Kale and Farro Salad with Avocado and Marcona Almonds

Kale is a big deal these days. Everyone knows that. 

So I wasn’t surprised the other day, when I went to lunch with my friend Liz Reuven at the Rive Bistro in Westport, to find a Kale and Farro Salad on the menu. We shared one, along with Tuna Nicoise.

The salad was delightful, the kale fresh and bright green. The chef had added bits of dried apricots and crunchy marcona almonds and doused it all with sherry vinaigrette.

I kept thinking “I have to make this salad.”

The next day I went to my daughter Gillian’s house and guess what she had for lunch?

Mmmm hmmm. Kale Salad with Farro. She included avocado, not apricots and sliced carrots, not almonds.

The kale was bright green and crisp, the avocados smooth and rich and the carrots nicely crisp. Gillian also added some fresh mint, which was a wow, because it calmed down the kale, which can be bitter, and made it a perfect summer dish.

I kept thinking “I have to make this salad.”

So I did. A little of this one, a little of that one. I decided to nix the apricots and the carrots, but use avocados and marcona almonds. I had some scallions, so those went in too. Plus that wonderful mint.

You should make this salad.

Here’s the recipe:

Kale and Farro Salad with Avocado and Marcona Almonds

1 cup farro (or use wheatberries or spelt)

2 cups water

3 cups chopped fresh kale

1 avocado

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

2 tablespoons olive oil

juice of one large lemon (about 3-4 tablespoons juice)

1/3 cup chopped marcona almonds

Place the farro and water in a saucepan and bring the liquid to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat, cover the pan and cook for about 25-30 minutes or until the farro is tender but still chewy. Drain any water that has not been absorbed. Place the cooked farro in a large bowl and let cool. Add the kale and toss the ingredients. Cut the avocado into small chunks and add to the salad. Add the mint. Pour the olive oil over the ingredients and toss to distribute them evenly. Pour in the lemon juice and toss. Add the almonds, toss once more and serve.

Makes 6 servings

Challah French Toast

In the world of French Toast, the kind made with challah is by far the best and most delicious.

Don’t you agree?

I’ve tried this dish with so many different kinds of bread, I can’t even recount them all. Here’s what I’ve learned:

Packaged white bread gets too soggy for French Toast. It falls apart; also it’s too thin.

Bakery white bread is fine, but uninspiring.

Multigrain bread has too many distracting extras, like seeds and stuff.

Whole wheat has a strong flavor so it competes with the vanilla-custardy taste that you want.

French bread is fabulous for French Toast, I grant you that. But it is crusty-firm and not everyone appreciates that.

Challah is #1. The champ. Because it is so dense (and absorbs the egg- milk-vanilla soak splendidly). And because it is so rich and eggy to begin with. (Brioche, which is almost exactly like challah, will do too.)

But make sure it isn’t pre-sliced challah, which is too thin. Slice the bread yourself using a serrated knife.        

This recipe is a winner at my house.

Challah French Toast

6 large eggs

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

8 1-inch slices challah (or brioche)

1-1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 140°F. Beat the eggs, milk and vanilla extract in a large shallow pan until well blended. Add the bread slices and let them soak, turning them occasionally, until all of the liquid has been absorbed. Heat the butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted and looks foamy, add a few pieces of the soaked bread and cook for 2-3 minutes per side or until lightly browned and crispy. Don’t crowd the pan. When the slices are cooked, place them on a cookie sheet and keep them warm in the oven; repeat with remaining bread, adding more butter if needed. Serve with maple syrup. Makes 4 servings

Peanut Butter Cookies

July 4th brings out the all-American food fest. You know, hot dogs, hamburgers, cole slaw, potato salad and so on. Everybody’s cooking up a storm.

My own American favorite: Peanut Butter Cookies. First brought to the country’s attention by George Washington Carver (1864-1943), Tuskegee Institute’s famous teacher and promoter of the peanut crop. He apparently included some recipes for peanut-based cookies in a bulletin he put together early on.

Have you ever wondered why peanut butter cookies always have criss-cross fork marks on top?

It’s because the dough is dense and doesn’t spread easily. The fork flattens the cookie so it bakes evenly and the outside has a bigger surface area for crisping.

I guess you could roll the dough and cut out peanut butter cookies and they would bake just as well.

But then they wouldn’t be American Peanut Butter Cookies, would they?

Here’s my mother’s recipe. It doesn’t get better than these. They are compellingly sweet and salty at the same time, an old-fashioned taste that peanut butter cookie aficionados understood and loved long before sea-salted caramels came along.

My Mom always made these with Skippy peanut butter. I’ve made them with all other kinds, commercial brands and organic-bulk.

Skippy’s the best there is for these.

Peanut Butter Cookies

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup vegetable shortening

2 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, white sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer (or use a handheld mixer and large bowl) and mix at medium speed for about 1 minute or until the mixture is uniform and the ingredients are evenly distributed. Add the peanut butter, shortening and eggs and beat the mixture for about 2 minutes, starting at low speed then gradually switching to medium until a uniform dough forms. Take off pieces of dough and shape them into balls about 1-1/2 inches in diameter. Flatten the balls between your palms. Place the cookies on the prepared sheet, leaving an inch of space between them. Press the top of each cookie with the flat, bottom side of a fork to make a crisscross design on top of each cookie. Bake for 16-20 minutes or until the cookies are richly browned and crispy. You can freeze these cookies for 6 months.

Makes about 8 dozen

Blueberry Crisp

We’ll have a July 4th holiday theme for the biweekly Tea I bake for (for cancer patients and their caregivers at Stamford Hospital). The women who coordinate these events, sponsored by Hadassah, have asked us (the bakers) to consider red, white and blue based desserts and confections.

I thought about the time one of my daughters volunteered me to do a red, white and blue dessert for her grade school class (I think that one was for Flag Day). What I came up with then was something in the shape of a sheet cake, but made of strips of watermelon and cream cheese; the star field was a bunch of blueberries piped on top with tiny cream cheese stars that I squeezed out of a pastry tube.

It looked like a flag all right. And the kids ate it all. But I really didn’t like the combination of soft, watery watermelon together with thick, dense cream cheese.

So, for the Tea I am going to stick to something much more mundane, but which I know is absolutely delicious, especially because local blueberries are now available and I just bought myself some.

Blueberry Crisp it is.

By the way, I looked up the word “biweekly” before I used it, wondering if it was actually every two weeks, as I thought, OR twice a week. Several dictionaries say it is BOTH meanings. Which might be fine if we are talking about baking a cake or something. But what if your doctor says “take these pills biweekly.” Do you take them every two weeks or twice a week?

Blueberry Crisp     

• 2 pints fresh blueberries

• 1/3 cup sugar

• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

• 1 cup bran flakes or raisin bran

• 1/2 cup quick cooking or rolled oats

• 1/2 cup chopped nuts such as almonds, cashews or pecans

• 1/4 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 6 tablespoons melted unsalted butter or margarine

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the blueberries, sugar, flour, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and lemon juice in a 6-cup baking dish. Set aside. Crush the cereal flakes slightly and put them in a bowl. Add the oats, nuts, brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and toss ingredients to distribute them evenly. Pour in the melted butter. Mix until the dry the ingredients are coated with the melted butter. Place the cereal mixture over the fruit. Bake for 30 minutes or until the crust is crispy and brown. Let cool slightly but serve warm (may be rewarmed). Serve plain or with cream, ice cream, whipped cream, or sorbet.

Makes 6–8 servings.

Salmon Salad with White Beans, Blue Cheese and Dried Cranberries

I love to cook, but even I don’t love to cook when the weather is hot and sticky and I’ve been out all day and all I want is a shower, a cool room and a quick dinner.

On those days I grill something easy and fast, like a chicken breast or fish filet. Or I make a sandwich or sometimes even plain old scrambled eggs for dinner.

Sometimes I don’t cook at all. Like when I have leftovers and can mix them with the packaged ingredients that I always keep handy in my kitchen: canned beans, frozen peas, dried fruit and items like that. This is the stuff of a good summer salad.

This salmon salad is just one example of the kind of quick-to-fix food that I think is perfect for a hot summer day. And also if you lose power in a hurricane because if you don’t happen to have leftover salmon, you can use a 15-ounce can of salmon (don’t forget to keep a manual can opener in your miscellaneous equipment drawer).

The recipe is versatile of course. If you don’t have peas, use corn; no cranberries — use raisins; no white beans, use black. And so on.  

Salmon Salad with White Beans, Blue Cheese and Dried Cranberries

2 cups crumbled leftover cooked salmon (or 15-ounce can red salmon, drained)

2 cups cooked white beans (or 15-ounce can white beans, rinsed and drained)

1 cup thawed frozen peas

3/4 cup crumbled blue cheese

4 scallions, chopped

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1 tablespoon grated fresh orange peel

1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill

2 teaspoons chopped fresh mint

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons orange juice

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place the salmon in a large bowl and break it up slightly. Add the beans, peas, cheese, scallions, cranberries, orange peel, dill and mint. Toss gently to distribute the ingredients evenly. In a small bowl mix the vegetable oil, lemon juice and orange juice. Pour over the ingredients and toss. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let rest for at least 15 minutes before serving. Makes 4 servings

Real Whipped Cream

When I buy the first real, local summer strawberries of the season I remember what lawyer/writer William Allen Butler once said:

"Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did."

I agree. Sometime in the middle of June I know these gems are coming to a market near me. I sniff them out. It’s easy, because they smell like cotton candy and I need some, immediately.

I bought two quarts of strawberries on Friday and ate an entire quart — and then some — all by myself, by Sunday. It’s like eating popcorn. Or potato chips. I can’t just have one.

Every year, when I finish feasting on the first strawberries of the season, I wonder why I buy the year ‘round kind sold in the supermarkets in plastic containers. Those gigantic things that look swell but that taste like nothing. They certainly don’t don’t taste like strawberries. And they’re as dry as a cardboard box to boot. 

I vow never to let these red wonders get me again. They’re fake. They’re sold to fool us into thinking that this is what strawberries are.

Don’t be fooled, ever again. Save yourselves for the real stuff. Find a farmer’s market or store that sells strawberries that haven’t been grown for long-distance travel. Honestly, there’s a reason why food experts suggest eating local produce. It tastes the way nature intended it to taste. 

By the way, you don’t have to do anything to strawberries (other than rinse them). They are dessert unto themselves. There’s no need for cobblers or tarts or anything.

No need for sugar either. Real strawberries are naturally sweet. Like cotton candy.

If you want something fancier, maybe a bit of whipped cream.

Real whipped cream, not too sweet. Like my mother use to make:

Real Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional

Place a large mixing bowl and mixer beaters in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to chill them. Pour the cream into the cold bowl and mix, starting at slow speed with an electric mixer then gradually increasing the speed to high, for a minute or so until the cream thickens. Add the sugar and vanilla extract and continue to beat, starting at slow and continuing to high speed, until the mixture is thick. Makes about 2 cups

My Birthday Cake. L'il Miss Cakes

I never celebrate my birthday with cake. It’s always apple pie for me because I can’t think of a dessert I like better. And my grandson, who doesn’t like to eat much of anything loves my homemade apple pie, so of course I want to have one when he’s here.

But this year I added cake too, for a couple of reasons. First, because it was one of those round numbered birthdays and it felt as if dessert should be more festive, even though the birthday has passed and we actually ate the cake on Father’s Day because that’s when we all got together at my house.

Second, because a blogger colleague of mine, Melissa Kaye, bakes such gorgeous cakes that I wonder at the artwork every time I read one of her blog posts and see what she has created for some client.

I had to have one of her cakes for my birthday.

That’s it, in the photo. Isn’t is beautiful? Simple, elegant and tasteful.

The kids shared the flower (Melissa had made another one first that she didn’t think was good enough and I took that one home too, which was good because little kids always like the flower best).

The cake itself was white cake (at my request); in between were layers of chocolate.

But she will bake any kind of cake you might want. Also cookies, snack cakes, bundt cakes and such. You can see some of her other creations here.

If you are in the market for a delicious and gorgeous cake, here’s how to reach her: lilmisscakes.

Oatmeal Pancakes

Breakfast. They say it is the most important meal. 

It can also be the most stressful. Especially when you have kids and you want to be sure they’re starting the day right.

Yes, school is almost over now so you may not have the same morning rush with the usual arguments about what they’re going to eat while trying to get them out the door on time, properly filled.

But there may be camp. Or gymnastics or art class. Or a doctor appointment. Or a train to catch. Life goes on, whether or not school’s in session.

And school will start again in a few months anyway (the summer always seems to fly by doesn’t it?).

So, how to have a healthy, peaceful, tasty breakfast?

There are all sorts of ways to handle it. When I was a kid my Dad would make cooked cereal and add sugar, cinnamon, chocolate chips, butter and cream.

It did the trick of course. But I can’t recommend that in good conscience.

Here’s what I am recommending: a new app called LaLa Breakfast.

First, to confess, LaLa Breakfast is the creation of my daughter Gillian.

Her first app, LaLa Lunchbox — a best-seller — which helps parents and kids choose healthy lunches, got rave reviews and requests for her to do the same thing for breakfast.

So she came up with LaLa Breakfast, which takes the stress out of the breakfast routine. 

Like all parents, Gillian doesn’t want to spend needless time cooking breakfast nor does she want to meet unreasonable demands. She controls the items that are available for the meal. And she and her children make the breakfast decisions in advance. 

You can do the same with LaLa Breakfast. Your children choose what they want to eat before the morning. That way they don’t get cranky about what you picked — a waffle, say — when what they really wanted was oatmeal.

Gillian recommends that, whatever the choices, prepare as much as you can in advance. Like pouring cereal into a bowl and setting it out on the table (covered). Or washing and cutting up fruit. It’s easy to get that stuff out of the way when you know in advance what the meal is going to be.

In addition to having breakfast “ordered” and partially prepped, with LaLa Breakfast your children learn not only to pick healthy breakfast but also to understand what it means to make decisions and stick by them.

The app is really cute, with attractive looking “monsters” to help guide children in their choices. There are four categories they can select from: Eggs, Produce, Grains and Protein. After you make your choices, the app creates a shopping list of items you need. And for those who have both LaLa Breakfast and LaLa Lunchbox, the two grocery lists can be seamlessly synced into one and accessible via multiple devices. 

One of the things I learned as a parent making breakfast was that sometimes children like the same item over and over, even in the same week. So I recommend making some items in bulk and keeping them for a few days. For example, if you make oatmeal, make more than one portion and use the leftovers to make oatmeal pancakes (the batter will last for about 3 days, refrigerated).

Oatmeal Pancakes

3 tablespoons butter

1 cup leftover oatmeal

2 large eggs

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

butter to cook the pancakes

Melt the butter and set it aside to cool. Place the oatmeal in a bowl. Add the eggs, milk, maple syrup, vanilla extract and melted butter and mix the ingredients to blend them thoroughly. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix them in to make a relatively smooth batter. Melt a small amount of butter in a saute pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted and looks foamy, drop about 1/4 cup of the batter onto the pan for each pancake. Leave space between each pancake. Cook the pancake for 1-2 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom. Turn the pancakes over and cook on the second side for 1-2 minutes or until browned. Serve plain or with syrup.

Makes about 18-20 pancakes.

Mango Soup with Mint and Chili Pepper

I used to test kitchen appliances and write about them for various magazines, so I learned a lot about what to look for and about the best uses for the tools we buy for our kitchens. Also some history as to why or how they got invented.

Like the Blender. We take it for granted these days, but it was the first real “modern” kitchen tool. It began as barware back in the 1930s, designed to blend the likes of cocktails like Daiquiris and Brandy Alexanders.

But in the 1950s, when the real housewives of America got hold of it, they quickly understood how useful it could be in the kitchen.

Women’s lib. At least when it came to chopping, blending and pureeing ingredients. 

Among the first “blender recipes” were cold soups. It was so easy — put cut up soft fruit or vegetables in a blender, add liquid and seasonings and puree away.

The process isn’t much different today, except now we have immersion blenders and food processors also.

What is different now is that we now have a zillion more ingredients that women back in the 50s probably never heard of or would think to use because they were unavailable or outside their cultural comfort zone. Like yogurt. Mango. Avocado. Chili peppers. Ingredients that are now as commonplace as apples and milk and packaged bread.

I recently had a few too many mangoes so I decided to get out my trusty old blender and give it a whirl for cold fruit soup. It was as reliable as ever. The soup took just a few minutes to prepare and it was incredibly refreshing.

It’s a perfect dish on a hot, hot, humid day.

If you make this soup in advance and store it in the fridge, take it out about a half hour before you serve it. Fruit soups are best when chilled but not utterly cold.

Mango Soup with Mint and Chili Pepper

2 large mangoes, about 2 pounds

1 cup milk, approximately

1 cup plain Greek style yogurt

1 small Serrano pepper, about 1 teaspoon finely chopped

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

juice of half a lime

salt to taste

gratings of nutmeg

Peel the mango and cut the flesh into chunks. Place the mango, milk, yogurt, Serrano pepper, honey, mint and lime juice in a food processor or blender (or use a deep vessel and hand blender) and puree the ingredients. Season to taste with salt. Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled. Garnish with a few sprinkles of freshly grated nutmeg and mint sprigs. If the soup seems too thick, stir in enough milk to achieve the desired consistency. Makes 4 servings

Roasted Potato Salad

There’s an old saying: “you can never be too rich or too thin.”

But when it comes to aphorisms, my own personal one is “you can never have too many recipes for potato salad.” I must have a zillion of them. Almost as many as the number of recipes I have for banana bread.

Potato Salad is, of course, the American summer classic. How could you not have it on Father’s Day, especially if you’re going to be eating barbecued chicken or burgers and things like that. And even if you aren’t, well, potato salad goes with so many entrees, you really can’t go wrong serving it.

I’ve spent a lot of time experimenting with potato salads because I didn’t start out with a good family recipe. My mother made it with cut up all-purpose potatoes and Miracle Whip; it was one of the only dishes of hers that I didn’t like. 

But I knew, instinctively, there’d be a recipe I’d love. After all, the dish begins with potato, one of my favorite foods. 

After many experiments I know that small, waxy potatoes are best for potato salad. They hold up better, so the texture is firmer and more resilient.

And, sue me, I hate Miracle Whip. Most of my potato salad dressings are variations on vinaigrette.

Recently I decided to try a new approach. I roasted the potatoes first. Winner!

The potato edges were crispy and brown. I gave them a light, mustardy white wine vinegar dressing, just tart enough to complement the mild potato flesh.

Try this salad for Father’s Day! Pour the dressing onto the potatoes when they’re still warm. If you make the salad ahead and refrigerate it, get it to room temperature for serving.

Roasted Potato Salad

1-1/2 pounds “new” waxy potatoes (such as Red Bliss or baby Yukon Golds)

4 tablespoons olive oil

salt to taste

2 scallions, chopped

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Wash and dry the potatoes and cut them into bite size pieces. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place the potatoes on the paper. Pour about 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over the potatoes, toss them to coat all sides and sprinkle with salt. Roast the potatoes for about 25 minutes, mixing them once or twice, or until tender and crispy. Place the potatoes in a bowl. While the potatoes are still warm, add the scallions and parsley. Mix the remaining olive oil, white wine vinegar and Dijon mustard. Pour over the potatoes. Toss the ingredients. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let rest for at least 15 minutes before serving. Makes 6-8 servings