Strawberry Soup and Salad

For well over a year now, our older daughter has mimicked me cooking. She hasn't always mimicked what I've made however, and among the more creative ideas she's invented in her own mind was strawberry soup. I know it's been made. I know it could be made many different ways. But I wanted to make my own take on the concept in honor of my daughter, and in an effort to encourage spring to finally settle in for us, I figured a dinner of salad and cold soup would at least put is in the right mindset.

Strawberry Soup and Salad

I decided to keep this simple, and slightly sweet, and I wanted something cool and refreshing. I was pretty disappointed in the condition of the strawberries I'd just purchased yesterday. They looked great at the store, but by today, a cluster of them had begun to degrade pretty badly. I had to cut back my quantity, and also my hopes for the salad, where I'd planned to either add either slices of strawberry, or if there had been enough berries, perhaps even a nice fresh strawberry vinaigrette.  I put the strawberries that survived into the blender with a few tablespoons of water, a few baby carrots, honey, and a small hint of powdered sugar.

The salad was a basic mixed greens base with some sliced cucumber and Bermuda onion. I topped this with some sautéed chicken breast, and served it with a homemade honey mustard vinaigrette I generally keep on hand.

The verdict

This meal served two functions beyond feeding us tonight. It was an homage to my daughter, and with each day, I grow more and more fond of the girl she is becoming. She made me particularly proud tonight by actually tasting the strawberry soup, not once, but twice. I'll take that; she may not be ready to eat it, but at least she isn't fighting me as much on trying new things. For my wife and I, an added pinch of dried mint topped off the soup, and with that small extra flavor pop, my second purpose - giving at least our plates some hint of springtime - was served. I kept the soup portions small; too much cold soup, especially something on the sweet side, starts to feel like dessert all too quickly. I think some better-quality strawberries would have been helpful, but it was tasty, and both a refreshing change of pace, and simply refreshing.

We poured a couple of glasses of mediocre Riesling with our dinner, and the simplicity of the whole thing has me looking to the coming days, with daytime highs finally leaving the 30s, with great enthusiasm. I think I'll be making strawberry soup again, but I'll probably make sure to serve it colder, and I may add a bit more of the carrot next time. Maybe this summer, our older daughter will join us for a full helping.

All hail, Caesar!

I had some chicken in the fridge on grocery day, so when I saw the romaine staring at me in the produce section today, I figured dinner was a done deal; Caesar salad with grilled lemon pepper chicken and portabella mushrooms. I also recalled that we had a fair bit of garlic left around, and knowing I would use much of what was at home was a good excuse to buy more (as if I ever need an excuse to buy more garlic). My only concern was the weather. I had to hope that the rain would stay away when grilling time came. It did, thankfully.


I haven't made a Caesar dressing in a while, and unless things are already prepped, it does take a bit of time to come together. That makes it more appropriate for a weekend than a weeknight in our house. But since the chicken breasts were rather thick, I figured I had ample time to work on the dressing anyway. I stuck to the basics; egg yolk, olive oil, garlic (lots of it - we love our garlic in our house), Parmesan cheese, anchovies (I know, some folks consider this inauthentic or unnecessary, but it is one of the places where I feel an anchovy has a culinary home), Worcestershire sauce, etc. I was glad that we had an extra lemon on hand, as fresh lemon juice always beats the bottle in a dressing. I think I was overly generous with the lemon juice in the dressing tonight, but only to the point of making the dressing a bit brighter than I usually care for.


The verdict


There is a certain kind of joy in a simple salad for a meal, and making the dressing from scratch, for me, makes all the difference. We had a bit of garlic bread - nice and crispy - with our salads tonight. The mushrooms were a good addition to the standard presentation. I suppose my thoughts on there being too much lemon might be because I used it on the chicken as well as in the dressing. Maybe a simpler or less citrus-y chicken preparation might do the trick next time. 


For some, this would have been a case of garlic overload. For us, it was just right. I appreciated the gesture my wife made, leaning her very pregnant self across the table to share a garlic-y kiss with me in appreciation of the effort. 

Back to the Grill

I had a few days away; away from the blog and away from the grill. Mostly, I had a rough week at work, largely due to the erratic weather and power grid, and as a result, had little time to write, to cook, and on most days, no inclination to do anything because it was too blasted chilly for June.

I kept things simple for Sunday dinner, mostly because I have bigger plans for Monday, but also because the grill needed a good cleaning and that was time I could not spend on prep. Early in the afternoon, I cooked up some small red potatoes for a dill potato salad (with lots of chopped Claussen's and dill weed). I soaked some cheddar/jalapeño brats in some Goose Island ale, and left thing alone as I enjoyed time with the family.

The great treat was not the two items that took prep work. It was the asparagus that took almost no effort at all (not that any part of this meal was laborious). A quick pass through some butter, a shot of garlic salt and black pepper, and they went on the grill alongside the brats. The key to good asparagus, in my opinion, is to keep them from going completely limp. I find too many cooks want so badly to have beautiful grill marks on them, perhaps to prove they are grilled, that they overcook the poor veggies into a limp and bitter mess. I pull mine as soon as they begin to droop when lifted in the middle of the stalk with a pair of tongs. Another smattering of butter, garlic salt, and pepper (just in case any of them were missed, of course), and they were ready for the table.

Verdict

Not much more to say. The brats were good. I like sauerkraut on most any grilled sausage, so I added a bit, and it worked pretty well with the jalapeño. My wife can't stand the kraut, so she went without. The potatoes were predictably good. The star, as I mentioned, was that asparagus. Still just a bit firm, but fully cooked and warm throughout, just enough butter and seasoning - I am just sad that we didn't have more.

On a side note, our daughter has returned to eating fish at mealtimes again. She love smoked salmon, it seems, and ate it with some regularity until just around her second birthday. Now, after some time away, she's back. Maybe this means she will start trying other foods again, and maybe I can get her to eat more of what I cook instead of the usual fare she's settled on...