Bean and Corn Salad

I love my Bean and Corn salad for many reasons. It can be tossed together in 10 minutes. It goes with almost everything. It's pretty. But most of all, it tastes great. I'm sure I'm not the first person to come up with this salad and there are probably dozens of variations. This is mine.

The basic ingredients.

Drain the beans. You can rinse them if you'd like, but I don't. I just give them a quick drain and toss them in a bowl.

Then chop a red bell pepper. I usually cut them in a half inch dice.

Next slice up the scallions. I usually use only two scallions and include the white and green parts.

Measure a cup of frozen corn. You can either just dump it in the bowl or toss them in a preheated and well seasoned cast iron skillet to roast the kernals. I usually skip the roasting. I like that the frozen corn chills the other ingredients of the salad quickly.

Next take a bunch of cilantro a cut off a good sized bunch.

Then chop it up.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Do you like my handy dandy salt pig? I keep it on the kitchen island and filled with Kosher salt.

Here comes the tricky party. You can select what ever seasoning will go best with your meal. I usually go with a couple of teaspoons of chili powder, a pinch of cayenne pepper and a dash of cumin. I don't measure, I just put what feels right in the salad, taste and adjust until I like it.

Next you will need to squeeze the juice of one lime into the salad.

Lime juice is the only dressing I put on this salad. I suppose you could put in some olive oil, but my hips and the salad are better without it.

See this lime? It's exactly what you don't want to buy. It's almost juice-less.

I should have popped it in the microwave for a few seconds and rolled it on the counter before I cut it open. That would have helped bring out the juice a bit.

This is the live action shot of me squeezing the lime. Notice no juice is coming out. It took squeezing with both hands and assistance from my photographer to get the juice out of this guy.

Then stir everything up and adjust seasonings as needed.

See? I told you it was pretty!

Especially for my loyal readers (yes I have an active imagination), the steak with Gorgonzola crust.

Start with a couple of tenderloins from your favorite neighborhood butcher and some crumbled Gorgonzola.

Grill the steaks on one side for five minutes over high heat. Turn them over. Let grill for 5 minutes. Move steaks off of direct heat. Put crumbled Gorgonzola on top of steaks and cover the grill for another 2 minutes. Steaks should be perfectly medium rare. And look like this:

After the rest a minute or two, put them on a plate, add some salad and be the hero you always knew you could be.

Gnocchi Dokey

I've always wanted to try making gnocchi, but was intimidated by the horror stories I heard from others. The phrase "pasty mess" was not a confidence builder. But, I finally decided to face my fears and give it a shot.

After reading multiple recipes, I decided to take the best ideas from each and jump right in. My favorite recipe said that the whole process could be completed in less than 15 minutes. This gave me courage. If it was going to suck, at least I wouldn't have invested a whole lot of time.

The recipe I ended up using was a little bit from a number of recipes.

Here's what I ended up with:

15 oz. ricotta cheese

1 egg

1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese

1/2. t salt

1- 1 1/2 c. flour

a bit of freshly grated nutmeg

Mix the ricotta, egg, Parmesan and salt.

Add enough flour to make a soft dough.

Divide the dough into fourths.

Take each fourth and roll to make a long dough snake about the size of your middle finger.

Slice it into 3/4 inch dumplings.

Toss dumplings into a pot of boiling salted water.

Remove as soon as they float to the top.

Baby gnocchi waiting for their bath.

Another shot of the gnocchi resting. Oh yes, there is no butter in the recipe. That was for the sauce. I guess I forgot to tell you about my Better Than Sex Gorgonzola Sauce.

These are so light to the touch at this point. The feel like little feather pillows.

At this point let me apologize for my lack of manicure. Oh, and the carrots in the upper right corner of the picture are also not used in gnocchi. They are used to keep the cook from snacking on the Gorgonzola for the Better Than Sex Gorgonzola Sauce.

The petunias in the bottom right are hiding out from the freeze they are promising us for tonight. Their snap dragon cousins are hanging out in the living room.

Here is the finished product. The gnocchi was light and fluffy. The Better Than Sex Gorgonzola Sauce was killer. The only thing I would change is to add some fresh radicchio next time.

Oh yes. The recipe for the Better Than Sex Gorgonzola Sauce.

1 c. heavy cream

2/3 c. Gorgonzola

1 T. butter

Put in a sauce pan over low heat. Swirl occasionally until cheese and butter are melted and combined with the cream. Pour over gnocchi. Or pour over bread. Or pour over anything you have handy. Enjoy.