to result in a marginal salad.

Hubby's Kale Salad

4-6 leaves of kale, cut into strips.
1 artisan carrot, cut into narrow rounds
10-12 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/5 of a red onion, cut into fine/thin smiles
1/4 cup walnuts
juice of 1/2 a lemon (fresh!)
3-4 Tablespoons quality olive oil
1/4 teaspoon fine salt (more if you're a salt lover)
pinch of finishing salt to garnish

1.) Mix all together in a big bowl!

Orzo Salad with Pine Nuts and Sundried Tomatoes

It was delightfully hot today in Minnesota - reaching 90 degrees! These are the days I miss living in the country and being able to easily transition between indoors and outdoors. Living in an apartment complex just seems to make getting outdoors harder. There's just nothing like being able to lounge in the comfort of your own yard... Anyway, the hubby and I did get a lot of sunlight today watering and weeding our community garden plots. This originally was supposed to be his little hobby for the summer,but now I find myself assuming greater responsibilities. It is kind of fun to see the little plants grow and excel with sunshine and water. Plus, I'm excited to find ways to use the crops in the kitchen come harvest time.

With all the heat of the day, I really started craving my husband's orzo salad. It's a pasta dish filled with veggies, and unlike traditional macaroni salad which has a mayonnaise dressing, this dish uses olive oil, which is much lighter. That lightness is so nice when it's extremely hot. So, I decided to whip up a batch for us to enjoy when we returned from gardening. It totally hit the spot.

Orzo Salad

From my hubby

1 1/2 cup orzo pasta

1/3 cup olive oil

1/4 cup high quality balsamic vinegar

1 cucumber, diced

1 medium tomato, diced

1/2 red onion, sliced thinly

2-3 sundried tomatoes, finely chopped

5 basil leaves, finely chopped

1/4 cup pine nuts

Other options: artichoke hearts, olives, fresh mozzarella, dill

Salt and Pepper to taste

1.) Cook orzo pasta in boiling, salted water until it is cooked through. Strain and rinse with cold water.

2.) While the pasta is cooking, toast the pine nuts by placing them in a dry pan and turning the heat to medium. Allow them to cook on the stove, stirring occasionally, until they become fragrant or start to slightly darken/become golden (usually about 5 minutes). Remove the pine nuts from the heat.

3.) Place pasta, pine-nuts, and veggies in a salad bowl. Toss with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

4.) Refrigerate the salad until ready to serve.

Homemade Sandwich Rolls, BBQ Beef, and Cabbage Salad

It's hot in Minnesota, and I love it! It's light out until 9 PM at night. I can walk outside without adorning a parka (literally). Summer is here - and early! yay! In honor of the lovely weather, I made one of my favorite dishes: Barbeque Beef Sandwiches. I love this recipe because it takes about five minutes to start in the morning as you put everything into the slow cooker/crock pot, then a few more minutes at the end to shred the beef, and then done and delicious! When I lived in New York, I always used Dinosaur Barbeque Sauce in my BBQ Beef, but now I don't have immediate access to it. : ( I plan on trying to come up with my own personal BBQ sauce, but in the meantime, I'm experimenting with the types sold in the local grocery.

I decided to make my own rolls since I didn't have any laying around the house. Bread products are generally tricky for our household with the hubby being vegan. Often there can be milk or an egg wash that might sneak its way into the recipe, so I've been making more bread at home so I know what goes into it. I found this recipe for No Knead Sandwich Rolls. The advantage to these rolls are that you can start them at the same time as the beef, and then let them sit all day, and them work on them an hour or so before you want to eat, and you're done! The hubby liked the rolls so much he requested them when he went away for a conference this last weekend. The rolls have a nice crunchy crust and are nice and soft in the middle. Mmmm.

The cabbage salad recipe is my mother's. You can add more or less mayo depending on how creamy you like yours. I prefer mine a little lighter. I'm also a purist when it comes to mayonnaise and always use the real stuff. I'd rather eat less food with more taste than more food with less taste, but that's me.

I hope that you'll enjoy these delicious and refreshingly easy recipes soon!

Barbeque Beef

2.5 - 3 pounds beef chuck roast

1 cup (roughly) of BBQ sauce of your choice

1 chopped onion

1.) Trim fat off the beef and place it into the crock-pot.

2.) Add onions and BBQ sauce.

3.) Cover and cook on low for 10-12 hours until beef is tender.

4.) Shred meat using two forks.

5.) Serve either alone or with buns for a sandwich.

No Knead Sandwich Rolls

From About.com

1 1/2 cups warm (but not hot) water

1/4 teaspoon dry active yeast

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar (I used raw sugar)

3 cups flour

cornmeal for the baking pans

1.) Add all ingredients (except the cornmeal) to a bowl and mix with a spoon until the ingredients are decently mixed. The dough is going to be very sticky. Once mixed, cover the bowl with a towel or saran wrap and let the dough sit for 12 hours. (I've done as little as 8 hours with success.) After the dough has sat for at least 8 hours (ideally 12), it will be bubbly and at least doubled in size.

2.) Place a 'generous' amount of cornmeal on a baking sheet - this prevents the rolls from sticking while baking. (Note: The first time I did this, I practically covered the bottom of the baking sheet with cornmeal, and then while the rolls were cooking, my whole place smelled like toasted cornmeal. The second time I made the recipe, I just put cornmeal in the areas where the rolls would be, and it worked just fine and smelled less toasty).

3.) To prepare the rolls, place a 1/4-1/2 cup of flour on a plate or counter top. Separate the dough into 8 pieces; since the dough is very sticky, I found it easiest to take a piece of the dough and roll/dust the outside with the flour on my plate so that the outside wasn't so sticky. Then, I could mold the piece of dough into a round shape and place it on my cornmeal-covered baking sheet.

4.) Once all the rolls are made and placed on the baking sheet, let them sit for 30 minutes to 1 hour so they may rise some more.

5.) Place a pie pan half filled with water on the bottom rack of the oven and heat the oven to 425 degrees. Bake the rolls on the middle / top rack for 25-30 minutes or until they are golden on the outside and sound hollow when tapped on top. Remove from the oven, and let them cool some before using.

Mom's Cabbage Salad

1 small cabbage finely chopped or shredded

1 apple sliced thinly

1/2 red onion sliced thinly

1-2 carrots cut into fine matchsticks or coarsely grated

Sauce:

1 cup mayonnaise

1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons celery seeds

1.) Place all sauce ingredients in a small bowl and whisk together.

2.) In a large bowl, place veggies. Pour in dressing and toss thoroughly.

3.) If you like a crunchier salad/slaw, serve immediately. If you'd like it to soften, cover the salad and refrigerate it for 1-2 hours before serving.