Salad Week: Day 3

Ok, we already cheated...instead of salad we had a soup yesterday. It's getting colder here and there's nothing better to warm up than a soup. I tried one I've been pimpin' at work all summer that a customer sent in to the store: Summertime Minestrone.

Let's just say Justin was excited about the soup until he watched me put in a HUGE pile of Swiss chard...I believe he thought it was a pile of lettuce for a side salad. Oh how I wish you could have seen his face...it was like he was a little kid and I had just popped his balloon or broke his favorite toy.

The soup was fantastic, though. I had my doubts at first, simply because I'd never heard of or had cranberry beans before. Justin helped me shell the beans on Monday - they were so cool! Turns out cranberry beans are equivalent to Romano beans, also called Borlotti in Italy. Here's a picture I got from another blog:

Here's the minestrone recipe. I put in a little garlic powder (I would have used minced garlic, but I realized I wanted to add it after I sauted the veggies) and I also removed the red bell pepper because I'm allergic to them. As a replacement filler, I put in a little celery because I had it on hand...You should try it!

Summer Minestrone

(aka, summer-in-a-bowl)

• 1 lb fresh cranberry beans, (shelled about 2 cups)
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 large carrot, chopped
• 2 ounces pancetta, chopped
• 1 tsp dried thyme (or 2 tbsp fresh)
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 bunch Swiss chard, trimmed and chopped (about 8 cups)
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• handful of fresh basil, chopped

Heat the olive oil in a soup pot and add the onion, carrot and pancetta. Cook, stirring, until vegetables soften, about 3 minutes. Add the shelled beans, thyme and broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Add chard and pepper with a good pinch of salt, cover again and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until beans are done (squeeze to test). Turn off heat and add basil; let soup sit for 5-10 minutes. Salt to taste, ladle into bowls.

A nice touch is to drizzle with a very good olive oil and sprinkle with grated parmesan.

Salad Week: Day 2

Last night's salad was another Rachael Ray dish, this time it was the Green Harvest Couscous salad. Mom...I'm sure you remember the night you made couscous...so when Justin spotted it on our counter you can imagine the look on his face. Pure unhappiness... :) I used Lebanese couscous though. It's much bigger than itty bitty couscous.

Well, wouldn't you know, JT was lucky enough to have to go back to work last night so he got off easy with a non-salad snack before he left. I made it for myself though - I'm not sure I'd saute the zucchini next time, but I liked it! I used feta instead of goat cheese because, try as I might, I just don't like goat cheese. It's the aftertaste...

Here's the recipe:

Green Harvest Couscous

Ingredients:

• One 10-ounce box couscous
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Grated peel and juice of 1 lemon
• 2 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and chopped
• Salt and pepper
• One 5-ounce package baby arugula, chopped
• 1/2 English cucumber, quartered lengthwise and chopped
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 cup pecans (about 4 ounces), toasted and chopped
• 8 ounces goat cheese crumbles

Nice serve
Take the meal outdoors and use lettuce wraps instead of plates.

Directions:

1. In a medium saucepan, bring 2 cups water to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the couscous and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with the lemon peel and lemon juice, then fluff with a fork.

2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Add the zucchini and cook until golden, about 5 minutes; season with salt and pepper.

3. In a large bowl, combine the couscous, zucchini, arugula, cucumber, scallions, pecans and half of the cheese; season with salt and pepper. Top with the remaining cheese.

50 All-Time New Uses for Old Things

One of the differences Justin and I have noticed about each other is that I hesitate to replace items of ours if they're old or broken, while Justin is a bit more eager to make a replacement. I think I may have inherited that from my dad, the tinkerer and master of duct tape. I think I've always been one to find new ways to use old things, so I was excited to open MSN.com today and find this story. Check it out!

Real Simple
50 All-Time New Uses for Old Things
Some of our smartest ways to rethink common items

It's an old wine box! Genius!

Salad Week: Day 1

It's salad week at casa de Team Thompson. Justin is not pleased, but it must be done. The gym is so far not helping us on its own, so we're acknowledging the balanced diet tangent of living a healthy lifestyle. Not to say that we ate a bunch of junk food before, but I do enjoy cooking...and then eating what I cook. The curse of my favorite form of happiness, I suppose.

Last night we had a chicken salad, compliments of my Rachael Ray magazine (note to self, my subscription is almost up...). You too make this dish, but if you do, I suggest cutting back a bit on the red onion. Unless you love smelling like onion all night and even the next day.

Greek-Style Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup Greek-style yogurt (I used Fage)
  
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• Grated peel and juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs (I used chicken breasts)
  
• 3 romaine hearts, chopped
• 1 English cucumber, chopped
• 1/2 pint grape tomatoes, halved (I used assorted heirlooms, they added more levels of flavor and color as each is different)
  

Directions:

1. Preheat a grill to medium-high. Finely chop enough of the onion to yield 2 tablespoons and transfer to a small bowl. Stir in the yogurt, dill, lemon peel, 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1 tablespoon olive oil; season with salt and pepper.

2. Brush the chicken with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Arrange on the grill, cover and cook, turning once, until golden and grill marks appear, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate and sprinkle the remaining lemon juice on top. Let stand for 5 minutes before thinly slicing.

3. In a bowl, toss the romaine, cucumber, tomatoes and remaining onion with the dressing. Season with salt and pepper; top with the sliced chicken.

Source: Every Day by Rachael Ray

The Great Prosser Balloon Rally

This weekend is the famous Prosser Balloon Rally - we used to get up at the crack of dawn (not every year, but we did a few times) to go watch the early-morning take off. It's so fun to watch the balloons fill up and begin take off - always a few fabulous "Kodak moments" to capture. I'm obviously not there this weekend, but was able to see a few pictures from someone I follow on Twitter. Check them out here:

The Great Prosser Balloon Rally 2009.

It looks like they had beautiful weather!

Love you, Tiller.

Ready for take off

We had a great weekend with Curtis and hope he comes back to visit again soon! The only bummer of the weekend was the rain -- it was an early rain for the season and put a bit of a damper on plans, but we got everything in, rain or shine! Unfortunately, whenever we've had guests in town, it's been either boiling hot (104 for the Chyterboks) or windy and freezing for the Thompsons (a week after 104 degrees) or raining.

Friday night we ate at Casa de Thompson (spaghetti -- Curtis's fav) and then went for a stroll down Castro where he was exposed to giant lizards, our favorite bookstore, dogs dining at tables with their owners like they're people too, religious shouters, balloon animal makers, magicians, folk singers and a billion people out enjoying the warm summer night.

Oh goodness - I almost forgot. We went to see "Inglorious Bastards" on Friday. It sounded ok - I had my eyes closed most of the time.

Moving on...

Saturday morning it unexpectedly rained so we bumped our SanFran plans to Sunday. We hit the gym in the a.m. and then the boys went on an exhilarating tour of the Computer History Museum (wheeee...). Afterward I rejoined them and we went to the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos -- turns out Curtis is a aircraft enthusiast, so this was on top of his "to do" list during his visit.


Sunday we drove up to Alameda to go to the USS Hornet Museum - another to do at the top of Curtis's list or activities. The USS Hornet, according to their site, is national treasure, having participated in two of the greatest events of the 20th century -- World War II and the Apollo 11 manned space mission. The ship was massive and we were there for at least 3 hours. We went on a group tour and were then offered a private tour of more of the ship! While 3 hours seems like a long time, there was still plenty more of the ship to see that we didn't make it to.

Afterward, we decided Curtis needed a burger from In-n-Out so we went into the city. By this time it was raining again, so all the druggies, dog walkers, crazies, ladies that had lost their belts and people with babies that needed their diapers changed also decided it was time for an In-n-Out burger by Pier 39. It was muggy, crowded and stinky for all of us -- it was also enlightening for Curtis. While he enjoyed the burger (who wouldn't) he then decided that we could leave the city of SF without seeing the Golden Gate or riding on the trolley -- ol' SF is certainly an experience, to say the least.

We had a blast and, like we said already, can't wait for his next trip to Cali! It was a great way to celebrate Curtis's new job which begins soon -- kind of a 'last fling' if you will :). Congrats, Curtis!