Shaved Zucchini and Fennel Salad

This one is pretty close to the Shaved Fennel and Mushroom Salad I've made in the past. The zucchini and red onion make a really nice addition in this salad from EatingWell magazine. I added the mushrooms to it. Nice, fresh and easy for a quick lunch. Or with dinner.

Shaved Zucchini, Fennel and Mushroom Salad
Source: EatingWell - July/August 2011
adapted by There's Always Thyme to Cook
Printable Recipe

2-3 zucchini
1 bulb fennel, quartered and cored, fronds reserved
4-5 white button or cremini mushrooms
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
a little bit of fresh lemon zest
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup slivered red onion
6 tablespoons shredded Manchego, Asiago or Parmesan cheese

Very thinly slice zucchini lengthwise into long strips with a vegetable peeler, mandoline or a knife. Place the strips in between two layers of paper towel and let stand while you prepare the rest of the salad.

Very thinly slice fennel bulb and the mushrooms with a knife or mandoline. Chop enough fronds to equal about 1/8 cup. Whisk oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add the zucchini, fennel, fronds, mushrooms and onion; gently stir to coat well. Serve sprinkled with cheese and freshly ground pepper.

Joining 

Beth at Beth Fish Reads for her fun Weekend Cooking Party. Every weekend. It's open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share! Go on over and see some fun posts.
 

and

Joining the November Blog Hop & Giveaway: Favorite Vegetable Recipes on the FaveDiets blog.

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Arugula-Endive Salad

At least my screw ups taste pretty good most of the time. Of course once again this time I didn't read the recipe through completely. Just sort of of saw what I wanted to see and thought this is very easy! Added a few extra's like frisee, radicchio and fennel. Cremini mushrooms, too. It still tasted amazing, even without following it completely! Loved the salad, loved the dressing, and next time I will actually follow through and make the honeyed pine nuts. Honey-Pine Nut Brittle would have made the salad more than amazing!

The big kid had some with me for lunch, minus the fennel and blue cheese. He's pretty adventurous when it comes to ingredients, but has yet to acquire a taste for blue cheese. I'm pretty much alone in this house when it comes to stinky cheeses! I think I may have this one again today!

Check the link for the original salad recipe with the brittle!

Arugula-Endive Salad with Pine Nuts
Source: Food and Wine Magazine, August 2008 - original recipe by Susan Spungen
adapted There's Always Thyme to Cook
Printable Recipe

1/2 cup pine nuts (2 1/2 ounces) toasted
1 tablespoon honey
1 1/2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar, white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons whole-grain mustard
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
4 cups baby arugula
1 Belgian endives—halved, cored and thinly sliced lengthwise
4 ounces Maytag blue cheese, crumbled (1 cup)

optional:
frisee, torn in small pieces
radicchio, thinly sliced
fennel, thinly sliced
fresh cremini mushrooms, sliced

In a nonstick skillet, toast the pine nuts over moderately high heat, stirring, until the nuts are golden and fragrant. Let cool.

In a bowl, whisk the honey with the vinegar and the mustards. Gradually whisk in the oil; season with salt and pepper. In another bowl, toss the arugula with the endives and whatever else you are using along with the blue cheese. Add the pine nuts to the salad. Add the dressing, toss to coat and serve at once.

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Mosaic Monday: Pea Shoots

It's so hot here. It's so hot everywhere! So the best I could come up with for Mosaic Monday is a salad mosaic. A nice cool salad! I love salad when it's hot out. but the family can't live on salad alone, or won't, so the Griller grilled a couple of skirt steaks, too!

My new favorite in my salad the past few weeks has been pea shoots! They add flavor and crunch and it's a nice something different. Adding dried cherries, fennel, walnuts and fresh mozzarella doesn't hurt either!

Joining Mary's Mosaic Monday again this week. For more mosaic's stop by the Little Red House!

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And even more grilling...

Grilling indoors and out! The Grill outside always gets a good workout, but lately so has the panini grill. We picked up fresh hamburger buns from the bakery and I got the brilliant idea to throw it all on the panini grill. The Griller grilled the burgers outside first and that soft, freshly baked, squishy hamburger roll crisped up so nicely on the panini machine. Filled it with red peppers that were roasted first, fresh mushrooms, raw Vidalia onion and a slice of cheddar cheese. A little, actually a lot, chipotle mayo and panini perfection was achieved! The mushrooms and the onions softened and the top sort of slid off when I closed the lid a bit, and the cheese and onions got a little sloppy but this one was a winner! I am getting more use out of that panini griller than I ever thought I would.

Got a little more ambitious and made a few salads for the side. We won't discuss the roasted Sweet Potato chunks I forgot about in the oven. Those did not survive. but the salads were really good.

The Fennel-Mushroom salad is so good, we've had that one before! Tried two new ones. A pasta salad from my friend Cindy that was a big winner!  So was the Three-Bean Salad. and all were delicious leftovers for lunch with a turkey sandwich today!

Hamburger Panini

Shaved Fennel, Mushroom and Parmesan Salad

Source: posted Gardenweb by MQmoi, recipe by Alice Waters (Chez Panisse)
Printable Recipe

fennel (sliced thin)
fresh lemon juice
olive oil
salt and pepper
thinly sliced mushrooms
Parmesan shavings

Cut off the feathery tops of the fennel at the base of their stalks and remove the outer layer of the bulbs. Slice the bulbs very thin with a mandolin or a very sharp knife.

Assemble the salad in layers on a large platter or on individual salad plates.

First make a layer of the fennel slices. Squeeze lemon juice evenly over the fennel and drizzle with fruity olive oil, salt and pepper. Then make a layer of the mushrooms, also sliced very thin. Squeeze more lemon juice over them, drizzle evenly with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Grate or cut thin shavings of the Parmesan with cheese slicer or a vegetable peeler and arrange them on top of the salad. Drizzle with olive oil. Serve immediately.

Other options are artichokes and balsamic vinegar. If you don't like the raw mushrooms, you can also saute them.

Three-Bean Salad with Vinaigrette

Source: Martha Stewart, Everyday Food August 2007
Printable Recipe

note: I used frozen wax and green beans, already trimmed! and steam in the microwave!)

8 ounces green beans, stem ends removed, halved on the diagonal
4 ounces yellow wax beans, stem ends removed, halved on the diagonal
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 can (15 ounces) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 chopped shallot

Fill a large bowl with ice water; set aside. Set a steamer basket in a large pot with a lid. Fill with a couple inches of water, enough to come just below basket; bring to a boil. or you can steam in the microwave.

Place green and wax beans in the steamer basket; reduce heat to a simmer. Cover pot, and steam until beans are crisp-tender, 6 to 8 minutes. With tongs or a slotted spoon, transfer beans to ice water. Drain, and pat dry.

In a medium bowl, whisk together shallots, mustard, vinegar, and oil; season with salt and pepper. Add all the beans; toss to coat.  If storing, refrigerate up to 1 day; bring to room temperature before serving.

Bruschetta Orzo Salad
Source: A recipe from Bon Appetit, adapted by Cindy 5NY
Printable Recipe

1 cup orzo pasta
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
optional: kalamata olives, feta, tuna (I used fresh mozzarella)

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Cook pasta according to package directions for about 8 minutes, or until just tender; drain.
Combine dressing ingredients.
Place hot pasta in large bowl and toss with a little dressing; cool about 15 minutes, tossing occasionally.
Add remaining ingredients and dressing to bowl and toss to mix well.
Cover and chill at least 1 hour.
Serve chilled or at room temperature.

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Oranges!

Oranges say SUNSHINE to me, and we had a nice somewhat sunny weekend, so what better to go with a grilled dinner than a nice sunny salad? Had to make some substitutions so the Griller didn't have to run out to the store for me at the last minute! Used romaine and baby spinach, instead of mixed greens and endive. Sort of my own mix of greens! I used fennel, it was mentioned in a review! and threw in some walnuts for good measure!

Mixed Greens, Oranges, and Endive with Orange Vinaigrette
Source: Bon Appétit, August 2003
Printable Recipe

2 tablespoons orange juice (I used the fresh juice from the leftover orange that was sectioned for the salad, just squeeze it!)
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil

2 large navel oranges
8 cups mixed greens (I used romaine and baby arugula)
1 medium head of Belgian endive, halved lengthwise, cut lengthwise into thin strips (I used fennel because I didn't have the endive on hand)
Walnuts (optional) toasted or not

Whisk first 4 ingredients in small bowl to blend. Whisk in olive oil; and some freshly ground pepper.

Using a small knife, cut off  the peel and the white pith from oranges. Working over a large bowl, cut between the membranes to release the orange segments into bowl. Add the greens and endive (or fennel or both, if you like) to the bowl with the oranges. Drizzle dressing over the salad and toss to coat. Check seasoning. Mix in some walnuts!

Joining Mary from The Little Red House for another Mosaic Monday! Stop by the Little Red House to see lots of fantastic Mosaics every week!

 Minneola Orange

Easy to peel, easy to eat

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Won ton Ravioli!

WOW! All I can say is wow! Tonight was one of those nights where I managed to pull together three new recipes and end up with a fabulous dinner we all loved.

My friend, San, was making ravioli's the other night and it was a recipe from a cooking forum we used to chit chat at from time to time, actually a lot of the time. I ended up with a huge "to try" folder of recipes from there. Two recipes from tonight have been on that list for years. Shaved Fennel, Mushroom and Parmesan Salad, and Ravioli with Prosciutto, Spinach and Cheese. Both had been posted over and over again to great reviews. Fennel? Anise? I wasn't too sure anyone here would like it. and homemade ravioli made with won ton wrappers? Would be so much easier to just call for takeout!

But San had been raving about both recipes, and I figured it was now or never. I had been wanting to make these two recipes for a very long time.

The fennel salad was delicious, and it surprised me that we liked the fennel as much as we did. Won ton ravioli seemed easy enough. Didn't need a pasta machine or anything. Ok, you can't be too much of a klutz though because those little wrappers can tear. Be gentle when you peel them apart. That wasn't too difficult. So I wasted the first five or six. Maybe ten. Finally got the hang of that. Sharon said to fold over. My ravioli would be really small and I had trouble with them tearing, so I decided to use two won ton wrappers for each ravioli. Lay one flat, drop a teaspoon filling, brush a little water (those teeny, tiny silicone Le Creuset brushes are great for this. and they come in pretty colors!) around the edges, and put another wrapper on top. Press the edges closed. Voila! Ravioli! It was easy by the 20th one!

Getting them out of the pot was another story. A little slippery, a little delicate to get out of the pot, and some stuck together. NONE OPENED. That was pretty good. Impressive. The pot also did not boil over, another issue I usually have. I ended up just pouring them into a colander.

A little messy. Some stuck, none opened. Not a bad thing. two for two with the recipes tonight. They were so good. Definitely this is a keeper recipe. The filling was delicious! I made a roasted red pepper sauce to go with it. Definitely making this again. And soon! Thanks to Sharon for a fabulous recipe and San for recommending it so highly or I never would have tried.

Shaved Fennel, Mushroom, and Parmesan Salad
Source: posted Gardenweb by MQmoi, recipe by Alice Waters (Chez Panisse)
Printable Recipe

fennel (sliced thin)
fresh lemon juice
olive oil
salt and pepper
very thinly sliced mushrooms (I used cremini)
Parmesan shavings

Cut off the feathery tops of the fennel at the base of their stalks and remove the outer layer of the bulbs. Slice the bulbs very thin with a mandolin or a very sharp knife.

Assemble the salad in layers on a large platter or on individual salad plates.

First make a layer of the fennel slices. Squeeze lemon juice evenly over the fennel and drizzle with fruity olive oil, salt and pepper. Then make a layer of the mushrooms, also sliced very thin. Squeeze more lemon juice over them, drizzle evenly with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Grate or cut thin shavings of the Parmesan with cheese slicer or a vegetable peeler and arrange them on top of the salad. Drizzle with olive oil. Serve immediately.

Other options are artichokes and balsamic vinegar. If you don't like the raw mushrooms, you can also saute them.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
Printable Recipe

1 jar roasted red peppers (small jar)
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
splash of white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)
1/4 cup heavy cream

Pour the jar of peppers, and the garlic in a food processor or blender and puree to desired consistency. We like a smooth sauce. Pour the puree into a saucepan, add the tomato paste, a little drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and a small splash of white wine. Stir to combine the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes. Stir in the cream, and simmer a minute or so more.

Ravioli (Prosciutto, Spinach and Cheese)
Source: Sharon (Chase) - Cooking Forum@Gardenweb
Printable Recipe

1/2 cup, prosciutto diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 shallot, minced (green onions would do fine)
1 cup ricotta
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/2 cup Asiago, grated (optional)
1/2 cup frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed of all the liquid
1 egg
nutmeg
1 package won ton wrappers (or fresh pasta)

Sauté the prosciutto in the oil just until softened. Add the garlic and shallot. Sauté until soft, but not browned.

In a bowl combine ricotta, Parmesan, Asiago, egg, spinach, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Add prosciutto mixture.

Separate won ton wrappers. Place a heaping teaspoon of the filling on each won ton wrapper. Wet the edges, fold it over and seal well.

Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Add ravioli's and boil just until they rise to the top. Reduce heat, cook for 2 or 3 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.

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