Mediterranean Marinated Chick Peas

As I mentioned here and here Chick peas are a favorite legume of mine, and whenever new ways of preparing them cross my path I quickly give it a try.

Cooked chick peas with Mediterranean herbs, salt and olive oil. So simple it is kind of shocking that this is the first I have heard of it. This has no cookbook or blog origins. In fact, there is no cook to whom I could attribute it. Some nameless cook working for a specialty food company produced this idea to help boost sales at olive bars and it is genius!

Grilled Salmon with Sweet Chipotle Glaze

Salmon is one of my favorite fishes. I love it smoked, salted cured (gravalax) as well as baked or grilled. It stands alone easily with salt and perhaps lemon but it also takes to a little dressing up as well. This is a dressed up version.

When I saw Joanne's version from Eats Well With Others I knew it would be a winner; chipotle in adobo, apricot preserves, cumin and vinegar. So simple, so easy, so delicious! She baked her fish, we grilled it. Both work wonderfully. To top it off, there is no long marinating process. Just mix, slather on the glaze and bake or grill. Perfect!

Swiss Chard, Onion and Potato Gratin

Gratin, it can be a decadent dish of cheese and cream mixed in with some vegetables. Or it can be as simple as layers of vegetables with some cream to steam them under a covered dish in the oven. This dish was the later. I was craving vegetables but wanted something warm, and a little on the light side. Layering potatoes, swiss chard and onions turned into an inspired dish.

Clearly a cousin to scalloped potatoes, which were a regular feature at the Just Food Co-op hot bar when I was deli manager, I left out the cheese and simply added the cream to help steam the layers. It was divine! Imagine the natural juices of potato, Swiss Chard and onions mingling with a touch of cream and salt and pepper and you have this delicious dish.

Roasted Red Pepper and Sausage Pie with Potato Crust

I am been meaning to try this potato crust for some time, ever since Stacey posted about it here. With my first try, my mandoline didn't slice the potatoes quite as thin as I had hoped, and the egg leaked all over. It tasted great, but not a pretty picture! Trusting my steady hand and my favorite chef's knife I set out to make thinner slices and this time it worked.

As for the filling, my ingredients were similar if not exact. Some breakfast sausages in need of being cooked up were joined by homemade roasted red peppers. Of course I had to toss in some of my favorite herb, parsley, to add some color.

A great treat for breakfast or brunch, however this must be eaten warm; it does not do well at room temperature the way its cousin quiche is want to do.

Cheese Chile Rellenos for Cinqo de Mayo

Lots of my co-workers are Mexican American and many a time have I drooled over their homemade lunches as we ate in the staff lounge. Homemade flautas, carnitas and tamales always look amazing, but it is the chile rellenos that I most coveted. While they involve several preparation steps, I decided it was high time I made them. Such a smart idea!

Chile rellenos are stuffed chiles, usually with a meat (pork, beef) or cheese filling, smothered in a tomato and pepper sauce. While all of the ingredients are humble, the taste is divine!

Following my usual M.O. I scouted out recipes in the blogsphere and ended up cobbling a few together to suit my preferences; ranchero sauce from Closet Cooking and a cheese filling from what I had in the pantry. After asking a co-worker about the batter I decided to stay with the traditional egg white, flour and egg yolk batter that was both authentic and most widely used. It did not disappoint!

Radicchio, Apple and Pear Salad

Happy May Day! The day of leaving baskets of flowers on neighbors' doorsteps, dancing round the Maypole, celebrating Beltane with feasts and bonfires or marching in a workers parade if you lived in communist bloc countries, pre-1991. For me, May Day has always had a special quality to it, the real turning of the clock to springtime in so much that there were flowers blooming in our Connecticut home, enough to make a few May Day baskets. But now May Day usually signals the real beginning of spring vegetables and fruits. That was how this salad happened upon my table.

Radicchio is not a vegetable that everyone is clamoring to taste. Unless it is really, really, really fresh, its bitterness can put people off. (That is one reason my garden includes some radicchio so I can sample it freshly picked.) But this salad does not shy away from the potential bitterness that can be radicchio; it embraces it. Pairing it with sweet pears and crunchy apples with mint and parsley this salad zips and sings through your taste buds!