Section 1: Appetizers & Starters – Page 3 – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

2-22: Salad Bar with Warm Dressing

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters May 5, 2020May 4, 2020alfalfa sprouts, beets, broccoli, cabbage, canola oil, carrots, celery, chicken bouillon, chicken broth, curry powder, dairy-free, dinner, dressing, easy, egg-free, emulsion, gluten-free, grated, healthy, herb salt, inexpensive, lemon juice, lemons, lunch, olive oil, party food, peeled, radishes, red onions, salads, sunflower oil, tarragon, turnips, untested, vegan, vegetable bouillon, vegetable broth, vegetables, vegetarian

I love a good salad bar, or did, before coronavirus turned everything in our lives upside down. One of my family’s favorite restaurants when I was a kid featured an impossibly long salad bar. A friend and I even entered an essay-writing contest at Souplantation back in college and won ourselves 30 free meal passes, which we blew through quicker than you’d expect.

2-22: Salad Bar with Warm Dressing is equivalent to most of these at-home solutions we’ve seen during this pandemic–a pale imitation of the real thing. Consider this recipe the “haircut I did myself because everything is closed” of salad bars.

I suppose if you just lumped all the same ingredients on top of some quinoa and called it a Buddha bowl instead, you could send this recipe forward in time from the 1980s to modern day.

Of course, you’d have to take an artsy picture (or 100), slap some filters on it, and post it to social media with a bunch of hashtags first to really modernize it. Do you think they really eat the food after they take pictures of it, or is it just for the ‘gram? 🤔

1-3: Melon with Smoked Turkey

Jamie Martin Group 01: Hot & Cold Appetizers, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters April 14, 2020February 18, 2024appetizers, black pepper, breasts, canola oil, cantaloupe, cherry tomatoes, chicken, chicory lettuce, chilled, chopped, cooked chicken, curly endive, Dijon mustard, dressing, easy, escarole, fairly inexpensive, galia, garnish, honey, honeydew, hors d'oeuvres, Italian parsley, lemon juice, lettuce, lunch, melon, mint, peeled, Prosciutto, red bell peppers, Romaine lettuce, salt, sliced, smoked chicken, smoked ham, smoked turkey, tarragon, tomatoes, turkey, untested, vegetable oil

Believe it or not, 1-3: Melon with Smoked Turkey is one of my last few remaining Group 01: Hot and Cold Appetizers recipes left to cover. I’ve put this one off for a while because I’m not a big fan of melon (other than watermelons)–but when the weekly CSA box keeps bringing them to you, you have to do something with them.

Theirs looks super fancy–mine looks like a sloppy mess. I suppose if I were actually serving this for a party I would have tried harder. Melon + meat = appetizer isn’t a new equation–even Pillsbury has their own version. Most versions include prosciutto instead of turkey, which is the variant I’m more familiar with.

2-12: Tips About Salad Dressing

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters March 25, 2020April 17, 2020appetizers, apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, black pepper, blender, blue cheese, canola oil, crème fraîche, Dijon mustard, dressing, dried herbs, dried spices, dry mustard, emulsion, food processor, French, fruit salad, garlic, grape juice, healthy, herbs and spices, honey, how-to, lemon juice, lime juice, mayonnaise, olive oil, orange juice, pasta salad, potato salad, Ranch, red raspberry vinegar, red wine vinegar, restaurant-style, salads, salt, sour cream, spice blends, sunflower oil, sweet mustard, tarragon vinegar, Thousand Island, untested, vegetable juice, vegetable oil, vinaigrette, vinegar, white wine vinegar, yellow mustard, yogurt

Since there’s about to be quite a few salad recipes coming up, I thought I’d put 2-12: Tips About Salad Dressing out there as well. I tried to think of more salad dressing variations than what they list here, but honestly? Most “traditional” salad dressings do fall into one of the three categories they establish: vinaigrette, cream/mayo-based, and low-calorie. Go ahead–can you think of one that doesn’t?

PS: I spy that sneaky tarragon vinegar in their picture below. If you want to learn to make your own, check out 19-7: Fresh and Dried Herbs.

At the restaurant I worked at a few years ago, we made our own dressings from scratch. And by “we”, I mean “me”–I made all the dressings for the whole restaurant every week and kept everything stocked up, since it was my station (garde manger, or pantry chef) that made the salads. We made a blue cheese, ranch, Caesar, creamy balsamic vinaigrette, and another lighter, more traditional vinaigrette.

One of the first times I made the blue cheese dressing (which required a giant immersion blender and a 22-quart Cambro–it’s kind of like mixing concrete in a bucket), a customer liked it so much they asked to buy some to take home. I guess that makes me qualified to write about salad dressings now.

Hey–I have to find something to do while we’re all staying at home for a while. And so do you (probably), so why not read this?

2-18: Luncheon Salad

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters March 19, 2020October 28, 20211980s, blue cheese, boiled, butter, cheese, cottage cheese, croutons, dressing, easy, emulsion, Feta, gluten-free, granulated sugar, grapes, healthy, inexpensive, lemon juice, lemons, lettuce, lunch, melted, nuts, olive oil, Romaine lettuce, salads, salt, sautéed, tarragon, untested, vegetarian, Waldorf, walnuts, white wine vinegar

Reporting LIVE (to print), from an undisclosed location in Northern California, USA, currently sheltering-in-place and teleworking due to COVID-19/coronavirus/the apocalypse. It’s getting crazy out there, y’all–stay safe and healthy. And wash your hands.

Since we’re all stuck inside for a while, and I’ve got a big backlog of these to get through (over 50), here’s one more thing to pass the time. 2-18: Luncheon Salad is pure 1980s–turn up the vaporwave (for A E S T H E T I C), find your best matching sweatsuit, and crack open a Tab.

I don’t remember feeling like this salad was a treat–more like a punishment. If you can find some cottage cheese in the store right now, go for it–just don’t invite your friends. #socialdistancing

1-15: Chinese Spring Rolls

Jamie Martin Group 01: Hot & Cold Appetizers, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters November 5, 2019January 27, 2020all-purpose flour, appetizers, Asian, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, brown sugar, butter, canola oil, chicken bouillon, chicken broth, Chinese, Chinese cabbage, cornstarch, deep fryer, deep-fried, egg wash, eggrolls, eggs, fairly hard, fairly inexpensive, filling, griddle, ground meat, ground pork, hors d'oeuvres, mushrooms, pancakes, party food, salt, sautéed, sherry, soy sauce, spring rolls, sweet-and-sour, untested, vegetable bouillon, vegetable broth, vegetable oil

Simply Delicious has made numerous attempts at Chinese-American cuisine, and we can add 1-15: Chinese Spring Rolls to that list as well. There’s some interesting history behind the terms spring roll and egg roll–it goes much deeper than just what the wrapper is made of.

The terms are used interchangeably here, and seemingly in most other places as well. The biggest takeaway from the spring vs. egg roll debate is that spring rolls are originally from China, but have been Americanized along the way (while egg rolls were always American).

They tend to have a thinner wrapper than egg rolls, and are often also associated with the transparent rice paper rolls you tend to see in Vietnamese and Thai restaurants.

5-10: Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes

Jamie Martin Group 05: Eggs & Cheese, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters July 14, 2019November 14, 2020black olives, black pepper, breakfast, butter, cheese, cherry tomatoes, chives, chopped, cottage cheese, easy, eggs, green olives, healthy, herbs and spices, inexpensive, lunch, salt, sautéed, scrambled, spinach, Tabasco sauce, toasted, tomatoes, untested, vegetables, vegetarian, white bread

Looking for a quick, healthy breakfast option from Simply Delicious? 5-10: Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes is from the 1980s, but actually holds up really well 30+ years later. Consider this the predecessor to avocado toast.

This version uses cottage cheese in the scrambled eggs (instead of milk, I assume). If you’re looking to cut calories (and fat) even further, skip the milk and butter altogether–according to the late Anthony Bourdain, you don’t need either for good scrambled eggs.

2-11: Santiago Chicken Salad

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters July 6, 2019February 25, 2020avocados, black pepper, broiled, chicken, chicken salad, chili powder, corn, cucumbers, dairy-free, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, garlic, gluten-free, lemon juice, lemons, lunch, Mexican, mushrooms, olive oil, oregano, party food, red bell peppers, salads, salt, spicy, untested, white onions, white wine vinegar

Hey there. Haven’t fallen off the face of the planet–just spent the last few months buying a house and moving into said house. Needless to say, things have been busier than normal.

However, I’ve been trying to do a few recipes here and there throughout the process, so there’s content coming at some point. So before you get to see the new (and hopefully VERY permanent) kitchen background, you’ll still get a few from the old apartment. Here’s one of those, 2-11: Santiago Chicken Salad.

In preparation for moving, we were looking for easy recipes that didn’t involve a lot of cooking or prep work. A lot of Simply Delicious recipes tend to be very heavy and calorie-dense–this one was a light option that involved very minimal work.

4-15: Scalloped Onions

Adam Martin Group 04: Potatoes & Vegetables, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters April 13, 2019October 6, 2020all-purpose flour, basil, black pepper, broccoli, butter, carrots, cheese, chervil, cream sauce, dinner, dried herbs, egg-free, fajitas, fennel, grated, green bell peppers, herbs and spices, layers, paprika, Parmesan, parsley, peeled, red bell peppers, salt, sautéed, scalloped, side dish, sliced, tarragon, thyme, untested, vegetables, vegetarian, yellow onions

“It smells like weird Mexican food in here,” Jamie said as she walked in the door. She wasn’t wrong. The example image sets a rustic farm tone with the watering can, basket of red peppers, and parmesan cheese in the background. The watering can even has onions painted on it. Awesome!

When I saw that it will need reheating before eating, I decided to make this dish in a large rectangle Pyrex. I made this recipe at half size to accommodate the baking dish. I only used two onions because Simply Delicious bases the number of onions on the smaller onions that were available when these recipes were written. Two was more than enough.

1-2: Marinated Stuffed Avocado

Jamie Martin Group 01: Hot & Cold Appetizers, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters March 2, 2019February 19, 2024appetizers, avocados, black pepper, breasts, California, chicken, chopped, cooked chicken, cooked shrimp, cubed, dairy-free, diced, Dijon mustard, easy, fairly inexpensive, gluten-free, lemon juice, marinated, mushrooms, olive oil, parsley, red bell peppers, salad shrimp, salt, shrimp, sliced, smoked ham, stuffed, thighs, untested

Avocados have been a pretty big part of my culinary life up until now, but that’s probably because they’re pretty hard to avoid here in California. However, my experiences are usually closer to some nice fresh guacamole or some avocado toast–1-2: Marinated Stuffed Avocado was relatively new territory for me.

I suppose it’s not unheard of, it’s just not something I think to do. I may try it again, maybe with some different ingredients. Mushrooms are okay, but I much prefer them cooked rather than raw.

4-14: Stuffed Artichokes

Adam Martin Group 04: Potatoes & Vegetables, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters March 1, 2019October 4, 2020all-purpose flour, appetizers, artichoke hearts, artichokes, black pepper, boiled, broiled, butter, butter sauce, chopped, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, Greek yogurt, half-and-half, Hollandaise sauce, lunch, milk, mushrooms, party food, port wine, salt, sautéed, stews, stuffed, untested, vegetables, vegetarian, yellow onions

Hot Take: Artichokes are the lobster of the vegetable world. 4-14: Stuffed Artichokes represents this well: too much work for too little satisfaction. Peeling the little leaves off the artichoke and harvesting the heart feels a lot like picking apart the carapace of an undersea crustacean.

Stuffing an artichoke with a mushroom stew is a unique way to serve this giant edible thistle flower. These plants don’t grow naturally where I’m from, so my experience with artichokes only came after moving to California. My favorite way to enjoy them is marinated artichoke hearts.