June 25, 2018. A day of snacking and the creation of a new dish

June 25, 2018. A day of snacking and the creation of a new dish

I started working at 4:30 and worked until noon, when I made myself two slices of bagel smeared with cream cheese with layers of Vidalia onion and Lax and garnished with a few capers.  I drank green tea with my first snack.  I watched soccer during and after lunch, two ties with Portugal and Spain moving on. At 2:00 I rode 7 or eight miles on the Southern route.  I showered at 4:30 and dressed.  As I was making an open face sandwich with the lovely turkey salad Suzette made last night plus onion slices and tomato slices at 5:00 suzette arrived so I left the salad and tomato out and she diced the tomato and added a couple scoops of turkey salad in a bowl for a light snack. I then sliced another slice of whole wheat bread and smeared it with crema and lay thin slices of Vidalia onion and pickled herring on it and ate my third sandwich of the day.

A Sweet Melon and Prociutto Ham Summer Salad

While we were snacking Suzette told me she had an idea for a new salad, braised red cabbage seasoned with apple cider vinegar and sugar with mint infused fresh cheese, cubed melon and torn pieces of prosciutto with a drizzle of olive oil.  I checked the fridge and found that we had a head of red cabbage.  The only ingredients we were missing were  fresh made mint infused cheese.  I suggested we substitute chopped mint, which we had and Suzette suggested we use the crumbled feta we had bought last week at Costco.  So we decided to try to create the dish.

I cut a small head of red cabbage in half  and sectioned it into four pieces that Suzette chopped it finely in the Cuisinart and then sautéed in a skillet with olive oil and a bit of white pepper, red wine vinegar, sugar, and salt to give the cabbage the sweet and sour flavor Suzette prefers and then turned off the heat so the cabbage was lightly braised.

While Suzette was preparing the cabbage I sliced and diced 1/3 of a cantaloupe melon into 1 x 2 inch pieces and finely minced ¼ cup of fresh mint.

Suzette fetched the feta from the garage and then arranged the salad by spooning a pile of red cabbage in the bottom of a pasta bowl, then adding about 1 cup of melon cubes, then garnishing the top of the melon cubes with pieces of prosciutto ham and finally sprinkling the pile of ingredients with feta crumbles and minced mint.

Suzette thought the combination of the juice from the melon and the olive oil from the braised cabbage was enough of a dressing and wanted the individual ingredient’s flavors to predominate, which they dis.  The result was a little austere for me.  I would have added more cheese, but I tend to over sauce things and Suzette wanted the salad to be an expression of the sweet seasonal flavor of melon and freshness of  mint.

We both liked the salad.

After dinner I was still hungry so I made three small sandwiches of pate and onion on cocktail bread squares with a slice of cucumber.  The pate was delicious and had been made by the staff at the Greenhouse bistro with leftover fresh cow’s liver donated for the big food event last week, so very fresh.  Then I ate three ribs.

Suzette ate a bowl of ice cream for dessert.

We went to bed at 9:00, happy to have created a lovely, interesting new salad that will soon be on the menu at the Greenhouse Bistro.  Suzette will make fresh mint flavored cheese for the salad instead of using crumbled feta cheese, so the salad will be still fresher and lighter tasting.

Bon Appetit