Naomi Klayman's Layered Fruit Salad

I often suggest to people, when they ask what to bring to a meal, to bring fruit salad. It's a lot of work to make!

Naomi brought this, and it was ingenious. The colors and contrast obviously make it beautiful, but the stripes are extra pretty.

She came up with the technique of holding the bowl horizontally, and layering it that way.

If you use a flat or slightly curved bowl/platter, you can do it directly. But her technique is a lot of fun.

I like "pretty food". This presentation qualifies! 

Cole Slaw

I am a huge fan of cole slaw. Abba's favorite is: a bag of shredded cabbage, a large can of crushed pineapple, mayo to taste, and curry powder to taste. However, I notice it's not that popular with others.

This recipe disappeared! 

1 t celery seed
2/3 C mayonnaise
1 T apple cider vinegar
4 t granulated white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
a 14-16 oz bag classic coleslaw mix

Optional: finely chopped fresh pineapple to taste

Combine all of the ingredients except for the coleslaw mix in a large bowl and whisk it together until it's smooth and creamy.
Place the dressing in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to allow the sugar to completely dissolve and to allow the celery seeds to soften.
After 30 minutes  give the dressing one last quick whisk and then fold into the classic coleslaw mix.

This recipe tastes best if served immediately, but it can also be made the night before or the morning of.

Cold Sesame Noodles

If you measure the oil first,
the other ingredients can float above it -
a little time saver.

Sauce ingredients:

8 T Chunky Peanut Butter

4 T Veggie broth (follow instructions for your veggie broth powder)

9 T Soy Sauce

6 T Sesame Oil

2 T Cider Vinegar

3 T Honey (maybe substitute agave nectar for vegans)

3 cloves minced garlic

4 T vegetable oil

Other Ingredients:

1 lb cooked cold spaghetti
3 Tbsp sesame seeds.
4-5 Scallions
1 cucumber (in strips)

Process:

1. Put the Peanut Butter, Veggie Broth, and Soy Sauce in covered bowl (leave some space for air to escape. Microwave for 30 second. Stir until the PB is no longer stuck together and the texture is consistent. You may need to put it in the microwave for another 20 seconds to get the texture consistent. this step take some elbow grease.
2. add all the sauce ingredients. stir well.
3. add the cold pasta. mix thoroughly. (I like to do it by hand. Make sure the bowl is large enough.)
4. dice the scallions and cut the cucumbers into strips.
5. add the scallions, cucumbers, and sesame seeds.
6. serve chilled if convenient.

Cranberry Relish, from Sharon Strassfeld + Plain Old Cranberry Sauce

This is a recipe I've long loved, passed along by Sharon when I enjoyed it at her house on 101st street when we were neighbors.  I think of it as cranberry charoset.
It's not so much a recipe as a series of steps.

1 bag fresh cranberries
1 orange
walnuts (1/2 c?  I've never measured)
1/2 c. sugar or more, for less tartness

Slice the orange into small pieces and put half of it, along with about half the cranberries and walnuts into a food processor.  If you have a full size food processor, you can put it all in at once, until it's ground.

That's it!

You can freeze the cranberries - this year I threw a bag in and when I hadn't used it by March, I saved it for Passover, when we usually serve turkey.  It's such a gorgeous color.


Plain old cranberry sauce is so easy, no need to buy the canned. Though you need to make it ahead of time.
1 bag cranberries = 2 cups
1 c. water (you can do part OJ)
1 c. sugar
optional: ginger, cinammon, orange rind

Put everything in a 2 quart sauce pan (or 1.5 if you have one) and boil. Lower the heat and cook about 10 minutes until the berries have popped.

Cool. As it cools, it thickens.

Potato Salad with Dill and Walnuts

I am a huge dill fan.  In the summer it's perfect in a room-temperature potato salad - filling, crunchy, satisfying.  I wouldn't call it so much a recipe as a combination of ingredients. The recipe is evolving, since the arrival of bags of tri-color mini-potatoes.










~ 1 1/2 lbs fingerling potatoes, or other small, new variety (mesh bag pictured is tri-colored small potatoes
Generous amount of dill, but less than what you buy as a "bunch" - say "half a bunch"
3 ribs celery or one peeled, seeded cucumber
~1/2 c. chopped walnuts
2 dollops* of low-fat mayonnaise (or sour cream or yogurt - or a combination of any of them)
mustard to taste
hard-boiled eggs (optional)
ripe avocado in chunks (optional)

1. Pick some dill, if you're lucky enough to live across from the Sterns garden, which boasts a huge dill plant.

2. Cover the potatoes and boil for about 10-12 minutes, until they're tender. (Less for the minis.) Some of them will burst open.  Let them cool a few minutes and then drain the water.  If you want to add more protein, you can hard boil eggs at the same time.  This was how my mom made potato salad.

3. In the meantime, pick out the tough stems and chop the dill fine.  Put it aside.

4. Take three ribs of celery (or the cucumber.)  Slice it into three long stripe, and then slice the three strips in half.  Then line up the six strips and start chopping away - this is the quickest way I know to chop celery. Put the celery into a large bowl - might as well be the one you'll serve it in.

5. No need to peel the potatoes.  Chop them into small pieces - for fingerlings, cut them into sixths. For minis, into halves. If you hard cooked the eggs, peel and chop them, too. One avocado on top, in chunks, is pretty and delicious. (Don't put it in the mixture, add it to the top.)

6. If the walnuts need chopping, the food processor does it very quickly.  When I was little, one of my favorite jobs was chopping the walnuts, but that was before food processors - they were new in the 70's. You put the nuts in the top, turned the handle which turned the blades, and the chopped nuts dropped down.

7.  Add the potatoes and walnuts to the bowl.  Add two dollops or so of mayonnaise, to taste. *Roughly, a dollop is a generous tablespoon.  You could mix mayo and yogurt if it's for a dairy meal. You can also add some dijon mustard. Reserve a little of the dill for garnishing the top; add the balance to the other ingredients. Stir all the ingredients, add salt and pepper to taste.

This salad tastes good at room temperature.
If you have extra dill, it's great in hummus.  Dill Hummus was my favorite flavor - I never could figure out why they took it off the market.
This is recipe is kosher for Passover, too.  A good way to use any dill left over from the matzah ball soup!
For vegans, omit eggs and be sure to use vegan mayo.