Sunday, August 29, 2010

New Foods (left coast edition)

Lemon Verbena-san had a good idea there, so since I haven't had the energy to make any reportable recipes lately, I'm going to steal it. Here are three things we've tried recently:

1) Brianna's Champagne Caper Vinaigrette salad dressing. Brianna's and Newman's are the two brands of dressing we favor; Brianna's because they're all excellent, and Newman's because they make some standard flavors that Brianna's doesn't. This flavor seems to be new, or at least we hadn't seen it before. It's creamier than most vinaigrettes, with a nice spicy kick. A winner.

2) Sierra Nevada Porter & Spicy Brown Mustard. Inspired by Greenonioneater-san, I think, raving about brown mustards, I picked this one up. This makes it sound like it was Cooking with Booze week at our house, which it wasn't... Anyway, this is pretty good. I haven't been into brown mustards for quite a while, but this has a more interesting, complex taste than I remember Gulden's having. I'd be curious to hear from a connoisseur.

3) Sun-dried tomatoes, bottled. This was kind of a bust, not because they don't taste good, but because I don't know what to do with them. I like sun-dried tomato alfredo pasta sauce, the kind that comes ready made in a jar, and I figured maybe putting actual sun-dried etc in a straight alfredo sauce would be tastier, but what I did wasn't. I think it's because I just don't know what I'm doing with them. Anybody have any suggestions as to how to actually use a jar of sun-dried tomatoes?

7 comments:

  1. I always add them to bruschetta. I think the greenonioneater blog has a good basic bruschetta method, so I'd definitely ask her and/or look there, but my bruschetta is basically a little onion and garlic, some diced tomatoes (fresh or canned), and four or five sun-dried tomatoes. I also sometimes chop a few into my falafels and it works pretty well. If I do that, I add some of the oil to the pan when I fry them up, too.

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  2. hello. coincidentally, i also tried a new salad dressing - trader joe's champagne pear vinaigrette. it has gorgonzola in it...it's definitely a winner. i'm actually planning a salad for tonight with apples, a mix of bitter-ish lettuces, cranberries, nuts, carrots and maybe tomatoes (since we have lots of sweet fresh grown ones, although i'm not sure how the tomatoes will taste with pear dressing). i'm feeding this salad to taryn, so she can vouch for its tastiness or non-tastiness.

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  3. Hmm. Champagne vinaigrette must be the thing these days.

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  4. The greenonioneater blog is gone. I deleted it. I lost my thunder and anything interesting I could think of to say was being said here so I just am going to stick with this. I will post my bruschetta recipe on here in the near future but for the time being: sundried tomatoes are actually surprisingly awesome in sandwiches and on crackers. I also agree that putting them in some bruschetta would be awesome. I recommend tossing them into salads and also making a pizza with them on top.

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  5. Oh no, should I feel bad? Because I never wanted this blog to step on your blog's metaphorical toes. :(

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  6. Don't feel bad :) This blog is way way better and more fun for me than the other blog. I just decided that I like this better and the other blog was not working out the way I wanted it to. I don't think I will have time for my own blog from here on out. No worries!! :)

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  7. Okay, as long as you don't feel stomped on. :)

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