On Wed 30 Jul 2008 10:35:59p, Bob Terwilliger told us...

> Wayne replied:
>
>>> Lin and I went to the Courtland Pear Festival last Sunday, so we had
>>> some pears to use up. I made chicken salad with chopped pears, blue
>>> cheese, pecans, celery, mayo, salt, and pepper.
>>>
>>> I had it on multi-grain toast (because toasted Truckee Sourdough
>>> Company multi-grain bread is awesome, and almost a meal in itself),
>>> but it would have also been good wrapped in lettuce.
>>>
>>
>> Sounds very good!
>
> Thanks, Lin and I both liked it. We've had a couple very good light
> dinners since getting back from our travels last week:
>
> 1. We had a leftover grilled strip steak. We sliced it thinly and put it
> onto a salad with arugula, lettuce, halved cherry tomatoes, and
> Gorgonzola. The salad was dressed with "Marie's Spinach Salad" dressing,
> which is a kind of light (slightly sweet) vinaigrette.

A great use of leftover steak! I'll have to try that dressing. I've seen
it in the store, and have used other varieities of Marie's dressings, but
not this one.

> 2. I made pizza marguerite (using the pizza dough recipe in _Baking With
> Julia_, cherry tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella). It was accompanied by a
> salad which contained leaf lettuce, tomatoes from our garden, crisp
> bacon, Parm-Reggiano cheese, and edamame.

I almost never eat pizza without salad on the side. And fresy mozzarella
makes a world of difference on pizza.

> 3. Last Saturday's episode of "America's Test Kitchen" dealt with
> grilled Cornish hens. Since we just happened to have a couple of them in
> the freezer, Lin grilled them and they came out perfectly. With it, we
> had pasta (a mixture of penne and radiatore) with basil, roasted
> zucchini, olives, and sun-dried tomatoes, dressed with lemon juice,
> extra-virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper. I made lemonade with a basil
> simple syrup, and we also had some locally-made rosemary ciabatta which
> we dipped in balsamic vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil.

I haven't made Cornish hens in a very long time, and have never grilled
them. I've got to give this a try. Sounds like a lovely meal.

> I had some leftover pizza dough, so I used it as the starter for the
> Mixed-Starter Bread from _Baking With Julia_. I miscalculated how long
> it takes to make, so I got very little sleep before coming in to work
> tonight -- but I'm sure it was worth it!
>
> Next on my list of things to make is some kind of frozen strawberry
> thing. We bought some local strawberries on Tuesday, but they wilted
> almost immediately, so rather than having them uncooked (which is how I
> leave them for a strawberry tart), I'll have to cook them. I like the
> combination of strawberries, sour cream, and brown sugar, so maybe I'll
> make an ice cream using those flavors. Or maybe I'll slice them, cook
> them with red wine, lemon juice, sugar, and black pepper, then strain
> and make a sorbet.

My mother would always use the less than perfect strawberries in a baked
strawberry pie, which is one of my favorites. Sometimes I sacrifice
perfectly fresh berries to make one. :-)

> Bob, still looking forward to the first BLT of the summer

I beat you to it! Our neighbor has wonderful tomatoes growing in the
garden, and we were gifted with half a dozen week before last. Nothing
like a vine-ripened tomato. I made a trip down to The Pork Shop to buy
their locally cured bacon. I baked two loaves of my grandmother's recipe
for "white loaf bread", and had lettuce from the supermarket. A good BLT
is at the top of my list for sandwiches.

Cheers!

--
Wayne Boatwright
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Thursday, 07(VII)/31(XXXI)/08(MMVIII)
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Get up Dog Boy! Show them where you
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