Kale Caesar Salad

Salad
1 bunch kale (curly kind)
Cherry or Grape tomatoes - halved
Croutons (optional)
Parmesan cheese

Dressing
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic - minced
6 anchovy fillets, packed in oil
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1.  The Kale.  Pull the leaves from the stem and tear into bite size pieces.   To clean, kale can be rather dirty.  I fill the bowl of my salad spinner with water and let kale soak for a few minutes.  Spin dry in salad spinner. (Optional: chop kale finely so it is more like a slaw than a salad, this would be done after cleaning and drying)
2.  Make Dressing.  In a food processor, add everything in the dressing except the parmesan cheese.  Process in the food processor until smooth.  At this point, I generally pour the dressing into whatever lidded container it will be stored in.  Add the cheese and shake well.  Chill until ready to serve.
3.  Assemble the salad.  Mix the kale with prepared dressing, generally 2 or 3 tablespoons.  Garnish with tomatoes (and croutons if you are using) and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Mini BLT Bites

8 slices thick cut bacon
4 slices sourdough bread
12 cherry tomatoes - halved
1/2 head iceberg lettuce - chopped

Mayonnaise
1/2 cup light mayo
6 basil leaves - chopped
1/2 tsp lemon juice
pepper

1.  Cook the bacon.  Put the bacon on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil.  Put baking sheet in cold oven.  Turn oven temperature to 400.  Bake 15-20 minutes or until desired doneness.  Time depends on thickness of the bacon and how crispy you like it.  When the bacon is finished cooking, remove it immediately from the sheet and drain on paper towels.  When cool, cut bacon into bite size pieces, a bit larger than your tomatoes.

2.  Prepare bread.  Cut crust off bread and cut into bite size squares the same relative size as your tomatoes.  Toast in the 400 degree (now preheated) oven.  Generally takes 5-7 minutes.

3.  Make Mayo.  Combine all mayo ingredients together.

4.  Assemble bites.  Spread a bit of mayo on the toast.  Top that with a hunk of iceberg.  Then a piece of the bacon.  Then the tomato half, cut side up.  Secure with a toothpick and devour.

** Another option is to leave the bread out.  Use one whole cherry tomato in half and sandwich the bacon and iceberg between the halves on a toothpick.  Serve along-side the basil mayo.

Arugula and White Bean Salad

Salad
1 can Cannellini beans (white beans) - drained and rinsed thoroughly
1/2 pint grape tomatoes - halved
2 oz arugula (a couple big handfuls)
1/2 cup kalamata olives - chopped (chopped after measuring)
8 leaves basil - chopped

Dressing
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

1.  Mix beans, tomatoes, olives and basil in a bowl.
2.  Whisk together zest, juice, olive oil, S&P in a bowl.
3.  Toss Step 1 with Step 2.
4.  Before serving, add arugula and toss well.

*** This salad is awesome with simply grilled fish.  Snapper, Salmon, Mahi, Grouper.  Yum.

Grilled Salmon with Mexican Slaw

Slaw
1 bag of mixed slaw
1/4 head of red cabbage, shredded
2 green onions - sliced
1 bunch cilantro - chopped
1 jalapeno - seeded and minced
1 can black beans - drained and rinsed
1 small can corn - drained and rinsed
Juice of 1/2 a lime
Hot pepper sauce (Texas Pete) to taste.  We use a lot!!

Dressing
1 6oz plain greek yogurt
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp cumin
Juice of 1 lime

Garnish
1 avocado - diced
Juice of 1 lime

Salmon
4 Portions of salmon
Pepper and Olive Oil

Slaw - Mix slaw ingredients in large bowl.  Mix dressing ingredients in separate bowl.  Pour dressing over slaw and mix well.  Add additional hot pepper sauce to taste.

Salmon - Grill over medium-hi heat to desired doneness.

Serve Salmon over a pile of slaw and garnish with avocado mixed with the lime juice.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

½ cup olive oil

3 lbs roma tomatoes – ends cut off, halved, seeded, then quartered.

2 ½ tsp dried oregano

1 tsp sugar

½ tsp salt

2 tsp dried parsley

3 garlic cloves – minced

Baguette – sliced and toasted

Goat Cheese

1.     Preheat oven to 250 degrees.  Pour olive oil in a glass baking dish.  Toss tomatoes in olive oil, then arrange cut side up in the baking dish.

2.     Mix together oregano, sugar, salt and parsley.  Sprinkle spice mixture over tomatoes.  Sprinkle minced garlic over tomatoes.

3.     Roast tomatoes for one hour, flip the tomatoes and roast for another hour.  Flip the tomatoes again and roast an additional 15-45 minutes or until deep red in color.  If tomatoes are ripe (spring and summer), roasting time will be limited to about 1 hr 45 min.

4.     Serve tomatoes on toasted baguette smeared with goat cheese.

5.     Can last in the fridge for up to a week.

** Leftover tomatoes can be tossed with pasta or put on a sandwich.

Baked Chicken with Tomatoes

** This is a Jamie Oliver recipe.  He really just throws things together and makes it work.  But this is one that, when I tweaked it, really is just a throw it together, put it in the oven and wait for the deliciousness to be done. 

4 Chicken legs – skinless

3 chicken thighs – skinless

1 onion – cut in thin slices

1 pint grape tomatoes – halved
3-4 medium tomatoes quartered or 8+\- Compari tomatoes halved

1 whole bulb garlic – cloves separated and peeled.

1 jalapeno – seeded and minced

12+ basil leaved – chopped (more basil is better…just depends on the leaf size)

1 tsp dried oregano

½ cup white wine

Salt and Pepper to taste

1.     Preheat oven to 350.

2.     Liberally salt chicken with salt and pepper.  Place the chicken in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat and brown on all sides in batches.  Remove chicken and set aside.

3.     Reduce heat to medium.  Saute onion and jalapeno in pan 5-7 minutes.  Add ½ cup white wine to deglaze, scraping up any brown bits.

4.     Add remaining ingredients, including browned chicken.  Bake at 350 for 1.5 hours, stirring once half way through.

5.     Debone chicken and return to pan.  The garlic will be in tact, but take a spoon and mash up the cloves if you can find them.

6.     Serve with crusty bread.

** This one can also be made into a stew.  Remove the chicken after its cooked and shred, then return to the pan and simmer over low heat on the stove for an additional 20 minutes.  If you wanted to use a breast instead of dark meat, I recommend the stew method as the breast has a tendency to dry out.

Shrimp "Ceviche"

½ cup onion – chopped

½ cup fresh lime juice

1 lb medium cooked shrimp

1 cup cucumber – peeled and seeded, chopped

½ cup ketchup

1/3 cup cilantro – chopped

1 ½ tbs hot sauce (more or less to taste)

1 tbs olive oil

¼ tsp salt

1.     Place chopped onion in a colander.  Rinse with cold water and drain.

2.     Combine all ingredients and chill.  Ceviche is best if it’s allowed to sit for at least an hour.

3.     Serve with tortilla chips.

Caesar Salsa

2 cups seeded and chopped tomatoes

4 tbs minced cilantro

1 tbs minced parsley

2 tbs capers

½ tsp hot sauce

1 shallot – minced

1 clove garlic - minced

2 tbs olive oil

1 tbs lemon juice

½ tsp anchovy paste

1 baguette – sliced and toasted

1.     In a small bowl, combine tomatoes, cilantro, parsley, capers, hot pepper sauce, shallot and garlic.

2.     In another bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice and anchovy paste.  Pour over tomato mixture and serve on toasted baguette.

Baked Chicken with Lemon

2 cloves garlic- chopped

1/3 cup white wine

zest of 1 lemon

Juice of half lemon

1.5 tsp dried oregano

4+ sprigs thyme

2 chicken breasts or 4 chicken thighs (boneless skinless)

Olive oil, salt and pepper

1.     Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.     Heat 1tablespoon olive oil in oven proof pan (I used flat les creuset) until shimmering.  Remove from heat, and put garlic in.  Mix around.  (I do this off heat so garlic doesn’t burn but infuses the oil a bit).

3.     Put remaining ingredients in pan.  Cut the other half of your lemon (the one you didn’t use for juicing) into 4 pieces and nestle that in the pan as well.

4.     Cook for 20 minutes with lid on.  Remove the lid and cook for another 15-20 minutes or until chicken is done.

5.     Serve chicken with remaining juices over top.  Add salt and pepper as needed.

Spicy Capicola Bundles with Goat Cheese and Radicchio

1 head radicchio, shredded
1/2 small red cabbage, shredded (or 1/4 a larger head)
5 oz goat cheese, room temperature
10 or more spicy peperoncini, stemmed, seeded and chopped
2 tsp white balsamic vinegar
6 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
48 slices Capicola (2 4oz packages)

1.  Combine radicchio, cabbage, goat cheese, peperoncini, balsamic and pine nuts in a large bowl.
2.  Put 1 tablespoon of mixture in the center of each slice of capicola.  Fold the Capicola slice around mixture.  It helps to put a tiny bit of the mixture at the seam to together to "glue" it together.

** Can add red pepper flakes to the mixture if you like things spicy.