Pear avocado salad

While a pear salad with chicken could be served as a main dish, one with avocado and nuts does much better as a side.  In this case, make the dressing first.  In a food processor, combine:

• Apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 avocado (mostly for the oil)
• Olive oil (because an avocado won't yield enough)
• Ground coriander
• Just a dash of cinnamon
• 2 cloves garlic
• ~ 3/4 inch of jalapeno

Pulse until that is well combined.  For the salad itself, simply combine:

• 1/3 bunch of spinach, hand torn
• 2 pears (bosc and anjou work here as well), cubed small
• 1 avocado plus the remaining half, sliced or cubed
• Scant half cup of almond, rough chopped

Dress, toss, serve immediately.  The mild heat from the jalapeno brings out the pears' sweetness, which is further enhanced by the coriander and cinnamon.

Pear chicken salad

Pears are a great compliment to greens.  Not too sweet, they take dressings well and their grainy structure provides a texture that compliments greens without overwhelming them.  They also seem to be available both during their natural peak season and, say, in winter.

This first variation of the theme is a chicken salad.  To pull off the thin slicing required to keep the chicken manageable, freeze two breasts thoroughly, then place them into the refrigerator overnight to thaw just enough to slice.  In the morning, do just that, then add them to a marinate of:

• Olive oil
• White wine vinegar
• Honey (not too much)
• Red pepper flake
• Black pepper

Let that sit for around four hours, preferably near room temperature to let the chicken continue to thaw and absorb the flavors.  When that's done, pour the whole mixture into a covered pan and poach the chicken in the marinate, which will become the dressing.  Obviously you'll want to cook it all the way through as it's now quite contaminated with raw chicken.

While that is cooking, slice 3 pears thinly and place them in a large pyrex mixing bowl.  I used anjou on my first run; bosc seem to work very nicely.  When the chicken is cooked, pour the entire mixture over the pears and toss.  Once it has cooled enough not to wilt greens, add spinach or another lettuce of choice and toss again.  Serve chilled or at room temperature.

BLTs

Sometimes simplicity wins out.  For me, this often has to do with it being before noon (aka breakfast time), but it can obviously carry on throughout the day depending on your priorities (and the ingredients, of course).  And some classics just call for it.

So, BLTs.  Two versions here, both dead simple in their basic form.  They're definitely toaster oven fare once you get past the bacon itself (and I don't actually object to resorting to a microwave here even if it does come off better in a cast iron skillet every single time).  But the idea remains the same: pick a flavor profile, add a minor twist, and enjoy.

Version one

1. Cook your bacon
2. Toast a split bagel under a broiler, tossing on a grated hard italian cheese halfway through
3. Add either sliced or diced tomato
4. Add bacon, chopped works well here
5. Add a green of your choice; I like spinach but an actual italian green would do very well
6. Layer on alfalfa sprouts (or whatever bean sprouts you happen to have around; mung is particularly nice for the added crunch)

Asiago bagels are an obvious choice here, but onion, garlic, everything, etc all work fine.  As does plain, really.  Just make sure you crush down the top once you're done layering; they become quite unwieldy without some manual encouragement.  Cut in  half and enjoy.  Maybe make two if you're hungry or, ahem, want to use a whole tomato.

Version two

Closer to my heart, of course.  This is the simple version.  If you just happen to have fresh-roasted green hatch this might be the best BLT in the entire history of mankind.

1. Again, cook bacon, slice or chop it
2. Toast a fairly hearty bread
3. Melt a thin layer of cojack on the bread; again, using a toaster oven is easiest here
4. Add sliced, canned green chile
5. Layer your tomato, in this case chopped probably is better
6. Add your choice of lettuce; again I like spinach but romaine isn't bad

Slice.  Eat.  Make another.

If you wanted to go crazy you could, I don't know:

1. Replace the bread with a sopapilla, stuff the ingredients, make sure you're using good chile, and smother in a red sauce.  But then, that would be complicated, wouldn't it?
2. Just  use a tortilla to wrap said ingredients, making sure to chop the bacon, and call it a BLT burrito.  Maybe even add a salsa or guacamole to finish it.

But now we're straying back into complicated, aren't we?

(For the sake of completeness, I should link to a post from Farmgirl Fare on pita in general and another great option for BLTs that I've always wanted to try.  Baking at altitude, especially if you're inept in the first place, has proven a problem.)

Avocado/tangerine salad

Simple as can be.

Chop:

• 1 avocado
• 2 tangerines
• A decent amount of goat cheese
• Two handfuls of almonds

Combine that with spinach.  Dress with:

• Sesame oil
• White wine vinegar (rice wine vinegar would work here too)
• Ground ginger
• Garlic powder

And that's it.  The flavors blend extremely well what with the sweet from the tangerines and almonds, the sour goat cheese, and the various spices (plus whatever it is that avocado has).  The textures work well varying from the crunchy almonds down to the almost melty cheese and avocado.

In a large enough batch this could be a meal.