Recipes and A Reunion

I've really missed cheese. Tonight we kissed and made up before I had some other yummy things too.

We had a big salad (standard for summer nights), 3 cheese focaccia garlic bread (noteworthy because this is one of my fear foods), fennel baked with tomatoes and onions (significant because fennel is a NEW vegetable!) and a chicken and sweet potato stir-fry (fun because it came from a forgotten cookbook).

I. The Salad

My Favorite Salad So Far

Green romaine lettuce, red lettuce, spinach, pea shoots, carrots, celery, cucumber, radishes, orange pepper, red pepper, green grapes, golden delicious apple, raw almonds, pomegranate craisins, sesame sticks, sesame seeds, basil, parsley, chives, and pepper...

This is the kind of salad that you can happily eat without salad dressing. The kind of salad that makes you wish that the clean-up man fills up on other things so there is some leftover for lunch tomorrow.

Worth mentioning: The green grapes (sliced in half) added just a touch of tartness and will be a welcome addition to our salad ingredient rotation from now on...And the irresistibly sweet and salty sesame sticks were a great substitute for traditional croutons.

Sesame Sticks

II. 3 Cheese Focaccia Garlic Bread

I'd love to tell you we spent all afternoon slaving over this focaccia - but we cheated and brought it home with us from the store...in a plastic bag since I forgot to grab our re-usable ones (oops). I may be in the doghouse, but after a piece of this bread (all melty and toasty after a few minutes in the oven) I don't really mind.

The King of Cheese & Garlic Bread

III. Fennel Baked with Tomatoes and Onions (and Cheese!)

Fennel = Unknown!

Serves 4
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
2 medium fennel bulbs (about 1 lb)
1 large onion (sliced)
2 medium tomatoes, seeded and coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
A sprinkling of low-fat Mexican and low-fat Mozzeralla cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Pour the oil into a 7x11-inch baking dish. Trim the base of the fennel bulbs. Cut across the top to remove the darker green portion of the stalks and the fernlike fronds. Discard the stalks and chop and reserve some of the fronds for a garnish if desired. Cut each fennel bulb in half lengthwise, then cut crosswise into slices about 3/4 inch wide.
2. Combine the fennel in the baking dish with the onion and tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss to coat evenly with the oil.
3. Cover the pan with foil and bake, stirring once or twice, until the fennel is almost tender when pierced with a fork (about 35 minutes). Uncover, sprinkle on cheese, and continue to bake until the juices reduce and thicken slightly (about 10 minutes).
4. Before serving, season with additional salt and pepper to taste, and scatter the reserved fennel fronds on top if desired.

Worth mentioning: Apparently fennel tends to have a distinctively licorice "bite"...but when it's cooked this way (and disguised with a bit of tomato and cheese) it's not offensive at all. Not exactly a ringing endorsement - but it was good. Not to die for, but good. And I tried fennel.


IV. Chicken and Sweet Potato Stir-Fry

A Variation of Chicken Stir-Fry

Serves 4
Stir-fry 2 very thinly sliced sweet potatoes in 2 tbsp vegetable oil (3 minutes)
Add 1/4 lb (125 g) snap peas and 1/2 of a gigantic Vidalia onion (2 minutes)
Add 4 cooked chicken breasts (sliced into strips), 1/3 cup of orange juice, 1/4 tsp marjoram, and 5 fresh sage leaves 
Stir often until potatoes are tender-crisp (another 3 minutes) 

This was also good. It was a nice change from my usual chicken stir-fry dishes at school - which involve a measly piece of chicken (cut into bite size), a rainbow of veggies from an upended vegetable drawer, and a heavy-handed "sprinkle" from assorted spices all lumped together. These types of dinners often have an extra instruction tacked on to the recipe: Cross your fingers and hope for the best! 

And as always, here are the poorly presented and cringe-worthy photos of my plate and of Brother #3's jungle:

My Plate (Sans Salad Here)

Brother #3's Attempt At Organization

*Recipes III and IV were adapted from Chatelaine's Food Express Quickies: Ten Quick Ways With Everyday Foods by Monda Rosenberg

What's For Dinner?

Last night's dinner involved several trips out to the garden, two full compost pails, a too-hot stove top, a smoking grill, a symphony of dinging timers, an intimidating stack of dirty dishes (sorry Pops), and lots of happy murmurs of appreciation.

I started out by assuming my usual position at the cutting board. Knife in hand, I started chopping up every variety of fresh fruit I could scrounge up: juicy cross-sections of pineapple and watermelon, handfuls of blueberries and green grapes, tart slices of Granny Smith, Jazz, Gala, and Braeburn apples, and neatly cut strawberries, bananas, and oranges.

Family Fruit Salad

After sweeping away all the rinds, peels, stems, leaves, and cores that littered the countertop, I ventured out to the garden with our ancient salad spinner to harvest oregano, sage, lemongrass, parsley, chives, green romaine lettuce, red bowl lettuce, black seeded Simpson lettuce, baby spinach, and radishes. Then I added carrots, red & yellow pepper, cucumbers, celery, and craisins from the store...before sprinkling pepper, sesame seeds, and Penzeys' Sunny Paris seasoning on top.

Family Garden Salad

While I tossed the salad, Mom started working on seasoning the two captain's cut cod fillets that we picked up earlier in the day. She used olive oil, a blend of Japanese-style Panko seasoned and whole wheat bread crumbs, and coriander to prepare the fish for the grill (before sending me back to the garden to pick more sage and parsley).

Captain's Cut Cod, For the Girls

While I took over the decorating of the fillets, my mom assembled four pieces of chicken cordon bleu to bake for the men in the family (who don't like fish).

Handmade Chicken Cordon Bleu, For the Boys


The fish went out to the grill (8 minutes per side) and the chicken cordon bleu was tucked into the oven. We turned our attention to the orange sauce we hoped would liven up our thick portions of cod. I learned about orange zest as my mom started tinkering with the recipe (no surprise there!).

Orange Zest, Parchment Paper

Since I got a bit over-zealous with my assignment we sprinkled the extra on top of the fruit salad. I highly recommend this - it heightened the other flavors and just added some zip to an otherwise typical fruit salad.



Fruit Salad, with Zip!

After popping the fruit salad back into the refridgerator, we finished gathering the rest of the ingredients for the cod's orange sauce.

What we needed:
-1 large orange (to create 1 tablespoon of orange zest)
-1 cup of orange juice
-1 teaspoon of white wine
-1 tablespoon of softened butter
-5 leaves of sage (note: while they add a nice garnish, they just burn if you put them on the grilling basket!)
-A generous clipping of parsley
-A dash of salt
-A dash of pepper

Simmering Orange Sauce

What we did:
-Mixed the orange juice and wine with the melted butter in a sauce pan
-Let it sit over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally (if you're like us and forgot to pre-melt the butter)
-Added pepper, salt, and orange zest
-Let it simmer for an additional 5 minutes (if you're like us this really means until the cod is done cooking)
-Poured sauce over the fillets and served it as quickly as we could





A Two-Man Operation



Grilled Cod with Orange Sauce

What we thought:
It was excellent. Our orange sauce was a fun alternative to a blackening or everything seasoning. It wasn't too time-consuming to whip up and it gave our perfectly flaky pieces of cod a wonderful flavor - without drowning out the more subtle spices from the bread crumbs, the coriander, the sage, and the parsley.

Of course, no dinner would be complete without a comparison of my meal and Brother #3's meal.

My Dinner

Brother #3's Dinner

What a success! It's dinners like these that make me homesick when I'm away at school.

Simply Scrumptious Salads

Around here, summer's arrival is marked by increasingly frequent trips to the garden to snip fresh produce and herbs to spice up our cooking. Although it's still a little early to truly begin harvesting much of anything, Mom's garden has already sprouted handfuls of flavor to add to our nightly salads.

Family Sized Salad on Crate and Barrel's To-Go Folding Side Table

For some reason, I love making salads. Even though it can be terribly time-consuming (last night I was glued to the cutting board for 45+ minutes), I get the same sort of satisfaction from filling a big wooden bowl with neatly chopped colors that I do from folding and putting away a pile of laundry. Or from running around the vaccuum a few times. Or from writing down things that I've already done on my to-do list just so I can cross them out. Or from re-arranging my desk. Ah, I'm working on it. 

Last night's salad* featured the following:

Iceburg Lettuce
Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce
Romaine Hearts
Watercress

Red Pepper
Organic Carrots
Radishes
Cucumber
Celery

Salted Almonds + Cashews (delicious toasted if you have the time!)
Dried Cranberries
Crispy Wonton Wrappers (stir-fried in olive oil & crushed into small crouton-esque pieces)

Sage
Parsley
Chives
Lemon Thyme

With Zoom!

*Although this salad was quite tasty, my favorite salads incorporate spinach lettuce, carmelized walnuts (try them - they taste like candy!), lightly drizzled parmesan peppercorn dressing, and homemade croutons (try stir-frying the ends of an old loaf of bread in olive oil with pepper & garlic salt).

Often we leave our big family-style salad dry so everyone can choose their own dressings (and add contested ingredients like pieces of hard boiled eggs, bacon bits, olives, etc.)...and so Brother #3 can mix in pasta with sauce and top it off with Thousand Island dressing to his heart's content. It probably comes as no surprise but I get very unhappy when the different parts of my meal touch!

Brother #3's Colorful & Chaotic Plate** 

**Please excuse the suspiciously slimy looking bacon-cheddar-jalapeno hamburger, the glare from the granite countertop, and the reflection off of the fork and spoon. Brother #2 - hurry home so you can teach me how to camouflage my status as an amateur photographer!

Last night I sliced up some leftover grilled BBQ chicken and sprinkled Emeril's BAM IT! salad seasoning on my individual salad. The pre-mixed spice (of garlic, salt, sesame, poppy seed, parmesan cheese, paprika, celery seed, and black pepper) served as a delicious and healthy alternative to a salad spritzer or dressing - although I did wake up this morning with a particularly brutal case of garlic breath.

My Salad (Terrible Lighting Thrown in for Free)

A Medley of Flavor and Crunch from Emeril