whole-grain salad with mushrooms, fennel, feta, walnuts and parsley

I'm returning from a month of silence - whew. And posting from Germany, no less. It's been a busy month. Michael was in Minnesota with me, we ran a marathon, spent time with family. I had a big work deadline and was preparing for my three weeks abroad... so I wasn't cooking much while in transit and didn't really have time to post anything. And now while spending time in Germany (and a few days in Switzerland) I'm also eating a lot of good German food and not doing much cooking. My first night I wanted to have Schnitzel, at Felix Austria, which is still my favorite place to go for Schnitzel in Berlin. I've had some Kuchen, all though not too much yet...., also really good Thai food at Fehrbelliner park (Thai people gather there on weekends and sell "street food" in the park - delicious), and Turkish grilled marinated meat with parsley-red onion salad and soft bread. Yum. So good to really enjoy things you can't get in the US - at least not where I'm living.

Berlin varieties: Turkish dinner, Kaffee und Kuchen, Schnitzel and Wurst

But in the airport I did spend a lot of time going through my cooking magazines and tearing out good recipes. Eating Well had a great issue - almost took out all those pages. :) And the other night I got to hang out with my friend Anne, and after a nice long walk to get super-delicious ice cream...we made a nice home-cooked meal. :)  Anne also gave me some recipes from her trusted binder of good ones... I am excited to try those out.

I love grain salads. They're very satisfying and feel really healthy at the same time. This one is inspired by a recipe in Cooks Illustrated. Anne made some cocktails with a homemade rosemary-lemon simple syrup (yum yum) and it felt super summery and perfect to balance out the halloumi, pizza, and schnitzel from the last few days. :)

raw beet slaw with fennel, tart apple, and parsley

Here's another one from Diane Morgan's Roots: The Definitive Compendium. Fun beet facts: the beet was probably consumed "in some form" in prehistoric times. It was first grown for the leaves, and the Romans first cultivated it for the root. It wasn't grown in the US until the 19th century. And funny, as I was making this I was listening to NPR and heard Diane Morgan talking about carrot top pesto from her book!

How to store beets: You should store the greens separately, wrapped in paper towels and in a plastic bag, and not wash the beetroots for storage. (I like all these storage tips since we get vegetables biweekly - especially lots of winter storage veggies.)

dressing: olive oil / lemon juice / orange zest / honey or maple syrup / salt and pepper
slaw: 
1 medium red beet, matchsticks (or grated on box grater)
1/2 fennel bulb, trimmed, halved cored, matchsticks
1/2 crisp granny smith, matchsticks (or grated)
1/2 cup parsley and some of the fennel fronds

Combine the chopped ingredients with the dressing.  You can also grate the beet and apple on a box grater. It goes really quickly, and adds a bit more of the apple juice to the salad. This is also good mixed with salad greens.