Fish Friday

My supermarket had swordfish steaks on special this week and so I decided to do Swordfish with Mango Salsa and Rice.

I started with the salsa by dicing the mango, and adding diced cucumber, diced red onion, minced jalapeno, fresh lime juice, chopped cilantro, a little olive oil and salt. I set the salsa in the refrigerator until serving time.

I drizzled the swordfish steaks with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and sprinkled with lime zest and fresh lime juice before they went on the grill for about 3 minutes on each side.

I served the swordfish steaks topped with the salsa and some rice as our side dish.

Gerry and I agree

Steak and Panzanella

I was craving red meat tonight as well as some really fresh salad and so dinner became Steak and Panzanella.

While the grill was heating up, I sliced 1/4 of a baguette into 1/2-inch thick slices and brushed both sides with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. They went on the grill to turn golden brown. Once they came back in I rubbed them with a cut clove of garlic.

While the bread was grilling I made a vinaigrette in a mini food processor of olive oil, crumbled blue cheese and white wine vinegar which I set aside.

A couple of strip steaks simply seasoned with salt and pepper went on the grill to cook to medium-rare.

I moved on to the Panzanella by combining some mache greens with halved grape tomatoes, seeded and sliced cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, kalamata olives, and capers. I cut the grilled pieces of baguette into croutons and tossed everything with the vinaigrette.

After the steaks got to rest for 5 minutes, I sliced them up, plated them and partially topped them with the Panzanella and garnished with a little more blue cheese.

From start to finish, dinner took no longer than 25 minutes and was absolutely fabulous.

Thanksgiving Mini-Feast in July

After several days of rather light meals, I was craving some comfort food and what is more comforting than Roast Turkey. I have been intrigued with Kelsey's Essentials after making her Cannelloni last week which was superb, so I explored the Cooking Channel website to see what else she has done. In the process, I discovered her very first show was the pasta episode and her second show was all about roasting.

From her second episode, I served Roasted Beet Salad and Roasted Turkey Breast with Stuffing and Carrots. I started with the turkey by combining unsalted butter with chopped rosemary, sage, minced garlic, dry mustard, grated orange zest, salt and pepper. Half of the compound butter was rubbed under the loosened turkey breast skin and the remainder was spread all over the outside of the breast. The breast then went in a roast pan on a bed of onions, carrots and celery and went in to a 325 degree oven for a couple of hours.

I scrubbed some beets and quartered them since they were large. I put them on a sheet of aluminum foil; covered with another sheet of foil and sealed completely before putting them in a 425 degree oven for an hour. While the beets were roasting, I made the vinaigrette by combining red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, salt and sugar and whisking in olive oil until completely emulsified. I toasted some sliced almonds in a dry skillet until golden brown and set aside. Once the beets were done roasting, I peeled them while warm and sliced them. I tossed them with half of the vinaigrette and tossed the remaining vinaigrette with Mache salad greens. The dressed greens went on the plate with some of the dressed, roasted beets, some sliced fresh pears, a little bit of crumbled goat cheese and toasted almonds. This salad would completely rival any beet salad found in top rated restaurants. I think I have a new favorite home salad (of course I am very partial to beets in general).

The turkey breast came out of the roasting pan and went on to a carving board tented with foil to rest for 20 minutes. During the resting time, I cooked some carrots and made some stuffing. I rarely use packaged convenience foods, but sometimes they just fill the need. I made a package of Stovetop turkey stuffing as one of our sides.

Overall a very delicious dinner but I would work on making a homemade stuffing next time. We are both looking forward to having me explore more of Kelsey's Essentials.

Italian Sausage and Peppers Subs

Since I had leftover Italian sausages left, I decided to make subs tonight. I cut the sausages into smaller pieces and sauteed them for about 5 minutes to brown on all sides. I then added some water with a splash of red wine, covered the pan and allowed them to simmer for a little over 10 minutes. Next went in a sliced Vidalia onion and a sliced red and green pepper and I allowed everything to cook until all the liquid was evaporated and the vegetables were tender.

I layered the sausage, onion and pepper mixture on some hoagie rolls; added some provolone cheese and popped the subs in the oven just long enough to warm the rolls and melt the cheese.

A really simple meal making use of a protein I had on hand.

Meatless Monday Indian Style

I was still craving Indian spices after Saturday's menu and so I decided to go that route tonight. I used recipes from Bal Arneson's Spice Goddess show on the Cooking Channel.

We had Grilled Vegetables with Tofu and Indian Potato Salad. I started with the marinade for the vegetables and tofu by crushing lots of garlic and combining it with ground cumin, ground coriander, grapeseed oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Some large chunks of red bell pepper, spears of asparagus, portobello mushrooms, and slices of extra-firm tofu got dipped in the marinade before going on the grill to cook.

I also made Indian potato salad, which is not really a potato salad as we know it, since it is served hot. I started it by sauteeing chopped onions and garlic in some grapeseed oil for a few minutes. I then added the spice mixture of cumin seeds, brown mustard seeds, turmeric, cardamom seeds, dried curry leaves and a pinch of salt which was stirred and cooked for another minute. I added quartered baby red potatoes, sour cream, chopped tomatoes and water and allowed this mixture to cook until the potatoes were tender and the sauce was cooked down to just coat the potatoes.

Gerry and I give this meal

Sunday - Quiche Lorraine

Sunday afternoon I really did not feel like going to the market, so I raided the refrigerator to see what I could pull together. I had a package of bacon, 4 oz. of Swiss cheese, some heavy cream and plenty of eggs. I also had an onion on hand and so Quiche Lorraine became dinner.

I pulled together a pie crust, sauteed the bacon and crumbled it into the bottom of the crust. I added the shredded Swiss cheese and some chopped onions. I whipped together the eggs, heavy cream, salt, pepper and a little cayenne pepper; poured it over the ingredients in the pie crust and popped it in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes. I reduced the oven temp to 300 and baked it for another 30 minutes. After resting for 10 minutes it was ready and dinner was done.

Steph's Birthday Celebration

Stephanie and David came into town on Friday night so we could celebrate Steph's birthday on Saturday. We started our day with fresh bagels from Einstein's with an assortment of cream cheese and a fruit platter of freshly sliced mango, pineapple and strawberries. A lovely and easy way to start the day.

Steph chose curried chicken salad (a Barefoot Contessa recipe) that we have had before. You start with skin-on, bone-in chicken breast halves that get rubbed with olive oil, sprinkled generously with salt and pepper and roasted in the oven for 40 minutes. When it cooled enough to handle, I removed the skin and bones and cut the meat into chunks. The dressing was made with mayo, white wine, Major Grey's chutney, and curry powder. I added chopped celery, scallions and a handful of raisins. I mixed it well and refrigerated it until serving time. I actually made the chicken salad on Friday, so it made lunch time a breeze. We had it in pita breads with an assortment of chips. She chose Rice pudding for dessert which was interesting. For the record, I am not a rice pudding fan. I have tried it once or twice and it just doesn't work for me. I got on the food network site and found a rather simple recipe that had 5 stars and decided to make that one. The recipe served 4 people and since there were 11 of us, I tripled the recipe. I followed the recipe to a tee except for the last step of cooking until slightly thickened and silky. I did not take into account the fact that it would further thicken as it cooled in the refrigerator. We ended up with a huge bowl of really thick rice. It was flavorful and I did try to thin it out with more milk but overall I don't think anyone will be requesting this one again.

Dinner was Samosas stuffed with the traditional spicy potato and pea filling and fried until golden brown served with two different chutneys. They were yummy! I finally have the dough for the samosas mastered (YEAH). The entree was Chicken Tikka Masala and I tinkered with that recipe which was not as successful as I hoped it would be. I have used crushed tomatoes in the past and found that it came out a little too heavy on tomatoes, so this time I decided to use a container of strained tomatoes and I kept adding water to try to get the right consistency. It turned out a little too thin so I will need to tinker with the recipe again. My plan is to tinker with it for just me and Gerry instead of a table of 10. I served it with Cumin-Scented Rice and Naan bread that I found at an Indian market. We ended the day's food choices with the classic Canadian Brown Sugar Pie.

My lesson for the day was not to tinker too much with recipes when cooking for a crowd. Most of the food was really good and it was a great day celebrating Stephanie.

Cannelloni and Fresh Bread

I had recently watched an episode of Kelsey's Essentials on the Cooking Channel and decided to give it a try for dinner. I was also craving some fresh bread and so I tackled both.

I started by making a French Bread dough and letting it rise for an hour. I punched it down after an hour and shaped it into two loaves and put them on baking pans that had been buttered and sprinkled with corn meal. They were set aside for another hour to rise. The risen loaves got 4 cuts made in the top and into a hot oven for 25 minutes. They got brushed with an egg white beaten with water to give it a beautiful shiny glaze and baked for another 5 minutes. They got to cool off on a cooling rack until dinner time.

While the bread dough was rising, I made a simple tomato sauce by sauteeing chopped onions and garlic in a fair amount of olive oil. Once softened, I added two cans of diced tomatoes and some oregano, salt and pepper and allowed it to simmer for about 20 minutes. A quick smash of the tomatoes with a potato masher and the sauce was done.

While the sauce was simmering, I made fresh pasta with flour, eggs, salt and olive oil. It just amazes me that 4 simple ingredients turns into wonderful pasta. I made it by hand by putting my flour on my board and making a well in the middle. I added three eggs, a little salt and a little olive oil, and using a fork stirred the eggs to break them up and gradually pulled in some of the flour. I just kept stirring until the eggs had a fair amount of the flour incorporated and then switched to a bench scraper to incorporate all the flour. I kneaded the fresh dough for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. It got wrapped in plastic wrap and rested in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

I moved on to cooking some Italian sausage meat with some chopped onions and garlic until cooked through and set it aside to cool. In a bowl, I combined a container of ricotta cheese, a thawed package of drained chopped spinach, 1 1/2 cups of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and finally the cooled sausage mixture.

It was time to move back to the pasta which I rolled out using my pasta attachment for my stand mixer which makes it so easy to do. I cut my sheets of pasta into rectangles that were 6 x 7 inches. Each pasta rectangle got a dip in boiling, salted water for 30 to 60 seconds to partially cook and then went on a cooling rack and had a drizzle of olive oil. Each square got a portion of the filling and rolled up.

I spread some of the tomato sauce in a 9 x 13 pan and placed the cannelloni on top. The remainder of the sauce went over the top and the entire pan was sprinkled with another 1/2 cup of Parmesan. The casserole went into the oven for 20 minutes and allowed to cool for 10 before we dug in.

It was a wonderful dinner, but not one to pull off for a quick dinner. I can't wait to explore more of Kelsey's Essentials.

Salad Days of Summer

I decided a salad sounded perfect for our Meatless Monday feature. I tore some Boston lettuce into bite-sized pieces and added a generous handful of halved grape tomatoes, some chopped up avocado, some simply steamed, cooled shrimp and some sliced shallots. I tossed this all with a spicy Ranch dressing which I found at the grocery store. It was absolutely a cool, refreshing salad which I served with some slices of baguette that were drizzled with olive oil and toasted under the broiler.

We ate dinner early so that we could go to the wake for Olga's mom. Olga is a very dear friend of mine and it was her mother's time to go. Her mother was 92 and broke her hip 3 weeks ago and passed away early Sunday morning.

While Olga and her family now travel to Florida for the funeral, I turn to the comfort of my kitchen.

I have bread dough rising, tomato sauce simmering, and fresh pasta resting in the refrigerator.

Sunday Easy Dinner

With our house on the market, cooking can sometimes be a challenge. We had a showing on Saturday afternoon and another on Sunday afternoon (1:45-3:45) which slightly limits what to cook. We picked up a couple of strip steaks, a couple of potatoes, a package of mushrooms and a Vidalia onion on our way home.

I tossed the potatoes in the oven (since I really don't like microwaved potatoes) while Gerry fired up the grill for the steaks which we simply seasoned with Montreal Steak Seasoning. I sliced up and sauteed the mushrooms and sauteed the onion until nicely caramelized and Gerry did a beautiful job grilling the steaks to a perfect medium rare.

We enjoyed our dinner and quickly cleaned up since we had another showing from 7:00-8:00 that same evening.

Even with all the showings, we still enjoyed a home-cooked meal with no stress!

Saturday Five-Spice Glazed Chicken

Some boneless, skinless chicken breast halves got a quick marinade in a mixture of sesame oil, salt and freshly squeezed lime juice while I made the glaze. The glaze was a combination of plum jam, brown sugar, rice vinegar, soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, five-spice powder and salt all cooked in a saucepan for a few minutes until nicely melted and combined.

The chicken was grilled for several minutes on each side and finally dipped in the glaze and finished off on the grill for another couple of minutes per side. The glazed chicken went on a bed of shredded baby bok choy and was topped with some plum salsa (a combination of diced plums, diced red onion, minced basil, thinly sliced serrano chile, and fresh lime juice).

We also had some perfect basmati rice.

Chef's Salad

On Thursday, I took care of Emma all afternoon and we enjoyed the local pool, since our pool was awaiting service. We went to the pool as soon as I finished lunch and came home just before 5:00 p.m. Since we were gone all afternoon, I planned on something quick and cool for dinner. I hard-boiled a couple of eggs while I chopped up some romaine lettuce. I added some peeled and cubed fresh cucumber, some slivers of deli roasted turkey breast, cubes of cheddar cheese and finally some wedges of fresh tomatoes and wedges of hard-boiled eggs.

I made a honey-mustard vinaigrette and drizzled it all over the salad and dinner was ready.

Of course, Emma enjoyed her Amy's Macaroni and Cheese (I can't wait until she outgrows this stage; and yet I always have her Amy's available - a grandmother's dilemma).

Wednesday Museum and Dinner Out

Every summer a few of the people on my team get together and go to a museum and then out to dinner. We went to the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth for the special exhibit "Picasso and Braque: The Cubist Experiment, 1910-1912". It was actually fascinating to learn the differences in technique between the two artists. Of course, going with an art teacher is always "educational".

The four of us continued our day with dinner at Joe T. Garcia's which we also enjoyed last year. It is a Mexican restaurant that has been open since 1935 and it is absolutely huge. The grounds are just stupendous; you feel like you are in a famous park. We sat inside this year since it was over 100 degrees outside. It was comfortably cool and we started with a round of their famous margaritas. Of course we also had the requisite tortilla chips and salsa.

We ordered dinner which is always a choice of two things; Family Dinner or Fajitas. Since there were 4 of us, we ordered one of each. The Family Dinner came with 2 cheese nachos, 2 cheese enchiladas, 2 beef tacos, rice, beans, and guacamole. The beef fajitas came with grilled strips of beef tenderloin, grilled onions, flour tortillas, rice, beans, guacamole, and pico-de-gallo. Even with 4 hungry women, we were completely unable to finish all the food that was brought to our table.

A wonderful day spent with great friends enriching our minds and satisfying our taste buds.

Comfort Food

We went to an old family favorite for dinner tonight; Salmon with Brown Sugar and Mustard Glaze, which we haven't had in a while. My favorite grocery store had Sockeye Salmon on sale this week and since today was the last day of the sale, it sounded perfect.

I started dinner by drizzling some olive oil over red potatoes and seasoning with salt and pepper. An hour in a hot oven shaking the pan occasionally totally took care of the starch component of dinner.

I then moved on to the glaze for the salmon by melting some brown sugar with honey and unsalted butter. Once melted I whisked in Dijon mustard, soy sauce, olive oil and freshly grated ginger. I set the sauce aside and allowed it to cool.

I had some leftover green beans, so I decided to blanch them and then reheat them in a saute pan with some butter and salt and pepper to finish them off right before dinner.

Gerry grilled the salmon covered with the sauce on a sheet of aluminum foil and voila - dinner was ready.

This is a classic family favorite and one that we go to again and again.

Brisket vs. Corned Beef

For the 4th of July, Gerry and I had talked about doing a Brisket on the grill, and once I realized the 4th was on a Monday, I decided to stay with the Meatless Monday theme, so we have been thinking about this brisket for almost a week. I decided Sunday was the perfect day to try this Brisket.

I scoured the market on Saturday and found huge pieces of brisket, weighing between 8 to 9 pounds. My recipe called for a mere 3 pound brisket. I kept looking and finally found a flat trimmed brisket weighing just under 3 pounds. I was quite pleased with myself.

On Sunday morning, I carefully prepared a rub of granulated onion, celery salt, dried dill, kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper. I opened the brisket, trimmed a little more fat from it, and Gerry applied the rub all over it. It went into the refrigerator for 4 hours and then spent 1/2 hour at room temperature while Gerry prepared the charcoal grill.

The brisket was rubbed with olive oil and seared over a hot grill about 4 minutes per side. The seared meat then went back in the aluminum foil pan and had some whiskey and beef stock added. The entire an was covered with foil and grilled for 4 hours. Gerry carefully tended the charcoal fire and added coals periodically to keep the heat just where it needed to be.

After a couple of hours of grilling, some red potatoes, small white onions, and baby carrots, all tossed with olive oil and salt and pepper were added to the foil pan with the meat and covered to continue to cook for another 2 hours.

This entire process took 8 1/2 hours from start to finish and we were ready to feast. Gerry brought the pan in; removed the meat and tented it with foil to rest for a few minutes while we placed all the vegetables in a serving bowl, and strained the pan juices.

When Gerry sliced the meat, I was a little surprised by its color, but I'm not really familiar with brisket. I plated both of our dinner plates and we eagerly dug in. The first thing I noticed besides the red color, was the extreme saltiness of the meat. Two bites in and I decided this tasted more like a Corned Beef. We finally dug the wrapper out of the trash can and in big, bold letters were the words Corned Beef, which also had the words Flat Trimmed Brisket in much smaller letters under it.

What can I say; I was looking for a brisket and hence that is what I focused on, completely missing the Corned Beef label. We have decided that we really don't like Corned Beef and we can't wait to try this whole process again with the right cut of meat.

Paella with Clams, Serrano Ham and Chorizo

For his birthday, Gerry requested a Paella Pan and so that is what I got him. We tried our first official paella tonight. When I bought the Paella pan, I also bought a Paella cookbook and we had the first of many paellas described.

The process started with finding a Paella rice, which according to research is a Bomba or Valencia Rice which Gerry finally found on his 3rd stop of the day (he just loves Central Market for exactly situations like today).

At dinner time, we sauteed a chopped onion in a fair amount of olive oil in the new Paella pan until softened. I then added some garlic and cooked for a couple of more minutes. Some chorizo sausage went in next and was allowed to cook for 5 minutes.

A sliced red bell pepper, green pepper and 2 large peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes were stirred in next, the heat was reduced to low and allowed to cook for another 10 minutes.

The special Valencian rice was stirred in and allowed to saute for 5 minutes. A lot of chicken broth was stirred in next along with turmeric, saffron, oregano and salt and pepper and allowed to cook for about 15 minutes.

Next went in two controversial items, a can of clams and the Serrano ham. My favorite grocery store of the last couple of years has carried Serrano ham, but when I asked for it today at the deli counter, I found out they stopped carrying it a few months ago and so I decided to substitute Prosciutto di Parma (which I found out happened to be one of the substitutions my cookbook recommended). What can I say about canned clams? I hate to use a canned version of anything I can get fresh, but Gerry and I have a rule about trying a new recipe; follow it completely the first time and then adjust the second time and so I bought canned baby clams. In addition to the canned clams and the prosciutto, I added some chopped fresh parsley and then allowed everything to cook until all the liquid was absorbed and the rice was tender.

The garnish was just a lemon wedge which we squeezed all over the paella. This was absolutely superb and I have no doubt that the rice was a major factor; the canned clams actually turned out just fine and the prosciutto was a perfect substitution.

I can't wait to try other variations and especially with fresh shellfish!

Thursday Fish and Chips

I was watching a Barefoot Contessa episode where she made Fish and Chips and it sounded perfect for dinner. I made the tartar sauce first which started with mayonnaise, chopped cornichons, Champagne vinegar, capers, stone-ground mustard, and salt and pepper all blended together in a mini food processor. I divided the tartar sauce into serving bowls and set it in the refrigerator.

I then made the batter for the fish by combining flour, baking powder, grated lemon zest, and cayenne pepper. I whisked in some water and then an egg until all was combined. The fish was cut into serving size pieces and seasoned with salt and pepper before being dipped in the batter and fried in 1/2-inch of hot vegetable oil until golden brown.

The side dish was chips which were big, fat wedges of unpeeled russet potatoes, which were drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, some chopped fresh rosemary and garlic and baked in a hot oven for a little over a half hour, until nice and golden and crispy (I did flip them about half way through the baking time).

I added a couple of lemon wedges to each plate and we were good to go!

Caesar Salad Pasta

Tonight's dinner was a twist on a Caesar salad which is one of Gerry's favorites.

I started dinner tonight by cooking up some linguine.

Meanwhile I started the sauce by heating a little unsalted butter with some olive oil and cooking some shallots and anchovies over medium heat until the shallots were soft and the anchovies were just about melted away. I added some garlic and cooked another minute. I then stirred in lemon juice, lemon zest, Worcestershire sauce and red pepper flakes. I tossed in the linguine once it was cooked and off heat, I added some chopped romaine lettuce and grated Parmesan cheese.

While the indoor cooking was going on, Gerry was grilling Shrimp and Crouton Skewers. I had skewered large shrimp with alternating 1" cubes of a baguette on skewers. They got a brush of lemon oil, which was olive oil combined with fresh lemon zest, fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper and went on the grill until the shrimp were pink and the croutons were toasted.

Gerry and I both loved this dish!

Monday's Grilled Vegetable Panini

This is a Giada de Laurentiss recipe and I really enjoyed it but find I cannot call it a panini. This is more of a sandwich served on a baguette than a panini which is grilled with a weight to melt everything together.

It started with a Japanese Eggplant that was sliced crosswise into 1/2-inch thick slices along with zucchini and red onion slices. The sliced vegetables were drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper and grilled until tender.

Meanwhile I had cut a baguette into 6" lengths and brushed each side with Basil Pesto. I stacked some of the grilled eggplant, zucchini rounds and red onion slices. I added some roasted red peppper slices, sliced fresh mozzarella, and fresh tomato slices all sprinkled with a little salt and pepper.

Very yummy!

Sunday's Pan Roasted Halibut

On Sunday night, we had Steph and David and Zeb and Andrew over for dinner. I made pan roasted Halibut with Pesto Butter which I have made a couple of times in the past couple of months because it is so good.

I started by making the Pesto butter, by combining softened, unsalted butter, with fresh basil leaves, grated Parmesan, toasted Pine nuts, garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes in a food processor until smooth. I wrapped the butter in plastic wrap and refrigerated until needed.

The halibut fillets were brushed with melted butter and seasoned with salt and pepper before being dredged in Panko bread crumbs. The panko-crusted fillets went into a hot skillet for 3 minutes before being flipped and topped with halved grape tomatoes and the entire pan went in a hot oven for 10 minutes to finish cooking the fish.

I served home-style fries and sweet potato home fries along with citrus scented brussels sprouts.

I had picked up a Strawberry Rhubarb Pie at the grocery store which I popped in the oven when we sat down to eat dinner so it was nice and warm when we were done which I served with vanilla ice cream.

A very nice dinner!

Saturday's Lamb Chops with Tzatziki

On Saturday we celebrated Emma and Ethan's birthdays with a party in the afternoon. We enjoyed being with the grandchildren and all of the family and celebrating these two special children. Stephanie and David stayed with us that night so I had David and Gerry pick out what they wanted for dinner. The guys did the grocery shopping on the way home while I started getting things organized in the kitchen.

We had lamb chops that were marinated briefly in olive oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper. Once marinated, they went on the grill for about 6 minutes until medium done. The lamb came off and rested, tented with foil to finish cooking.

Meanwhile the tzatziki was made with 1/2 of a cucumber, a couple of scallions, some plain Greek yogurt, some fresh mint leaves, a little olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and a few red pepper flakes all pureed in the food processor.

We also grilled some fresh asparagus and some pita breads.

The lamb chops were served with the Tzatziki, the grilled asparagus, a couple of fresh tomato wedges and a grilled pita bread.

A very nice pick by the guys!