California Strawberry Salad - Photo courtesy of the CA Strawberry Commission
Last week the California Strawberry Commission hosted an event for bloggers and food writers in San Francisco. Cheryl Sternman Rule was on hand discussing her amazing book, Ripe: A Fresh, Colorful Approach to Fruits and Vegetables. After the event, the CA Strawberry Commission shared recipes that I am privileged to share with you. One of my favorites is the California Strawberry Salad, a recipe developed by True Food Kitchen. True Food Kitchen is a restaurant with several locations in Southern California and Arizona. It was developed in partnership with Andrew Weil, MD and their goal is to make mouthwatering food that is also great for your health. I hope they have plans to move to the Bay Area!
A savory salad courtesy of True Food Kitchen and the California Strawberry Commission. Used by permission.
Author: True Food Kitchen and the California Strawberry Commission
Recipe type: Appetiser
Serves: 4
Ingredients
2 cups snap peas, cleaned
1 fennel bulb, diced
1 pint strawberries, washed and sliced
4 oz baby greens
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more for roasting
1 Tbsp agave nectar
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1⁄2 cup goat cheese
1⁄2 cup toasted walnuts
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Blanch the snap peas in salted boiling water for 30 seconds. Refresh in ice water immediately after cooking to lock in the bright green color and to keep from overcooking.
Lay out the fennel on a sheet pan. Season with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast snap peas at 375 degrees for 10 minutes or until tender and caramelized. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 45 minutes.
Arrange strawberries, baby greens, blanched snap peas and roasted fennel in a large salad bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the agave nectar and balsamic vinegar with the olive oil to create the vinaigrette. Whisk until incorporated. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Divide on four plates and drizzle vinaigrette over the salad. Top the salad with equal parts goat cheese and walnuts.
Strawberry Caprese Salad - photo courtesy of the California Strawberry Commission
Last week, the California Strawberry Commission hosted in an event in San Francisco highlighting strawberries and featuring Cheryl Sternman Rule, author of the new book, Ripe: A Fresh, Colorful Approach to Fruits and Vegetables. Ms. Sternman Rule is a Silicon-Valley based food writer who writes the amazing blog, 5 Second Rule. I am always inspired by her writing and her photography alike. If this blog is not on your radar screen, it should be. Add it to your list. Stat.
The California Strawberry commission generously shared some amazing recipes with me which I am excited to share with you, like this Strawberry Caprese Salad. What a great combination to mix the sweetness of strawberries with the tanginess of a balsamic reduction and the creaminess of Mozzarella. If it seems strange at first, don’t forget, tomatoes are fruit too!
I feel so lucky to live in California in the heart of Strawberry country. Did you know that California produces 88% of all of the strawberries in the US? We benefit from a year-round growing season. In Southern California, there is harvesting of strawberries in April, May and June as well as October, November and December. Northern California sees its peak growing season in late spring and early summer, but also continues to harvest into November.
To keep strawberries fresh once harvested, they are rushed to a cooling facility where the heat from the fields is drawn out quickly and then they are kept at 32˚F until they reach the market.
For more great strawberry recipes and recipes for everything else in your CSA box or in your bag from the Farmer’s Market, don’t forget to order:
The book, Chicken and Other Poultry, published by the California Culinary Academy in 1986 was a mainstay in my college apartment kitchen in 1992. So much so, that when I took a guy named John P. to the “Screw Your Roommate Dance” at Swarthmore that year, I made this dish for our special candlelight dinner beforehand. The book describes the dish as “elegant enough for guests, looks impressive, but it actually couldn’t be easier to put together.” It was perfect for a food-obsessed, but novice college chef like me. And if I could pull it off at age 20, and remember what it tasted like lo these 21 years later, this dish is worth adding to your repertoire, right?
I’ve adapted the recipe a bit here to account for all of the changes we’ve seen over the last 20 years. For example, when the book was published in 1986, boneless, skinless chicken breasts were not available at the grocery store, so they go to the trouble of telling you to split, bone and skin the breasts. I’ve boosted the flavorings a bit, by increasing the onions and mushrooms, but the the essence of the recipe is the same: a vermouth reduction serves as the foundation for a classic mushroom cream sauce.
If you like Jamie Oliver’s Chicken and Leek Stroganoff, you’ll love this dish too. Orange replaces lemon in this dish for the citrus burst that lightens the cream sauce. It’s a nice little surprise.
This dish is easy and fast. Make it for dinner tonight!
Elegant enough for guests, easy enough for novice home chefs.
Author: Adapted from California Culinary Academy's book, Chicken and Other Poultry by Julie Renaud and Jane Horn
Recipe type: Entree
Serves: 4
Ingredients
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
2 shallots, minced
¾ cup dry vermouth
½ pint sliced mushrooms
1 cup whipping cream
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 egg yolk
1 Tbsp grated orange rind
Wedges from leftover orange for garnish
4 Tbsp flat, Italian parsley, chopped
Instructions
Preheat oven to 200˚F.
In a medium sautée pan over medium flame, heat oil with garlic, being careful not to scorch the garlic. Sauté breast halves in the oil until browned on both sides (about 7 minutes per side for thick breasts)
Remove breasts to an ovenproof serving dish, keeping as much of the oil in the sautée pan as possible. Keep breasts warm in the oven while you prepare the cream sauce.
If necessary, add another dab of olive oil and heat through. Then add the shallot and sautée until softened and turning golden brown. Add the vermouth and deglaze the pan, scraping brown pits from the side of the pan. simmer until reduced by about half. Add mushrooms and quickly heat through. Pour in cream and increase the flame to high. Bring to a boil and allow to thicken. Reduce the heat and season with salt and pepper.
To add the egg yolk, beat it in a small bowl and stir in a few tablespoons of the hot sauce. Pour this mixture into the pan and stir to combine completely and thicken. Keep the heat low so that the egg doesn't curdle.
Add the orange rind and simmer to heat through and release essential oils.
Pour the sauce over the chicken, sprinkle parsley over the sauce, garnish with orange slices and serve. I like to serve it with jasmine rice, to have something to soak up all that yummy sauce.
When StreamingGourmet first started back in 2008, it was primarily a video site, hence the word, “streaming.” Today, I return to those roots by sharing this video collection of Julia Child clips. She would have turned 100 this Wednesday, August 15. Bon Appétit!
A few weeks ago, a company called Full Circle reached out and offered me the opportunity to experience their CSA box delivery program free of charge for a brief period of time. They recently expanded into the Bay Area from Washington State and Idaho, and they wanted to give bloggers like me a chance to sample their new service. There was no requirement to review or purchase the product, but it is such a great service, I am happy to write about it here. In this week’s box, there were Santa Rosa Plums. I knew it was time to make Plum Clafoutis. More about that later. First, let me tell you about Full Circle Farms and invite you to enter a drawing to win one free farm box delivery from them! Details below.
Full Circle delivers a weekly box of local & organic fruits and veggies right to your doorstep. You can pick items from their artisan grocery list too – dairy, breads, pastas, grass-fed meats, coffee, jams and more. They started as an organic farm 15 years ago in North Bend, WA. Now, they’re CSA program has grown to serve thousands in the Northwest, Alaska and most recently, the Bay Area. They work with a bunch of the best organic and family farms on the West Coast. When I check my front step on Wednesdays, it feels like Christmas morning.
Santa Rosa Plums
If you’d like to have fresh, organic produce delivered to your doorstep too, enter “STREAMINGGOURMET’S 1 FREE FARM BOX FROM FULL CIRCLE GIVEAWAY” Entries could include: a TWEET, a FB share, a PIN, a Google+, or a BLOG POST. All entries must link back to this post. LEAVE A COMMENT at the bottom detailing your entries and you will be entered into the drawing. The DEADLINE is Sunday, August 12 at midnight PDT. To win, you must reside within one of Full Circle’s Delivery Areas.
If you are the winner, you will be contacted by email, and given a coupon code to enter during the registration process on the Full Circle website. We will also announce the winner on FB and Twitter. You will be under no obligation to purchase any items from Full Circle. (Credit card required at signup. Membership required through online registration, automatic renewal unless cancelled.) So starting sharing and comment below to enter! The more ways you share, the better your chances of winning.
And when you get your box, if plums are still in season, you just might want to make this classic French dessert, Plum Clafoutis. It’s like a custardy cake. Or is it a cakey custard? I like mine particularly eggy, so this one is more like a cakey custard. For extra oomph, you could do what Julia Child would do and soak your plums in cognac first, or I like the idea of soaking them in Cointreau, a French liqueur with orange overtones. I didn’t have any Cointreau on hand, so I went without and it still tasted great. Make sure you eat the clafoutis soon after it leaves the oven. Because it has certain soufflée qualities, it’s just not the same the next day.
The classic French dessert, not too sweet and just right for a summer's CSA box full of plums.
Author: Amy Wilson
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 8
Ingredients
6-8 Santa Rosa plums (or any variety of plum or stone fruit)
1 Tbsp of sugar
1-2 Tbsp butter
5 large eggs + 1 egg yolk
¼ cup of sugar
1½ cups milk (I used 2%)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
Powdered sugar
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Spray a 9x12 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Slice the plums in half and remove the pits. Place the plums in the pan with the skin side down. Sprinkle with the sugar and dot with a little butter on each one.
In a stand-up mixer, beat the eggs for about 2 minutes until they start to get stiff. Add the sugar and beat until sugar is nearly dissolved. Add the milk and vanilla and whisk to combine. Add the sifted flour and whisk to combine. Do not overmix.
Pour the batter over the plums. Bake in the oven for about an hour. The batter will puff up and then start to brown. When it is golden brown on top, it's done.
After the clafoutis has cooled a bit, dust it with the powdered sugar and serve. Clafoutis is best eaten right out of the oven! Serve with vanilla ice cream for a extra punch.
With summer in full swing, I am enjoying the spoils of California produce, namely avocados and heirloom tomatoes. They are put to good use in this, my version of an egg McMuffin.
I used a egg ring to contain my egg while it was cooking, but it was only a modest success. I sprayed the egg ring and pan liberally with nonstick cooking spray, but the egg still stuck to the ring. All the same, it did reign in the cooked egg, making a prettier sandwich, but if you don’t want to fool with it, no worries!
Heirloom tomatoes and avocado boost this morning treat.
Author: Amy Wilson
Recipe type: Breakfast
Serves: 1
Ingredients
1 Oroweat Sandwich thin
2 large eggs, beaten with a tsp of water
¼ of an avocado, sliced thinly
¼ of a medium tomato, sliced
1 slice of Tilamook Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Preheat a nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Put the sandwich thin in the toaster just as you are about to add the eggs to the pan. Add the eggs to the pan and scramble them, stirring constantly. Before they are cooked through, add the cheese to the top and cover to allow the cheese to melt.
To assemble, place the egg and cheese mixture on top of the bottom half of the sandwich thin. Garnish with avocado, tomato and cilantro. Salt and Pepper to taste. Top with the other slice of sandwich thin. Eat immediately!
On a recent visit to Salisbury, MD, I had the chance to visit the Perdue Innovation Center where they are secretly developing the next great thing in chicken. Stay tuned for more. In the meantime, you’ll laugh out loud when you watch the vintage commercial.
On a trip to Delaware in early June, I had the privilege of observing the process of harvesting and freezing peas with Delaware Department of Agriculture Secretary, Edwin Kee. We toured a pea farm near Milford and the PictSweet pea freezing and packing facility near Bridgeville. Mr. Kee explained that peas are a cool weather crop. They are planted in February/March and harvested in early June.
On this early June day, Delaware is abuzz at how amazing the pea yields are this year. Pictsweet tells us they are on track to harvest over five and half million pounds of peas in Delaware this spring. That’s right. 5.5 million pounds. They are pulling in peas at a rate of 3,500 lbs/acre. That’s the best pea yield in Delaware 10 years. The long, cool spring which featured a warmup in the middle hit it just right.
Pea Harvest Time in Delaware
What do you do when you’re pulling 3,500 lbs of peas off of every acre? You quickly transport them to the freezing plant for sorting, grading, washing, washing, more sorting, more washing, blanching, flash freezing and storing. Peas typically move from field to frozen in 4-6 hours. Can you believe it? 4-6 hours. I’ve always heard that frozen is more fresh than fresh. Now I know what that means.
The equipment involved in moving millions of pounds of peas in just a short harvest window would blow your mind.
Pea Harvester
1) First there is the harvester. This machine can also operate as a lima bean harvester. Each one of these harvesters will set a farmer back about $400,000 and there were 3-4 of them working this field this afternoon. It doesn’t just pull the pea shoots up off of the floor of the field, it sucks them up, rotates them in a drum, beats on them at just the right pressure to make the peas pop out of their shells and diverts the shoots away from the peas to dispose of them on the ground. It preserves the shelled peas which are then transfered to a large dump truck headed for the processing plant.
Tenderometer
2) The next piece of equipment the pea encounters is the tenderometer. That’s right a tenderometer. Once the peas arrive at the plant, the size and tenderness of the peas are measured to determine their maturity and their value. The price paid to the farmer is decided here. In the grading room, one by one, a few shelled peas are put into a Tenderometer for measuring. Invented at the University of Maryland after World War II, the device literally measures how tender the peas are. Tender peas that are the right size get frozen. Starchier, stiffer peas might go to canning where they will hold up well during the canning process. Once the price is determined, the entire truckload gets dumped onto a conveyor belt outside the plant and the processing begins.
Pea Processing Line - Photo courtesy of alibaba.com
3) Up next: The sorting and washing starts on the pea processing line. I was not permitted to photograph this part of the tour, but the Pea Processing Line pictured above is for sale at a farm equipment website called http://alibaba.com. It resembles what I saw.
This line starts right at the outside of the building where the drucks drive in and dump their loads and then the line snakes through the building and continues to get more and more refined. Peas are moving a mile a minute along these conveyor belts and the machinery is loud. Employees where hair nets and protective equipment for their ears. Mr Kee explained that when he was a young graduate student, 30 years ago, working on improving the tenerometer, he would stop by the plant and their would be 75 people working the line. Now it takes only about 25 people. The machinery has replaced the need for humans to do any of the manual sorting of the peas.
Optical Sorter
4) The next piece of hi-tech equipment on the line? The Optical Sorter. You won’t believe what this machine is capable of doing. Peas fly through this machine at incredibly high speeds. Peas that don’t deserve to make it into a PictSweet frozen bag of peas must be sorted out. In the early stages of the line, they are more crudely bumped out, sifted out or blown out, but once inside, the sorting must get more precise. This device takes an individual picture of every pea (there are billions going through in a day) and in the time it takes the pea to enter the scan area and get photographed, the machine is able to send a signal so that peas that are the wrong size or blemished in some way are blasted with a precise laserlike blast of air. That blast of air kicks that singular pea out while allowing the rest to pass through. Did you get that? Photo, signal, air blast, bad pea gone.
The rest zoom on their way through wash after wash, a quick steam bath at about 210˚F for 2-3 minutes, then more washing and finally flash freezing. At this plant the peas are put into large, 3ft. by 3ft. plastic lined cardboard boxes and stacked in a warehouse for storage. They aren’t put into the consumer size bags you see below at this plant. They wait until they are ready for distribution at retail grocery stores before packing them in the consumer sized bags.
The frozen pea storage warehouse reminded me of winery caves, because there were rows and rows of stored product that stretched into the distance. Each box is barcoded and the field of origin and date of processing are recorded.
PictSweet Peas
Vegetables make up about 6% of Delaware Agricultural revenue. The highest portion of revenue comes from the Poultry Industry which makes up 74%. Vegetables grown for processing (freezing and canning) earn Delaware farmers about $28,000,000/year and use about 30,000 acres of land. Before canning, freezing, and distribution technology existed at scale, farmers had no incentive to grow more produce than their families could consume. It’s only through these distribution channels and preserving technologies that farmers could produce excess and earn a profit. The last ten years have brought consolidation in the industry and there are now only 4 vegetable processing companies left in Delaware. PictSweet is one and it processes more than just peas. A national company, they are sourcing product from Tennessee, California and elsewhere, but in Delaware, in addition to peas, they are processing lima beans, corn and green beans.
To learn more about the Pea Production in Delaware, I invite you to read this article published by the University of Delaware: Pea Production for Processing on Delmarva.
Some of my favorite Pea Recipes. Click on the photo to be redirected to the recipe.
Tagliatelle with PeasCreamy Fettuccine with PeasFresh Peas with Basil and MintFingerling Potatoes with Peas and TarragonSpring Risotto with Peas, Ramps, and AsparagusNew Potato and Pea Frittat
I have 2 kids. A boy who is 7 and a girl who is 4. We’re lucky. They are not overweight. They are healthy. We work hard to put a variety of foods in front of them every day and to encourage fresh vegetables and fruits, whole grains and low-fat protein. We have meatless meals and Dad is a vegan. So what am I doing taking my kids to McDonald’s, you ask?
McDonald’s is on a mission. Just ask Scott Rodrick. He has spent more than 20 years building a franchise of more than a dozen McDonald’s locations in San Francisco. His father was one of Ray Kroc’s earliest franchisees, opening the first McDonald’s in South Florida in 1950. If anyone has witnessed firsthand the changes that have taken place at the McDonald’s corporation, it’s Scott Rodrick.
He was generous enough to give a few food bloggers/writers a tour of one of his San Francisco McDonald’s and to explain just what’s been going on over the past few years. The tour, and the menu sampling that occurred afterwards were eye-opening for me. Now when I’m on the run looking for a healthy snack, I actually think, McDonald’s. Crazy. Right?
Here’s why it’s not as crazy as it sounds:
1. McDonald’s sources its fresh ingredients from the same places my supermarket does. Bagged Greens? Yes. Blueberries from the Central Valley? Done. Major Brand Apple Slices? You got it.
I assume that the fresh blueberries they’re putting on top of the Blueberry Banana Nut Oatmeal won’t be on the menu year-round, but they’re here now. These aren’t freeze-dried blueberries reanimated when hot water touches the oatmeal. These are true, fresh blueberries delivered almost daily to your local McDonald’s and sprinkled on top after the oatmeal is ready. See below for more about what the inside of a McDonald’s walk-in refrigerator is like and how the produce is stacked neatly in small packages. Just like home, but better.
2. Egg McMuffins are made with eggs that are cracked right onto the griddle.
I know. Right? The cooks crack the egg into a little nonstick fry ring like the kind you can buy at Williams-Sonoma. Want to cut down on the fat and calories in an egg McMuffin? Ask them to hold the cheese or hold the ham or both. Also, the English Muffin part has Margarine in it. You could ask about not using the Margarine, but I think it is literally in it, so remove one of the pieces of bread and eat it open top. Altogether, the one pictured here contains 300 calories and 12 grams of fat. No cheese brings it down to 250 calories and 9 grams of fat. I can live with that once in awhile.
3. My kids eat the apple slices and don’t finish their fries.
In early 2012, McDonald’s modified the happy meal and reduced the french fry serving size to 1 oz (100 calories). They added a bag of apple slices to every meal too. In San Francisco, to comply with a “no free toys” law, they started charging 10 cents for the toy and donating the proceeds to build a new Ronald McDonald house at UCSF. Not a bad solution.
We usually substitute bottled water (for a modest surcharge) for the milk. And you can also request 2 bags of apple slices instead of the 1 bag each of apple slices and fries. My kids are normal “kid eaters”, but they have really turned on to apple slices and are happy to forgo the fries. Worried about salt? Ask for your fries salt-free. It takes a little longer to get the meal, but fries are made every 7 minutes at McDonald’s, so you can get yours fresh, hot and salt free and never wait longer than 7 minutes.
4. Sure the strawberry banana smoothie has a lot of sugar in it, but so do smoothies everywhere else and the ones at McDonald’s have the most vitamin C. For the record, my kids order the small strawberry-banana smoothie which is a 12 oz drink clocking in at 210 calories.
This is a special treat for my kids and one that replaces getting a milkshake or an ice cream cone (something we rarely, almost never do). Given that, the 44g of sugar 1g of fat and 210 calories don’t seem so bad.
Ever wonder just how much sugar there is in the fruit smoothies you’re out there consuming? Well, I decided to compare Jamba Juice, Starbucks and McDonald’s. Each offers a 16 oz strawberry banana smoothie. Here is how they compare:
16 oz Strawberry Smoothie
16 oz Strawberry Alive Smoothie
16 oz Strawberry Banana Smoothie
Calories: 300 cal
Total Fat: 2g
Total Carbs: 60 g
Dietart Fiber: 7g
Sugars: 41g
Protein: 16 g
% DR Vitamin C: 35%
Calories: 250 cal
Total Fat: 0g
Total Carbs: 50 g
Dietart Fiber: 2g
Sugars: 42g
Protein: 11 g
% DR Vitamin C: 60%
Calories: 260 cal
Total Fat: 1g
Total Carbs: 60g
Dietart Fiber: 3g
Sugars: 54g
Protein: 2g
% DR Vitamin C: 90%
5. The signature salads totally rock, as long as you’re not going to try to eat one in the car while driving.
McDonald’s doesn’t use preservatives in the bagged salad greens and they are delivered in regular sized bags. When you order a salad, there is a cook in the back who assembles it then. They put greens into a bowl, then sprinkle tomatoes on top, the beans, the little tortilla strips and finally, they slice a freshly grilled piece of chicken and place it on top.
Looking to control calories and fat with your salad? Skip the croutons and drizzle half of the dressing packet over the salad instead of the whole thing. Make sure you get the grilled chicken, rather than the crispy chicken.
6. The fruit and walnut salad is a great snack for the kids. It is the most hidden item on the menu. Even most employees don’t realize it’s there, but if you ask for it by name, they can find it.
The vanilla yogurt is yummy and low fat and has helped my children get over their fear of plain yogurt. This snack demonstrates to them that fruit, nuts and yogurt are a satisfying snack. It’s easy to handle in the car too.
7. The Honey Mustard Snack Wrap with Grilled Chicken is only 6 Weight Watchers® Points Plus™. I can order that when I’m driving and can’t order a signature salad.
This was a standby emergency snack the last time I did Weight Watchers. I lost 18 lbs. It helped me get over my double quarter pounder with cheese obsession.
8. The Fruit & Yogurt Parfait is a great dessert or snack. At only 150 calories and 2g of fat, what’s the big deal? It tastes great.
Another item to help introduce your children to the concept of fruit and plain yogurt. You can transition them over to organic ones that are less sugary once you convince them it’s a yummy breakfast or snack item in the first place.
9. You can ask for stuff just how you like it. No salt? Check. No mayo? Check.
Want another option that really doesn’t set you back calories and fat-wise? Try the Premium Grilled Chicken Classic Sandwich, but order it without the mayo and you’ll cut 5.5 grams of fat off of the total. Wonder how I know this? The McDonalds.com website features a nifty tool where you can deselect ingredients from any item on the menu and it will retally all of the nutritional information right in front of your eyes. See the Premium Grilled Chicken Classic Sandwich Nutrition tool here. The tool is a little buried. You will have to click on a little red plus sign next to the word Nutrition to get the tool to slide out. Once you get access, you’ll be amazed at how effectively you can cut fat and calories by eliminating mayo-based sauces and cheese. I also recommend eliminating half of a bun whenever possible.
10. The kitchens and pantries at McDonald’s are immaculate.
Photo taken by Blogger on a McDonald's tour in Mystic, CT -Photo Credit: Junior Reporter Bryson – See his post here
I toured a downtown San Francisco location right after the lunch-hour rush and everything was clean as a whistle. I expected the walk-in refrigerators to be stacked floor to ceiling with product, but that’s just not the case. Their walk-in fridge was more orderly and clean than my fridge at home. McDonald’s receives almost daily shipments, so no one shipment has to be too large. Fresh produce is picked at the farm, triple washed and delivered to McDonald’s locations within just a couple of days.
In the walk-in, we saw eggs in cartons by the dozen. A few bags of fresh greens, Maybe 10-15 fresh packs of individual serving blueberries and so on. If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I might not have believed it. We weren’t allowed to photograph it, but a nice kid from Connecticut was allowed to photograph it. His photo looks exactly like what we saw.
I’m impressed that McDonald’s is making such a huge effort to improve nutritional quality of their foods and that they are willing to invite small groups of people into their kitchens to see their efforts firsthand. Not every fast food chain is cutting salt and fat. Go to Carl’s Junior and get a The Amazing Grilled Cheese Bacon Six Dollar Burger™ and it will set you back 80g of fat!! and over 1000 calories! And that’s just for the sandwich. On the McDonald’s menu, the most fat grams you’ll encounter are about 40g for many of the bigger cheeseburgers. That is more fat that you should have in a day, so if you’re going to go the cheeseburger route, you gotta do it sparingly. The Double Double I like at In-And-Out Burger has 41 grams of fat, so even though everyone praises In-And-Out, they’ve got the same fat content as a McDonald’s Double Quarter Pounder.
All this to say, you can make healthy choices at McDonald’s if you try and you’re aware. And I’m surprised to find that it’s easier than ever and easier than elsewhere to do that for myself and my kids at McDonald’s.
As some of you know, I started blogging a bit for Mollie Stone’s Markets, my favorite grocery store. They have an amazing new line of infused olive oils that I have been experimenting with. This latest recipe makes use of the Lemon Infused Olive Oil. I made this lentil salad for a going-away party for friends of ours who are moving to Europe. Just when we’re going to have healthcare here after all. Oh well. To see the entire recipe, check out the post on the Mollie Stone’s Blog!
I equate summertime picnics with these kinds of salads: lentil salad, orzo salad, corn and bean salad and so on. They travel well, hold up during a picnic and are nutritious. They also take advantage of what’s in season. Here are just a few from the archives:
, published by the California Culinary Academy in 1986 was a mainstay in my college apartment kitchen in 1992. So much so, that when I took a guy named John P. to the “Screw Your Roommate Dance” at Swarthmore that year, I made this dish for our special candlelight dinner beforehand. The book describes the dish as “elegant enough for guests, looks impressive, but it actually couldn’t be easier to put together.” It was perfect for a food-obsessed, but novice college chef like me. And if I could pull it off at age 20, and remember what it tasted like lo these 21 years later, this dish is worth adding to your repertoire, right?
