Celery Salad with Dates and Roasted Pecans

THIS SUPER SIMPLE SALAD MADE with only a few ingredients is surprisingly delicious. I got the recipe from my long-time blogging buddy, Rosie Hawthorne of Kitchens are Monkey Business. At her blog she speaks of her discovery of Medjool dates and shares some date history. Check it out!

I have found that most good produce departments have Medjool dates but sometimes you have to ask because they are not always obvious.   I have posted a few date recipes before, always using Medjool dates, though not specifying. Here is a lovely summer dessert, Stuffed Dates. Here is another stuffed date recipe; one of my favorites and one of my favorite photographs

Celery Salad with Dates and Roasted Pecans
4 stalks celery, sliced on a diagonal
1 cup dates, pitted and chopped
3/4 cup roasted pecans
Salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon joice
2 -3 Tbsp. good extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup (approx.) shaved Parmesan cheese

Combine celery, dates, pecans, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and olive oil. Stir well. Garnish with Parmesan.

Mandarin Chicken Salad with Fresh Cranberries and Pecans

AFTER ROASTING A CHICKEN AND EATING IT for a couple of days, I decided to pick off the rest of the meat for a chicken salad. I knew I wanted fruit in it--maybe apples or grapes or both, neither of which I had on hand. Then I spotted the bowl of Clementines and thought, sure, why not.

I decided to add celery and scallions, and I knew I had some pecan halves leftover from Christmas baking. I also thought I would add some blue cheese and further thought I had some in the fridge, only to discover a little mouse (my husband) had eaten it. I did find a chunk of smoked Gouda so I used that.

After I got the ingredients together and dressed, I was stirring it and thinking how dull and colorless it looked. I was thinking, if I had some dried cranberries, I would add some for color as well as flavor. Then I remembered I had some homemade whole cranberry sauce in the refrigerator. Lovely. Perfect.

For serving, I garnished with additional tangerine sections and a dollop of cranberry sauce.


Mandarin Chicken Salad with Fresh Cranberries and Pecans
2 cups shredded or chopped cooked chicken
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup roasted pecan halves
2 Clementines/tangerines/cuties/satsumas (whatever the grower calls them, they are all Mandarin oranges) peeled, sectioned, and halved
3 oz. smoked Gouda, cut into small cubes
1/4 cup fresh whole cranberry sauce

Dressing
1/2 cup mayo
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. sugar or honey
1 clove garlic, minced

Mix the dressing ingredients together in a small bowl and chill while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Stir together the shredded chicken, celery slices, scallion slices, pecans, tangerines, cheese, and cranberry sauce. Pour over the chilled dressing and toss until evenly distributed. Chill before serving.

Tuna Salad with Cucumber, Cranberries, and Pecans

THE GOOD THING ABOUT LIVING in a tourist town is that we get to live like we are on vacation all the time. The down side is there are entirely too many people in our town. From now until the end of October, we will have trouble finding a place to park in order to dine at our favorite restaurants. We will have to be extra vigilant when driving through town because the tourists, as they gaze around at the beauty and magnificence are apt to blissfully wander into the road.

Today it has rained all day. It is very chilly and foggy. I have a pot of beans simmering and cupcakes baking. As I work in my kitchen, I love staring out the window. The trees are verdant, the mountains are shrouded in mist, and the dogwood blossoms are practically glowing.

Yesterday it was dry and quite warm and I prepared salad for supper.

Ahh, my beautiful life in the mountains. . .

Tuna Salad with Cucumber, Cranberries, and Pecans
(adapted from The Daily Meal)
2 cans (or 10 ounces) tuna
1/2 cup diced cucumber
2 scallions, sliced
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup pecans, roasted and chopped
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients. Serve as a sandwich spread or on lettuce, garnishing as desired.

Composed Salads, Grain Bowls, and Organizing Photo Files

IF YOU LOVE COOKING AND YOU LOVE PHOTOGRAPHY (a match made in heaven) you will most likely end up with a backlog of photo files to sort through.

My files had gotten so big, they were bogging down my computer. It was time to stop procrastinating and get to work. I have deleted hundreds on photos and transferred others to an external drive.

I do photograph many things other than food and this process has taken me down a memory lane of the past couple of years. There are so many cute pictures of the children--they grow and change so fast. There were pictures of my head, bald from chemo, to growing out, to my first haircut last week. There are many photos of beautiful flowers, birds, bunnies, butterflies, and bugs from our yard. Scenic photos from the gorgeous, vibrant, and hip place I am blessed to live--Asheville, North Carolina.

Mandarin Chicken Salad

As I culled photographs, I decided to share some of the things I have made, we ate, but never made it to my blog. Mainly because I wasn't pleased with the photos. But also because I wasn't thrilled with the taste of the food. I only blog about things I think are delicious.

For example, the Mandarin Chicken Salad. Ho-hum.

Shrimp, Brown Rice, and Vegetable Salad

I can see the salad has a dressing but I don't remember what it was. Which is another danger of letting my photo files back up. I can't remember what I did.






































I remember loving the brown rice and tofu bowl--I would happily eat it right now. I suppose I could fake some recipes. . .

Many things I love, tuna, cheese, boiled eggs, radishes, cornichons, sprouts (!) with baby lettuces.

Waldorf Quinoa Salad

I was really happy with this meal, but I didn't get any photos I loved. Quinoa, grapes, celery, apples, lettuce, candied pecans, and crumbled blue cheese. (Some kind of dressing). Mmmm, I think I'll try this again.

I was also happy about this meal, but again did not get shots of it that I loved. It was an awesome combination of flavors, quinoa, black beans, roasted Japanese sweet potatoes, pineapple, cheddar cheese, and spinach. I dressed this one with a Honey Lime Vinaigrette.

Honey Lime Vinaigrette
1 small sweet onion, preferably Vidalia, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 large tomato, washed and peeled
1 lime, washed, roughly chopped and seeded
2 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup olive oil

Put all ingredients into blender and process until smooth.

Cherry Wild Rice Salad with Mango Vinaigrette

I RECENTLY PARTICIPATED IN A GROUP DISCUSSION facilitated by a Registered Dietitian who advocates following an anti-inflammatory diet. The RD was obviously very well educated and knowledgeable. He was also relaxed and likeable in an unassuming and appealing way.

More importantly, for me,  he was a cook and gave a lot of helpful food preparation tips. He also had personal experience with many of the fantastic grocery stores and specialty markets in our area, regarding specific product availability and also pricing comparisons. And his shopping research covered stores from the discount box to the most shi-shi boutique.

The anti-inflammatory diet is based on fresh vegetables and fruits, whole grains, beans and legumes, healthy fats, fish and seafood (and more) while eliminating refined flours, sugars, and processed foods. It was developed by Dr. Andrew Weil, on the belief that chronic inflammation is at the root of many serious illnesses.  The diet promotes the foods which reduce inflammation while providing steady energy and plenty of vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, and dietary fiber. 

I really enjoyed the meeting because the study of nutrition and health has been near and dear to my heart all my life.

The secret to this wild rice salad is the dressing and the secret ingredient of the dressing is mango chutney. Which is not on the anti-inflammatory diet pyramid. Otherwise this salad as a meal perfectly fits the bill.

Over the years I have made this salad with different fruits; apples and grapes in fall, dried apricots and raisins in winter. I have used sliced almonds or walnuts rather than the toasted pecans I have used here. The original recipe came from the one-of-a-kind, and now defunct, Blue Moon Bakery in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. I savored their Wild Rice Salad so many times, always trying to analyze it so I could make it myself.

It was years later that I finally learned the secret ingredient. I wrote about it once before, here at my blog.

Wild Rice Salad with Mango Vinaigrette
8 oz. wild rice, cooked according to package directions, and cooled
1 red bell pepper, chopped
6 green onions, sliced
1 small sweet onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 cups fresh cherries, pitted and sliced
1 cup pecans, toasted
1/2 bunch (approx. 1/2 cup) minced parsley

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Dress with the following dressing.


Mango Vinaigrette
1/4 cup mango chutney
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar, or more to taste
1/2 cup olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Puree the chutney and vinegar, then slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Mix the dressing into the rice mixture. Adjust the vinegar, salt and pepper, to taste.

Baklava

GREAT NEWS! BAKLAVA is easy to make.

If a restaurant we choose is open all afternoon, and many are not, we often like to dine around three or four o'clock for a late lunch early dinner. It seems to fit our schedule and we are hungry then. The restaurant will be quieter and we can linger without feeling pressured to turn the table.

On a recent afternoon, at a neighborhood Greek Restaurant, we arrived at the same time a woman was delivering desserts. Pritchard Parker spotted the tall dark chocolate cake. I spied the tray of Baklava.

I hadn't eaten Baklava in years and I knew before I ordered that I was going to save room for dessert. Indeed, I loved that little morsel of buttery phyllo with sticky cinnamon scented chopped nuts.

I told my husband on the way home I was going to try my hand at Baklava. I even had a box of phyllo dough in the freezer. And nuts leftover from Christmas baking.

I looked at many recipes before proceeding. Some had too much butter and some too little. Some used bread crumbs mixed in with the nuts but I didn't like that idea. Some used too much or too little syrup.

Working with phyllo is not as difficult as some people want you to think. It is very thin and tears easily but it is also extremely forgiving. The final result matters not if some of your sheets tore; just fit the pieces in the pan and keep going.

Phyllo sheets also dry out quickly, so keep them covered with a piece of parchment then a damp towel as you work.

Some recipes also tell you to cut the phyllo leaves to fit your pan. Nay, I say. What are you going to do the the excess? Phyllo is not cheap, so just wrinkle, fold, pleat, scrunch, and make them fit--the more layers the better.

Taking concepts from different recipes, this is what I did.

Baklava
One (1 pound) box frozen phyllo dough
1 cup butter, melted
4 cups chopped nuts (I used a mixture of pecans, walnuts, almonds, pistachios)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. tangerine zest
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 large strips tangerine peel
1 cinnamon stick

Move phyllo from the freezer to the refrigerator 24 hours before you want to make the Baklava. Remove from the refrigerator 1 hour before.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter.

Combine the nuts and ground cinnamon.

Open and carefully unfold the phyllo sheets. Lie flat and cover first with a sheet of parchment then a damp kitchen towel.

Using a clean (preferably new) pastry brush, butter the bottom of a 13x9 inch baking dish. Remove one sheet of pastry from the stack and fit into the pan. Brush with butter. Repeat until about one-fourth of the sheets have been used. Top with about one-third of the nuts. Then start layering more phyllo sheets, buttering each one. Proceed in this manner, making 4 layers of buttered phyllo and 3 layers of chopped nuts, ending with a layer of pastry. If you have an odd number of sheets in your box, layer more at the bottom of the dish to make a good foundation.

Cut through all layers into serving pieces before baking. If you want traditional diamond shapes, cut diagonally from corner to corner.

Bake for 50-60 minutes until golden brown.

Meanwhile, make the syrup: combine sugar, water, honey, vanilla, lemon juice, tangerine peel, and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes until slightly thickened.

Remove the Baklava from the oven and evenly pour the syrup over the top. Let set for several hours for the syrup soak into the layers before serving. Better the next day.

Lightly cover the pan with wax paper or parchment for storage; don't seal or it will become soggy.

Stuffed Dates with Pears

FOR A SIMPLE DESSERT OR LIGHT MEAL, split open plump moist dates and remove seeds. Stuff with salty blue cheese. Toast a few pecans and press into cheese. Slice a fresh, ripe pear and sprinkle with a squeeze of lemon juice. Arrange everything to your liking on a pretty plate. Savor. 

Fresh Homemade Banana Split

Fresh Homemade Banana Split
3 scoops ice cream - your choice of flavor
Homemade Fresh Strawberry Sauce
Homemade Fresh Pineapple Sauce
Homemade Fudge Sauce
Buttery Salted Roasted Pecans
Freshly Whipped Cream

Topped with a cherry and served in antique banana split boats.

Buttery Salted Roasted Pecans

 

My final decision about my banana splits was about nuts. Nuts or no nuts? Sweet nuts? Nuts in syrup? What kind of nuts?

I decided on pecans. Of course. Not sweet, but rather buttery and salty.

Be careful. Once you taste one, you will eat a handful before you even notice. And it will be hard to stop with that.

Buttery Salted Roasted Pecans
1/2 stick butter (4 Tbsp.)
2 cups pecan halves
Coarse sea salt, to taste

Melt butter in a medium mixing bowl. Add pecan halves and stir until well coated. Spread on a sheet pan and sprinkle with sea salt.

Roast at 275 degrees for 1 hour, stirring every 10 minutes or so. Spread on parchment paper to cool.