No one can say I'm not a trouper. A compulsive idiot, maybe.Mixt Salads recipe #6: Porky. That mess up there was some roasted butternut squash and overseasoned pork tenderloin served over mixed greens. Conceptually great; in fact, problematic.Problems:1. the meat. a. Andrew Swallow calls for 3 pounds of pork in the ingredients list, which is clearly too much flesh for four people. Then, quite reasonably, he only utilizes one pound of the meat in the recipe itself. But what are you supposed to do with the other 2 pounds of pork? Careless mistake, wasteful of the inattentive reader's resources. Demerit. b. seasoning on pork tenderloin: too spicy. Far too spicy. Like maybe another mistake?2. the dressing. a. bland! Like all the dressings I've tried from this book. How can a salad maven make dressings this tasteless? I don't get it. Is it just me? Do I lack the proper Andrew Swallow/Mixt Salads decoder ring? b. too much. All of Swallow's dressing recipes make about 5 times more than you need. I've started cutting each vinaigrette recipe in half, but there's still too much and I now have three jars of only slightly different, very bland vinaigrette in my fridge, including the vinaigrette to dress. . .Mixt Salads recipe #7: Autumn. This was, in fact, okay, despite bland dressing. Chunked beets, pine nuts, and cambozola cheese on butter lettuce. There was no genius to the recipe, but it was edible and I enjoyed making a big, healthy salad for lunch like someone who takes really good care of herself. Interestingly, I think the gesture of taking really good care of myself meant more than actually taking really good care of myself. I made the gesture again today and prepared. . . Mixt Salads recipe #8: GreenChopped apples sprinkled with lemon juice, cayenne, cumin, chili powder, lime zest and red chile flakes. This was very easy and I made it just to move us closer to the next cookbook. As I type my face is sweating and nose running from the cayenne and chile flakes. I would never serve this to anyone else -- it's a freaky, masochistic, fatless salad -- but I kind of like it! So, I just went to the Mixt web site. Andrew Swallow looks nice and now I feel mean. I don't want to be the Ken Starr of food bloggers. I know what I think about this volume and there's no need to run it into the ground, so I'm quitting Mixt Salads reviewing right this second. I did not know I was going to do this when I started typing this post. This sounds like an enticing and crazy cookbook.
Christine9/22/10, 1:39 PMI wouldn't feel bad about it. Sounds like the recipes more than deserved your critique.ReplyDeleteMary9/22/10, 1:50 PMsounds like a good decision to me....those bland dressings....wasted food....where was his editor?ReplyDeletegoose9/22/10, 3:04 PMThat boring but delicious heirloom tomato and opal basil salad is looking better with each of these fancy ones you try.ReplyDeleteAnonymous9/22/10, 4:09 PMPhew! What's next? Thai Street Food? My Sweet Mexico?ReplyDeleteMargaret9/23/10, 7:05 AMI read that review and it does sound like a great book. The review was hilarious.ReplyDeleteAnonymous9/28/10, 12:55 AMI like the new possible. I kind of want to try out the chicken pie recipe.ReplyDeleteAdd commentLoad more...
No one can say I'm not a trouper. A compulsive idiot, maybe.Mixt Salads recipe #6: Porky. That mess up there was some roasted butternut squash and overseasoned pork tenderloin served over mixed greens. Conceptually great; in fact, problematic.Problems:1. the meat. a. Andrew Swallow calls for 3 pounds of pork in the ingredients list, which is clearly too much flesh for four people. Then, quite reasonably, he only utilizes one pound of the meat in the recipe itself. But what are you supposed to do with the other 2 pounds of pork? Careless mistake, wasteful of the inattentive reader's resources. Demerit. b. seasoning on pork tenderloin: too spicy. Far too spicy. Like maybe another mistake?2. the dressing. a. bland! Like all the dressings I've tried from this book. How can a salad maven make dressings this tasteless? I don't get it. Is it just me? Do I lack the proper Andrew Swallow/Mixt Salads decoder ring? b. too much. All of Swallow's dressing recipes make about 5 times more than you need. I've started cutting each vinaigrette recipe in half, but there's still too much and I now have three jars of only slightly different, very bland vinaigrette in my fridge, including the vinaigrette to dress. . .Mixt Salads recipe #7: Autumn. This was, in fact, okay, despite bland dressing. Chunked beets, pine nuts, and cambozola cheese on butter lettuce. There was no genius to the recipe, but it was edible and I enjoyed making a big, healthy salad for lunch like someone who takes really good care of herself. Interestingly, I think the gesture of taking really good care of myself meant more than actually taking
 really good care of myself. I made the gesture again today and prepared. . . Mixt Salads recipe #8: GreenChopped apples sprinkled with lemon juice, cayenne, cumin, chili powder, lime zest and red chile flakes. This was very easy and I made it just to move us closer to the next cookbook. As I type my face is sweating and nose running from the cayenne and chile flakes. I would never serve this to anyone else -- it's a freaky, masochistic, fatless salad -- but I kind of like it! So, I just went to the Mixt web site. Andrew Swallow looks nice and now I feel mean. I don't want to be the Ken Starr of food bloggers. I know what I think about this volume and there's no need to run it into the ground, so I'm quitting Mixt Salads reviewing right this second. I did not know I was going to do this when I started typing this post. This sounds like an enticing and crazy cookbook.
Christine9/22/10, 1:39 PMI wouldn't feel bad about it. Sounds like the recipes more than deserved your critique.ReplyDeleteMary9/22/10, 1:50 PMsounds like a good decision to me....those bland dressings....wasted food....where was his editor?ReplyDeletegoose9/22/10, 3:04 PMThat boring but delicious heirloom tomato and opal basil salad is looking better with each of these fancy ones you try.ReplyDeleteAnonymous9/22/10, 4:09 PMPhew! What's next? Thai Street Food? My Sweet Mexico?ReplyDeleteMargaret9/23/10, 7:05 AMI read that review and it does sound like a great book. The review was hilarious.ReplyDeleteAnonymous9/28/10, 12:55 AMI like the new possible. I kind of want to try out the chicken pie recipe.ReplyDeleteAdd commentLoad more...