I think you all must know by now how very much I love salad.  I eat it all the year through.When we were first married Todd was not convinced that salad was a very good thing . . .  he called it rabbit food.  He has come to actually like them through the years however.  As he says, I never make a boring salad!  That is a high compliment coming from him! He is a man of very few words.


Actually he pretty much eats whatever I put in front of him and if he doesn't like it . . .  he won't say much of anything at all about it, or  . . .  if pressed . . .  he will simply say, "It was not one of my favourites."  How is that for being a gentleman.


This salad here today is a recipe I adapted to what I had on hand from the Supper cookbook by the late Marion Cunningham, who adapted from a salad she had eaten which was created by her friend Myrtle Allen of the Ballymaloe Inn and Cooking School in Country Cork, Ireland.  Those Allens are great cooks!


It has long been on my bucket list to go to the Ballymalloe Inn.  I have all of Rachel Allen's cookery books and I have one by her MIL Darina Allen, called The Forgotten Skills of Cooking.  Good cooking runs in the family.


When I saw the recipe for this salad, it intrigued me.  A salad composed of crisp lettuce leaves interspersed with fresh and colourful vegetables and topped with a buttermilk dressing. It sounded delicious and as pretty as a picture. 


We eat with our eyes as much as we do our stomaches and tastebuds, in fact it is what we see that first appeals to our appetities . . . something might taste really delicious, but if it is visually digusting looking and highly unappealing to the eye, it takes a really brave person to get past all of that and dig in.  We truly do eat with our eyes first.


There are only two of us and so I adapted this to smaller bowls for just us . . .  you could do the same thing for four lucky individuals, or you could do as the original recipe and compose it in a large shallow salad bowl. Its all up to you.  The Radish rose in the centre is my addition. I thought it would add a pretty and colourful touch, and  . . . it did!

Wash and clean your radishes.  Dry well.  Cut off the tops and root ends so that both are flat.  Taking a sharp knife begin at the top end of the radish and make several slashes, overlapping them slightly almost all the way to the bottom, but leaving the bottom intack.  Place in some lightly salted cold water for about fifteen minutes until they open up.  Drain and pat dry.  Use immediately.

To see a video on how to do this click here.



If you are out to impress your loved ones with a salad that is as visually appealing as it is delicious, then this is the salad for you!

This is a chocolate chip cookie recipe I adapted from a soft back cookbook/magazine I bought several years back called Delicious Baking, put out by Delicious magazine.  I love Delicious magazine.  It is one of my favourites.  I used to have a subscription to it, but when I lost my job a few years back I had to cut back and magazine subscriptions was one of the first things to go.  *sniff *sniff*



There is nothing unsual about chocolate chunks, or even about using two types of chocolate  . . .  the difference is that you use DARK chocolate in these, which counterbalances the sweetness of the white chocolate perfectly . . .



Another difference is that it uses DARK soft brown sugar, which gives these cookies a light whiff of molasses smokiness . . .  oh so good.


Crispy edged . . .  with sweet vanilla chunks and bitter dark chocolate . . .  with a slight chewiness in the middle.  I think you will agree with me when I say that those things all tip these cookies over the edge towards spectacular!



Bake for 15 - 18 minutes until golden brown.  Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes on the pan prior to scooping off onto a wire rack to cool completely.  Store in an airtight container.




Now you might not think the fact that this recipe only makes about sixteen large cookies is a bonus . . .  but to me, who has absolutely no self control at all, this is a big plus.  There is a lot less cookie danger for me to be tempted by!! Bon Appetit!

 With raspberry season being in full swing at the moment I had a real hankering for a raspberry cake!  Oh, I do love raspberries any way I can get them, but they really shine in cakes!


 
Especially this one which had a delightful homemade raspberry sauce baked right into the middle of it.  Just look at that sweet tart lucious raspberry oooze  . . .


 
Oh boy but this is some good.   The batter is a sour cream coffee cake type of batter.  Not as in coffee flavoured batter, but as in a cake batter for a cake that you would want to enjoy with a nice hot drink either in the morning or for your break time . . . this batter is flavoured with almond and vanilla, not coffee.


 
This cake just screams winner!  It is not officially raspberry season until I bake it at least once!!  mmmm . . .  moist almond flavoured cake with a beautiful sweet/tart seam of raspberry deliciousness running through the middle.

 
Another really good thing about this cake is that you can also bake it in the depths of winter with frozen berries . . .  ahhh . . .  a sweet taste of summer.  You just got to love that!

 
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs, almond extract and vanilla.  Sift together the flour, soda, salt and baking powder.  Stir this into the creamed mixture along with the sour cream and combine to give you a smooth batter.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.  Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares to serve.



I did dust some icing sugar on top to serve  . . . just to dress it up a bit.  Every gal shines a bit more in her frills don't they!  Bon Appetit!

 
The original recipe used dried Italian salad dressing mix (in its unmixed, dry form) along with brown sugar and some butter for dotting.  We don't have dried Italian salad dressing mixes over here.  It is possible to get it at a premium price from some sites which carry North American goods, but generally speaking it doesn't exist.


 This chicken is really, really good however, and so I had to come up with a way to adapt it to what I could get over here because it is a chicken I just crave every now and then!



I combined a mix of herbs and powders to approximate the same flavours I might get from the dressing mix . . .  garlic and onion powders, basil, oregano, thyme, salt and cracked black pepper  . . . a bit of dried pepper flakes for some heat.  All the flavour, but none of the preservatives.

 
It actually might even be better than using the dry mix because of that.   This mixture gets mixed with some brown sugar and then sprinkled over bone in, skin on chicken thighs, dotted with butter and baked until all those flavours penetrate the chicken and that skin gets all sticky crisp and finger licking good!


Sure, it's not a low fat kind of a dish, but once in a blue moon this makes a really tasty treat. You could use chicken breasts if you really wanted to, but be sure to cut the bake time way down, and of course you won't get that lovely crispy skin.  You can also use one package of dry Italian Salad Dressing Mix if you want to instead of my combination of flavours.  Just mix it in with the brown sugar as per the recipe and leave my additions out.


2 TBS softened butter



I think this is sure to become one of your favourites as well.  If it doesn't well . . .  there is just no accounting for taste eh?  We are all different.  Bon Appetit!

I confess I am really, really fussy about the tuna I buy however.  I only ever buy Albacore . . .  white tuna, sustainably sourced. I know it costs a bit more than normal tinned tuna, but it is worth every penny in flavour.  It just tastes sooooo much better than the cheap stuff.  This is a case where you really do get what you pay for.



We humans are such funny creatures.  We will think nothing of paying 3 or 4 pounds for a pound of minced beef, but when it comes to a tin of tuna we balk at spending 3 pounds for that!


 A tin of tuna goes just as far when properly prepared and you don't pour half it down the drain, and let me tell you . . .  a tin of solid pack Albacore white tuna in spring water is worth every little penny!  Trust me on this.  That same Italian Nonna told me to only ever buy blunt nosed carrots.  She said they were sweeter, and once again she was right.  You have to trust those Italian Nonna's.  They know what they are talking about!


Back to the tart. This is such a simple bake and really won't heat your kitchen up that much.  The bake time in total is only about  10 to 12 minutes.  And it is sooooo good!  Simple and good!


The crust is made from baking mix and boiling water, which gives you something almost like a bread, but there is none of the waiting for rising etc.  I use my own homemade baking mix, which works very well.  You can find that recipe here.
 


You just roll it out and make a rim and bake it for a few minutes until golden and then top with the tuna melt mixture some sliced tomatos and cheese slices and then bake it for a few minutes longer.  This is absolutely delicious!  A salad on the side and dinner is served.  Your family will think you slaved all day! Kids love this easy bake!


Remove the crust from the oven. Spread the tuna mixture over top thinly, covering it completely. Top with the tomato and cheese slices in a decorative manner.  Return to the oven for 3 to 4 minutes to melt the cheese.  Cut into wedges to serve.  Serve hot.

Thor Dry Spritz Ginger & Apple – RRP £1.39 x 2

These sparkling drinks are crisp and refreshing. I have enjoyed them before.  I quite like them, especially chilled.  I can't show you the Ginger one as it had somehow emptied into my box, which was odd because the lid was still screwed on tightly, but there was only about 1/2 an inch in the bottom of the bottle and everything else in the box was wet. What's nice to know however, is after a quick e-mail to Degusta Box, a replacement box was delivered just a few days later! You can buy these drinks from Amazon – in a variety of flavours.

To assemble the salad toss together the croutons,  lettuce and 3/4 of the cheese.  Drizzle with your desired amount of prepared dressing and toss again.  Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese and serve immediately!