To start: Goat Cheese Gratin with Roasted Peppers, Tomatoes and Olives served with torn pita. I needed to use up red peppers, chiles, goat cheese and olives, so this gratin was a perfect fit. I did pick up some tomatoes to round out the dish.
While I was looking for new ways to showcase an abundance of spinach, I came across a simple spinach salad with mango and candied pecans that begged to be adapted. The core of the salad is fresh spinach, diced mango and pecans caramelized in a skillet with 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 Tbsp. oil and 1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar. A quick note about the pecans: when sugar is bubbling around nuts on the stovetop they go from golden to burned in a blink. Be patient, stir constantly, and remove them from heat as soon as they reach a glossy caramel color to avoid a bitter finish.
The candied pecans are excellent on their own as a snack and transform any salad into something special. Next time I’ll skip the oil and caramelize the nuts with just brown sugar and balsamic; a little chopped rosemary would also add a savory counterpoint. The oil isn’t necessary — it simply makes the pecans a touch slicker than I prefer.
The mango-spinach salad needed more substance, so I grilled plain chicken breasts brushed with oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. I would normally add lemon juice and zest to the marinade and let the chicken sit for a bit, but I didn’t have lemons on hand. Even simply grilled, the chicken adds protein and pairs well with the sweetness of mango and the crunch of the pecans.
That evening Ben, Emily and one of their cousins came over to watch the fireworks, and to keep them awake until 11:30 we baked brownies and chocolate chip bars—the fastest route from batter to cookie-style bars. A neat trick: turn the batter into a large cookie disc baked in a round pan, then decorate with icing or melted chocolate chips squeezed from a snipped-off corner of a zip-top bag. Seal a handful of chocolate chips in the bag, sit the bag in a bowl of warm water until the chips melt, snip off the corner, and gently squeeze to pipe melted chocolate for a tidy finish.
Chewy Chocolate Chip Bars
2 Tbsp. butter or non-hydrogenated margarine, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup all-purpose or whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chocolate chipsPreheat oven to 350°F.
In a medium bowl, stir together the butter and brown sugar until creamy. Add the egg and vanilla, mixing until smooth. Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt until almost combined; fold in the chocolate chips and blend just until evenly distributed.
Spread the batter into an 8” x 8” pan lightly sprayed with nonstick spray; the layer will be fairly thin. Bake for 18–20 minutes, until the edges are a pale golden color. For soft, chewy bars, avoid overbaking—remove from the oven when the center still looks slightly underbaked, as it will finish setting while cooling.
Makes 12 bars.
Per Bar: 158 calories, 5.1 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 26 g carbohydrates, 23.8 mg cholesterol, 2 g protein, 1 g fiber. 29% calories from fat.
Variation: Chocolate Caramel Marshmallow Bars — melt 20 caramels with 1 Tbsp. milk in a small saucepan or in short bursts in the microwave until smooth. As soon as the bars come out of the oven, drizzle them with the caramel and evenly sprinkle 1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows over the top. Return to the oven for 5–8 minutes until the marshmallows are lightly puffed and golden. Cool in the pan on a wire rack. This adds about 1 g fat per bar.
These recipes — a spinach and mango salad with candied pecans and grilled chicken, a savory goat cheese gratin, and chewy chocolate chip bars with an optional caramel-marshmallow finish — combine fresh produce, simple technique and kid-friendly baking. Each element is easy to prepare and can be adapted to what you have on hand, making them reliable choices for casual dinners, summer gatherings or a dessert-first celebration around fireworks night.