I recently had a lunch date with my friend Melissa of Smells Like Brownies. As a long time vegetarian, I wanted her help to learn ways of using quinoa other than just as a substitute for rice. She suggested that we make this Quinoa salad, chock-full of roasted veggies with a balsamic dressing. I couldn’t wait to try it! Roasted sweet potatoes and red onion, hearty kale, sweet and tangy apples – all the beautiful flavors of Fall. (more…)
Now that Hurricane Sandy has passed us without incident, I can catch up on posting! Thanks to everyone for praying and thinking about us out here on the East Coast.
I have been trying to expand my repertoire of fish dishes beyond just salmon and discovered a really easy way to cook halibut. Wrapping it in parchment paper with with various other ingredients and baking it leaves it moist, flaky, and flavorful. Plus the presentation is really cool!
One combination that I really liked was lemon, cherry tomatoes, artichokes, olive oil, and basil. I made this right at the end of summer with super sweet cherry tomatoes – look at those colors! (more…)
I recently returned to Rice University, my alma mater, to celebrate their centennial – 100 years since the founding! There were all kinds of events – a football game (which we won!), parties, galas, picnics, speeches, lectures, you name it!
And our first President – Edgar Odell Lovett – finally got his own statue! About time! William Marsh Rice (Willy) may have provided the money for the institution, but Lovett provided the vision for what it should be.
For something really incredible, click HERE to see a video of the Spectacle – an amazing work of art combining architecture, history, and technology into something the likes of which I have never seen before. Seriously – watch it. For real.
Ok – moving on. Most of my food was provided for me at the events, but I did have the chance to eat out one night and was fortunate enough to go to Kata Robata – a sushi restaurant and Japanese grill. Headed up by Manabu Horiuchi (aka Chef Hori), my favorite sushi chef from college, the concept is Japanese tapas and the food is AWESOME. The service is pretty incredible, too. Our server, Thai, was very knowledgeable and comfortable making suggestions. The pacing was good and we always felt like we were being taken care of. I tried to order a good balance between sushi and tapas to get a really good idea of the place. (more…)
I always see these beautiful steak pinwheels at the grocery store and was wondering if I could make them myself. It turns out that it isn’t that easy – but stuffed with boursin cheese, spinach, and artichokes these sure are tasty! I paired them with a pasta using up the last of a big batch of homemade ricotta, spinach, and golden raisins. (more…)
Continuing with the theme of fresh, homemade ricotta – I made these decadent and sophisticated figs roasted in a cinnamon honey butter and spooned over thick and creamy ricotta.
Whisk honey and cinnamon into melted butter and pour over cut figs (I used Black Mission). Roast at high heat until soft and coated in syrup.
Spoon over a fresh ricotta. The honey butter is sweet enough that you don’t have to add any sugar to the cheese, and some of the ricotta gets melty under the hot figs while the rest stays cold for a nice contrast. So good, so so good. Go make this. Now. (more…)
When I made ricotta to use for the squash galette, I made a lot of it. I had a whole series of ricotta recipes lined up to try out, and these muffins were one of them. Using up that last batch of summer berries, these muffins are creamy and dense and delicious. (more…)
Here’s a fun and easy salmon dish for when you are pressed for time – Crispy Salmon with Creamy Basil Pasta.
Brush salmon with coconut oil, season with salt and pepper, and broil for 5 min per side on a rack. Serve on top of whole wheat spaghetti with a creamy basil sauce.
For a lighter side (I paired it with my Panko Salmon), make “noodles” out of zucchini in a yogurt sauce.
To make the zucchini noodles, use a julienne peeler or mandoline to make thin strips. Toss with salt and allow the water to drain out.
Then toss with a creamy lemon-chive dressing made with Greek yogurt. (more…)
After missing a few months, I am finally back for the September Food ‘n Flix movie, hosted by France at Beyond the Peel. The movie for this month was It’s Complicated, starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin. Streep and Baldwin play a couple that have been divorced for over a decade but fall into an affair with each other after their youngest leaves for college – despite Baldwin being remarried and his cheating being the reason for their divorce in the first place. Martin plays a new love interest for Streep who she could really hit it off with – if her affair with her ex wasn’t always getting in the way!
In the film, Streep owns a bakery and is an amazing home cook (her food being one of the things Baldwin misses most about her). I was inspired by her gorgeous vegetable garden and her pastry skills to try a new version of my Squash Galette. (more…)
A few weeks ago I posted about doing a roasted tomato pasta, but forgot to take a picture of the finished product! So when I saw these gorgeous local tomatoes at the market, I wanted to make it again.
So – toss with salt, pepper, olive oil and roast at 400 for 20 minutes or until they are bursting and caramelizing. I roasted mine ahead of time and stored them in the fridge until I needed them.
Then you just toss the hot tomatoes (I reheated mine when I was ready for them) with hot pasta and they will turn into a chunky sauce. Top with fresh basil and adjust for salt and pepper. That’s it! Gorgeous, fresh, fast, and easy.
I discovered this method of hard cooking eggs (attributed to Alton Brown) via Pinterest and Greetings from the Asylum. The concept is that baking them instead of boiling them is more consistent and results in less gray, less smelly, more creamy eggs.
As you can see, the eggs will sit perfectly on most oven racks and it doesn’t matter how clean the rack is, because you will be peeling the eggs. Bake them at 325 for 30 minutes.
As soon as you take them out (with tongs), plunge them into ice water to stop the cooking (and prevent that grey ring around the yolk that happens when they cool too slowly). (more…)