It’s 3:00pm on Monday and I’m sitting here on our new-to-us couch, sipping a nice cold Rainier beer which, in the Pacific Northwest, is often referred to as a Vitamin R. This has become part of my summer routine: sit down on the couch during nap time, catch up on reading my three favorite blogs (1,2,3), or read my current book club book, or continue to organize my “papers”. Since I’ve decided that magazines count as “papers” I’ve been going through old issues of Bon Appétit and Food and Wine and tearing out recipes that I love and properly archiving them in a way that makes them usable for me. I love little projects like that.
I generally use the first half of the girls’ nap time to do a quick tidy and prep dinner. But since our dinners lately have been relatively simple, quickly grilled affairs (and I’ve been mostly ignoring the tidying tasks) I’ve had more time to relax while the kids snooze. It helps that the girls are worn out from too much heat and summer fun and have been taking extra long naps. The other day they slept from 1:00-4:00 in the afternoon.
Throwing something together like this Grilled Tofu and Veggie Salad with Creamy Cilantro Dressing takes hardly any prep time at all which leaves lots of time for me to put my feet up, sip a cold beer, and relax. The firm, silky tofu went into a sweet-tart marinade in the morning, and the veggies were grilled quickly with just a drizzle of oil and a pinch of salt. This simple grilled salad is flavorful and varied. The rich, blistered tomatoes burst in your mouth, the raw corn provides a sweet crunch, and the wilted radicchio adds just the right element of bitterness. All of the veggies become cloaked in a creamy, slightly spicy, cilantro-packed dressing that pulls all of the flavors together.
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You could easily sub parsley in for the cilantro, if cilantro isn’t not your thing… and you could of course add other veggies. I imagine grilled kale would be a great addition, as would wilted chard, grilled onion rings… you get the idea. A little sprinkle of feta would be great too! You could even use the same marinade for a thin chicken breast in place of the tofu! You can even make this salad just grilling the tofu and leaving the rest of the veggies raw, as we have done before.
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That’s one of the great things about these types of salads, they’re so versatile and variable.Two attributes I could use a bit of more of in my life.
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GRILLED TOFU SALAD WITH CREAMY CILANTRO DRESSING
Tofu Ingredients.
1 package (14oz) firm tofu
1/2 cup tamari (or soy sauce)
1 tablespoon agave (or honey)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon mirin
Cilantro Dressing Ingredients.
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
1 gently packed cup of cilantro leaves
1 seeded jalapeño
1 green onion, trimmed
2/3 cup mayonnaise or Vegenaise
1/8 cup sour cream
1/2 tablespoon honey
a pinch of kosher salt
Salad Ingredients.
1 small head of butterhead lettuce, leaves separated
1 head radicchio, leaves separated
1 bunch green onions
1 1/2 cup raw corn kernels
1 pint cherry tomatoes
vegetable oil
kosher salt
Directions.
Drain the tofu and wrap it in paper towels and place something moderately heavy, like a plate, on top of it to press out some of the moisture. Leave it draining for about 20 minutes. Then slice the tofu into 1/2” slabs.
In a small bowl whisk together the tamari, agave, fish sauce, and mirin. Pour the marinade into a 8 x 8” baking dish. Add the slices of tofu in a single layer and let them marinade for at least 1 hour, and up to 8 hours, flipping occasionally.
Remove the tofu from the marinade and place it on a large baking sheet along with the bunch of green onions, the cherry tomatoes, and the radicchio leaves. Drizzle everything on the sheet with a little vegetable oil and sprinkle the veggies with a tiny pinch of salt.
Heat your grill to medium-high. Grill the tofu for about three minutes per side, until the tofu is heated through and it has nice grill marks. Grill the veggies until the they are slightly charred and wilted.
Place the lime juice, cilantro, jalapeño, single green onion, mayonnaise, sour cream, and honey in a powerful blender or food processor and blitz until smooth. Season to taste with salt.
Assemble the salads by starting with a nice foundation of butterhead lettuce, then layering in the radicchio, tofu, corn, tomatoes, and green onions. Add a good drizzle of the cilantro dressing just before serving.
Serves 4.
PRINTABLE RECIPE.
GRILLED TOFU SALAD WITH CILANTRO DRESSING
I wanted to share a few photos from our California vacation. We had a truly great family trip and it was just what we needed after the past few unpredictable and difficult months. There’s nothing like long hours on the road, especially if that road is the Pacific Coast Highway, to reset your spirit. The girls did amazingly well in the car, and adapted pretty well to all the various settings and towns we stopped in; we were pretty much on the move the entire time. This trip made me want to get out the map (and our passports) the moment we got home and start planning our next adventure.
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We arrived home to full on summer. The girls and I have kept the adventures going. We’ve been cherry and blueberry picking several days in a row with friends…
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We spent a long day up at Lost Lake…
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…and a few nights camping on the coast with my friend Kate and her son. It’s felt great to keep on the move, planning adventures, getting out of the house as much as possible. Adventuring with kids isn’t alway perfect or easy but it is so much fun, and it’s great for me to get out of my comfort zone and attempt to embrace chaos a bit; something I am working on these days.
We also somewhat randomly ended up cooking a huge Thanksgiving dinner for our best friends/next door neighbors. Long story short I pulled a frozen turkey from the chest freezer while looking for something to grill and forgot about it on a 90 degree day for 2 hours. By the time I remembered I couldn’t put it back in the freezer so we decided to embrace it and do it all out. I made a Brined and Roasted Turkey, Sourdough Stuffing, twice-baked roasted garlic mashed potatoes, a big salad, gravy, and Cherry Cobbler (following my Apple Cobbler recipe).
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Other than Thanksgiving leftovers, we have mostly been making simple salads. Lulu loves to help me cook lately. She’s actually very patient and a good listener in the kitchen. Her favorite job is to shake up the salad dressing in a small jar. I also made a simple, delicious quinoa salad that I took with us up to Lost Lake that I’ll share with you really soon. Aside from small things like Garlic Bread and simple quiches (which can be made early in the day and eaten cool for dinner with a salad), we have been avoiding the oven… especially since our AC broke. I’ll also share my quiche recipe with you soon!
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I hope you all are having a wonderful start to your summers!
I can’t believe it’s already Friday! We have been running here and there all week long as we prepare to hand our house and cat over to our family while we head out on a road trip. It’s been a long time since we had a proper family vacation and the timing couldn’t be better. All four of us need a break!
In between running errands we have been spending a lot of time in our backyard. The garden is starting to burst with veggies: lettuces, radishes, chard, herbs, and spinach. It’s a bit sad to leave when everything is almost ready to harvest but I have no doubt that our visiting family will take full advantage of the back yard bounty. The girls have been spending the evening hours blowing bubbles, attempting to hula hoop, over-watering their strawberries, “helping” Kyle mow the lawn, and throwing paper airplanes around.
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We’ve been eating healthy and juicing a lot the past couple of weeks, cutting back on coffee, and, thanks to the garden, eating tons of wonderful salads. It’s still cool enough that Kyle’s been baking his sourdough on the weekends, too. Since it’s Friday we whittled our way down to the ends of the bread and the last of the harvested veggies. This afternoon I threw together the simplest salad. I shredded up some bitter, bold radicchio, whisked up my favorite Ceasar salad dressing, and sautéed the cut up remains of Kyle’s bread in some olive oil that I spiked with sweet paprika. Tossed all together while the croutons were still warm with lots of salty Parmesan cheese and a palmful of kale microgreens, this salad was the perfect afternoon lunch. A couple of soft-boiled eggs or a handful of shredded chicken breast would be a welcome addition if you were wanting to add some protein.
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SHREDDED RADICCHIO SALAD WITH PAPRIKA CROUTONS, MICROGREENS, AND PARMESAN
Ingredients.
3 cups radicchio, thinly sliced into ribbons
palmful microgreens
two slices sourdough bread, cubed
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
Dressing.
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, very finely minced or grated with a microplane
1/2 teaspoon anchovy paste
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
Directions.
In a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice, olive oil, Dijon, anchovy paste, garlic. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
Heat 1/2 cup olive oil over medium heat. Add the paprika and the cubed bread, toss often until the bread is bright from the paprika and golden from the heat. Transfer the croutons to a paper towel lined plate using tongs. Season with a pinch of salt.
In a large bowl toss the radicchio together with the warm croutons, microgreens, and Parmesan. Plate, drizzle with dressing, and finish with a bit of fresh pepper.
Serves 2.
PRINTABLE RECIPE.
SHREDDED RADICCHIO SALAD WITH PAPRIKA CROUTONS, MICROGREENS, AND PARMESAN
I love the way that seemingly complex things can seem simple under the right lens, approach, or perspective. If you’ve been reading this blog for any period of time, you know how I feel about simplifying. There are always bags for donation piled in the front end of the garage, yet I never seem to be able to really, truly simplify. I’ve always suspected that the root of the issue is having too much stuff, but no matter how much I get rid of there is still clutter, mess, and disorganization.
You can imagine my excitement upon ordering The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I’m in the middle of reading it and applying the method to my own belongings before moving on to the kids’ belongings, and Kyle is going to apply it to his things too. I have filled several bags full of clothes and boxes of books for donation. I’ve dumped loads of papers in the recycle and I just recycled all my old back issues of Vogue. There’s a small part of me that loved having all those old issues of Vogue, but the reality of it in a cluttered home is much less “Carrie Bradshaw cute”, and way more “Carrie Bradshaw neurotic”.
If any of you have read the book you’ll see I’m only part of the way through the process. I am trying to take it one day at a time and not go overboard (something I have a tendency to do) and try to do it all at once… and also trying to be okay with the fact that in the meantime our house is inarguably a disaster! I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how our physical environment reflects our emotional life and visa versa. Meaning that if we tend to feel scattered, frazzled, and overwhelmed that our space will not only reflect that feeling, but contribute to it. The way we feel and the space in which we live are intrinsically linked together. My friend Amanda recently wrote a post about how keeping a tidy house helps her with her anxiety. This gives me a more clear and motivated reasons to really, truly simplify.
I also love having a project, especially when things are hard, which they have been. Having something to chip away at helps me stay more centered and focused on something that I have some control. There’s an element of cooking that is centering and focused too, which is probably why I love it so much.
In cooking, just like in tidying, things that seem complicated can really be the simplest of things. Whipping up tart, silky mayonnaise seems like a daunting prospect but in actuality it’s a simply a matter of whisking the right ingredients in in the right order. Making earthy, deep stock from scratch can sound overwhelming but it’s actually just a matter of throwing a few things into a pot, covering them with cold water and letting them simmer away. Making fresh pasta can appear to be complicated, but it is really flour and eggs pulled together, left to rest, rolled out, and cut.
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The same goes for complicated sounded meals like Braised Endive Tartines with Prosciutto and Lemon Ricotta. Just the word “tartine” can sound complicated, but it’s really just fancy toast. Braising is one of the simplest forms of cooking. Watery, crisp, bitter endives are quickly chopped and sautéed before being doused with heavy cream and popped into the oven until they have completely surrendered and are soft, caramelized, fragrant and densely rich.
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Crisp, buttery toasts are smeared with ricotta that’s riddled with vibrant flecks of lemon zest, topped with salty, ribbon-thin prosciutto, and then piled with the creamy endives. I love to serve these toasts with bitter arugula that’s been tossed in a simple Lemon and Tarragon dressing. The bold salad flavors cut through the richness of the tartines and also help brighten them up.
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BRAISED ENDIVE TARTINES WITH PROSCIUTTO AND LEMON RICOTTA
Ingredients.
6 cups trimmed and sliced endive
12 slices prosciutto, very thinly sliced
1 cup heavy cream
pinch nutmeg
1 cup ricotta
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon (about 1/4 cup)
2” sprig fresh tarragon, plus 1 tablespoon minced for the salad dressing
2 tablespoons butter, plus more for the toasts
6-8 slices crusty french bread, sliced
extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
about 4 cups arugula
Directions.
Preheat your oven to 350ºF.
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in oven-safe pan over medium heat. Sauté the endives for 3-5 minutes, until they have sweated off a bit of moisture and wilted a little. Turn off the heat before adding the butter, cream, nutmeg, and a bit of salt and pepper. Toss in the sprig of tarragon. Stir together and transfer to the oven.
Bake for 1 hour, remove from the oven, stir it together, and return it to the oven for another 30-45 minutes, until the cream is thickened and the top is a deep golden brown. Remove the endives from the oven, stir them together, and allow them to cool a bit while you prepare your bread, ricotta, and arugula salad.
In a small bowl whisk together the ricotta and lemon zest. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Butter your slices of bread and place it, buttered side up, on a baking sheet. Pop them under the oven broiler for a few minutes until they are lightly golden and fragrant.
To assemble the toasts, smear each slice of bread with a thick layer of lemon ricotta, top with a little prosciutto and the endives.
For the arugula salad whisk together the lemon juice, the minced tarragon, and continue whisking while drizzling in about 1/2 cup olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss some of the dressing with the arugula.
Plate the toast along with a bit of salad, drizzle a bit of the excess dressing over the toasts if desired, and enjoy immediately.
Serves 4.
PRINTABLE RECIPE.
BRAISED ENDIVE TARTINES WITH PROSCIUTTO AND LEMON RICOTTA
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anja_cieri - Lovely! Beautiful pictures and family time.