The sun came out this morning, bringing with it deep blue skies and promise of better weather to come. As cliche as it sounds, it was a sight for sore eyes …  Really, all I can think is thank goodness. The New England winter bought so much snow this year, and ice too. And the past few days have been an almost-unending rainstorm. The gusts of wind lately have also seemed extraordinarily strong. Yesterday, the windows in our little house rattled with the force as I sat here working and writing … not exactly relaxing weather.

Every time it’s beautiful out, like today, I start dreaming about our gardens to come. My friends and family have asked again and again what we plan to grow in our raised garden beds this summer. My answer is still a little vague, but there are some certainties: tomatoes (yes, despite the late blight of last summer, I will grow them this year), sweet peppers and beans. These are the things that we love and use a lot. Of course, there will be herbs too — lots of them. If we have room, we’ll try pickling cucumbers, something that Will would love.

Our yard is also home to a few berry bushes and some strawberries that we hope will produce this year. There is mint in an alcove as well. Will wants to grow pumpkins again this year, and watermelons too (oh, I cringe thinking about how they will undoubtedly stretch their curly tendrils clear across the yard … but it’s so worth it).

While I look ahead to spring, we are still in winter mode … it’s chilly outside – weather that still requires coats. But inside, we can claim little bits of spring here and there: dreams of gardens, plans for outdoor play and fresh salads coated with homemade dressing …

We eat salads all year round, but crisp, cool salads are a special treat during warm months. On warm days, there is nothing better than digging into a big salad with homemade dressing, crisp croutons and vegetables galore.

This Caesar Salad Dressing is egg-free (honestly, I am a little squeamish about the usage of raw eggs) and pairs perfectly with crisp, vibrantly green romaine, fresh shredded Parmesan and Homemade Croutons. When friends came to visit this past weekend, I served Caesar Salad with this homemade dressing with a spinach lasagna. Last night, we ate it again alongside Chicken Souvlaki and Cream Biscuits. It worked equally well both times.

We all love this dressing. It’s flavorful and pleasant, without any overabundance of acidity. Just perfect … we think.

Caesar Salad Dressing
dresses about three family-sized salads

juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
4 anchovy fillets
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

In the bowl of a food processor, combine all ingredients and process until smooth. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to use.

For best results, make this at least one hour before you want to use it. This can be stored for up to five days in the refrigerator.

The kids and I made a Mexican Chopped Salad today. It was awesome, and they gobbled it up. Actually, we gobbled it up. But what was more awesome was our conversation while we cooked.

While making it, I made a last-second trade-out of an ingredient, substituting agave nectar for honey. Will immediately asked me why, since he’d already seen me get out the honey jar. I showed him how the honey had hardened in the bottled and explained that it wouldn’t mix well. He asked me if the new jar was a sweetener (yes, he really said sweetener). I said yes and he dutifully informed me that honey is a sweetener too. I love his four-year-old curiosity and his ability to retain information like this.

And this is the beauty of cooking with kids. From start to finish, there is open opportunity for questions, answers and discussions. Today, I explained what mise en place means and why it’s important in cooking. They listened. They got it. I love that too.

If you aren’t cooking with your kids yet, or your nieces and nephews or your grandkids, you should start. Seeing you cook, and being allowed to help fosters a child’s natural sense of curiosity and also lets them become informed eaters. That is a very important thing.

And PS: If you haven’t watched Jamie Oliver’s TED talk on teaching kids about food, I highly recommend you do. It’s well worth the 20-minutes.

Chopped Salad
serves 4
adapted from Epicurious

Kid steps: Kids can help with most of the steps of this recipe. Adding the ingredients together, stirring, whisking and tossing are all great for kids of all ages. Older kids can also help with dicing the soft avocado.

2 1/2 cups chopped romaine lettuce
1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and well drained
1 medium tomato, diced
3/4 cup pineapple chunks
1 ripe avocado, diced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar
1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Dressing:
1/4 cup key lime juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp agave nectar
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 clove garlic, minced

Combine all of the salad ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well. Set aside. Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing. Pour over the salad and toss to coat.

Serve immediately.

A few months ago, I read somewhere that basically Brussels sprouts are the new black. While I agree that they are absolutely, positively delectable … I think this highly underrated vegetable has been getting its long-awaited dues for awhile now. People are recognizing how delicious a well-prepared sprout can be, and eaten them up. Literally.

Me? I love them and have for a long, long time. They are comforting, rich, warm … just delish. But here’s the thing, I am a teensy bit picky about my Brussels sprouts. They cannot be boiled. Or from frozen. They have to be fresh and either roasted or pan-fried. Call me crazy, but I just think they taste the best that way.

This particular recipe is an easy-as-can-be lunch for when you are short on time but want to eat something fresh, light and delish.  From the cutting board to the table in 20 minutes, I love to make this in the afternoon when Will is in school, Paige is napping and I have a few minutes to myself.

The combination is just wonderful. I got the idea to add gorgonzola cheese to the mix after seeing a recipe for Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pecans and Gorgonzola Cheese on Kalyn’s Kitchen.

What do you whip up when you get a few minutes to yourself?

Warm Brussels Sprouts Salad with Gorgonzola and Sunflower Seeds
serves 1

2 cups halved Brussels sprouts
salt and pepper
1 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 tbsp gorgonzola crumbles
1 tbsp balsamic vinaigrette

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray an oven-safe pan with cooking oil spray. Spread the Brussels sprouts in the pan in a single layer. Lightly spray the sprouts with cooking oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, flipping once.

Toss the roasted Brussels sprouts with sunflower seeds, gorgonzola and balsamic vinaigrette. Serve immediately.

In a way, it’s kind of good that I didn’t know what it was when I first tried it because I might have been more reluctant to give it a shot. Really, it could have stopped me from enjoying this delightful vegetable. Yes, it’s true: Back when I was younger, I was admittedly less adventurous with eating.

Thankfully, I have wonderful friends who convinced me to try all sorts of new things. And most of the time, I ended up loving them. Except for the octopus … never again.

Anyway, this is about this beautiful, pearly colored radish. If you’ve never tasted one before, then you don’t know what you are missing. It’s unlike anything else: a little sweet, crisp and with this amazing freshness to it. Oh, I can’t say enough good things about daikon.

This Daikon Salad is easy peasy to make and only takes a little bit of chilling before it’s ready to enjoy. And enjoy you will! Try this salad alone, with shredded carrots and peanuts or even in a wrap with grilled chicken. It’s also delish served alongside dishes like pad thai or chicken satay.

So, how did the family like it? Well, Will adores it and could eat a whole batch himself (a boy after my own heart! I could too). However, Paige wasn’t a fan and my husband wouldn’t try it. But that’s okay: more for Will and I!

Are you a daikon fan?

Easy Daikon Salad
serves 4
Click here for the printable version of this recipe on Tablespoon.com.

2 cups julienne cut daikon radish (I used my food processor to cut it)
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
2 tsp granulated sugar
1 tsp sweet rice wine (mirin)
OPTIONAL: crushed peanuts

Place the daikon in a colander/mesh strainer over a bowl or the sink and sprinkle with salt. Mix well. Let sit for 30 minutes. Squeeze out excess water and then rinse well with cold water. Drain.

In a small saucepan, combine the seasoned rice vinegar, sugar and rice wine. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves (this will only take a few minutes).

Transfer the daikon to an airtight container and pour the rice vinegar mixture over. Shake or stir well to combine. Chill for 20 minutes before serving.

This can store for up to a few days in the fridge, if it lasts that long. If desired, serve topped with crushed peanuts.

This morning’s snow was a complete surprise to me. I think I had just about married myself to the idea that even though it’s January still, that the harsh temperatures and need to shovel was behind us. It so totally is not.

Regardless of what season I am in, some days I like to eat lightly. Today was one of those days.

But then, it really doesn’t matter what time of year it is or what the weather is … I love salads all the time. Sometimes, I go for bold toppings — glazed nuts, homemade croutons, roasted tomatoes. Sometimes, I want my dressing to be the star with a bold, aged balsamic vinegar. But other times, I just want simple, easy, light.

This dressing is great for the days where you just want something simple. Although it’s built around the sweet juice of a Honeybell orange, it’s not overly sweet. It does have unmistakable orange notes though. It’s a subtle dressing, one that tastes great without overpowering anything. It doesn’t mind if it’s paired with other ingredients that want to shine too.

And really, it’s a dressing perfect for a simple salad like this one: Romaine hearts, gorgonzola cheese and sunflower seeds. And really … it doesn’t need anything else.

Honeybell Orange Rosemary Vinaigrette

1 Honeybell orange, juiced
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1/2 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp dried mustard

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Whisk together. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.

What do you eat for lunch? People always talk about how important it is to have a good breakfast, but it’s also really important to have a good lunch — one that is filling, satisfying and healthy. For me, lunch is sometimes a sandwich or pasta, but more often it’s a salad. Salads served topped with warm proteins, like this salmon, are comforting, waist-friendly and can be really easy to make. Seriously. I mean it.

This particular roasted salmon is so ridiculously easy that I almost feel bad calling it a recipe. You basically toss salmon in a pan, drizzle just a bit of olive oil, sprinkle some salt and pepper and lay some thyme across the top. Toss it in the oven and 20 minutes or so later, you are ready to sit down and eat a healthy lunch. Easy peasy.

But I am sharing it because some people don’t realize just how easy and simple it can be to cook fish — or how unscary it is. (Yes, I really did just make up that word. Shh!)

I used to be scared to cook salmon. I also used to be scared to feed it to my two-year-old daughter. Earlier this week, while I was writing about salmon for my Tablespoon column, I reminisced about a year ago when I was so freaked out to give Paige fish that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. She was just over a year old, and it was time to try. But the threat of fish allergies (the ones I read about in some parenting magazine) had me downright terrified. It’s funny how in this information age, too much information can make us question our instincts.

I turned to mom friends and asked advice. I read more about it. Then I finally bit the bullet and just made fish. She loved it. No more fear necessary.

These days, we typically have fish about twice a week. Since Shawn isn’t a fan, we either have it when he’s working late (henceforth known as “fish night” in our house) or for lunch. It used to horrify my mother that I actually cook at lunchtime, but that’s one of the perks of being a work-at-home freelance writer. And really, why shouldn’t you cook when you have a chance?

Frankly though, when the fabulous lunch is as easy as this one, it needs no justifying.

So, spill! What’s your favorite lunch? Do you ever cook at lunchtime?

Easy Green Salad with Roasted Salmon Recipe
serves 4

8 cups torn and rinsed lettuce (Boston is my fav)
1 carrot, peeled and shredded
4 oz crumbled goat cheese or feta, divided
1 recipe roasted salmon (below)
vinaigrette

Divide the lettuce between four plates or bowls. Top each one with 1/4 of the carrot shreds, 1 oz of crumbled goat cheese or feta and 1 salmon fillet. Drizzle with vinaigrette.

Serve immediately.

Roasted Salmon Recipe
serves 4
Click here for my printable recipe at Tablespoon

1 lb salmon fillets (roughly 4-4oz pieces)
1/2 tbsp olive oil
4 sprigs fresh thyme
sea salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray an oven-safe pan with cooking oil.

Rinse the salmon in cool water and pat dry. Place, skin side down, into the prepared pan. Drizzle with olive oil and then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Lay a sprig of thyme over each piece.

Bake the salmon for 15-20 minutes, until it flakes easily with a fork.

Serve warm.

A few weeks ago, I started thinking of fall flavors (seriously, when did seasons become flavors to me?). Apples, pumpkins, squash, Brussels sprouts … I started to scheme about how I could use them to create new dishes.

The first thing that came to mind: Apple Cider Vinaigrette.

Not a dressing that just uses apple cider vinegar, though: One that uses actual apple cider to create a sweet, tangy lettuce-coating dressing. Something that could bridge the light foods of summer with the bone-warming foods of winter. Could cider in a dressing even work?

I’ve been working on this recipe ever since, trying to get it just right. And guess what? I did. It’s earthy and lightly sweet, with that tinge of tang I wanted. Even Shawn, who isn’t a vinaigrette fan at all, liked it a lot.

As for the salad above? It’s romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size bits with half a Haas avocado sliced, about eight medium shrimp that were just steamed, two slices of pancetta fried until crisp and about an ounce of Danish blue cheese. Yum.

Next time though, I would choose a lettuce with a less aggressive taste like a Boston Bibb. I think that would make this salad — and dressing — absolutely perfect.

P.S. The cute bottle? It’s a glass flask from The Container Store. I bought it on a recent trip into New York and absolutely love it for dressings like this. It stores in the fridge well and is absolutely airtight. I use a small funnel to help ease the dressing in without spilling. Both are awesome to have in your cupboard if you love to make your own dressing.

Apple Cider Vinaigrette

1/3 cup apple cider
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup olive oil

Whisk all of the ingredients together. Transfer to an airtight container. Refrigerate for up to one week.

It all started with the cabbage I’ve been growing. It was taunting me and I knew it was time to finally — finally — use it. Then the beets in the back of my fridge gave me a nudge. Before I knew it, I was writing a list of ingredients and trying to figure out how much dressing I would really need.

The result was the salad you see above. It’s light and refreshing, unexpected but delicious. The raw beets add a nice punch of color, flavor and snap. The vinaigrette is neither too acidic nor too meek. It adds just the right balance to the other flavors.

When I made this, it was to share. I intended it for our camping trip, another family’s camping trip and my newest neighbor. The recipe made plenty, and since it wasn’t a mayo-based dressing, this slaw stood up better to the challenges of chilling in a cooler. It remained crisp and perfect. I imagine this would be great for a backyard barbecue too (Labor Day is coming!).

Perhaps the greatest endorsement though? I gave Will and Paige each a taste before packing up our portion of the slaw. Paige stood next to me, chewing and then opening her mouth to demand more on repeat until I finally laughed and said we really needed to go. She just couldn’t get enough.

Vinaigrette Beet Slaw
serves 12

1 large green cabbage (10-12 inches in diameter)
1 small red cabbage (4-6 inches in diameter)
1 lb beets, scrubbed, peeled and ends removed
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp honey
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (I used purple basil, but regular basil works just as well)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp salt

Special equipment: Full size food processor

Using a large, full-size food processor, shred the cabbages and beets. Transfer to a very large bowl (you need room to stir) and use a large spoon to mix the cabbages and beets together.

In a small bowl, whisk together the apple cider vinegar, olive oil, honey, parsley, basil, garlic and salt. Pour the dressing over the cabbage mixture and let sit for 10 minutes. Stir well. Then transfer to airtight containers until ready to serve (be sure to evenly distribute the juices at the bottom of the bowl between the storage containers. Chill.

Stir well before serving.

“What’s in this? This is interesting.”

That was my husband’s reaction when he tasted the salad tonight. It was a simple mix of baby greens (one bag for $1 at the farmers market today — just enough for one dinner) and a homemade basil vinaigrette. I skipped the cheese and ignored the croutons and just did an ultrasimple salad. And it worked, or I thought it did.

Of course, upon hearing interesting, my mind raced to all sorts of unfavorable places, as minds are wont to do. Did that mean it was simply vile? Gross? Missing some key component? Did my mix of sweet and savory with a hearty dose of basil just spell major F-A-I-L? Would I be totally screwed on my plan of blogging this dressing tonight?

I pretty much had declared culinary disaster in my head. Words like interesting, unusual, different … they will all do that to me. They don’t exactly speak volumes about greatness. Sorry, but I would much rather be told something is amazing.

Fortunately, he went on to tell me that it was “very basil-y, which is good” and had a slight bit of sweetness (yes, it does), which was good too. The flavor is light, but brimming with the sunny freshness of basil. The vinegar and garlic complement the flavors, lending tang and a touch of bite to the dressing. For me, I could totally imagine eating a salad with this basil vinaigrette while digging my toes into warm sand at the beach. It just has summer written all over it.

Turns out, for my husband, that actually wasn’t a bad interesting — he liked it too. Can there be good interesting? I guess so. But he also had one request: next time, don’t skip the homemade croutons and sprinkling of cheese.

I suppose that isn’t too much to ask.

Basil Vinaigrette

This recipe makes enough to dress at least two family-sized salads.

1 cup packed fresh basil leaves
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp honey
salt and pepper, to taste
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Combine the basil, garlic, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt and pepper in the bowl of a food processor and process until everything is mixed up and chopped into tiny bits. While the food processor is running, slowly drizzle the olive oil into the mixture and process until emulsified.

Use this to dress a salad immediately, or transfer to an air-tight container and keep in the fridge for up to a week.

More Homemade Salad Dressing Ideas:

• Blue Cheese Dressing
• Mustard Vinaigrette @ Reluctant Gourmet
• Basic Vinaigrette @ Bitten
• Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette @ FitSugar

One of the great joys of summer is salad made with local greens. It’s vibrant, green and refreshing. It tastes of cool breezes on hot days and warm paperback pages read on a sunny porch. It’s something that you really start to appreciate the older you get …

Today, the kids and I scored a few heads of Boston Bibb lettuce at the farmers market. I like romaine and iceberg and other lettuces just fine. But I relish in a salad made with either fresh spinach or Boston Bibb … I love the firm, smooth leaves – not firm as in hard, but firm as in solid and having some mass.

Top it with some fresh strawberries sliced up while they are in season, or some juicy, just off the vine, tomatoes later in the season. Even blueberries or sliced apples (at the end of summer) can make a nice salad topper.

And then comes the crunch. For me, a salad just has to have that crunch. And what better crunch than homemade croutons? Just slice up whatever left over bread you have (sometimes, for me, it’s my fav semolina bread ends. Other times, it’s leftover hamburger buns or even just slightly stale sandwich bread — in a pinch, of course), season and go.

Looking for inspiration? Check out these delightful ideas:

Recipes for Homemade Croutons

• Extra Easy Cheese Croutons at Sarah’s Cucina Bella
• Homemade Garlic Croutons at Sarah’s Cucina Bella
• Amy’s Homemade Croutons (herbed croutons) at The Mother Load
• Buttery Homemade Croutons at The Food Channel
• Sourdough Garlic Herb Croutons at Our Best Bites
• Sourdough Garlic Croutons at Pinch My Salt