Salads

Strawberry, Swiss Chard and Wild Rice Salad

June 23, 2014 by Erica

We’ve been making our way through a long list of movies to watch, and this weekend was The Five-Year Engagement with Jason Segel and Emily Blunt. Have you seen it? Maybe a bit chick flick-y for Nate, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a liiiittle close to home at times, as the whole premise of the movie is that he is miserable after they move across the country for her post-doc. Had I seen it a few years ago, I probably would have been terrified to make the same move for Nate… well, more terrified than I already was! But all’s well that ends well. Our engagement is going to be a short 10 months, and I haven’t even become a sweater-knitting crossbow hunter during my time in Utah. Nope, just a running-obsessed food blogger… is that better or worse? I’ll let you decide.

Between our list of movies, Nate’s House obsession, and the World Cup going on right now, it’s shocking that our TV ever gets turned off. And I even skipped last week’s episode of The Bachelorette! That’s how you know there’s too much other TV being watched.

Speaking of The Bachelorette, have you seen this Jim Gaffigan bit about McDonald’s? Nate says The Bachelorette is my McDonald’s. I say my McDonald’s is gorging myself on peanut butter and chocolate. Or reading People magazine on the elliptical. Anyone want an update on the Kardashian wedding? I didn’t think so. That’s OK… I could have worse flaws, I think.

This salad, on the other hand, is completely virtuous. It’s got nothing in common with McDonald’s. I mean, hello – look at all that Swiss chard!

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Roasted Shrimp and Orzo Salad

May 21, 2014 by Erica

Roasted Shrimp and Orzo Salad

This shrimp and orzo salad was just catapulted to the top of my all-time favorites.

Why, you ask? Well, cause my mom made it for me, of course! And I guess the huge chunks of feta don’t hurt, either.

This was lunch one day during my bridal shower a few weekends ago. My mom made a huge batch (like quadruple the recipe!) to feed 11 hungry women. Well, I don’t know if everyone was hungry… but I sure was, and I think I ate 4 servings. Or maybe that was the souffle the next morning that I ate 4 servings of? Oh wait, that too. There was a loooot of good food. But I certainly wasn’t the only one going back for “just one more bite” of this salad.

Now, I know I don’t post a lot of seafood on this blog, but the truth is that I eat a fair amount of it. It’s usually at restaurants, because let’s face it, I love sushi! Also, fish is often the healthiest thing on a restaurant menu. But I forgot how absolutely WORTH IT it is to cook seafood at home from time to time. This pasta salad is a prime example.

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Sun Dried Tomato and Gorgonzola Salad

May 19, 2014 by Erica

Sun Dried Tomato and Gorgonzola Salad

I’m baaaack!

Back from Nashville, that is. I was there most of last week for work, and not gonna lie, I’m kinda still recovering.

Initially I was overwhelmed at the prospect of spending last Monday and Tuesday in client meetings in Salt Lake, then flying to Nashville for a conference the rest of the week. Especially after spending the previous weekend in Massachusetts! But actually, despite all the cross-country travel, the whole week was a total blast. I mean, when work consists of a few meetings in between buying cowboy boots and sitting in the second row at the Lady A concert, it’s hard not to have a good time.

Sun Dried Tomato and Gorgonzola Salad

And now, back to the real world… sigh. And back to some jeans that are a liiiiittle tighter than before All The Southern Food happened to my body.

I always (usually) have good healthy eating intentions when it comes to traveling. On this trip, I packed dinner and a snack for the plane, I refused the first round of Biscoff cookies, and I drank a huge bottle of water despite the drink vouchers in my purse.

And then.

Then I got to Nashville, where I’m pretty sure that even the “skinny eggwhite omelet” I ordered for breakfast the first morning was cooked in a vat of bacon grease. The same day, I went to a barbecue joint with my 8 male co-workers and ate a meal of macaroni and cheese, cornbread, and pickles (I think that was the “vegetable plate”). Oh and then there were the numerous free drinks that kept magically appearing. Let’s just say that on the flight back, the Biscoff cookies seemed like a health food.

Will I be recreating any Southern specialties for you? Um… not at the moment.

Sun Dried Tomato and Gorgonzola Salad

But believe it or not, this salad isn’t even my Monday attempt to make up for all of that. Nope, it’s just my recreation of the delicious Whole Foods salad I enjoyed on the flight to Nashville… again, before All The Southern Food.

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My Favorite Arugula Salad with Honey-Lemon Dressing

April 25, 2014 by Erica

My Favorite Arugula Salad with Honey-Lemon Dressing
A few weeks ago my co-worker brought me some home-grown lemons. I asked you on Facebook what I should do with them. And I’m going to go ahead and give myself the boring award right now, because instead of all the fabulous things you suggested, I made salad.

In my defense:

1. It’s my favorite salad. And now it can be yours, too.

2. I was all ready to bake a lemon cake, and maybe sometime I still will, but then I made cookies. Like, a lot of cookies. And the cake option was crossed off the list.

3. Can I just tell you that you haven’t truly lived until you’ve had lemon salad dressing made with fresh-picked lemons? No, maybe I can’t tell you that; it sounds way too pretentious.

My Favorite Arugula Salad with Honey-Lemon Dressing
Let’s just get to the salad, shall we?

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Spring Orzo Salad with Fennel and Asparagus

April 21, 2014 by Erica

Spring Orzo Salad with Fennel and Asparagus

Here in Utah, when people learn I’m from Boston, they often ask me why I don’t have a Boston accent. The truth is that neither of my parents grew up in New England, so the chances of me developing a Boston accent were pretty slim. Nate likes to tell me that my accent comes out after a few beers (bee-ahs!), but I say, psh. It’s probably just a mirroring thing. These days I probably have more of a Utah accent than anything – no big dill. (And for those of you wondering what a Utah accent is, that’s it right there.)

Well, I learned on Friday that I do have an accent, and it’s, um, not what I thought. My co-worker informed me, after much prefacing about how he liked the way I spoke, that my accent is Harvard valley girl. Oh, and that he’s mentioned this to other people we work with and they’ve confirmed it. What!

Well, I did not go to Harvard, nor did I grow up in any valley. I’m not exactly legally blond over here. I am forced to interpret the Harvard valley girl thing as something along the lines of “well brought-up but dumb” or “you say smart things but sound dumb saying them.” And they let me talk to clients… why? My mom was kind enough to offer her take as “smart but unpretentious.” But now I’m realizing “pretentious and dumb” is probably closer to a direct translation. Groan. Suffice it to say I will be speaking in a monotone at work for a few days! Like, totally.

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