A Summer Salad Sayonara

ON THE MENU: two scrumptious salads -- the Oregon Salad from The Original (restaurant where Ashley works), and a Nicoise salad (Ashley's favorite). For dessert: Carrot Cake Cupcakes from the Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics.

LOGISTICS: Ashley's first encounter with Nicoise was earlier this summer at St. Honore when Ali and Ashley meet up with a long time friend Morayor. We finally decided that this summer dunch, linner, or lupper (if you Canadian like Kayla) to explore this classic french salad. The Oregon salad is easily found on many northwest restaurants menus. The carrot cake muffins came to us because our original idea was to make cheese cake which would have taken too long to cool and Ashley had made the muffins early this month for her Fathers Office dinner.

Nicoise Salad:

-the most important thing to know about this salad it that it takes a lot of prep time. Almost every item in the salad demands lots of love.

The potatoes and eggs need to be boiled, the green beans need to be steamed and the tomatoes need to be purchased. While making the salad after two grocery runs we still forgot the tomatoes. Luckily Maddie came to the rescue with eggs and Powdered Sugar for the cup cake foisting.

We used a recipe from Simply Recipies. here is the link. Nicosia Salad

-this recpie is very early to follow and each step is so detailed its hard to veer off track.

-After much debate we found the meaning of the word NICOISE, here is a link to a good explication to the word.

http://www.drgourmet.com/askdrgourmet/nicoise.shtml

Oregon Salad: This is very popular is many local restaurants, they all have slight variations but The Original does it best!

Start by baking the beets at 425 deg for 30-45 min. Once you take them out of the oven the skin will fall right off. Wear an apron because beat DO Stain!!!

Next up: Toast your hazelnuts in either a toaster oven or oven. Keep an eye on them because ours almost burned!!!

Once you have your pears chopped your ready to mix up your salad! Don't forget to wait and dress your salad right before you sit to eat or else you will get a soggy salad! gross.....

Carrot Cake Muffins: We snagged this recipe from Bare Foot Contessa! A Barg and Grewe family favorite! Ashley had made this recipe earlier in the month for Noelle's 30th Birthday! They were so good she was dyeing to have an excuse to make them again!

The recipe is simple to follow, just keep in mind that the frosting is a huge portion so either make a third of the recipe of save the leftovers for another occasion because the muffins cant handle Ina's frosting portions!

You can find the recipe in Her book Barefoot Contessa Parties Cookbook page 204

or

Here is a link Carrot Cake Muffins

Table Talk:

-Everyone heading off to school was bittersweet

-the Bambi! in Ashley's Back yard???

-Jaz picking out the; beets,lettuces,hazelnuts, and Chev out of the Oregon Salad.. what's left?? pears!!! luv you hehe

-everyone got to meet BEN!

-Maddy H. Grandma Rose's Birthday!!

Kiwi, Peach, Mango Margaritas

ON THE MENU: a summery margarita-smoothie with fresh kiwi, peach, and mango (and a little jose cuervo and triple sec).

LOGISTICS: On a whim we decided to concoct this drink to accompany our gazpacho. We made up the recipe ourselves, and it was so good! We didn't make the drinks very strong, then again the thickness of the smoothie hid the taste of the tequila (not that we really needed that hehe).

We included:

- 1 peach, with skin

- 1 peeled mango

- 2 peeled kiwis

- 1/2 cup lemonade

- 3 shots of tequila

- 1 BIG shot of triple sec (we didn't do any measuring so add alcohol to your taste)

- 3 large handfuls of ice

We chopped up all the fruit, and then threw everything into the blender except for the alcohol. Once the smoothie was made, we blended in the tequila and triple sec. Serve in margarita glasses. YUM!

Keep in mind that these are really thick and filling, so make sure you have a light meal (like gazpacho!) to partner with it.

TABLE TALK:

- how the Jose Cuervo was mysteriously lighter than it should be (Aaron??)

- how we could have definitely added more alcohol, like if it was for a party

- tattoos

- searching the market for a friend with a boat. contact us if you know of any :)

Gazpacho galore

ON THE MENU: Tex-Mex Gazpacho from the July 2010 Real Simple magazine.LOGISTICS: this vegetarian gazpacho consists of tomatoes, bell peppers, poblano pepper, onions, and kirby cucumbers (the ones you pickle). It was super easy to make! And the perfect lunch for a hot summer day.

The menu goes as follows:

The only problems we ran into were the blender, and picking the bowl size to hold the soup. Make sure you have a blender that will be able to smoothly blend veggies like bell peppers.

We poured the soup into too small of a bowl for us to mix in the oil, lime, salt, and pepper (don't be shy on bowl size, too big is always better than too small). The overall soup probably could serve 5, even though the recipe says 4. Our favorite part of the meal was the warmed tortillas - they gave a could mix of texture for the soup and contrasted it's coolness. Also, we added avocado to the soup, which we thought was another great flavor and texture addition.

Overall a great success! And we made some great smoothie-margaritas (see future post!)

TABLE TALK:

- Guest appearances: Kayla, Willy (Ali's dog), and a deer in the backyard!!!

- Making ice cream and swimming at Chuck's house

- Maddie's family reunion in Colorado (miss her already)

- Moving in to our apartments at school in the fall (coming so soon!)

- Wine, aka the Barg family's choice of hydration

Momma Bonnie's 7 layer Bars!

ON THE MENU: Seven layer bars with cinnamon

LOGISTICS: This recipe is famous in the Barg household; there are frequent requests for Bonnie to make this delicious bar. We took it upon ourselves to try the recipe ourselves, and see if we could master it like Bonnie has.

The recipe is so simple it's almost dangerous (too easy to make too many!!) Here's the recipe, as told by Bonnie:

- 1/2 cup butter (melted)

- 1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

- 1 cup walnuts, chopped

- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or butterscotch, or a combo!)

- 1 1/3 cup flaked coconut

- 1 1/3 cup Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk

1. Pour melted butter into 13x9 pan.

2. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs evenly over melted butter.

3. Sprinkle chopped nuts evenly over graham cracker crumbs.

4. Scatter chocolate chips/butterscotch morsels over nuts.

5. Sprinkle coconut evenly over chocolate

6. Pour condensed milk evenly over coconut

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until lightly browned on top. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then cut into bars.

un sabor de España

ON THE MENU: Seafood Paella, we found this recipe in "The New Basics Cookbook". We were inspired to make this Spanish dish because of our friend Lindsey’s new love for it. Her love affair for this family style dish was ignited while visiting her older sister in Spain this past winter.

LOGISTICS: After hours of searching for recipes under the incorrect spellings: Piyaya? Pilla? Piyalla?... Ashley texted Ali for the correct one. This recipe included: garlic and rosemary marinated shrimp, clams, rabbit, lobster and mussels.

However being the pescatarians that we are, we skipped the rabbit and chose not to break the bank for lobster. And, apparently it is not mussel season so we had to make due with shrimp, clams, and tofurkey sausages.

Although our dinner was satisfying, we would not recommend this dish. The rice was a bit bland, and who wants to eat Bugs Bunny’s cousin?

The paella was fun to make and required all four kitchen helpers, because there was so much chopping and grilling involved. Joining us in the kitchen today were Lindsey and Ellie.

Despite our discontent with the recipe we have not given up on Paella. Lindsey’s mom has a recipe that we will be trying before we all had back to school.

Kitchen Talk:

- Lindsey giving Ashley a hard time for not having a garlic compressor.

- Maddie taste-testing while prepping. i.e. raw rice... not so yummy.

- Maddie and Ashley’s matching maxi dresses... awk

- Ali's older sister's 21^st bday.

Since we wrote this on the road to san fran we also have some car talk for you...

- Cosmo… enough said

- The fact that we are 30 in ten years… ohhh godddd

- Smuggling fuit across the Oregon-Cali boarder… We are such bad liars but we got a way this time! Good thing the watermelon was yummy :)

- Debate as to weather we were passing a karst or not( juls any ideas?)

- Rainbow trucks in Weed??

An Oregonian Discovery: Mushroom Burgers with Barley by Lukas Volger

ON THE MENU: Mushroom-barley veggie burger with thyme. Green salad with tomatoes, cucumbers and parsley. All accompanied with a glass of Charles Shaw red wine. Finished off with vanilla yogurt, topped with peaches, mangos, and almond granola.  

LOGISTICS: Jonathan, Ashley's dad, gave her the "food day" section of the Oregonian, point out an article which provided an alternative for the basic meat burger, and also spot-lighted a cook book called "Veggie Burgers Every Which Way", by Lukas Volger. This was especially interesting for us because Ashley and Ali's diets for the most part exclude meat. The recipe for one of Lukas Volger's burgers goes as follows:

1 medium yukon gold potato, peeled and cut into 1/2 -inch pieces

1 fresh portabello mushroom

10 fresh shiitake mushrooms

12 fresh cremini mushrooms

3 tablespoons of olive oil (divided)

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 cup cooked barley

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Find the full article here.

This recipe appeared on the front page of the June 29th FoodDay section. After test-driving the recipe we found some ways to fine tune it to make a better overall burger. First, we would have made the barley a day ahead of time, to cut the cooking time in half (the recipe suggests this as an option). FYI we cooked the barley in veggie broth (not water). Second, instead of mashing the potatoes by hand with a fork, we would have liked using a Kitchen Aide to make the potatoes more creamy, which probably would have held the burger together better (we had many mishaps with the burgers crumbling... be gentle with them, they're your friends).

When making these burgers, it was important to saute the portabello mushrooms first, because they take longer to cook. Lastly, our preparation and cooking times were much longer than expected. The finished product was accompanied by avocado, cheddar cheese, butter lettuce, tomato, onion, and stone-ground mustard. Yum! The burgers were so good, we will definitely be making them in the future!!

Yes, in this picture it shows 7 burgers; we suggest only making 5 burgers (to make a more hefty meal).

TABLE TALK:

- Our newly purchased Cosmo magazine, induced many interesting discussions and laughs.

- Ali's soccer game that interrupted her feasting.

- Adyn's near-death experience with Jonathan's car.

- Paella tomorrow!

- Ashley's exciting find at Seams to Fit, a designer consignment shop off 23rd (cute black dress, which she can finally check off of the Rush List for Alpha Phi!!)

- California Gurls by Katy Perry vs. New York City Gurls by YouTube user... (possible Oregon Gurls coming soon... San Fran road trip activity?)

Adyn is ALIVE and smiling :) 

(this is the correct way of spelling his name for any nay-sayers)