Day 4: Goat Cheese Globes

Day 4's inspiration came from an overwhelming amount of oranges and a love of goat cheese.  I was looking for recipes that called for oranges because I have a ton of them - a couple days after buying a massive bag of orange's from Costco, I also got a shipment of 12 oranges from my Aunt in Florida.  Love having so many oranges, but I have to get creative.

I found a recipe for "Orange, Roasted Beet, and Arugula Salad" in my cookbook, Fresh Flavor Fast from Martha Stewart (thanks Mom!). 

As a side note, this cookbook is rated 4.5 stars on Amazon and I absolutely love it.  It has really simple ingredients that make really delicious, impressive food.

Goat Cheese Globes

Ingredients
1.7 oz of goat cheese (I used garlic and herb)
1 tablespoon plus one teaspoon milk
1 packet (20g) Sodium Alginate
1/2 teaspoon Calcium Lactate

Special Utensils
Slotted spoon
Immersion blender

Step 1: Make Alginate Bath
Add one packet (20g) of Sodium Alginate to 2 cups of cool water.  Mix with your immersion blender (or put into a standard blender) and let sit in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Step 2: Prepare Goat Cheese
Add 50g of goat cheese to a bowl.  I used a converter and this is 1.7 ounces.  The standard goat cheese log is 4 oz, so I tried to use about a little less than half of the log. Then, add 1 tablespoon plus one teaspoon of milk.  Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of Calcium Lactate over the milk/goat cheese, and stir together thoroughly.

*Note that my globes were not runny at all.  I had to use my finger to push the mixture out of the teaspoon.  This made the effect much less impressive because they were more blobs than dollops.  Without a bit of fluidity, they didn't take on a very cool shape.  I am not sure how to remedy this - maybe more milk and more calcium lactate?

Step 3: Make the Globes
Using a half teaspoon, scoop up the goat cheese mixture and drop by the spoonful into the alginate solution.  Note that I thought a half teaspoon ended up being fairly large.  If I made these again, I would use a quarter teaspoon.  Let sit for three minutes, then give the globes a rinsing bath in a bowl full of cool water.

Goat cheese globes were far from the coolest thing to make.  These were really easy, but just not very impressive.  Goat cheese can already form crumbles on their own, and without any sort of fancy shape, I could have had a similiar result by just slicing the cheese.  I did like have more of a fluid cheese on my salad though. 

Orange, Beet and Arugula Salad- serves four as a starter salad

Ingredients:

Salad
1 large beet - I got canned shoestring beets to make it much easier
2 oranges
2 bunches arugula
Goat cheese - or make goat cheese globes, above (I used almost half of a standard 4 oz goat cheese log).  Choose your favorite flavor
Cauliflower - optional

Dressing
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablesppon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
Juice from the oranges

Step 1: Prepare the beet
If you don't want to use canned beets, you need to cook your beet.  To do so, preheat the oven to 450*F.  Wrap the beet tightly in aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet.   Cook until tender when pierced with a knife (about 45-50 minutes).  When cool enough to handle, peel (rub off the skin with a paper towel so your hands don't stain) and cut into wedges.  That seemed like a lot of work for just one beet, which is why I choose to use canned beets.  They come presliced, so you just open the can and you are good to go.

Step 2: Prepare oranges 
Over a bowl, cut the ends off both the oranges.  Then cut in half again (see picture).  After that, peel and wedge the oranges.  Squeze the juice out of the ends of the orange that you cut off. You are trying to salvage some orange juice for the dressing.

Step 3: Make the dressing
Mix together oil, vinegar, mustard, and orange juice. Add salt and pepper to taste, then whisk to combine (I just put mine in a little container and shake).  If you do not have enough orange juice, just squeeze the juice out of a few of your orange wedges.

Step 4: Assemble Salad
Toss arugula with dressing from Step 3.  Divide among four plates (or two if this is a dinner salad), top with beets, oranges, and goat cheese globes, plus cauliflower if using.

Salad with Seeds

I was feeling lazy tonight.  So lazy, in fact, I was trying to decide between orange juice or a fruit smoothie for dinner.  I decided chopping and dicing was out of the question, but I hadn't eaten many vegetables during the day (just a handful of snow peas as part of breakfast) so I decided to make a salad.

I would say I have mastered the art of amping up a salad with herbs and I can make a mean salad dressing.  However, I never ever use seeds!  I saw a recipe in Cosmo (February 2012) for a salad with seeds, and I decided that would be the perfect way to go - delicious, filling, and no chopping.

I used pumpkin seeds, fennel seeds, poppy seeds, and sesame seeds.  Fennel was new for me.  I always hear them using it on Iron Chef and Top Chef, but had no idea what it tastes like.  It tastes like a spicy licorice flavor - really tasty.  However, if you aren't used to experimenting with new flavors, you might want to go easy on the fennel until you get used to it.

I got my pumpkin seeds from the snack part of the grocery store - where they have corn nuts, peanuts, etc.  Not the best place, but if I didn't feel like chopping you better believe I didn't feel like digging around in a pumpkin for seeds!

I used 1 teaspoon fennel, 2 tablespoons sesame, two tablespoons poppy, and about 3/4 of a packet of pumpkin seeds.

Toast them over medium heat on your stove top until they start to brown and smell good.

Then, fill your plate with spinach.  I didn't feel like making a dressing either, so I drizzled my salad with a bit of olive oil and ate it with a half lemon on the side.  I also added salt and pepper, as well as some mushrooms I had in the fridge.

The verdict?  A nice new way to enjoy a spinach salad.  One warning though.  Check your teeth after eating! You will have seeds all up in your grill, so make sure you don't want around unaware :)

Toasted Parmesan

Well I think it is time to let the cat out of the bag.  If you haven't caught on by now, it is time you know the truth...I LOVE PARMESAN!

I also love salads, homemade salad dressing, and my coworkers.  Why my coworkers?  Besides being all around fantastic, many of them seem to have an affinity for growing tomatoes and sharing the wealth.  I have picked up about a dozen or so home grown tomatoes in the last week, and they are fantastic.  I eat them plain with a bit of salt on top, but I was looking at my last remaining beauties tonight and decided I needed to do something special with them.  I decided to roast them in olive oil, balsamic and a spice mix of ground mustard/cilantro/cayenne whilst preparing a salad to go along with the fresh veggies.

Now back to my love of parmesan -- I had shredded parmesan for lunch in a chickpea salad and it was the first time parmesan just didn't do much for me.  I could have done with or without it, so I didn't want to just sprinkle some over my dinner salad.  I decided it was time to get creative, so I picked up some grated parmesan (the kind that looks like powder) at the store.

This creation was pretty genius.  You can jazz it up however you want and I didn't use precise measurements, but it went somethin' like this:

• Preheat oven to 375* F
• Lay parchment paper over my version of a cookie sheet AKA a pizza pan
• Pour about half a cup of parm into a bowl
• Add garlic powder to taste
• Add pepper to taste
• Add Italian seasoning to taste
• *If you prefer solid measurements, I would estimate about a quarter teaspoon garlic powder, a tablespoon Italian seasoning, and a half teaspoon pepper
• Mix it all up in the bowl and add to the parchment paper.
  
  

Here is where I would change things if making again.  My original intent was to melt the circles into individual servings.  Well I had never really thought about it before, but realized grated parmesan doesn't melt!  When they were done in the oven, I expected to pick each circle off the paper, but they all crumbled, which ended up being a happy accident.  If I were doing it again, I would just spread the cheese in a thin layer over the pan (use parchment paper though).

Cook for five minutes -- mine started to brown at four minutes, so pay close attention and don't exceed five minutes without a VERY watchful eye!

When done, remove from the oven and crumble up.

Now you have something that tastes like a deconstructed crouton -- breadcrumb-like, flavorful, adds a bit of crunch, and, even better, much lower calorie than croutons!  One tablespoon of this stuff is only 20 calories and because of the crumb-like consistency, it sprinkles over your salad quite well.

I ALSO JUST REALIZED THESE TASTE EXACTLY LIKE BREAD CRUMBS! I really think they could replace bread crumbs in any recipe someone is looking to make gluten free.  The flavor options are endless, and the cheese doesn't melt, so it will retain its crumbly texture.  I am going to have to try it out and report back, but I can't imagine there is much more exciting for the gluten-free world than gluten-free breadcrumbs...imagine the frying possibilities it opens up :) Compared to breadcrumbs, the calorie content is about 1/3 to 1/2 as many calories.

Reunited with Romaine

I would consider myself a hater of romaine lettuce.  First of all, on the lettuce spectrum, it is not even that good for you, as the darker the leaves, the healthier the lettuce.  Second of all, I think it tastes mostly like water, and third of all it just grosses me out! [There is a caveat that romaine lettuce is required for a proper Caesar salad though]

I think the gross factor can be explained because of the turtles we used to have.  Romaine was the main component of their diet, and I was little and we weren't the best caretakers.  The romaine would get rotten/brown/gross and it was even grosser when it was digested.. . BLEH!

Anyway, I was looking on Orangette and craving a salad because I hadn't had a really good one in forever.  I also didn't want to spend too much money, because I have a friend coming in this weekend and we will probably be spending lots.  That was when I found Summer Romaine Salad with Lime Garlic Dressing.  I would say this has forced me to rethink my snobby stance toward romaine.

To make it, I only had to buy a few ingredients.  The first was romaine lettuce - I went for a giant head of it because it was a great deal for only $.99/head. The stuff in the bag was really pale looking, and the quality of the bunch looked better as well.

I also bought cherry tomatoes, four limes (which were disappointly small at the store), feta and a red onion.

First, you make the dressing.  The recipe calls for three tablespoons and one teaspoon of lime juice, but I just winged it and squeezed in the juice of four limes (which is pretty close to the proper amount).  Before juicing the limes, I roll each one around under my foot to get the juices moving.  It is also an awesome foot massage! I need to get some sort of citrus juicer though, because doing it the old-fashioned way makes a huge mess.

To the lime juice, you add five tablespoons good olive oil (hopefully Costco is considered "good" haha!), a quarter teaspoon minced garlic, and an eighth teaspoon salt.  I omitted the salt.  Then you are supposed to whisk until emulsified -- I shook my little dressing container until it all mixed up.

To make the salad, I first chopped up the lettuce.  Then, slice some cherry tomatoes, and slice the red onion.  I made sure to slice the onion into little slivers because raw onion can be pretty potent.

To assemble, add the tomatoes, onion and feta to the salad and dress.  I also added broccoli and dill to use up some leftover veggies.

This is VERY simple (juicing the limes was as hard as it got) and delicious.  I was a bit wary of using raw onions (especially red, which I find very potent) but with the olive oil/citrus dressing, it wasn't too powerful at all.  The combo of veggies and cheese suited each other very well.

I would caution that if you are not used to olive oil or don't like particularly tangy things, you might not like the dressing as much as you were hoping.  However, I found it refreshing to eat a salad in order to taste the flavors of the salad, instead of eating salad as a means to chow down on some dressing.

Salad & Shopping

Well, things aren't getting much better on the health front.  At the end of work today I started getting an awful headache, and now it is really bad.  It is more the head-cold-kind-of-headache though, where it sort of feels like it hangs out near your nose andwhen you tilt your head, it follows the blood flow.  I try to do yoga every day, and it made downward dog a lot more uncomfortable than it's supposed to be.  Plus, sun salutations are pretty lame if you can't do downward dog. But, after fighting through some of the poses, it actually feels a bit better.  It's interesting my symptoms have been changing each day...maybe today means it will change for the better :) (soooo optimistic).

Good news?  I got to watch Dexter reruns today.  I love that show and haven't seen it in forever, so reruns are just like watching a bunch of new episodes.

What with my headache and all, I didn't feel like making much for dinner.  I also cleaned my whole apartment and part of that involved cleaning out the fridge, and I realized I have a LOT of vegetables I need to use up.  I got a huge bag of spinach yesterday for $2.99, so I ended up just making a salad.

What I had planned for the salad was red onion, golden raisins, and sunflower seeds.  Then, I found avocado, broccoli, carrots, cilantro (my favorite) and mint.  Like I said -- lots of vegetables in the fridge.  Salads and soups are my favorite ways to use them up. 

For dressing, I went with Brianna's.

This time, I tried the New American dressing, which is a creamy balsalmic.  It is pretty good, but nowhere near as good as the Blush dressing.  Go out and buy it.  It is PHENOMENAL.  I love, love, love it.  It has a strawberry on the bottle, but it is not strawberry flavor.  The strawberry apparently signifies it goes well with strawberries, which it in fact does.  Not sure what the grapes on the New American dressing means.

In other news, I have a coupon for $25 off a $50 purchase at Loft.  I LOVE Loft, so I don't really want it to go to waste.  What should I get? Of course it depends what is actually in stock and what is cute on, and I will probably end up hating all of these.  BUT, what do you like best?  Other ideas?  I don't want to get a lot...ideally just $50 so one or two things. Opinions!

                                                          This shirt, but in beige.

                                                                  These pants in olive

                                                                    (Its sequiny!)

                                                                      In olive
What do you think?  I am either going tomorrow or Thursday after work, so speak soon or forever hold your peace :)

Warm Chickpea Salad

So it has been my goal to try and post every day.  I haven't been sleeping well...could NOT fall asleep last night.  However, even though I was really sleepy, my first real day in my department was awesome.

Once I get home, while I am still adjusting, I just want to veg out and watch TV and read magazines...but the one thing I still do almost every night is make myself dinner. Therefore, while I don't want this to necessarily be a food blog, I still want to post what I am up to, and I am always up to cooking something.  Bear with me while I get adjusted and soon I will be out adventuring again!

Tonight's dinner was from Orangette. I had a vinegar dressing on my salad for lunch, and was craving some more vinegar flavor, plus had some carrots getting soft.  It is also really warm out (despite pouring this morning) so I didn't want to slave over the stove.

Therefore, I made a warm chickpea salad with shallots and a red wine vinagrette.

The recipe calls for one large shallot.  Albertsons had a pitiful shallot selection, so I used two tiny ones instead.

Then I put the shallots in a bowl with half a teaspoon of chopped garlic, three tablespoons red wine winegar, and some salt.  It needed to sit for ten minutes.

While this mixture was resting, I brought a pot of water to a boil and threw in two cans of chickpeas.  You are supposed to "blanch them" which means make them white or pale by extracting color.  All I did was boil for two minutes, rinse, and drain.

Those are chickpeas, not corn!

While that was blanching, I shredded one jumbo carrot, and chopped about half a bunch of Italian flat leaf parsley.  My carrot shreds were a little too big...grating would have been a better option.

Then I added these vegetables and the shallot mixture to the chickpeas, along with third of a cup of olive oil and some salt and pepper.  Voila'! Dinner was served.