Christmas Traditions: Winter Salad and Wreath Cookies

My mom starts decorating for Christmas on Thanksgiving weekend and by December 25^th my parents’ house could be used for the cover of a Martha Stewart magazine. The holidays are always a hectic time, but I love coming home and feeling the wonderful warmth and excitement that seems to only be present at my parents’. With this Christmas potentially the last time that my brother will be able to come home (he’s graduating from Annapolis this summer and becoming a Marine pilot), it’s an especially important Christmas in my family.

We have many traditions in my family and my favorite, of course, revolves around food! I am obsessed with a winter salad that my mom invented many years ago, while my brother and his sweet tooth can’t have a Christmas without our special wreath “cookies.”  These two dishes hold a special place in our family  -- we can’t start our Christmas dinner without Mom’s winter salad and my brother and I make a sticky mess each Christmas Eve molding the wreath cookies.

This year is no exception and I’m happy to share both recipes with you!

The Winter salad is laden with good-for-you ingredients that make it a little easier to say “yes” to those wreath cookies, knowing that you’ve filled up on a healthy vitamin packed salad. 

Winter Salad Ingredients (Serves 4)

4 cups baby spinach

1/2 cup pine nuts

1 to 2 cucumbers

2 avocados

1/2 cup dried cranberries

3 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

1 bunch green onions

4 artichoke hearts

Salt and Pepper to taste

Champagne Dressing

1/2 cup champagne vinegar

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Salt and Pepper to taste

1-2 garlic cloves crushed

2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Thoroughly wash and dry the spinach and place in a large salad bowl. Feel free to substitute the spinach for your favorite greens. I like using spinach though, since it’s a fantastic source of vitamins C, A, K and fiber. Place the pine nuts in a small pan and toast over medium-low heat until golden brown. Make sure to stir the pine nuts frequently so that they don’t burn. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Peel and slice the cucumbers and avocados to a bite-sized pieces. Sometimes avocados can be a little temperamental when you cut them. I’ve found the best (and quickest) way to slice avocados is to first cut them in half length wise and remove the pit. Score the flesh of the avocado length-wise and width-wise to form small squares. Then gently push the skin side towards the flesh so that the skin-side becomes concave. Take a knife and coax the avocado off the skin onto the salad. Easy, right?

Mix the cucumbers, avocados, cranberries, toasted pine nuts, goat cheese and Champagne dressing (see directions below) with the spinach. Plate the tossed spinach on salad plates. Chop the green onions (white and green parts) and slice the artichoke hearts in half. Garnish the salad with the chopped onions and artichoke hearts, which are a great source of potassium and fiber!

For the dressing…

Combine the vinegar, crushed garlic, two tablespoons Dijon mustard and salt and pepper in a small bowl. Slowly pour in the olive oil while quickly whisking the mixture. Alternatively, you can place the first 4 ingredients in a blender and slowly add the olive oil while pulsing the blender.

Onto the wreath cookies! 

Wreath Cookie Ingredients (makes 20-25)

1 bag large marshmallows

½ cup butter or margarine

1 tsp vanilla extract

5-6 drops green food coloring

3 ¾ cups cornflakes

Red sprinkles

Coconut flakes (optional)

Wax paper

Margarine for shaping the cookies

In a large pot melt the marshmallows and butter over medium heat, stirring as needed. After the ingredients are melted stir in the vanilla and food coloring. Turn off the heat and mix in the cornflakes  until they’re completely incorporated into the marshmallow mixture. Allow mixture to cool for a few minutes. While the cookies are cooling, tape a long sheet of wax paper (about 4 feet long) to a clear and clean work surface and spoon 2 tablespoons of margarine onto a small plate.

Now time to form the cookies! This part gets a bit messy, but the margarine helps and this mess is actually fun!  Lightly coat your fingers in the margarine and scoop out about 1-2 tablespoons of the cornflake mixture onto the wax paper and begin forming the mixture into a ring. Repeat with the remaining mixture until it’s all gone. Generously sprinkle the wreath cookies with the red sprinkles to give them a more festive look. If you’re feeling especially festive lightly sprinkle the wreaths with some coconut flakes to give the effect of snow!  Feel free to snack along the way J and of course re-coat your fingers as necessary to keep them from getting too sticky.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Note: Nutritional Information comments derived from the article “Spinach: Health Benefits” from www.webnd.com

My first post... Thyme Chicken Paninis with Asparagus Ribbons

Come and get it! Come and get your flour and butter sandwiches ?

Little did I know that my first attempt at cooking was an utter failure. The motivation for my first culinary creation was well founded, but whatever possessed me to make a flour and butter sandwich still baffles me. My loving parents graciously accepted their snack with such enthusiasm and smiles on their faces that I was instantly encouraged to spend more time in the kitchen inventing “recipes” and my love for cooking and all things food was born.

I can thankfully say that I never attempted that flour, butter and bread combo again, but that excitement and sense of accomplishment in the kitchen at a young age stuck with me and fostered a passion for cuisine and cooking.

I thought it was fitting for my first post to redeem my first attempt at making a sandwich. For someone who sits in front of a computer almost all day, I love to eat healthy fresh foods that I know are good for me and won’t pack on too many calories. This thyme chicken and asparagus ribbon Panini is an easy way to fill you up and can be modified with whatever veggies you have on hand.

What you’ll need:

1 loaf of your favorite easy to slice bread

1 lb chicken breasts

5 tbsp olive oil, divided

1/3 cup white wine (I used Chardonnay)

10 springs thyme

salt and pepper

4-6 cloves garlic; 1 whole head garlic

2 red bell peppers, sliced thin

1 bunch asparagus

1 cup arugula (or your other favorite greens)

Goat cheese

Before you even touch your ingredients, pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Ok, let’s start with the chicken. If you have thick chicken breasts, make sure to tenderize them and even out the meat with a tenderizing (meat) mallet before you marinate them. Crush 4-6 cloves of fresh garlic and rub on the chicken breasts. Place the chicken into a large, ziplock bag and add in the 3 tbsp of olive oil, wine, thyme, salt and pepper. Let sit for 20-40 minutes.

In the mean time, we are going to make garlic paste! This may sound intimidating, but it’s so easy and can be used for many dishes that call for garlic. Take a whole head of garlic and cut off the pointed tip to reveal all of the inner cloves. Gently peel off the outer layers of skin and place the head of garlic on a large piece of heavy duty foil in a small pan. (I use a mini round cake pan, or if the head of garlic is small try a cupcake pan.) Fold the foil up around the garlic, but do not pinch it closed. Drizzle 1-2 tbsp of olive oil directly on top of the garlic, then seal the foil tightly around the garlic. Place in the 375 degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool. Once cool enough to handle, gently press from the root of the head of garlic to the tips squeezing out the roasted cloves. Scoop the roasted cloves into a small dish and give a little mash with the back of a spoon. Voila! Garlic paste.

While the garlic is in the oven, you can blanch the asparagus. Fill a pot with water and bring to a boil. Grab a clean medium sized bowl and fill it with a water (enough to cover the asparagus later) and a few ice cubes. Clean and trim off the rough ends of the asparagus. Once you have the water at a gentle boil, drop your asparagus sprigs into the pot and cook for no more than 2 minutes. Have you ever had to eat soggy asparagus before? And our parents didn’t understand why we refused to eat our veggies- yuck! Thankfully blanching solves that problem J Using tongs remove the now beautifully vibrant green asparagus and place in the ice bath. This will stop the cooking. Soggy asparagus safely avoided. After a couple minutes remove the asparagus and place on a paper towel.

Now here comes the fund part- time to ribbon the asparagus. This part is a little tricky, but you have an entire bunch of asparagus to experiment on, so don’t worry. Lay an asparagus spear on a cutting board and using a vegetable peeler make a firm swoop from the head of the spear moving your peeler down the stalk of the asparagus. This should give you a thin ribbon of the stalk. Repeat until the stalk becomes too thin to shave any more (make sure to flip sides somewhere in the middle) and then grab another spear. Set ribbons aside.

Heat a skillet or grill pan on medium heat and coat with a dab of olive oil. Place the chicken on the pan for roughly 4 minutes on each side (depending on how thick the chicken is it might take up to 6 minutes). I have to share a fool proof technique that a friend taught me long ago. Now who wants to cut into a beautiful piece of meat to tell when it’s done? No thank you. Flip your hand over so you can see your plam and using the ring finger of your other hand gently press the cushy part where your thumb is adjoined to your hand. If your meat feels like that, it’s rare. Now move your way diagonally down your hand towards your wrist. Feel how your skin becomes more firm? Somewhere in the middle there indicates medium and just before you meet your wrist is how the meat should feel when it’s well-done. Pretty neat, huh? I was blown away the first time I tried this and realized it really worked. So once your chicken feels firm, remove it from the heat and let it rest before thinly slicing.

Now slice your favorite bread, I like the flax-seed ciabata from Trader Joe’s which is high in fiber and low in fat. Spread one side of the bread with your goat cheese and the other side with garlic. I will heap the garlic on, but use your discretion depending on how far you would like people to stay away from you the rest of the day.

Layer the asparagus ribbons, sliced red peppers, arugula and chicken on the bread. If you have a Panini press place the sandwich on the press. If not, place the sandwich in the 375 degree oven until warm. Enjoy alone or with a light salad. And don’t forget you still have the rest of the Chardonnay ;)