December 20, 2004
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After my last child was born I became obsessed with cooking. I would spend an hour each morning, before the two older ones woke up, reading recipes. If they looked good, I’d tear the page out. Mostly I read magazines and Food Day. Those would go into a folder. Then once or twice a year I’d cut them out and put them into a notebook. I have two notebooks, one for baking and one for everything else.
I went nuts over cakes. I took a cake-decorating class and then practiced on the different types of cake. At this point we were spending most weekends at the beach and fantasizing about having a restaurant. I’m sure it was more my fantasy than his.
I’d say, out of all those recipes, I’ve made 10% of them. Because I don’t follow recipes. Now that I write this monthly column, which includes a recipe I’ve concocted, it’s really a pain to measure things. Only with cakes do I measure. And then I am frantic the whole time with the pressure of being exact.
For some reason, about a week ago, I got the bug again. Yesterday, I finally found a reasonable produce store, over here, and today I made this wonderful salad:
Composed spinach salad with Chinese dressing
1 clove garlic, minced
equal amount ginger, minced
juice of one Satsuma tangerine
juice of ½ lime
splash of aji-mirin
(rice wine)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
½ T sesame oil
honey (to taste)
I think I used 1 T
Lemon pepper
Garlic salt
½ red and yellow bell pepper
bok choy
sprouts
green onion
sesame seeds
baby spinach leaves
Make the dressing first so the flavors can marry. Pour half of it over the spinach, and toss. This is before you divide it. Slice thin the peppers, bok choy, and green onion. Put a bed of spinach in two bowls. Layer the sprouts, red pepper, bok choy, yellow peppers and garnish with the onion and sesame seed. Pour remaining dressing over each salad.
I ate the whole damn thing it was so good, and I just threw everything in one bowl, but it was enough for two and it looked so beautiful it deserved to be composed.
Comments (7)
yum… now this is one worth trying!
Iam sitting here with perm in my hair smiling
thank you for the compliment
and for sharing this recipe
I love spinach and I think I shall make
this for the holiday meal…I only need it for two
so this is perfect
It is I …not sure about personal pics online though
it is the holidays so I thought what the heck!
I too like cooking. Also enjoy reading receipes or watching cookary shows on tv (only vegetarian cooking).
I am going to try your receipe. I am not sure we get bok choy here. Or may be it is called something else here.
Thanks for sharing your receipe.
Mmmm, that sounds so yummy!
And thank you for your comments on my recent blog entry. You really made me think and put things into perspective. I answered you back in my comments section if you want to read it. Be forewarned, it’s a lot. You really made me think.
Sounds yummy!
Oh, and don’t worry about talking or bitching about your dogs! lol I don’t know how many times I complained about mine! Thank you, anyway, for worrying about me. *smile*
I was thinking about a training trick I learned for dogs that strain the leash. Sounds kinda mean, but if your dog is as smart as you say, I don’t think you’ll have to use it long. When she pulls, you snap the leash…just one quick snap should do it…and say No or Heel. My dogs…er, dog…walks pretty well most of the time, but she sometimes gets carried away, and I only have to do that a couple of times to remind her. Of course, I use plain ol’ English with my dog…I tell her Don’t pull! And Walk with me! lol Even though she’s small, I don’t like feeling like she’s pulling my arm off!
And, okay…I’m slow. Where do you write this monthly comlumn? More appropriately, where is it published? I like the recipes for meats and veggies, if you have a way I can get to them…
Peace and Love…GFW
Yummy…I’ve had brief cooking obsessions. My kids have food issues so every once in a while I go on a baking/recipe binge where I try about fifteen new things in a week. Your salad sounds great.
That is one delicious (& nutritious) post! Yum!