Birthday Dinner: Salad Course -- Arugula, Beet and Goat Cheese Salad with Lemon Citronnette and Pine Nuts

We recently had a birthday dinner for my good friend, Lori. It was nice to celebrate in person this year, rather than over the phone. I will be posting all of the recipes I made for the dinner, but it will be one at a time. I am starting with the salad.

We enjoyed this very tasty salad and all the ingredients are listed in the title of this post. I am a huge fan of arugula and I like it served with fresh squeezed lemon, but for company, I decided to make an actual dressing.

I used Trader Joe's steamed and peeled baby beets. You can make your own but these are very good and very handy to have on hand in the refrigerator.

You can find them in the refrigerated area

I plated the salads shortly before our guests arrived and held them in the refrigerator until needed. Right before I served the salads, I spooned on the lemon citronnette and I had the pine nuts in a bowl on the table for self service. The next time I make this salad, I plan to serve it with fresh spiced nuts which are easy to make on the stove top. It could use a little spicy/sweet crunch to counter the lemon and make it even better. 

Here is my recipe for the dressing.



Enjoy!

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

If I need a batch of cookies in a hurry, these Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies are my favorite go-to recipe because they can be made in minutes. Literally! The best part is that the add-ins make them different every time. For this particular batch, I added 1/4 cup chocolate chips, 1/4 cup peanut butter chips and 1/3 cup dry roasted unsalted peanuts. Believe me, I have added any chip available and anything that can be chopped into small pieces and they always turn out different. In case you doubt my word, I have proof!

Yes, I have a chip drawer!

If you entertain often, like me, this is a great recipe to keep on hand for a quick treat to send home with someone, anyone, or a very special someone.

I'm sorry, but I can't fit all 6'5" inches of him in one picture!

Like my son who dropped by to have lunch with me recently. He wears many hats, and works in several different fields, and just happened to be working at one of them that is near us. After being so far away from him for 15+ years, it is just amazingly wonderful to have him "drop by" for lunch. I sent all the cookies I had in the house with him when he left to go back to work. I wished I had more available that day for him to take and share with his people. I did send him away with some apples, oranges and anything else I could find in my kitchen to help sustain him until 10:30 that night, when his rehearsal would end.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips, Peanut Butter Chips and Unsalted Dry Roasted Peanuts

I have been making this recipe for so long, I forgot that it is actually adapted from a recipe from Everyday Food, which dates back to 2005. Yes, it is a long time favorite! Here is my recipe:

Enjoy!

Family

An afternoon at blamma and papa's house

Lunch and Dad's Melty Smoochie Experience

I recently enjoyed having my mom, dad and my sister, Cheryl, over for lunch. It was just a regular Monday, but very special because they were all at my house!! Yes, we had a good time at lunch. I made sandwiches with fresh baked Ciabatta, fresh roasted pork tenderloin, Havarti cheese, caramelized onions, Old Farm chutney and fresh arugula, which collectively, is one of my favorite  combinations. The food was good and we had a great time together, but that's not what this post is about. This post is about my dad and his first experience with a "Smoochie." To be exact,  Chocolate Melty Smoochies.

I never thought of my dad as a chocolate lover, but that opinion has changed. I now consider him a real lover of chocolate! I think the following pictures prove that opinion.

I happened to notice that dad was holding a "small" piece of smoochie in his palm

Mom getting a kick out of dad's humor

Dad hamming it up

It's getting smaller

Cheryl is also enjoying his humor

Now it is the size of a chocolate chip

We all encouraged him to please, take the last one

He took us up on our offer

Happy Daddy with empty hands!

The World of Hummingbirds

I miss lots of things about SoCal; family, friends, palm trees and especially my hummingbirds, to name a few! I kept many hummingbird feeders hanging around our property year-round, and refilled them often. I loved hearing their little "snapping" sound that let me know they were near.

I expect to see hummingbirds when the weather warms up here in Oregon, but until then, I am enjoying watching and hearing them on a live feed. The nest has two chicks, one unhatched beautiful white egg and a doting mama. It is amazing to watch her insert her long, thin bill into the chicks mouth as she feeds them. If only I could capture the mama's beautiful features in a watercolor or a screen-print.  The textures and colors of her feathers and the detail around her eyes really captivates me. 

If a birds-eye view of a hummingbird with her nest and chicks catches your interest, you will find a link right here.

Happy Birthday Ivan

Happy Birthday to our Sweet Little Ivan!

2 years old today!

We love you!

Blamma and Papa

Buddy and Lucy


Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day too! 

Creamy Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

I had my sister, Lori, over for lunch today. It still doesn't seem possible that on any ordinary day I can see family and it doesn't include trips to the airport! It is really nice to be back near our families and friends. For our lunch, I decided that tomato soup and grilled cheese sounded good, especially with a rainy day in the forecast. 

As I was checking out soup recipes the night before, my dear hubby said, "It's probably been a long time since you fixed tomato soup and grilled cheese for Lori." I thought about that for a while and I realized it has probably been a long time, over 38 years! When I got married and moved away from my family home, Lori was 8 years old. I remember making lots of grilled cheese sandwiches back in the day, but the tomato soup always came out of the little red & white can! 

After looking through recipes for a while, I chose a recipe from Relish for Creamy Tomato Soup. I was happy that this soup turned out really good, and in my opinion, much better than the little red can!

The whole process took about 45 minutes. I used fire-roasted tomatoes and a stalk of celery instead of a carrot. It really helps to have an immersion blender but isn't necessary. A regular blender works well, especially if you want to puree it completely. I like my tomato soup to have some texture, so I blended it until it looked right. One other thing, the instructions say to add half and half at the very end, but the recipe doesn't say how much, so I added about 1/3 of a cup. This recipe makes about 10 cups. 

For the grilled cheese sandwiches, I bought a warm loaf of crusty sourdough bread, sliced it and layered it with thin slices of Bandon cheddar cheese, Kerrygold Dubliner cheese and Kerrygold Blarney Castle cheese. I spread one side of the bread with Stonewall Kitchens Old Farmhouse Chutney. I spread the outside with a little butter and grilled them in my Cuisinart Griddler. It was very good!

Enjoy!