susan's strawberry spinach salad

monday, i had my brother, his family, my family and our aunt over to the house to celebrate not only labor day, but my aunt's 75th birthday. i grilled ribeyes, made the easiest and tastiest scalloped potatoes in existence, tossed an unbelievably delicious salad, served a pan of warm cheater yeast rolls, baked a fresh peach cobbler and scooped vanilla ice cream, overall, one dang tasty meal. today, i want to talk salad. oh my goodness i am in love. this has got to be one of the simplest, yet most flavorful salads ever. my fellow virginian and food blogger, susan, over at she's becoming doughmesstic posted this last week and it immediately went on my to do list. it was a huge hit at dinner, so much so, i had to make a new batch just for this post. well, i made a batch of the dressing, a magic elixir, and did a personal sized salad, just for me. there was a smidge of it left from monday's dinner, packed into an empty butter container, buried in the back of the fridge, but i ate it already. you have got to make this. i had a doubting thomas bellied up to the table, let's just call her my niece kristy, uh, excuse me, that child had two helping, maybe more,  but who's counting? it is that good.

 the dressing is lovely, a combination of sweet and tangy that would be perfect on most any green salad, but just take a look at this puppy....

that dressing makes the strawberries sing! i can't recommend this rockin' salad enough. you can find the recipe here. while you over at susan's fabulous read, check out her amazing baking, cooking, catering and cake decorating skills. also, she has the cutest littlest tyke named seven, that's right folks, seven. take a moment, read her story and it will all come together.

enjoy.

greek salad sans lettuce

won't keep ya but a minute, real quick like, i wanted to share our supper last night. i made a greek salad sans lettuce. trust me, you don't need no stinking lettuce, put the iceberg away. i had seen ina garten put one together the other day on tv and thought it look simple and terrific, so i whipped one up for the big j and me. the kids, they had grilled cheese. i have to say this was one expensive (remember, i am a cheapo) greek salad after buying the yellow and orange bell peppers at almost $2 each! i had to protect them like newborns. i turned my back one time, and travis had one of the peppers playing veggietales starring the larry the hothouse cucumber and pimpdaddy pepper. it was like a bad slow motion action scene as i dove for it..nooooooo! crazy.

anyway, it was delicious and it makes a ton, plenty of leftovers. also, in the fridge, i had some cold spaghetti noodles and roasted chicken, so my "mix-in" crazy husband did just that. he loved it. the greek vinaigrette is simple and nothing fancy, but has loads of flavor. i wouldn't say it the best dressing out there, but it was good enough for us. go whip of a batch of this pricey salad today. enjoy.

beth's $$ greek salad

in your favorite bowl add the following:

1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1 hot house or english cucumber, seeds removed, sliced big
1 each, yellow and orange bell pepper, cut chunky(check local bank, they might offer pepper loans)
1 half small red onion, sliced thinly
about 1/2 cup calamata olives, whole ( i got mine off olive bar at the market, love these babies)
a big ole hunk of good feta, cubed

in a separate bowl mix, 1/4 red wine or balsamic vinegar(i used balsamic, my favorite and why my salad looks kinda brown), 1/2 tsp of dijon mustard, one glove of garlic finely minced, pinch of salt, coupla grinds of fresh pepper and 1 tsp of dried oregano( roll the oregano in your hands to crush and get the oils to release). whisk. now slowly stream in about 1/2 cup good olive oil, whisking the whole time. this will emulsify the dressing. taste and adjust seasonings. pour over the veggies and cheese. let set for awhile at room temp for the flavors to mellow and meld. i do this and then pop the salad in the fridge. we like ours cold. enjoy.

easy peasy blue cheesy .....salad dressing

so i have been craving a blue cheese lettuce wedge, but with a twist. i wanted to make a stellar blue cheese dressing, not the stuff from a jar or bottle. i did a little research and combined a few recipes and came up with what i believe to be a real keeper( maybe i should jar or bottle this stuff). the dressing, after sitting overnight, is chunky, cheesy, thick, creamy and flows nicely down the lettuce(note the blue cheese waterfall) wedge giving plenty of coverage. it is downright delicious, even big j, a ranch man, piled it on after a little sampling. i was shocked. i just put the ole hidden valley back on the fridge door. this simple salad only got better with the addition of diced locally grown tomatoes, one yellow and one red. i am always amazed how something so uncomplicated can be so unbelievably good. enjoy.

beth's easy peasey blue cheesy salad dressing

simply whisk to combine in a bowl and allow to refrigerate overnight, the following:

1 cup mayo-i use duke's
1 8oz sour cream-i use daisy light
1/2 cup buttermilk
one large spring onion, white only, that i grated on a small hand grater
one clove garlic, that i grated on a small hand grater
a heavy dash, like a tsp of worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp kosher salt
4 dashes of hot sauce
2 tsp of sugar
5 oz crumbled blue cheese(you can add more, but this was the size of the container i bought, for me it was perfect)

you must allow this dressing to sit overnight for the flavors to truly develop.

the blue cheese waterfall.....

easy peasy caprese salad

it's hot, so for supper tonight i threw together a quick, cool caprese salad for myself. the others were here, but they were not interested in sharing my flavorful little insalata, fine by me. i had recently bought some locally grown orange and yellow tomatoes and couldn't wait to try one. i choose an orange tomato and sliced it alternately layering it with fresh mozzarella, a few julienned leaves of my window basil, a splash of fruity olive oil and sweet balsamic vinegar, finishing with a generous sprinkling of kosher salt and coarse black pepper. how can something so simple be so amazing? instead of licking the plate this time, i sopped up the juices with some nann bread. now that's amore. enjoy.

benne seed salad dressing

i made some wonderful benne salad dressing the other day. benne seed, for those folks who do not know, is sesame seed. i apologize for the unappealing snapshot, but i had the hardest time trying to keep it from separating. i couldn't snap the picture quick enough. you will have to take my word on how good this salad dressing is. i found the recipe on recipezaar and it's here. it is loaded with sesame flavor and lends itself well to fresh veggies, especially broccoli and cucumbers. it was also pretty dang tasty on my baby spinach salad topped with fresh strawberries. enjoy.

fyi, the recipe calls for toasted benne or sesame seeds. i simply toasted them in a dry frying pan till brown, over medium heat, stirring often for about 4 minutes. keep an eye on them, they will burn quickly.

red skinned tater salad, best ever

this weekend we celebrated my son's fourth birthday and i baked and cooked for two days. one of the things i made was red skinned potato salad and you know what? it was the best potato salad i have ever made, seriously. i have always made some version of a yellow(mustard) potato salad and this had some mustard in it, but unlike the others, it was dang good. i mean really dang good. i have an cantankerous aunt who always says she doesn't like anyone's potato salad, but her own. i figured if i could get a compliment from her, and she will let me know, i did good. well, apparently i did do good because she made a point of telling me how much she enjoyed it.

what i did was poke around the net and pick a few recipes to combine. i don't like pickles or pickle relish, sweet or dill, in my salad. i don't like large hunks of onions or eggs either. i think paprika is unnecessary and i sure don't like salad dressing(miracle whip), ick.

i decided that i was way too lazy to peel potatoes before boiling, so i picked red skinned ones. they are yummy to eat, skin and all. i love potato skins, that is where all the flavor and vitamins are. (trying to keep it healthy, yea right) anyway, what i did was basically boiled a five pound bag of red skin potatoes, cooled and cubed into my big mixing bowl. i then mixed the following in a separate bowl:

1 to 1.5 cups of good mayo-i used duke's(good southern tradition and my mama's favorite)
2 tbsp of cider vinegar
a hefty tbsp of yellow mustard
a teaspoon or so of garlic salt
a hefty shake of black pepper, probably about .5 tsp

i blended this together, simply with a spatula and then folded it into my cooled potatoes trying not to break them up too much.

to the potatoes i then added six chopped boiled eggs, two springs onions, white and green, finely minced, and two stalks of celery sliced thin. fold these in till well mixed, once again trying not to break up the potatoes too much. let chill, overnight is best.

my picture does not do it justice. good stuff folks. enjoy.

caesar tortellini salad

this is a super simple supper salad, say that three times fast, that i nicked from recipezaar. there is a gal over there that has some killer recipes and this is one of them. my pic looks pretty washed out. i need to think about investing in a new camera, but that is a whole different post. the salad is a big hit at my house. i usually fix parmesan crusted chicken tenders as an accompaniment. good thing you can't smell my breath right now--whoa!


here is the link to recipe-
http://www.recipezaar.com/Kittencals-Caesar-Tortellini-Salad-166669

oh, i let the end users add their own black pepper.