Potato salad with pickled celery and hard-boiled egg

I received a few new cookbooks this holiday season, including Jerusalem, Heart of the Artichoke, Bean by Bean, and Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream at Home. I've already had a chance to try a couple recipes from these books and I can't wait to try more. No matter how many recipes I make, there's always so many more creative ideas out there that I have to try. But before I get to recipes from my new books, I want to share this one from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. This potato salad has pickled celery, grated hard-boiled eggs, and a mustardy dressing. If you're a pickle lover like me and prefer your potato salads mayo-free, this is something you should definitely try.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2013!

White bean and Swiss chard pot pies

Smitten Kitchen is my very favorite food blog, and I have been eagerly awaiting the release of the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook for many, many months. SK's recipes fit in well with my style of cooking, and I have always found the recipes to be reliable and very delicious - they're the kind of recipes that I'm comfortable cooking for guests without testing in advance. I finally got a copy of the cookbook a few weeks ago, and it is a delight. I know I'll be cooking out of this book for years to come. This pot pie recipe is the first one I tried from the book (it is also on the blog). These pot pies take some time to make, but it is worth it - this is some seriously tasty vegetarian comfort food. The pastry is tender and incredibly flaky and the filling is flavorful and hearty. Given the time it takes to make these and the amount of butter in each serving, I'd say this is a once-in-a-while kind of recipe, but it is definitely worth trying. It's the perfect meal for a snowy weekend day like today.

p.s. Sorry there's no picture of the filling - once we dug in, we were too busy eating to think about taking a photo!

Salmon cakes

I still have a couple more party recipes to tell you about, but I'm going to save those for another time. For today, I'm going to tell you about a healthier recipe that is more appropriate for an everyday dinner. I ended up making these salmon cakes after buying canned salmon for the first time last week. Although I know that fish is very healthy, and I love the taste of seafood, I don't really cook fish that often. I would like to, but my local grocery store doesn't have great options for fresh fish, especially if you're concerned about sustainability. But recently I have been hearing a lot about canned salmon as a good alternative - it's easy to find wild rather than farmed, and it's a heck of a lot cheaper than fresh. Of course, canned salmon can't replace fresh for all applications, but it's perfect if you are making something like these delicious salmon cakes. I was thrilled with how these came out, and I am definitely going to start buying canned salmon more often from now on!

This recipe was adapted from one that I found on Epicurious. I cut down the amount of mayo and adapted the ingredients a bit based on what I had on hand. The cakes are full of flavor, soft and tender on the inside, with some veggies adding texture. The leftovers were fantastic for lunch the next day, and from the reviews online, it sounds like leftover cakes freeze well too. I love finding dishes like this that are simple, cheap, tasty, and healthy all in one!

Have you ever cooked with canned salmon?

Bloody Mary tomato salad

*I noticed that this recipe got linked on a Gluten Free Recipes For Celiacs facebook page - if you are visiting from there, welcome! Thank you for stopping by. I have many gluten free recipes on this site, and I'm planning on tagging them so that they are easier to find. I hope to get that done soon.* 

I was really excited to finally make this recipe, which I tagged a couple months ago in Bon Appetit - first, because it sounded delicious, and second, because I got to use our very own home grown cherry tomatoes! I am absurdly proud of these tomatoes, because this is the first year we have had any success with gardening. In the last couple years we have managed to kill basil, thyme, sage, and chile pepper plants. And we've grown tomato plants that didn't produce any fruit. But we've learned from our mistakes, and this year we've got a pretty decent yield of cherry tomatoes, as well as chile peppers on the way and some thriving basil and oregano. Our thumbs are no longer black! Maybe not fully green yet, but we're getting there.

Anyway, this is a fun tomato salad that uses Bloody Mary ingredients and flavors. The original recipe pairs this with steak, which is a good choice. The bright, acidic salad is perfect with a rich main course. Home grown tomatoes aren't a strict requirement, but make sure you use fresh ones!