Delightful Surprises

The other day, I came home to the most delightful aroma emanating from our kitchen.  I don't mean this in a bad way, but our daily salad isn't something that hits your senses full on as soon as you open the door.  However, on this day, I was completely swept off my feet.  The secret ingredient that made the house smell like an Italian bakery was the fresh croutons that were heating on the stove.

The twist was that the croutons were made from spelt bread.  We had been buying bread at Whole Foods made from spelt wheat at the suggestion of our acupuncturist to eliminate traditional wheat from our diet.  Spelt is an old crop with a history that extends back to the Bronze Age, and because it has been in our collective diet for generations it metabolizes differently from modern wheat.  At first, the taste was a little overwhelming, but eventually we grew to love it, and now it is the bread staple of our house.

The crouton recipe is very simple.  You start by trimming the bread crusts and cutting the remainder into cubes. Season a skillet with olive oil and butter at medium heat.  Toss in the bread cubes, letting them soak up the oil and butter.  Spice with O & Co sea salt and herbs for pasta dishes, and add some ground black pepper.  Cook the croutons until crisp on the outside, but make sure they are not hard or overly dry on the inside.  

You can add these croutons to any of your favorite salads with stunning results.  It's funny, but I was never much of a fan of croutons in salads until now.  Who knew that you have to make them yourself, and that your choice of bread makes all the difference.  Spelt has a naturally sweet and nutty flavor that result in a dazzling crouton.  I'm sure that any of your favorite breads will work, but if your feeling adventurous, try the spelt bread.  You, and any of your neighbors with a discerning sense of smell, will not be disappointed.

Peeling back the layers

What does it say about us that our favorite salad ingredient, the artichoke, is a conundrum, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in mystery.  After painstaking preparation, you need to peel back the layers in order to get to the heart, which happens to be the perfect delivery mechanism for a great vinaigrette.  

Lately, the ingredient list in our standard salad has been pretty consistent.  Here's how we start:

• Red romaine
  
• Blueberries
  
• Cherry tomatoes
  
• Red seedless grapes
  
• Artichoke hearts
  

The differentiating factor in these salads is the balsamic vinegar, the olive oil, or the spices that cling to the artichoke hearts and make the salad a unique expression of the day's alchemy.  

Our Summer Project

As you know, the salad du jour blog has been on hiatus for the last three months.  In that time, we've built and enjoyed many great salads. However, we took on a side project that made the task of writing about our latest leafy creations (or setting up a meaningful photograph) to document their momentary beauty impossible.  

Over the last twelve weeks, we had the pleasure of being foster parents to two of the most adorable kittens I have ever seen.  At five days old, they were only a little larger than peanuts, their eyes were sealed shut, and they couldn't hear.  Nevertheless, they needed to eat every few hours, and to keep them strong and healthy we had to learn how to bottle feed them.  After we managed to pour a few millimeters of formula into them, we had to burp them and coax them into letting out the milk at the other end.  This turned into a full-time job.

As they grew, and they seemed to double in size every few weeks, they discovered the joy of standing, of walking, then running.  Soon, they were running sideways, jumping, leaping and turning in mid air, clinging to the side of their cage, to any available furniture, or my pant legs.  They also developed a love for the computer, and following the cursor was about as much fun as a kitten could have while sitting down.  Soon, sitting was impossible, and every blog article we attempted to write looked like this:

ttttttttttttttooooodaaaaay, wwwwwwwwweeeee hhhhhhad aaaaaaavocaaaaaaado iiiiiin ourrrrrrr  sallaaaaaaad.........

So, we took a break.  The kids grew up to be fantastic feline citizens, and both have been adopted out through the Austin Humane Society's adoption program.  I don't think the kittens developed a love for salads while they were here, but we helped to give them a bigger life, which is exactly what we're supposed to do, isn't it?