Hearts of Palms and Cherry Tomato Salad

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I bet you some of you have never tasted Heart of Palms?  Or maybe I’m wrong, but if there is a single vegetable that I have encountered that give people a pause is hearts of palm.

Hearts of palms are the inner portion of the stem of the sabal Palmetto, or “swamp cabbage,” palm tree. They have a taste similar to artichokes but look like white asparagus without the tops. They are grown primarily in Florida, Brazil, Ecuador and Costa Rica, and are usually purchased canned and packed in water.

If you have never tried them, I urge you to do so because these little gems are delicious.

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Carrots and Zucchini Salad

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We all need our veggies, especially someone like me that unfortunately does not eat enough of them.

Do have a favorite veggie? I think I pretty much like all with the exception of brussel sprouts - we just cannot seem to get onboard with each other.

If there is a favorite I will have to say carrots. I like them raw, cooked, in salads, cakes, dipped in anything. The same goes for zucchini, which I love grilled with a splash of olive oil and some chopped herbs.

A couple of weeks back I gave Heidi Swanson Sunburst Carrot Salad recipe a try out in my kitchen.  It was part of our Gutsy Cook menu options and I had all the ingredients at hand. 

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GCC: Tomatoes Stuffed with Rice

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This was my second recipe from our Gutsy Cook line up this past week.

As the recipe in Saveur mentions, Italian has the stuff vegetables thing down pack.  Pretty much any antipasto table will have a vegetable that has been stuffed with meat, other veggies and in this case rice.

What appeal to me about this recipe is that fact that the most time consuming task here is prepping the tomatoes.  You have to trim them, and then scoop out the inner pulp without puncturing the walls.

This little prepping step may be a zilch for some cooks.  No biggie – cut top, scoop out pulp, and cut bottom.  Done.

For my perfect convulsive ODC twin this took a while, since I wanted them perfectly hollow out, and wanted them to stand up tall and pretty and the tops needed to be at the right angle and the bottoms…

Never mind. (I know, I got a problem – I’m trying to deal.  Lets move on.)

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