Recipe 2: salad as a meal challenge

Does anything scream spring louder than poached eggs and asparagus? I don't know, but it sure felt springy this evening.

Asparagus, ham, and poached egg salad

Add a baby spinach salad with lemon and olive oil dressing, a bit of prosciutto, and some fresh chives from the garden, and you have dinner.
The best part: it took 15 minutes to make. Thanks Ms. Wells for the great recipe!

Salad Challenge

Now that spring is officially here, we are quickly aproaching what my husband affectionately refers to as 'salad season'. Okay so I made up the affectionate part, but he really does call it salad season.
In just a few weeks I will have garden beds full of tender greens like mesclun, arugula, bok choy, spinach, and pea shoots. Long will be the days of roasted root vegetables and braised kale. I have had a winter full of those vegetables, and now I'm ready to move on. That's right, I'm poo poo-ing on the season called winter.
Part of the reason for this so called salad season is because each year I am over-the-moon excited about the new, fresh flavors of spring. Another, possibly more practical, reason is that I am trying to stay on top of what the garden produces. Lettuce grows fabulously in spring weather, and Seattle has a notoriously long spring. Hot, lettuce-wilting summer days likely won't arrive to Seattle until mid-July.

A couple weeks back, on a day when I had really had it with potatoes and turnips, I started dreaming of fresh leafy greens. Mid-way through my dream, I noticed Patricia Wells posted something about her new book, Salad as a Meal. She and her publishers challenged fellow food bloggers to make 3 recipes from her new book each week, for four weeks. I thought to myself, this is just what I need to get spring rolling. This marks week one, of the four week Salad as a Meal challenge.

 

Not surprisingly, Patricia's book takes "salad" way beyond leafy greens.

Despite the fact that I think of Patricia Wells as being a french-styled cook, the first recipe I tried from her new book was asian inspired. Last night I was in the mood for something comforting, and soba noodles sounded divine.

The first salad: Chicken and Soba Noodles with Ginger-Peanut Sauce.

The recipe title really says it all...

 

 

I was expecting the heartiness from the soba, but the recipe tasted much fresher than I imagined. Perhaps it was all the fresh herbs or the considerable amount of rice vinegar counterbalancing the peanut butter and soy sauce in the dressing. It doesn't matter. This recipe was the perfect of juxtaposition of rich and acidic, heavy and light. This challenge is off to a good start... 

Happy spring

March 20th marked the first day of spring this year.

I spent the weekend starting seeds, prepping beds, and generally waking things up from a long, cold winter. Saturday I enjoyed a solitary and meditative day of garden work at home. On Sunday I joined the community and worked at the Alleycat Acres Central District site.

Never mind the calendar though, below are two concrete signs of spring: chives and dirty hands...

 The chives came back and are even more delicious than I remember from years past. I can't wait for them to flower.

Dirty hands. I'll have dirt under my fingernails and dry cuticles until next winter, and that's okay.

Did you do anything to celebrate the transition into this new season?

Is winter over yet?

It's been months since Seattle gardens looked anything like this, but I have a hunch we will be harvesting spring crops in the blink of an eye.
This Saturday we will be waking up the garden by turning compost, adding compost, weeding, and possibly sowing seeds at the Alleycat Acres Beacon Hill location (3656 24th Ave. S, Seattle, WA).
If you live in Seattle, now is a good time to sow peas, arugula, spinach, garlic, onions, and fava beans.

Sunday morning

Jacob and I enjoyed a hearty meal this morning, and we deserved it. Waffles, chicken-apple sausage, and scrambled eggs were good and satisfying nourishment, helping us recover from yesterday's bike ride.

To help raise money for Alleycat Acres: urban farming collective, we bicycled 60 miles around Lake Washington yesterday. I was super nervous about the ride. Frankly, I was scared that I would be too weak to finish. At one point I suggested that we get a lift over the 8 mile steady hill climb section. My friend Amber, a fellow co-founder of alleycats, nixed the idea. She told me that we had to at least try. Jacob and our new friend, Brock, told me that I could easily do it.
The elation I felt at the top of the hill was the most incredible feeling. It was a feeling of empowerment, competence, and excitement. These are feelings that make life truly wonderful. Thanks for pushing me beyond my comfort zone guys!!

Here's a pic of Amber and me getting ready with the other riders, early Saturday morning. Doing the ride with Amber was especially cool, because as teenagers, we used to ride in an annual bike-a-thon with our high school, Windward. All day we kept encouraging each other by shouting "Bike-a-thon 2011!!" The last time we did anything like this was in 1995, so the notion was pretty hilarious to us.

 

  Bikes gathered before the start.

Fist pumps were in order upon finishing the ride.

Tired cyclists enjoying some warm food and beverages after the ride.
Amber, Jacob, and Brock: thanks for being part of bike-a-thon 2011! (AKA alleycat acre's Ride Hard Grow Forth, spring fundraiser).

Ride Hard:Grow Forth with chocolate cookies!

About a year ago I helped to found a not-for-profit urban farming group called alleycat acres. During our first year we converted two vacant lots in the city of Seattle to urban farms, and harvested around 800 pounds of produce. Much of that fresh, healthy food was donated to the Beacon Hill Food Bank, the rest was enjoyed by our volunteers and neighbors of our farms. We are anxiously awaiting spring, so that we can do it all over again. As a 100% volunteer-based organization, we don't need much to operate, but we do need some money for seeds, water, and equipment. To raise money for our 2011 operating budget, we are hosting a bike ride. Each rider must raise a minimum of $60, but I challenged myself to raise $1000 (what did I get myself into???). To donate scroll to the bottom of this page, and click the donate button!
To help gain pledges from my co-workers, I've been baking cookies, and putting them out in the lunch room next to my pledge form. The Girl Scouts figured out this scheme long ago, and I'm not one to shy away from a good idea.  So far we have had a couple different types of chocolate chip, coconut macaroons, and triple chocolate. The triple chocolate is definitely my favorite.

This recipe is adapted from Ina Garten's 'Barefoot Contessa' show on the food network. Ina calls them "Kathleen King's Double Chocolate Almond Cookies". After making them the first time I tweaked the recipe just a tad, to my personal taste preference (less salt, fewer chocolate chips and almonds, and less baking time to yield a softer, more perfect cookie).

Double Chocolate Almond Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup firmly packed dark or light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup almonds, toasted and chopped

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream the butter and sugars. Add the egg and vanilla and mix together. Add the flour mixture and continue mixing until just combined.

Add the chocolates and almonds and mix until combined. Using two tablespoons or a small ice cream scoop, drop the dough two inches apart on sheet pans lined with parchment. Lightly pat down to a hockey puck shape with wet hands. Bake for 12 minutes.

Mostly cool the cookies on the cookie sheets, then transfer to a cooling rack. The cookies should be very soft when they are removed from the oven. They will firm up as they cool.

Birthday party for Alleycat Acres

Alleycat Acres turned 1-year-old last month, and we celebrated at a restaurant called Local 360 in Belltown. I found Local 360 to be a down-to-earth, cozy spot, aligned with my personal food ethos. They are dedicated to sourcing ingredients raised, grown, or produced within 360 miles of Seattle. Wines from the Willamette valley, dairy from Lynden, meat from Walla Walla, etc... I dig.

Most importantly, however, the food was delicious, and the seven of us had a wonderful time celebrating.

We started by sharing a smattering of small plates: PB&J bon bons, roasted beet salad, pork belly and beans, crispy pig ear, corned beef reuben bites... yumm.

My favorite conversation of the night...
Scott: "Amber, do you want some of this?"
Amber: "No thanks, I'm a vegetarian."
Scott: "Wait, this isn't vegetarian? Kate, what is this?"
Kate: "That's the crispy pig ear we ordered."
Scott: "Oh cool. Wait... this isn't really the ear of a pig though... is it?"
Kate: "Yeah, it's the ear, sliced really thin into strips. It's super good right?"
long pause...
Scott: "Yeah. It's really good"
Scott and I finish the platter together. Amber and Gia giggle.

Can we say comfort food? Amber ordered the risotto mac 'n cheese. That's comfort on comfort.

I thoroughly enjoyed the short rib "pot roast" for my main course.

Notice that Sean's fried chicken is completed with a sunnyside-up egg on top!