One Big Table

I just bought this cookbook and I am so excited! I swear it was written just for me. Molly O'Neill, former food writer for the New York Times started ten years gathering material for what would become this cookbook: One Big Table -600 recipes from the nation's best home cooks, farmers, fishermen, pit-masters, and chefs. It truely is a loving portrait of American cooking today. There are photos on almost every page -photos from the past, and photos of foods and cooks of the present. The following recipe, very similar to the blue cheese dressing posted on Arctic Garden Studio by Nicole (click here) is the first thing I plan to make from this cookbook, but it definitely won't be the last.

Rogue Creamery's Best Blue Cheese Dressing Ever
Whisk together in medium bowl until combined:
1 c. mayonnaise
1/2 c. sour cream
1 T. lemon juice
1 T. red wine vinegar
1/2 t. Worcestershire sauce
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 c. fresh parsley, minced
2 oz. (about 1/2 c.) Oregon blue cheese, crumbled
salt and pepper to taste
Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes before serving.

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.

Socks and Salads

"She wondered how she could possibly accommodate what had happened to her life. She had no choice but to live around it." -Jim Harrison, The Farmer's Daughter



One,



two,



three,



and maybe four? I'll just have to wait and see if I have enough yarn to finish a fourth Socks with Lacepattern (click here).



We are in the middle of the season for salads made with lettuce fresh from the garden. I absolutely love wandering into the garden every evening and picking lettuces for our dinner salad. We seldom buy salad dressings, since they are really quite easy to make. Eating salad every day never gets old when the lettuce is perfect and the dressings are varied. I'm always looking for new ones to add to my repertoire and I'm guessing many of you are too. The Poppy Seed Salad Dressing (click here) I fell in love with last year is still appreciated on just about any kind of greens, but I must say I think Caesar Salad is my absolute favorite. The Caesar Salad we made last weekend with Flashy Trout Back Romaine (click here) lettuce from the garden was fantastic, but I admit I will greedily gobble up any Caesar. This is the Caesar Salad Dressing recipe I use year-round on both summer's spectacular and winter's mundane romaine lettuces.



Caesar Salad
Blend together in a mini-food processor, pint jar with a tight fitting lid, or with a wand blender:
4 anchovy fillets, minced or 1 1/2 t. anchovy paste
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T. Dijon mustard
2 T. red wine vinegar
2 drops Tabasco Sauce
1 t. Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 c. olive oil

Toss with 2-4 quarts washed and chopped romaine lettuce, 1-2 c. (3-5 oz.) croutons, and 1/4 - 1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese. This is best served right away, but I admit I am usually quite happy to eat even limp day-old (or more) Caesar Salad leftovers -it really is one of my all time favorites.