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Just so you don’t think I eat like /2008/09/really-quite-gourmet.html”>yesterday *every* day, here’s a quick but delicious salad that’s perfect as a small starter. I can still get nice nectarines, and if you can too, definitely try this. Omit the radishes if you want to, it’s still really good.

Nectarine Almond Salad
Serves 2

1 nectarine, thinly sliced
50 g rocket (arugula)
2 radishes, thinly slived
15 almonds
parmesan, shaved

Dressing:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar

Toast the almonds in a dry frying pan. Whisk together everything for the dressing, and mix with the rocket and radishes. Divide on two plates, and top with the nectarines, almonds and shaved parmesan.

Recipe in Swedish:
Nektarinsallad med mandel

People ask me if I eat fancy food every day. There’s a real simple answer to that: no. I often eat fun food, things that might not be very difficult or made from expensive ingredients, but that are nicely put together and often with little twists – sure. But I have to show you this plate of orange-ness, because it’s what I had for dinner a few days ago. That’s Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (one of my favorite foods in the world, by the way) and.. fish sticks. With a dollop of mayo.

Gourmet might not be my middle name. But this sure hit the spot!

What’s your favorite not-so-fashionable-or-fabulous-food?

No cats, but they were awfully occupied checking out this deer in my neighbor’s garden a few days ago. We live in a calm little area, but it’s just fifteen minutes from the city centre in Stockholm. I’m amazed at how much wildlife we have – I often see squirrels and rabbits on my way to work, and deers are really common too. Not usually as calm as this one though! He stood there for a good ten minutes, checking things out. The cats got really excited, totally glued to the windows. I wonder what they’d do if they actually met a deer, though!

My whole life I watched Paul Newman films. His cool blue eyes and often nonchalant, cool, distinctly American persona is imprinted on my brain from watching films like Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,The Verdict,The Sting, The Hudsucker Proxy and Nobody’s Fool. But more than that, I’ve long admired his charitable efforts.

While he could have kicked back, or used his fame for personal profit as so many stars do, he instead chose “shameless exploitation in the pursuit of the common good.” The “common good” meant progressive social causes of all kinds–helping children, looking out for the well-being of animals, protecting First Amendment rights and more.

The Newman’s Own product line started with salad dressing and every time you turned around it seemed there was another product–pasta sauce, lemonade, popcorn, salsa and more. Today there are over 150 different products offered by Newman’s Own and according to the company, the profits from sales have raised over 250 million dollars for thousands of charities.

Not long ago I received some Newman’s Own samples of organic products including pretzels and cookies. The one that impressed me the most were the Ginger-O’s, spicy little sandwich cookies with a creamy filling. Crunchy and crisp and not too sweet, they are not only organic, but made without any artificial ingredients. For a store-bought cookie, they’re pretty darn good.

More than just a handsome movie star, Paul Newman was a man who made a difference.

This month’s challenge for the daring bakers was different. Checking out the hosts, Natalie from Gluten A Go Go, Shel, of Musings From the Fishbowl, I knew that one was vegan and one was gluten-free. I couldn’t think of many things for the challenge, at all, but was somewhat relieved when it was finally known and it turned out to be nothing scarier than crackers (lavash) and some kind of vegan, gluten-free dip.

See, I certainly don’t mind vegan or gluten-free cooking, but I’m not a big fan of using substitutes. I rather cook naturally free of certain things, rather than use something like vegan dairy, for instance. So, glad I didn’t have to!

In fact, we could choose to make our lavash with or without gluten, and I used regular bread flour for mine. Or well, regular – it was a medium dark wholewheat flour. It turned out I needed more water than the original recipe called for, but other than that the dough behaved beautifull and gave me no problems at all.

I topped half of my lavash with a nice chili lime spice blend and sea salt and the other half with cumin and chili. For the dip, I made a roasted green tomato relish, since I had so many green tomatoes in the garden.

Roasted Green Tomato Relish
300 g green tomatoes
1 jalapeño, stem cut off but otherwise left intact
2 garlic cloves

Heat the oven to 200°C and place all ingredients on a rimmed baking sheet. Put them in the oven to roast for 15-20 minutes – they should start to look a little blackened by that time.

Tip the whole thing into a food processor, blitz away, and you’re done!

I admit that this wasn’t one of the most exciting challenges I’ve made, nor was I a big fan of the finish lavash (or the dip) – but I brought them to a party where they were very well received!

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