Life gets busy, and then I get lazy with my writing. I have been keeping up with cooking though and now have a nice little backlog to choose from. I figured I would make up for my lack of posts with a double review today.
Here in Connecticut it's been mostly nice weather and feeling like summer. We had a few broiling hot days where it seemed too hot to cook, so I took advantage of the "Salad" section of Barefoot Contessa. I knew Auntie had some real gems in there.
We were lucky enough to have a new Whole Foods open in the area and they had some gorgeous corn on display. It was shockingly cheap, since some people refer to Whole Foods as "Whole Paycheck" due to their steep prices. I know it can be pricey, but I do feel very Ina-rific when I shop there. You just know their stuff is "good" as she likes to say. I picked up the ingredients to make Fresh Corn Salad. Not too much was needed...just the corn, red onion, basil. I already had the cider vinegar and olive oil at home. I would actually refer to this as one of Auntie's more budget-friendly recipes!
It was simple to make, just boiling the corn for three minutes, then blanching in ice water to stop the cooking and set the color. Before I started cooking Blanche was just Rue McClanahan on the Golden Girls. Now I know better.
Cut the kernels off, toss with the diced onion, basil and the rest of the ingredients!
It was simple and delicious. Refreshing on a hot night, we ate it with hamburgers/veggie burgers. It was just as good the next day, so it's able to be made ahead if you want to bring it to a bbq this summer!
Keeping with the salad theme, I also experimented with Beets With Orange Vinaigrette. Obviously you really have to like beets to make this one. To be honest, I never touched a beet until two years ago. My best friend used to eat them out of the jar like they were candy and it would make me want to hurl! I saw them at a farmer's market years later and they looked so beautiful. They had golden and red beets stacked up and it looked just like a picture from one of the Bon Appetit magazines that I've been pouring over for the past 15 years. My foodie friends swore that they were delicious roasted with olive oil, salt, and pepper, so I decided to go for it. They were right, and I've enjoyed beets ever since!
This recipe was mercifully easy because Auntie gave her blessing to use CANNED beets! I was prepared for my hands to be dyed red after peeling the real deal, so I was thrilled to see that there was a shortcut. Again, not too many ingredients so it was prepared fairly quickly and easily. Those canned beets are slippery little suckers though and were a bit of a pain to cut into halves. Another of Auntie's favorite ingredients that is incorporated into many of her recipes is zest. I caught on quickly after the first cookbook and purchased a zester. Some people just use a microplane grater, but this makes for much nicer looking pieces:
I also had to figure out how to properly segment an orange, and thanks to You Tube I was able to quickly figure it out without demolishing them. Here is the end result for the Beets With Orange Vinaigrette:
I didn't love this as much as I thought I would, but my husband certainly did. I also gave some to my beet-loving bestie and her now beet-loving little girl and they finished it off. So I am guessing if you really like beets this will do it for you!
Here are the links:
