Peach BLT Salad with Fresh Thyme-Dijon Vinaigrette

For the bacon-lover!  For you vegetarians and vegans out there, I'm quite sure this would rock with some fakin' bacon.

2 hearts of romaine lettuce
2 large tomatoes, cut into chunks
4 large peaches, cut into chunks and tossed with
  juice of 1 lemon (keeps it from turning brown)
1 package bacon (I prefer nitrate-free), fried
  nice and crispy and crumbled

Olive oil (not extra-virgin)
White wine vinegar
Dijon mustard
Agave nectar
Fresh thyme leaves
Freshly-ground black pepper

optional:  one or two green onions, thinly sliced

Discard any not-so-great outer leaves of the romaine hearts, and rip or cut it up into bite-sized pieces (I use a plastic serrated knife that keeps the edges of the lettuce from turning brown when cut).  Spread on a big, pretty platter.  Top evenly with the tomato, then the peach.

Put the dressing ingredients in a jar and shake (the jar).  Start with about a quarter-cup of olive oil.  I am not providing amounts here for the other dressing ingredients because people are so individual in their tastes when it comes to dressings... some like it sweeter, more acidic, more or less mustard-y... let your taste be your guide.  The bacon is so salty that I do not add salt.

Right before serving, drizzle the dressing over the salad as evenly as you can, and top with the crumbled bacon.  Some thinly sliced green onion would be a nice addition on top too.  You can also garnish with a sprig or two of fresh thyme.

Slow-Cooked Pork with Sauerkraut and Vidalia Onion

This is a great one to put in your crockpot in the morning and have ready by dinner.  This would be delicious served with mashed potatoes, steamed green beans, and homemade applesauce.  I used a 2.5-pound Boston Butt I got at the Athens Farmer's Market from the Greendale Farm folks.

2.5-pound Boston Butt pork
2 teaspoons Better than Bouillon (Chicken)
  dissolved in 2 cups warm water
1 can Silver Floss sauerkraut, drained
1 large vidalia onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar (I like Bragg's)
1 Tablespoon agave nectar
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Put pork in your crockpot.  Pour in the chicken bouillon water, then put in the sauerkraut, onion, caraway seeds, apple cider vinegar, agave nectar, salt, and pepper.  Try to place these ingredients as evenly as you can around the pork.

Cook on the high setting for at least six hours (it can cook longer - it only gets more tender).  After a few hours, it's good to break up the pork a bit to let the flavor get into the meat.

Avocado-Peach-Tomato-Watermelon-Red Onion Salad

Make sure you get a good sweet red onion for this one, and homegrown or farmer's market tomatoes.  This is a summer recipe, because there's no other time of year you can get all these ingredients at their peak.  Serve this immediately after you prepare it.  The cold watermelon provides a wonderful temperature/texture contrast with the rest of the ingredients.

2 perfect avocados
3 peaches
2 tomatoes
2 cups cold watermelon
1/2 red onion

Juice of 1 juicy lime
Kosher salt

Cut into chunks the avocados, peaches, tomatoes, watermelon, and red onion.  Toss with the lime juice and a pinch of kosher salt.

Radicchio-Blueberry-Wild Rice Salad with Walnuts

When people find out I don't eat wheat or dairy (except butter), sometimes they'll say, "What do you eat, nuts and berries?"  To which I reply, "Yes."  This beautiful salad is for those who enjoy the bitter taste of radicchio. The wild rice called for is just wild rice (the dark part only), not the wild rice/white or brown rice blends often sold in stores.  Apparently wild rice is not true rice, it is more like a grass.

1 head radicchio
3/4 box blueberries
1/2 cup wild rice, cooked
  (measured before cooking)

2 Tablespoons walnut oil
1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
1 Tablespoon agave nectar

1/3 cup lightly toasted walnuts
1/4 box blueberries

Cut radicchio into short shreds.  Combine with cooked and cooled wild rice and blueberries.  Mix together walnut oil, rice vinegar, and agave nectar.  Pour over radicchio mixture and toss thoroughly.  Top with walnuts and the last of the blueberries.

Chicken Salad with Grapes and Walnuts with Maple-Dijon Dressing

This is an excellent potluck recipe. Last time I took this somewhere, grownup, mature people were fighting over the leftovers. This will serve 15-20 people in a potluck-type situation.

6 - 7 large skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts
  (single breasts)
1 onion, cut into chunks
1 celery stalk, cut into a few pieces
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 bay leaf

1 cup halved black seedless grapes
1 cup halved green seedless grapes
4 stalks celery, cut lengthwise, then thinly sliced
  (make sure it's fresh, crunchy, and green)
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
1 cup walnuts, lightly toasted and broken up
half a bunch of flat-leaf Italian parsley, minced

1/2 cup olive oil (regular, not extra-virgin)
1/4 cup real maple syrup
2 Tablespoons dijon mustard
Rice vinegar, a few generous shakes

Freshly ground black pepper
Kosher salt

Put chicken, onion, celery, peppercorns, and bay leaf into a stockpot and cover generously with water. Bring to a gentle simmer, then immediately turn the heat down to low. You do not want it bubbling, or the chicken will get tough and dry. After awhile, take out a piece of the chicken and cut down into it to see if it's cooked through. If not, return it to the pot. As soon as the chicken is cooked through, remove it from the pot (you can strain the stock and save it to make soup if you don't want it to go to waste).

When the chicken is cool, remove the skin and bones and cut it into chunks.

To toast the walnuts, put them on a baking sheet and into a 300 degree oven. Check every couple of minutes until they just start to turn golden. Remove immediately and put on a plate to cool.

In a large bowl, combine the chicken, walnuts, green and black grapes, celery, green onions, and parsley. In a jar, shake up to combine the dressing ingredients: olive oil, maple syrup, dijon mustard, and rice vinegar. Taste and see whether the mixture is to your liking. If you like it sweeter, add more syrup, more acidic, add more vinegar. Pour dressing over the chicken mixture and toss thoroughly. Add plenty of freshly-ground black pepper and kosher salt to taste and toss again.