Green Bean Salad with Goat Cheese

I love browsing my favorite blogs or finding new blogs I've never explored before. How many food blogs do you think there are on the internet today? Every day I find at least one recipe to bookmark, often they're recipes I haven't made before or wouldn't normally make. Rarely do I prepare a main dish salad for lunch or dinner. When I saw this recipe and realized I had all of the ingredients on hand, it became the perfect Sunday lunch.

Everyone says you eat with your eyes. Anyone would be drawn to the vibrant colors in this salad. Fresh summer green beans, bright yellow corn and juicy red tomatoes make up the pallet for your eyes and feast for your stomach.

When I make this salad again, I would cook the green beans a little longer. While I enjoy my green beans crunchy, cooking just two minutes leaves them a little too crisp for my taste.



Green Bean Salad with Goat Cheese Dressing
Recipe Courtesy of Love & Olive Oil
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

1 pound green beans, trimmed
2 ounces crumbled fresh goat cheese
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons apple juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil, divided
3/4 cup fresh corn (from 1 ear corn)
1 large tomato, diced

Directions:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add green beans and cook just until they turn bright green and are barely tender, about 2 minutes. Alternatively, you can steam the green beans in a microwave save, lidded glass container. Fill with approximately 1 cup of water, and microwave on high for 2 to 3 minutes or until beans are crisp tender. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Pat dry.

To make the dressing, whisk together goat cheese, lemon zest and juice, apple juice, garlic and pepper in a small bowl. Toss green beans with half the dressing and half the basil or basil and spread on a platter. Top with corn and tomato, drizzle with remaining dressing and sprinkle with remaining basil.

I am linking this to Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum and Miz Helen's Full Plate Thursday!

In My Garden

Despite the heat and lack of rain, there's still a few beautiful flowers in our garden!

Faux Mashed Potatoes

A number of years ago when the Atkins Diet first became popular, a couple of the restaurants where I ate lunch served these Faux Mashed Potatoes. I'd actually forgotten all about them until a few weeks ago when I was searching for recipes for the cauliflower I'd received in my CSA basket. These are so delicious and if you use your imagination, you may just think you're eating mashed potatoes!




Faux Mashed Potatoes

1/2 head of cauliflower, trimmed and cut into florets
2 tablespoons Cream Cheese
2 tablespoon Butter
Salt & Pepper
Chives

Steam the cauliflower for 15 minutes or until tender. Drain and shake to dry. Using a hand mixer, blend the cream cheese and butter. Add the cauliflower and blend until smooth. Salt and Pepper to taste. Sprinkle with freshly snipped chives.

I am linking this to Tuesday's at the Table, Tasty Tuesday's, Made From Scratch Tuesday's,

Chocolate Mint Thumbprint Cookies - Club Baked

What do you think of when you hear Thumbprint Cookies? For me it's those peanut butter ones with the Hershey's kisses in the middle or the ones that are filled with jam. I am always intrigued when I see a new flavor for an old favorite. These thumbprints combine two delicious flavors, chocolate and mint, Andes Mints. I am reminded of standing at the cash register in a restaurant with my Dad, who always bought everyone present for the meal an Andes Mint.

This recipe goes together quickly and easily. The dark chocolate sticky dough, as with most thumbprints, is chilled before rolling them into balls. After chilling this dough for most of the afternoon, it was way too hard. I let it sit on the counter for about 10 minutes, way too soft. I put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes and rolled quickly. Trying to create the look of Andes Mints, I rolled a few of them in green sanding sugar. I did cheat, just a little on this recipe. I used Hershey's white chocolate kisses for the centers!




You can find the recipe for these little gems over at Jamie of Random Acts of Food. Check out the other Club: Baked member's thumbprints here!

Next up in two weeks, Sunday Night Cake, hosted by ME!

My Favorite Flourless Chocolate Cake - Chocolate With Francois

I think my first experience with flourless chocolate cake was twenty or so years ago when I worked with a girl who had gluten allergies. Unlike today, when it seems everyone has some sort of food allergy, no one had ever heard of someone being allergic to flour.

As I was preparing to make this recipe, I realized I didn't have the bottom for my 9" springform pan. I think I left it at my mother in laws when I made her a cheesecake for her birthday. I did some research on using an 8" for a 9" recipe. 10 cups for an 9" and 8 cups for an 8". Perfect, I can put the extra in my mini cheesecake pans and save the balance to serve for dessert when friends come over next weekend. When I poured the 8 cups into the cheesecake pan, I didn't feel like there was enough batter in the pan, so I added one more cup. In the end, I think I could have used it all since these cakes don't rise.

Watch your cooking time very closely, flourless cakes can be dry. I tasted the mini one on the day I made it. It was just okay, a little sticky and not as rich in chocolate as I would have liked. I froze the larger one for about a week. This resulted in the perfect flourless chocolate cake, moist and fudgy, like a decadent chocolate brownie. This recipe is a keeper. It's easy and can be made in advance, the perfect dessert to serve at a dinner party.


Joanne at Apple Crumbles is our host this month. You can find the recipe on her blog.

Grilled Kohlrabi - CSA

I joined a CSA this year. For those of you who don't know, a CSA is Community Supported Agriculture. You find a local farm who basically sells "shares" of the farm in exchange for fresh produce and sometimes a little manual labor at the farm.
Early in the Spring, I started researching the local CSA's. Since there's just two of us, I needed find a farm that offered half shares. I wasn't having much luck and had almost given up when my husband sent me an email, Wenninghoff's Farm was offering to deliver CSA shares to my husband's work. Even better, they offered half shares. I was so thrilled, I'd found my CSA.

We're in our fifth week of the CSA and we're loving it. Today I am sharing with you a recipe from our first week, Grilled Kohlrabi. Kohlrabi isn't an every day vegetable, I think we'd eaten it once before a few years ago. Kohlrabi is available in green or purple and tastes like broccoli stems with a hint of cabbage flavor. The word kohlrabi is German for cabbage turnip (kohl as in cole-slaw, and rübe for turnip).



Grilled Kohlrabi

1 medium kohlrabi, peeled and cubed
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Balsamic Vinegar

Toss the kohlrabi in olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap in foil. Grill over medium heat for 45 minutes, until kohlrabi is tender. Remove from the foil. Adjust seasoning and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

I am linking this to Foodie Friday and Miz Helen's Full Plate Thursday!

Asian Grilled Green Beans

I remember eating fresh green beans in the summer as a kid. Or at least I think they were green beans. Why is it a lot of my early veggie memories are of vegetables being cooked until they were almost mush? I remember my mom cooking green beans with onions and bacon for hours. I think I thought they were good but again I didn't know any better.

I soon realized green beans that aren't cooked for hours, are better than good, they're great! With the hot summer weather we've been having, anytime I can find a recipe suitable for the grill, it's a bonus! Since I didn't have any on hand, I omitted the fresh mushrooms. The red pepper flakes add a touch of heat and a nice kick to the green beans. This recipe is quick and easy, perfect for fresh green beans on a hot summer night!.




Asian Grilled Green Beans
Recipe courtesy of Taste of Home

• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1-1/2 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed
• 1 medium red onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 6 medium fresh mushrooms, quartered

Directions

• In a large bowl, combine the first five ingredients. Add the beans, onion and mushrooms; toss to coat.
• Place half of the vegetables on a double thickness of heavy-duty foil (about 18 in. square); fold foil around vegetables and seal tightly. Repeat with remaining vegetables.
• Grill, covered, over medium heat for 18-22 minutes or until beans are tender, turning packets over once. Open foil carefully to allow steam to escape. Yield: 8 servings.

I am linking this to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tuesday's at the Table, and Tasty Tuesday.