Paneer

One of my culinary resolutions for 2011 is to make cheese. I decided to try my hand at making paneer from scratch. Paneer is a cheese most often found in Indian dishes - it is a fresh cheese (rather than aged), but firm in a way that won't melt.

And all it is - whole milk and lemon juice. It was like magic. Boil the milk, add lemon juice until the milk curdles, let it strain, press it down, and voila - a few hours later - cheese.

I will definitely be doing that again.

Salad Duo

Shredded Kale with Lemon and Parmesan from my friend Melody (originally from Weight Watchers), and Gingered Beet and Field Pea Salad from Simple, Fresh, Southern by the Lee Bros.

I didn't have a shallot, so I used one big garlic clove in the kale salad, and let it hang out in the fridge to mellow a bit. I also used four kinds of kale plus a few leaves of radish greens, just whatever looked good in the garden.

The goat cheese in the second salad is added by me, since I had made the recipe before and I thought it needed something like that to balance it out.

Huevos Rancheros

I haven't ever had huevos rancheros, and I get the impression that the recipe I used from Good Housekeeping was a healthy take on it - but who cares, it was delicious! I used the leftover bean/tomato/onion mixture in a taco salad the next day.