California Waldorf Salad

I'm a little tired and a little hungry, but I really want to tell you about the wonderful salad I made yesterday. It's the California Waldorf Salad, one of the four variations in the New Moosewood Cookbook. The dressing was a combination of yogurt, avocado, lemon zest, lemon juice, and a drizzle of honey. The dressing was blended up and poured over the salad components: tart apples, sections of orange, minced celery, and golden raisins. The top was carefully decorated with slices of mango.

I miss California. This salad didn't exactly take me there, though it was delicious ... even better the next day, in fact! Hopefully I can go back to California soon.  In the meantime I am going to make this pasta salad and sleep!

Other variations of Waldorf I have made:
Waldorf Deluxe
Fruit &Vegetable Waldorf Salad

Only one more to complete the set!

Cottage Cheese & Apple Pancakes

These pancakes were easy to make and tasted delightful. Though Cottage Cheese & Apple Pancakes are not typically a dinner item, my family humored and indulged me.

I began the magical journey of Breakfast For Dinner by stiffening egg whites, which were then set aside. Yolks, a heaping spoonful of cottage cheese, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon, salt, and a drizzle of honey went into a bowl with shredded apple.

I wasn't sure if I needed to peel the apple first, and after consulting with my mother, decided to leave it on, for color and textural purposes. Apples are sort of strange to grate. I just used a standard, hand held grater, and the apple flattened and oozed juice everywhere as I grated. If there is a better technique out there, I am, as they say, all ears.

Moving on: I folded in the egg whites and cooked the pancakes in a lightly oiled pan. They turned out brown and lovely, like a sandal.

Although the recommend toppings of yogurt and berry sauce sounded real nice, my family and I opted for the classics: syrup and butter.

The pancakes were tender and textured. I enjoyed the fine flakes of apples scattered throughout. Next time I might leave out the cottage cheese, as it was a little sour with the syrup. These pancakes were an excellent way to incorporate two unlike ingredients into an ordinarily nutritionally insignificant meal!

Waldorf Deluxe

I made Waldorf Salad for a school potluck the other night, but not just any Waldorf Salad... Waldorf Deluxe!

I started with three large and lovely organic Granny Smith apples. I love the tartness of these apples and often I eat them plain.  I was thankful for this hand apple slicer and corer as I sliced them up.

After dicing the apples and mincing the celery, I cubed some cheddar cheese and toasted pecans. The dressing had four ingredients: plain yogurt, a skosh of mayonnaise, orange juice, and orange zest.

I should also note here that there were two ingredients I left out: grapes, as they are not in season, and dates, because I made a mistake! I had some dates, but I most not have stored them properly, because they were very dry when I went to mince them up. A bummer, because they are like candy fruit to me, but I will surely make this salad again and add them next time.

Since I was serving this salad at a potluck, I wanted to be sensitive to the varying diets of my fellow classmates. I decided to serve the salad deconstructed.

I thought the salad was quite good! I am glad I served it this way as I like a lot of apples, but just a little bit of yogurt dressing. The cheese and pecans were a nice addition too.

I am glad everything traveled well as I transported it to school that night!