salad

A Couple of Swells: A Poppy Seed Vinaigrette and A Garlicky Vinaigrette

A Couple of Swells: A Poppy Seed Vinaigrette and A Garlicky Vinaigrette

  A couple of swells… Are you trying to place that expression? It’s from the classic 1948 MGM musical Easter Parade. It was the highest grossing MGM movie in the 1940s–a real crowd please, apparently.  Here is the link: Astaire and Garland: A Couple of Swells. Aah.…

Pasta Salad With Feta and Herbs

Pasta Salad With Feta and Herbs

When I was twenty-two and had my own kitchen for the first time, I knew absolutely nothing about cooking. Nothing. So…I bought my first cookbook–a used copy of the 1963 edition of The New Good Housekeeping Cookbook. The book’s provenance is interesting. The name Sugar Bardy…

Gadget Madness: Spiralized Vietnamese Cucumber Salad

Gadget Madness: Spiralized Vietnamese Cucumber Salad

I’m a gadget girl. I have drawers and drawers (and drawers!) of cooking tools–some whose function I no longer remember. So, like most of the rest of the cooks in America right now, I’ve been doing some pandemic kitchen cleaning and organizing. I’ve put off…

Pickled Beet Salad With Puy Lentils, Baby Spinach and Feta

Pickled Beet Salad With Puy Lentils, Baby Spinach and Feta

This is a beautiful salad inspired by Hetty McKinnon’s recipe for Pickled Beetroot With Puy Lentils, Baby Spinach and Cheddar in her wonderful cookbook Community. You have a lot of colorful choices within the beet (Beta vulgaris) family, too. You can make this salad as…

Cucumbers in Sweet Lime Vinegar

Cucumbers in Sweet Lime Vinegar

    Who doesn’t need a good condiment now and then? That is particularly true now. Those creative dishes we are all making with pantry staples can get a wee bit boring. This over-the-top lime-flavored cucumber dish rocks. If you are a lime juice devotee…

Sweet Memories and Russian Salad

Sweet Memories and Russian Salad

Memories. This coronavirus crisis has given me a lot of time to explore my food (and other) memories. I imagine you have done a lot of that, too. On a lazy afternoon recently, I asked myself where I would most like to revisit (and dine)…

Oldies But Goodies: Lemony Turmeric Tea Cake

Oldies But Goodies: Lemony Turmeric Tea Cake

Every month Blue Cayenne features one post from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. Here is a great little cake recipe: Lemony Turmeric Tea Cake. You don’t want to miss this great recipe…again. Want to dive deeper into our recipe archive? Just click one of…

S’Wonderful: Shaved Brussels Sprouts Caesar Salad

S’Wonderful: Shaved Brussels Sprouts Caesar Salad

OK. Let’s get the full disclosure out of the way. I have a big problem with some brassicas. Put a plate of kale (or mustard greens or turnips or Brussels sprouts) in front of me and the color drains from my face. I’m not proud…

You CAN Win Friends With Salad: Two Vinaigrettes

You CAN Win Friends With Salad: Two Vinaigrettes

The Simpsons were wrong. You CAN win friends with salad…at least with one dressed with a fantastic vinaigrette. (The Simpsons: “You Don’t Win Friends With Salad.”) Today you get two excellent vinaigrette recipes. The vinaigrette on the left is a fresh fig vinaigrette. The one…

Summer’s Bounty: Spicy Fruit Salad With a Decided Kick

Summer’s Bounty: Spicy Fruit Salad With a Decided Kick

  Do you still experience childhood food nightmares? Me, too. For me, the nightmare always begins with me prying open my battered metal lunch box. (Cue in the music from Jaws: Jaws.) On the worst days, there would be a processed cheese sandwich with gloppy…