Posts Tagged ‘salads’

I mentioned a while back that my friend Kathy got me the Mitford cookbook for my birthday. The first recipe I have tried from it was called Ray's Coleslaw. We all agreed that it was delicious. I have heard of other recipes for slaw that ask you to salt the cabbage and then drain it, but this was the first time I had tried this technique. I did think that it was a little salty, so I have cut down on the salt a little in the following recipe.

Ray's Coleslaw (From Mitford Cookbook)
8-10 cups coarsely grated cabbage
2 tsps. salt (this is less than the original recipe)
5 green onions, sliced
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 Tbsps. cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
dash freshly ground black pepper

Toss the cabbage with the salt in a colander set in a medium bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set a plate on top. Refrigerate for at least an hour to allow the water to drain from the cabbage. Mix together the cabbage and green onions in a large bowl. In another bowl combine sour cream, mayonnaise, vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, and pepper. Add the dressing to the cabbage and onions. Mix well and refrigerate until well chilled.

This is the blade I used to cut the cabbage in the food processor:

This is how I drained the cabbage in the colandar in the fridge:

The following pictures have nothing to do with cole slaw, but I think they are awfully cute:

Becka

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Sometime during the past year I discovered a new blog that I have really enjoyed. It is called Southern Plate and is written by an Alabama girl named Christy Jordan. If you live south of the Mason-Dixon line you may have heard of her, but some of my readers live far to the north or even out of the country, so you may not have had the opportunity. Christy states that she loves to feed people and her blog has lots of recipes as well as many lovely stories about her immediate and extended family. Although she has only been blogging for a few years her blog has become hugely successful and she had the opportunity to publish a cookbook which just came out last fall, shortly before Christmas.

Guess what? I asked for the book and DH bought it for me for a Christmas present. I know that I really don't need another cookbook, but I have enjoyed her blog so much that I wanted to support her endeavor.

I have tried a number of her recipes and will link to two of them here today. After you read them you might just want to sign up for her blog.

One of our new favorites is this Chicken and wild rice casserole that you cook in the crockpot. While it is not particularly interesting to look at, it is very easy and very tasty. I have made it at least three times. It works great for Sunday dinner.

Another one that I tried recently is this Frozen Cranberry Banana salad. I cut the recipe in half and found that it made twelve servings. It made a nice fruit salad to serve with Sunday dinner.

I hope you will visit the Southern Plate site and enjoy it as much as I have.

Becka

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This has been a busy week around our house. We were snowed in on Monday and Tuesday. We got several inches of snow Sunday night and then some rain which turned into ice. Travel was quite treacherous and nearly everything in town was shut down for a couple of days. Nora and I spent some time working on things for her wedding. She made great strides in her planning and I finished up one bridesmaid dress and started on the second. Fortunately our power remained on and we stayed toasty and warm and were able to do some cooking and baking as well.

Here lately just about every time I sit down at the computer my faithful assistant does this:

Have you ever read through a recipe and thought that you probably wouldn't care for it? Well, today I'm going to post a couple of salad recipes that I probably would not have tried if I had just read the recipe. Fortunately I was served both of these unusual salads and discovered that I really liked both of them.

Nora made this Roasted Cauliflower Salad for us a few weeks ago for the first time. She and I made it again last weekend and changed the recipe a little, so I'll post it how we actually made it.

Roasted Cauliflower Salad

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
olive oil
salt
small jar of capers, drained and patted dry
2 radicchio, cut into chiffonade (just slice it crosswise into small shreds) (I couldn't find radicchio after looking at two stores, so I used about 1 cup of finely shredded red cabbage--the radicchio was good though)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
3 green onions, sliced
juice of one lemon (about 1/4 cup)

Toss cauliflower with olive oil and salt. Roast at 375 degrees for 30-40 mins. or until well-browned. In the meantime heat a small amount of oil in a skillet and fry the capers for 3-4 mins. Drain on paper towels. After the cauliflower is roasted combine with the capers, radicchio (or red cabbage), parmesan cheese, and green onion. Add lemon juice and more oil and salt if needed to season. This is very tangy and would be good with fish or chicken.

I had a salad similar to this next one at a restaurant recently. I found a recipe on-line and adapted it a bit to make this version.

Macaroni Coleslaw

1 cup dry ditalini pasta (these are small tube-shapes) (you could also use elbow macaroni)
14 oz. coleslaw mix
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 celery ribs, finely chopped
about 1 cup finely chopped cucumber
about 1/2 cup finely chopped green, red, yellow, or orange pepper (I used orange)

Dressing
3/4 cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsps. sugar
2 Tbsps. vinegar
1/4 tsp. salt
dash white pepper

Cook pasta according to directions on the box. Drain and rinse with cold water. While the pasta is cooking combine the dressing ingredients in a large bowl. Clean and chop the vegetables and then add them to the dressing along with the pasta. Stir well to combine and chill for at least an hour before serving. Makes about eight servings.

The ditalini is often used in soups.

This makes a very colorful and flavorful salad. We had it tonight with some Easy Beans and Rice.

So, if you are looking for a new winter salad recipe you might want to try one of these.

Becka

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I tried a new salad recipe for lunch on Sunday. I found the recipe on the back of a bag of craisins. It is colorful and is a nice fall and winter salad. As I was cleaning up the kitchen I realized that I had forgotten to add the feta cheese to the salad. That turned out to be good because pregnant women are not supposed to eat feta cheese and DDIL, Katie was here for lunch. Mark and Katie just found out that they are going to be having a boy in April.

Here's the salad recipe -- feel free to add the feta!

Effortless Spinach Salad

8 oz. fresh spinach, washed and in bite size pieces
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
about 1/3 cup sliced red onion
1/2 cup craisins
1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds

Dressing:
1/3 cup raspberry vinaigrette
1 1/2 Tbsps. orange juice

Place the spinach, feta cheese, onion, craisins, and almonds in a couple of layers in a large salad bowl. Combine the salad dressing and orange juice and mix with the other ingredients just before serving.

I hope all of you will have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for this year here at our house and I hope you all are equally blessed.

Becka

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The other night I needed to fix a quick supper since I was going to be getting home late and Rob had to leave shortly after supper for play practice. I thought of this salad. Most of the ingredients can be prepared ahead of time and just combined at the last minute. I made this salad for Rob on one of our first dates, which was a picnic at a nearby park. He later told me that he was really impressed when I combined all the ingredients to make a tasty salad right before his eyes at the picnic table. (I think he was just really hungry!)

I don't guarantee any results if you prepare this salad for your loved one, but it is a different way to eat tuna. I got the recipe from an old edition of Betty Crocker. If you like tuna, give it a try.

Tuna on a Shoestring

1 small can tuna, drained
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/4 cup minced onion
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 small (4 oz.) can shoestring potatoes (these are usually near the potato chips)

Combine tuna, carrots, celery, onion, and mayonnaise in a bowl. At this point you can cover and refrigerate. Just before serving fold in the shoestring potatoes.

Becka

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