Cool & Minty Summer Salad with Peaches

My friend Pam gave me the recipe for this salad.

She got it from the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, a local newspaper, from a column written by Dorothy Reinhold, who cites the recipe as adapted from Cooking Light.

I remember when Pam made this salad for one of the Godinez get-togethers--I thought it was the best thing I'd eaten in awhile, it was so fresh-tasting and very different from what I usually make.

The recipe calls for 2 cups cooked chicken, if you've got a vegetarian or two in your family, it's easy to mix up the salad and put the chicken on top.

Make it like this for your vegetarians, or as a side salad.

Add some barbecued chicken in citrus marinade for your omnivores.

Ingredients:

Dressing:

1 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Salad:

1 cup chopped cucumber

1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted

2 tablespoons minced red onion

3 peaches, chopped, peeled and pitted

1 cup day-old brown rice

1 cup leftover cooked green beans

red leaf lettuce

Do you have mint growing in your yard?

It's easy to grow, but tends to spread out, so best plant it in a pot or confined space.

Put the sugar and mint in a food processor or mini blender.

The instructions say to process the sugar and mint first, until the mint is finely chopped, but I think it would work just as well to blend everything together at once.

The sugar and mint didn't do that well in the mini blender, but was fine when I added all the dressing ingredients.

Add the white wine vinegar,

Fresh lemon juice,

Salt, and several grinds of the peppermill.

Blend until the mint is finely chopped.

Slice the cucumber and onions.

I thought I had a red onion but didn't, so I used green onion.

Add one cup cooked brown rice.

I used the Brown Rice Medley from Trader Joe's.

It's one of my favorites.

Add the green beans.

And the peaches.

Just like the peaches I used in Berry Best Won Ton Napoleons, add a little bit of lemon juice to keep white peaches from turning brown.

Toss all the ingredients.

But don't forget to add the pecans like I did.

They're good.

Especially if you use the Sweet & Spicy Pecans from Trader Joe's.

Serve over red leaf lettuce.

With or without the sliced chicken, the salad is delicious!

Itadakimasu!

***

My sister and her daughters are visiting from Hawaii!

Yay!

They're here for a wedding.

I'm still editing the photos, so more about the wedding on a later post.

While my sister met one of her childhood friends for lunch downtown, Paige, Hannah and I had lunch together and did some shopping in Little Tokyo.

They're fun.

We ate shabu shabu.

It didn't matter that it was a hot day, we still wanted shabu shabu.

We ate at Shabu Shabuyo on 2nd Street in LA's Little Tokyo.

You can read about our homestyle shabu shabu blog post here.

Paige got kuro buta, it looked really good.

You'll have to trust me--I didn't get a photo of the kuro buta plate.

Hannah and I got the vegetarian plate.

When my sister asked Paige if she's going to cry at the wedding, Paige said,

"I hope so."

I loved that.

It's going to be another "Paige-ism" that I'll mention at every wedding.

We went to Shabu Shabuyo because The Shabu Shabu House was closed.

I liked it, I thought it was good.

The kuro buta looked melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

She's dipping it in ponzu sauce.

The vegetarian selection had enoki mushrooms, brown mushrooms, broccoli, nappa, tofu slices, carrots, onions, baby bok choy leaves and udon noodles.

It was too much to eat.

Hannah hasn't eaten any meat in a year-and-a-half.

She's super-committed.

My choice on Friday was to cook and post something, or spend the time with my nieces.

Since I don't get to see them often enough, I made the right choice.

Love you, Paige!

Love you, Hannah!


***

Ingredients:

Dressing:

1 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Salad:

1 cup chopped cucumber

1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted

2 tablespoons minced red onion

3 peaches, chopped, peeled and pitted

1 cup day-old brown rice

1 cup leftover cooked green beans

red leaf lettuce

Make the dressing by blending the dressing ingredients in a blender or food processor.

Combine salad ingredients in a large bowl (don't forget the pecans!), drizzle dressing to taste over salad, toss well to coat.

Serve on top of red leaf lettuce leaves (whole or torn). Add cooked, sliced chicken as desired.

Berry Best Won Ton Napoleons

Looking for a light summer dessert?

And a way to use up some of your backyard stone fruit?

Want a dessert that's fast and easy?

Give these Berry Best Won Ton Napoleons a try!

I have a Babcock peach tree in my backyard that's full of fruit--it's a great way to use them!

Here's what you'll need:

peaches and berries, or other assortment of fruit

sugar or powdered sugar

won ton wrappers 

oil for frying

whipping cream

Wash the berries and put them in a bowl large enough for mixing.

I didn't have any powdered sugar, which I usually use, so I ground some granulated sugar in my small blender.

I came out pretty fine, not as fine as powdered sugar, but in the end--I liked it.

It gave the berries and peaches just a bit of texture.

Nice!

Add a little to the berries and stir.

With my backyard peaches, they're Babcock's, so that means delicate white flesh.

They don't have any pesticides on them, so best cut them in half to be sure there isn't a worm.

Since they're tree ripened--that means that they're picked when the peach falls off the branch with just the slightest tug--they also bruise easily.

Tree-ripened also means the skin comes right off.

Yes, they're that ripe and super juicy!

No hot water bath for these babies!

If you add just a bit of sugar, they'll make the yummiest juice/syrup to pour over the dessert.

If you like liqueurs, you can marinate the fruit in a little Grand Marnier or Frangelico.

It's especially good with peaches or strawberries.

If you use a liqueur, let that set for at least a half hour.  

Be sure to add just a small squeeze of lemon to the white peaches so they don't turn brown.

Any kind of won ton wrappers will do, I got these at my local grocery store.

Fry them until brown in a little bit of hot oil.

They should look about like this.

If you noticed in the ingredients collection above, you may have noticed I got heavy whipping cream out.

Mistake.

Use regular whipping cream--the heavy one is too heavy!

Whip it with the mixer.

Be careful, it spits and splatters a bit.

Add some powdered sugar to taste.

You can also add a touch of vanilla, that's good too.

Gather all your ingredients to assemble.

Put a dab of whipped cream on the plate.

It anchors the won ton.

You could also use the whipped cream in a can.

Put the won ton on top of the whipped cream.

Then a generous dollop of whipped cream on top of the won ton and a generous scoop of the peaches on top of that.

Then another won ton, whipped cream, and then a generous scoop of the berries.

Want to see that again?

Small scoop of whipped cream.

Won ton, then another scoop of whipped cream.

Then some peaches.

And some strawberries if you have them.

The next won ton will sit a bit better if you put a dab of whipped cream on top of the fruit.

Then another dollop of whipped cream.

And the berries.

Garnish with a small sprig of mint.

Itadakimasu!

***

I have been working a lot these past few months on slideshows.

Two for a niece and nephew graduating from high school.

One for a friend celebrating her 30th birthday.

And one for a nephew and his fiance to show at their wedding reception.

*Whew*

I wish I could share them here, but they're blocked because of the songs' copyrights.

I love photos.

And I love music.

The two go together so well--putting the photos to music can really set the time and place as well as convey emotion.

Earlier this year, I went to a luncheon where June Kuramoto and Kimo Cornwell of Hiroshima played the koto and the keyboards, respectively.

One of the songs they played was Heritage.

When they played it, it instantly brought tears to my eyes.

The song evokes such melancholy for me because I used it for a slideshow shown at a funeral for someone close to me--the song has a reverent quality to it that I find very touching.

Out of all the songs they could have chosen to play, they played Heritage.

I felt like they played it for me.

I had the opportunity to speak with June about what the song means to me.

She said Kimo is the author of the song.

What a beautiful creation.

You can hear it on iTunes, or if someone will send me a link, I will post it.

***

Ingredients:

An assortment of fruit--blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries and peaches 

sugar or powdered sugar

won ton wrappers 

oil for frying

whipping cream

sprig of mint for garnish

Wash the berries and put them in a bowl big enough for mixing. Add powdered sugar to taste and mix.

Slice peaches and/or strawberries into bite-sized pieces, add sugar as desired and mix. If you're using white peaches, add a squeeze of lemon so they don't turn brown.

Fry won ton skins in about a 1/2 inch of oil, until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Whip whipping cream until peaks form, adding sugar and/or vanilla to taste. Add a little at a time so it doesn't get too sweet.

Layer a small dab of whipped cream, fried won ton, whipped cream, fruit and repeat. Garnish with a sprig of mint.

Assemble just before serving so the won tons don't get soggy.