Hard to believe that my Home Farm project is coming to an end (well, not really, I still plan to keep my farm up but the posts are coming to an end) and on August 15^th I will be telling youhow you can go and vote for my farm as your favorite (which I hope it is!). As you can see Crazy Cocker Spaniel is all too happy to celebrate the crops that my little patio home farm produced. She loves to go out with me every day when I water and try and steal snap peas when I am not looking. She is begging for one in the picture (and yes, she in on her hind legs).

Obviously my dog is not the only one celebrating my harvest. My friends have more than benefitted from home farm project. I have kept my friends (as well as myself) fully supplied in pretty much all the romaine lettuce, parsley, chives, and arugula one could possibly want. Seriously, I swear it grows as I am cutting it down.

One thing that I don’t have yet are strawberries, you can see from the picture though that they want to come out for me, just not quite yet. But my friend C already got hers and so we traded some of her produce from her farm to mine. So she gave me a few of her strawberries (she didn’t have a ton) and I gave her some red leaf lettuce. Which we then turned into a salad with the lettuce, her strawberries, some pecans, and a Lemon Thyme (also from my farm) and Blue Cheese Dressing. Quite tasty.

My broccoli seems to have slowed down production, as has my Swiss chard and peas. Right now I am just holding out for the strawberries and plan on planting sage this coming week because I love it in fall foods. I will never buy romaine lettuce in the summer again as I have learned that my little plant that cost me a whopping $1.50 has kept me in lettuce since April. And I eat a salad almost every day. Same for my spinach which I use in my smoothies every morning. Four months’ worth of food for $3.00 is pretty amazing!

Like I mentioned in the first paragraph, starting this coming week (8-15 through 8-30) you will be able to vote for my farm. I will be competing with two other bloggers for your favorite farm. For those of you who always say you wish you could help me out financially but don’t have the money yourself, this will be a great way for you to help me! And when you vote you will be entered into a sweepstakes. It’s win-win.

Hopefully those of you with a home farm of your own are having as much success as I am. And if you are celebrate that! If you don’t have a home farm, hopefully my little adventure can be inspiring to you! I know it’s been an inspiring journey for me.

If you are interested in seeing other ideas, please visit the other bloggers who are participating in the Home Farming Movement which you can find at the Better Homes and Gardens Home Farming Challenge Page.

As always, Triscuit compensated me for this post, but the ideas, words, bad grammar, and opinions are all mine.

Lemon Thyme-Blue Cheese Dressing

¾ cups olive oil
1/3 cup canola oil
1 ¼ TBSP loosely packed whole lemon thyme leaves, chopped finely
1 ¼ TBSP Dijon mustard
Pinch of salt to taste
Pinch freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 TBSP fresh lemon juice
¼ cup red-wine vinegar, or as needed
¼ cup blue cheese crumbles

In a medium pot over low heat, combine the olive oil, canola oil and thyme. Heat the oil to just short of bubbling. Remove from heat and set aside for at least an hour.

Meanwhile, in the work bowl of a kitchen mixer or a hand-held mixer, combine the mustard, salt, black pepper, and 1 TBSP lemon juice.

Begin whisking on slow setting. Slowly drizzle in about the oil. Whisk in the remaining 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Cut with a little red-wine vinegar if more acid is needed. Taste for seasonings. Fold in blue cheese crumbles.

Use a funnel to transfer contents to a standard 750-milliliter bottle (or a mason jar). Be sure to scrape in everything from the bottom of the bowl. Seal securely. (New screw-cap bottles are best for this.) Refrigerate. Remove 15 minutes before using. Shake well. Store in an airtight jar for a month or more.

“You can order something other than salad….you know that right?” These were the words spoken to me by my now husband after dating for about 3 weeks. Everywhere I went I was ordering salad. I wasn’t trying to be polite or watching my weight, I just happened to really like salad. Problem was as a single girl my ingredients in my fridge would always spoil before I could use them….so I usually only had salad when I went out to eat. He kept taking me out to eat. I kept eating salad. I still to this day don’t make it at home as much as I would eat it because(and this will be shocking) my husband doesn’t like salad. So if I do have salad, it is usually for lunch when Mr. No Palate is not around.
I’ve been very bad lately about participating in blogging events. Seems I always remember to do it the day(or week) after the fact. But the Salad Stravaganza(co-hosted by Lisa and Kelly) was publicized enough to the Daring Bakers that I had enough gently reminders to get mine in. This is a salad I like to make for company. The poached pear for some reason is very exciting to them(it’s not hard people). When I am feeling ambitious(not today) I usually make a blue cheese fritter to go along with it….but it was warm so the idea of standing in front of frying oil was not appealing. This salad has a lot of flavors occurring but they marry nicely together. And as usual, my salad is not low fat.
Have a salad recipe you want to share? You too can be part of the Salad Stravaganza. Just head on over to either La Mia Cucina or Sass and Veracity to get more information.

Poached Pear Salad with Blue Cheese, Spiced Caramel Walnuts and Blackberry Jam Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

Salad greens
poached pears(recipe follows)
blackberry jam vinaigrette(recipe follows)
spiced caramel walnuts(recipe follows)
blue cheese( however much you like)

Poached Pears

2 ripe Green Anjou pears, cut in half and cored
1 ½ cups Pinot Gris(I used A to Z from here in the PNW)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup Port wine
2 whole cloves

Bring wines, sugar and cloves to a boil(making sure the sugar dissolves) and then bring to a simmer. Poach pears for 15 minutes. Remove ¾ cup of the liquid and reserve. Leave the pears in the liquid while you prepare the rest of the salad.

Blackberry Jam Vinaigrette

¾ cup poaching liquid from the pears
2 TBSP cider vinegar
¾ cup olive oil
1 tsp garlic
¼ cup blackberry jam

Cook reserved pear liquid(make sure no cloves are in there) until reduced by half. In a blender or Cuisinart mix reduction with blackberry jam, vinegar, garlic and some salt to taste. While blender is running, slowly add the oil.

Spiced Caramel Walnuts

1 cup walnuts
½ cup sugar
½ tsp chile powder
½ tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp sea salt

Combine sugar with the spices. Place into a saucepan and turn on medium heat. Watch carefully to see the sugar start to caramelize around the edges of the pan. When that happens throw in the walnuts and stir. When they are coated in caramel spread onto a pan that has been covered in parchment paper. Once it is completely cooled, break into pieces.

To put the salad together:
 Place a little bit of vinaigrette onto the bottom of the plate(this insures that the bottom greens get some of the good stuff too). Slice poached pear half in half. The slice each quarter and fan out placing it in the middle of the greens. Garnish with walnuts and blue cheese crumbles. Drizzle desired amount of vinaigrette.

Ah, Summer.
Heat. Bugs. Sweat rolling down my knees.
Beautiful bright red tomotoes…I’m allergic to raw ones. Beautiful bright blue blueberries…I’m allergic to raw ones. Endless peppers and onions….I’m allergic to raw ones. It does produce many other nice foods that I can indeed eat but….
Needless to say I am not a huge fan of Summer. I play an indoor sport(ice hockey), I watch an indoor sport(ice hockey), we don’t own a BBQ(because we live in an apartment) and there is no real pourch for us to linger on. The last time I went barefoot in the grass I was bitten by some giant ant. So Summer is a un-needed season for me. It used to be extrememly important when I was a teacher, but since that is not the case anymore, I would like to fast forward to the Fall please.
So when I saw the Summer Salad Recipe Event over at My Life as a Reluctant Housewife I started going through my cookbooks. All the truly pretty salads had vivid red tomatoes in them and this just made me sad. I kept being drawn to all the more “fall” salads. I love Fall. Everything about Fall is the best. Hockey season starts again and I can grasp on to the hope that the Flames will win the Stanley Cup. The weather is ideal for baking. I get to wear coats(I love coats). And I love all the Fall fruits and vegetables.
So this is my Summer salad. It is a Summer salad in the fact that it is a salad and I made it today and it is technically Summer. Therefore by definition it is a Summer salad.

Apple, Dried Cherry, and Walnut Salad with Maple Dressing

Maple Dressing
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 TBSP Champagne vinegar or other white wine vinegar
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Salad
1 5-ounce bag of mixed baby greens
2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored, cut into matchstick-sized strips
1/2 cup dried tart cherries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

For Dressing:
Whisk mayonnaise, maple syrup, vinegar and sugar in a medium bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in oil until mixture thickens slightly. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

For Salad:
Toss greens, apples, cherries, and 1/4 cup walnuts in a large bowl to combine. Toss with enough dressing to coat. Divide salad equally among plates. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup walnuts and serve.

Makes 6 servings

Source: Bon Appetit, R.S.V.P., Septemer 2002, Mountain Town Station Brewing Company and Steakhouse