Torrey Pines Salad

I haven't posted in several weeks, for reasons too numerous to go into.  Suffice it to say Life Gets in the Way sometimes, or should I say Summer Gets in the Way.  It's been a busy one, in spite of my best efforts to slow down and enjoy the season.  For the same reasons I won't go into, this post is going to be brief, and the pictures are going to be... well... pretty straightforward to put it generously.  But that doesn't mean this post isn't worth paying attention to, because this salad most definitely is something worth paying attention to.

This is a very simple but absolutely delicious recipe, made even more perfect for enjoying during these lazy hazy days of summer, basically because avocados are absolutely perfect right now.  The dish is inspired by a wonderful lunch I enjoyed at the Torrey Pines Lodge in La Jolla-- thus the name Torrey Pines Salad. 

You could say it's sort of a Cobb salad, but not. Or you could say it's sort of a BLT sandwich, but not, since there's no bread.  Regardless of what you call it, it is light, healthy, easy, and much more than the sum of its parts.  Feel free to adjust ingredients to your liking.

Happy summer, everyone!

Torrey Pines Salad

INGREDIENTS

Salad 

1 egg, preferably room temperature

1 to 2 slices center-cut bacon

1/2 fresh avocado, cut into slices

2 cups mixed greens with spinach, washed and spun dry

Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Toasted, unsalted sunflower seeds or 

toasted chopped almonds 

Freshly ground black pepper

Dressing:

1 Tbs. rice vinegar

1 tsp. toasted sesame oil

2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp. agave nectar or honey

DIRECTIONS

Fill a small saucepan with enough water to cover egg, add a pinch of salt.  

Place egg in saucepan and bring water to boil, then turn off heat and let egg 

sit in hot water for approximately 6 minutes (more or less depending on how 

runny you like your yolks-- 6 min. will be about medium-soft).  Remove the egg from the hot water and briefly plunge into cold water to stop cooking process.  

Cook bacon in skillet at medium-high heat just until crisp.  Drain thoroughly on paper towels (I wrap the paper towel around the bacon to absorb as much grease as possible from all sides).  Break into small pieces.  

Mix dressing in small bowl, being sure to whisk in Dijon mustard and agave nectar or honey thoroughly.  Feel free to adjust ingredients to your own taste.

Place salad greens on plate.  Carefully remove the shell of the soft-boiled egg and cut into quarters.  (I sometimes cut the egg over the salad greens in case the yolk runs a bit.)  Place the egg quarters on top of the salad greens, then the avocado slices and bacon.  Pour the dressing over the salad and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  Sprinkle toasted sunflower seeds or almonds on top and add freshly grated pepper to taste.

Note: For a vegetarian version, simply omit the bacon. 

Chickpea Mushroom Zucchini Fritters... Finally

Have you ever wanted to make a certain kind of food, collected recipes for it, looked it up in your cookbooks and on the internet, but for some unknown reason you just never got around to making it? That's my story with fritters. For years I've salivated over pictures, gathered up all sorts of recipe versions I fully intended to try, then did nothing. Why I haven't actually made them, I cannot tell you. I just didn't. Until now.

Herbed Tomato Mustard Tart

My friends, this turned out good. Yes, I know that's grammatically incorrect; I should say it turned out well, which indeed it did. But it also turned out good. As in good. As in really, really good.

It's a little early in the season for tomatoes, but this week's assignment for the Food Matters Project was for a Savory Tomato Crisp, chosen by Nicole of the Giving Table, so I decided to give it a go. I actually found some very nice looking plum tomatoes at the market so I was game. But something was telling me, "Do a tart. You want a tart. You know you want a tart." So a tart it would be.

Chilaquiles...or Migas?... with Black Beans

It may be hard to imagine such a thing nowadays, but when I was growing up you couldn't, nor would you ever even think to, buy tortillas at the local grocery store. That's because Mexican food simply wasn't a part of life unless you were from a Latino family, or were lucky enough to eat at their home. That's right, even in Southern California, it was that rare. We had one place you could get it, the Taco Tia, which was like an early fast-food joint with rather forgettable gringo-ized tacos, tostadas, and beans.

So cooking Mexican food at home was simply not on my mother's radar-- that is, until I was a preteen.  Then Mom became more adventurous and started making one of our family's favorite Mexican dishes: ground beef with taco seasoning (Lawry's had just started packaging it), served on a bed of Fritos with a little grated cheese on top. Yes, Fritos. Now that was Mexican!

New Orleans Dressing and Marinade

This is the first salad dressing I ever remember eating. It was a staple around my house growing up, my mother's regular salad dressing. Why it's called New Orleans dressing, I'm not sure. It probably came out of some magazine my mom read in the late 50s, when they named dishes intriguing names like that. As a young person, I knew little about bottled salad dressings because my mother would have never even thought of buying such a thing.  Besides there were few out there to buy in those days anyway.

Bottled salad dressings and traditions have certainly changed since then. Now there are literally dozens available at any given super market, and I confess to having depended on them for many a year as a young adult. Such a variety! So easy! Why on earth would I make one from scratch? Don't be silly.

Chipotle Glazed Squash

Originally posted on my former blog Twenty by Sixty on February 6, 2012

Here's something fun.  I'd been thinking about how it would be good to be involved in a cooking community of some sort, but hadn't pursued it beyond that thought.  Then I stumbled upon an invitation for a cooking community based on Mark Bittman's Food Matters Cookbook, the idea coming from Sarah of 20 Something Cupcakes and Kate of Cookie and Kate.  What they dreamed up was the Food Matters Project, launching today, and this is our first post.  Each week, a different member will choose a recipe for the rest of the members to try out and post about.  This first week's choice was made by Sarah, that choice being Bittman's recipe for Chipotle-Glazed Squash Skewers.  A kicky dish to kick off the project... I love it!  And I had my friend Michele here for the weekend to try it out on.

Grilled BLT with Blanched Garlic Aioli

Originally posted on my former blog Twenty by Sixty

Many years ago, I worked with three other young women in a tiny, freezing little room.  The job was as uninspiring as the surroundings, so we had to find pleasure in small things just to make it through.  One of those small pleasures came on Fridays, when we would head down the street at lunchtime to the local liquor store.  

No, not for liquor, although that might have made those long Friday afternoons a lot more tolerable.  We headed down there because tucked away in the back of the store was this great little delicatessen. And I mean little, as in tiny. But despite its miniscule size, that little deli made the best sandwiches ever. And the best of the best was their BLT, which we usually ordered as a BLT & A, with the A standing for avocado.  We'd drive back to our little freezing windowless room with our sandwiches and chips and drinks (nonalcoholic, alas) and gab away with our mouths full, our cheeks stuffed like chipmunks, the happiest moment of the week.  I've had many, many BLTs in my time before and since, but none that good.

Till today.