Escarole Salad with Clementine, Candied Walnuts and Pecans

I was getting tired of plain ol' salad and dressing, so I decided it was time to be fancy. :) Ok, it isn't really fancy, but it feels fancy. Every time I go to a nice restaurant I always look for some type of interesting salad that combines new flavors. For some reason, I don't usually make these interesting salads at home. I think it's because salad is usually a last minute addition to my meals. But this salad was planned out and worth it! This recipe calls for candied walnuts and pecans, but only a small handful. I couldn't scale them down for the salad, so I ended up making 2 cups, which left extra for snacking..... oh darn. ;)

My salad was a huge success, but in the last few weeks I have had some serious food flops.
Let's go over a few:

1. Pizza with anchovies, caramelized onions and blue cheese. Why on Earth did I think this would taste good? Who knows! But I seriously thought I was inventing the next big thing. Bleck!
2. Sticky Toffee Pudding - Over cooked the toffee and ended up with one very dry cake.
3. Jalapeno Poppers - Pretty good, but the pepper did not cook AT ALL. So next time I will roast them first.
4. Made an AWESOME turnip mash that I was excited to share, but since it was a bit watery, I decided to cook them a different way to see if I could remedy the problem before posting. Uh-uh, didn't work. I ended up with a bitter, nasty mess.
5. Almond Crackers - Sounds easy enough and it was, but it ended up tasting like a cheese omelet cracker. Portable omelet anyone?

2 cups of nuts 

Mix together the sugar, cinnamon, salt and cayenne

Mix the nuts with the cooked sugar mixture

Spread out on a baking sheet to cool 

Add to salad or just snack on them 

Escarole Salad with Clementine, Candied Walnuts and Pecans
Adapted from MyRecipes
Serving Size = 3 or so

Dressing

• 4 teaspoons almond oil
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoon lime juice (or orange juice or lemon juice or even a mild vinegar such as apple-cider)
• 2 - 3 teaspoons honey (I didn't measure, just to taste)

Candied Walnuts/Pecans
Serving Size = 2 cups (you will need a small handful for the salad)

• 1 cup of shelled walnuts
• 1 cup of shelled pecans
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• Cooking Spray (I used organic extra virgin olive oil)

Salad

• Escarole (enough for 3 side salads)
• 1 or 2 Clementines, cut into sections

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Spread the nuts across a baking sheet and bake until toasted (about 10 - 15 minutes). While the nuts are baking, go ahead and start the candy. Combine the sugar, water, salt, cayenne pepper and cinnamon. Cook in a small saucepan, around medium or a little above, without stirring, until it reaches 228F (about 8 minutes). Remove from heat and add the toasted nuts, toss thoroughly. Spread out onto the baking sheet, spray lightly with the oil and let them cool.
3. For the dressing, just whisk together the ingredients and taste. Make sure you taste by dipping a piece of the salad into the dressing. Sometimes the dressing tastes good alone, but when added to the salad it isn't sweet or salty enough. I do not toss the dressing with the salad. I serve the dressing on the side so people can add as much as they want. If you want to mix them, then add to taste because it might be a bit too much dressing for the salad.
4. Plate it up. Add the escarole, drizzle on the dressing, top with Clementine pieces and candied nuts. Done!

Candied Walnuts II

I found these over at uTry.it, a great cooking blog that I visit often (you can also find the link under "Blogs I Adore" at the top). I decided this would be a great little snack to take to our Thanksgiving dinner...... and thankfully I made 4 cups or else we wouldn't have any to take because hubs keeps snacking on them..... Mimi too. Sigh... :)

Anyway, these are delicious and they're not too sweet. The recipe has two versions. The original version uses 2 cups of nuts, the other version (uTry.it version) uses 4 cups. If you use 2 cups then it will probably taste similar to the candied nuts you can get at the mall. They are extremely sweet and coated with a thick layer of sugar. Usually they are so sweet that you can only eat a few. The 4 cup version, which is the only version I've tried, would be similar (in terms of sweetness) to honey roasted peanuts.... meaning you could eat a handful. So they are sweet, but not over the top.

Candied Walnuts
Original Recipe: uTry.it

• 2 egg whites
• Splash of water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon (I added 1 teaspoon, maybe more)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups of nuts (original recipe calls for 2 cups)

1. Preheat oven to 250F and grease a baking sheet.
2. Combine both sugars, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, mix the egg whites with the water. Pour the nuts into the egg mixture and coat. Pour the nut/egg mixture into the sugar mixture and toss to coat. Pour onto the baking sheet evenly so they are not on top of each other. Bake for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from oven and cool.

Other food I'm making for Thanksgiving:

• Dill Bread
• Honey Oat Bread
• Rosemary Bread (recipe to come)
• Apple Sauce (recipe to come)
• Honey Butter (recipe to come)
• Sweet Rolls
• Cranberry Sauce
• Yogurt Cheese (recipe to come)

Linking to: Hearth and Soul, A Week of Handmade Gifts

Gingerbread Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Candied Pecans

My mom had to have knee surgery a few weeks ago, so I decided to bake her a cake. I was originally going to bake a plain ol' yellow cake, but then I happened to see the Christmas edition of Bon Appetit and they featured a gingerbread cake. And she loves gingerbread. Perfect. :) Then I got creative and did my own thing. I found a cream cheese icing recipe over at Cinnamon Girl, and then decided to make candied pecans and sprinkle them on top. I did sneak a tiny piece from the cake and it was delicious, but I couldn't cut into the cake for a picture. Ok, I could have and almost did but..... it's not my cake so I decided to leave it together. Mostly for the "wow factor." Yuuup, a Storage Wars reference... or two....  I'm probably the only person that watches that show.... 

Also, there will be some changes on my blog in the next few weeks. I will let you know before anything happens, of course. :)

Gingerbread Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Candied Pecans

Serving Size = 18-inch round cake

Adapted from: Bon Appetit, December 2011

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup mild/light molasses (I used full flavor)
• 1 large egg, beaten to blend
• 1/2 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Coat an 8-inch metal cake pan (I used round) with nonstick spray. Line the bottom with parchment paper, then spray the paper as well.
2. Mix together the flour and next five ingredients in a bowl.
3. Place butter in a large bowl and add 1/2 cup boil water. Mix until the butter melts. Whisk in the sugar, molasses and egg. Add the dry ingredients and whisk to blend.
4. Pour into the prepared pan.
5. Bake until tester comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack. Let it cool and remove the parchment paper.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Original Recipe: Cinnamon Girl

• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into pieces, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar, more if needed 

1. Beat cream cheese until fluffy, gradually add the butter and powdered sugar.

Candied Pecans
Click here for Candied Nuts recipe. 
I used chopped pecans and had to cut the recipe down to this:

• 1 egg white with a splash of water (I only used half of this)
• 1/8 cup brown sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Mix together, spread onto a greased baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven (250F) for about 40 minutes, stirring from time to time.

Assemble:

After the cake cools, spread the frosting over the top. Sprinkle on the candied pecans.

Linking to: Gallery of Favorites