Happy Eats!

My husband and I both adore Caesar Salad. We like it with poached chicken, grilled chicken, even fried chicken strips. We’ll add salmon, shrimp, even leftover steak to Caesar Salad. We love it with the traditional romaine lettuce, but we’ll also add fresh spinach, mixed greens, or even iceburg lettuce.

The important thing, though, is the dressing. Some bottled Caesar dressings are okay. But some just don’t cut it - they’re either too salty, too full of garlic, too sour, or too bland. So when I have five extra minutes, I’ll make my own Caesar dressing. It’s a snap if you happen to have a tube of anchovy paste in the fridge. Trust me, even if you hate anchovies, you need a little bit of anchovy paste to make good Caesar dressing. It doesn’t add a fish taste, just a subtle special flavor that really makes the dressing!

For the dressing:

• 1 extra large egg, placed in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes
• 1 small garlic clove, minced fine
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2-1 teaspoon anchovy paste (sold in tubes)
• 1 scant teaspoon worcester sauce
• 1/4 cup mildly flavored extra virgin olive oil
• pinch of salt

For the salad:

• 1 head romaine lettuce, washed, dried well, and torn into pieces
• 1/2 cup croutons
• 3-4 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese

Additions (use any ONE of the following):

• Any kind of cooked chicken (even leftover fried chicken strips)
• Cooked salmon, chopped or flaked
• Cooked shellfish, such as shrmip or crabmeat, chopped
• Leftover grilled steak or roast beef
• Leftover roast turkey

Have ready the following: a kitchen timer, all the dressing ingredients measured out, and a clean jar with a screw top lid.

Boil some water in a small saucepan. Place the warmed egg into the boiling water with a slotted spoon, then set the timer for 50 seconds. As soon as it goes off, remove the egg with the spoon, crack it open, and dump it into the jar. Add the rest of the dressing ingredients, screw on the lid, and shake hard for a good minute (my husband likes to help with this part). Taste, and add salt if needed.

If you want to make the dressing ahead of time, make sure you pour it through a strainer to get the garlic bits out before you put it in the fridge. The garlic tastes wonderful when fresh, but if it sits in the dressing it becomes too strong and gets an off taste.

Right before serving, dump the greens into a giant mixing bowl. Shake the dressing, pour it over the lettuce, and toss vigorously for a good minute. Add the coutons and cheese, and toss again for another minute. Pile the salad on big serving plates, and arrange the optional additions over the top.

4 servings - easily doubled if you have a big enough mixing bowl!

Trust me, you won’t miss the meat! An unusual assortment of beans, a variety of vegetables, the richness of wine, and your favorite chili powder make this chili complex and deeply satisfying. I love this chili in a tortilla bowl, with a dollop of sour cream or full-fat yogurt on top. It looks like a lot of ingredients, but it’s worth it. And most of it is just opening cans or chopping veggies. Then you just throw everything in a pot, simmer, and add some thickener at the end.

• 1 tablespoon bland cooking oil (canola, safflower, etc.)
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped (wear gloves!)
• 2 medium zucchini, cut in 1-inch cubes
• 1 14-ounce can plum tomatoes, drained and coursely chopped
• 1 15-ounce can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 medium sized jicama, peeled and diced in 1/2-inch cubes
• 3-4 ounces red wine (burgundy, cabernet, merlot, whatever)
• 1 tablespoon worcester sauce (Cross & Blackwell makes a veggie version)
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1 teaspoon celery seeds
• 1-2 tablespoons of your favorite chli powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
• 2 cups water or vegetarian “chicken” stock
• Salt to taste
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons all purpose unbleached flour
• 3 medium red potatoes, boiled until barely tender, peeled, cubed

Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onions, green pepper, and jalapeno and saute until the onions become slightly translucent. Dump in all the remaining ingredients except the butter, flour, and potatoes. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the zucchini are barely tender, probably about 15 minutes. Taste for salt - you’ll probably need to add at least a teaspoon, maybe more.

Now melt the butter in a small pan, sprinkle in the flour, and stir and cook over medium low heat for a few minutes, until the flour starts to darken a bit (this mixture is called a roux). Add this to the pot, stir, then add the potatoes. Simmer, stirring once or twice, for 5-10 more minutes. Adjust salt, and serve piping hot with all the traditional fixings (grated cheese, sour cream, extra chili powder, tabasco, and so on).

6 generous servings, easily multipled.

A luscious salad full of satisfying flavors. And the really exciting ingredients - dried cranberries and blue cheese crumbles - are things you probably already have on hand.

This salad doesn’t use a lot of bleu cheese, but it’s an essential ingredient. Yes, it adds some fat, but you’re dividing two ounces between four servings. And because you don’t need to use the most expensive bleu cheese for this salad, you can enjoy it often!

This makes a wonderful starter for a meal that features simple flavors, like grilled or roasted chicken with mashed potatoes. If you’re in a hurry but need to serve something special, buy a good quality rotisserie chicken, fresh sourdough bread, and the fixings for this salad. Using pre-washed packaged romaine lettuce will save you even more time. Don’t forget the rosemary - it makes the flavor really special!

• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 4 tablespoons mild tasting extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crumbled)
• 1 head romaine lettuce
• 4 plum tomatoes, chopped, with their juice
• 1 tablespoon orange juice
• 2 ounces Bleu Cheese, crumbled
• 2 tablespoons toasted pecans, chopped (optional but very good!)
• A grinding of black pepper

Place the cranberries in a microwave safe bowl, add the olive oil and rosemary, and microwave on 50% power for approximately one minute until the oil is very warm and the cranberries have started to plump up. Watch carefully - you don’t want to fry the cranberries, just plump them in the warm oil! (You can also do this on a saucepan on the stove. Heat cranberries, oil, and rosemary in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until the cranberries fatten up.) Set aside to cool.

Throw the lettuce, tomatoes, orange juice, bleu cheese, and pecans (if you’re using them) into the biggest bowl you’ve got. Pour the cooled cranberries and rosemary oil over the leaves (scrape every last drop into the bowl with a good rubber or silicone spatula). Grind the pepper over.

Now toss, toss, toss! Use a couple of spatulas or big spoons to toss the salad over and over, until the cheese and oil coat every single bite. Serve immediately.

4 generous servings.

Here’s a low fat soup that’s much more delicious than it deserves to be. It’s light and healthy, yet so yummy you’ll go back for seconds and thirds. And you can feel good about making it, since you’re using up all those odds and ends of veggies hiding in the crisper drawer of your fridge.

One of the best things about this soup is it’s very hard to screw up. I invented it while concoting one of my “leftovers” lunches, where I dig around in the fridge and try to come up with something creative from whatever I have on hand. By following this basic technique, you can substitute VERY freely. If you don’t have one thing, try another. Heck, you were going to throw that stuff out anyway - so why not experiment?

If you don’t happen to have half a head of cauliflower, improvise. You can use broccoli, or a hunk of cabbage, like Savoy or Napa or even red cabbage - doesn’t matter. You can add just about any other vegetable, in small or large quantities. Got some leftover rotisserie chicken? Throw that in at the end. I’ve even tossed lettuce in this soup (though don’t put in too much - some lettuce gets a very cabbage-y flavor when it’s cooked!). Just make sure you season well at the end. And try to maintain a rough three-to-one proportion of solids to liquids - three cups liquid to one cup veggies - otherwise you’ll end up with stew instead of soup!

• 1/2 head of cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, bok choy, etc.
• 1 small-medium onion
• 2 teaspoons olive oil or 1 tablespoon butter
• a few carrots, sliced or cut into cubes
• 1-2 cups assorted chopped fresh veggies (whatever you have)
• 1/4 cup good chicken or vegetable broth powder, or 6 chicken or vegetable broth cubes
• Salt & fresh ground pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
• 1/2 cup uncooked rice or macaroni
• 1/4 cup condensed skim or fat free milk, unsweetened (optional)
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup leftover cooked chicken (optional)

Fill a soup or stock pot (6 quart capacity or larger) with water and bring it to a boil. While you’re waiting for the water to boil, chop up the onion, throw it in a saute pan with the oil or butter, and cook over medium heat for a few minutes, until the onion starts to “sweat.”

Hack the cauliflower into chunks if it’s not already chopped up, and toss it into the pot of boiling water to “blanch” it (”blanching” is pre-cooking in boiling water for a minute or two to get rid of excessively strong flavors). After a minute or two, drain the veggies in a colander. (Blanching normally requires you to plunge the food into ice water, but don’t bother - it’s going right back into the pot!)

Rinse the pot, add about 2 quarts of water, the broth powder or cubes (I really like the “vegetarian” chicken broth powder sold by Whole Foods Markets. Another good brand is McKay’s, which comes in a jar, or the real chicken broth powder or cubes made by Knorr. But be careful - if you use Knorr, don’t add extra salt!). Add a pinch of salt, a good grinding of pepper, the dried parsley flakes, and all the chopped veggies, including the blanched vegetables, the onion and its juices, the carrot, and any other stuff you have lying around.

Bring everything to a simmer, then keep it simmering uncovered for about 15 minutes. Add the rice or macaroni and cook another 15 minutes or so, until the rice and pasta are tender.

If you want a creamy soup, add the optional condensed skim milk. Here’s where you add the chicken if you have it. Simmer a minute or two more, then taste for seasoning. If it’s too salty, add a teaspoon or so of sugar, stir well, and taste again. If it needs zip, add a few sprinkles of dried herbs, some chili flakes, or an all-purpose seasoning blend like Spike or Mrs. Dash. If you happen to have some fresh herbs growing in the garden, you can chop some up and throw those in, too. As I said, improvise!

Serve very hot, with a toasted English muffin, some crisp crackers, or good old ordinary store-bought bread smeared with a little real butter.

Four generous servings, more or less!