Salad Days of Summer

The Lettuce Lady at the market had the most gorgeous red and green romaine this week. I love making salads because it gives me a way to clean out my refrigerator! I make salads for lunch a lot and they are usually a bed of greens that cradle the previous night’s leftovers!

Tasty Food-Lousy Picture

Have you heard that expression, “We eat first with the eyes”? The picture of this dish will not inspire salivation but I’m here to tell you that it was mighty tasty nevertheless.



Vietnamese Pork Rolls

Make dressing:

2 T Asian fish sauce
2 T fresh lime juice
2 t minced ginger
1 clove garlic minced
Pinch red pepper flakes

Whisk together in small bowl.

Pork

1 lb really thin cut boneless pork chops
1/2 head Savoy cabbage shredded (or Napa cabbage)
1 small red pepper cut in strips
4 scallions chopped
8 large Boston lettuce leaves for wrapping

Heat skillet sprayed with Pam or whatever, quickly sauté pork-2 min each side or so) Remove and slice into thin strips, toss with 2 T sauce

Combine cabbage, red pepper, and onion and remaining dressing. Lay lettuce leaves out and divide pork among the leaves. Toss with cabbage mixture and roll tightly, tucking in as you go. They are a bit delicate and fall apart easily and don’t photograph so well but they are yummy!

My New Best Friend

I love this time of year when the Ann Arbor Farmers Market begins to burst with all matter of great tasting produce. I also feel downright virtuous because I’m buying “local” and stimulating the pathetic Michigan economy. The one thing that I don’t particularly relish about my trip to the market is lugging all that produce around from stand to stand! Because our market is so popular scoring a close by parking space is not always a given. Also, is it my imagination or are the vegetables getting a lot heavier and bigger? Sort of like the rest of the population—we also have obese veggies!! No more sore arms and aching back for me—I have a market buddy thanks to Crate and Barrel. This market cart is a dream come true with plenty of space inside (there’s even an insulated bag in there too). There are outside pockets shaped perfectly for the requisite market bouquet, baguettes, and bottle of wine—be still my heart. I also have to say you feel so darn smug gliding around the market watching all the other folks schlepping what they think are their cool market baskets but hey, they weigh a ton. I’m not interested in anything unless it’s got wheels! PS it folds flat for storage-just in case you were curious. I bet I know what else you'd like to know: 49.95

Good Bye Ann Arbor News!

So you’re probably asking yourself why is there a front page of a newspaper on this cooking blog? Well you’ll see that’s it’s the farewell edition of our hometown newspaper, the Ann Arbor News, which after 174 years of getting out the news (such as it sometimes was) has now been shuttered and we have gone 21st century with Ann Arbor.com. I have to say it was a sad day for me even though the paper was not all that exemplary. It was still my welcome friend each night after work and I’ve happily and sometimes unhappily read a lot of pretty important news over the 33-year span that this paper has appeared in my mailbox. So, I figured how best to mark the passing of the News but with a commemorative meal!

Many years ago my husband, son, and I made yearly pilgrimages to The Sunshine State to celebrate the holidays with both sets of parents—we had them on the East and West Coast. My mother was always trying new recipes that she was learning from her snowbird southern friends. One, in particular, was delicious and had one necessary ingredient: NEWSPAPERS!

Tonight we bid adieu to the AA News with the following:

Low Country Shrimp and Sausage Boil

A T of sliced jalapeno peppers
2 celery stalk, halved
1 medium onion quartered
1 t chopped garlic
2 T Old Bay Seasoning
1 lb new potatoes
2 ears corn, quartered
1 lb andouille sausage cut in 1-inch pieces
1 lb large shell on shrimp
2 T melted butter
1 t hot sauce
Lots of NEWSPAPERS!

In large pot combine, peppers, celery, onion, garlic and 1 T Old Bay and 10 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Add potatoes and reduce to simmer. Cook until potatoes are almost tender, 10 minutes

Add corn, and sausage to pot-cook another 7 minutes. Remove pot from heat, stir in shrimp and let stand about 1 1/2 minutes until shrimp are opaque. Reserve 1/4 cooking liquid. Drain shrimp mixture and return to pot. Add butter, 1 T Old Bay, reserved cooking broth and hot sauce and toss to combine. Spread lots of newspapers on the table and spread the whole mess out for folks to share! Yum! So long Ann Arbor News Snooze!