Ginger-Beet Salad Bowls

This dish was absolutely AMAZING…and such a surprise! I had my reservations 😳 as I set it on the table. I actually told my son and husband, let’s just try it and see what we think.

We LOVED it!

I can’t say I cook with many of the ingredients used in this dish, but I will now…on repeat! This is something I will crave to have again.

This is a recipe that began as roasted beets with the ginger-harissa vinaigrette and grew to be a composed salad in which you layer the elements and can customize what you do or don’t want to add. Our recipe was more of an outline than a strict recipe.

The star of the show is the vinaigrette! It is a mixture of oil, 2 vinegars, honey, ginger, and the harissa powder. I bought the harissa powder online with the hopes it would last longer than the paste I bought before from Trader Joe’s. I have no doubt we will use it up with how good that dressing was. It had a nice kick without being too spicy.

I created our bowls with romaine, the roasted beets tossed in the vinaigrette, Greek yogurt, quinoa, the optional quick pickled onions, and substituted chives for the green onions since mine didn’t seem too fresh. The whole arrangement also gets more of the dressing.

There have been so many delicious recipes in this cookbook…a few that have caught us by surprise…which adds to the fun of this whole experience.

This one is a keeper and quite honestly I probably will have made it again by the time this posts. 😂😂

Tropical Tartlet

These tropical tarts are inspired from the French colonies; specifically Antilles in the Caribbean. They are made with puréed mango, coconut, lime, pepper flakes, and the optional dark rum baked in our Sweet Tart Dough. Dorie tells us they are as bright as sunshine and the flavors as warm…and also to be generous sprinkling the tops with coconut 😎.

My coconut loving tasters really enjoyed these tarts. They all said they were really good…but I did point out to them they weren’t “raving” about them haha. No “bomb” comments this go around. So I would say it was a good recipe, but not sure I would repeat it when there are so many highly rated ones we have made haha.

It was a fun summer treat!

Lower East Side Brunch Tart

This was a special bake for our group this month…we are honoring one of our own.

Our group is special…most all of us have never met in person as we are all over the globe representing many countries, but after 10 years of baking and creating hundreds of recipes together, we are very connected. Not sure how I can feel so bonded with people I have only blogged with, but somehow over the years, we have become a group of friends.

One thing unique to our group is a mother and daughter who each have their own blogs so they are independent, but together at the same time. I have baked with them for 10 years and did not really realize how remarkable Nana was. We know her as Chez Nana. She bakes, blogs, and comments on all of our posts and I hadn’t realized she did this at the age of 88! How remarkable is that?!! It has inspired me anew.

Unfortunately, her daughter had to inform us we lost dear Nana last month. I think her spirit will be with all of us as we continue on, and we will all hear her say, bake well.

This recipe is one that she had nominated a few times and we hadn’t baked yet, so in her honor we are baking this one for Nana this month. Thinking of you Tricia and the rest of the family. Your mom will be missed.

On a side note, I feel I must mention what the tart is, why it is unique, and that we enjoyed it. It was created in the spirit of the New Yorker’s bagels and lox Sunday morning tradition. The tart uses cream cheese, smoked salmon, red onion, capers, dill, and tomatoes mixed in cream and eggs and then baked in a Pàte Brisée crust. I thought the dough was pretty easy to work with and looked so pretty.

I want to end on this “keeper” of a thought this month…let’s all be more like Nana…love life, enjoy creating, and not let your age keep you from trying new things. ❤️