Two Salad Dressings

This photo, showing the romaine lettuces, was our garden a month ago.



This is our garden today. It's amazing how fast everything grows! My husband watered the garden Tuesday evening...



...and I watered the blueberries yesterday morning. With the temperatures predicted to hit the 80's (WhooHoo!), it was a day to make sure everything had plenty of water: water the chicks, water the chickens, fill the pig's water bucket, fill the flock's water buckets, fill a bucket for the dog to find, fill all the rabbit water bottles, empty and fill 3 duck pools (yuck!), and I searched in vain for the sprinkler (lost in the tall orchard grass) to water the strawberry bed with. Tromped way out to the back pasture to check and see if the baaing of a lamb was one stuck up to its chest in the stream with waterlogged wool (this happened a couple days ago) or with its head stuck in a fence (this happened a few days ago also), or if it was just one complaining about being weaned or some other great lambie unhappiness. All was well by the time I got to them, and they all followed me back to the barn to drink from their water buckets and lie around in the shade for the afternoon.



Our blueberries aren't ripe yet. I am patiently waiting and dreaming of blueberries. The blueberries are next to the clothesline and as I hung out three loads of laundry (I simply LOVE line dried clothes) I thought of blueberry foods: eating blueberries fresh from the bush, Blueberry Sauce, Blueberry Pie, frozen blueberries straight from the bag, Blueberry Jam, Blueberry Wine...



Iced coffee...



...and salad for my lunch before leaving for work -with a choice of two salad dressings. The truth is that I seldom measure for this Balsamic Dressing but approximate (and rather flexibly) for these amounts. Make it to suit yourself, tasting and adding as you like. The Yogurt Curry Salad Dressing is a bit unusual, and quite good. I also used it as a marinade for some rabbit pieces we grilled over the fire pit. Delicious.

Balsamic Dressing
Mix together in mini food processor:
1 T. honey
2 T. Dijon mustard
3 T. Balsamic vinegar or half and half with red wine vinegar
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 -1 t. Italian Seasoning
1/2 t. salt
few grinds of black pepper to taste


Yogurt Curry Salad Dressing
Whisk together in a small bowl:
1/2 c. plain yogurt
1 T. cider vinegar
1 1/2 t. lemon juice
1/4 t. curry powder
1/2 t. turmeric
1 T. honey
1/4 c. mayonnaise

I have found if you beat the daylights out of this dressing, as when making it in a mini food processor, it will thin overnight. It doesn't change the taste, it just becomes a rather thin dressing, and I prefer the thicker version on my salad.

Falafels and Tandoori Rabbit

Falafels are the vegetarian equivalent to meatballs, crispy little fried morsels of spiced ground chickpeas. They are quite good all on their own with a yogurt sauce for dipping, or ketchup in the case of my children when they were very young. I made them the other night to serve with Tandoori rabbit -and I made both the rabbit and the falafels the extra-super-easy way. Falafels are not that difficult to make from scratch, as Nicole at Arctic Garden Studio shows (click here), but I must admit that I used a mix that's sold in the bulk section of both my local grocery store and food co-op.



Mix 2 c. falafel mix and 1 1/4 c. water. Let sit 15 minutes. Form balls and deep fry. Ta-da: falafels!



Tandoori rabbit (or chicken) is just as easy. Mix 2 T. to 1/2 c. Patak's Tandoori Paste with 1/3 -1/2 c. yogurt. Coat rabbit or chicken pieces with mix in a gallon Ziploc bag and leave to marinate several hours to overnight. Bake, uncovered at 350-375 degrees for 30-40 minutes.



Serve the rabbit with rice, mango chutney -I absolutely love making this chutney, so much so, that I generated quite a surplus and I had to force myself to NOT make any for awhile- and a vegetable (nappy carrots from the grocery story was what I had on hand). Serve the falafels with a yogurt sauce -I made the yogurt-tahini sauce from an earlier post of mine, The Middle East on a Flatbread (click here) -and pita breads.

Yogurt Tahini Sauce

Mix:
1 c. yogurt
2 T. tahini
1 T. lemon juice
1/2 t. salt

Sugar-Frosted Cardamom Braid

"The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight...Suffice it to say, then, that in the truest and least dialect way, good fresh bread and chuckling fountains are soul food." -M. F. K. Fisher

I had been thinking about cardamom bread for the past several days when I saw Nicole's post for the cardamom bread, Nisu at Arctic Garden Studio (click here). Her beautiful loaves were the inspiration for me to finally bake the cardamom braided bread I'd been thinking of. I wish I could remember where this recipe came from, but I have been making this bread for many years now, and I think all the different versions for this bread make a lovely loaf.

Sugar-Frosted Cardamom Braid

In microwave in a Pyrex measuring cup heat:

1 1/3 c. milk

1/2 c. sugar

2 T. butter -cut in pieces

Do not overheat (115 degrees). Stir to dissolve sugar and melt butter.

Place in bread bowl or stand mixer bowl:

4 1/2 c. bread flour

1 T. yeast

1 t. ground cardamom

1/2 t. salt

In a small bowl beat:

1 egg

1/4 - 1/2 t. lemon extract

Add lukewarm milk mixture and egg to flour mix. Beat with dough hook or spoon until it comes together. Continue kneading, adding 1 T. at a time of flour or water as needed, 5-10 minutes to make a smooth dough. Cover bowl with cling wrap and allow to rise until doubled in size. Punch down and divide into three equal balls. Rest 5 minutes. Roll each ball into a long rope (about 20 inches). On lightly greased sheet, braid ropes together, pinching ends and tucking under loaf ends to secure. Let rise until doubled. Mix 1 egg white + 1 T. water and gently brush onto loaf. Sprinkle with 1 T. coarse raw sugar and bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Slices of this cardamom braid with Pear Vanilla Jam for breakfast this morning was a good breakfast for those I love, and definitely food for my own soul. Ruth Reichl's reminder of why food matters (click here), reinforces my own belief of why baking bread is so important to me right now -it is a big yes in a world filled with no.