Watermelon, Dressed Up

I can’t believe it’s the end of summer already. A week ago, it was warm, sunny, and humid, and this week has been gray, chill, and rainy. What happened to easy transitions?? Oh, DC and your strange and moody weather conditions! I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to you, but at least you keep me on my toes.

I also can’t get my mind around the fact that I have, as of this past weekend, been in D.C. for an entire year. I can write on and on about how the past 52 weeks have shaped and changed me, but what I really want to talk about before it gets any colder, is watermelon.

I’m nearly convinced that no fruit is as summery as watermelon, and, for that reason alone, we need to discuss this for a hot minute before the leaves change and Fall is in full swing. You still have at least a few weeks to make this before watermelons disappear from the markets, and it’s an ace to keep in your back pocket for years to come.



Being from Arizona, we had our fair share of watermelon since it seemed to be in season for what seemed like half the year. I could kick myself now for all the times that I missed eating it in my new favorite way, cause really, once you go where I’m about to direct you, few ever find their way back to eating straight up watermelon again. Unless you’re a purist, which… I can do nothing for you. Anyway,I love this salad. Watermelon Salad, to be exact. And boy, did I get a hefty introduction to it.

About a year and a half ago, I had the great luck to go to a special Top Chef demonstration with Richard from season 4 and Betty from season 2 serving as his sous chef. I personally was hoping for Sam from season 2 as he is a total dreamboat, but that’s neither here nor there. Anyway, I somehow scored a seat in the front row and while chatting up the audience, Richard whipped up some lamb shanks, made bacon maple ice cream (!) using dry ice and no ice cream machine because Richard is awesome and just does stuff like that, I guess. Then, he made Watermelon Salad, using cilantro, 4 kinds of onions, yuzu juice, mint, and cubed watermelon, and I was elated to find that my typical apathy to watermelon was suddenly ooomphed up and I was in watermelon heaven.

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I tried recreating the recipe a few times with other recipes I found online, none of which really captured the essence of what I thought Watermelon Salad should be: cool, slightly tangy, slightly salty, and just…interesting. After a few months of searching, Roni and I discovered a great Watermelon Salad recipe in Nigella Lawson’s book, Forever Summer. And hooo-eee is it easy compared to Richard’s version, but just as good. Better, probably, because it combines even more of my favorite things, like lime juice and kalamata olives and feta and pine nuts. Joy!

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It sounds weird. I know. But trust is key here. If you don’t like olives, just take them out. I’ve always been a lover of sweet-salty-sour combos, and this might be the winner. The watermelon is sweet and chilled, with a tang from the simple dressing of lime juice, and with a freshness from the mint, the saltiness from the olives and feta… the salad is the bomb and truly does belong in a cookbook entitled Forever Summer.

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I crave this salad on a regular basis, because really… a week going by without this, especially during summer watermelon season, is just the silliest thing I’ve ever heard. It’s basically reflective of the fun and uniqueness that is Nigella Lawson, just in watermelon form, and while I’ve never been there, I love how Nigella ends the recipe instructions with this exclamation: “Hava Negila! The taste of Tel Aviv sunshine!”

I'd Like You to Meet Your Summer Fling

So let me tell you a story about this dish I like to call “Crack Salad.”

One day in late Spring, Roni and I both accidentally stumbled upon a noodle salad recipe that sounded awesome and intriguing, the same salad, actually, just posted on different food blogs, and low and behold, FATE literally came and upsmacked us on the back of our heads.

People… we were meant to meet this salad, fall in love, and never look back. No sirree bob. And, I’m happy to report, the salad and I have gotten along swimmingly well since April, we’re going on five months of hanging out now, and damn if this isn’t my most successful relationship yet. Of course, this love is meant to be shared, and I’m happy to do so.

Let me introduce you to a Vietnamese “Crack” Noodle salad. Because it IS addictive, and you WILL want more, and it gives you a jolt of summer high right in your mouth.

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I even made it in AZ recently, and my G-ma had second helpings, which she never has. Also, don’t hate that it has shrimp in it again (like these tacos we made). Nothing says summer better that shrimp, a cold noodle salad, and the dressing that makes you want to do a little dance.

Basically you shred a napa cabbage (if you aren’t a cabbage person, ignore your instincts and just trust me on this one.) Then you chop up your veggies and herbs, like carrots, spring onions, and I like a combo of basil, mint, and cilantro, but choose what you will.

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You cook up the rice noodles, run them under some cold water, drain them, and set them aside. Sprinkle the herbs and carrots and green onions on top of the cabbage, and finish it off with some sautéed shrimp, more herbs, and some toasted cashews (or peanuts, or whatever nut fits your fancy). Somewhere in the midst of all this, you whir up the dressing in the food processor, which includes garlic, fish sauce, vinegar, water, chili flakes, lime juice, and brown sugar.

So… then you’re done. Because this is a salad, and that’s all there is to it. I like to put a helping of the rice noodles in the bottom of the bowl, a scoop of the salad/shrimp mixture on top, and then slosh on a good dose of the dressing.

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You have to understand, what makes this salad so addictive is its bright flavors and crunchiness of the cabbage and cashews, the way the dressing plays on the noodles and the shrimp just make it a nice hearty meal. The first time I had this I had 4 bowls, I kid you not. YUM. Let me reiterate: yumyumyumyum!

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What’s funny is that I pretty much avoided all foods of the “asian persuasion” throughout most of my life until college because I hated Chinese food and anything that, in my ignorant brain, reminded me of Chinese food. Then, my parents smartly introduced me to Thai food with its alluring coconut curries and peanut sauces and I was a goner. What also helped was my friend Lucy inviting me to her house for dinner in college where her mom made some very simple fish, a clear broth, and a rice pancake.... nothing like the Chinese food served at Panda Express, let me promise you. Now I crave sushi, pho, panang curry, and of course, my favorite vietnamese summer crack salad. Thank the Lord above that our taste buds change every 7 years. Or, I finally got over my aversion to soy sauce ever since that time I was five and ate so much of it in my egg drop soup I made myself sick and couldn’t eat Chinese food without wincing for almost 15 years. Whatevs. My taste buds have made a comeback and have a whole eastern continent of delicious tastes to discover. Joy.

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When the going gets tough... the tough make this

Most of my culinary experimentation takes place on Sundays. I spend all week thinking about a perfect Sunday meal, the kind that not only celebrates another week over but eases you into Monday ever so slightly.

It’s like a steady breath in for the week to come and a relaxed and contented breath out.

And while I usually dread Mondays, I love rehashing the weekend with Roni on our Sunday night evenings and then watching the Netflix movie that’s come in, or trying to (I recently fell asleep during La Dolce Vita and returned it without ever seeing the end. Woopsies.)



Once in a while though, I break out of my mold. I refuse to wait for Sundays. And sometimes, I stumble onto something so easy, so good, and so very worth your time that I just have to share.

In this case, my Wednesday meal (several Wednesdays over…once I started, I just couldn’t stop sharing) was inspired by my waking up one morning craving, almost as soon as I opened my eyes, a pasta with asparagus and goat cheese that I had seen in my Bon Appetít. It was really only a thumbnail of a picture, but dang if I haven’t been on a roll with actually MAKING the recipes in my magazines, and I thought I’d give it a try. Only after I decided to try it did I realize that not only my friend Erin had made it (and blogged about it) but so did Smitten Kitchen! What the heck! Either my subconscious is working overtime, or a lot of us just have really good taste (I lean towards the latter reason).

So, before my first test subject came over, my old friend Erik from AZ, I quite literally threw this dish together. No joke. I did the whole baddaBOOM thing with the mint and swirled things around and tossed the pasta and it was a dish that was more like mixing than cooking. Basically, if you can boil water, you can make this dish. Yay, you!

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I rocked out for a bit to The Format (which always reminds me of driving through Phoenix on a summer day), and this is all you do: boil pasta, add asparagus to the pasta water as you boil, and boil some peas that might be hibernating in your freezer too. This all sounds like a good and boring boiled mess, but trust me here… its worth it. Plus, I don’t like peas alone and have to mix them with things, and my mom always said I should eat more of them.

While pasta and said veggies were cooking away, in a big bowl I put a healthy glug of olive oil salt, pepper, chopped mint, the zest of one lemon, and an entire small package of goat cheese that I had scooped out in chunks.

I then drained the pasta, asparagus and peas and reserve some of the cooking water. I added all that to the big bowl of olive oil, goat cheese, mint and lemon and tossed it about, added some hot cooking water, a healthy dose of salt and pepper, a squeeze of lemon and HELLO dinner is ready in like, uh, ten minutes. Maybe fifteen if you chop asparagus slow, or have the slowest stove top ever, which you might, so I feel bad for you, but not that bad, because I just gave you a pimp daddy recipe that will impress your friends. Also, it’s affordable, relatively healthy, filling, delicious, and summery. If you like that sort of thing.

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Oh, and I gave my Aunt Deb the recipe, and she oooohed and aaaaahed over it the next day, and some more friends that came over for dinner the next week liked it, as did some other friends who have since tried it, so I know its pretty legit. The original recipe didn’t call for peas or mint, but I added the peas and substituted tarragon for mint and that’s about it. I’ve since heard the tarragon is pretty awesome too, so maybe next time I make a go of it I’ll really branch out, be all experimental, and try tarragon.

Also, I apologize for the lack of blogging in this last month. Work has just gotten pretty crazy, people have been coming into town, and I truly hope to be a bit more regular about this.

Please take this peace offering in the form of one of my favorite Format songs, which is also kind of like a musical welcome song for my friend Annie who I volunteered with in Santiago, Chile a few years back. We would have dance parties to Michael Jackson and The Format, and she’s coming to DC next week! Joy!

(Disclaimer: this is honestly the best version of this song on Youtube. Um....)

Shrimp Tacos = Summer Time

I must confess… it’s been a strange start to June. Today I woke up at 6 a.m. to a major thunderstorm, then I literally sunburned my arms while sitting outside during lunch, and then this afternoon a huge gale-force wind storm blew up again. It’s been quite a roller coaster ride into Summer, I must say, and while I adore summer storms, I’m sort of craving the sun these days. And honestly, since Sunday night, I keep thinking about a fantastic meal that Roni and I put together which is truly summer-swoon-worthy.



Before I delve into said meal, I have to preface this by saying that every month, we receive two printed culinary gems: Gourmet and Bon Appetit. Honestly, when each of these come in, I grab a mug of coffee/glass of wine/pint of beer and peruse to my heart’s content, dog-earing certain recipes, post-it noting others, etc.

Yet I hardly get around to ever making any of these recipes, mostly because I’m Lazy and Forgetful and these things do not bode well for meal planning. Yet I changed things with a “Mexican Seafood Saute” recipe in the June issue of Bon Appetit and am now UN-Lazy with a Great Memory. Anyway.

First of all…. For our Shrimp Tacos, I…wait for it… made… wait for it… TORTILLAS. Yes, I know, who does this? It’s like saying “Yo, I’m totally gonna make crackers” or “Man, I should just whip up some mustard right now.” I mean you can, obviously, but there are certain things that I think people take for granted at the grocery store, like tortillas. Tired of not getting my Mexican food craving satisfied, I took matters into my own hands and kneaded and rolled my way towards tortilla heaven. And guess what? Twasn’t hard at all. In fact, it was so flippin’ easy that Roni took one bite, looked at me, then said, “Sammy D, I’m sorry, but we are NEVER going back to store-bought tortillas.” This of course means I’ll be perfecting my technique because I kind of suck at rolling dough out into perfect circles, but oh MAN were they good. Here’s a quick shot, and I’m sorry that my stack of 9 tortillas doesn’t look taller.

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So, if that isn’t enough to get you all hot and bothered for this post, then we are moving on to the filling of said tortilla awesomeness.

Roni was in charge of the Shrimp Saute. First off, this sauce/marinade is so good I want to bathe in it. Which is kind of gross, but you haven’t tried it yet so don’t give me that look. With the shrimp it was incredible: bright, with multi-leveled flavors of fun and summer and there was a fiesta in my mouth.

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Money Shot!

We had some pretty ripe mangoes that I chopped up for the salsa, along with an avocado, jalapeno, shallots, lime juice and mint.

I can’t really describe why this dinner was so good. Maybe it was because the day had finally been sunny, we had gone kayaking in the Potomac in the morning, and were in complete summer-vacation moods with sunburned shoulders and that sweet exhaustion that comes with being outside all day. But, it was that good, and mama don’t lie.

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I also just made a straight-up black bean/corn/pepper salad that I always make when I have tacos or enchiladas because its tradition and I am a traditional kinda gal, you see. Plus its super easy and makes for good lunch-fixins for the next day or so.

Please make these tacos this summer, and set yourself a goal of making tortillas. It’s really not scary, I promise. Also, you’ll be the coolest person you know! It’s a win-win situation if you ask me. Oh, and don't rub your nose or your face after chopping jalapenos...even after you wash your hands twice...because it will burn. And if you actually read all the way through this long post, you get a gold star and I’ll even throw in a tortilla.

Your New Favorite Cookie

Okay. So. This is gonna be a quick and zippy entry because I’m kind of in between two bigger posts. Yet I know I need to get something up here like yesterday, so I thought I would treat you to some cookies.

Because everybody deserves a good cookie sometimes.

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I apologize for giving you such a meh oatmeal cookie recipe last time, but I am now making up for it with these Pecan Drops. I got them from The Wednesday Chef who in turn got them from the L.A. Times who in turn got them from Harris Ranch, which is an inn and restaurant owned by some huge beef feeder/marketer in California. Weird, I know, but what can you do. I’ve made them multiple times, they’re pretty fool-proof, and are SO GOOD. Also, they package and travel well according to Roni who has sent batches home to her family. This is made all the more important by the fact that Roni doesn’t really like baking at all. See? Easy as pie. Pecan Pie, actually, if we’re going to get down to business about what these cookies remind me of.

I love Thanksgiving, which I am sure I will discuss more and more as we get closer to the Big Event this upcoming November. One of my favorite aspects of Turkey Day is the array of pies. I LOVE pie. I do. Especially the crunchy topping on a good pecan pie. Honestly, that's what these cookies should be called- Easy Crunchy Pecan Pie Topping Amazingness Cookies.

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Oh, and guess what? They have no flour, no butter, maybe 5 ingredients, and come together in the flashiest of flashes. They are nutty and chewy and taste maple-y, which must be a magical caramel chemical reaction between the pecans and brown sugar.

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To the genius who invented these cookies: I want to give you a high-five and wear BFF heart necklaces together and then bake these cookies on rainy Sunday afternoons. Love, Samantha

Italians Make Things Hot

Panzanella.

Doesn’t that just sound pretty? What with it being Italian and all, it’s kind of like the Sophia Loren of salads, if you ask me. I mean… you take normal ingredients. Things like stale bread of all things, some tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and a red pepper. Then, true to Italian form, you sex it up with some good dressing and suddenly you have a show-stopper summer salad, something that makes you do a double-take and think “Huh… so… it’s just bread and tomatoes? I don’t get it, but damn, I kind of have a crush.”


During one hot Phoenician summer day, I was bumming around watching Ina Garten on the Food Network and saw her literally throw this dish together in what seemed minutes-- I was sold. Given the heat, I was in need of something fresh that had the essence of summer but not the heat of it. Oh, Ina. You’re a woman after my own heart.

Again, it seems like some of the best dishes were perfected by peasants centuries ago, and panzanella is the same. Different versions call for different ingredients. Some have anchovies, some don’t have cucumber, some grill the red peppers, some use a specific Tuscan salt-less bread. This is a pretty basic version that you can fancify to your liking. Add what you like to this dish-- grill the tomatoes or slow roast them, perhaps. Jamie Oliver uses the tomato juice as part of his dressing. In my very amateur opinion, this recipe is a great balance of flavor, and, more importantly, a solid starting point to jump off in your own direzione.

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Back to the recipe. I’m an impatient person, I think. I just don’t have time to wait for a loaf of bread to be a few days old before I make this. When I want panzanella, I want it now. Instead, I cheat (duh) and use a fresh loaf, torn into chunks and toasted with a bit of olive oil, sea salt, and fresh cracked pepper in a skillet. The croutons alone are enough to entice me over and over again to make this dish as the weather warms up and the tomatoes ripen with the summer.

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A final note on Sophia Loren. You know, I don’t proclaim myself an expert on her by any means, but how can you not love a woman who one time said "Everything you see, I owe to spaghetti" ??? Even if she’s a bit tanorexic these days, she still rocks it. Any girl would be lucky to look so good, and I think this classic Italian salad with fresh veggies is a good place to start. At least... here's hoping.

Cabbage Kid

Growing up, I ate a lot of Indian food. Included in that was a neon-yellow shredded cabbage dish that was fine, but it wasn’t my favorite by any means. Besides the standard coleslaw at picnics and this one horrible experience of me actually trying to make a grilled red cabbage slaw (I still shudder… never take for granted a good olive oil, especially when you accidentally use a RANCID OLIVE OIL and ruin everything, which, btw, still gives me nightmares...ugh) cabbage was just kind of meh you know?

I mean… its cabbage.

This lack of interest probably also stemmed from my Dad banning brussel sprouts and cabbage-like items from the table besides the previously mentioned Indian cabbage, so it was literally not until January, at the tave tiranse night that my friend Kari suggested sliced red cabbage to eat with hummus. Pardon? Yeah, it sounds weird, but you know what? I was an idiot. Red cabbage with good hummus is the shiz, and you should know it. Sweet, crunchy, and kind of perfect, cabbage totally slapped me across the face with its greatness and now I’m a big fan and want to put cabbage in everything and sing about it from the rooftops.

Remember how I said I couldn’t write about braised cabbage because it was so hot outside? Well Nature complied and has made it rain at least 4 of the 7 days of the week, which makes me careful for what I wish for. And yet. This is perfect cabbage weather, especially when it’s braised and served with melty cheese and crusty bread. Oh, baby.

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I got this Savoy Cabbage Gratin recipe from Molly’s blog, Orangette, who in turn got it from Molly Steven's book, All About Braising. I’ve been a big fan of the Orangette blog for a while, and had also wanted to try this recipe for months. (If you haven’t visited her site…please do. And soon.) So while the concept of this dish is simple and the ingredients are few, it just takes time to bake. First you take a Savoy cabbage, chop it up, then saute it for a bit. Then you bake/braise the cabbage in the chicken stock for a nice long time. Then you add cheese and let it get melty and the edges get crispy...

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While you might have to wait almost an hour for this darling of a dish to bake, I promise you… your kitchen smells GOOD, and the cheese…you should just put a lot on because melted cheese on this is a most-awesome delight. I didn’t do the triple-cream cheese Molly had recommended because I’m cheap and wanted to use what I had on hand, which was Parmesan and Havarti, and damn if it didn’t work out swimmingly. I had 2 bowls and wanted more, but I restrained myself to save the rest for lunch and dinner the next day.

The comfort of this dish reminded me of the way I felt about soup over the winter… it just sort of hugs you from the inside out and is kind of perfect in a humble and lovely sort of way.

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Up next? Probably one of two salads I’m obsessed with right now. As a side note, you know how you get a song stuck in your head for three days straight and can’t get it out unless you sing it? All of the time? Like, every five minutes? Welcome to my world. Also, let me introduce you to a song by Josh Radin and Schuyler Fisk that I had originally kind of ignored on The Last Kiss soundtrack from a few years back. I’m hoping by me posting this on the blog it will finally leave my poor brain alone. Thanks Youtube!