Eating My Vegetables and Grilled Romaine Salad with Shrimp

I know it's important to eat my vegetables.

But when the world is a frozen wasteland outside my door chocking down a cold salad is just one cold thing too much.

Last night I decided to make myself a winter picnic with spring food. I can dream of sunny warm days and if those warm days only exist inside my house - well then, so be it.

Grilled Romaine and Shrimp with Tarragon Vinaigrette: serves 2

One head Romaine lettuce
6 to 8 jumbo shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails intact
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
1 tablespoon toasted pine nuts

Vinaigrette (you can cheat and use purchased dressing but this is so easy, why not make your own?)

3 tablespoons tarragon vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
9 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk the vinegar and mustard together. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil, whisking the entire time until the dressing emulsifies (thickens). Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Split the romaine head in two lengthwise. Using a pastry brush brush the cut sides of the lettuce with the vinaigrette.

Drizzle a bit of the dressing over the cleaned shrimp.

Heat a grill pan on the stove over medium high heat. If you don't have a grill pan you can use a large frying pan.

Place the shrimp on the grill pan and cook for 2-3 minutes per side, brushing with a bit more dressing when you turn them.

While shrimp are cooking place the romaine on the grill, cut side down. Grill for 1-2 minutes or until the leaves just begin to wilt. Baste with dressing and turn, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Grill for one more minute. Remove from grill pan with the cooked shrimp. Sprinkle a few pine nuts on the romaine heads.

Enjoy with a bottle of wine and dream of spring.

Strawberry Fields Forever... Mixed Greens with Goat Cheese and Strawberry Vinaigrette

Sometimes life just hands you one of those days. 

A great day. 

Full of sunshine. 

Fresh Air. 

A strawberry field. 

A good friend to share the ride.

A nice dog. 

And two of the cutest littles around. 

I had one of those days this week. 

The strawberries are coming in fast and furious here in the Northeast. "They are ripe for the picking" as the saying goes; so when my daughter-in-law called and asked if I'd like to meet her and the grand littles for a morning of strawberry picking, I was out the door with my basket faster than you can sing "Strawberry Fields Forever"

Meet Hannah, 3 years old: she liked the sweet red ones and NOT the sour green ones.

And Jillian, 1 1/2: she liked ALL of them.

And a very nice yellow dog, he liked the girls. Seems happy, doesn't he?

Strawberry Vinaigrette:

10 strawberries, washed and hulled

1 teaspoon sugar or honey

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1/4 cup white or red wine vinegar

1/2 to 1 cup extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste.

Put the strawberries, sugar, and dijon mustard in a blender. Puree. Add vinegar and pulse again. With motor running on low, slowly drizzle in olive oil to emulsify (mix and thicken) Season with salt and pepper. Check seasoning with a piece of green. Adjust if necessary.

Serve over a bed of mixed baby greens, sliced strawberries and goat cheese crumbles. Yum.

My Garden Shed & Simple Greens with Lemon Vinaigrette

If I had to pick a favorite room (besides my kitchen) it would have to be my garden shed. It's not really a room at all, it's a, well, it's a shed. In my back yard and I love it. 

The best husband in the world built it for me. That's reason enough to love it. He built it for me. With his own hands. I painted it so it would bloom year round.  He spotted the pot hangers on a old barn he was driving past and stopped and bought some for me because he knew I'd like them. Hence the pots on the front.  House wrens make their home in the bird houses. I can see the shed from my kitchen window so I am always reminded of the flowers, vegetables and other plants that this shed helps bring forth every spring. 

From these double doors with a leaf shaped handle spring forth the hope and promise of red ripe tomatoes, purple sun warmed eggplants, crazy, boat sized zucchinis, crooked necked yellow squashes, cool green cucumbers, zesty mint, red, yellow, green and hot, hot, hot peppers, a menagerie of herbs, big outrageous orange pumpkins, ornamental gourds that will one day become bird houses, and anything else that the seed catalogs enticed me into spending hard cash on in late January. 

The shed houses all my garden stuff. Rakes and shovels, extra soaker hoses, a pitch fork that's about a 100 years old that TBHITW brought home one day. A small rototiller that I can handle on my own. Compost starter. Fencing, trellises, tomato cages waiting for their next plants to imprison. There are some empty pots waiting for flowers and seed trays sleeping until next year when I will sow a new crop of summer harvest dreams. There is garden twine and potting soil. But the best thing the shed houses is hope. 

Hope. Inside those double doors is the hope of future plants and the promise of plants now putting down their roots in fertile soil that I tended. Hope for vegetables fresh from the garden to the table. Flowers with blooms the size of dinner plates. Herbs that are so aromatic they make you want to cry for want of them. Life growing in front of my very eyes. 

That's why my garden shed is one of my favorite rooms. It offers me hope that all things can grow and prosper with a little nurturing. A garden, a family, a community, a world. 

Mixed Baby Greens with Lemon Vinaigrette ( the last of them from my spring garden) - serves 4 - this is the stuff of romance. 

6 cups mixed greens, washed and spun dry

Sauce Vinaigrette: 1 1/2 cups

The classic ratio for a basic vinaigrette is 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar. This ratio can vary according to your taste.  Always taste your dressing with a bit of green.  

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/3 cup red or white wine vinegar

Juice of one lemon

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

2/3 cup tasteless salad oil (canola, safflower, corn - your preference)

Whisk together the mustard, salt, pepper, lemon juice and vinegar. Beat in the olive oil. Season to taste with more salt and pepper if necessary. Store in the refrigerator like any other "store" bought dressing.

Variations: (store for one week)

Garlic: crush and mix with the slat to make a paste and whisk in

Mustard: for extra zing in the salad blend 1 teaspoon or more to taste 

Fresh Herbs: Tarragon is especially nice. Chop or leave whole and mix with the salad as you toss it. 

Serve with a loaf of crusty bread, some soft, ripe cheese and a cool, crisp wine. Use the wine pairing tool on my blog, then fall in love while you're at it. 

Last Night's Locavore Dinner

Spinach and Mushroom Tarts hot from the oven, all puffed up and golden. 

Pan Seared Scallops on a bed of baby lettuces with balsamic vinaigrette

A Locavore Dinner - Spinach & Mushroom Tarts with Pan Seared Scallops and Baby Greens Salad

I'm back from the market and I am psyched! This is why I love this store so much. You walk up to the front of it and BAM before you're even inside, they have this sign posted.

You can easily pick out what has been delivered and from where, complete with the Farm's name.

The produce section in this market is a thing of beauty.

So, what did I buy? Well, I have the shitake mushrooms that I grew my very own self. As soon as I walked in I spied fresh baby spinach - all bright green and crisp. I couldn't resist. I'm going to pair the spinach with the mushrooms and make a tart. They also had some lovely baby lettuces, but I have those in my garden and they need to be picked. So I'll make a small salad with a simple vinaigrette.  

Normally, a tart and a small salad would be plenty for dinner, but I wandered into the seafood department. And bless my soul - the fishmonger man was just putting out wild caught New Jersey day boat scallops. I just know they serve these lovely darlings in heaven. I could not resist and I bought a pound of them. 

So I had my main ingredients - but what about the other stuff needed to make the tart? After a little label reading I was able to buy organic, heavy cream and unsalted butter from a dairy in NJ, greek yogurt from a NY dairy and organic, free range eggs from Pennsylvania. My goal was to only buy fresh products from NY, NJ or PA; the tri-state area being about a 100 mile radius from my home. The only thing I couldn't find was locally grown and processed whole wheat flour, so I'm using Hodgson Mill's whole wheat pastry flour. Sigh - even the pioneers brought stuff with them, right? 

Before we get to the recipes let me say this, buying locally grown (organic and sustainably farmed) and produced products cost me about 10% more than buying "brand" products. Not a bad investment in our health and our community. I figure I'm still up on the green scale because I took my own reusable "green" bags to hold my purchases (which reminds me of an event that still makes me see red instead of green, see my side vent)

Side Vent: When I worked in a glass tower in the sky (ie: corporate world), one of my vendors sent my whole team green grocery bags at the holidays. They are heavy duty canvas, attractive and roomy with wide handles. I thought that was a great client gift! One of my co-workers was less than thrilled with the gesture and sent me their bag, saying that after taking the bags home and showing them to his wife "they just don't fit our lifestyle".  DON'T FIT YOUR LIFESTYLE? WTF?? We're not talking major changes here folks. It's a bag. Not like, oh, we had to give up raising llamas and emus.. it just didn't fit our lifestyle. It's a bag for the love of god. "DON'T FIT YOUR LIFESTYLE?" Does global warming fit your lifestyle? Does dependency on foreign oil fit your lifestyle? Do land fills stacked to the heavens with nonbiodegradable plastics fit your lifestyle? Every time I use one of those bags and I think of this person my normally sunny disposition turns dark and I know that people like that are the very reason this planet and this country are in trouble. Phew. 

Sorry. Now where was I? Oh, yes, the recipes. 

Spinach and Mushroom Tarts: (makes four small tarts)

Tart Crust:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (you an also use all white, all purpose flour)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) chilled, unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1 cup greek yogurt (I know! But trust me, this is the easiest, flakiest, most delicious crust you will ever make) - you can use sour cream instead - but I'm cutting fat and calories.

Place first three ingredients into the well of your food processor. Process one or more times to lighten. Add butter and process until a coarse meal forms. Add yogurt and process until dough comes together. Turn dough out on counter, shape into disk. Cut into four equal parts. Roll out individual rounds and fit into small tart pans. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before filling. 

Mushroom & Spinach Filling:

About 12 ounces fresh spinach, steamed, drained and rough chopped. 

About 6 ounces shitake or other type mushroom

1 teaspoon unsalted butter

5 eggs

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon fresh thyme, minced

1/2 teaspoon each salt & pepper

Steam the spinach, squeeze any moisture from it and give it a rough chop.

Saute mushrooms in 1 teaspoon butter. Cool

Beat eggs with a whisk, add heavy cream and whisk to combine. Add thyme, salt and pepper and whisk to combine.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Lay spinach out on bottom of tart crust, dividing among tarts. Layer mushrooms the same way, dividing evenly. Pour egg mixture over spinach / mushrooms. Bake in center of oven for 30 minutes or until set. 

A Cook's Note: You can make one big tart - use a pie tin and call it a quiche. Increase bake time to about 45 minutes. 

Pan Seared Sea Scallops with baby lettuces: (serves 4)

1 pound wild, day boat sea scallops, dried

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

salt and pepper

1 tablespoon white balsamic or white wine vinegar

4 cups baby mixed lettuces, washed, heaped on a platter

Melt the butter in a saute pan until froth subsides. Pour off butter, reserving it in a small bowl. 

DO NOT WIPE OUT PAN. 

Dry your scallops* by patting with paper towels. Salt and pepper them on both sides.

Heat up the pan you melted the butter in. It will have some butter residue in it. When almost smoking, add scallops. Don't crowd them. Cook for 2 minutes, turn, cook for 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer to platter with baby lettuces. 

Quickly, place reserved melted butter back in saute pan, warm. Add vinegar, salt and pepper and stir quickly to combine. Drizzle warm vinaigrette over scallops and lettuces. 

Enjoy. 

* This is important. In order to get a golden carmelization on your scallops they need to be dry. 

A Cook's Notes: you can use shrimp instead of scallops. Dry them and make the same way, increasing cooking time by about a minute. 

HEY! If you are striving to eat more local, support your community's farmers, being green, I'd love to hear about it. Be sure to leave me a comment on your triumphs, struggles, ideas.