The Best Brown Rice Ever

So ... I like rice. A lot. I like plain old white rice and Mexican-flavored rice and rice pudding and risotto and paella and fried rice. Yeah, I like rice a lot.

But ... most of my favorite rice dishes involved white rice. I know that brown rice is better for me, but I've never been that fond of it. I'll eat it, but I don't get all googly-eyed about it like I do over my favorite white rice recipes.

That all changed a while back when I figured out how to make brown rice that's actually ... well, I won't say it's exciting, because after all it's still just rice - but it's something that I look forward to eating.

It's so freakishly simple, too. It's not about how you cook the rice, because you cook it any way you normally cook rice, whether that's on the stove or in a rice cooker. Personally, I prefer my rice cooker because it's so easy.

Okay fine, you can go ahead and tell me your tried-and-true rice cooking method that's always 100 percent foolproof.

I had a foolproof method, too, until I moved to high altitude and rice became my nemesis. I decided it was a battle I wasn't willing to wage, so I bought a rice cooker. Problem solved.

So anyway, when I cook white rice, I often flavor it with Better than Bouillon's chicken base. But I wasn't that fond of it with brown rice for some reason. It just wasn't a good pairing.

Then I found the magic ingredient, again from Better than Bouillon. But this time, it's their mushroom stock. Oh heck yeah. The mushrooms enhance the earthiness of the rice while at the same time adding some richness and savoriness. It's the perfect pairing.

The rice doesn't taste particularly mushroom-y, but it definitely adds something extra. If you want mushroom-flavored rice, add more of the mushroom base - but don't get too carried away, since the Better than Bouillon also adds salt. In fact, when I use it, I often (usually) omit salt.

Sometimes I add butter or oil when I make brown rice like this. Sometimes I add a touch of saffron. Sometimes I add fresh mushrooms (crazy, right?) or I'll add frozen peas when the cooking time is done. I just stir them in and let the rice rest for a short while. They warm up, but stay bright green and they don't overcook.

To be honest, I probably won't be making brown rice without the mushroom base ... unless I run out of it. And that will probably be a white rice day.

Awfully Good Brown Rice

2 cups uncooked brown rice, rinsed
1 tablespoon Better than Bouillon mushroom base
(more or less, to taste)
Butter or oil (about a tablespoon, or to taste) optional

Cook the rice as you normally do, with the added Better than Bouillon.

Oh, and if you think the rice in the photo is a teeny bit overcooked ... perhaps it is. I've been messing around with a new appliance as well as some new brands of rice, so it's not a perfect as it could be.

This is NOT sponsored, encouraged, or nudged by any companies. and I didn't get any samples.

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English Pea Salad with Cream Dressing

When I got the book Victuals by Ronni Lundy to review, I was just a little skeptical. I wasn't sure what to expect.

The book is subtitle "An Appalachian journey, with recipes," and that's pretty accurate. There are a lot of stories about the area and the people, and there are also a bunch of recipes.

Truthfully, I was more curious about the recipes. I had no idea whether Appalachian recipes would be familiar or not.

Turns out, they were mostly familiar, but some had a twist. The fried chicken was pretty similar to other recipes I'd made. Salmon cakes were pretty familiar, but I'd never made them with dill pickle in them. I might give that a try because it sounds good to me. The pickled bologna with peppers was just sort of strange.

The pork and kraut with cider gravy sounds like something my mom would have made, except that she made her pork steaks completely differently. I'm going to try the one in the book because it sounds pretty darned good.

Then I saw the recipe for a salad made with peas that had a cream dressing. Actual cream. Thickened with a little cider vinegar. That really fascinated me. I knew I had to try it. Originally, this was a spring/summer sort of dish because it used fresh peas, so the green onions and radishes that went with it made sense.

But the author said it's been adapted so frozen peas work, too. Which is great because I love frozen peas and I'm not overly fond of shelling peas, even when they are in season.

The one little problem I had with the recipe was the radishes. They're not particularly available right now in grocery stores. Or at least the ones I shopped at.

I decided I still wanted to make the recipe, even though radishes were rate. I wanted something with a little crunch, so I used some baby zucchini. It didn't add the bright pop of color, but it still looked nice.

And then I went to the winter farmer's market - a last chance for the local farmers to sell their squash and potatoes and canned good - and I found one booth that had radishes. So I added those to the salad as well, the day after I made the original.

I have to say that the radishes really were pretty, and the bit of sharpness they added was nice. The zucchini was good, but the radishes are definitely better.

English Pea Sans with Cream Dressing
Adapted from Victuals by Ronni Lundy

1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon honey
Salt
2 cups fresh or frozen peas
1/2 cup thinly sliced small radishes (I used one very small zucchini)
1/4 cup minced green onions
Freshly ground black pepper

About an hour before you want to make the salad, combine the cream, vinegar honey, and a pinch of salt in a small jar. Shake for about minute to combine, then let it sit at room temperature for about an hour. The dressing will get thicker as it sits.

Meanwhile blanch and drain the peas. Pat them dry, or just let them sit in a strainer to get rid of the water.

Combine the peas, radishes (or in my case, the zucchini) in a bowl. Add the dressing and pepper, to taste, and stir to combine. Taste and add more salt, if desired. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

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Thanksgiving Bread Pudding - now with cranberries!

I love stuffing. I've even made bread that tastes like stuffing - which is pretty amazing for a turkey sandwich.

But that's not the same as actual stuffing. I grew up eating stuffing that was cooked inside a turkey. Lately, though, I've been cutting the turkey up and cooking the pieces separately. A few times, I've smoked the breast while cooking the dark meat in the oven.

But ... that meant I had to find a different way of cooking the stuffing. I tried a lot of variations of cooking stuffing in a casserole dish - which I guess means it's dressing - and they were all fine. But then I had the brilliant idea of making a stuffing flavored bread pudding. And it was amazing.

This year, I decided I wanted an early Thanksgiving, so I bought and cooked a small turkey breast. I enjoyed my sandwiches, but then I started thinking about stuffing. Then, I went to an event sponsored by Sprouts Farmers Market and they tossed a can of cranberry sauce into the goodie bag.

And I had a great idea. A stuffing bread pudding studded with chunks of turkey, with a layer of cranberry sauce on the bottom. It was like Thanksgiving in one bite.

This would be a great lunch or brunch meal, or a perfect dinner item for folks who like the stuffing better than anything else. You could certainly use leftover cooked turkey for this.

Or, if you're not the one who hosted the holiday and you have no turkey, you could cook a small turkey breast, or you could get some turkey deli meat. Just ask for the turkey to be cut into 1/2-inch slices so you can cut it into cubes.

This would also be good with chicken instead of turkey.

Thanksgiving Bread Pudding with Cranberry Sauce

4 tablespoons butter
3 ribs of celery, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon rubbed sage
Salt and pepper, to taste
4-6 cups cubed stale bread
2 cups cubed turkey
1 can cranberry sauce
8 eggs (more, if needed)
1 cup milk (more, if needed)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and have an 8- or 9-inch baking dish standing by.

Heat the butter in a saute pan. Add the celery and onions and cook until it begins to soften. Add the poultry seasoning, sage, salt, and pepper. Continue cooking, stirring as needed, until the vegetables are cooked through. Taste for seasoning. This should be well seasoned, since it will be combined with a lot of bread and eggs.

Put the bread in a large bowl. Add the cooked vegetables and turkey. Toss to combine. You don't want to mash or tear the bread any further - just mix it together.

Spread the cranberry sauce evenly on the bottom of the baking dish. Add the bread cube mixture to the baking dish.

Beat the milk and eggs until well combined. Pour this over the bread in the baking dish. The amount of liquid the bread will absorb depends on the bread, and how dry it is. You want to make sure all the bread is moist, and that there is liquid surrounding the bread. It's fine if there are bread cubes sticking up above the liquid a little but there should be visible liquid.

Here it is, before it went into the oven.

If the bread isn't thoroughly moist, and there's not enough liquid, beat some more eggs with milk and add it as needed. If you need just a small amount of liquid, you can just add extra milk.

Bake at 350 degrees until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. It's fine if it's wet, but it shouldn't be coated with egg.

Serve hot or at room temperature. This is also good cold, if you happen to like cold stuffing.

The Sprouts event was held at the National Cattleman’s Beef Association, and had absolutely nothing to do with turkey - we learned about cooking beef. But yeah, I used their cranberry sauce in this recipe and they provided a gift card to allow me to shop for anything I liked.

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Green Beans with Sesame Dressing (Ingen No Goma Ae)

When I got a copy of Masuharu Morimoto's new cookbook, Mastering the Art of Japanese Home Cooking, I wondered what I had gotten myself into.

Japanese ingredients aren't exactly common around here. So I wondered if I'd be able to make a lot of recipes from the book without substituting the heck out of them. I have to say that I was pretty pleased that the majority of the recipes were doable with things I could find at my local grocer.

And for the most part, the unusual items were of the dried, seaweedy variety that I could order from Amazon, if need be. There were a few that I probably won't be able to find easily, like vacuum-packed pre-cooked lotus root or some specific types of vegetables.

But that's okay. It's unlikely that I'd ever cook every recipe from any cookbook. And I'm pretty good at substituting, if need be.

I had a couple recipes bookmarked. One was a chicken meatball recipe with teriyaki. Another was a Japanese-style hamburger. But then I decided to make a side dish instead, and settled on a green bean recipe. I had absolutely everything I needed, so that was a plus.

Well, I have to be honest. I used frozen green beans. But I had everything else I needed.

This is intended as a cold salad, so it's a great prepare-ahead dish. The instructions say that it's good for up to a day, but I have no problem letting dressed vegetables sit in the fridge for longer. And while this is supposed to be a Japanese dish, it would work perfectly well as a side for fried chicken, meatloaf, or any typical American meal.

It's also nice added to a green salad.

Ingen No Goma Ae (Green Beans with Sesame Dressing)
Adapted from Mastering the Art of Japanese Home Cooking by Masaharu Morimoto

3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
About 1 tablespoon salt (for cooking the beans)
2 cups trimmed, halved green beans (I used "tiny" frozen beans)
1 tablespoon Japanese soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin (sweet rice wine)
1 teaspoon granulated sugar

Put the sesame seeds in a small skillet over medium heat and toast, stirring or tossing often, until they're a few shades darker. Transfer to a bowl so they stop cooking, then pound them in a mortar or blitz in a spice grinder until you have a slightly coarse powder. Note: I liked the look of the photo that had some whole seeds, so I used the mortar and pestle so I would have some small bits and some whole seeds.

Bring a small pot of water to a boil and add the salt. Cook the beans until they're fully cooked but still with a little crunch, about 3 minutes (or cook to your liking - seriously, they're your beans!)

Have a bowl of ice water or super-cold water standing by. When the beans are done cooking add them to the bowl of cold water. When the beans are cool, remove them from the water and pat dry. Note: if you need to, drain the water and add more cold water to get the beans chilled.

Combine the soy sauce, mirin, sugar, and sesame seeds in a medium mixing bowl. Add the beans and stir to combine.

Mound the beans on a plate and serve.

I received the book from the publisher at no cost to me.

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No-Mayo Cole Slaw

When I was offered a review copy of Scratch by Maria Rodale. I was wondering what sort of book it would be. The Rodale name is associated with healthy foods, and sometimes I feel like they're maybe just a tiny little too healthy.

I mean, I think I eat well. But I also like to indulge once in a while. I'm not afraid of white flour or white rice.

So when I started reading the book, the author pointed out that this wasn't a diet book. There would be gluten and sugar and desserts stuff.

So, okay. It's not a diet book. That's good to know.

It's also not a junk food book. The recipes are from scratch, with real ingredients. Which, to be honest, is how I like to cook. Yeah, I cheat sometimes. Sometimes I buy frozen vegetables or bagged salad. But I like buying from the farmer's market and chopping fresh vegetables.

The first recipe I bookmarked was called Syrian Salad and it was similar to a Greek salad, which is something I love. Then I found a cole slaw recipe, minestrone soup, and oyster crackers. (Ooooh ... oyster crackers!) Those were just the ones on the short list. There were a ton of other recipes I could have made.

The recipes in the book are pretty straightforward. They use common ingredients. Recipes you can actually make, as-is, and without ordering ingredients online.

I decided to make the cole slaw, because I thought it would go well with the other things I was making for dinner. And cole slaw is something you can eat right after you make it, but it also tends to improve with a little bit of age. So it didn't matter that this made quite a bit of cole slaw.

The recipe suggested slicing the vegetables on a mandoline, but I had just sharpened my knives, so I wanted to play with my shiny sharp knives.

No-Mayo Cole Slaw
Adapted from Scratch by Maria Rodale

For the dressing:
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
6 tablespoons sugar, or to taste (I used 4 tablespoon. I might try 3 next time because I like tart stuff)
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt (I used 1/2 teaspoon celery salt and no seeds)

For the salad:
1 head of cabbage, cored and thinly sliced
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced

To make the dressing:
Combine the vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan. Heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Add the oil, celery seeds, and salt and set aside to cool while you slice the vegetables.

To make the salad:
Combine the cabbage, onion, and bell pepper in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over and toss to coat.

This cole slaw was good right after I made it, but I think I liked it better after a day or two, since that mellowed the onions a bit.

I received this book from the publisher at no cost to me.

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Red Pepper Hummus

You can't tell it from this blog, but I've been working my tail off in the kitchen. Most of it won't be published here, because I'm writing recipes for other people. But ... I just happened to make a hummus recipe based on one in the book My Life on a Plate by Kelis.

This book is one that's circulating in the Cook My Book group I belong to, and it's got some really interesting recipes. I picked the hummus because I had the ingredients on hand. Or I thought I did. But when I reached for the chickpeas ... oops! I didn't have any.

No worries, I had to run to the store to buy other things, so I grabbed canned chickpeas.

Then, when I looked at the recipe, I decided to tweak a few things. Or, to be honest. I tweaked a lot of things. I added a fire roasted red pepper and cut back on garlic, salt, and lemon juice. I used a red onion instead of yellow one, and I used white pepper instead of black.

Okay, fine, I changed a lot of things. But it was still inspired by the book, right? And it was really good.

Red Pepper Hummus
Inspired by My Life on a Plate by Kelis

2 15.5-ounce cans chickpeas, drained
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
3/4 cup olive oil
1 red bell pepper fire roasted, peeled, cored, and seeded

Place all ingredients (I suggest starting with just 1 teaspoon salt and adding more, to taste) in a high-powered blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

Taste for seasoning and adjust as desired. If the hummus tastes "dry" add more olive oil, as needed. Blend well again after adding any extra seasoning.

Serve with pita chips or vegetables. Refrigerate the leftovers.

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Spiralized Spooky Purple Sweet Potatoes

Soooo ... I got a box of vegetables from my friends at Frieda's Specialty Produce to have some fun with, and the one thing I'd been thinking about when I found out what was coming was the purple sweet potatoes.

They're delicious and so ... purple. 

My first effort didn't work exactly as I planned, but I was determined to spiralize those potatoes and use them for something. Because I thought they'd look crazy fun.

For my second effort, I decided to do something simple, and even more important, I wanted to make sure they wouldn't fall apart. Not everything you spiralize will turn into noodles, people. It's not magic, it's just a different way of cutting.

As a side note, I used the new Kitchenaid spiralizer attachment. Which I did not get for free, so this is not a sponsored post for them. But I have to tell you about it! It's really cool! It works like the hand-crank spiralizer, but you don't have to crank, and it's mostly metal, so it's super-sturdy.

It has two slicing blades - the same thickness, but different-sized cores. And then two spiralize blades for different thicknesses of the cuts. I've only used the smaller one so far. And it also has a peeler attachment, so you could use it to peel things. It worked really well to peel and slice apples all at once.

So anyway, this was super-simple, but fun. The result is tasty. And ... depending on how you serve them, this could be spooky or not. Call them curly shoestring purple sweet potato fries and they're not scary at all. Call them something ... scary ... and they'd fit very appropriately on a Halloween table.

I mean, imagine a nest of these potatoes with a pair of eyes (radish slice for the whites an olive half for the pupil) in the middle. Right? Right? Or arrange the spiraly potato pieces around a meatball to make a spider. Or ... I'm sure you can think of plenty of other things.

Spiralized Spooky Purple Sweet Potatoes

Purple sweet potato(es), as needed
Olive oil, just enough to coat the potatoes
Salt, to taste

Heat the oven to 375 degrees while you prep your potato(es). The oven temperature can be flexible if you've got something else in the oven that requires a precise temperature - like if you're baking a cake or a pie.

Peel and spiralize the potato using whatever spiralizer gadget you have.

Place the spiralized potatoes on a baking sheet in a somewhat even arrangement. You can line the baking sheet with a silicone baking mat for easier cleanup if you like. A few bits of potato might stick, but it's not a dealbreaker if you don't use the mat.

Drizzle olive oil on the potatoes. You need enough to coat them, but you needn't get carried away. Add a sprinkle of salt. Add pepper, too, if you like, or other seasonings.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked through, stirring once or twice during the cooking time to rearrange them to make sure they cook evenly. The ones at the edges of the pan will cook faster, or if you've got some super-tight spiral or they're piled on top of each other, they'll take a little longer. It's fine if some bits get a little crisp. I actually like the crisp edges and bits, but watch to make sure they don't completely dry out or they're a little tough on the teeth!

Serve hot or at room temperature.

I loved the purple sweet potatoes cooked this way, but decided to add more color to the plate - I added a kohlrabi and a yellow beet to another batch cooked the same way.

It was an interesting mix and really good!

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Cheddar, Potato, and Vegetable Salad

When I lived in Chicago, there was a Polish deli right down the street that was my go-to for last-minute goodies. One of my favorites was something they called jarzyna salad.

Saying it in a foreign language makes is sound so much more ... exotic. But it was basically a potato salad with extra vegetables.

The formal translation for "vegetable salad" is actually sałatka jarzynowa, but the deli catered to non-Polish speakers so they made it a little easier.

The vegetables in the mix varied from time to time, no doubt depending on what was in season or what they had on hand, but there were always potatoes and it always had a mayonnaise-based sauce.

This isn't a re-creation of that salad - it's been a long time since I've had it, so I doubt I could recreate it if I tried. On the other hand, I like my version a whole lot. And, just like the original, it's variable, depending on what's in season or what you have on hand.

Jarzyna Salad

1 pound waxy potatoes
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
3 ribs celery
6 mini zucchini
4 radishes
Kernels from 1 ear cooked corn
6 hard boiled eggs, peeled
6 mini sweet pickles
2 teaspoons Chef Shake*
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon yellow mustard

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (more for garnish, if desired)

Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until tender. I used a mix of red, Yukon gold, and blue potatoes, but standard red potatoes are fine.

Drain the potatoes. As soon as you can handle them, peel and cut into bite-sized pieces. Place them in a large mixing bowl and sprinkle with the cider vinegar. Let the potatoes cool a bit as you prep the remaining ingredients. It's fine if they're a little warm, but you don't want them steaming hot.

Cut the celery into thin half-moons and add them to the bowl.

Slice the mini zucchini into rounds and add them to the bowl. If you don't have mini zucchini, use one or two of the regular small ones - you can cut them into rounds, or cut them in quarters, lengthwise, then slice.

Cut the eggs into bite-size pieces, and add to the bowl.

Cut the pickles into slices and add to the bowl. If you don't have the mini sweet pickles, use regular gherkins - two or three, depending on how well you like them.

Add the corn, Chef Shake, mayonnaise and mustard to the bowl. Stir to combine. Add the cheese and give it one more stir to distribute the cheese through the mix.

Taste for seasoning and add salt, if needed. Refrigerate until well-chilled before serving.

Garnish with extra shredded cheese, if desired.

*Chef Shake includes onion, black pepper, garlic, carrots, orange peel, tomato, celery seeds, red pepper, parsley, basil, marjoram, bay leaf, lemon oil, lemon juice powder, oregano, thyme, citric acid, savory, rosemary, cumin, mustard, and coriander.

Needless to say, you can use your own mix, if you don't happen to have this product.

I got the Chef Shake along with other products from the The Spice Hunter at no cost to me, but I wasn't required to post about it. I've been using it in a lot of different recipes since it's so versatile, and it was perfect for this salad. When this jar is empty, I'll be buying more, for sure.

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Greek-Style Cauliflower

Looks normal, but the flavor will surprise your guests.

This might be one of the simplest recipes I've posted on this blog, but it's really, really, really good.

The funny thing is that after all the cauliflower that I've cooked over so many years, this is something I never thought of doing until I saw it in a cookbook.

The book is It's All Greek to Me. It's another book from the round-robin cookbook group, Cook My Book.

While there were more complicated recipes in the book, I like this one because of the "aha" moment it provided. If I never thought of cooking cauliflower like this, maybe you never did either.

And it's so simple, you could do it any time you're in the mood.

Greek-Style Cauliflower
Adapted from It's All Greek to Me by Debbie Matenopoulis

1 head cauliflower, green leaves removed, and cut into florets
2 tablespoons lemon juice (or to taste)
2 tablespoons olive oil (or to taste)
Salt and pepper, to taste

If the florets have any browned spots, cut them off and make sure all the florets are about the same size for even cooking.

Cook the cauliflower in salted boiling water until crisp-tender (or cook a little longer, if you prefer).

Drain the cauliflower and immediately drizzle on the lemon juice and olive oil and toss to combine - while it's hot it will absorb the flavors.

Taste for seasoning. Grind on some black pepper and add salt, if needed. Add extra lemon juice and/or olive oil, if desired.

Serve hot.

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Cucumber and Shaved Radish Salad #OXOGreenSaver

When you hear about how much food Americans waste, what's the first thing you think of? Is the picture in your head about uneaten food on plates?

But what about all the food that never makes it to the plate? The stuff that goes bad before it gets cooked?

As hard as I try, I'm guilty of that, at least once in a while. I know there's a lime in the crisper, but when I reach in to grab it, the poor thing is petrified. Or the zucchini is slimy. Or half of the lettuce is brown.

Sometimes you can trim off the bad bits, but sometimes there's a lot heading to the compost bin. Which is better than trash. But still ... not what we intend when we buy fresh vegetables.

So when OXO offered to let me test one of their GreenSaver containers, I was very interested. When they sweetened the pot by adding some vegetables from Melissa's Produce, I knew it would be fun.

I chose mini cucumbers, and when they arrived, I kept four as my control group and put the rest into the GreenSaver container. I let them sit for two entire weeks.

Well, okay, I reached into the container a few times to grab a cucumber for a salad. But I left most of them for two weeks. I figured that would give them enough time to show me the difference the GreenSaver would make.

The theory behind the GreenSaver is that there are three reasons why produce goes bad. First, there's ethylene gas that speeds up ripening. One step beyond ripening is rotting. Fruits and vegetables give off their own ethylene gas, but the carbon filter in the OXO container absorbs it, so it takes longer for the vegetable to proceed to the rotting stage.

The second problem is airflow. The product that sits against the side of a container or bag doesn't have air flowing around it. Moisture tends to accumulate, and then things get slimy. The OXO container has an inner basket that keeps food away from the container's sides. The basket comes out, and you can use it as a colander to rinse the vegetables before using.

The third problem is humidity. Different fruits and vegetables and leafy things need different levels of humidity to keep them crisp and to avoid wilting - while also keeping them from getting wet or soggy. The OXO container has a vent on top and a cheat-sheet printed on the underside, which shows which vegetables need more humidity and which want less.

Just realized the light is out in the fridge. Oops.

After two solid weeks, none of the cucumbers were ready to be discarded (they're pretty sturdy, compared to some vegetables), and it was hard to tell the difference between the two groups just by looking at them casually.

Upon closer inspection, the cucmbers left outside the GreenSaver container looked slightly more wrinkled. But the real difference was when I started peeling and cutting. The ones inside the container were crisp, while the ones outside the container were much less crisp and even a little bendy. They were on their way to becoming compost. Not quite there yet, but close.

The reason I chose cucumbers for my vegetable was that I love cucumber salads in the summer. They're crisp and clean and crunchy and sweet ... and they just remind me of summer.

This salad actually has two lives. Served immediately or within about an hour of mixing - it's a fresh crisp salad. Left to marinate overnight, it becomes more "pickled" as the vegetables absorb the tartness of the vinegar and lemon juice.

It's not so tart that you couldn't eat it as a side dish, but you could also use it as the pickled component on a sandwich.

Cucumber and Shaved Radish Salad

8 mini cucumbers, peeled and sliced thin
1 small onion (or half of a large one), peeled and sliced very thin
4 radishes, sliced extremely thin
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons neutral-flavored vegetable* oil
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
1 teaspoon dill weed (fresh or dry)
Pinch of sugar

If you have a mandolin vegetable slicer, this is a good time to drag it out. If you cut the onions very thinly, they'll marinate faster and lose their harshness quickly.

Meanwhile, if you can manage to cut the radishes paper-thin, they look much more interesting in the salad, because you can see through them. And cutting the cucumbers evenly lets them marinate at the same rate. And it just looks nicer.

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Let it sit 15-20 minutes before serving, if you have time, or longer if you prefer. The longer the salad sits, the less harsh the onions will be.

Refrigerate the leftovers - they'll have a more "pickled" flavor the next day, which I find particularly appealing. It's almost like a quick pickle - but not so quick, and not quite as tart.

*You can use olive oil, if you prefer, but I prefer a very mild oil for this. While I love olive oil, I think it can be too assertive for this, unless it's a "light" olive oil.

This post was sponsored by OXO and Melissa's Produce. For more posts about the GreenSaver, look for the hashtag #OXOGreenSaver and look for @OXO and @MelissasProduce on social media.

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Polenta with Shishito Peppers and Cheddar

I might have mentioned - like a billion times now - that I really like polenta. And grits.

So this time around, I decided to throw some peppers into polenta. I had just gotten a rather large bag of shishito peppers from Frieda's Specialty Produce, and I had a tube of their polenta as well.

It seemed like fate.

Their polenta is shelf-stable at room temperature, which is great if you want to stock up. It's meant for slicing and frying, but I like soft polenta a lot, so that's usually the direction I go with it.

This recipe is super-easy, and the results are really tasty, The flavor actually reminded me just a little bit of tamales, but not so much that you couldn't serve this with any other cuisine. Or, for me, just a bowl of polenta for breakfast.

Polenta with Shishito Peppers and Cheddar

12 shishito peppers
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1-pound tube prepared polenta
1 cup water
1/2 cup half-and-half
4 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
Salt and pepper, to taste

Remove the stems and seeds from the shishito peppers and dice. Heat the oil in a skillet and fry the peppers until they're fragrant and a little bit softer. Set aside.

Remove the polenta from the tube and cut or break it into pieces. Add to a saucepan along with the water. Heat on medium, stirring, then whisking, the polenta until all the pieces are broken up and the polenta is smooth.

Add the half-and-half, cheese, and peppers. Continue cooking and stirring until the cheese is melted in. If the polenta is too soft for your taste, continue cooking until it thickens to your liking. If it's too thick for your taste, add more water or half-and-half.

Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper, to taste.

Serve hot.

I receive food items regularly from Frieda's Specialty Produce at no cost to me. You can find their products at your local grocery store.

Yum

Balsamic-Glazed Brussels Sprouts from Fine Cooking Italian

When I got a copy of Fine Cooking Italian, I bookmarked a ridiculous number of recipes. I love pasta, I love tomatoes, I love cheese, and I love any food that is in the slightest bit Italian.

Before you ask if the recipes in this book are authentic Italian - well, the tagline for the book is "200 Recipes for Authentic Italian Food," so there's that.

Whether there are grandmas in Italian villages who are making these recipes - well, I haven't a clue. And I really don't care. What I do care about is whether there are recipes I want to make, and whether they taste good.

Obviously, I wanted to make them, and I've already tried a few, including a pasta recipe with cauliflower that looked unassuming, but tasted really good.

But then I thought I should try something that wasn't pasta, and a recipe for Brussels sprouts caught me eye. I like Brussels sprouts a lot, but I'll be honest and say that I'm usually not all that creative with them.

These were glazed with reduced balsamic vinegar and accented with crisp bits of pancetta.

Unfortunately, fresh Brussels sprouts were nowhere to be found, so I used frozen instead. It changed the cooking a bit - they didn't brown quite as quickly as fresh ones would have. But the end result was still good.

In the end, this wasn't the prettiest dish I've ever made - the super-dark reduced balsamic vinegar coated the sprouts and made them ... well, dark.

If the color is too dark for you, a white balsamic vinegar or maybe a sherry vinegar would work. I haven't tried either one, but it seems like it could be okay.

If you're worried about how tart this dish might be from the 1/4 cup of vinegar, keep in mind that reduced balsamic vinegar is actually just a little sweet. Meanwhile, the pancetta added its savory and salty goodness. It's not like a salad with vinegar. It's savory for sure, but not jarringly tart.

Balsamic-Glazed Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta
Adapted from Fine Cooking Italian - recipe by Ruth Lively

2 ounces pancetta, cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 - 2 ounces olive oil
10 ounces Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved through the core
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons butter

Choose a large saute pan that will allow you to fit all the halved Brussels sprouts in one layer. And make sure you've got a lid for the pan, too.

Add one tablespoon of the olive oil to the pan and heat on medium-low heat. Add the pancetta. and cook until crisp, about 10 minutes, stirring as needed.

Remove the pancetta with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with a paper towel.

There should be about 2 tablespoons of oil left in the pan, If you don't seem to have that much, add some additional olive oil.

Arrange the sprouts cut-side down in the pan. Since I was using frozen sprouts and they were a little wet, there was some spitting, so I turned the heat off to add the sprouts to keep my fingers from harm's way. Fresh sprouts would likely be less likely to cause the oil to spit. Or use tongs to add and arrange the sprouts to avoid the splashing oil.

Turn the heat up to medium high and cook the sprouts undisturbed until they're nicely browned on the bottom. My frozen sprouts took about 5 minutes, but fresh ones should take just 2 or 3 minutes.

Add the water, cover the pan, and let them simmer until fork-tender but not mushy, about 3 minutes. If the water evaporates before the sprouts are tender, add a little more water, 1/4 cup at a time, as needed.

Remove the sprouts with a slotted spoon and place them on a plate.

If there's any water left in the pan, let it cook off with the pan on medium-high heat. Add the balsamic vinegar and a few grinds of pepper. Boil the vinegar until it's reduced to about half its original volume and it's slightly syrupy, about 2 minutes.

Reduce the heat to low, add the butter, and stir until it's melted. Add the sprouts and pancetta back to the pan, stir to coat the sprouts with the sauce, season with a sprinkle of salt and a few grinds of pepper, and serve hot.

I received this book from the publisher at no cost to me.

Yum