August 25, 2009
The first time I had this salad was 10+ years ago. There was a great store called Sutton Place Gourmet across the street from the office I worked at in Virginia. They had a salad bar stocked with some great healthy choices, including this salad. When we moved from the area, I bought their Hay Day Country Market cookbook. It has *fabulous* recipes, and most of the pages in my book are well loved and stained from use.
I couldn’t find dry wheatberries anywhere here around Charlotte, NC. My SIL very nicely went and purchased some at Whole Foods last week and sent it down with my inlaws when they visited this past weekend. I couldn’t wait to make this recipe again!
Of course, I didn’t have all the ingredients on hand, but this recipe is so great for subsitutes.
The wheatberries will keep for a long time in a sealed jar.
Here’s a detail of the grain. It’s super healthy for you, and has a great chewy texture when cooked.
Here are the dressing ingredients: olive oil, walnut oil (the secret ingredient) and red wine vinegar.
While the wheatberries simmer, you can mix up the vinaigrette and chop the items that will be mixed in: parsley, chopped walnuts, chopped dried cranberries (in place of currents I didn’t have), chopped green onion. I also added a squeeze of lime into the dressing.
Since I had half a hothouse cucumber on hand, I diced that up too for nice crunch.
And I threw some fresh farmer’s market peas in with the wheatberries. I told you this was a very forgiving, flexible recipe.
While the wheatberries are still warm, toss with mixins and dressing. Yum! This is delicious over salad greens, or along side grilled chicken.
Wheatberry Waldorf Salad
Courtesy Hay Day Country Market Cookbook
Serves 6 to 8
1 cup wheat berries or kamut rinsed well
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup walnut oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon
Kosher salt & pepper
3 large scallions finely chopped
1/4 cup parsley chopped
2 crisp red-skin apples cut into small dice
2/3 cup fennel
1/2 cup dried currants
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted
Place the wheat berries in a medium saucepan add water, and bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until most of the water has been absorbed and the kernels are tender and pleasantly chewy, 30 to 35 minutes. Drain any excess water and transfer wheat berries to a large bowl.
Meanwhile, whisk the oils, vinegar and lemon juice together in a small bowl. Season to taste with the salt and pepper. Add the dressing to the bowl of warm wheat berries.
Add all the remining ingredients to the bowl, toss and refrigerate, covered until ready to serve. Well wrapped, this salad will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
August 17, 2009
I love designing and creating pretty things for our customers. The downside is that it I usually have a list of new ideas in my head that never make it to fruition. I had some leftover fabric and a few spare moments the other day to whip up a couple accent pillows that I’d been wanting to do for a while.
I resisted the urge to do a monogram in a contrasting color, like black. I had seen a pillow a while back with a monogram thread to match the pillow background, and loved it. It’s subtle, but because of the sheen of the thread, it’s very readable.
I went with a different style ruffle here. Normally, I’d use my Johnson Ruffler for ruffling. It works beautifully. The workroom has one too for our gathered skirts, etc. A nice ruffled edge requires quite a bit of fabric for a nice gathering and I just didn’t have enough leftover to make it work. But I actually love this tailored boxed gathering.
Of course, it didn’t take long for someone to get comfortable!
August 11, 2009
I’ve been MIA from the blog in the last few weeks. It’s at this time of year that I feel like I’m living in a real life version of the arcade game “Whack-a-Mole”. It used to be one of my favorite arcade games. You get to grasp a cartoon like padded mallet and knock the plastic moles that pop out of a series of holes in the game board. The game starts out slowly and gradually builds speed. Soon, you’re frantically whacking in every direction, trying to anticipate where the mole may emerge next.
These days, the moles in my life are: school supply lists, business deadlines, party plans, football season kick off, and a series of self imposed decorating projects.
On Saturday, I got to spend a few hours with a group of fun women at a decorating swap meet hosted by The Nester.It was lots of fun and I was happy to see the items I brought scooped up and taken to their new homes. In exchange, I got to bring home some new things for myself! The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. I had just finished (I think) a face lift on our kitchen. If I was smarter, I would have taken a ‘before’ shot. But, the ‘after’ shots will have to suffice.
Believe it or not, the whole project was kicked off by a $3.99 plate from HomeGoods. The bird plate in the photo below, to be exact.
See that bird plate in the right of the photo? That plate required me to: 1) build a shelf 2) remake window treatments 3) repaint kitchen. Crazy, right?
The very first thing I grabbed at the swap meet was the wood cut out that reads ‘FAMILY’ below. I love the way it looks up there, especially since it was already black like the shelf.
The second thing I grabbed was this gigantic artichoke. I love it. It made it up on the shelf as well.
And I picked a fun frame that had a nest picture already inside. It found a home in the foyer. Love it.
Thanks Nester–for opening your home to such a fun time!
