prep 5 min.

ready 10 min.

serves 2

Being so cold, I thought I would make something that brings back the flavor of summer for a quick Sunday lunch. I love raspberries and walnuts and had some spinach to use up so I made this super-simple salad which is also very healthy. ( Twenty-two bennefits of eating walnuts). I always use a salad spinner after throughly cleaning any greens. It’s a must-have kitchen utensil. This salad took less  than 10 minutes to put together. Give it a try you will enjoy it!

Ingredients

12 oz. fresh green spinach

1/2 cup raspberries (approx. 15 berries)

1/4 cup walnuts, broken into pieces

1/4 cup red onion, thinly sliced

Directions

Mix together all ingredients in a medium bowl. Add raspberry vinaigrette dressing. To make raspberry vinaigrette simply whisk together 1 tablespoon raspberry jam, 1/4 cup white vinegar, 1/3 cup olive oil. Add crushed black pepper and sea salt to taste (optional).

Prep 10 min

Ready 25 min.

Servings 2

I love an occasional hot dog. If I’m going to eat them, I only buy Vienna dogs with a natural casing. I do not buy inexpensive hot dogs. Good ones are usually linked together. In Chicago, a good Chicago-style dog is made by the Vienna company. We cannot purchase them locally here so the second best is Koegel’s Vienna Beef or Kowalski’s if you can find them. Growing up in the Detroit area, I have always had a love of Detroit-style Coney dogs. (I will do a post on them in the near future.) However, my favorite are Chicago-style. There is something about the combination of flavors that is just awesome. They are easy to make. To do it right, you need to purchase sport peppers and the fluorescent green pickle relish. I was lucky to find Vienna brand Chicago relish and peppers.

Ingredients

• 1 all-beef hot dog

• 1 poppyseed hot dog bun

• 1 teaspoon yellow mustard

• 1 tablespoon sweet green pickle relish

• 1 tablespoon chopped onion

• 4 Roma tomato wedges

• 2 dill pickle spears, finely sliced

• 2 sport peppers

• 1 dash celery salt

Directions

Pan fry dogs with a little butter over medium heat. (I do not like to boil them.)

In a steamed poppy seed bun (I could not find poppy seed buns locally so I added poppy seeds), add hot dog, 1 pickle spear to each side of the dog, 3-4 tomato wedges, 2 sport peppers, sweet pickle relish, chopped onion and mustard. (I omitted the mustard and onion on mine this time.) Last and most importantly in my opinion, add a dash of celery salt. Enjoy!

With mustard and onions!

Prep 15 min.

Ready 45 min.

Serves 4

My wife saw this recipe in the Nov/December issue of Eating Well Magazine which we subscribe to and suggested I try to make it for a Saturday lunch. (Thank You Eating Well!)  It looked pretty easy and does not take long to make so I decided to give it a try. We have an Asian specialty market not too far away so I was able to get the ingredients needed in one simple trip. (Love that market!) The only regret was buying unshelled edamame. I had to shell the beans. Next time I will purchase unshelled. My wife liked it so I scored some points!

Ingredients

• 1 bunch scallions, trimmed

• 1 bunch fresh cilantro

• 3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil, divided

• 4 cloves garlic, smashed  and minced

• 1 (2 -inch) piece fresh ginger, graded

•  1 (2- inch) piece lemongrass, bruised

• 1 dried red chile

• ¼ cup Shao Hsing rice wine or dry sherry (I used sherry)

• 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth or “no-chicken” broth

• 1 (20 to 24 ounce) package frozen potstickers or dumplings

• 1 (5 ounce) package baby spinach

• 1½ cups frozen shelled edamame

• 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce

• Sliced fresh red chile (optional)

Directions

1. Separate cilantro stems from leaves. Measure 1/4 cup of each. Cut scallion whites into 2-inch pieces and chop remainder into 1/4 inch or smaller pieces and set aside in a separate bowl.

2. In a medium size pan ( I used a 3 qt. Dutch oven) heat 1 tbs. oil at high (I love the smell of the sesame oil when it heats) and add cilantro stems, ginger, garlic, lemongrass and dried chiles. Stir with a wooden spoon until soft about 4-5 min. Add rice wine (I used sherry) and continue to stir. It will cook down very quickly and evaporate. You will not even know what happened to the wine (about 30 seconds in my experience). Continue to stir getting the excess off the sides of the pot. Add the Chicken broth and cover for 10 min.

3. With a slotted spoon or mesh screen, remove the cooked contents from the pot until you just have a broth. Add the potstickers (I had 10-12) and let simmer for 5 min. Add the spinach and edamame and continue to stir for an additional 4-5 min. Stir in soy sauce, scallion greens and cilantro and cook an additional 2 min.

I found I needed to add a pinch of salt, but overall it had a very nice light flavor. I enjoyed the hint of lemon grass and garlic. This is a perfect soup for a cold (but sunny) mid-west day. Thanks Eating Well Magazine for another great recipe! I will make it again.