90's Baby

Today I'm cooking with inspiration from Ina.

I’ve just finished reading Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten— I laughed, I cried, I want to open a specialty food store! Her chapters about fashionable dishes of the 90’s brought me right back to my childhood. While you may not have been aware of food trends during your preteen years, I grew up in my family’s restaurant where multiple generations were award-winning members of the Tennessee restaurant association. I vividly remember the popularity of things like lemon with poppy seed, sun dried tomatoes and balsamic vinegar. Explains a lot, doesn’t it?

Tonight, an ode to old school Barefoot Contessa. This morning I made balsamic vinaigrette with a touch of Dijon mustard and so much honey it’s almost creamy when emulsified. I drizzled about a Tablespoon over thinly sliced fennel to let it quick pickle. Later I’ll toss both with romaine (baby spinach is garbage, let’s fight), sliced strawberries and crumbled Roquefort. If I have time between now and then, I may even candy some pecans.

I also made tuna salad with lemon juice and zest, mayonaisse, Dijon mustard, lots of celery, dill pickles and green onions. The secret to great tuna salad? A whole medium boiled egg pushed through a sieve or potato ricer. It helps everything stick together without being too mayonaisse-y. I’ll put cartoonish scoops of it on top of toasted sourdough.

And of course, there must be brownies. Mine are from a box because as Ina would say, store bought is fine.