Salad of random green stuff

The kids and I picked up the CSA today from Gorman Farm.  It's a fun reading, counting, and measuring lesson, though we try to go earlier, so we don't irritate commuters with ChaseKBH's spelling and lack of understanding about what half a pound feels like.  Today we ended up going later than is ideal, but we had a blast picking out our items.  Of great interest was three pounds of cucumbers, which are to become pickles.  ChaseKBH is adamant that we only make cute pickles, not grossie or ugly pickles.  I have no idea why he cares so much about the appearance of the pickles.

There was a bonus table at the CSA today, but we ended up not taking anything, as we are behind having done so much traveling.  We did trade our squash for a second head of lettuce, as squash is just not well enough liked in this house for the quantities of a mid-Atlantic harvest.  We also got a beautiful bounty of garlic that I'm looking forward to using extensively.  

It was way, way too hot to cook for real.  I cheated and microwaved some corn on the cob (the almost-four year old doesn't really care), and pan-sauteed some frozen chicken breasts, and made a big salad with random green stuff.  It seemed to be a hit, though the husband believed the dressing was too acidic.  We're out of olive oil, but the oils used seemed to work well.  The salad might have been a bit overdressed, but eh, proportions are easy to fudge a bit.  As for the verdict, well, the almost-four-year-old ate a bit of chicken, a bite of leaves with nothing on them, some cucumbers, and a lot of corn.  The one year old ate corn, leftover pasta, and some cucumber.  The grownups finished a large bowl of salad.

Random Leaves Salad

I suspect that the same thing could be done with pretty much anything that's green and can be eaten raw.

Ingredients:

1 large head red or green leaf lettuce (we used red), washed and torn into bite sized pieces

2 giant handfuls of basil, stemmed, washed and large leaves torn into bite sized pieces

3 giant handfuls of parsley, stemmed and washed

2 teaspoons salt, divided

1/2 cup oil (I used grapeseed, canola, and about a 1/8 of a cup of truffle oil)

2 cloves of garlic

Juice of one large juicy lemon

1 teaspoon pepper

1 cup roughly torn basil

Method:

- Rinse leaves, dry well (spin in a salad spinner), and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt.  Set aside.

- Add 1/8 cup oil, garlic, lemon, salt, pepper, and basil to a blender.  Pulverize.

- Slowly drizzle in remaining oil until desired consistency is achieved.

- Taste.

- Drizzle in oil and/or lemon as needed to balance.

- Toss leaves with the dressing, set rest aside for another day.

- Top with grilled or pan sauteed protein if desired.

Aida Bistro

Last Saturday, my husband and I had dinner at Aida Bistro. Though it's located in Gateway, aka that infinite loop office park in Columbia that people become trapped inside, it's one of the most romantic spots in Howard County. Just close your eyes until you walk inside.
Aida has jumped onto the local food bandwagon, bringing in food from Howard County farms such as Larriland. They've got some great wines too. We've had a number of meals here, and I feel somewhat foolish showcasing the simplest fare Aida has to offer, though it's my favorite. I will note that my husband's favorites include the calamari, rockfish, and anything with veal. Now back to our date.



I started with a glass of La Forge Estate Reserve Viognier 2007 (Languedoc, France). It was awesome, and I'm not really a white wine sort of girl. Interesting minerality, lots of grapefruit, nice nose, a nice body.




This is one of my favorite caprese salads. Tomato, mozzarella, a bit of basil, very good syrupy balsamic, and truffle oil.



The Husband had the andouille sausage ravioli. He's a big fan of the red sauce as well.



I had my standby favorite, handmade spaghetti with garlic and olive oil. There's nothing more perfect in this world.



A cannoli for dessert! Truth be told, I don't actually like cannoli. I love sweets, but I prefer them at, say four in the afternoon with tea or coffee. After dinner I'm more likely to have cheese or fruit. The Husband loved the cannoli though.

A relatively simple dinner date, and I would like to note that, in these troubled economic times, it wasn't terribly expensive. Now, you can totally go into Aida and blow $60.00 per person and up, including starters, desserts, wine, and drinks. But there are some good values, especially on their prix fixe menu and on days they have discounts.

For more info, visit their website.

I really love this place, but I will also be brutally honest - Aida can be very uneven. For example, a few months ago I went to Aida for one of my favorite dishes, spaghetti aglio e olio, spaghetti with garlic and olive oil. The pasta at Aida is freshly made, therefore the simple preparation is truly sublime. Except for the fact that the dish was choked with salt. And I really like salt. The poor waitress seemed shell shocked and did not know what to do. She clearly wanted to do the right thing, but she was just overwhelmed. I ended up with a less salted bowl of very good pasta. A young hostess once snapped at us, staring overwhelmed at a seating plan, nearly on the verge of tears. Sometimes the staff is just not trained about the menu items, or doesn't know how to open a bottle of wine (this poor waiter once popped the cork straight in). I will say, however, that I have never, ever had bad service at Aida. The mistakes are human mistakes that can be fixed with experience and training (I may eventually post about the horrible mistakes I once made while waiting tables). And every server has been extremely nice. Most issues arise when the owners do not appear to be front and center, a fairly rare occurrence.

Still, I would recommend Aida over most anything in the county, and certainly over any chain Italian restaurant. And, as a side note, I would like to suggest that the prices at Aida, ordering moderately from the pasta options, are not significantly more expensive (or even more expensive at all) than Olive Garden or Macaroni Grill. It's a fabulous local eatery, flaws and all.

I prefer my restaurants human. Sure, I might go to French Laundry, el Bulli, or Per Se once in a lifetime, and expect perfection. But while Aida is certainly a nice restaurant, it's a nice night out restaurant, not a once in a lifetime restaurant. And I like my nice night out restaurants to be human, to be flawed, to have character, and most of all to be experiences, not cookie cutter examples of blandess.

See their website, reviews on HoCoLoCoGirl, and for more local restaurant reviews check out HowChow.