Salads – In Good Taste

Israeli Couscous with Butternut Squash and Cranberries

Maris Callahan — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 18:12:56 +0000

I decided today that 2014 is going to be The Year of Saying No. That might seem negative or pessimistic, but I am a people pleaser. As someone who will say yes to a conference call even if it means being double-booked, an evening meeting with a client even when I had my heart set on kickboxing or a social obligation when I’m dead tired because I’m afraid of missing out, it’s finally occurred to me that I need to have boundaries. When I worked at my first public relations job in New York, I was petrified of being fired. I was never at any time actually at risk of losing my job, but in a cutthroat, competitive industry I was afraid that the slightest slip or mistake would result in the unemployment line or worse, moving back home with my parents. Even when my workload was two or three times what it should have been, I felt compelled to take on every extra assignment and every request from my boss with enthusiasm (my boss was just as stretched as I was at the time, if not more since she had the responsibility of running the department). This displaced dedication contributed […]

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Carolina Cobb Salad

Maris Callahan — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 17:18:15 +0000

In the blogosphere there is a lot of discussion over how to work with public relations professionals who want to use blogs as a platform to promote their clients to communities online. As a lot of my readers know, I work in public relations and a great deal of my work day is spent strategizing about how to best leverage blogs for my clients. I know. I said, “leverage blogs for my clients.” It sounds icky, right? But it’s not. I have worked for large companies that provide me with a paycheck every two weeks to promote its clients. That is my job. That is what PR professionals do. We promote our clients. I have been lucky that I’ve always enjoyed the clients that I’ve worked with and have never had a problem sharing their brands with my friends, family or online community. I like to keep a level of separation between my blog and my work but you know what? Sometimes that line blurs and I can’t stop it. I also have an advantage, in my line of work. My blog is an advantage and asset to my career. I never intended for it to be that way, but […]

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Harvest Salad with Grapes and Goat Cheese

Maris Callahan — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

A few days ago I was at the deli around the corner from my office with my friend Alli, selecting create-your-own salads for lunch. I ordered my romaine with a mix of vegetables without dressing. “It upsets me deeply that you eat your salad dry,” she said, only half-kidding. I don’t eat my salads dry, but I’m very picky about salad dressing and usually keep my own, bottled dressing, back at the office. Salad dressing is a precarious issue here, because when the guy behind the deli counter is making your salad during the lunchtime rush hour (and let’s be honest here, he doesn’t really care if you enjoy your meal or not) he may do one of two things: 1. He might dose your salad in entirely too much dressing, leaving you with salad dressing breath, as unpleasant for you as it could be for the person in the next cubicle over. 2. He might not give you enough dressing, so that you can taste it, but what is that herb? Is that garlic? So I’ve decided, there are two solutions here. One is to keep dressing in the work fridge so that I always have something on hand. […]

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Copycat Caprese: Cubed, Hacked Caprese Salad

Maris Callahan — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

When I saw this recipe for cubed, hacked caprese salad on Smitten Kitchen I knew that I would be making it that night. I was planning on making homemade pizza for dinner with friends (as you all know I like to do sometimes), and thought this salad would be a perfect partner in crime. I printed out the recipe, tucked it into my purse, bought fresh mozzarella and fat, ripe, red Jersey tomatoes on the way home from work and threw it together to nosh on while we were waiting for the pizza to cook. Caprese salad, and I mean good caprese salad, is one of my favorite Italian-inspired dishes. No, it doesn’t hold a candle to my baked penne with sausage and spinach or my spinach pumpkin linguine (what can I say? I like spinach). But when you have caprese salad made with excellent mozzarella cheese, you only need a little bit and when you have fresh-from-the-vine tomatoes you can let them star as the lead ingredient. This salad has both perfect mozzarella and exemplary tomatoes. It also uses white beans, which I love for their addition of healthy fiber and protein to an otherwise indulgent dish and fresh […]

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Fruit, Nut and Goat Cheese Salad

Maris Callahan — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:01:48 +0000

When I was in elementary school, I didn’t worry about my weight or count calories. If I had, I have no doubt that the summers would have been my healthiest season of the year. Of course, I wasn’t making fruit, nut and goat cheese salad in elementary school, so we can all agree that things are different now. Summers once meant playing kickball on balmy evenings and eating ripe peaches, plums and nectarines for dessert, but now, summer means iced coffee, sweating on the subway and doing everything possible not to use my oven when it’s 87 degrees. Under these circumstances (and because I can’t squeeze a grill onto my too-tiny balcony) it’s easy to reach for chips and salsa and call it dinner. True, there are some nights where a hunk of Brie and some whole-grain crackers might seem like a well-balanced meal, but to afford that occasional indulgence, I like to fill the rest of my summer nights with crisp, healthy salads with produce fresh from the farm stand. Before I share my favorite, simple salad for a busy summer weeknight, there are a few things you should know so you can make your own healthy salad in what […]

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