The Salad I Keep Going Back To

So hot here last week. I'm sure that statement is like playing a broken record for the East Coast. I really do not remember a summer when the temperature has been this hot for so long. We are not even getting good rain out of it. We will get a dark sky, a rumble of thunder to set my dog off in an anxiety attack and a quick shot of rain. Not enough to cool things off. It's positively dreadful.

These days I don't feel much like cooking anything. Surprisingly I'm still hungry for meals though. I just don't feel like going through the efforts of preparation. Thoughts have turned to salad.

My routine this summer is pretty non-stressful. Two days of working out of the house where I pack my lunch and 3 days that I work from home. Those days, after dropping the minors off at camp I get a good workout in at the gym and come home wanting to eat, but not wanting to cook. Salad fits the bill.

The salad I have been making almost daily has been a goat cheese salad. Love, love, love goat cheese. Something about the texture and the tang. I also love the fact you don't need a ton of it to get great flavor. I used to make a breaded goat cheese salad as an show stopping first course, but wanted to make something a little faster and a tad healthier.

Goat Cheese Salad with Creamy Vinaigrette
1 serving

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons of champagne vinegar
1/4 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 clove of minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste.
2 heaping cups of mescalin
4 very thinly slices of a leftover baguette from dinner the night before (if you are married to someone like my husband, there is always bread, but I have to hide the leftovers)
1-2 ounces of goat cheese.
2 tablespoons of roughly chopped walnuts
Preheat the oven (or toaster oven!) to 450 degrees

In a big bowl, combine the vinegar, mustard and garlic. Whisk in the olive oil slowly until the mixture forms an emulsion. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put the greens on top of the salad and put aside.

On a cookie sheet, very lightly sprinkle some olive oil on the bread slices. Put the bread in the oven and watch it close. Since it is cut thin you do not want to burn it. You are looking for a nice golden color. Remove the bread and divide the goat cheese on slices. Return to oven and melt the cheese ever so slightly.

Toss the greens in the bowl with the dressing and put on a plate. Arrange the goat cheese toasts on the salad and sprinkle with the walnuts.

Pie..Oh My!

Last night was the last day of Passover, so I was really looking forward to dinner that night. It was all up for grabs..after not eating bread, noodles, most baked products, rice and the like all week. We decided to go with pizza and I decided that instead of picking up the phone, I would cook it up..homemade pizza seemed a fitting way to end the Passover holiday.

My favorite homemade pizza combination is caramelized onions, sausage and goat cheese. I can't remember where I first came across this combination. I'm thinking it was Martha Stewart. Anyhow, I have been making it for over 7 years.

I get my pizza dough from Trader Joes, and roll it out thin to fit my pizza stone. To make the caramelized onions I cut two large sweet onions into thin rings. I had to a hot skillet with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter. Start sauteing them on medium high heat. When they begin to brown, add 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar. Reduce the head to medium low and stir often until the onions are a deep amber color. This can take 45 minutes to an hour. For the sausage, I usually use turkey sausage. Three links typically suffice as I remove the casings and crumble to sausage in a hot skillet and cook until brown.

Add the onions and the sausage evenly to the pizza dough and sprinkle with 3-4 ounces of crumbled goat cheese. Bake on a pizza stone in a 450 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes.

So delicious.