Grilled Salad

We finally broke down and got it, yesterday Kris picked up the new desktop (we still think the laptop may be recoverable). The desktop however was never that great to begin with. I replaced the graphics card three times in the 5 years that we had it, plus it was doing all kinds of crazy stuff... every few mornings I woke up to find a blue screen taunting me and if you bumped the tower the entire thing would shut down and take about 25 minutes to boot up again.


Wow computers have changed in the last few years, I had to look up what a terabyte was, plus this thing has a wide screen and speakers that are a little bigger than a couple of dry erase markers but sound great! and the color is as good as our TV. So I am spending some time learning the ins and outs of this fancy pants new technology. So my plan over the next couple of days is to visit all of my blogger friends, and get a post in. I feel like I have been out for so long and I have found that work computers don't always play well with blog websites, I swear if I see that flippity flappin Barracuda logo again I am going to scream.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I was on my typical summer grilling bender, grilled meat, grilled sweet potatoes then grilled dessert. I made a joke about having grilled everything except salad... well this is it:

Grilled autumn salad (serves 2)
2 Romaine Hearts cut in half
1 Small head of radicchio quartered
1 Fennel bulb halved
2 Apples cored and diced*
Sprinkle of shredded Cheddar

1 Cup Croutons

Apple Cider dressing

For the croutons
Dice up some French bread (I keep a bag in the freezer but if you are just making this dice up a cup of it)
1 TBLS butter
1 clove of garlic minced
salt and pepper to taste
sprinkle of Parmesan cheese

Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat, add garlic and cook until translucent. Put in the cubed bread and toss until coated. Add salt and pepper and continue to cook stirring occasionally until crispy (took me about 15 minutes)** While they are still hot add the Parmesan cheese and toss again

For the dressing
1/2 cup Olive Oil
1/3 cup Apple Cider*
1 TBLS Balsamic vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic minced
1 TBLS fresh fennel frond cut up

Put into a cup and hit with your handy emersion blender, set aside. This can be made a day ahead if you like.

Now here is how it all goes together light your grill and put the halved fennel bulb on, after that has been going for about 10 minutes add the radicchio then the Romaine hearts grill until everything is a little charred around the edges.

To serve:
Place the Romaine heart halves on your plate the top with sliced radicchio and the sliced fennel. Add the diced apples, fresh hot croutons then the cider dressing and cheese. I used cheddar because that is what i had in the kitchen but I think feta or goat cheese might have worked better.

*I used Honeycrisp apples and cider (next entry will explain why) but any crisp sweet apple will work
** You could make the croutons ahead but let’s face it warm croutons are sexy and you know it!

Spinach Salad with Mixed Berry Vinaigrette

The kiddos and I took a trip to Lincoln Park Zoo on my day off.  More important that the destination was how we would make our way into the city to visit this Chicago Landmark.  Driving was off the table, the kiddos didn't want to do that, it seems to be less of an adventure.  That left us with the options of the commuter train and tourist trolly or the El (subway) and city bus.  We opted for the more urban method of transportation.  After all if you miss an El or a bus you have about a 20 minute wait for the next one, if you miss a commuter train of the free trolly is full you are at least 30 to 40 minutes for the next.  Add to that there is something to be said for hopping off the El for a transfer in the middle of a regular Chicago neighborhood, instead of in the middle of the loop.

I was pushing for a trip to the zoo mostly for the walk, I am still reeling from the Doctor visit you know, "Fat, fat fat fat, fat, drinker...  you need to exercise!"  I figured that the walk around the zoo with kiddos in tow plus the lunch below would help me at my next appointment, coming up in just a few days.  The kids and I brought a duffel bag full of snacks, for me the leftovers from this salad and a bit of salmon.  As we were sitting down to our picnic lunch at the outskirts of the zoo Miss Lu handed me the quote of the day, "I don't like eating here... there are so many animals... it's just gross." 

We made this salad when we had the neighbors over for dinner a couple of days earlier, it was such a bright addition to dinner that I couldn't resist having it again:

The Salad dressing
1/2 cup chopped strawberries
1/2 cup blueberries
1 clove garlic chopped
2 TBS Campaign vinegar
2 TBS confectioner sugar (more or less depending on the fruit)
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Put all of this into a blender and blend until smooth.

The salad
Couldn't have been easier about a cup of loosely packed spinach for each adult then toss with the dressing.  I'll let you decide how much dressing you want, just remember that this has quite a bit of punch to it so go easy.  I topped the spinach and dressing with a great mixture of nuts and assorted dry fruit, most people call it "trail mix."   Then I tossed in some crumbled up goat cheese.

This one had everything my friends: the healthy stuff that my Doctor wants me to get to know better, the bright warm crunch of nuts alongside the chewy dried fruit.  Top that all with creamy goat cheese and the zing that you get from this dressing and you have an awesome salad.

Caprese Salad

I mentioned some new toys that I have, one of them the camera, I look around at some of my friends posts and I see these beautiful pictures of their meals or cutting boards adorned with mouthwatering ingredients.  Mine well...

I do get a little jealous... My old camera was about done, once you are holding something like that together with duct tape and worrying every time that  you turn it on it is about time to look for a new one.   Luckily Kris got me the new camera for Christmas, another Kodak Easyshare but the NEW version, and with a whopping 15 megapixels I get the option of taking a step back and then cropping to the size that I want and maybe a little bit of play with Photoshop (or Photoshop's inexpensive cousin) to finish it off.

The picture above is one of those pictures, me trying to get one that I like, where the colors pop and it just looks good the one below is a more practical version of the same dish.  Along with our other activities on our anniversary weekend we had a "pot luck" at church on that Saturday night.  I threw together a couple of salads, this one is a Caprese Salad.  It isn't as elegant looking as the one above but it goes farther, isn't as fussy and it looks really good in its own way.

 

Big bowl of Caprese

2 Balls of fresh mozzarella cheese

2 Containers of grape tomatoes 

1/2 Cup pesto sauce 

5-6 Basil leaves cut in a chiffonade

Some shredded Mozzarella to garnish

Put your Mozzarella cheese in the freezer for about five minutes to firm it up a bit then chop into small bite sized pieces put those in a bowl.  Cut cherry tomatoes in half lengthwise add them to the same bowl then add the pesto sauce, I usually make my own but just bought some this time.  Toss them all together pour the salad into a fancy pants bowl (or one that you picked up from the dollar store) then add the fresh basil and the bit of mozzarella cheese to the top.  There you have it a bright refreshing salad that is just a little different.

Our Thanksgiving Leftovers

I am sitting at our new keyboard now... if you read my last post you will know why. This time we decided to go wireless, the thinking is when Mr. Man just has to watch "Batman with Batgirl on the computer" (let's hear it for YouTube) while he has his lemonade and nachos then I can set the keyboard on top of the printer or somewhere else that is safe.  Then we can avoid the sticky key issue.


Thanksgiving dinner in our house gave me a strange list of leftovers. The Tenderloin that I bought was bigger than I wanted but I haggled the price down by a couple of bucks a pound by getting it untrimmed.

"Ok sir, that is $17.99 per pound"

"Are you kidding me? the cut filets are that price, and they are trimmed and ready to cook!"

"I can give you a dollar off per pound"

"Seriously, you are about to offer me $4.00 off of a $60.00 cut of meat to do all of your work?"

"How about $2.00?"

Ok, I agreed to that, so maybe I am not the best negotiator out there but I saved a few dollars anyway. So I brought it home and trimmed it myself which is pretty easy, take the silverskin off then trim the butt pieces and tip.  I still had plenty of extra and cut two good sized filets off for Kris and me to have later and a couple of pieces from between the fillet and the tip called tournedos. I had to look that up in one of my old culinary textbooks by the way . The cuts were about an inch thick and maybe an inch and a half around. Right after Thanksgiving I was making dinner and watching Good Eats on Food Network. This is one of my favorite shows, Alton Brown is such a foodie nerd, really he has my dream job, talking about food all day... Anyway I think the title of the episode that was halfway over when I turned it on was "Pounded Meats" he was making a variety of Pillards one of them was with Beef Tenderloin.

 What I saw was taking the Tenderloin and pounding it into pillards then his method of cooking them, you will see that in a sec, then he suggested adding a salad to them. Good idea I thought how about I make my own dressing...

So I diced up and cooked three strips of bacon to make my dressing

Bacon Vinaigrette
3 strips of bacon cooked, rendered fat reserved
1 TBS Canola Oil
1 clove Garlic minced
1 TBS Balsamic Vinegar
1 tsp Mustard (I used stone ground)
a little pepper

blend and set aside



Before... this one is about an inch thick



After... this is pounded to a little more than 1/4 of an inch thick

The Steaks were the fun part I took the three pieces of steak and pounded them to about 1/4 inch thick with the flat side of my mallet (the spiky side is for flank or skirt steak not tenderloin) then I heated up my favorite pan... the Iron Skillet. When it was hot I turned it over so the meat would be easier to work with and cooked them for about a minute or so on each side until medium rare then made up my plates.







Set the steaks on your plates then top with a few sautéed mushrooms, salad mix and warm Bacon Vinaigrette. Damn Hell this was good! Do I feel a little guilty? well yes well a little, and the scale and I have had a few words since to but... Wow.



Jicama and Grilled Red Pepper Salad

We were having one of those suburban kind of moments, we started chatting with our neighbors over the fence one day.  We have all been so busy that we have hardly said "hello" in several weeks.  A friendly talk that lead to pleasant conversation then cocktails on the patio.  As the evening was winding down we were saying that we don't get together enough and we should have dinner that weekend.  My mind started going... dinner! what should we do?  We have shared a lot of stuff with our neighbors over the time that I have lived here, they let me raid their garden, I have made food for some of their parties, we have watched each others kids and once I managed to spill 45 gallons of rotten leaves and sludge next to their buffet table right before a family gathering in their yard.

As we discussed getting together our neighbor Jennie said that she would bring some side dishes, "No no" I said "I have a salad I want to try."

Then Jennie offered,  "Oh, We have brats, we could grill out! or red hots!"

"Really, I'm good, I'll take care of it... Ouch!"

The "ouch" was my reaction to Kris kicking me in the shin.  As we walked away I asked what that was all about.  Kris took a moment to inform me that I needed to stop talking and since the subtle hints that she was giving me; you know like standing behind our neighbor jumping up and down while waving  wasn't getting my attention (really who would see that as a hint?) she had to kick me.   "Couldn't you tell that Jennie wanted to bring something?"

I was going to talk to our neighbor and see if we could meet halfway on dinner plans, but never did, really once someone mentions dinner and my mind starts going I stop listening anyway... dinner was:

Flank Steak with a bourbon and brown sugar glaze

Cheesy grilled potatoes

Jicama and grilled red pepper slaw

That is it, the salad that I have been wanting to try!  The recipe was from a 14 year old Bon Appetit with some adaptations:

a handful of cherry wood chips soaked for at least half an hour

1 bunch of green onions

2 red bell peppers

Juice from 1 orange

Juice from 2 limes

1 TBS honey

1/2 tsp cumin

2 TBS olive oil

1 jicama root julienne cut

14 oz bag of baby spinach

For the roasted vegetables put the soaked wood chips into a foil bag with a few holes in it or a smoker box and set on the coals (or over flames if you are using a gas grill) for a few minutes until they start to smoke then put the onions and peppers on the grill to char/smoke.  When the onions are charred take them off and set aside, leave the peppers on until the skin is black (turn them often) then peel them.  Don't worry the smokey flavor stays with them.  Cut the onions into 1/2 inch pieces then the peppers into strips.

For the dressing mix the orange juice (about 1/3 cup) and lime juice (about 2 TBS) with the other ingredients  and blend.  The roasted veggies and dressing can be made a day ahead.  When it is time to serve julienne the Jicama then toss with the dressing and the roasted veggies.  Serve on top of the baby spinach.

Dinner was fun!  However I realized that as that pesky autumnal equinox draws near the sun sets earlier we finished dinner in the dark outside. Jennie and John were nice enough to bring a lamp for ambiance.

Aren't they cute?

Tuna Ceviche with Arugula salad

I have been using Arugula in recipes since the late 80s love to use it... my first experience with the vegetable was Grilled Salmon Steaks with Plum Tomato and Arugula Compote. A retiring Chef that I worked with gave me a recipe when I was the caterer for a small, slightly snooty, private Midwest college. I remember so many blushing brides with their leg warmers and teased hair saying “oh, that sounds so totally awesome!" and their future husband sitting next to them saying "whatever... I mean yes sweetie that sounds great, I love arugula."

Really, let’s face it there is only one reason that we use arugula... see if you can pick it out below:

a. Arugula is wonderful and healthy, jam packed with iron and vitamin A.

b. Arugula has a beautiful, gentle peppery flavor that I just love.

c. Arugula is really fun to say and when you use it in a recipe people are impressed with your foodie knowledge.

Come on you can answer, I won't tell...

That being said this is a fun, light, summer recipe easy to make and really refreshing! I was looking for a new twist on Ceviche and came up with this, really a perfect meal for the hot summer that we are living with now.

For Ceviche:

1 pound of tuna cut into a rough half inch dice

1 1/2 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp grated ginger

1 small onion cut into a fine dice

Juice from 1 lime

Grated zest of the same lime

Small splash of rice vinegar

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 TBS chopped cilantro

Salt and pepper

Ceviche isn't actually raw, not like sashimi; however it is "cooked" through a chemical process not by heat. With that in mind I tossed the first 7 ingredients together and put them into the refrigerator for about an hour then added the coconut milk. I put it back into the fridge until I was ready (a couple hours later). I wanted to make sure that the fish had some time in the acid to cook.

I see a lot of warnings whenever I read ceviche recipes "Never store more than 6 hours," "there are risks associated with eating raw and undercooked meat," "your children will instantly die if they even look at this food!" and the like; relax a little and try it you'll probably be fine. I like to soak mine for at least half an hour (longer if I cut the fish kind of thick) and I think it is best to serve it the day it is made. I will admit that I have had day old ceviche I didn't die from it, but the longer it soaks the more the fish "cooks." After an hour or so it tastes cool, bright and refreshing the next morning the fish takes on the texture of yesterday's gum soaked in lemon juice. Just my observation.

Ok, my mind is wandering a bit, when it is time to serve lay it on a bed of fresh arugula garnish with the cilantro and a little lemon peel. Looking at my picture I should have added a little something else for color, but the flavor was great, and it does play well with the peppery flavor of the greens.

Citrus Jicama Salad

So my mom and my in-laws came to visit us this Mother's day weekend, we spent a lot of time together and had a lot going on.  We were trying to have a more relaxed weekend than usual.  Most of the time when Kris' parents come for the weekend it is so her dad will help with some house hold project that I am unable to do on my own.  I like to say that I installed the floors throughout the house or refinished the bathroom but in truth I mostly watched and tried to follow instructions as best I could.

"Jeez, how hard can it be?  All you gotta do is cut a perfectly straight line  1/16 of an inch from the edge of  a hard plastic panel then put the 5 foot square on the wall perfectly straight on the only try that you get and hold it until I say you are done... maybe ten minutes maybe LONGER." 

It just isn't my area of expertise, I try to do these things but, as I refer to my writing sometimes, I am a bit of a ham handed hack.  Carpentry I understand, electric work scares most of my loved ones to death (Bryan, metal tools, live wiring what could go wrong?) and plumbing... forget about it.  In the end the best I can do is make a really good meal after a day of light construction is done, which makes up for some of my inadequacies I hope anyway.  

This visit Kris and I just wanted to have a good time and hang out with our family.  Kris did most of the planning I did most of the cooking.  There were several meals in our bacchanalia of a weekend I some old favorites and some new thing, that I will write about in the coming days.  The first; partly because I am feeling springy and partly because I left my flash drive at work AGAIN and this is the one of the pictures I can get to.

 

Jicama Citrus Salad, Serves Four

The Dressing 

3 cloves garlic coarsely chopped
2 TBS fresh cilantro chopped, most of the stems removed
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup + 2 TBS olive oil
1/3 cup orange juice
Juice from two limes
grated zest of one lime
Salt and a little pepper (to taste)

I put all of this right into the blender and blended until done taste and adjust if needed.  I made this a couple of days ahead.

The Salad
2 medium sized oranges peeled and segmented
2 honey tangerines peeled and segmented
1 mango peeled and diced
1/2 of a softball sized jicama peeled and julienned
1/4 cup of olive oil
just a splash of orange juice and a sprinkle of salt

You will want to make this a couple of hours ahead so the flavors will marry.  When it is time to serve, line your plates with Boston lettuce I used two heads for the four salads and top with the citrus mixture.  Sprinkle some cilantro on top then dress, you will have plenty of the citrus vinaigrette left over for later (bonus).  The salad is like a plate full of sunshine, light and refreshing.

Tumeric Cucumbers

As I was writing this entry I realized how similar this story is to my friend The Kitchen Witch's White Trash Motherload Series.  I can't say this is a ham handed attempt to copy her (way out of my league) but if I hadn't read that series I am not sure I would have been digging through my mom's old cookbooks during my last visit there and I found a real family treasure in my search.

When Mr. Man, Miss Lu and I took the trip to Grandma's house I was looking through her kitchen and found the Carlson Patterson Family Cook Book.  It seems that in the early 90s my mom's side of the family decided to put together a compilation of recipes that had been passed around our family for years.  It has been fun to read through and I have had time to (in a way) reconnect with family that I haven't seen in ages.  The quick memory of exploring a tractor with a second cousin that I've not seen in 30 years or my Great Great Aunt saying "Don't let that cat in the house I would rather have mice!"... well the book has been fun to go through.  My Grandmother's (Mayola's) relatives Kenneth and Fern, mostly Fern well her kids spearheaded the book.  Even though I have already made some of the recipes from the book  Fern gets the first recipe here.

Kenneth and Fern were farmers in Stratford Iowa, one of my earliest memories of visiting them was when I was about 10 years old in the final minutes of our 8 hour drive we were crossing their land, a few trees and acres of mixed crops some wheat, but mostly corn and beans a lot of that mixed in the same fields.  When we got there my mom asked Kenneth what exactly they were trying to grow that year, not missing a beat, his reply, "succotash."  We spent days there exploring barns and sheds, climbing the dog wood trees and a silo full of grain.  One of the few items that I remember being on the table for most of the meals were Fern's Cucumbers.  Being a ten year old boy I had no idea what to do with these things except dip my dirty fingers right into the Kerr jar and eat them after a round of climbing the hay in the barn or playing with the water pump, they actually had a well and a manual pump!   I am sure the vinegar did it's part to kill whatever was on my dirt covered digits before anyone else dug in.

When I picked this recipe to start with I thought "I think I remember the jar of this on the picnic table for lunch"  when I tasted them again for the first time in thirty something (never mind it has been a while) years I immediately flashed to the young boy that I was setting foot on a farm for the first time ready to explore.

So what are these?  The Cook Book calls them "Tumeric Cucumbers" the published recipe was written for someone that had a serious garden, you know like a farm, and calls for larger quantities than this suburban boy is willing to deal with like "a pail full of peeled and sliced cucumbers."  So I did take some liberties but here it is, Ingredients:

2 small onions sliced thin

1/2 cup Sugar

1/2 tsp Tumeric

2 tsp Mustard Seed

2 tsp Celery Seed

1 1/4 Cup Cider Vinegar

2 1/2 cucumbers peeled and sliced thin.

Soak the sliced  onions is salted Ice water for about an hour, this takes the edge off the onioniness of them drain then add the sugar, spices and vinegar and stir until the sugar is dissolved then add  the cucumbers and put in the refrigerator.  Overnight worked for me, I tasted the dish after an hour and it was OK but the next day ... Wow!  Works well as a side dish at a BBQ I served them with chicken in my BBQ Sauce.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Raw Fettuccine

I have a friend who is a vegetarian... I know imagine that, she won't eat animals. She used to frequent a restaurant on the north side of Chicago that specialized in all raw food. I asked her once how the steaks were and she was gracious enough not to tell me that I am a dork. The owner has some long story about enzymes in all natural food that are ruined by heating them up blah blah blah. I never managed to listen to him ramble on, but the idea intrigued me a bit. Here is my venture into raw vegetarian food.

The Sauce was easy it is this is enough for 2 or 3:
3 Plumb Tomatoes diced
1 Clove of Garlic minced
5 big Fresh Basil Leaves Chopped
Splash of Olive Oil
Splash of Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and Pepper

Maybe a raw food purist would take issue with the Olive Oil and Balsamic, but he can shut up I am the one eating this. I took about a third of this and put it into the food chopper to get that saucy consistency and added it back to the rest.

The "Noodles" are finely cut Zucchini. I used to have a Mandolin that I used to cut stuff like this, the first day that I opened the package I cut myself across four knuckles while putting it together (yeah chef, good job) It was so sharp. About a year ago I threw it away it had dulled to the point of not being safe anymore. I thought I would be able pick one up in the next few days but turns out they weren't for sale everywhere like I thought they would be. Anyway to make the Fettuccine here I had to improvise a little I used the vegetable peeler to make long strips of zucchini then cut those into Fettuccine like strips. No ingredient list here... one Zucchini per adult, just cut into strips then noodlie things. What is pictured is one Zucchini cut like I described and about 1/2 of the sauce in the recipe

So you ask, "in the end how does it taste?" Well it is good, the flavors and textures really pop when you eat it very fresh and bright... but to me it is hard to consider a plate fill of raw vegetables (no matter how cool they look) anything other than a salad. Mind you a good salad but after my Raw Fettuccine I had the Spaghetti with Meat Sauce that Kris made while I was working on this.

Caprese, Mole

Since I put in the upside down tomato planter I have been working on this idea in my head. Something simple and elegant like a traditional Caprese Salad but with a twist. The traditional Caprese Salad would have Fresh Tomatoes, Fresh Mozzarella Cheese, Basil (whole leaf or chiffinade, depending on your taste) and this would all be drizzled with Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar maybe Fresh cracked pepper. I love Caprese Salad for a summer appetizer or light snack, it looks beautiful and the flavors are wonderful together.

As wonderful as it is I think that everybody has had a Caprese Salad... I wanted something a little different. I went to one of my favorite cuisines for inspiration this one is this one is Fresh Roma Tomatoes from my "Garden" I sliced a couple up and layered them with Queso Fresca, and drizzled it with a Mole Vinaigrette that I put together and chilled.

Every thing on here is pretty self explanatory except for the Mole Vinaigrette. The tomatoes were sliced about a quarter inch thick as was the Queso Fresca. I have to explain something here, I think that everyone should make a Mole sauce from scratch, it is a wonderful experience and a really well made Mole sauce is wonderful and has a depth of flavor that is hard to describe. It also takes hours... The first time I made a scratch Mole Sauce I was working at a little Southwest restaurant, a lot of nights I would start prepping my Saturday special on Friday as things started to wind down. That night I was looking at the recipe that the owner gave me, it clearly said prep time 3-3 1/2 hours. I did not believe it, "how could that be?" I said to myself "that must include time to grind stuff on rocks or something,"and I started pulling the 27 ingredients together. So at about 11:00 as my last guests were enjoying their house made Churros and Flan I started soaking Ancho Chilies in water, breaking down Dark Chocolate, toasting Sesame Seeds and so on, here is a recipe from Epicurious if you want to go that route. The thing that I want to note here is that at 3:20 am I put my 6 cups of Mole Sauce into the cooler and immediately pored myself a 16 oz carry out cup of leftover margaritas for the trip home.

I mentioned recently that being summer and living with wonderfully active kids I don't have time to mix flour and fat for a pie crust let alone spend half of a day shopping for and then preparing a sauce for an appetizer. I went to the Mexican grocery store in my neighborhood and picked up a jar of Dona Maria it has always been a favorite of mine, it is simple to prepare and has that wonderful flavor that Mole should.

The Vinaigrette that I made has

1 cup of Mole Sauce (following the directions)

1/2 cup Olive Oil

1/2 cup Balsamic Vinegar

I put that into a blender and mixed until smooth, I let this set until it was room temperature and then drizzled a little on the salads.

Grilled Chicken Salad

Last Week our refrigerator was not working well, it was holding a temperature of about 70 degrees all day (it should be below 40). We got someone in to repair it and the temperature went quickly from 70 to freezing all of its contents basically overnight so I lost some Cilantro and Lettuce, they are pretty much gone ofter freezing. I pulled out a some nectarines that I will thaw and make into a sauce of some sort something spicy and sweet. I also had a pint of strawberries that were icy little nuggets. I let them thaw on the counter for an hour or so when they turned mushy and half frozen I was ready to go.

I ran then under cold water to wash then trimmed the stems off of each strawberry and put the usable fruit in the blender. I deemed it unusable if it was too mushy to hold, or there was a coating that may or may not have been frost. All in all about 3/4 of the Pint were usable strawberries. I used those to make a Strawberry vinaigrette that contained:

The Strawberries mentioned above

1/4 cup Rice Vinegar

the Juice from one Lime

1/3 cup Olive oil

1/3 cup Canola oil

1 TBS Honey

pinch of Kosher Salt

pinch of Cracked pepper

I blended the ingredients until smooth and put it into the refrigerator until ready to use.

The Chicken was a piece of cake I have 1 oz strips in the Freezer so I thawed and marinated those. Actually I hesitate to call it a marinate, it was just Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper to keep the chicken strips moist. I grilled those on the cast iron grill for a few minutes on each side. I used Frisse, Romain and Radicchio for my salad base and added some Toasted Almonds, Red Onions that were sliced thin and soaked in ice water for about 10 minutes (turns out that takes some of the bitter edge off of the onions). I topped all of this with the chicken strips and Strawberry Dressing, it works well for a light Summer lunch.