Wild Rice and Hazelnut Salad

From The Greens Cook Book  by Deboroh Madison. 

Serves four to six.

Salad

3/4 cup wild rice

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup hazelnuts

5 Tbs currants

Juice of 1 large orange

1 small fennel bulb, cut into small squares

1 crisp apple

Vinaigrette

Grated peel of 1 orange

4 Tbs orange juice

4 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp salt

3 scallions, white parts, minced

1/4 tsp fennel seeds, crushed

5 Tbs olive oil

1 Tbs hazelnut oil

1 Tbs chives

1 Tbs fennel leaves, chopped

1 Tbs parsely, finely chopped

Rinse the wild rice and soak it in water for 1/2 hour; then drain. Add 4 cups fresh water and the salt and bring to a boil. Cook covered at a simmer until the grains are swollen and tender but still chewy, about 30 to 35 minutes. Pour the cooked rice into a colander and let it drain briefly.

Preheat oven to 350 F. While the rice is cooking, toast the hazelnuts in the oven 7 to 10 minutes or until they smell toasty. Let them cook a few minutes, then rub them in a kitchen towel to remove most of the skins. Don't worry about any flecks of skin that won't come off. Roughly chop the hazelnuts, leaving the pieces fairly large.

Rinse the currants in warm water and squeeze them dry, then cover them with the orange juice and let them soak until needed.

Prepare the vinaigrette. Put the orange peel, orange juice, lemon juice and vinegar in a bowl with the salt, scallions and crushed fennel seeds. Whisk in the oils, then the herbs. Taste and adjust any of the ingredients if necessary. The dressing should be fresh and sparkly.

Add soaked currants and the fennel to the warm rice and toss with the dressing. Just before serving, cut the apple into small pieces, add it to the rice along with the hazelnuts and toss. Season with fresh ground black pepper and additional salt if needed and serve.

Spaghetti Squash with Ricotta, Sage, and Pine Nuts

Made this a few times. Easy & yummy. Will become a staple.
Another inspiration from thekitchn.  Don't think I'll need to modify this one beyond method for cooking squash.

Serves 4

1 tablespoon olive oil
6 to 8 fresh sage leaves
3/4 cup ricotta
2 cloves garlic, mashed or grated
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted 

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F: Preheat the oven while you prep the squash.
2. Slice the squash in half: Use a chef's knife to cut the spaghetti squash lengthwise from stem to tail. Spaghetti squash are really tough and hard, so be cautious and work slowly. You can cradle the squash in a balled-up dish cloth to keep it steady as you cut.
3. Scoop out the seeds: Use a soup spoon to scrape out the seeds and stringy bits of flesh from inside the squash. Be careful of actually digging into the flesh, though — we want that! The inside should look clean and fairly smooth. Discard the seeds (or save them and roast them for a snack!).
4. Place the squash in a roasting pan: Place the squash halves cut-side down in a roasting pan.
5. Pour in a little water: Pour a little water in the pan, enough to cover the bottom. Your squash will roast just fine without it, but I find that the water helps the squash steam and become more tender. You can also cover the pan with aluminum foil, if you prefer.
6. Cook the squash for 45 minutes: Transfer the squash to the oven and cook for 45 minutes. Smaller squash will cook more quickly than larger squash. Check the squash after 30 minutes to gauge cooking.
7. Heat the olive oil in a small pan: Quickly fry sage leaves until crispy but not burnt. Crumble sage leaves into a large bowl and combine with ricotta and garlic. Set aside. 
8. The squash is done when tender: The squash is ready when you can easily pierce a fork through the flesh all the way to the peel. The flesh will also separate easily into spaghetti-like strands. You can also taste it right now — if the noodles are still a bit crunchy for your taste, put the squash back in the oven for another 15 to 20 minutes.
9. Scrape out the squash: Use a fork to gently pull the squash flesh from the peel and to separate the flesh into strands. The strands wrap around the squash horizontally — rake your fork in the same direction as the strands to make the longest "noodles."
10. Add the squash to the bowl with the ricotta mixture: Combine squash and ricotta mixture and season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with pine nuts before serving. 

Wheat Berry Salad

This has become a favorite for almost any occasion. Not gluten free :)

Recipe serves 6

Ingredients:
   1 1/2 - 2 cups wheat berries
   3/4 cups walnuts or pecans, chopped
   2 stalks celery, finely chopped
   1/2 cups dried cranberries or cherries, chopped
   1 scallion, chopped (white and green parts)
   1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
   3 Tbs olive oil
   2 Tbs lemon juice + zest
   salt & pepper
   crumbled feta cheese
optional:
   arugula
   yellow bell pepper
   raisins, golden raisins

Directions:

In a large pot, combine the wheat berries and enough water to cover by 2 inches.
Bring to a boil and cook uncovered for 1 hour or until tender.
Drain and let cool.
Toast the nuts in a dry skillet over medium-high heat until fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

This is good cold or room temperature. Probably keeps well, but we always eat it within 24 hours no matter how much we make.

Jen's Pasta Salad

Use these ingredients and but feel free to improvise. Have made this with torcheitte & orzo. Either works fine. The lemon, dill & feta are the only must have ingredients. Cook and rinse pasta before coating with a little olive oil, then add your choice of:

minced dill
lemon zest & juice
crumbled feta cheese
sliced olives
grilled/roasted eggplant cubes
minced raw garlic
bell pepper
chopped artichoke hearts
cucumber
something red: tomato or sun-dried tomato or roasted red pepper
celery or fennel
green onions

optional:
boiled/ sautéed  shrimp
marinated tofu
capers
???

Provencal White Bean Salad

Eric made this for us on a visit and I just had to have the recipe.

• 2 cups dried small white beans
• 6 cups of water
• 1/2 cup champagne vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tbs dijon style mustard (do not sub french mustard - tried this and it reminded me of hotdogs)
• 4 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 small bunch green onions, tops only, very thinly sliced
• 1 cup black olives, pitted and halved
• salt & pepper
• grape tomatoes, cut into quarters
• handful of parsley or spinach and a few sprigs of rosemary 
• 1 lemon, juice & zest

Rinse & put beans and water in crock pot on high for 4 hours until beans are tender. Pour them into a colander and drain. We rinsed them as well since they were a bit over done.

Add olives, onions, herbs & tomatoes to beans in a large bowl.

Combine vinegar, oil, mustard, lemon and garlic. I also added herbs to marinade, but may not do this next time. 

Pour marinade over beans, season with salt & pepper & toss.

Refrigerate overnight.

You can mixed this with chopped salad greens or spinach to serve.

Mid-Century Potato Salad

We made a salad plate with potato salad, poached salmon, for a mid-century potluck dinner. The recipe came from a 1957 USDA pamphlet Potatoes in Popular Ways. My parents didn't have cookbooks. Maybe people just knew how to cook back then, perhaps we were poor. The ingredients were arranged in typical 1950's style in lettuce cups with lots of parsley for garnish, but the potato salad was not chilled so it didn't mold into nice rounded shapes. It was still good enough that I might try it again. We replaced the canned salmon with the very trendy salmon from a local butcher shop.

Salmon & Potato Salad (1950's style)
1 lb salmon - poached w fennel seeds
Potato Salad (recipe below)
Lettuce cups (this would be iceberg lettuce)
3 tomatoes - sliced
1/2 cucumber, peels & sliced
1 lemon
curly leaf parsley

Arrange 4 molded hemispheres of potato salad on lettuce cups.
Decorate with the other stuff. The fussier, the better.

Potato Salad

4 medium potatoes
2 Tbs finely chopped scallions
1 cup hot dressing (see below)
2 eggs
2 Tbsp finely diced green pepper
1/4 cup finely diced celery
1/4 cup diced cucumbers

Hard boil 2 eggs. Peel & chop.
Peel, dice and cook potatoes. Drain and add onions.
While the potatoes are still hot, add hot dressing to potatoes and onions and stir gently. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes.

Add remaining ingredients.
Chill for several hours - or consume warm. - up to you.

Dressing

2 Tbs flour
1 Tbs sugar
1 Tsp dry mustard
1 tsp salt
dash cayenne
1 cup milk
1 egg, slightly beaten

Prepare dressing:
Mix flour, sugar, mustard & salt in top of double boiler over heat.
Gradually add milk, stirring continuously untill thickened.
Continue to cook, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes.
Add a small amount of hot liquid to egg, then add egg into hot liquid.
Cook for another 3 minutes.

I recently made the potato salad for a 4th of July potluck, doubling the recipe, using red, un-peeled potatoes and substituting red bell peppers for green.  It fit nicely in grandma's old brown bowl with a sprinkling of paprika instead of the fussy presentation.