Tag Archives: dill

Shaved Asparagus and Ham Salad with Dill

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Danguole| 2 Comments

So, as it turns out, I’m pretty good at being totally behind and somehow also ahead at the same time?

I don’t have an Easter recipe for you, although I think that pork chops with rhubarb sauce are perfect casual Easter dinner material, that this orzo salad would make a great side, that you should take cheese puffs everywhere, and that Easter is the perfect time to kick off ice cream season.  I also–and this is what I mean by being kind of ahead of things–have an idea for your leftovers.  Ham, specifically…  Alongside lots of fresh, crunchy vegetables.

With all due respect to bagged greens, there is so much more fun to be had with salad.  I’m pretty sure almost any vegetable can be turned into a base for salad, whether raw, roasted, steamed, shredded, sliced, shaved…  The possibilities are, well, not endless (endful?), but close.  So let’s play with vegetables.  (And PORK.)

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Posted in Healthy (?), Main courses, Meat, Salad, Sides, Spring

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Quick (and Spicy) Pickles

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Danguole| 1 Comment

I would go to farmers’ markets approximately 18 times more often if it weren’t such a …  morning people activity.  A chipper bunch they are, and bless their hearts, for the world needs baristas and Matt Lauers.

It’s not that I sleep in like I used to during, say, college.  It’s just that in my universe, there’s something deeply wrong with skipping the weekend morning ritual of bedhead hair, stylin’ sleepwear (obviously), glasses, and a leisurely three mugs of coffee from my French press (arguably the best, most relaxing method of caffeine intake).

But goodness knows, I do do the farmers’ market thing, if only for the last hour.  And you know what I keep finding?  Gorgeous, perfectly crooked, perfectly goosebumped, perfectly crisp little pickling cucumbers.  I give up that third mug of coffee sometimes, but in return?  Pickles for this girl.

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Posted in Appetizer, Healthy (?), Summer

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Dill Buttermilk Biscuits

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Danguole| 1 Comment

How long would you be willing to wait for breakfast?  In San Francisco’s gritty Tenderloin District, to be exact?  I only ask because Dottie’s True Blue, located in said area, is my personal record at just over an hour. (By the way, there’s no such wait time if you’re looking for something stronger than coffee in the Tenderloin, as evidenced by the string of people coming and going from the nearby hotel–say what you will about drug dealers, but some of them run an efficient operation.  Credit where credit is due.)

But yeah.  Dottie’s is worth it.  Whiskey-fennel-sausage-worth-it.  Grilled-cornbread-and-jalapeno-jelly-worth-it.  Don’t even get me started on the baked goods I’m always compelled to grab to go: blueberry whiskey crumb cake, sweet potato pop tarts,  rocky road bars…

Oh, and their standard toast bread?  Buttermilk dill.  It’s incredible.  Recently, the planets aligned perfectly, and I had both leftover buttermilk and a bunch of fresh dill.  I’m sure I’ll make it back to Dottie’s this summer, but meanwhile, let’s make some biscuits.

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Posted in Baking, Bread, Breakfast, Vegetarian, weekend

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Beer-Battered Pickles with Garlic and Dill Sauce

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Danguole| 5 Comments

This is what my life has become…  Going to the trouble to heat up oil, to risk burning down my apartment (if anyone would, it’s me), and to figure out how to get rid of said oil–all for 6 beer-battered, fried pickle spears.

That’s all I trusted myself with, and I was right.  Know thyself!

My mind was blown when I had my first fried pickles at Great Basin.  You’d think the only way to enjoy pickles is cold and crunchy, but no.  I swear on my memory foam mattress topper–this stuff is delicious.  It’s the warm but still crunchy, vinegary, salty goodness of pickles, wrapped up in a blanket of crunch.

And naturally, I enjoyed them on my balcony with at least one cold beer.  There had to be dipping sauce too–we’ll keep that component light, yet delicious.  Sound good?

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Posted in Appetizer, Vegetarian

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Asparagus and Edamame Soup with Dill and Pancetta

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Danguole| 3 Comments

When I tell people I like to cook, they often ask what I like to cook, and I tend to find myself stammering.  I don’t know, uh, everything?

But then I remember how I feel when others say the same thing about their taste in music.  You like everything?  Really?  Nobody likes everything.  And so, no, I don’t like to cook everything.  My go-to answer to that question is becoming “Soup and anything spicy.”  I might have to refine the spicy part, because that’s probably a lie, too.  I’m sure I have limits.

Soup is the ultimate in comfort and love.  While I do not eat/make much of it in the warmer seasons, the need for comfort knows no calendar.  Sometimes soup is just the right thing to do for yourself.

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Posted in Healthy (?), Main courses, Soup, Spring

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Lithuanian Summer Borscht

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Danguole| Leave a comment

Yellow makes me want to sing show tunes and frolic and drink lemonade and generally be everything I’m not.

Green–green speaks to my soul.  If it’s green, I want it.  I wanna eat green, wear green, see green (not figuratively, duh).

Black makes me think of my closet.  It boggles my mind how some people manage to wear black and brown and match their purse and shoes and outfits into a singular either-or scheme.  I don’t have the energy for brown in my closet, except for some things I wear with black.  Defiantly!  Yes.  Definitely defiantly.

Red makes me kind of uneasy, I think.  Does anyone want some hastily-purchased dark red curtains?

Bright pink.  Harsh truth: I only approve of bright pink in the form of cold soup.  This is my favorite dish from my dear beer-and-basketball-loving home planet.  Easily.  I’ve served it to some friends and unless they’re just being nice (I have to find some assholes to serve it to as well), they all liked it.  Loved, even, as one of them described it as a frolic through a fresh garden in your mouth.  Perhaps this soup should be yellow.  Golden beets do exist…

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Posted in Healthy (?), Main courses, Soup, Summer, Vegetarian

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