Finally! A recipe we can all agree on!

I kind of can't contain myself today because it's been a while since I've had something I was dying to share with you guys.  But today, I have an autumn recipe that will surely please everyone in your house.  In fact, I believe it was my recipe that sparked this moment last week.....

I believe Barack was saying to Mitt, "can you believe that Heids McGhee put bacon in that salad?"  And then Mitt said, "Brilliant.  Women....they truly are the superior sex."

True story.

I based my autumn salad on this recipe I saw on pinterest last week.  

Heids' McGhee's Autumn Salad

• 2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• poppy seed salad dressing (I used Panera Bread dressing, found at Target)
• balsamic vinagrette (I used Panera Bread dressing, found at Target)
• 6-8 cups chopped romaine lettuce
• 3 apples (I used 2 granny smith, 1 honey crisp)
• 2 stalks of celery, diced
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 lb cooked bacon 
• 1/4-1/2 cup feta cheese

1.  Put the chicken in a ziploc bag and pour in about 1/3 of a cup of poppy seed dressing and 1/3 a cup of balsamic dressing.  Let marinate 1-2 hours.  Grill until cooked thoroughly.

2.  In a large bowl, combine lettuce, apples, celery, cranberries, pecans, bacon, and feta cheese.  

3.  In a small bowl, mix 2/3 a cup of the poppy seed dressing with 1/3 cup of the balsamic dressing.

4.  Pour the dressing over the salad.  Top with chicken.

Throw all your salad ingredients into a large bowl and drizzle with dressing.

Give it a good mix.

Add your grilled chicken.

This salad is delish.  I loved it.  Mr. McGhee loved it.  Mitt and Barack loved it.  My boy minis loved it.  The only person on God's Earth who did not love this salad is my tiny mini, who apparently does not like salads where the chicken touches the lettuce.

ENJOY!

A little note....yes, I confess, I bought pre-made dressing at the store.  I am certain that there are poppy seed and balsamic dressing recipes out there and I could very well have made my own.  For whatever reason, on that particular day I caved and went for convenience.  If, you do make this salad and you do make your dressings homemade...please let me know what recipes you used.

A Royal Salad

The recipe I want to share with you today is from the Barefoot Contessa.  Now, I don't watch the Barefoot Contessa, mainly because I prefer to watch someone with a higher energy level than the she.  And, to be honest, until about 45 seconds ago, I didn't even know what the word "contessa" means (Italian Countess).  But, even though I don't watch her show, I do know that on the few occasions that I have tried her recipes they are always fantastic.


And her avocado and endive salad is to die for.  In fact, after she wrote this recipe, Italy probably did become a real countess.  And, from now on, I will not pretend that I am an Italian Countess every time I make this salad.

The Barefoot Contessa's Avocado and Endive Salad

• 1 1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
• 1/4 cup good olive oil
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3 heads endive
• 3 ripe Haas avocados, peeled and seeded

1.  Whisk together the mustard, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper to make a vinaigrette. 

2.  Remove a 1/2-inch from the stem end of each endive, discard the core, and cut the rest across into 1-inch chunks. 

3.  Cut the avocados into large dice or wedges. 

4.  Toss the avocados and endive with the vinaigrette. Season, to taste, and serve at room temperature.

Did you know that one cup of endive a week can reduce the risk of ovarian cancer by 75%?  It's true.  I read it on the internet.

 
Prepared vinaigrette. 

Avocados, tossed with the vinaigrette.  Waiting for the endive to join them.

I am embarrassed to admit, I do not have a picture of the final product.  I was so excited to eat it and start lowering my risk of ovarian cancer, that I forgot to snap a picture.   You can find a picture here, although mine did not look nearly that neat

This salad was so delish, I was tempted to set my DVR to tape the Italian Countess.

Salad for Sadness

Mr. McGhee was out of town last week, which meant that I got to catch up on my shows.  That means I finally got around to watching the last few episodes of Glee.  I think I should be ashamed to ask this, but I have to know....am I the only grown woman who cried like a baby during the season finale of Glee?  The whole Finn-Rachel break-up scene was all too much for me, I had the ugly cry going on.  And the next morning, as I was making breakfast  for the minis, I found myself actually worrying about Finn and how he was holding up knowing that Rachel was in NYC chasing his dreams and he was headed to Georgia to join the Army.  

Perhaps I get emotionally invested too easily.

Anyway, I knew that I needed to do something to cheer myself up, so I decided I would make myself my all-time favorite meal, a warm spinach with red onion and nectarine salad.  I first had this salad on a trip to Seattle last summer, so every time I eat it, I reminisce about that trip.  

Warm Spinach with Red Onion and Nectarine salad.

• 1/4 cup sliced almonds
• 10 ounce baby spinach
• 2 nectarines, halved, pitted, each cut into 8 wedges 
• 3 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar 
• Salt and pepper 
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 medium red onions, peeled and thinly sliced
• 6 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
• 1/2 cup diced smoked ham, optional (I have never tried with the smoked ham)

1. 1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spread almonds on a baking sheet. Toast in oven, stirring once or twice, until light golden, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.
2. 2. Place spinach and nectarines in a large bowl. In a small bowl, stir together vinegar and sugar until sugar dissolves. Season with pepper and a pinch of salt.
3. 3. Warm olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring frequently, until well browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Stir in vinegar mixture and remove from heat.
4. 4. Scrape hot dressing over spinach mixture and toss to coat. Divide among 4 dinner plates. Sprinkle each salad with goat cheese, almonds and ham, if using. Serve immediately.

Cooking onions, for the dressing.

Spinach, nectarines and goat cheese.  I added extra nectarines.

Tossed with the dressing.  The warm dressing melts the goat cheese to perfection.  It's delish and totally got me over my Finn and Rachel saddness.

Girls Night!!!

I have a group of friends that gets together about once a month for a girls night.  Now, "girls night" is one of those events that could be anything from this.....

....to this......

I would say our girls night falls somewhere in between.


The topics of conversation at girls night vary from parenting advice to Macedonian weddings.  But the one topic that is consistently covered is food.  So today I am going to share with you two dishes that I devoured at last month's girls night.  And I mean, I seriously devoured these.  Like the kind of devoured, where I am fairly certain when I got up to get my 5th helping, the girls were shooting one another glances and thinking we need to cover the topic of "bring a dish to pass" etiquette at next month's girls night.



FRUIT & CHEESE ORZO

• 1 12oz box orzo
• 2 teaspoons chopped garlic 
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 1/3 cups chopped baby spinach
• ½ cup crumbled ricotta salata or feta cheese 
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• 1/3 cup toasted pine nuts

1.  In saucepan, cook orzo according to package directions and drain.
2.  Cook garlic and thyme in olive oil on medium heat for 30 seconds. Remove from heat.
3.  Add orzo and last 4 ingredients. Season with pepper, if you choose.


This is the recipe as it was written.  We all agreed on girls night that you always add extra garlic, fresh herbs, and feta.  And seriously, when do you get a room full of women to agree on anything?  Add extra. 


This orzo salad is amazing the next day for lunch.  I know this because when nobody was looking, I threw the leftovers in a bowl and stuck it in my purse.  

This next dish is a chickpea cucumber salad.  It was incredibly delish and equally amazing for lunch the next day.  My minis devoured it and I think my puppy enjoyed a bite or two as well.


Chickpea Cucumber Salad

• 1 can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans
• 1 large seedless cucumber, peeled and chopped into small chunks
• large bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped small
• feta cheese, chunked
• olive oil
• rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard
• Toasted pine nuts
• salt to taste

1.  Rinse canned beans. 

2.  Combine all ingredients.

3.  Add olive oil, vinegar, mustard and salt to taste.

4.  Crumble feta (add a lot, make it nice and creamy).

5.  Mix well.

She noted on the recipe, I don’t measure the dressing portion just add until I like the taste. I almost always double the recipe because it keeps so nice in the fridge.

There you go.  Girls night done right.  Throw in some cocktails and great conversation and it's a total success.  

We're having company for dinner!

I am so excited to share this next set of recipes that I can't even think of something witty to say.  We had company for dinner tonight.  This was the sort of company that you don't feel like you have to clean your house for.  That works for me because less cleaning time = more cooking time.  We had an amazing dinner of artichoke, beet, and spinach salad, tilapia, and marinated veggies.  It was ah-may-zing....and all the recipes were mine!  A little disclaimer about that....I don't exactly measure ingredients as I go, so all these measurements are educated guesses.  The good news is, that basically means you can't mess any of these up...and no need to use measuring cups and spoons! 

The first thing I did was make some roasted beets.  I actually did this yesterday and just kept them in the fridge overnight. 

• 6 beets, peeled and cut into eighths
• extra virgin olive oil
• 5 sprigs fresh thyme
• salt and pepper
• 1/8 cup orange juice
• 1/8  cup balsamic vinegar

1.  Preheat oven to 400.
2.  Put peeled beets into a dish and drizzle with olive oil.
3.  Add fresh thyme.  If you don't have fresh thyme, use dried.  If you don't have dried thyme, skip this step.
4.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
5.  Roast until beets are soft, around an hour 15 minutes.
6.  Mix orange juice with balsamic vinegar and pour over cooked beets.

Set beets aside and let them cool.  Any leftovers are going in the mini's lunches tomorrow.  For all of you out there that do not like beets, try these beets.  If you try them and still don't like beets, then yeah....you don't like beets.

Next step is to make the brown-sugar walnuts for the salad topping.

• 1.5 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• handful of walnuts

1.  In a pan, melt butter over low heat.
2.  Add brown sugar and stir.
3.  Add walnuts and stir constantly for 3-5 minutes.
4.  Cool walnuts on parchment paper.

Final prep step is the Citrus Vinagrette.

• 2/3 cup rice vinegar
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 4 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon honey

1.  Whisk all ingredients together.

This salad dressing may be my best one yet.  It is absolutely delish. 

Roasted Beet and Artichoke Salad

• 5 handfuls of spinach leaves
• feta cheese
• roasted beets
• one can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• red onion, sliced
• brown-sugar walnuts
• citrus vinagrette

1.  Toss all ingredients together.

I have to confess, I was so excited about this dinner that I forgot to take pictures until after we had eaten!  So this is the leftovers that I am saving for tomorrow.

I thought the salad was the star of my dinner, but everyone else loved the tilapia I served it with.  Even the minis loved it.  Score!

Bread-crusted Tilapia

• 3-4 tilapia filets
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I used breadcrumbs made from stale bread)
• dried basil
• dried oregano
• garlic salt
• fresh grated italian cheeses (parmesan, asiago, etc)
• one egg, beaten well

1.  Preheat oven to 350 and grease a glass baking dish. 
2.  Mix breadcrumbs with spices and fresh grated cheese (use amount the works with your personal taste preference, I use a lot!)
3.  Dip each tilapia filet in the beaten egg.
4.  Dredge each tilapia filet in the breadcrumb mix.
5.  Put tilapia filets in pan and spray with non-stick spray.
6.  Bake until white and flaky, approximately 30 minutes.

My brilliant company brought a dish of marinated veggies to share.  These were delish and could easily be used many ways.  I can't wait until this summer when Mr. McGhee can grill these up while I lay in the pool yelling at him to make sure they aren't over-cooked (I prefer my veggies crisp!)

• 1/2 cup thickly sliced zucchini
• 1/2 cup sliced red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup sliced yellow bell pepper
• 1/2 cup sliced yellow squash
• 1/2 cup sliced red onion
• 16 large fresh button mushrooms
• 16 cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 clove garlic, crushed

1. Place the zucchini, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, squash, red onion, mushrooms, and tomatoes in a large bowl.
2. In a small bowl, mix together olive oil, soy sauce, lemon juice, and garlic. Pour over the vegetables. Cover bowl, and marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
3. Cook on the grill or stove top in a pan.

Delish!  If you are a blessed like I am and have friends and family that will come over to your messy house and let you cook for them....this is a meal I would highly recommend.  I hope you are as lucky as I am and they will love it so much that they do the dishes before they leave!