Asparagus and Eggs

These two ingredients pair so well together - and have a long list of different ways in which they can be prepared. This article in the New York Times says it all. This dish is a little inspired by this asparagus dish I had at an Italian restaurant, which had roasted the asparagus and served a cheesy polenta over it. Not quite polenta, but it has the same richness and yellow color, plus I was trying to come up with something breakfasty so I paired eggs with the asparagus instead!

Roast the asparagus in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Rinse the asparagus and cut off the tough, thick ends. You can toss it with a little olive oil, salt and pepper but the actual act of roasting the asparagus brings out its flavors more so than sauteeing or boiling or any other form of cooking.

Get out of your Salad rut!

Sometimes salads can get boring if you make the same kind over and over again - so I decided to try out a couple new ideas that I've seen at restaurants a couple times. Once is a nice filling salad and the other is a bit lighter, but both are perfect for a dinner party first course when you're trying to impress!

Roasted Pear and Goat Cheese Salad

Pears (halved)

Goat Cheese

Lemon Juice

Toasted Walnuts

Greens (Butter Lettuce mix)

Apple Juice (baste the pears)

Brown Sugar

Red Onion

Dried Cranberries

Sesame Ginger Grilled Shrimp

After going to the grocery store, I made the mistake of assuming I would have fresh ginger at home - I hate when that happens! So what follows here is the modified version using dried ginger instead of fresh. It still came out good though - loved the ginger and the grilled flavor, and I served it over rice. I also made the mistake of not informing my family that I had planned out dinner, so when I returned home from the grocery store there was a steak marinating, oops. Easy solution - Surf and Turf night!

Sesame Ginger Grilled Shrimp
with grilled steak, vegetables and brown rice

Sesame Ginger Marinade:
1/3 cup olive oil
1 TB lite soy sauce
2 tsp chopped garlic
1 TB toasted sesame seeds*
1 tsp ground ginger
1-2 tsp fresh cilantro, chopped

*Toasting sesame seeds: Use a nonstick pan over med heat, add just the sesame seeds - no oil or liquid, and toss the seeds pretty frequently until you notice them turning a light brown. Be careful to watch the seeds and stir them around a lot so the seeds don't burn, which will happen fast if you're not careful.

'Forgot the Quinoa' Toasted Couscous Salad with Shrimp

It's true. My old roommate and I found this great recipe online that we planned on cooking this week after work one night. We went to the grocery store, where I insisted that I had a box of quinoa at home, only to find that, in fact, I did not have quinoa at home. We wouldn't let it ruin our dinner though - and quickly decided that a good substitute for the quinoa would be a whole wheat couscous, which I did have on hand in my kitchen. So, here is the recipe for what was originally supposed to be "Toasted Quinoa Salad with Scallops and Snow Peas." Oh yeah - we changed the scallops to shrimp and added more veggies too, so basically it's a new recipe but thanks to the Eating Well website for the original inspiration!

Toasted Couscous Salad with Shrimp and Vegetables
Easily serves 4

3 servings of frozen shrimp*
5 tsp reduced sodium soy sauce
2 tsp orange juice
4 TB oil
1 cup whole wheat couscous
2 tsp minced garlic
About 3 cups Chopped Vegetables: snow peas, broccoli, red and/or green pepper, spinach
1 cup chopped scallion
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1/8 tsp. ground ginger
Salt and Pepper

*I used a medium sized, already cooked shrimp (which = 9 shrimp per serving) which I defrosted and took the tails off. Feel free to use fresh and just add a bit more cooking time than we did during that step.

Grilled Salmon with Fresh Tomatillo Salsa and Grilled Vegetables

It's summer time - and it's official because we've started grilling again! It's just not the same when you're using the grill and there's snow on the ground - so now it really feels like summer. The thing with cooking seafood is that whenever you plan ahead you get to the grocery store and the fish you'd planned on doesn't look good. Have a backup plan. In my case - I like going to the seafood department and seeing how the different options looked. Even though the swordfish was on sale it didn't look great so I opted for the salmon, which looked pretty good and was only $8.99/lb. For 3 people I got 1.23 lbs, which was a pretty good amount with just a little leftover.

Grilled Salmon
with Fresh Tomatillo Salsa and Grilled Vegetables
The actual salmon part of this recipe doesn't take a lot of preparation because you'll top it with the homemade salsa. I just rubbed about 1-2 TB olive oil over the salmon filet, as well as a little salt and pepper. You can make the salsa ahead of time if you'd like, but make sure it's done before you put the salmon and veggies on the grill because all of the chopping definitely takes longer than it will to cook your grilled foods.

Spiced Apple Carrot Casserole

Spiced Apple Carrot Casserole
2 cups sliced carrots
2 green apples, peeled and sliced
1 TB brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 TB butter (cold)
1 TB orange juice
1 TB raisins
1 TB fresh sage, chopped thinly
1 TB oil

Ladies Dinner Night - Cauliflower, White Beans and Berries, Oh My!

As you saw last week I bought a head of cauliflower and used 1/2 for the Curried Cauliflower Soup, which meant that I still had 1/2 left. With my ACIS ladies coming over for dinner Sunday night I knew I wanted to incorporate this cauliflower into something, but I didn't know what. Then I remembered I saw Rachel Ray use cauliflower in a mac and cheese recipe, and I thought - that's perfect! I'll note that the ladies have very different food preferences - 1 vegetarian, 1 vegan-to-be and 2 we'll eat anything kind of girls (yes, one of those is me), so I knew I wanted to make something vegetarian, but still filling!


This was the first dish I decided on for a little something to nibble on while my friends arrived, I was still cooking and for catching up over wine!

Mediterranean White Bean Dip
1 15 oz. can of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
Head of Garlic, roasted*
2 TB fresh lemon juice (1/2 lemon)
1/3 cup olive oil plus 1 TB
1/3 cup loosely packed fresh parsley leaves
1 stalk scallion, chopped
1/4 tsp salt and 2 grinds of fresh pepper
Veggies, Pita Chips, Marinated Artichokes

Cilantro Feta Stuffed Chicken

As promised, here is one of the dishes I made using my cilantro pesto! I'm totally into these flavors now, so watch out for more recipes using the cilantro pesto!

Cilantro Feta Stuffed Chicken with Cilantro Rice and Sauteed Fajita Veggies

Stuffed Chicken:
1 chicken breast
2 cilantro pesto cubes
1 TB feta
Salt and Pepper
Olive Oil
1 TB fresh lime juice

Veggies:
2 cups mixed veggies - zucchini, red pepper, mushroom
1 TB olive oil
2 TB coconut milk
1/2 tsp garlic
1 TB fresh lime juice

Thai Peanut Noodle Salad

Because I took care of my St. Patty's Day green recipe quota last week with my Green Chocolate Chip Cookies, I'm all set for this week and allowed to make this thai recipe instead! I was supposed to have friends over for dinner last Friday but due to a second cold over a two week span, I had to cancel sadly. Rescheduled for last night, I was so excited to try out this recipe. A big thank you to Our Best Bites for the inspiration for this recipe, and to my friends for helping me chop all of the vegetables and for bringing some lovely wine!

Some things to note: This is a big recipe - there were just 3 of us and we easily had 2 or 3 portions left. We all agreed that this would be a good picnic recipe because the combination of cabbages would hold up to the sauce and not wilt over a period of time. There's a lot of ingredients here so don't be daunted - it just takes a bit of time to get everything chopped up. If you're pressed for time you can definitely make the dressing ahead of time so you don't have to worry about that part later.

Thai Peanut Noodle Salad
8 oz. linguini fini (a bit thinner than regular linguine) - we used about half of the box
3 cups shredded napa chinese cabbage
1 cup chopped romaine lettuce
2 cups thinly sliced purple cabbage
1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 cup baby carrots, thinly sliced
1/2 cucumber, halved and then sliced
1/3 cup red onion, very thinly sliced
1 chicken breast (marinated in a bit of OJ, soy  
                                                                                       sauce and garlic), grilled and sliced
                                                                                       1/2 cup honey roasted peanuts, chopped a bit

Why go out for Asian, when you can cook it in?!

My cousin and I had been planning to go out for sushi, but in the end thought it might be more fun to cook Asian in! My dad had been asking me to make sushi again and I wanted to take a stab at Pad Thai again. So I took a look through my little Chinese cookbook, looked through my sushi notes to refresh my memory on making that, searched around online to find an improved Pad Thai recipe to try out and sent my dad to the grocery store in search of rice noodles, a lime, pea pods and a few other key ingredients. I even tried making up a batch of scorpion bowls so we could have the appropriate fun drinks with our dinner!

Sunday Asian Night: Salad with a Carrot Ginger Dressing, Shrimp Parcels with a Peanut Hoisin Sauce, Lobster and Shrimp Sushi Rolls, and Vegetable Pad Thai


Carrot Ginger Dressing

1 large carrot (I used 8 baby carrots) - peeled and roughly chopped
2 TB red onion, minced
1 heaping TB of chopped fresh ginger
2 TB miso paste
2 TB rice vinegar
2 TB sesame oil
1/4 cup oil (not sesame oil, more basic/plain)
2 TB hot water

This salad dressing is very similar to the dressing on the salad you get at a Japanese restaurant with your sushi, which I love! It's also very simple - all you have to do is put all of the ingredients (except the 1/4 cup of oil) in a food processor and blend together well. Then at the end, add the 1/4 cup oil through the hole on the top of the food processor and add gradually while the processor is running. The salad part consisted of romaine lettuce, thinly sliced red onion, mushrooms, cucumber and diced tomato!

Kubota Squash, Kumquats and Shrimp!

It's been a much busier couple of days than I expected on the apartment search front (kitchen pictures to come!), so I wasn't able to get this post up until now! But it will be worth the wait, I promise! This meal was definitely one of the ones that I said would make its way on my restaurant menu if I ever opened one.

I came at this food challenge thinking about similar types of foods to those ingredients given to me. For example, I thought about other recipes I've made with squash - butternut squash soup, roasted squash; or with citrus, because kumquats are in the citrus family. This helped me to come up with the dishes I made on Friday night!

Friday Night "Chopped" Challenge: Roasted Squash and Citrus Spinach Salad; Kubota Squash Ravioli with a Citrus Butter Sauce, Seared Shrimp and Asparagus; Citrus Shortbread Cookies with Candied Kumquat!

I will admit that this meal was a lot of work. It definitely wouldn't be a good meal for a simple weeknight dinner, but it would be great if you're looking for a special occasion or entertaining menu. I started cooking around 3pm and we were eating by about 7pm, though I had made the cookie batter earlier in the day and didn't get to baking the cookies until after dinner.

Picking up where I left off

After going to a Winter Farmer's Market in Raymond, NH this past weekend I was inspired to try out some new recipes this week for dinner. I found lots of winter root vegetables, Macintosh apples from the fall harvest still and some homemade blueberry jam. Once I returned home I was determined to plan out our entire week of dinners, which was only complicated by the fact that our oven broke on Sunday! Some of you may have seen the start of this on facebook, but to recap:

Sunday: Roasted Chicken with Apple Chutney, Mashed Root Vegetables and Sauteed Brussel Sprouts with Baked Apples for dessert!

Cooking is all about innovation and creativity. With the oven broke I decided to sear the chicken (bone-in chicken breasts) first in a hot pan on the stove, and finished under the broiler - making sure not to keep the pan too close to the top.

The Mashed Root Vegetables drove this menu. I bought a Rutabaga at the farmer's market and had never cooked with it before - so I went in search of a recipe to use it. My dad recently bought a vegan cookbook (The Vegan Table) thinking it was a vegetarian one - but as it turns out the book is full of these great, healthy recipes. This is where the recipe came from - except I substituted all of the animal products I wanted for their ingredients - no butter substitute for me, thank you!