Seasonal Sundays (Week 6) Winter Salads

Seven vegetable salads guaranteed to drive out any mid-winter cold-weather doldrums, it's a special collection that leans into meal prep and all are party-friendly, just in case there's some sort of gathering-round-the-screen event coming up. I sure hope you love 'em!

~ Skip Straight to the Good Stuff ~

Welcome to Seasonal Sundays ...

As ever, thank you for welcoming me into your InBox and RSS feed reader. It's your kitchens, your lives, I conjure while writing ...

Hey, All!

When was the last time you browsed, really slowly browsed, a new grocery store?

Last week, I went looking for lentils and chickpeas at a place with a good bulk aisle (dang, no luck on either count) but the store wasn't busy and I had a few minutes to spare so ...

And I'll definitely try this again ...

Because I discovered several interesting new-to-me products and brought home three.

• A new "instant sourdough" from RedStar, a packet with the usual yeast but also a sourdough starter. It didn't seem to make a difference with my first loaf but I'm anxious to try another packet, just to see.
• Rennet, used in cheese-making. Turns out, it's made right here in St. Louis, it's Junket Desserts. Someplace, somewhere, I have cheese-making tools but finding rennet was always an issue. But in the mean time, I plan to try making Homemade Ricotta using this technique with rennet.
• Rao's marinara sauce, it's supposedly "the best" but for $9 on sale, I expected more and won't seek out again.

There was also a $3 bag of "cauliflower chips" which managed to turn 225 grams of cauliflower into 85 grams of salty air. Nope, didn't buy 'em so sure, I read that book by its cover.

About the Photo By Popular Request, a Little Insight into the Top Image: They don't call it camou for nothing. The neighborhood whitetail blend in so well this time of year: even when you "see" them, you don't "see" them for real until they move. These are suburban deer so almost fearless, still, they know to stay perfectly still ...

In Praise Of ...

• ... Libby, the library app for Kindle- and Audible-style books, especially for browsing new and older cookbooks, even cookbooks on my shelf, thanks to the search function
• ... Trader Joe's Dill Pickle Seasoning, who needs salad dressing, anyway?! Some cottage cheese and a spoon, call it lunch. And it's wonderful on this Everything Bagel Breakfast Salad too.
• ... Eat the Culture's Black History Month Virtual Potluck "In 2023, the theme of Black History Month is Black Resistance and Eat the Culture is recognizing the remarkable and, frankly, underrated resistance of our ancestors in bringing culinary traditions across the Atlantic to shape the vibrance of Black cuisine that we know and love today. They physically and mentally carried African foodways across the deadly Middle Passage to pass down through generations. This year’s Black History Month Virtual Potluck traces popular dishes of the Diaspora from their West African roots to North America and beyond."

Made Me Think ...

... Laurie Colwin's recipes, all these years after her too-soon death.

I'm still in the hunt for "my" gingerbread recipe and made her "Damp Gingerbread" from More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen (affiliate link) this week.

It got me to wondering, when exactly did gingerbread cake become molasses cake?

The Colwin recipe is wonderful but uses only golden syrup which got me to wondering where in heck I'll find golden syrup once a 20-year old giant bottle is gone?

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SEASONAL INSPIRATION: Winter Salads

I've been writing Kitchen Parade since 2002 but just now, collecting these recipes, learned that its salad recipes run summer-y. Ha! A Veggie Venture to the rescue.

For this week's recipes, I aimed for recipes with winter flavors and combinations that ...

• Budget Friendly – cabbage, beans, celery, green peppers,
• One-Stop Shopping – no running around looking for specialty-this, fancy-that
• Meal Prep & Make-Ahead Friendly – salads that keep
• Party Friendly – several serve well in big bowls and even platters just in case, you know, there's a big TV event coming up
• Avocado Abundant – the grocery will be stocked up this week
• Healthy Options – an alternative if not an antidote to wings and cheesy snacks
• Seasonal – no tomatoes, no berries, no summer squash

• THE RECIPE Big Cajun Chopped Salad Don't skip the olives!
• ANOTHER TAKE Summer Black-Eyed Pea Salad Looks like, tastes like summer, any time of year.

• THE RECIPE Green Cabbage Salad with Fresh Lime Vinaigrette Somehow more "salad" than "slaw".
• ANOTHER TAKE Asian Slaw with Sugar Snap Peas & Almonds

• THE RECIPE Celery & Chickpea Salad A captivating salad, crunchy celery, creamy chickpeas and tangy feta.
• ANOTHER TAKE Carrot & Chickpea Salad with Tahini-Lemon Dressing

• THE RECIPE Pinto Bean Salad
• ANOTHER TAKE Black Bean & Corn Salad

• THE RECIPE Winter Greens Salad with Oranges, Avocado, Olives, Feta & Orange-Cumin Vinaigrette
• ANOTHER TAKE Orange & Avocado Salad Simple but sumptuous.

• THE RECIPE Winter Tomato Salad (Quick Pickled Vegetables) Winter tomatoes worth eating!
• ANOTHER TAKE Mark Bittman's "Salted" Chopped Salad Keeps for a week, fresh & flexible.

• THE RECIPE Smitten Kitchen's Avocado-Cucumber Salad
• ANOTHER TAKE Spring & Summer Sliced Salad

What's New?!

Wondering about a recipe from the last while? Check Recent Recipes from Kitchen Parade and Recent Vegetable Recipes from A Veggie Venture.

• THE RECIPE Simple Roasted Mushrooms A surprising side dish, easy meal prep.

Looking Ahead ...
February 12 - Superbowl Sunday
February 14 - Valentines's (Tuesday)
February 20 - President's Day (Monday)
February 21 - Fat Tuesday / Shrove Tuesday / Pancake Night
February 22 - Ash Wednesday / Beginning of Lent

• THE COLLECTION Football Fever! Game-changing recipes for Playoff Games & Superbowl Parties.
• AND ANOTHER Chillin': Favorite Chili, Chowder & Cornbread Recipes Football friendly!

• THE COLLECTION Valentine's Recipes for romance.
• ALL THE HOLIDAYS All the Holidays Year-round food for fun and celebration.

• THE COLLECTION Mardi Gras Cajun and Creole straight from N'awlins.
• ALL THE HOLIDAYS All the Holidays Year-round food for fun and celebration.

• THE CONCEPT Make Tonight a Pancake Night Especially on Fat Tuesday but move over Taco Tuesday and Pizza Friday.
• AND ANOTHER #PieDayFriday Because good pie deserves more than one day a year.

• THE TRADITION How to Plant Lenten Grass (Easter Grass) An old Finnish tradition, good to mark the season of Lent with children.
• AND ANOTHER A Birthday Cake for Jesus: A Story My sister's gentle way of keeping the spirit of Christmas.

• THE COLLECTION Kitchen Parade's Fish Recipes, many Quick Suppers, many healthy meals.
• AND ANOTHER Kitchen Parade's Seafood Recipes including shrimp, oysters, lobster, crab.

A Quick Peek Into a Real-Life Kitchen

Just so you know, everything's not all pretty pictures around here, in the background is a pile of dirty dishes. And just like many (all?) of us, come five o'clock, I too draw a blank about what to make for supper, despite so many recipes I so dearly love. Here's a quick peek from the last week.

• THIS WEEK Pantry work, still! This week I focused on grains and oops, found three containers of grits plus lentils, farro, quinoa, barley and three different kinds of rice. This is my go-to for grits, though I did make a version that's richer than written here, it's based on the technique from Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking (affiliate link), for those who have that cookbook.
• THE RECIPE Greens & Grits Spinach cooked with tomato and mushrooms atop quick-cooked grits.

• THIS WEEK I roasted a big butternut squash, it's so easy, just throw it in the oven. Usually I do this on a baking sheet lined w foil but this week I put parchment into a baking dish first, wow, what easy cleanup. Then I checked all the Winter Squash Recipes – Alphabet of Vegetables, where recipes that call for cooked squash have a special mark. What did I pick? The most wonderful Savory Bread Pudding with Butternut Squash, Chard & Cheddar, more on that later. I used the last of the Swedish Rye (below) too!
• THE RECIPE How to Roast a Whole Butternut Squash No knives, perfect results.

• THIS WEEK Has anyone else seen RedStar's new "sourdough" yeast packets? I tried it out on the long-time family favorite, Swedish rye (and yay, used up the last of some rye flour). As usual, the loaves were great but really, I'm not sure I could discern any "sourdough" taste. I love this bread with a thin slice of sharp cheddar ...
• THE RECIPE Swedish Rye Bread Slightly sweet, densely delicious.

• THIS WEEK Yep, still focusing on using up what we've got! But some bitter greens (mustard, radicchio) that had kept, honestly, for weeks and I just wanted them G O N E gone. This soup never fails! And the bitter greens made it markedly more savory than sweeter lettuces.
• THE RECIPE Lettuce Soup Never let big bags of greens go to waste again.

Just Updated!

• THE RECIPE Savory Cornbread Muffins Cornmeal muffins spiked with chili powder, a little jalapeño and red pepper.
• ANOTHER TAKE Cornmeal Muffins with Apple Studded, garnished with fresh apple.<

• THE COLLECTION Best Recipes of 2004 from Kitchen Parade, just one recipe for every month.
• THE BEST OF THE BEST Best-Ever “Most Useful” Recipes 2002 – Present

Something to Read

I totally expected to start this book, not connect and turn back to the library within a few days. My personal guideline is that if I'm a couple of hours in (I mostly "listen" to books these days) and can't remember the characters' names or can't connect, back it goes.

But I found Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow intriguing.

First, it explores a world I know nothing about: gamers and game developers. I so wanted to be able to play the video games created by an unlikely trio of friends.

But the book's throughline is the ebbs and flows of lifelong friendships.

Much recommended! Oh! And there's a movie in the works ...

• THE BOOK Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (affiliate link) by Gabrielle Zevin


• BOOK CLUB BOOK IDEAS My Reading Group's Book List since 1994!
• NO TIME TO READ? How I Read 4X More This Year Than Last What I gave up, how I read so much, what I read.

Don't Be a Stranger ...

I'd love to hear from you. Comment, send me a quick e-mail (my current address is in the FAQs), dot-dash in Morse code, build a fire for smoke signals, launch a message in a bottle, send a Christmas letter, get the dog to yip, toss me a note wrapped in a rubberband, write a message in the sky, scratch a note in the sand, listen to a seashell, tuck a question into a plastic Easter egg, whatever.

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail, you'll find my current address in the FAQs. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. When you make my recipes, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below or better still, on the specific recipe's page.

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