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The secret is the Mustard-Thyme Vinaigrette. It is so flavorful. Let me put it this way: I will never be without homegrown thyme again. Further, when whole grain mustard went on sale I bought eight bottles.
From the America’s Test Kitchen The Best 30-Minute Recipe
3 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
1 shallot, peeled
1 small garlic clove, peeled [I always use 2 medium size cloves]
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
Salt and ground black pepper
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Process vinegar, mustard, shallot, garlic, thyme, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in blender [I use my food processor] until shallot and garlic are finely chopped, about 15 seconds. With blender running, add oil and continue to process until smooth and emulsified, about 15 seconds.
***
If there is a second secret to Bistro salad, it is the Boursin toast. Boursin is a soft spreadable cheese. The cheese parries the zing of the vinaigrette and adds its own garlic-herbiness to the mix. It is scrumptious. Do yourself a favor and do not read the nutrition facts. Also, note that Costco sells Boursin in three packs which makes it slightly less spendy.
Heat your oven to 400 degrees and cut a good baguette into thick slices (so that they’ll be soft on the inside and crunchy outside). Bake in a single layer on a cookie sheet for about ten minutes. Drizzle the tops with olive oil and then spread with Boursin.
Bacon & Eggs: You need 8 thick cut slices of bacon. Fry it crispy and cut into pieces. Toss with 8 ounces of mesclun (spring mix style lettuce) and 1/2 cup (ONLY HALF THE RECIPE) of the vinaigrette. The Best 30-Minute Recipe tops the salad with a fried egg. Although that presentation is more dramatic, I prefer just to go with hard boiled.
Assembly: Divide the mesclun/bacon mixture between 4 bowls. Arrange a sliced egg (fried or hard boiled) on top of each. Serve with the Boursin toast.
Yield: 4
Self-Deceived
I was craving something healthy. I’d spent the past few days silently snitching bits of birthday chocolate all day long. I can easily go a few days on cold cereal, yogurt, and chocolate, but then I wake up: What am I doing to my body?! Today was one of those waking days. So, despite it already being 6 p.m., and despite an evening of single-parenting ahead of me (attn ax-murderers: Pdad’s flight should land within the hour) I decided I HAD to make real food or perish.
It went surprisingly well. Duncan played sweetly with Kate. (Do you hear the choir of angels singing? I hope so, because it was a miracle). Amelia worked on her homework. I cooked. I made bistro salad–the number one best way to consume lettuce. It was past kid bedtime before we all finally sat down at the table. They hadn’t killed each other and I’d managed to keep them from spoiling their dinner or having hypoglycemic meltdowns with some carefully timed snacks. It was a good moment.
I said the blessing on the food. With great sincerity, I thanked Heavenly Father that we could sit down together and eat “real,” “healthy” food. I finished the blessing and picked up my fork. Amelia looked at me quizzically: “Why did you say that about healthy food in the prayer? Is Boursin cheese healthy?”
She got me!
For the uninitiated: Bistro Salad is mesclun mix coated generously with a thyme-mustard vinaigrette–plenty of oil, topped by bacon and eggs, and with a side of Boursin toasts. Healthy? On balance, probably not. Delicious: Oh yeah!
Question: If one only enjoys vegetables prepared in artery-clogging ways, is it still better to eat vegetables than not to eat vegetables?
I will miss you.
I love shallots. Shallots are one of the many joys Cooks Illustrated has introduced me to. Shallots are much milder than onion and garlic. They are perfect for flavoring salad dressings without overpowering them. They aren’t crunchy like onions when raw. My favorite recipe that uses shallots is Fast Buttery Peas. Thyme, butter, and shallot make an amazing trio. That recipe changed my feelings for vegetables forever.
The fork is to show their size; I don't eat them raw!
Anyway, enough about cooking shallots, this post is actually about growing them. I was startled to find shallot starters at the local nursery this spring. I had never heard of anyone growing them locally. The large bag of shallots I like to buy at Costco around Thanksgiving seems to claim that you really need to grow them in France.
Well, it isn’t true. I haven’t figured out the science of shallot growing yet, but my shallots did fine nonetheless. I waited until the green tops (very similar to onion) dried out and then I picked them.
I think next year I’d better pull them sooner! Although an old Cook’s Illustrated article claimed that “most shallots (whether they have one clove or four) are approximately the same size” (not true!) a more recent article acknowledged that a shallot can be small, medium or large. The test kitchen, they said, uses only small or medium shallots because almost all of their recipes call for less than 3 tablespoons minced shallots. (Cook’s considers the yield of a medium shallot to be about 3 Tbsp minced). My largest shallots yield much more than 3 Tbsp minced–I’m going to have to make some big batches of salad dressing!
I need to find a cheaper source for shallot starters, because even though shallots tend to be rather expensive at the grocery store, I don’t think this was much of a money saving venture when you figure in all the watering I had to do in our desert climate. However, a clear bonus is that my shallots are very fresh and firm and it is almost impossible to find shallots of this quality at the grocery store.
One final note: If you decide to grow your own shallots, you may be horrified to see how many slugs they attract. I was. Interestingly, the slugs did no damage to the shallots that I’m aware of. The tomatoes were another story!
I know that cooking dinner for my family is a good thing to do, and in the past I’ve enjoyed it, but recently I’ve suffered through a cooking slump (May I blame it on the 4 pm swimming lessons or is it just the human condition?)
When I think about cooking dinner, my negative thoughts include: it will take too long, the kids won’t like it, and I will have to clean up the mess. Eating has been the same way. Nothing appeals. Unfortunately, because I actually am hungry, I eat candy saved (stolen?) from my children and fast food. Yikes. Aside from the candy, my children aren’t eating much better.
I can do better. Tonight I did. At the last minute, it occurred to me that I wanted to offer my kids real food for dinner. I leafed through my favorite recipe binder and got nowhere. But then I searched the fridge and found that we had 1) lots of eggs 2) home-grown zucchini and 3) some bacon I’d already cooked. Lightbulb! I made a frittata for dinner. It was delicious. Everyone liked it. It wasn’t hard. It didn’t take long. It was real food for my family. So I’m writing this post to help me capture the “what was I dreading, I love to cook!” feeling. I hope to climb out of that slump one day at a time.
Nothing beats fresh garlic. If you are using powdered, jarred, or pre-peeled garlic, you are settling for less. Try fresh garlic again and see whether it isn’t a sensory experience you need in your life.
Given my penchant for fresh garlic, I see the garlic press as a must have item. If you are a garlic press newbie, you need to know that garlic presses are not created equal. Not even close. Many are flimsy, most are inefficient, a lot of them are hard to clean, and some require too much hand strength. None of these negatives is true of the Kuhn Rikon Easy Squeeze. If you have ever tried a garlic press made by another company, when you try this one, you will quickly recognize it as an engineering marvel. It really works well and it is much easier to clean. I don’t think the Easy Squeeze is the best looking press. Kuhn Rikon’s similar stainless steel model is absolutely beautiful. I own it too and it is a work of kitchen design that is truly art. But for those of us with weak hand strength, the less sophisticated easy squeeze model (available in black, red or blue) is both easier and cheaper. I first read about this model at Cook’s Illustrated where it was rated number one out of a field of thirteen presses.
Do you know of any Stuff Worth Buying? I would love to have you guest post. Write me at ChocolateandGarlic [at] gmail.com.
*I have received no financial or other benefits from the companies affiliated with this product. See my review policy at the bottom of my About Me page.
Consumers of the world unite! We need to ask cookbook publishers to include weights in all their cookbooks. It is crucial for baking and it makes sense for other types of cooking as well.
I, for one, prefer measuring three ounces of onion to making myself crazy with internal debates as to whether a given onion qualifies as medium size or not. For ingredients like Parmesan, where how you grated it makes such a big difference to the volume, weighing just makes a ton of sense.
What doesn’t make sense is to bake without referring to weight, because weighing is so much more accurate. If you are stir frying—a little more of this, a little more of that—accuracy isn’t a big deal (unless you have OC issues : ). But if you are making a cake, accuracy is key.
2) Weighing is also much faster. Instead of dipping and sweeping multiple cups, you just pour your flour slowly into the bowl until you hit the magic number on the scale.
Which scale? I am sure many scales would work fine, but I love my MyWeigh 7000 (click the picture to visit their website). It is a little bulky, but so much sturdier than my previous scale. This thing has stood up to considerable abuse by my children, and it still works great. Also, it has a higher weight capacity than most scales (almost 15 1/2 lbs), so I don’t have to worry that if I put that fully-loaded heavy bowl on it it might break. Also, with the multiple modes and high weight capacity, the MyWeigh can be used for calculating postage or all sorts of crafts and hobbies.
Read my review policy on the About Me page.
Remember the other day when I said I was going to try to make the Tunnel of Fudge cake again, except this time I would not forget the brown sugar? I did try again. The second attempt was for Duncan’s birthday party with friends. A photo: 
This isn’t an attempt, dear reader, to extort validation from you, because I already believe this photo to be gorgeous, and you won’t change my mind if you say otherwise. BUT when isn’t a picture worth a 1000 words? How about when you want to tell a sad tale about how incredibly ugly something turned out and the picture makes it seem otherwise?
This is what I came across right after I put Duncan’s birthday cake in the oven:
