In A Nutshell

This salad is simply delicious and is a good foil for grilled steak. You could add leftover grilled chicken or steak and make a hearty lunch salad as well. It comes from the Food Network website (Sunny Anderson). arugula strawberries shaved Parmesan cheese For the dressing : 1 T Dijon mustard 1 T sugar 2 T fresh lime or lemon juice 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil salt and pepper Energetically whisk all the ingredients except the EVOO; slowly add the EVOO in a thin stream while continuing to whisk like a maniac. It helps if you put a heavier bowl on a towel to keep it from spinning right off the counter. Dress the salad to your liking and garnish with strawberries and Parmesan.

This dish is super yummy-- it is adapted from Food and Wine magazine. 2 lbs asparagus, tough ends trimmed 2 T plus 2 T extra-virgin olive oil 3 anchovy filets in oil 2 garlic cloves, chopped 1 cup panko crumbs 2 t lemon zest juice from one lemon Preheat oven to 425º; on a large rimmed baking sheet drizzle the asparagus with 2 T EVOO and season with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Roast for 20-25 minutes. In a small skillet, heat the remaining 2 T EVOO along with the anchovies over medium heat; cook, smushing them with a fork, until they are dissolved (a couple of minutes). Add the garlic and a pinch of crushed red pepper (optional) and cook until garlic is fragrant. Add the panko and cook for about 5 minutes or until brown and crispy, stirring constantly; be careful here, bread crumbs burn quickly.  Stir in the lemon zest. Transfer the asparagus to a plate and squeeze the lemon juice over it; top with the breadcrumbs.

This is a great way to use leftover grilled rosemary chicken ; the arugula salad is also great on its own. You can use any remaining bacon-scallion cream cheese as a bagel spread. This recipe comes from the Rachel Ray magazine. 6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled 1- 8oz. pkg. cream cheese, room temp. 1/4 cup toasted, chopped walnuts 3 scallions, chopped 2 pieces of leftover grilled chicken, split horizontally 4 bagels 4 T EVOO juice of 1/2 lemon 1 T white wine vinegar 2 t Dijon 2 t honey 1/2 honeycrisp apple sliced thinly 1 rib of celery, sliced thinly 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced 1- 5 oz. package of arugula Gently mix the bacon, cream cheese, walnuts and scallions. Mix all the dressing ingredients together and lightly toss the arugula, apple, celery and onion with dressing to taste. Spread the bagels with cream cheese mixture and top with the salad mixture. Arrange the chicken on top of that and enjoy!

I love a theme and this week was the glorious and beloved "sandwich week". This sandwich comes from Fine Cooking magazine and was supremely delicious. I used the Kerrygold Red Leicester which has a super nice creamy texture and melts well. I am not going to put specific measurements so that you can adjust your ingredients to however many sandwiches you want to make. I always have this tendency to think that if a little of something is good, a lot is even better, but in this case you don't want to overload the sandwich. 1/2" thick sliced Italian or sourdough bread (I used the huge Turano loaf that I would normally never buy but it held up really well to all the ingredients and tasted good grilled) apple butter Dijon mustard shredded cheddar cheese pastrami (I used Vienna all-beef pastrami from the deli) very thinly sliced honeycrisp apples (mandoline at 1/8" or 1/16" setting) softened butter Spread the outside of 2 pieces of bread with butter. Fl...

I can't begin to describe how delicious this chicken burger was... I ate myself silly! It's slathered with  Gorgonzola butter and has a crisp piece of prosciutto in there as an added little bonus. I love that it's served on ciabatta rolls rather than those spongy hamburger buns. This is another Rachel Ray magazine recipe. 4 oz. Gorgonzola 4 T butter, softened 2 lbs ground chicken 2 cloves garlic, pressed 1/2 t dried sage 1 t salt pepper to taste 4 slices prosciutto 4 ciabatta rolls fresh spinach 1. Mix Gorgonzola and butter; leave out at room temp. 2. Mix meat, garlic, sage, salt and pepper and form into 4 patties (this makes giant burgers- you could do 5 instead if you want them smaller) 3. In a large skillet that is lightly oiled, wilt the spinach slightly; set aside and then cook the prosciutto until crisp; set this aside as well 4. Cook the burgers for a total of 10 to 12 minutes over med.-high heat 5. Toast the buns under the broiler and spread a th...

I've pilfered this cake from the Smitten Kitchen website and shamelessly re-named it, adding a slightly boozy glaze of my own creation. The cake recipe is absolutely delicious and can be found here ; I made only two small changes: I used the zest of 2 limes rather than 1 to give it a more intense lime flavor and swapped out the blackberries for strawberries. For the Glaze : 1 cup powdered sugar 1 T lime juice 1 T white tequila zest of 1 lime Top the cake after it has cooled and serve with the strawberry sauce.

It's empanada season again! These were adapted from Food & Wine magazine. Crazy good! We made both small ones and large and doubled the recipe; there was a bit of filling left over (which we just ate). Serve with Malbec or beer. Dough : 2 eggs, beaten lightly 1 t white vinegar 1/4 cup dry white wine 2 cups flour 1 t salt 1 T sugar 1 stick cold, unsalted butter, diced  In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, salt and butter until it looks like coarse meal. Combine the eggs, vinegar and wine and drizzle over the flour mixture; pulse until just combined; knead the dough a couple of times just to get it to come together- don't manhandle it!  Form dough into a disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour. Filling : 1/2 lb ground beef 1 T veg oil 1/2 onion, diced 1 garlic clove, minced 1/2 red pepper, small diced 1 medium plum tomato, diced 1 T tomato paste 2 T white wine 1 t ground annatto (achiote) 1 packet Goya Sazón con Cilantro y Achiote (i...