Baked Alaska

For those of you who follow my blog, you know I've participated in several Sunday Slow Travel cooking groups. We were Sunday Slow Bakers, Scoopers, Soupers, Salads, and I don't even remember what else. I sat out the last group, but I'm back again. This time we're Sunday Slow Sides. This group was started as a way to find new recipes to use the fruits/vegetables of summer.

I'm a day late on the first challenge, but life goes on. This first recipe was chosen by Amy.. Her ingredient was peas, and she chose a French recipe for us to try.

It was a lovely recipe, and one I'm sure I'll make again. Very easy also. Saute shallots in a little butter, add chopped lettuce or spinach (I used all Romaine lettuce), cook until wilted, then add peas and a little chicken broth and cook briefly. Top off with salt, pepper and a little chopped fresh mint. A light, fresh side dish.

Petits Pois a la Francaise

Measurements are estimates, use what you have--all lettuce, all spinach, or a combination. This made four servings.
If you're not watching your weight, feel free to add more butter!

2 shallots, sliced
1 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 head lettuce, (I used romaine one time, buttercrunch another)carefully washed and roughly chopped
6 cups spinach, carefully washed and roughly chopped
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 cups fresh shelled peas; or frozen peas, slightly defrosted
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp. (more to taste) chopped mint

1. In a large skillet, melt the butter and saute the shallots until soft.
2. Add the lettuce and spinach. Saute until almost wilted.
You may need to do this in batches--just add it all together when the batches are cooked down.
4. Add the broth and peas, and slam on the cover. Cook until the peas are just tender--2 minutes or so. (just one minute if using frozen peas)
5. Add salt and pepper to taste, and the chopped mint. Stir well and serve.

This week the ingredient for our Sunday Slow Sides was avocado. I love avocados, and it was Shannon who picked our recipe this week. Shannon grew up in California where there were a lot of avocado trees, and one recipe came to her that she wanted to share. It is a sandwich that her grandmother used to make.

I know it's not really a side dish, but who cares, because it is so good. It's basically an egg-salad sandwich with mashed avocado. It couldn't be any easier.

Grandma's recipe, inShannon's words:
Avocado
Hard Boiled Egg
A Little Mayo
Onion Salt (or regular salt.)

Basically, smash these four things up until it is good and mashed. You can use more egg, more avocado, whatever. I think it is probably one avocado to 2 eggs. She says you don't need to add mayo even, unless you want to.

Shannon's grandmother used to put it on HomePride Buttertop bread. A great bread for kids. I put it on multigrain bread. I would have loved to top mine with tomato slices and lettuce, but I didn't have any. So I served it open-faced, plain. It really didn't matter what I topped it with. It was so good, I immediately went into the kitchen and made myself a second one.

This week it was Annie's week to choose our ingredient. She chose Green Beans. She offered us two recipes to choose from. I chose the Summer Green Bean Salad. Although I couldn't find any local green beans, I was able to purchase a nice large bag of them at Costco.

This was a really good salad. And very filling. It's what I had for dinner last night, along with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. The recipe calls for frisee, but I used a variety of leaf lettuces I had growing in my garden. Don't skip the hazelnuts-they really make this dish special.