Happy New Year and here I go again with my first post being a salad. We’ve had a lot of over-indulging during the holidays, as most people have, so I am definitely focusing on salads now. Our first over-indulgent event was my neighbor’s holiday party that I wrote about here. And then at the last minute, we decided to go to Boise for Bruce's office party there. It's been awhile since we've traveled for Christmas parties because of the pandemic plus last year we were in Spain so I was a little eager to go this year. We stayed at my brother's house and had good visits with he and his wife. Two of my other siblings were also in town so it was really nice for all of us and our spouses to be together. We also had great visits with so many of the Bratney Company employees who I hadn't seen in years and various friends from when we lived in Idaho from 1998-2015.
It was a very festive time to be in town and the weather was gorgeous unlike our damp, gray Seattle days so it was a really nice get-away.
We ended up having seven social gatherings in four days so needless to say, my voice was a little hoarse from talking so much but it was really good to get caught up with everyone.
Isn't the holidays about getting re-connected with people? Well, mission accomplished this year, for sure. Plus, we had lots of family time with Lauren and her boyfriend coming over on Christmas to unwrap presents and a breakfast of Dutch Babies, of course.
And then off to my nephew's house for Christmas dinner. It's been a whirlwind holiday season. But I was looking forward to doing a New Year's Day dinner and making it special for the first day of the year so we planned prime rib for the entree and it turned out wonderfully.
I also served this Winter Jeweled Fruit Salad and it was a favorite for multiple reasons. First, it tasted good and was different with it's tart and sweet flavors together. It's a Mexican inspired salad with the dressing made with lime juice, honey and red pepper flakes. The fruits were pear, mango, blood oranges, tangerines and jicama. Jicama are those julienne-cut white sticks you see in the salad.
Jicama (pronounced HEE-kah-mah) is from Mexico and is a cross between a potato or turnip but has the flavor of a tasteless apple but it does add a lot of crunch to the salad. The recipes also calls for kumquats but I couldn't find any in the stores so I used grapes. Kumquats are very popular in California and Mexico; we had kumquat trees when we lived in California when I was a teenager and we would eat them right off the tree. But, if you live somewhere like I do now such as the Pacific Northwest, grapes work well. The other thing I liked about this salad is that you serve it at room temperature so it doesn't take up room in the fridge. It would be perfect to take to a potluck. People liked the spiciness of the dressing with the sweet fruit together so it was perfect for a festive holiday meal.
My next favorite dish of the evening was the dessert (of course). I made my chocolate snowball cakes which I haven't made since 2011. They were a big hit because they look like snowballs on your plate with a dusting of snow. And the homemade chocolate cake is so moist with light and fluffy frosting.
I made my homemade chocolate sauce to drizzle over each snowball cake and then sprinkled sifted powdered sugar over them. I also put little foil firework cupcake toppers which didn't look nearly as cute in person as they did on Amazon but our guests still loved the effect so they worked. All-in-all, it was a great beginning to the new year. Now, it's time to start eating salads again. The holidays are fun but it's always good to get back to our regular routine, don't you agree? I think I'll start by eating all our leftover Winter Jeweled Fruit Salad.
Serves 8
1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
1/2 cup julienne-cut peeled jicama
1/3 cup sliced seeded kumquats (about 6 medium) or seedless red grapes, sliced
2 tangerines or clementines, peeled and sectioned
2 blood oranges, peeled and sectioned
1 pear, thinly sliced
2 mangoes, peeled and cut in cubes (see below)
2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
2 Tbsp. honey
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
To cut mangoes, slice along the edge of the mango just avoiding where the pit is to get two clean, pit-free halves
Slice each half horizontally without cutting all the way through.
Cut the cubes clean of the skin by bending the peel making it easier to slice away the cubes with the knife and add to the salad.
1. Combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl; toss gently.
2. Combine lime juice, honey, pepper flakes, and salt in a small bowl, stirring well with a whisk.
3. Pour over fruit; toss gently to coat.
4. Serve at room temperature.
Happy New Year!
Comments
Post a Comment