The healthy dinner challenge

These days I have been on a mission (at least a few times a week anyway) to cook things that are a little better for us. Don't get me wrong- I totally heart butter- but its nice to know that if I need to, I can pull something together relatively quickly that doesn't make my coronary arteries shudder with fear.
Tonight I sifted through this weeks farmers market haul to make a lighter meal. Grilled salmon with soy, ginger, chile glaze. Stir fry of Bok Choi, snap peas and leeks, and cheaters brown rice (from the frozen aisle of trader joe's- 3 minutes in the microwave and surprisingly good)
Recipe for the glaze:
~ 1 cup reduced sodium soy sauce
~ 2 tbs honey
~ 1 tbs sriracha (asian chili sauce)
~ 1 tbs ginger

Put all ingredients in a sauce pan and reduce over medium high heat until it coats the back of a spoon. Adjust the glaze to taste. If its a little too hot- add a bit more honey. If you don't like spicy- you can leave out the chili sauce. This would also work with ribs or chicken.

I drizzled the fish with a little oil, threw on a hot grill and glazed after I flipped it. Cooking time was about 5 minutes but I had thin pieces of fish.

The veggies were sauteed with a drizzle of olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tbs of ginger, a generous squirt of lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. After they were done, I drizzled with a touch of sesame oil and rice wine vinegar.

YAY guilt free dinner. All in all this took about 25 minutes from start to finish. Take that Rachel Ray!

Scallops - take II

Dinner party went well, good wine, great company and the food wasn't bad either. A few last minute improvisations were needed, but everything turned out just fine. ( I had intended to do a side of stuffed fried zucchini blossoms but they were past their prime from sitting in the fridge for a few days.) We started off with garlic crostini with ricotta and favas. The recipe was adapted from something I found on epicurious.com - generally I find their 4 fork rated recipes to be excellent. I thought this one was just OK. We followed that with a re-make of the yummy roasted beet, orange and goat cheese salad. For dinner we had some garlicky sauteed haricot vert, Sauvignon Blanc glazed shallots, and pan seared scallops with a tropical fruit sauce. Dessert was a re-run of the berry tiramisu but done in wine glasses. Yum all around. An added bonus- I got to use some of my new goodies from the wedding - note the dishes- silverware, napkin ring, and the wine glasses. YAY new stuff!

Quickie dessert for the baking challenged

This afternoon I was heading to a friends housewarming party. Seeing as I'm baking challenged, had limited time, and it was too hot to turn on the oven- I went with this. It turned out to be a really easy major crowd pleaser.

Ingredients: 1 package crisp lady fingers, a little Framboise, 1 small tub Mascarpone cheese, ~1 cup heavy cream, a little granulated sugar, ~1T vanilla extract, assorted berries, good dark chocolate

Recipe: Whip up mascarpone, Whip up cream, vanilla and sugar to soft peaks, Fold into mascarpone, Layer some ladyfingers in the bottom of a trifle dish or glass bowl, Drizzle with a little booze, layer with berries, layer with cream, lick fingers and admire how delicious cream is, repeat layering, save a few berries to garnish top and shave with a little chocolate if you wish, wait for applause.

Seeking inspiration

I sure do love me a good dinner party. This Friday we are happy to have over a dear friend (and my hubby's new employer) for dinner and I have been going over about a million menu ideas in my head all week. I decided, though, to hold off on choosing a menu until I did my new favorite thing- ransack the Farmers Market.

We are really fortunate here in Northern California to have fantastic local produce and also a whole lot of people obsessed with organic, pesticide free, humanely treated, yada yada yada and the vendors are happy to put outthat kind of product. YAY And although I am not necessarily fixated on organic food- I am very interested in GOOD food so this works for me.
Nothin like making Alice Waters proud.

This weeks Farmers Market Booty:
beets, strawberries, raspberries, some other mystery berry that I can't remember the name of, white nectarines, leeks, fennel, kale, cucumber, zucchini blossoms, herb foccacia, lettuce, thai basil, fresh-soft-mild-goat cheese.
I'm not quite sure how much of this will survive the week but at least I have a starting point for my menu. More to follow.

Mystery veggies

I had a little fun at the italian market today- they have a pretty good odd ball produce section there and I bought a bunch of things that I have never worked with before. In my cart I had, fava beans, colrabi, red and golden beets. I also picked up a few scallops and some other assorted goodies.



Here you see a roasted beet, goat cheese and citrus salad. For dinner, seared scallops with a vanilla sauce (trying to recreate a phenomenal dish I had in moorea) favas with crispy pancetta and colrabi roasted and tossed with a little butter. yum

Welcome

Welcome Everyone! I'm a nearly thirty-something newlywed with an unhealthy obsession with food and reality TV (not necessarily in that order) and the good fortune to have a spouse that just loves to do the dishes in exchange for his meals. Welcome to my display of hits and misses as I navigate the world of the culinary arts and entertaining friends.