Remember I told you I had butterflied a chicken and was planning on grilling it under a brick?  Well now I’ll show you how I did it.

As I mentioned the other day, Pollo al Mattone, or Chicken Under a Brick is a Tuscan style of grilling chicken.  The chicken cooks quickly since it is flattened under the weight of the brick and you end up with crispy delicious skin and juicy, perfectly cooked meat.  What more could one want from a chicken?

My first step was to marinate the chicken with olive oil and herbs.  You can use any combination of herbs you like, I just used a simple mixture of garlic and rosemary.  First I stripped the leaves from 5 or 6 sprigs of rosemary (about 1/3 cup loosely packed) and peeled six cloves of garlic.

I could have finely chopped everything by hand, but the lazy person inside of me decided a mini food processor was the way to go!

A few seconds later, I ended up with finely chopped rosemary and garlic!  If you don’t have a mini food processor, just chop everything up by hand and/or pound it with a mortar and pestle.

Next, I stirred in about 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil.

Now for the chicken!  If you’ve never butterflied a chicken, watch this video.  See how easy it is?  After cutting the chicken, I rinsed it and patted it dry with paper towels.

I also folded the wings under the bird so that the tips won’t burn on the grill.

Here is the inside of my beautifully butterflied bird. Doesn’t it make you want to rub oil all over it?

I thought so!  I poured about half of the marinade over the inside of the chicken.

Then rubbed it all over, making sure to coat every single part of the bird.

Next I flipped it over and rubbed the remaining marinade all over the outside of the chicken.  After the entire chicken is well-coated with the rosemary-garlic oil, you can cover the whole pan with plastic wrap or slip the chicken into a large plastic bag and place it in the refrigerator.  Try to let it sit for at least a few hours.

When you’re ready to grill the chicken, take it out of the fridge and rub some lemon juice all over it.  Right before it goes on the grill, sprinkle both sides liberally with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper.

Prepare your grill (gas or charcoal) for direct medium-low heat.  Allow as much marinade as possible to drip off the chicken before placing it on the grill.  Put the chicken on the grill skin side down and watch for flare-ups.  You may need to move the chicken around a bit until the flare-ups die down.  Once the flare-ups stop, put two foil-covered bricks directly on top of the chicken and allow to cook undisturbed for 15 minutes.

This is what my chicken looked like after 15 minutes:

Remove the bricks from the chicken and carefully lift it up to check the skin.  The skin should be well-browned and crispy.  If so, it’s time to flip the bird!

Mine was a little more than well-browned when I flipped it over!  Ooooops!  But we’ll just pretend that it’s perfectly browned like the last one I grilled (and of course didn’t photograph).

When you flip it over, you don’t need to put the bricks back on the chicken.  Just let it finish cooking until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees…it will probably only take about 10 minutes.  As you can see, I flipped the wings back up on top to keep them from burning.  Not sure if it’s necessary, but it was easy enough to do.

When it’s finished, let it rest for ten minutes before carving.  Then divide it up and enjoy!

You can use any marinade or rub you want with this chicken.  You could even brine it first if you want.  And if you don’t have time to marinate it at all, that’s fine, too.  Just rub it with oil and herbs right before you grill it.  Have fun!

Around the Web:

• Pollo al Mattone at Divina Cucina
• Chicken Under a Brick at Restaurant Widow
• Moroccan Spiced Chicken Under a Brick at TasteFood

My favorite way to grill chicken is to butterfly (a.k.a. spatchcock) a whole bird, flatten it, and place it directly on the grill with a large brick on top to weigh it down.  Pollo al Mattone, or Chicken Under a Brick is a Tuscan style of grilling chicken and the results are fantastic!  The chicken cooks quickly since it is flattened under the weight of the brick and you end up with skin so crispy and delicious, a fight might break out before it hits the table.

I have a butterflied chicken marinating in the fridge right now that I plan on grilling later this afternoon.  I’m documenting all the steps with my camera, and I’ll show you the results tomorrow.  But in the meantime, I want you to watch this great video on how to butterfly a chicken, courtesy of the folks over at The Virtual Weber Bullet.  Since this is a skill I’ve only picked up recently, I figure there are a few others out there who might benefit from the lesson as well!

So this is the second installment of our holiday recipe series, and I couldn’t be happier to share this dinner roll recipe with you!

In my family, the dinner rolls at our holiday meals are never homemade. For years, my grandmother would pick them up at a local bakery, but at some point we switched to the big bag of dinner rolls from Costco.  And I don’t think there’s anything wrong it.  My sister and I still love those rolls from Costco.  And really, even supermarket bakery rolls taste pretty good if you pop them in the oven for a few minutes.

But there is definitely something to be said for homemade bread.  And the first time I tasted my mother-in-laws homemade dinner rolls at Christmas I realized what a difference it makes.  While the dinner rolls are always an afterthought at the gatherings on my side of the family, the bread takes center stage at the meals we eat in Oregon. Everyone looks forward to Sharon’s warm and buttery dinner rolls and those rolls are one of the (many) reasons I’m happy to be spending Christmas in Oregon this year!

While I’m not going to share my mother-in-law’s dinner roll recipe today, I do have a great recipe for Sweet Potato Buttermilk Rolls that I can’t wait for you to try. Since Amanda and I wanted to put a new twist on some holiday recipes for you this year, I decided it would be fun to experiment with turning some plain old potato rolls into sweet potato rolls. While using sweet potato puree in these rolls adds beautiful color, the combination of sweet potato and buttermilk also results in a wonderful flavor!

When I made these the first time at our big pre-holiday dinner, I tried adapting a Potato-Buttermilk Roll recipe from Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking. While it’s a great book, and I’m sure the Potato-Buttermilk Rolls would have been great if I had followed the recipe exactly, I was less than impressed with the Sweet Potato Rolls I created that night.  I mean they were good, and everyone except me seemed to enjoy them, but they weren’t what I was looking for.  So, I decided to give it another try and ended up creating my own recipe for Sweet Potato Buttermilk Rolls.

I finished the final batch last night and took the still-warm rolls to my sister’s house for dinner. I am happy to report that we were all more than satisfied with the outcome!  We ended up eating them with that leftover Curried Turkey Salad and the combination was terrific.  So now I know that these rolls will not only be great with a big turkey dinner, they’ll also be perfect for your leftover turkey sandwiches.

I used my stand mixer to knead the dough for this recipe, but if you aren’t afraid of getting your hands messy, these can be made completely by hand.  And please, don’t be afraid of the yeast!  You will need a few hours to make these, but the majority of that time is spent just waiting for dough to rise.  The best thing about making homemade bread is that it’s possible to take care of other holiday preparations while the dough is rising.  But unless you’re planning on being really organized on Turkey day, I suggest making them the day before then reheating for a few minutes in the oven right before serving.

Sweet Potato Buttermilk Dinner Rolls

1 cup mashed sweet potato or yam, slightly warm or at room temperature*
2 cups buttermilk, at room temperature
1 egg, at room temperature
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup sugar
2 packets active dry yeast
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
6 – 7 cups bread flour

1. In a large bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer, whisk together mashed sweet potato, buttermilk, egg, butter, sugar and yeast. (I learned the hard way that it is best to whisk these ingredients by hand rather than using the mixer. I ended up with buttermilk splattered all over the kitchen when I tried using the paddle attachment!) Now let the mixture sit for a few minutes while you measure out about 7 cups of flour.

2. Using the paddle attachment for your stand mixer, stir in one cup of flour along with the salt. Gradually add more flour, about a cup at a time, until a soft dough begins to form.  If using a stand mixer, switch to the dough hook (use a wet hand to pull the dough off the paddle attachment and it won’t stick to you) and knead on medium speed (speed 4 on the kitchen aid) for 6-7 minutes, adding a little more flour as needed to make a moderately soft dough that mostly clears the sides of the bowl (the dough should eventually clear the sides of the bowl, but continue to stick to the bottom as it’s being kneaded).  My dough took about 6 1/2 cups of flour, but yours made need less or more. If mixing and kneading by hand, dump the dough out onto a floured surface when it gets too hard to mix with a spoon.  Using well-floured hands, knead the dough for 8 – 10 minutes, adding flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to work surface and hands.

3. When you finish kneading, the dough should be moderately soft and tacky, but not sticky.  To remove it from the bowl of your stand mixer, a bowl scraper is handy.  If you don’t have one, a plastic spatula will also work.  Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to form a smooth ball of dough.  If you kneaded by hand, form the dough into a smooth ball.  Cover dough with a towel, and clean out your mixing bowl.  Spray the inside of bowl with nonstick cooking spray or grease it with butter or oil. Place ball of dough, smooth side down, into the greased bowl.  Turn the dough over to grease the other side, then cover with the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap.  Put bowl in a warmish place and let dough rise for a little over an hour or until it has doubled in bulk.

4. When dough has doubled (you can check by pushing your finger into the dough. If an indentation remains without filling in, the dough is ready to go), push it down with your fists to deflate it and dump it out onto a lightly floured surface.  Cut the dough in half with a knife or bench scraper then cut each half into 8 equal pieces (or more if you want smaller rolls).  Cover pieces with a towel and let rest for a few minutes before shaping. While dough is resting, preheat your oven to 375 degrees and move two oven racks towards the center of the oven.  Also, line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

5. Shape rolls by rolling against the work surface or between your hands to form balls.  I like to pull the skin taut over the top of the roll and pinch at the bottom to form a smooth roll, but use whatever method works for you.  Divide the rolls between the two baking sheets, and cover with a towel.  Let rolls rise for about 20 minutes then remove towel and sprinkle the tops very lightly with flour.  Place baking sheets in preheated 375 degree oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until they are puffed and lightly brown.  Rotate sheets halfway through baking time (move bottom to top and vice versa).

5. Let rolls cool slightly and serve immediately.  Or, if making ahead, let rolls cool completely on wire racks then place in Ziploc bags.  To reheat, wrap rolls in foil and place in 375 degree oven for a few minutes until heated through.

Recipe Notes: *For sweet potato puree, I microwaved 2 medium sweet potatoes for about 7 minutes (poke holes all over with a fork first). Let cool then peel off skins. Pass the potatoes through a ricer if you have one, or mash well to remove any lumps. Measure out one cup (it’s ok if you have a little less) and proceed with recipe.  Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature, if the dough is cold it will take longer to rise.  The amount of flour is an approximation, you dough will use more or less depending on many different factors.  Don’t worry too much about how much you use, just mix a dough that you are comfortable kneading.  I made 16 rolls and they were on the large side, perfect for making little sandwiches.  If you prefer small rolls, you can cut the dough into 24 pieces or even more.  Keep in mind that smaller rolls will probably bake a little faster.  If you have any questions or my directions are unclear, feel free to e-mail me or leave a question in a comment at the end of this post!

This my dough after kneading for 7 minutes.

A dough scraper is inexpensive (usually about a dollar) and makes removing dough from a mixing bowl much easier!

Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured countertop.

Knead the dough lightly and form into a smooth ball.

Place dough smooth side down in a greased bowl then turn over so both sides are coated.

Let dough rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk.

To check if dough has doubled, push your finger into the dough. If the indentation remains, it

This dough doubled and ready to go in just over an hour.

Push dough down with your fists to deflate it then turn it out onto your lightly floured work surface.

Cut the deflated dough in half with a knife or bench scraper.

Divide each half into eight equal pieces for a total of 16 (or more if you prefer smaller rolls).

Shape the rolls into balls by rolling against the countertop or between your hands. For smooth rolls, pull the skin taut and pinch together at the bottom.

Forming a smooth roll.

Pinch the bottom together to form a taut skin.

Place rolls on parchment-lined baking sheet and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand.

After they have risen, dust lightly with flour then place in preheated 375 degree oven.

Bake rolls for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Enjoy warm with lots of butter!

I hope some of you give these a try, they were really tasty!  In the meantime, make sure you head over to What We’re Eating to see the Herb Roasted Turkey Breast Amanda prepared during our pre-holiday feast! It was delicious and would perfect for a small holiday gathering!

In case you missed any of the other recipes in our holiday series this month, you can see them all below. Click on a photo to be taken to the recipe. Happy holiday planning!

Sourdough Stuffing with Apples and Bacon

Mashed Potatoes with Cream Cheese

Cranberry Applesauce with Fresh Ginger

And the Holiday Recipe Series continues over at What We’re Eating with:

Stuffed Sweet Potatoes Wrapped in Prosciutto

Herb Roasted Turkey Breast

Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing

Cranberry Sauce with Rosemary and Persimmon

For those of you just tuning in this month, I’m happy to say that I’m participating in the National Blog Posting Month challenge. For this year’s edition of NaBloPoMo, I’ve pledged to post a new recipe every single day for the month of November. If you don’t want to miss a recipe, sign up to receive my recipes by e-mail. You’ll only receive an e-mail when I write a new blog post, and your e-mail address will not be used for any other purpose. Interested? Sign up now!

And all you need is one of these:

Plus some lemon juice and/or vinegar, a little dijon mustard and 3/4 cup of oil. Oh, and a whisk and some elbow grease. I still can’t believe how easy it was to make!

I’ve been in denial about homemade mayonnaise for a long time now. I’ve read a million different recipes and even seen videos. But for some reason I thought that there had to be some trick that no one was telling me. I didn’t believe that it could really be that easy.

I mean, if it were that easy, someone in my family would have made it before. Right? At some point in my 32 years of life on this planet, someone I know would have made homemade mayonnaise if it were such a simple and delicious thing to do.

Well, I guess everyone in my family has been in homemade mayonnaise denial too, because it really is simple to make.

And, it’s absolutely delicious!

Mayonnaise is one of those things I’ve been meaning to experiment with for some time. But it wasn’t until I went out to breakfast with Amanda and discussed things like bacon (and how there’s no such thing as too much bacon) and the importance of homemade mayonnaise, that I decided it was finally time. Amanda assured me that it isn’t difficult to make mayo from scratch and that once I try it, I’ll never want it any other way. I believed her because, well, you’ve seen her food, right?

Coincidentally, the new Bon Appetit arrived in my mailbox a few days later and Molly’s column just happened to be about the joys of homemade mayonnaise. I decided that it must be a sign and I headed to the kitchen determined to coax some mayonnaise-like substance out of one of those eggs sitting in the fridge.

Since the ingredients consist only of egg yolk, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, and salt, I figured I was pretty much good to go. But it turned out that for once in my life, I did not have any lemons on hand. So, I just substituted vinegar. I wasn’t too concerned about the flavor being perfect because I was still somewhat convinced that my first attempt would be a disaster.

I separated my egg, whisked in a little vinegar, mustard and salt then started adding the oil drop by drop. This was the part that had always mystified me. I was never sure how you could ‘pour’ the oil in a drop at a time. But Molly solved that problem by advising me to use a 1/4 teaspoon measure to add the first 1/4 cup of oil a few drops at a time. It worked perfectly!

Now I’m not going to lie. My arm got pretty tired after a few minutes of steady whisking. So I just took a break every now and again. But the whole process still only took about 10 or 15 minutes. And the end result was way better than I had anticipated.

It looked like mayonnaise!

It was silky and thick and a nice shade of pale yellow. If mayo can be described as beautiful, that’s what it was!

But the best part was the taste. Even without the lemon juice, the flavor was much better than my beloved Best Foods mayonnaise (or Hellman’s depending on which part of the country you live). I can’t wait to try it again with lemon juice. And again with fresh herbs. And again with garlic and olive oil. And again and again and again!

I’m sure that I’m one of the last few foodbloggers to make my own mayonnaise. But I’m also sure that there are many of you out there who are just like me, waiting for that little nudge to get out that whisk and give it a try for the first time. So I’m here to tell you that now is the time!

Now go make some mayonnaise!

Molly’s column, titled “Mayo Clinic” can be seen in the April 2008 issue of Bon Appetit and the recipe can now be found on Epicurious. But there are tons of mayonnaise recipes out there for you to peruse. Here are a few that look temping!

• Homemade Mayonnaise without Tears from Just Hungry
• Mayonnaise from Cooking with Amy
• Homemade Mayonnaise with Olive Oil from 80 Breakfasts
• Homemade Mayonnaise (video) from Food Wishes Video Recipes

I’m back, and this time I really mean it!

I won’t bother apologizing for another extended absence. If you’ve been following my adventures at all, you know that I recently located back to the United States after four years in Sicily. If that’s not a reason to take a month off, I don’t know what is!

So, first things first. Happy new year to all of you! I spent the holidays with my family in central California and decided not to bother coming back down to San Diego until our furniture arrived from overseas. Aside from hanging out with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, I did quite a bit of baking while I was there. Lots of muffins (some of which you’ll read about today), a couple pies, and several batches of sourdough bread were baked. Although I did sporadically scribble recipes down and even snapped a few photos here and there, I never managed to pull it all together for a blog post while I was there. And I have to admit that the break has been nice.

Well, the furniture finally arrived, along with my car! So I dragged myself back down here to beautiful, sunny San Diego and we’ve been unpacking, arranging and rearranging furniture ever since. Oh, and eating out a lot, too! You know the drill. But thanks to some extra help from my husband over the holiday weekend, I finally have a kitchen I can work with. And as much as I’ve enjoyed eating my way through our neighborhood restaurants, I’m definitely ready to start cooking and baking in my own kitchen again.

Now about those muffins…

I’ve made different versions of these muffins several different times over the last month or so. My aunt and uncle have an orange tree in their front yard and I took full advantage of it while I was staying there. Besides the occasional glass of fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast, we had orange muffins, green salad with orange vinaigrette, orange salad with fresh garlic and crushed red pepper, and even some caramelized brussels sprouts with bacon and an orange glaze. It’s so much fun to create dishes around things that can be picked in your own front yard!

As I was leaving Madera to head back down south, the last thing I did was pick a large bag of oranges to take with me and I’ve been enjoying them ever since. This morning I was down to my last two oranges and decided to bake one more batch of muffins to make sure I had the recipe exactly right before sharing it with you. This was definitely the best batch yet!

The thing that’s so great about these muffins is that besides tasting great, they are actually pretty healthy too. They are made with 100% whole wheat flour and have the added nutritional benefit of ground flax seeds and walnuts. Each muffin provides you with 5 grams of fiber and 8 grams of protein so they will keep you feeling satisfied much longer than a traditional store-bought muffin. I think they are perfect for breakfast on the go or as a mid-afternoon snack (sometimes, both).

The key to a great batch of muffins is preparation and organization. Once you get started, the process needs to move quickly so it’s best to have your tools and ingredients laid out and ready. But first, you must read carefully through the recipe and make sure that you have all the tools and ingredients required. This is an important rule for any recipe, not just muffins!

For this recipe you’ll need these tools: two separate mixing bowls, a few small bowls for holding ingredients, measuring cups, measuring spoons, a wire whisk, a wooden spoon (or any long handled spoon for stirring), a standard 12 cup muffin tin (or two six cup muffin tins), a citrus zester, some type of citrus juicer (or very strong hands for squeezing), and a wire cooling rack. None of these things are too expensive and they are all fairly useful in the kitchen so if you are missing a piece, it might be a good idea to head to the store or even a yard sale or thrift store.

Once you’ve located all of your baking tools, you need to read through the recipe and pull out all of your ingredients to make sure you aren’t missing anything. It’s much better to run to the store before you start baking! This recipe calls for flax seed meal and although it’s easy to find at most grocery stores now, it might not be sitting in your pantry yet! I also suggest using King Arthur’s White Whole Wheat flour. It’s really worth seeking out if you plan on doing much whole wheat baking.

Once you’ve located all of your ingredients, it’s time to prepare them! Some ingredients might need special treatment or preparation and it’s best to take care of this in the beginning. In this recipe you will first be zesting the oranges and then juicing them. Also, the recipe calls for chopped nuts so if you don’t buy them pre-chopped, you’ll want to chop and measure the nuts at the beginning. Once you’ve done any special preparations, go ahead and measure out your ingredients. For this recipe, all the dry ingredients can be measured into one bowl and the wet ingredients into another. For other recipes you may want to measure ingredients out into separate small bowls. Once your ingredients are measured, read through the recipe again and place your tools and ingredients in order.

Now you’re ready to bake!

It took me a really long time to get organized in the kitchen. Actually, I’m still not very organized and I always make a huge mess, but I’m much better than I used to be! It might seem time consuming to measure out everything ahead of time but believe me, it has made me a better baker.

Ready for some step-by-step photos?

Here I have measured out all of my dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another. You can see that I have my chopped nuts ready to go and my muffin tin and scoop are ready and waiting. The wire whisk is used to ’sift’ the dry ingredients rather than a sieve because the whole wheat flour and flax seed meal are not fine enough to be sifted in the traditional way. I also use the whisk for the wet ingredients to make sure everything is well incorporated. You don’t want to overmix the muffin batter so it is important to mix the wet and dry ingredients separately before combining them for a quick final mix.

The wet ingredients get poured into the dry ingredients at the end because the leavening agents (baking powder and soda) become activated by the liquid. Once they are combined, you want to move quickly so that the muffins get into the oven before the initial reaction subsides. You will notice the batter getting puffy as you scoop it into the tins. Once they are in the oven, a second reaction occurs with the heat and the muffins continue to rise further (not a very technical explanation but I’m not a scientist!).

You want to stir the ingredients together quickly but you don’t want to overmix them or beat the batter too hard.

As you can see, this batter is coming together. There are still some bits of flour visible so I will mix it just a bit more until the flour is completely incorporated.

This batter has been mixed enough. I am now checking the bottom of the bowl to make sure that there are no flour pockets hiding out down there. It is important to scrape up the flour from the bottom of the bowl as you are mixing because pockets of flour often get stuck down there.

After the batter is thoroughly mixed, the nuts can be added and stirred in. They don’t get added with the flour because the nuts end up holding on to bits of the flour mixture, making it difficult to thoroughly combine the ingredients.

I prefer to use an ice cream scoop for my muffins because it hold the right amount of batter and the lever makes it easy to scoop the batter into the muffin cups.

You want the cups to be filled almost to the top. The batter doesn’t have to be smoothed over.

The muffin cups should be divided as evenly as possible. Any extra batter can be added to cups that don’t look as full as others.

Once the muffins are done baking, they should be cooled in the pan on a wire rack for five minutes. Then remove them and let the muffins cool completely on a wire rack.

And here’s the recipe!

Whole Wheat Orange Spice Muffins

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup flax seed meal (ground flax seeds)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 heaping teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tablespoons fresh orange zest
1/3 cup neutral flavored oil such as canola, vegetable or grapeseed
3/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees; grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper baking cups. Zest and juice 2 or 3 medium oranges, measure out juice and zest; set aside. Chop and measure walnuts; set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, flax seed meal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Using a wire whisk, blend ingredients together very well. This is your dry mixture. Set it aside.

3. In a separate bowl, combine beaten eggs, buttermilk, orange juice and zest, oil, brown sugar, and vanilla. Whisk together well. This is your wet mixture.

4. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir with a wooden spoon just until all the flour has been incorporated. Make sure to scrape up all the flour from the bottom of the bowl as you are mixing. Once you no longer see any pockets of flour remaining, gently fold in the walnuts.

5. Using a large spoon or an ice cream scoop, fill each muffin cup almost to the top. Divide any remaining batter between the cups so that they are somewhat equal. Put the muffins in a preheated 375 degree oven and bake for 20 minutes. Check to see if they are done by inserting a toothpick into the center of a muffin. If the toothpick comes out clean, they are done. If not, let the muffins bake an additional 2 minutes and check again. When muffins are done, let cool on a wire rack for five minutes then remove muffins from pan and let cool completely on the wire rack.

recipe notes: I suggest using King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour if you can find it. For best zesting results, use a microplane grater. I used two oranges to get the correct amount of juice and zest but you may use more or less depending on the type of oranges. If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice on hand, you can make your own: 1 t. cinnamon, 1/2 t. ground ginger, 1/4 t. ground nutmeg and 1/4 t. ground cloves. Mix it together then scoop out one heaping teaspoon to use in the recipe. Mandarins, tangerines, or other sweet citrus may be used in place of standard oranges. Melted butter may be used in place of oil if desired.

Approximate nutritional value for one muffin: 286 calories; 8g protein; 5g fiber; 14g total fat; 1g saturated fat; 36mg cholesterol; 308mg sodium; 36g total carb; 15g sugars

Sorry for the unannounced disappearance!

The move back to the states, living out of a small bedroom with two animals, and being without a steady means of transportation has made it difficult for me to concentrate on blogging! On top of that, all of my spare time lately has been spent house hunting and Christmas shopping.

Luckily, we did find a nice house, but for now it’s empty since our furniture is still on its way back from Sicily! But Smack and Thumbelina have moved into the new place and Justin has been sleeping there on an inflatable mattress so that his commute to work is shorter. The animals are happy to have the run of the house after being mostly confined to one room for the last month! I’ve been borrowing a car when I can and splitting my time between my sister’s place and the new house. Hopefully the furniture and my car will arrive sometime in January.

Tomorrow, I am heading back up to central California to spend Christmas and New Year’s with the rest of my family. I will have my sourdough starter in tow and plan on making a sourdough swap with some Bay Area relatives! If everything goes well, I’ll be returning with a new (to me) starter that has been in my cousin’s family for decades (maybe centuries)! I’ll know more about the history of it soon.

Phew! Now you’re all caught up.

So, what have I been doing, foodwise, in San Diego? Eating out a lot, unfortunately! Don’t get me wrong, I do like to eat out occasionally. But now that my body is used to eating good, home cooked meals, it doesn’t like it when I eat out too much! Not only have I been packing on the pounds (something that happens every time I come back to the states), but I haven’t been feeling that great either. But I have to admit that despite my increasing waistline and that not-so-healthy feeling, I’ve been enjoying eating out at some good Mexican, Greek, Chinese, and American restaurants!

One healthy thing I have been eating a lot of lately is the wonderful tangerines off the tree in my sister’s backyard. The oranges aren’t quite ripe yet but the tangerine tree is loaded with super sweet, perfectly ripe, seedless tangerines! Mostly we peel and eat them right off the tree but we’ve also been enjoying them in salads and even muffins!

My favorite salad so far was made of tangerines and jicama with garlic, olive oil, cilantro and crushed red pepper. This was actually one of the first things I created after arriving in San Diego and it was made with a bag of tangerines I found sitting on the kitchen counter one day (this was before I realized that my sister’s tangerines were ripe). I wasn’t sure who the fruit belonged to, but I figured that they were free for the taking since they had been left on the counter! I later found out that they were a gift from my brother-in-law’s aunt. Thanks, Aunt Monica!

The salad is a simple creation but peeling and sectioning the tangerines might seem intimidating if you’ve never done it before. Although some might think that tangerines don’t yield enough fruit to make this method worth the effort, I disagree! It really didn’t take much time at all and I enjoyed this salad even more than the orange salads I usually make! Here are some step-by-step photos to show you the process:

1. Cut off the top and bottom of the tangerine.

2. Using a sharp knife, carefully cut off the peel in sections, being sure to remove all of the white pith as you go.

3. Continue until the tangerine has been peeled completely.

4. Holding the tangerine in one hand and a paring knife in the other, carefully remove each section by cutting just inside the white membrane on either side.

5. Don’t throw away any of the peels or empty membranes, you’ll be salvaging the leftover juice from these later!

5. You should end up with perfectly smooth, bite-size, membrane-free tangerine pieces. I peeled and sectioned 4 or 5 tangerines to get this amount (enough for my lunch!):

Next comes the jicama! If you aren’t familiar with this slightly sweet, crunchy root, Wikipedia offers a good explanation. It might not be the prettiest thing to look at, but jicama is wonderful in salads!

I usually shred it, but this time I decided to try it cubed.

I wanted to have equal parts tangerine and jicama but I just eyeballed the amount instead of actually measuring.

Next, I chopped up a handful of cilantro leaves to sprinkle over the top.

Now for the dressing. Hopefully you listened to me and saved that pile of tangerine peels and mebranes! You want to squeeze every last bit of juice from that mess! You can even pour off the juice that has collected on the cutting board and whatever has collected in the bowl or plate of tangerine sections. You should be able to salvage about a tablespoon of juice per peeled tangerine. Exact amounts aren’t important, just collect as much juice as you can and put it in a bowl. This is about a quarter cup of juice:

Next, pour in an equal amount of extra virgin olive oil:

Then add one a clove or two of fresh chopped garlic (I used one clove for 1/4 C. juice and 1/4 C. olive oil):

Finally, whisk it all together! If you don’t have a cute little whisk like this one, don’t worry! A fork will do just fine.

To finish your salad, sprinkle the plate of tangerines and jicama with fresh ground black pepper, sea salt and a sprinkle of crushed red pepper (if you like it spicy, add lots of crushed red pepper, it’s great that way). Pour a few spoonfuls of dressing over the salad and reserve the rest for another use.

Now it’s time to eat!

Tangerine and Jicama Salad with Garlic and Cilantro

4 or 5 tangerines, peeled and sectioned
equal amount of cubed jicama (eyeball it)
handful of fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
pinch of sea salt
fresh ground black pepper
pinch of crushed red pepper
dressing to taste (recipe follows)

Combine tangerine pieces and jicama in a bowl or on a plate. Sprinkle with cilantro, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper. Top with a few spoonfuls of Tangerine Garlic Dressing. Serves one or two.

Tangerine Garlic Dressing

1/4 C. fresh squeezed tangerine juice
1/4 C. extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced

Whisk together all ingredients.

Now I’m ready for some oranges! Although the oranges on my sister’s tree aren’t quite ripe, I know I’ll have access to plenty of fresh oranges once I get up to Madera tomorrow. My goal is to create a few new recipes using some of our wonderful California oranges when I get there. In the meantime, here are some orange recipes from last winter!

Blood Orange and Green Olive Salad

Orange Cranberry Salad with Walnuts and Blue Cheese

Mini Orange Cheesecakes with Grand Marnier Cream

And it turns out that someone did try making my Lemon Sugar Cookies with oranges instead of lemons like I had suggested after seeing that Patricia had tried them with Limes. Well, she actually used clementines but I think it’s close enough! Check out Allison’s Clementine Sugar Cookies at A Day Late and a Dollar Short.

One last thing! I want to send out a huge thank you to Ben Lew, the very talented designer who created the original Pinch My Salt theme for this blog. He is the one responsible for the new winter colors which showed up at the beginning of the month. If you only read my posts through a feed reader, stop by and check out the new look! If you are looking for a designer, Ben’s portfolio, resume, and contact info can be found at BenLew.com

All the credit for these goes to my friend Ron. He’s famous throughout California’s central valley for his blue cheese burgers! I don’t have his recipe because even though I think I managed to pry it from him once, I never wrote it down. But I was craving a blue cheese burger today for lunch and since Ron and Ruby live in California and I’m still in Sicily, I had to come up with something myself!

Most of the blue cheese burgers I’ve eaten in my life are just a regular burger with the addition of some type of blue cheese dressing as a condiment. Whoever came up with that idea is a genius because blue cheese plus hamburger equals YUM!

Even better is that same burger with some bacon on it. I’ve eaten many bacon and blue cheese burgers in my life thanks to McMenamins East 19th Street Cafe in Eugene, Oregon. I don’t know what I miss more, that Captain Neon Burger or those pitchers of Terminator Stout. Ah, the good old days…

So, as I was saying, most blue cheese burgers come with the blue cheese on top. But then Ron came along with his blue cheese-stuffed burgers and my whole world was turned upside down. What’s so great about blue cheese being inside the burger? I really don’t know. Perhaps it’s just the novelty, but there’s something really special about a seemingly normal looking burger that starts oozing creamy blue cheese when you bite into it!

The only thing I remember about Ron’s burgers is that the filling is a mixture of blue cheese and cream cheese. So, that’s what I did. I kept it simple and just mixed equal parts cream cheese and crumbled blue cheese, added a bit of onion powder, some chopped fresh parsley and salt and pepper to taste. I didn’t bother to let the cream cheese soften, I just mashed it all up together in a small bowl with a fork.

I decided to stick with quarter pound burgers because the hamburger buns I bought are pretty small (just the standard small Wonder brand buns). So I first divided one pound of ground beef into four equal parts. Then I divided each part in half so that I ended up with eight equal portions of ground beef (each should weigh about 2 oz.). I formed those into balls and sprinkled them all with salt and pepper, rolling them around a bit so all sides were seasoned. Next, working on waxed paper, I flattened each of those little balls into very thin patties.

To fill a burger, I put a spoonful of the cream cheese filling (about a tablespoon works well) in the center of one patty.

Then I spread the filling equally over the patty, leaving some room around the edges for a seal.

Then I put another patty on top of the filling.

Next, I pressed the edges together to form a seal. You don’t need to pinch the two patties together, just gently work the edges together so that they will stay sealed.

After I finished all four burgers, I liberally sprinkled both sides of them with coarsely ground black pepper.

Then I put them on the grill! Grilling time is a matter of preference. I like my burgers well done but since I made the patties pretty thin, they ended up cooking quickly.

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you about shrinkage but I thought I would take this photo to remind you! When making your hamburger patties, always make them larger than you think they need to be!

See, it ended up fitting the bun perfectly! Since these burgers are so flavorful, I keep the condiments to a minimum. But if I would have had some lettuce, tomato and bacon in the house, they would have been on here too!

It might look plain…

but look what’s waiting inside!

Now here’s my warning. First of all, let them rest for a little while before you eat them. The cheese in the middle is hot and oozy and I don’t want to get blamed for someone burning themselves! I also think it’s best to cut these in half before eating them. I found out the hard way that the contents inside are under pressure! I took my first bite and the burger had a blowout in the back. I’m serious, it was like a mini explosion! There’s no way around it, these are messy burgers. But that’s what makes them fun, right?

Blue Cheese Burgers

2 oz. cream cheese
2 oz. crumbled blue cheese
1/8 t. onion powder
1 T. chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
1 pound ground beef (I use 85% lean)
salt and pepper
Coarsely ground black pepper (optional)

1. In a small bowl, mash together cream cheese and blue cheese then stir in the onion powder and parsley. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
2. Divide ground beef into 8 equal pieces. I first divide it into four pieces then divide each piece again. Form the pieces into balls then sprinkle the balls lightly with salt and pepper, rolling them around a bit to make sure all sides are covered. Flatten each ball to form thin patties of equal size. I find it easiest to form the patties on a sheet of waxed paper.
3. To fill burgers, place a tablespoonful of cream cheese mixture in the center of each of four patties. Spread the filling out evenly to within half an inch of the edge of each patty. Place the remaining patties on top to form four filled burgers. Gently press the edges of each burger together to form a seal.
4. Sprinkle burgers liberally with coarsely ground black pepper (optional).
5. Prepare your grill and cook burgers until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees (USDA recommendation) or until desired degree of doneness. Let rest for ten minutes.
6. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes: I recommend cutting these burgers in half before eating to avoid ‘burger blowout.’ I don’t add anything besides salt and pepper to the meat because the filling is so flavorful, but you are more than welcome to add extra seasoning to the meat if that’s what you like. Feel free to experiment with different seasonings in the filling, too!

Related Recipes:

• Creamy Blue Cheese Dip with Lemon and Chives
• Bacon Tomato and Blue Cheese Focaccia Sandwich
• Bacon Wrapped Beef Medallions with Smoked Paprika Butter
• Homemade Sloppy Joes

Around the Web:

• Sassy Blue Cheese Burgers from Vanilla Garlic
• Blue Cheese-Stuffed Burgers from Food, and Other Musings
• Stuffed Lamb Burgers from Seriously Good
• Port Salut Stuffed Turkey Burgers from Je Mange la Ville

Some Burger Making Pointers:

• How to Make a Great Hamburger from Baking Bites
• The Burger from Beyond Salmon

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a side dish recipe and since I’ve been making a lot of rice lately, I decided to share one of my recent favorites recipes with you.

Although our house was packed up last week, we still have lots of pantry items that need to be used up or given away in the next week and a half before we board the plane back to the states. Basmati rice happens to be one of those pantry items that I’m trying to use up!

Since I also have a box of raisins in my pantry as well as a few little bags of pine nuts in my freezer, I decided to try to recreate a rice pilaf from a really good Turkish restaurant that we like here in Catania. Justin and I were taken there last week by my co-workers for a farewell dinner and I was reminded how much I love one of their rice dishes. My favorite thing on the menu is the buttery pilaf with raisins and pine nuts.

It’s a very simple rice and the main flavor I could pick out, besides the nuts and raisins, was butter. And I know that they use a lot of butter in the dish because when a single grain of rice fell on the table at the restaurant, the grease spot that soaked the tablecloth was enormous! I wanted to create something that could be eaten more than once a year without guilt so I didn’t use as much butter as I thought the original dish probably contained!

I decided that browning the butter would intensify the flavor allowing me to use less butter but still keep a very satisfying buttery taste. But you know me, I didn’t skimp on the butter that much!

Since I really don’t know much about cooking rice and I know even less about Turkish food, I decided to check some Turkish food blogs for pointers. My favorite is Binnur’s Turkish Cookbook and it was there that I found a recipe for a Basic Turkish Rice Pilaf.

I used Binnur’s Pilaf as a general guideline for preparing this rice but I also took some rice cooking tips from an Indian cookbook, Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cooking. Like I said, I’ve never known much about preparing rice other than the directions that come on the back of whatever package I buy at the store. But one time I made the spiced basmati rice out of Jaffrey’s book and I swear it was 100 times better than any rice that has ever come from my kitchen!

So, like I said, I put together the rice cooking tips from those two sources, did some experimenting with amounts of butter and cooking liquid, and came up with the following recipe which I think tastes very similar to what I was trying to recreate.

Although the recipe looks long, it’s really pretty simple. I just got a little ‘wordy’ when I was typing it out!

Rice Pilaf with Raisins and Pine Nuts

1 C. basmati rice
hot tap water
1/3 C. raisins
2 T. plus 1 T. butter
1 1/4 C. water (or chicken broth)
1/2 t. kosher salt (see note)
1/4 C. pine nuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put rice in a large bowl and fill with water. Swirl rice around then pour out water, holding rice back with one hand. Repeat this process several times until water is fairly clear. Cover rinsed rice with hot tap water and allow to soak for 15 minutes. At this point, put the raisins in a separate small bowl and cover them with hot tap water also. After 15 minutes, drain as much water as possible from the rice (using a mesh strainer if you have one). Also drain the raisins and set aside.

2. In an ovenproof saucepan (one without rubber handles on pot or lid), heat 2 T. butter over medium-low heat. Allow the butter to brown just slightly, then scrape drained rice into the saucepan. Stir to coat with butter and saute for about two minutes, stirring constantly, or until the rice turns opaque and a few grains are just starting to color. Pour the water (or chicken broth) and salt into the pot, stir, taste, and add more salt if necessary. Bring broth just to a simmer then cover the top of the pot with aluminum foil and then put the lid on top of the foil (the foil creates a tighter seal). Place pot in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

3. While rice is in the oven, heat the remaining tablespoon of butter in a small saucepan and allow to brown. When the butter starts to brown, add the pine nuts and cook just until the nuts have turned golden brown. Immediately scrape nuts and butter into a small bowl to stop them from browning too much.

4. After 20 minutes, remove the pot of rice from oven. Remove lid and foil, place a clean dish towel over the top of the pot and replace lid. Allow to sit for 5 more minutes. Next, gently scrape rice into a serving bowl and stir in the raisins, nuts and browned butter. Serve immediately.

Serves four as a side dish.

Recipe Notes:

- I used basmati rice but feel free to use any type of long grain white rice.
- I’ve made this recipe with both water and chicken broth. The chicken broth adds a touch more flavor but water works just fine!
- If you use chicken broth instead of water, reduce the amount of added salt in the recipe. Try starting with a quarter teaspoon then taste it and add more if necessary. If using sea salt or table salt instead of kosher, start with a little less than I recommend. It’s easier to add salt later than take it away!
- You can use any type of raisins in this recipe. Golden raisins might look nicer but I used regular dark ones.

Related Recipes:

• Veggie Chili Beans and Rice
• Tomato Paella

Around the Web:

• Turkish Rice Pilaf from Binnur’s Turkish Cookbook
• Dill-Mint Pilaf from Almost Turkish Recipes
• Brown and Wild Rice with Pine Nuts and Thyme from Kalyn’s Kitchen
• Rice Pilaf from Simply Recipes
• Egg Pilaf from One Hot Stove

And just a quick reminder to cast a vote today for your Best Food Blog pick in the 2007 Weblog Awards. Remember, you can vote once every 24 hours until November 8th! If you haven’t done so already, you can go vote here.

Notice I said ‘fewer tears’ rather than ‘no tears.’ The truth is that there is no practical way to completely eliminate eye irritation when you chop onions. But there are things you can do to drastically reduce it. I chop onions several times a week in my kitchen and I can only think of one time in the last couple of months that my eyes were affected enough to cause tears. It’s not that I am one of those people who seem to be immune to the onion’s noxious fumes. I used to cry just about every time I cut an onion. What changed? I started using a sharp knife and I learned the quickest most efficient way to chop an onion.

First Things First: What Causes the Tears?

Well, there’s nothing like a good dose of sulphuric acid in the eye to cause a few tears! That’s right, I said sulphuric acid. Now before you start breaking out the chemical gloves and goggles, let me explain. The onions themselves don’t contain sulphuric acid. But they do release a gas that, upon coming into contact with the natural tears in your eyes, forms sulphuric acid. Let me paraphrase Alton Brown here because science is definitely not much best subject!

When an onion is cut, the ruptured onion cells release enzymes which break down nearby sulfur compounds into oxides and acids. These re-form to make a gas. This gas moves into your eyes and then mixes with your tears to form sulphuric acid.–from Alton Brown in a Good Eats Moment

You’ll hear and read lots of different information about these onion fumes and a lot of it just isn’t true. For one thing, the gas doesn’t just hide out in the root end of the onion. Cutting out the root isn’t going to magically remove all the bad onion juice. It is true that the concentration is higher towards the root end, but the rest of the onion can release quite enough noxious fumes on it’s own to cause problems. Your best best is to begin cutting the onion at the stem end and work your way back towards to the root end (more on this later).

So What Can We Do About It?

So now that we know what causes the problem, what can we do to alleviate it? There are a million old wive’s tales out there that may or may not help to keep the tears at bay. But after doing some research, I’ve found that there are only a few things you can do that will actually help to combat the nasty onion fumes.

1) Use a sharp knife and work quickly: A sharp knife ruptures fewer onion cells. By using a sharp knife and mastering a method of onion-cutting that is quick and efficient, you lessen the amount of gas in the air and shorten your exposure time.

2) Cut near an open flame: The flame sucks in air and therefore pulls the gas away from your eyes. Although a kitchen candle does have some effect, it works best to be near a gas range with one or two burners turned on. Since I started using method number one, I find that I don’t have to resort to this one very often. But when I do end up with an unusually strong onion and my eyes start burning, I immediately light a match and then light my kitchen candle which is always near my chopping area. The candle has always worked for me but if your kitchen allows you to chop near a gas range, give that a try instead!

3) Chill the onion for 15 -30 minutes before cutting: The reasoning here is that chilling the onion will cause less evaporation, less gas, etc. I haven’t actually tried it because I’m not good at planning ahead! But enough people use this method that I thought I would include it.

4) Spritz the cutting board with vinegar before cutting: According to Alton Brown, this interrupts the chemical reaction and I read in several places that this does actually work. The drawback here is that your cutting board and onion will smell like vinegar. I don’t personally use this method but since it is proven to work, I decided to include it.

5) Cut the onions underwater: Well, this will of course eliminate any gas from escaping into the air and will therefore eliminate the eye irritation problem. But it’s so impractical that I put it on the list just for fun!

As you can see, I only use the first two methods when chopping onions. I won’t tell you that my way is the only way to combat tears, but I will say that it works great for me. The real key to combating onion fumes is to use a sharp knife. You want to make clean cuts that don’t smash and tear the onion. Don’t use a serrated knife or any knife that requires a sawing motion. Even though you can’t see them, try to remember to treat those little onion cells nicely and they will be much nicer to you!

What’s the Best Way to Cut an Onion?

Now we get to the good part! Learning how to chop an onion has been one of the greatest triumphs of my home-cooking career. If you read my last post, you know that onions were my least favorite food when I was younger. Ok, that’s an understatement. I HATED onions. Hated hated hated them! So, it goes without saying that I never learned a good way to chop them. And when I started forcing myself to cook with them, it was always a challenge to get the pieces small enough that the end product would have no discernible onion chunks. I would always end up hacking away at a pile of onion pieces, trying to mince them into oblivion. Meanwhile, tears would be pouring down my face because (as we now know) I was destroying all those onion cells and overwhelming my eyes with sulphuric acid.

Finally I decided that there had to be a better way. The problem was that it seemed like every home cook and Food Network star had a different method of chopping onions! Everywhere I turned, I was given different information. It took a lot of trial and error to become the onion-chopping aficionado that I am now. But it was worth it! I can now say that I love to chop onions! Seriously, I love it. It’s one thing I do in the kitchen that makes me feel like I really know what I’m doing. And that is a very rewarding feeling!

I wish I had my own video to show you because I can’t find a video anywhere that shows you my exact method. But I found a video by Chef Jean-Pierre that comes pretty darn close. The best I can do for now is give you a photo tutorial of my method and then you can watch Chef Jean-Pierre’s video. Between the two, you should be able to get the hang of it!

First, let’s familiarize ourselves with the onion. When you hear someone refer to the root end and stem end of an onion, sometimes it’s difficult to know which is which since the roots and stems are usually no longer attached! It’s important to know which one is the root end because like I mentioned earlier, this end of the onion might release more of that evil gas and we want to keep it intact for as long as possible. This is the root end:

And here is the stem end:

Now the very first thing to do when you’re ready to cut up your onion is to cut it in half. Be careful when you do this as the skin can be slippery! You want to cut right through the stem and the root, like this:

Now that you have your two onion halves, it’s time peel them. First, cut off the stem end:

Now it is very easy to peel off the outer layers of skin:

Now it’s time to start cutting!

You want to start making cuts in the onion without cutting all the way through the root end.

The spacing between the cuts depends on how big or small you want the onion pieces to be. And always make sure to keep the fingers of your ‘helping hand’ tucked out of the way!

As you can see, the onion is still held together at the root end. Now you are ready to make some crosswise cuts!

As you cut across the onion, you’ll see it turn into a perfect dice!

You can change the size of dice by making fewer cuts across the onion.

On the left, I made fewer cuts and ended up with a chopped onion. On the right, I made more cuts, closer together and ended up with diced onion. The sharper and thinner your knife, the easier it is to make more cuts close together.

Now watch Chef Jean-Pierre’s version and try not to laugh at his accent!

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/zr1ZQ94E-YA" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Now I’m sure that many of you have very different methods of chopping onions and keeping tears at bay. Please feel free to leave a comment and let us know what works best for you!

Good luck and happy chopping!

Around the Web:

• Don’t Cry for Me from Whistlestop Cafe Cooking
• Basic Knife Skills Video from Dani Spies
• No More Tears from Culinate
• What Causes Us to Cry When Cutting Onions? from Accidental Hedonist

Good Intentions. I’m full of them! There are so many tips, tricks and recipes that I’ve been meaning to share with you. So many photos that have been sitting patiently on my hard drive, waiting to be paired with recipes, with stories, or at the very least a few words of explanation. So many recipes that have been written, tested, and tasted that are just waiting for that perfect photo.

I never write what I plan on writing when I plan on writing it. It just doesn’t work that way. I don’t work that way. I can tell myself that I want to share my mom’s Potato Leek Soup recipe, I can take photos of it, I can even begin to write about it. But it just won’t be posted until it’s ready to be posted! I really can’t even explain how my process works. Some days I just feel like writing about certain things.

But when I have ideas, I try to at least put them down on paper (you should see the piles of notepads that are scattered throughout my house!) so that someday, when I’m good and ready, I’ll get around to it.

Well, back in June, I decided that I had to talk to you about lettuce. There are a few things that I think everyone needs to know about how to wash, dry, and store lettuce. I thought it was so important that I actually took a series of photos so that I could show you exactly what to do with your lettuce. But, instead of sharing my tips about lettuce, I ended up writing about the lime and mint salad dressing I made that same day. And then I just sort of moved on and the lettuce photos have been sitting and waiting ever since.

So now it’s October and the food blogs are soon to be filled to the brim with pumpkin cheesecakes and apple pies but here in Sicily, summer is still hanging on. And today, finally, I’m going to talk about lettuce. So you can file this away until next summer or you can keep eating salads all year long. Either way, I hope it’s helpful!

The Problem: Not Enough Salads Eaten at Home

How often do you eat green salads at home? Is it a rare occasion? Do you buy lettuce at the store with the intention of making salads, forget about it, and then find a wilted mess in your veggie bin a week later? Do you try to solve the problem by buying the expensive pre-washed, bagged lettuce? Are you disappointed with the quality of that lettuce?

Ok, that’s a lot of questions. But I know that many people like to eat green salads with dinner but don’t. There could be many reasons for this but it’s usually related to time (or the lack of it). “Who has the time to wash and dry lettuce,” you might say, “and why bother? It wilts before I have chance to use it anyway!” You might have solved the problem by buying the pre-washed stuff and realized that not only is it expensive but the quality isn’t always that great. So, increasingly, it seems that dinner salads are more of something to be enjoyed at restaurants.

Not at my house!

Washing and drying lettuce doesn’t have to be that difficult and if you do it correctly, it can stay fresh and ready to be used for up to two weeks! That means that if you’re willing to give up maybe 20 minutes, once a week or every two weeks, you can have a ready supply of crisp, fresh lettuce that is ready to throw in a bowl at a moment’s notice.

The Secret Weapon Against Wet Lettuce

I have a lot of kitchen gadgets, some get used, some just take up space. Most are convenient but not essential. But the one thing in my kitchen that I really don’t want to live without is my salad spinner. A salad spinner is simply a contraption that dries your lettuce for you. But I really don’t think there is a quicker, more effective way to dry lettuce. And if you want to make a salad, there’s nothing worse than wet lettuce, except maybe wilted lettuce but we’ll get to that part soon!

I can’t stress this enough. If you don’t own a salad spinner and you enjoy eating salads, you need to buy one. That’s it. I don’t say things like this very often but I feel like it’s worth the money. There are different brands and different types, I don’t care which one you get. Watch out though because some of them are designed so that the water drains out the bottom and can only be used inside the sink. I prefer one that can be used wherever I want to use it.

I’ve had the OXO Good Grips Salad Spinner for about six years now and it’s been wonderful. Don’t spend an exorbitant amount of money on a salad spinner, it doesn’t need to be stainless steel like the $50 version I just saw on Amazon. You should spend about 20 bucks for a quality salad spinner that will last.

So, after you go out and pick up the greatest kitchen gadget ever invented, you will need only two more things to keep your lettuce fresh and extend it’s life longer than you could ever imagine: gallon-size plastic bags (preferably zippered) and paper towels. That’s it!

How to Wash, Dry, and Store Lettuce

So this is how I wash, dry and store my lettuce so that it is fresh and ready for salad whenever I need it! I use this method for all types of lettuce (except iceberg, see the end of this post for information about cleaning and storing iceberg lettuce) and it also works for other types of greens and hearty herbs such as parsley.

1. Fill a sink with cold water, separate all the leaves of lettuce, place them in the water and swirl them around. If the lettuce is a bit limp, let it soak in the water for 30 minutes and it will miraculously come back to life.

2. Drain the water, turn on the faucet, and briefly rinse each piece of lettuce as you remove it from sink and place in the basket of your salad spinner. If you use organic lettuce, just give each piece a quick once-over to check for clinging bugs and dirt. As you put the lettuce in the spinner, you can tear the leaves in half if they are large (such as full-size romaine).

3. When the spinner is full but not tightly packed, spin the lettuce until dry.

4. Spread two paper towels (still connected) on the counter and pile the dry lettuce in the middle. Wrap the paper towels around the lettuce and slide into a gallon-size zippered plastic bag. Squeeze the air out and close the bag.

5. The lettuce can now be stored in the fridge and should stay fresh for at least a couple of weeks. You can take out what you need whenever you want to make a salad or sandwich and then just reseal the bag. The plastic bags can also be reused!

A Word about Iceberg Lettuce

Notice I said that the above method works for all types of lettuce besides iceberg? That’s because I don’t separate and wash the leaves of my iceberg lettuce. They are so tightly wrapped that the dirt doesn’t have a chance to get all the way inside.

For iceberg lettuce, remove and discard the outside layer of leaves, rinse the whole head of lettuce well under running water, shake it dry (water can work it’s way inside when you rinse it) and wipe excess water off with a towel. Wrap the entire head in a paper towel, place in a plastic bag, and store in the fridge. Pull off leaves or cut off chunks of lettuce as you need them, rewrap remaining lettuce in paper towel and return to plastic bag. Iceberg will keep fresh for a very long time if you store it correctly!

Make Some Salad!

Now that you have this nifty new way of storing lettuce, what should you do with it? Make salads, of course! I usually buy two or three types of lettuce at once to add a little variety to my salads. If you wash and dry the lettuce as soon as you get home from the store, you’ll find that it’s simple to throw together a side salad to go with dinner anytime you want.

Salads don’t have to be fancy to be good. Just by using a couple different varieties of lettuce (even just a mixture of green leaf and iceberg), you’ve already got a good start towards an interesting salad. My standard dinner salad is lettuce, shredded carrot and cucumber. How hard is that? From there I might add a little red cabbage, corn, chopped apple, raisins, and/or sunflower seeds. Sometimes I throw in some cherry tomatoes. It just depends. Once you have the lettuce ready to go, the hard part is over. Have fun and be creative!

Here are some ideas for green salad additions:

• shredded cabbage (I love adding a touch of red cabbage for color!)
• carrots (chopped or shredded)
• radishes
• mushrooms
• cherry tomatoes
• red onion
• cucumber
• zucchini
• fresh broccoli or cauliflower
• jicama
• corn (defrosted frozen kernels or drained, rinsed canned corn)
• avocado
• olives
• fresh herbs
• chopped apple
• strawberries
• orange pieces
• raisins
• cranberries
• chopped dried apricot
• drained and rinsed canned beans (black beans, garbanzos, kidney beans)
• sunflower seeds
• pecans
• walnuts
• pine nuts
• sliced almonds
• crumbled blue cheese
• crumbled feta
• goat cheese
• shredded sharp cheddar
• crumbled bacon
• chopped ham
• shredded or chopped cooked chicken or turkey
• tuna

These are just a few of the many, many possibilities. It only takes a few ingredients to make a great salad but you can add as many as you want. The only rule I try to stick to is the more color, the better!

Dress for Success

Just like the salad, dressings can be as simple or as complicated as you want them to be. Sometimes all a salad needs is a squeeze of lemon, a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and freshly ground pepper.

If your salads of the past have been little more than a vehicle to get more ranch dressing in your mouth, try putting together a salad that has flavors of it’s own and you’ll be less likely to want to drown it. Ranch dressing is great, but save it for a once-in-a-while treat (try making it from scratch when you do eat it). There are plenty of tasty and healthy options!

Experiment with different vinegars and use good olive oil, soon you won’t miss the bottled stuff from the store. But if you do have a particular bottled brand you like (I love Girard’s Champagne dressing), by all means use that!

Just eat more salad!

Other Salads/Salad Dressings:

• Cilantro Caesar Salad
• Orange Cranberry Salad with Walnuts and Blue Cheese
• Lime and Mint Dressing
• Creamy Feta Dressing

Around the Web:

• How to Make Salad Dressing –from A Veggie Venture
• Restaurant Quality Salad at Home –from Kalyn’s Kitchen
• Peanut Sesame Dressing –from 101 Cookbooks
• My Father’s Vinaigrette –from Chocolate and Zucchini
• The Infinite Vinaigrette –from CookThink
• Roasted Garlic Ranch Dressing –from TastingMenu
• Guacamole Goddess Dressing –from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen
• On Loving Lettuce –from Farmgirl Fare