a balsamic kind of night

I may have outdone myself tonight. At least with what little resources I have available here in the hotel.

(Photos courtesy of Andrew)

I made Ina’s herb-roasted salmon from her How Easy is That? cookbook. It’s basically salmon coated in chopped scallions, parsley and dill. YUM. It was incredibly fresh and light. A very thin drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice allowed the herbs to stick, and it was roasted with a little white wine. I LOVE things cooked with wine. I love being able to smell and taste just a hint of it.

For once, I didn’t overcook the salmon. I’ll be honest; I like my salmon on the ‘done’ side. So does Andrew. I probably could have cooked it longer, but I didn’t want to turn it into rubber. There is a fine line between slightly done and WAY overdone.

I threw together some balsamic vinegar and olive oil-marinated tomatoes and onions. Growing up, my mom would thickly slice tomatoes and Vidalia onions and bathe them in a mixture of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Ah, the memories. I don’t have any shallow dishes here, and all I had were red onions, so I went with what I had.

Until this afternoon, I’d been using the balsamic drizzling syrup my mom got me in Italy for all my balsamic needs. While running errands on Main Street today, I popped into Tuscany On Main for a bottle of the good stuff. It was so neat to be able to actually sample the different vinegars–you can definitely tell a difference between the various kinds. Of the three regular balsamic vinegars (among COUNTLESS herb and fruit-infused vinegars and oils), I sprang for the ultra-premium “Cask 25” variety. (At only $12.99 I would hardly consider it that much of a splurge, but I felt fancy getting the top-of-the-line!) It’s been aged for 25 years in the barrel (obviously) and has distinct notes of wine, like port and madiera. The Cask 10 was lighter and fruiter and I didn’t prefer it. The Premium was more like what you’d find in the grocery store. Both the Cask 10 and 25’s were visibly thicker and syrupy. Needless to say, I had fun using it for dinner tonight!

I had about 5 ounces of orzo hanging around, so I found a recipe in my Foster’s Market cookbook for a dish with grilled veggies, sun-dried tomatoes, mozzarella and greens. It was lightly dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and balsamic vinegar. Because I love my husband, I kept the grilled portobello mushrooms and mozzarella on the side and only added them to my half.

Andrew really liked it! I served it all with a glass of Leonard Oakes’ Blanc d’Orleans wine, which I found in Reed’s Liquors this afternoon. I walked in and asked for a recommendation of a New York wine. It’s a little drier than Andrew and I are used to, but I liked it very much. The bottle says it’s “gooseberry, honeysuckle, grapefruit and melon. Slate and straw and subtle spice. Crisp, complex and completely refreshing.” I wanted something that would go with our salmon tonight, our chicken tomorrow and our quinoa Thursday, and I think I chose well. I also got a glowing recommendation for a local Riesling that I’ll be picking up next time we need one.

We had just enough leftover (dinner, not the wine) for me to have lunch tomorrow–yay!

Tomorrow morning I’m blending a banana into my beet smoothie to sweeten it up and make it more “breakfast-y.” It’s my pilates/yoga and kickboxing day, which means a big breakfast!

sliders!

My food-filled week has begun!

I started with a beet smoothie for lunch, courtesy of my new smoothie cookbook (belated post coming soon, perhaps tomorrow), then a trip to Wegmans. Glorious Wegmans.

I shopped for about four different meals, plus staples like plain lowfat yogurt and milk. I stocked up on veggies like yellow bell pepper, celery, cucumber, zucchini, a Granny Smith apple and tons of fresh herbs. Kudos to me for passing on CoffeeMate’s Coconut Creme creamer… I’ve been DYING to have some, but it only came in the large size and I still have three bottles in the fridge. Boo.

For dinner tonight? SLIDERS! I came across the recipe in Barefoot Contessa’s newest cookbook, How Easy is That?, and happened to have a pound of ground beef in my freezer.

(Photos courtesy of Andrew, who actually saved the day when he asked/reminded me to photo dinner as we were about to dig in! The lighting is HORRIBLE.)

Ina’s recipe called for a garlic, olive oil, dijon mustard and thyme mixture for the meat. YUM. I served them on hawaiian sweet rolls because they’re already tiny and I love them and it was the perfect excuse to have them. For next time, I would go easier on the olive oil. My beef is pretty lean, but I’m not sure it needed the amount specified in the recipe. If you don’t mark all over your cookbooks yet, do it! I can’t tell you how helpful some of my comments are to me the next time I make a recipe, like “use LARGE dutch oven,” or “less salt,” or “this takes more time to cook.”

Needless to say, Andrew was a HUGE fan and said that I should “star” this recipe in the book. I admit, I don’t really gravitate to burgers (at restaurants or at home), but what else do I do with ground beef? Other than a good meatloaf every once in awhile, I don’t make casseroles or anything else you’d make with ground beef. I’ve made more homemade burgers in the last couple years than ever before since we’ve been buying quarters of cows to store in the freezer.

Anyone have good ideas for ground beef, other than spaghetti and meat sauce, meatloaf or burgers? I have one more pound in our freezer here and about TEN in Andrew’s parents’ freezer!

What will tomorrow bring? Probably another beet smoothie for lunch and Ina’s herb-roasted salmon with a special orzo dish. I feel like it’s Christmas around here!

it was a homerun

…at least according to Andrew. That’s what he says when I make something new (which is pretty much any time I cook) and he likes it.

DINNER! Photo courtesy of Andrew.

I made a version of Maggiano’s famous fried zucchini appetizer. It comes with lemon aioli and Susy and I could have eaten it 24/7 without stopping. Seriously.

I found the recipe online at TaraCooks.com. I chose it because it called for club soda in the batter instead of an egg. I was out of eggs and I didn’t want to buy a whole dozen before my five-day trip to Phoenix. Besides, I’d rather get my eggs from the farmer’s market or the co-op, and neither of those happen until tomorrow, which did me no good tonight. So, club soda it was. And it was 99 cents. And it doesn’t go bad. Sweet.

My cut-up zucchini was pitiful. The skin was super thick and my knife is dull as all get out (with no way to sharpen it here!), so I wasn’t thrilled with the slices. I got a few long ones, but they were all too thick, and then a bunch of smaller scraps. Interestingly enough, the scraps turned out to be the best of the finished product.

BTW, I HATE glass cutting boards. I hate the noise my knife makes each time I use it, and I swear it has contributed to how dull it’s gotten. But, it’s what’s here.

I made the aioli, but not exactly as the recipe said. I subbed plain lowfat yogurt for the sour cream (it’s what I had in the fridge) and dill seed for the dill weed. I’m pretty limited here. It was yummy; more yogurt-y than creamy.

Our salad fixings were on their last legs in the fridge, so I threw a basic green salad together for both of us with Garlic Expressions dressing. Andrew loves it! I love sprouts. I especially love sprouts with ranch dressing or on veggie sandwiches with avocado.

I also included some of my canned goodies: Barefoot Contessa’s Roasted Apple and Pear Sauce, from her newest cookbook, How Easy is That? I love this stuff. It’s like dessert. I canned a bunch for Christmas gifts this past year and it was my go-to dish to bring to events since it made so much and was so easy. I love that it’s applesauce with a more intense flavor, which comes from the pears and orange zest.

To drink? Buffalo Bill’s Brewery Orange Blossom Cream Ale. You can get this all over (in fact, the first time I saw it was in a friend’s fridge back in Ohio), but I’m on a ‘local’ kick and only want to buy New York microbrews right now. This is an awesome beer for those of us who like Blue Moon and won’t touch a Bud.

For the sake of calories, Andrew and I have been splitting a beer instead of having our own. Obviously, there are lots of benefits to this; our purchases go further and we ingest fewer calories and alcohol. Since I’ve lost weight, I’ve definitely noticed that anything I drink affects me a lot more than before. Who knew ten-plus pounds could do that? Drinking just portions of beers, or wine, is something I saw on KERF. She’s always having just a little bit of something.

I fried up the zucchini and then kept it warm in the toaster oven.

The finished product:

It was no Maggiano’s, but it was a great way to use a zucchini that was languishing in the fridge. Andrew, while he passed on the aioli, chowed the zucchini. Seriously. Thank goodness, because I probably would have it he hadn’t! What you see above, plus one long piece, is all I had–talk about some self-control!

So yeah, dinner was a hit. HAHA, get it, hit? (homerun…) 🙂