Thunderstorm Orzo Salad

These two love the rain. The more lightening and thunder, the better.

 This one...not so much. 

When the sky gets dark and the rumbles start, Bean tends to look like this. Pathetic, I know. At least it's not bed time. That's the worst. Well, it's the worst right after the fingers in her ears all-out screaming attacks that occur every time we get a middle of the night storm.

Bean requires more than a little distraction to cope with the booms. Like, a whole lot of boiling, chopping, stirring, whisking, pouring kind of distraction. Come on, Bean. Let's go make a salad while these guys look for worms.

Thunderstorm Orzo Salad
inspired by Cooking Light

1 cup orzo or other small pasta
2 cups baby spinach, chopped
1/2 medium red onion, chopped
1/2 cup pitted, chopped kalamata olives
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup marinated artichoke hearts, chopped
1 cup feta cheese, crumbled (divided)
1/4 cup red wine vinaigrette (recipe below)
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Drain and rinse in cold water. Combine the cold pasta, spinach, onion, olives, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and 3/4 cup of the feta cheese in a large bowl. Pour the red wine vinaigrette over the top and toss gently. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with remaining feta sprinkled on top. 

Red Wine Vinaigrette

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp agave (or honey, or granulated sugar)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (or more to taste, I prefer a vinegary vinaigrette)

Combine the vinegar, mustard, agave, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Add the oil in a slow, steady stream whisking all the while until you have a thick, tasty dressing. Serve on the orzo salad above or crisp baby greens.

The worm hunters back in time for dinner.

Panna Cotta with Strawberry-Rhubarb Sauce

The little KC kids are obsessed with jello. Like a lot of kids, the infatuation has more to do with the slip and jiggle than any particular flavor profile. I mean, when you assert preference by color, how important, really, is taste? I'm going with not very.

Given the penchant for wiggle, I thought panna cotta might be right up their alley, especially topped with a glossy bright strawberry-rhubarb sauce. And bonus, real vanilla and fresh strawberries taste so much better than red.

Disclaimer time. The original recipe calls for creme fraiche, which while picking up rhubarb and buttermilk at Whole Foods, I could have sworn was happily residing in my fridge just waiting to be called into action. Alas, when I got home, that very creme fraiche mysteriously had morphed into mascarpone! I hate when that happens. Fortunately there's almost always some Greek yogurt hanging around our house, which valiantly stood in for the mysterious traitor.

Buttermilk-Yogurt Panna Cotta with Strawberry-Rhubarb Sauce
adapted from Bon Appetit 

For the Panna Cotta

1 & 1/4 tsp unflavored powdered gelatin
1 & 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise
1 & 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 & 1/4 cups full-fat plain Greek yogurt

For the Sauce

1 & 1/2 cups (about 10 ounces) strawberries, hulled
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups rhubarb, (about 8 ounces) sliced 1/4-inch thick
1/2 tsp unflavored powdered gelatin

For the Panna Cotta, pour 1/4 cup of cold water into a little bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Let is sit for about 10 minutes until the gelatin swells and softens.

In a medium saucepan, combine the cream, sugar, and salt. Scrape the gooey seeds from the vanilla bean into the liquid, then toss in the pod too.

Bring the mixture to a simmer then add the softened gelatin mixture. Stir to dissolve all the gelatin, then remove the pan from heat and let it cool. Once cool, remove the vanilla bean pod. Whisk in the buttermilk and yogurt. Pour the mixture into small ramekins or dessert glasses. Chill in the refrigerator until firm, at least 2 hours.

For the sauce, combine the strawberries, rhubarb, and sugar in a medium heat-proof bowl. Toss everything together so the sugar coats the fruit.

Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, folding and pressing the wrap so it extends just along the top edge of the bowl. If it helps, you can wrap a large rubber band around the rim of the bowl to hold the plastic wrap in place.

Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water, careful not to let the plastic wrap touch the pot. Heat the berry-rhubarb mixture without stirring for about 45 minutes, until the rhubarb looks pale and the fruit is soft.

Use a fine sieve to strain the fruit mixture, reserving the liquid only. Don't press and push on the fruit to get more juice out or your sauce won't be nearly as lovely. Get what you can, then add water to make 1 cup total.

In a separate small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over 2 tablespoons cold water. Let it stand for 10 minutes.

While the gelatin is softening, bring the strawberry-rhubarb liquid to a boil in a small saucepan for about 3 minutes, stirring every now and then to prevent burning. Add the softened gelatin mixture and stir well to dissolve any stubborn gelatin granules. Remove from heat and let stand until completely cool.

Top the cold, set panna cotta with the cooled sauce and chill until the sauce is thickened, at least 2 hours.

Mixed Bean and Radish Salad

Fish makes me nervous. It's not that I find most fish to be shady characters, it's more the unscheduled trip to the ER kind of nervous. Not rational. Roo has never tested positive for a fish or shellfish allergy and he has been tested. He's eaten fish multiple times with no reaction whatsoever, but for some reason every time I slip a little fish sauce into a marinade or dare place a flake or two of salmon on his plate my knees get a little quaky. Yup that, friends, is my idea of living on the edge.

My goal is to get the KC kids eating more fish, first, because I need to get over my own irrational fear that Roo's going to go into anaphylactic shock if he ingests an anchovy, and second, because kids who squeal at the sight of fish on a plate are annoying. That's not to be confused with kids whose parents choose not to give them fish for religious or moral reasons, sheer personal preference, or obviously, because they are allergic to fish. Those kids are not annoying. Well, maybe they are annoying, I really don't know. That's for you to decide. Anyway, that my kiddos balk at the smell of fish cooking is decidedly irritating and I'm taking steps to remedy it. Baby steps.

So here we go. Anchovies. Look, there they are right up top. Rest assured there is no way my children, particularly my girls, would entertain the notion of trying a bite of salad (or chocolate cake for that mattter) if they had the slightest inkling that there were tiny hairy fish in it. That's why I didn't mention it.

And fortunately they didn't ask.

Mixed Bean and Radish Salad
adapted from bon appetit

2 anchovy fillets, packed in oil, drained
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp capers, drained
2 & 1/2 cups fresh flat-leaf parsley, divided (pack it into the cup to measure if you're a perfectionist)
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 bunch radishes, trimmed and sliced
1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 15-ounce can Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained
1 15-ounce can Cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup black olives, pitted and halved

Put the anchovies, oil, capers, and 1 cup of parsley into a food processor or blender. Puree until you have a slightly coarse, pulpy puree. Transfer to a small bowl, stir in the vinegar. Season with salt and pepper to taste, but watch the salt. Between the anchovies and capers, this is already one salty dressing.

Put the radishes, all the beans, olives, and remaining parsley in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over the top and toss gently. Do not mention the anchovies to anyone under 10 until they've finished eating.

In fairness, this wasn't the kids' favorite salad but they all managed a few bites (yeah, a few bites of briny, beany, radish salad with secret anchovies!) and that is progress. Happily, Roo survived yet another uneventful fish exposure. Though the idea of him and a bite of lobster still makes me start to lose my hearing. I'm working on it. And still the push for more fish on the KC table continues.