Cream salad - weird but good

I've been cooking a lot lately... Fennel and leek risotto on Friday, awesome cream salad yesterday... A semi-weird salmon tikka recipe from Jamie Oliver on Thursday...

I haven't been posting though, because I am lazy. Also because my camera sucks and doesn't inspire me to take food pictures.

Okay, so cream salad recipe with no photos:

Chop up some lettuce or dandelion greens or arugula or whatever you want. Chopped up raw beet greens would be good! I am crazy for iceberg lettuce right now - it doesn't get the respect it deserves AT ALL. It is wonderful.

Anyway, the dressing is white wine vinegar, olive oil, some cream (35% is really good, 15% works too), a bunch of black pepper, and a ton of herbs (fresh parsley, oregano, thyme, etc.)

Okay, the best part:

Tear naan bread into chunks and toss with olive oil, crushed garlic, salt and pepper. Pan fry it or toast it in the oven until it is all golden and crispy.

Yum.

Throw some toasted walnuts on the salad and some Roquefort or other blue cheese. Or something else if you hate blue cheese.

Add the warm croutons on top. Drizzle the dressing over everything.

I'm going to make this again SOON, I am kind of obsessed with it.

Goat cheese failure

Made roasted eggplant with goat cheese last night.

Fred wasn't too excited, he kind of hates eggplant, but I convinced him to try it, told him that it's suuuuuch a yummy recipe...

I served dinner, we each took a bite, and... Horrible. We bought "honey" chevre instead of plain goat's milk cheese.

It was so bad.

Ended up going for a walk by the river and eating a Dairy Queen blizzard for dinner.

Caramelized onion lasagne

Easy and good, and you can speed things up by preparing the onions, eggplant, etc. ahead of time.

Steps:

• Caramelize your onions (cook slowly pver low heat until soft and sweet and golden).
• Roast, grill, or sauté slices of zucchini and  eggplant.
• Make your cheese mixture: 3 beaten eggs + ricotta + grated whatever other types of cheese you like + nutmeg.
• Layer your cooked noodles with grilled veggies + tomato sauce, cheese mixture, and some spoonfuls of goat's milk cheese.
• Finish with a layer of the caramelized onions (I use a lot, maybe a cup and a half of them) and  some grated mozzarella + parmesan.

Tips:

• Put a thin layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of your baking dish before adding the first layer of noodles.
• Use fresh lasagne noodles or the dried ones that you have to boil in advance. The noodles that cook while baking are weird. They taste a tiny bit bizarre. I think. But I might be over-thinking things and just making extra work for myself.

Katie's semi-white-trash "cassoulet"

I started making this, um, thing when I was broke and living on my own in a crummy room I rented in Ottawa last year. It's kind of bad but good. No, it is good, but I replaced good sausages with veggie weiners, so, uh, yeah...
Almost White Trash Cassoulet

Caramelize some nice big chunks of onion - using big pieces mean you'll come across succulent onions in your cassoulet. Yum. You could also make a mirepoix with diced onions, carrots, and celery.

Add veggie weiners (I prefer Yves "Tofu Dogs" over their "Veggie Dogs") sliced on a diagonal and sauté until brown. Add some peeled, diced tomatoes, or canned tomatoes, some white navy beans, and a bunch of fresh thyme and oregano. I throw in a couple of bay leaves as well.

Simmer until it seems ready, and don't be scared of using tons of oilve oil in this recipe.

And if you eat meat, I'd use some nice sausages instead of the tofu dogs :)