The Mountain Kitchen: Post-Holiday Reset to Lighter Meals

After saying I wouldn’t do it, I did anyway. I ate sweets for four solid weeks during the holidays. My own sweets, sweets that came our way as gifts (not complaining!), and until mid-January, I was still rolling on a sugar high. So I sat down with my recipe boxes and cookbooks and began to plan some meals that, while not necessarily dietetic, shifted my focus over to the savory side and used ingredients from areas of the store other than the baking aisle.

Greek Chicken Salad

Makes 6 servings

• 5 ounces plain Greek yogurt
• ½ cup light sour cream
• 6 green onions, thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons chopped mint
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 pound cooked chicken, shredded (rotisserie is fine but I prefer boiled chicken breasts — they don’t have the rotisserie flavor)

1. Combine first 9 ingredients in a bowl, stirring until blended.
2. Add chicken, and stir to coat.

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This gratin is a combo of several recipes I’ve made over the years. Don’t be afraid to cook fennel. It has a licorice-like flavor that goes well in a gratin. The leaves are tightly packed together, which makes it necessary to rinse them to remove any grit.

Fennel-Artichoke Gratin

Makes about 6 servings

• 1 can artichoke hearts (or use frozen), rinsed, drained, and roughly chopped
• 4 fresh fennel bulbs, trimmed of tough green leaves and quartered (you can use the more tender green leaves for other recipes)
• ½ cup shredded Gruyère or mozzarella cheese
• ½ cup cheddar cheese
• ½ cup Italian-seasoned panko bread crumbs

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a shallow baking dish with butter.
2. Place the quartered fennel bulbs in a bowl of cold water, and gently swish around with your fingers to remove any grit.
3. Boil the fennel bulbs in lightly salted water for 3 minutes or until tender; drain.
4. Place artichokes and fennel in buttered dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Top with cheese, then panko.
6. Bake at 400 degrees until cheese is bubbly.

Fennel-Artichoke Gratin

Chocolate-Dipped Dried Apricots

Makes as many as you care to dip. You can jazz these up by sprinkling chopped nuts or shredded coconut on the chocolate before it dries.

• Dried apricot halves
• Semisweet chocolate baking bar (such as Baker’s)

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
2. Break chocolate into pieces, and melt over simmering water in a double boiler.
3. Dip apricot halves into chocolate, covering half of each piece.
4. Place on parchment paper to dry.
5. Store in an airtight container.