A Favorite Salad

What makes a meal memorable? Sometimes it is an unexpected combination of the ingredients, and other times it is the company or the setting that ignite our senses in a way that leaves a lasting impression. Can a simple salad be one of those memorable meals? Totally. I first made this salad a couple of years ago for a small dinner party I hosted around my birthday. Looking back at that day, I can certainly say it was one of the more memorable meals in my life, and the salad with burrata cheese, tangerines, shallots, and watercress was the unrivaled star of the show. I’ve made it many time since then, and so did a few other guests. It has made many an appearance at potlucks. On this very blog it was discovered by strangers who have since become dear friends. On a personal level, it gave me confidence to launch a cookbook club, Cookbook-ish (now in its second year), for which this particular meal was a test run. It also helped me keep one of my perennial New Year’s resolutions: to spend more time in the kitchen, try new recipes and techniques, and invite friends over for dinner more often.

The recipe for the salad and the entire meal came from Alison Roman’s book DINING IN. Seeing all the gorgeous winter citrus at the farmer’s market this morning and remembering this birthday dinner made me share this recipe with you again. I hope you give it a go. Who knows–maybe it will move the mountains, or at the very least create a memorable meal for you as well.

Above: I painted our dinner menus by hand with watercolor ink and used a sprig of wax flower to pin down the sides of the menus. With each guest’s name on the outside, the manes doubled as place cards. Linen napkins in Heather Gray complement the ne… — Above: I painted our dinner menus by hand with watercolor ink and used a sprig of wax flower to pin down the sides of the menus. With each guest’s name on the outside, the manes doubled as place cards. Linen napkins in Heather Gray complement the neutral table setting.

Burrata with Tangerines, Shallots, and Watercress,
Alison Roman, DINING IN

Ingredients:

1 shallot, thinly sliced into rings
1 table spoon fresh lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 8oz ball burrata
3 tangerines, peeled and sliced 1/2" thick
3 cups small spicy greens (watercress, mizuna, arugula)
Olive oil
Flaky sea salt

Preparation:

1. Toss the shallots with lemon juice in small bowl and season with kosher salt and pepper
2. Tear, slice, or cut burrata into pieces and arrange them on the serving platter.
3. Scatter the tangerine slices around burrata
4. Combine the shallots and spicy greens, and season with salt and pepper. Toss and scatter around the burrata mixture.
5. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt.

About Cookbook-ish:

Cookbook-ish is a book club and a community of like-minded foodies and creative people in my hometown. I curate the book selection and ask everyone to choose 2-3 recipes they'd like to make. I then come up with a cohesive menu based on everyone's selections. We cook at home and bring our respective dishes to share in a potluck-style meal. Not in Santa Barbara? You can still participate by following @foldsantabarbara on Instagram, cooking and tagging your posts with #cookbookish_sb.

FROM THE SHOP:

Featured

Heather Gray Linen Napkins (set of 4 or 6)

from $50.00

A Cookbook-ish Birthday

It was the beginning of the year, and the air was filled with New Year's resolutions. But, since "resolutions" has become somewhat of a dirty word, I will use "intentions" and "goals" as its euphemisms from now on. One of my personal goals was to spend more time in the kitchen, invite friends over for dinner more often, and to connect with other creatives in my town beyond the social media.

I also wanted to get out of the cooking rut I found myself over the last few months, possibly years. My husband and I found ourselves cooking the same go-to things over and over or simply making Trader Joes frozen meals. If it’s not broken, why fix it, right? Plus, living with a five year who old wants to eat dry pasta for every meal really puts a damper on adventurous cooking.

I am sure you noticed, there are SO many new cookbooks out there, and the rate they are coming out at is growing exponentially. And while I want to try some of them, I don't necessarily want to buy all of them, or at least not before I know that they are any good. Plus, I already have a good dozen or more of cookbooks at home. Thus, an idea of sharing cookbooks while sharing the meals lead me to start a cookbook club. I called it Cookbook-ish, and on my birthday in February I decided to try it out with close friends before extending the invitation to more people. It was a great success, and I am now ready to let it see the light of day. So, if you are reading this and want to be a part of it with me, please reach out!

How it Works:

1. We meet once a month or every two months.
2. I choose a cookbook (a new one or a classic).
3. Those who already have the book (or choose to buy it right away) pass it around to those who aren't ready to commit in advance of the meeting.
4. Each person puts their name on a few recipes they are interested in making (but in the end will end up making just one).
5. A week before the event I come up with a cohesive menu based on what everyone chose and assign specific dishes to people who chose them.
6. Everyone cooks their respective items at home and brings them to the potluck.

For our inaugural meeting, I chose the book I got for Christmas—Alison Roman's DINING IN. I have heard so many good things about it, and her chocolate chunk short bread cookies were becoming an internet phenomenon. Naturally, I made the cookies first, and they became my gateway drug to the rest of the book.

Our group was small (5), so adding a few extra touches didn't take too much time. I painted our dinner menus by hand with watercolor ink and used a sprig of wax flower to pin down the sides of the menus. It served a functional purpose and it looked pretty!

Since my dining table is wee, keeping table setting simple made the most sense to allow space for the food (the important part!). Having a business specializing in table and kitchen linens came in very handy. Since I always test the items I put in the shop, I have a set of almost everything in my linen drawer. For this dinner party I used linen napkins in Heather Gray. A complete list of tabletop items is at the end of the post.

While we all agreed that every single thing on the menu was stellar, the one dish that everyone raved about was the burrata salad with tangerines, shallots, and watercress. Here is the recipe.

Alison Roman's Burrata with Tangerines, Shallots, and Watercress, from DINING IN cookbook:

Ingredients:

1 shallot, thinly sliced into rings
1 table spoon fresh lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 8oz ball burrata
3 tangerines, peeled and sliced 1/2" thick
3 cups small spicy greens (watercress, mizuna, arugula)
Olive oil
Flaky sea salt

If you'd like to be involved in the future Cookbook-ish gatherings, be sure to sign up for my news and updates or send an email to foldsantabarbara@gmail.com and let me know how you would like contribute. I am looking for passionate home cooks who want to try new recipes and share them with people. I am also looking for hosts, photographers, guest stylists, vignette-arrangers, flora foragers, dish washers, and story tellers. AND...there is always a spot at the Cookbook-ish table for those who may hot love to cook, but are rich in wine, bread, or sparkling water. If this sounds like you, I would love to have as part of the Cookbook-ish adventure!

Resources:

From the Shop

Featured

Heather Gray Linen Napkins (set of 4 or 6)

from $50.00

Elsewhere

Matte black flatware: IKEA (link here)

Recycled glass water tumblers: Hawkins New York (I got mine from NEED Supply Co.)

Double Old Fashioned Duralex Picardie glasses (we used them as wine glasses): World Market (link here)

Dinner at the Long Table

Today is the second day of November, and as the leaves are turning the colors of autumn in Santa Barbara and the temperatures drop (finally!), our minds are turning to all the upcoming gatherings with friends and family, including my favorite holiday--Thanksgiving. Why is it a favorite, for a person who did not grow up with it, you may ask? I have grown to like it for the simple reason that at the center of it is, first and foremost, a meal. A meal that is more often than not is eaten together as well as prepared together, with all the competing traditions, family recipes, and new takes on old classics. There are no gifts to fret about (other than a hostess gift perhaps), no resolutions, since at this time of the year you can still surrender to all the abundance and extravagance with food and the diet "cheating", unlike the later holidays, when the aftermath of overindulgence sinks in. As I think about Thanksgiving, I look back at this dinner party I had a pleasure of attending as a guest and help the hostess set the table with our rental linens and all the extra dishes and glassware I collected over the last couple of years for various styling projects and photoshoots.

The dinner took place at the home of Margaret and Mark Lloyd. Margaret is a local floral designer who works under the name of Margaret Joan Florals. The arrangements she made for the long tables were nothing short of unique, quirky, and seasonal. Herbs, berries, vegetables got along marvelously with simple white flowers, pillar candles and mercury glass votives, and worked really well with the 5-course meal prepared by Dinner With Two Girls. The full list of contributors is at the end of this post.

For the place settings I chose FOLD Cloud Grey linen napkins from the rental collection. Tying a sprig of rosemary with a piece of twine on each napkin went along really well with all other edible herbs Margaret used throughout the table. Mismatched but cohesive glassware and silverware added the eclectic, collected over time touch, the kind you see in someone's home rather than a restaurant or an event venue.

Susan Silverberg designed and hand-lettered the beautiful dinner signage and place cards. The place cards was a last minute addition, and she impressively whipped them out minutes before the first guests arrived.

When the guests arrived, they were greeted with the prettiest Prosecco cocktail, served in Margaret's floral studio adjacent to the house. The guests got a mini-tour of the studio while sipping this refreshing beverage.

Charlotte and Lauren, the chefs of the LA-based duo Dinner With Two Girls, made all 5 courses in Margaret's spacious kitchen, and paired each course with red and white wines. After giving a brief taste notes description of each, the guests decided which one of the two options they wanted to have with the dish.