Heat Wave...

We’ve been experiencing an extreme heat wave here in southern California, and with temperatures reaching 110° this past weekend, who’s in the mood to cook?......Well….we were!...call us crazy I know, but….we have to eat…right? Plus we already had in mind what we wanted to make before we knew it was going to be 110°.


I mean, we didn’t cook anything tedious, but it did involve turning on the oven to make some mini pizzas for our dad. Needless to say, the house was pretty hot, but the food was for sure, darn good.

This is what we had….

                

                                                                  Bruschetta

Mixed Greens and Poached Egg Salad

Mini Salami, Mozzarella and Basil Pizza

So, as you can see from the pictures, there wasn’t exactly a lot of cooking to do. Everything was fairly easy to make, there was just a lot of prepping to do.

For the Bruschetta, we used three different tomatoes that we bought from our local Farmer’s Market. We used Red Grape Tomatoes, Yellow Grape Tomatoes and “Snow White” Tomatoes. We sliced them in half and tossed them together with fresh Basil (chiffonade) and a Balsamic Vinaigrette and piled them on top of a sliced, toasted and buttered baguette. It was absolutely delicious.

As for the pizza, it was really easy to make. We actually used left over ingredients (the Marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese were from the Eggplant Parmesan we made a week ago) the only ingredient that we added was some Calabrese Salami from Trader Joes. For the crust, we used Bridgford frozen dough-dinner rolls. All we had to do was thaw and proof the dough, then roll them out to about 4 inch discs. Pretty simple huh?

Next we made a mixed green salad tossed with green grapes, toasted pecans, goat cheese and apple cider vinaigrette topped off with a poached egg. This was actually the highlight of our dinner. And this is the recipe we want to share with you; Mixed Greens and Poached Egg Salad.


~ Enjoy! ~

J and J



~ Mixed Greens and Poached Egg Salad ~
2-3 Servings

~ Apple Cider Vinaigrette ~
2 cups apple cider
½ cup cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. Dijon Mustard
1 each granny smith apple, small dice
1 ½ cup vegetabel oil
1 tsp. tarragon leaves, minced
tt salt
tt white pepper
tt sugar

2 cups mixed greens
1 cup green grapes, sliced in half
½ cup pecans, roasted and roughly chopped
½ oz. goat cheese
1 each poached egg, hot
1 Tbsp. each lardons or bacon cut in small strips.
 
 (tt = to taste)


- Prepare the vinaigrette by reducing the cider by 75% or ¾ cup. Combine the cider reduction, with the vinegar, diced apple and mustard. Whisk in the oil gradually in a slow and steady stream. Add the tarragon and adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper and sugar. Set aside when complete.

- Clean and thoroughly dry the mixed greens. Toss the greens in a large bowl with 4oz or ½ cup of the vinaigrette (or use however much or little you prefer). Portion out on plates and garnisth with grapes, pecans, goat cheese, lardons and top with a poached egg. Eat immediately!

~ Enjoy! ~