If you’re in the hunt for something fun to do this weekend or
for an early Mother’s Day outing, the Gilroy Assistance League’s
annual home tour is Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This
year, it’s being held in the countryside west of Gilroy at five
beautiful and very different homes.
If you’re in the hunt for something fun to do this weekend or for an early Mother’s Day outing, the Gilroy Assistance League’s annual home tour is Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This year, it’s being held in the countryside west of Gilroy at five beautiful and very different homes.
The homes range from a brand new formal Tuscan home, built as a retreat and entertainment home, to a 23-year-old Tudor-style family home that will feature a garden boutique.
Also on the tour is a historical home built on land that has been owned by the same family since the 1880s. It is the original Redwood Retreat property, and the lodge and one of the cabins will be available for the tour. Fernwood Cellars, also on the property, will offer wine-tasting for a fee.
The money raised at this GALS event will be given out through a grant program to local organizations that are doing good works. Grants have been given in the past to the Fishability Event, Children’s Home, Gilroy Gang Task Force and other similar organizations.
The cost for the tour is $25 (or $30 at the door). Check in at 10180 Madrid Drive, off west Day Road. Check-in begins at 10 a.m. and ends at 2 p.m. And tickets can be purchased ahead of time by calling (408) 842-9471.
As for cooking, we have some great recipes this week. Reader Joan Wright passed on a great salad dressing recipe and it’s worth a try. Simply put, it’s easy to get into a rut and it takes some determination to get out. This happens sometimes, even if you’re a cooking columnist responsible for three new recipes each week. When weeks feel too busy, you lean on the old standards, the ones you can make in your sleep. You turn to the few recipes that actually please every member of your family – even if the dishes are a little boring.
Of course, half of the battle in the kitchen is having the right ingredients available when you need them. There is a fine line between not buying at all and buying so early that the ingredient is out-of-date when you want to use it. I think that’s why we turn back to our old favorites. They’re usually simple to make and full of ingredients that are always in your pantry or fridge, like my favorite salad dressing: 2/3 cup olive oil, 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar, garlic salt, whisk in 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese or gorgonzola, sprinkle pine nuts on top. And, voila, the same great salad I made … just yesterday.
So here’s a challenge for this week: try something new. Given the temperature outside, I’m going to start with a few salads with new dressings. If you have a new recipe that you’ve tried from a friend or cookbook, please e-mail it to me so we can share.
Shallots and wine vinegar
I love recipes that include shallots. It’s a neat word and it always makes a recipe sound exotic and sophisticated. This salad dressing can be made in about 10 minutes. Use on a salad of hearty, bitter greens such as endive, escarole, spinach and radicchio.
Warm Bacon and Shallot Dressing with Basil Shreds
6 slices bacon, diced
2 1/4 tsp.s sugar
1 medium-sized shallot, minced
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/8 tsp. salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons shredded fresh basil leaves
– Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon. Drain on paper towels. Add sugar to bacon fat in the pan. Cook, stirring, until lightly browned.
– Stir in shallots; cook, stirring often, until shallots are crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Stir in vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper to taste. Cook until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat; stir in basil and bacon.
New Slaw
This isn’t your old slaw. The difference: no mayonnaise and you must buy some raspberry vinegar to get just the right taste. This recipe comes from Mark Stanley, an instructor at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago, who says: “Cabbage is like one of those great character actors in movies. You see them all the time, but they never are the stars.” Toss this salad with dressing just before serving.
Napa Slaw
1/3 cup raspberry vinegar
2 1/2 tsp.s sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 head Napa cabbage
1 head radicchio, shredded
– Whisk together vinegar and sugar in a small bowl. Let stand several minutes until sugar dissolves. Slowly whisk in oil; season with salt and black pepper to taste. Set aside.
– Cut 1 inch off the bottom of the napa cabbage. Cut large leaves in half lengthwise; shred all leaves about 1/8-inch thick. Place in a large bowl with radicchio leaves, sliced or torn into smaller pieces. Toss cabbage mixture with enough vinaigrette to coat. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve soon after mixing to avoid excessive wilting. Serves 4.
Hotel Cobb
In the 1920s, Hollywood restaurant manager Robert Cobb improvised a salad while raiding the Brown Derby’s refrigerator after a long shift. The Cobb Salad has since been imitated and improvised more times than can be counted. This version costs $20 at the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles.
Hotel Bel-Air’s Cobb Salad
Salad
2 hearts of romaine lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces
6 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 skinless, boneless cooked chicken breast halves, chopped
2 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted and sliced or chopped.
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
Lemon Vinaigrette
1 small shallot, minced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tsp.s Dijon mustard
1 tsp. chopped chives
1 tsp. chopped parsley
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 1/4 cupe peanut oil
– To make salad, place romaine in a large salad bowl. Cover romaine with bacon, chicken, tomatoes, avocado and blue cheese.
– To make dressing, cook shallot and vinegar in a small skillet over medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Set aside to cool. Place mustard, chives, parsley, sugar, salt and pepper to taste in a small bowl. Whisk to combine.
– Whisk together vinegar mixture, mustard mixture and lemon juice. Slowly add oil, whisking constantly until blended. Toss salad at the table with lemon vinaigrette. Serves 4.
