The idea of topping salad greens with salsa has been bouncing around in my head for a while now. I can think of many times topping my so-so salad with salsa. So I guess the idea hadn't been in my head but rather in beta testing on my salad plates at countless Mexican restaurants.
But now that summer is near, fruit salsas are again topping grilled chicken and fish in most of the cooking magazines. Feeling inspired to top my grilled chicken with a delicious tropical fruit salsa, I bought some Mango Pineapple salsa from Trader Joe's to try and it was amazing! I imagined it on soy marinated, grilled salmon and chicken and as the finishing on so many dishes that I then thought of my favorite food...salad. I thought of the many times I used plain salsa to top my salads...Wouldn't it be awesome to top a salad with the whole container of this delicious salsa from Trader Joes? There would be no need for a dressing. The bright idea flashed as I looked down and realized I'd eaten the whole container of salsa. Not a drop left to top a salad with, but that didn't mean I couldn't make my own salsa, right? Inspiration comes many ways and just like the TJ's Mango salsa, my trip to SLO brought me Kale. The perfect marriage.
I love Kale. It is chewy and hearty and unexpectedly, floral in it's taste. I think it tastes best when paired with fruit. The Strawberry Mango Salsa is sweet and tangy and works perfectly with this delicious green. It's perfect for summer BBQs because you keep the salsa and the greens separate until ready to serve, that way your greens don't wilt after sitting in all that juice. Enjoy!
Kale Salad with Strawberry Mango Salsa
Serves 4-6
3 large leaves of Kale, chopped
1 medium head of green leaf lettuce, chopped
Strawberry Mango Salsa
1 cup strawberries, diced
1 cup mango, diced
1/2 cup pineapple, diced
2 T cucumber, small dice
1 T red bell pepper, small dice
1 T jalapeno, small dice (optional)
2-3 green onion, sliced
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
2 T agave syrup or honey
2 T orange juice concentrate
2 T vinegar
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 T fresh ginger, grated
sea salt (to taste)
Chop, rinse and spin lettuce and kale and place in a large serving bowl. Set aside.
Prepare Salsa. The ingredients are approximate as I added a little here and there to get the right amount of sweetness so this is my closest approximations. Feel free to adjust to your taste.
Add all fruit and vegetable ingredients into a medium sized bowl with tight fitting lid (for storage) and mix well. In another bowl add agave syrup or honey, OJ concentrate, vinegar, olive oil, ginger and salt and whisk together until well combined. Add to fruit, mix and chill covered in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or overnight. (This is a good make-ahead salad)
When ready to serve, place Kale salad on a plate and top with this deliciously sweet Strawberry Mango Salsa. Enjoy!
Looking for a new salad recipe for Spring and Summer? Try some of these:
Sunflower Sprout Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette
Nappa Cabbage Salad with Ginger Garlic Dressing
Caprese Salad with Pesto Vinaigrette
Green Goddess Primavera Salad
Vegetable Ceviche
After our little excursion to San Luis Obispo's Farmer's Market over Spring Break, I had renewed inspiration seeing all that gorgeous produce. Prior to our little trip, I'd been nursing a pretty serious case of cooking block...my culinary equivalent to writers block. It was self imposed actually. I filled up my days, taking on tasks and responsibilities that honestly weren't fun. They dominated my time and zapped my creativity. When I'm not in the kitchen or writing I am not a happy camper and since most of what I write is inspired by food and cooking, it makes sense, that if one goes, the other follows. But thankfully my cooking block was lifted with just a little inspiration in the form of Rainbow Swiss Chard.
The vivid colors grabbed my attention at
first, but the discovery that these ruffled, leafy greens weren't
bitter, was what sold me. I knew very little about Swiss Chard, so I read up a little about it. Swiss chard is a member of the beet family, but unlike beets that are mostly
grown for their roots, Swiss chard is grown only for its leaves. And it comes in many different colors. See how beautiful it is with it's
multi-colored stems, how could you not buy some? Incredible!
I love to cook, but I'm not a trained chef by any stretch of the imagination. I like to stumble along and throw this and that together and hope it tastes good in the end. Trial and error makes for some pretty good recipes but you still have to eat through the bad ones.
What a delicious metaphor for life, right?
Luckily, this recipe is one of the good ones. Paninis are basically glorified grilled cheese sandwiches. I pulled these together using some left over chicken and muenster cheese. Adding the Swiss chard and leeks, just kicked it up to fancy land, but don't be intimidated. It is so simple that you'll wonder why you've never made Paninis before. If you don't have left overs, you can also use some sliced deli meats, turkey or ham or whatever you prefer. Enjoy!
Chicken Panini with Swiss Chard and Leeks
Serves 4-6
4-5 leaves of Rainbow Swiss Chard, thinly chopped
1 leek, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced and rinsed well
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 T olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 cooked chicken breasts, sliced (I used left over herb chicken)
Muenster Cheese
8 slices of San Luis Sourdough with Rosemary and Olive Oil
Butter
Prepare vegetables. Take care to rinse the chopped leeks to remove all the fine sand and dirt. Place Swiss Chard, leeks, garlic and olive oil into a large skillet and saute vegetables until they are softened, about 12 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste and set aside. The chard is so beautiful with it's spots of color confettied against the green.
Slice the chicken and set aside. Butter the outside of the bread and layer one slice of muenster cheese on the dry side of the bread. Add a single layer of sliced chicken and then the Swiss Chard and Leek mixture. Top with another slice of cheese and the other piece of bread, butter side up. Place sandwich in a Panini Maker or a George Foreman Grill...or if you are like me and don't have either of those things...make your own makeshift grill.
I placed the sandwich on my grill pan (or skillet) and topped the sandwich with a small cookie sheet which I weighted down with 2-3 cans of canned beans. Grill sandwich for about 5 minutes to melt the cheese and toast the bread. Take a peek to ensure it is browning evenly and to your desired taste. Add time as needed. Next, remove the cans and small cookie sheet and flip the sandwich over, grilling the other side for another 5 minutes. Remove from pan, cut along a diagonal and enjoy!
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Day three, our last day, got us up early to go for a hike. Although we had two busy days walking around and sightseeing, we didn't really get any real exercise so I was bound and determined to get the heart rate up. Plus, one of the things I miss most about living in this area is that I can very easily get away from people and have a little breathing room in the country.
So we got up, showered, dressed, and ate our free breakfast at the hotel and then set out on foot. Luckily, Laguna Lake was just down the street from our hotel so we walked the nature trails until they took us to the worn paths that led toward the hills. There were so many wild flowers blooming, I tried to get some decent shots but came up empty with mostly blurry photos. Anyway, here's the best of my blurry ones just so you can get a look-see.
This is a picture of an old barbed wire fence as we entered private land. The land owners allow walkers, hikers and joggers entrance with just a few simple rules. I love the look of this old rustic fence.
Once beyond the fence, we started up the path where we were quickly greeted by a mare and her colt. I'll admit I was a little afraid to see her coming for us so quickly, I wasn't sure what she would do with her little one in tow. She was so friendly and just wanted a little attention so she let us pet her. The colt however wanted none of it and took cover behind it's mother. So awesome!
And then they continued on their way...Bye!
We came across many more horses with their colts, with the colts darting for safety near their mothers who continued to graze, completely unaffected by our presence.
After our little hike, it was time to pack up the car and head home. But like all good road trips, we took our time and stopped in Avila Beach.
Avila Beach had been completely rebuilt since I lived in SLO. Literally, it was leveled and rebuilt. There was a very large oil spill underneath the small, sleepy beach town and I remember the prolonged, embattled issue over how to clean it up. It took many years to decide and apparently they decided to completely unearth the town, removed the sand on the beaches and cleaned up the spill. Avila now is very tourist friendly with cool restaurants and bars, and wine tasting along the shoreline. Lots of things to look at and do. I like the improvements, but it was nice to see that some of the old restaurants and businesses were still there, only improved.
Here's some shots of one of Avila's two piers. (We didn't make our way over to the other pier on this trip)
The pier was cool because
it was all wood with nearly two inches of space between the boards. Enough for you to lose, say a cell phone while taking
selfies. It didn't happen, but I was worried that I might drop my phone and lose all my photos from this awesome trip.
I got a little vertigo looking down as I walked with water moving
beneath me. It was very disorienting. :)
We had an early lunch at the Old Custom House Restaurant. A great restaurant that had great food, affordable prices and friendly service. I was glad to see that this restaurant remained after the city's reconstruction, especially when I saw this veggie sandwich on the menu. Why?
Because this sandwich was loaded with none other than, sunflower sprouts! I love Sunflower Sprouts! I grow my own at home and add them to my salads and sandwiches. Here's my Sunflower Sprout Salad from last year. They are not commonly used in restaurants so I was happy to see them as one of the main ingredients.
The sandwich was so delicious. It had sundried tomato hummus, avocado, tomato, onion, cucumber and sunflower sprouts! I'm going to try my own version of this for the blog in the very near future. :)
This is a pic of my husband's Fish Tacos...yum.
After we finished our lunch, we said our goodbyes to this beautiful town and headed home to our two boys. What a great trip! Until next time...
Day two took us to Morro Bay.
The cold wind that blew through Farmers Market the night before brought chilly, grey, cloud-filled skies on Friday morning. It was cold in SLO, but even colder in Morro Bay. In my experience, it's always cold in Morro Bay. My husband had never been there and to be honest when I lived up in SLO, I didn't go to Morro Bay all that often because it's too friggin cold. The few times I'd gone, I went for dinner because the seafood restaurants were amazing, or I went antiquing, because there are a lot of consignment and antique shops there. So when my husband and I went, we followed my track record of eating and antiquing when in Morro Bay. We spent the morning sightseeing, then grabbed a bite to eat and then hit up an antique shop.
My shopping trip resulted in this Italian rectangular serving bowl and some pretty towels. You'll see both of these buys in future blogs.
I got a pretty good deal on the towels, 3 for 4 dollars and the Italian serving dish, cost me $15. I love my rectangular bowl!
Here are some of the random sights from our morning...
Here's our selfie at Morro Bay...
Just off the main street where you find all types gift shops, surf shops, galleries and restaurants, right smack in the center of it all you can watch a rousing game of chess on this life-sized chess board. The local chess club meets every Saturday. I think this is a pretty neat community feature. My kids love to play chess, so I took a few shots to show them. Unfortunatley, they weren't as impressed with the pictures as I had hoped. Their response, "Umm." :(
This was a really cool metal sculpture of an old bench seat from an old Ford truck. It doubles as a park bench. Everything was metal. It's a very cool illusion especially the torn seat with the pocked foam...it's all metal. I had to touch it to believe it was not a real bench seat. Pretty neat-o.
Here's a picture of a Fish Market sign that I thought was so funny...Look at how unhappy the Crab looks?? ..."I'm delicious!" Cracks me up.
Some pretty flowers near the ocean.
After we walked around a bit we stopped for a bite to eat...and for me to thaw out, I was freezing! My haven of warmth and awesome seafood...The Galley Seafood Grill & Bar.
Of course, there's the famous Morro Rock in the
background. It was also in the background shots of the old movie, The Goonies" and another movie, which I can't
think of the name of with Steve Martin. I'm terrible with remembering
movies... (random thought alert)
On to lunch...We started with some calamari strips. Not at all like the deep fried rubbery rings and tentacles most of us are used to at sports bars. These are fantastic because they are tender, light and strangely meaty but without any muscle fiber feel. It's hard to describe but they have such a cool texture and they are delicious. Anyway, they're cut from the calamari steak. The steaks come from larger squid where the bodies are split and laid flat and cut into strips. Much different than the tiny ones used to make the traditional calamari. It's the only way I want calamari from now on, it is so delicious. In fact, I'm going to look for some calamari steaks and experiment here at home. Next course...
My husband had the Catch of the day lunch with veggies and I had the Catch of the day salad. I didn't get a shot of my husband's dish, his looked alot like mine but on a bed of mixed veggies. Anyway, the catch of the day was Swordfish which I had blackened and it was served over mixed greens and romaine with tomatoes, cucumbers, and almonds with the most delicious Mango Vinaigrette. I'm going to have to try and reproduce this dressing at home, it was amazing!The whole salad was delcious.
Heading back toward San Luis, we took our time and took the scenic route. I took my husband past my old school and showed him the back roads I took home everyday. One of the things I miss about living there is the utter solitude I felt everyday when I drove on a country road. I was alone with amazing beauty all around me. Here's a few shots of the hills, green with spring. The grey skies actually enhance the beauty I think. Makes me smile and tear up just by looking at it. Anyway, it was one of the best times of my life, living up there.
I drove past this red barn every day going to and from school, I love this bright red barn. It was a little too far away to get a good shot with my camera, but you can still see how beautiful it is. I love barns! I feel safe and at home, at peace when I look at them. :) I know, kinda weird...but that's okay. We're all weird in our own ways.
Now onward to wine tasting...we had some serious wine to drink in Edna Valley. Last time we wine tasted in Paso Robles which has over a hundred wineries, but this time we kept it local and easy by staying near SLO and Arroyo Grande.
Our first stop was this cute converted School House which housed 6 wineries: Baileyana, Tangent, True Myth, Trenza, Zocker, and Cadre. Beautiful!
Second Stop was Talley Winery. They specialize in white wine, particularly Chardonnay. I was a happy camper for this one, so happy in fact, that I forgot to take any photos here, except this one as we were leaving...and yes we bought two bottles of Chardonnay from here. Yay!
The dark, high hanging clouds hinted at rain all day and by our last stop, Kynsi Winery, the sky opened up. The heavy, dark clouds transformed into sheets of pale grey that blurred the countryside as rain fell in soft gentle drops. Beautiful, light country drizzle came down around us as we sipped wine. It was so lovely.
But if you were to ask me what the best part of Kynsi Winery was, I would have to say, it was the barn that sat next to the tasting room.
Check out this incredible barn. Isn't it gorgeous? I love it. The picture doesn't give you enough though. A light dusting of rain coated the ground and the smell of wet earth and green grass permeated the damp air. The gentle breeze blew through the large tree behind the barn, causing its boughs to wave back and forth against the barn, like it was waving at me. It was a feast for the senses with the sights, sounds and smells of the weather acting on the aged grey wood. It was so picturesque and peaceful, despite the near closing time crowd of wine tasting revelers behind me... I could have sat in the rain all day looking at that barn.
I just loved the shockingly vivid colors of these flowers against the grey rain filled sky. It's like they are on fire. Beautiful.
By the time we got back to the hotel to get ready for dinner, the soft drizzle became a luscious rain. We got dressed for dinner knowing we would have to hurry through the rain to get to the restaurant because we left our umbrellas at home. I didn't mind at all because walking through puddles and rain reminded me of those old romantic movies where the couple darts into a cafe to escape the rain and then they would sit smiling at each other, thankful for the reprieve. Some might have thought rain would ruin a trip like this when we've planned everything outdoors, but for me the rain acted as theme music, a perfect end to a beautiful, calm, relaxing day; as if the raindrops were the notes that flowed and soothed, and resonated the ease of the day.
Day 3 takes us on an early morning hike and breakfast in Avila Beach.
For Spring Break, my husband and I got a chance to take a small trip up north to San Luis Obispo for a little R&R, sans kids. We were about two years overdue for a vacation so the little excursion was a tremendous event. For me going to SLO was a homecoming because I used to live there twenty years ago. It's a gem of a small town that has grown quite a bit since I lived there, but to me it will always be this small, quiet country town with an amazing Farmers Market. I've been to many Farmers Markets and this one hands down, blows away any in the state of California. For the last ten years or so my husband has heard me talk up this Farmers Market so we finally arranged our plans to go up on a Thursday so that we could make it to Farmers Market. San Luis Obispo's Farmers Market is every Thursday night. So if you'll indulge me, this is my photo scrapbook of our trip to SLO.
After three hours on the road, we stopped just outside the city limits of SLO, for a little wine tasting at Laetitia Winery in Arroyo Grande. Beautiful. And with it being spring, everything was green and lush and as you can see new grapes were just starting in the photo above.
Because it was a Thursday afternoon, there wasn't a lot of people around so we were forced to take our own pics. Here's our selfie. :)
One thing you don't see much of when you live in Los Angeles in the
springtime, is all the beautiful wild flowers that grow on the sides of
the highways and in open fields. Once outside the county limits of Los Angeles though, you are quickly reminded that California is mostly farmland and open space. The hills are painted with bursts of
color with big fields of wild flowers. Here's just a small cluster of wild flowers at the winery. Gorgeous!
Once in we got to SLO, we checked in to our hotel and got ready to head down to the Farmer's Market. It was dinner time and I was hungry after our wine tasting. But there's no need to go out to eat at a restaurant beforehand because the food is just one of the reasons to go to Farmers Market. There are dozens of food vendors,restaurants and open pit BBQ's with tri-tip, ribs etc. One whole city block is set aside just for the BBQ's. You can see the smoke from the BBQ pits in the pic below. My husband and I shared a tri-tip sandwich, well it started out as his, but I ended up eating half of it. He didn't mind.
The Farmer's Market also has entertainment, dance groups, musicians, and bands spread throughout.
I took this shot to show the lights that line the trees. As night falls, the trees light the way. I love trees. :)
Now on the to the amazing gorgeous vegetables...
Our hotel had a small refrigerator so I was all set to buy some beautiful produce. I bought some Kale, Rainbow Swiss Chard, Golden Beets, Strawberries, Red leaf lettuce, avocados, leeks and quinoa seeds. :)
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| Rainbow Swiss Chard |
The picture above is Rainbow Quinoa that's ready for harvest. I bought these seeds to try to grow some quinoa myself. Apparently, quinoa is a weed and characteristic of all weeds, grows pretty readily without much tending. Right up my alley!
One thing you have to see in person if you go to Downtown San Luis Obispo is Bubble Gum Alley. I took a few shots but to really appreciate it you've got to see it in person. It is an actual landmark and considered an art installation. It's a walkway between two businesses that has been transformed into a living, ever-changing piece of art with chewed gum. It is amazing to see to what lengths some had gone to, to add their gum to the wall. See how high the gum goes up the wall. I've added a few pieces over the years. Amazing!
As night fell over Farmers Market, the wind got real cold so we ducked into Mother's Tavern for drink to end our day. Perfect Day!
Day 2 takes us to Morro Bay and then Wine tasting in Edna Valley and Arroyo Grande.
