Dana Slatkin

April Cooking Contest

04/05/2013 By 1 Comment
colorful vegetables

This month promises blue skies, warmer weather, and perhaps your first outdoor meal of the year! With Cinco de Mayo coming up, the Farmgirl is having a Mexican moment. I’m loving flavors like smoky chiles, beans in a rainbow of colors, cloud-light Cotija cheese and handmade tortillas. Crowd-pleasing and perfect for easy entertaining, Mexican and Latin flavors put me in the mood for summer. What is your favorite Mexican dish? To enter the contest, send in your recipe, along with a little information about you – where you’re from, what you like to cook, and the source of your cooking inspiration. You have all month and can enter as many times as you wish. All recipes will be acknowledged, tested and tasted. You can enter as many … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cooking Contest

January Cooking Contest

01/04/2013 By Leave a Comment
Winter Salad Cooking Contest Enter Now

The start of a new year is the perfect time to get motivated in the kitchen! Whether you want to cook from scratch more often, incorporate more whole foods into your diet, or add some excitement to your table, the Farmgirl is here to help… Attend one of my group cooking classes Spend a morning in my kitchen cooking a multi-course Farmgirl feast, learning new ways to turn whole foods into scrumptious, family-friendly fare, and shopping in the Farmgirl Store. Round up your own group and book a private class Enjoy a morning or evening with your friends and colleagues cooking, learning and bonding over good food! Become a subscriber to receive new recipes and cooking tips to try at home every week Enter one of my cooking contests Don’t … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cooking Contest, In the Kitchen, Salad Recipes

Kale and Quinoa Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette (adapted from Porta Via)

06/06/2012 By 5 Comments
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Last month, I taught a class with Peter Garland, owner of Porta Via here in Beverly Hills. If you have never heard of the restaurant, it’s probably because Peter likes it that way. Because he knows that if word got out on this darling neighborhood canteen, it might cease to feel like home to his adoring clientele. Porta Via serves the kind of farmers market-inspired dishes that you would make yourself if you had the time. Seasonal salads, vegan soups, simply grilled fish and Double Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies have made Peter one of the most popular restaurateurs in town (of course, it hasn’t hurt that he is charming, handsome, and single).   This beautifully balanced salad is a perfect sampling of Porta Via’s fare. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Salad Recipes

Spring Spinach Salad with Beets, Avocado, Goat Cheese and Papaya Seed Vinaigrette

04/25/2012 By Leave a Comment
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We food bloggers are a nutty bunch. Our refrigerators crammed with half-eaten recipe experiments, we spend hours trying to come up with words of some culinary consequence. We slog through late night mental blocks, vision blurred and glutes torqued. With a proud click, we send off our posts into cyberspace, hoping to share some quick inspiration, an idea for tonight’s dinner, or a clever new tip before they plunge beneath the fold into obscurity. Why do we bother? For a lucky few, blogging pays the bills. But for most of us, what keeps us going is the satisfaction of connecting. Whether you live up the street or on the other side of the world, these words connect me to you. Sure, when you make one of my recipes and love the results, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Salad Recipes

Israeli Tomato Feta Salad

04/11/2012 By Leave a Comment
israeli-tomato-feta-salad-2

There’s nothing like faraway travel to breathe new life into your cooking. A voyage can inspire new cravings, introduce exotic spices, or even change your whole way of thinking about food. Recently, an epic Spring Break trip to Israel and Paris has really stirred things up here in the Farmgirl kitchen. Take breakfast, for example. I pride myself on making something new and exciting for the family every morning — sprouted grain French toast, frittatas oozing with cheese and vegetables, matzah brei, and homemade granola are some of my go-to’s. But who knew salad was good for breakfast? The Israelis do. In fact, during our week in Jerusalem, this salad showed up on the table at practically every meal. It’s delightfully … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Salad Recipes

Escarole, Hearts of Palm and Avocado Salad

02/28/2012 By Leave a Comment
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It was dinner time, my family was seated at the table, and I was tossing salad. A typical weeknight…or so I thought. The salad did look quite appealing, I must say. But leafy generally does not fly in my house. It sits in the bowl until I eat it myself.   Not to complain…the family dinner is my favorite time of day. Once the meal is on the table, I finally get to exhale. Cooking for others is an act of letting go. Chances are, all of your hard work will be enjoyed some of the time, but rarely all of the time. Appetites are just too personal — no two people ever eat exactly alike. So rather than feeling dejected by uneaten efforts, it’s best not to become too attached to anything you cook. The other night, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Salad Recipes

How to Make a Vinaigrette

02/07/2012 By Leave a Comment
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One of the questions I am most often asked in my classes is, “How do I make a salad taste good?” The simplest answer is to make a vinaigrette from scratch. So why has the salad dressing section of supermarkets taken over nearly half the aisle? Because most people don’t realize that homemade salad dressing tastes far better and costs much less money and effort than buying one off the shelf. I’ve probably made a thousand salads in my life, and each one of them began with this formula. It’s the recipe I learned in my first week of cooking school, one that I’ve kept in my head like a mantra: 1 part acid, 2 parts oil, a smidgen of garlic and mustard, plenty of seasoning. Whether you like your vinaigrette … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Salad Recipes
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