yogurt – The Kitchen Illiterate

Classic Curried Chicken Salad

This week Sean is out of town, and I am eating like a total single lady. By that I mean on the couch, surrounded by magazines and watching How I Met Your Mother. By that I also mean I’m eating super easy salads, for which most of the prep work was done Sunday night. This Curried Chicken Salad is a perfect example a of single lady dinner. It took me about 15 minutes to throw together, it’s simple and summery, and its served in endive leaves, for goodness sake.

I love Curried Chicken Salad because it is totally classic, but still a little unexpected. It’s easy, but seems kind of decadent. It can be varied in endless ways, or kept simple and basic. I had originally intended to eat this chicken salad wrapped in lettuce leaves, but I couldn’t find any with that good cup shape. However, the endive was perfect: It added just the right amount of bitter crunch. This salad is also great wrapped in a soft whole wheat or green spinach-y tortilla.
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Saffron Chickpea Stew

The rainy season appears to be underway here in the East Bay. I’m not complaining because it’s still the mildest winter I’ve experienced in over eight years. I’d forgotten how much rain freaks Californians out, though. We get confused by weather. I can’t even tell you how many people in my office this morning said some variation of the phrase, “I thought people moved to California for nice weather,” or “I think we might get washed away in this deluge.” We won’t, we’ll be ok. But the freakouts are happening, nonetheless.
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Saturday Morning, Coconut Muffins

I know that I’m emerging from whatever dark lull I’ve been sunk in when I wake up on a Saturday morning with an urge to bake. Before I even finish my coffee I’m pulling bins of flour and sugar out of cupboards and scattering mixing bowls and measuring spoons over the counters. Sean ambles out of bed and marvels at the mess I’ve been able to make before 9 am. I’m mixing and stirring and whisking and happily anticipating a warm, sweet breakfast. There’s something wonderful about early morning baking: The feeling of productivity first thing in the morning, sipping coffee in between breaking eggs, and watching the room become lighter as the sun rises higher in the sky.
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Kale Paneer

One thing about moving back to California that has been really amazing is living close to my family again. I grew up in San Diego, and my parents, my oldest brother, my sister-in-law, and my niece (along with aunts and uncles and cousins) still live there. My youngest brother, as well as aunts and uncles and cousins, live here in the Bay Area. So I get to see family a lot more often than I did when I was entrenched in the snow on the other side of the country. About a month ago, my youngest brother graduated from college, and a mess of family drove up to celebrate. We had a weekend full of laughter and, as always when Kriers are involved, great food. Including this home cooked Indian food dinner on Saturday night.
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Five-Spice Beet Soup

I have a hard time putting beets on the menu. I love them, but I feel limited in how to prepare them. It can be difficult to introduce them into a meal because of their overly exuberant tendency to tinge everything pink. They’re delicious roasted, but they can dominate when roasted with other vegetables. I learned long ago they aren’t necessarily a great addition to pasta. I love them in a salad, but the beet and goat cheese combination, while admittedly perfect, sometimes feels a little dull. And most beet soup recipes look a lot alike. Sometimes it’s like the whole recipe-writing world has a case of beet boredom.
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Curried Lentils and Grilled Branzini

Sometimes I see a recipe somewhere and I think, “That looks awesome, I’m making it for dinner this week.” The ingredients go on the shopping list and I think I’m all set. Then the time comes to cook the meal and I can’t find the recipe anywhere, like it was a figment of my imagination. There are so many places I find recipes, so many ways they pop into my life every day, it can be like a wild goose chase trying to hunt down any one in particular. Lucky for me, this one was simple enough that I was able to re-construct it, or at lease a pretty good facsimile, with little trouble. But I still have no idea where I got the idea in the first place.
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Pasta Salad with Salmon, Cabbage, and Carrots

Last week, I broke out the grill for the first time in a year and cooked up some lovely salmon fillets. Being as I was only making dinner for one, I ended up with more grilled salmon than I could eat in one night, and the next day I used the rest to put together a huge bowl of this lovely pasta salad. Well, it ended up being more pasta salad than I could eat in one night, and I had pasta salad to last me many days. And I got a little sick of it after it became my fourth lunch in a row, so I might recommend that if you make this pasta salad, you have more than one person around to eat it. Because I do think you should make this pasta salad. It’s pasta salad season, after all, and this one is unique.
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We are Chocolate Peppermint Cookies, and you will be happy if you eat us!

Slashfood is featuring a cookie a week until Christmas, and I am all over that. I used to think I was no good at baking, but after my pumpkin cheesecake and oatmeal cookies and two loaves of whole-wheat break with nary a problem, I’m starting to revise this opinion. This week’s cookie: Chocolate Peppermint Drops.

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