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Salmon with Lentils and Mustard-Herb Butter

I don't normally cook a lot of seafood, because Girl hates it and threatens to run away from home, but Boy loves it, so every once in a while I brave the wrath and serve it, anyway. It's kinda fun to see her wrinkle her nose and gag at the dinner table.

Boy was on a field trip in Dallas all day today (seeing the King Tut exhibit), so I wanted to make a special dinner for him upon his return and this one looked like it fit the bill. I wasn't sure how the lentils would go over, since I've only made them once before.

But....WOW, was this yummy!!! It was much easier to actually execute than the recipe made it sound. Once I actually started cooking it, it was VERY simple. Sauteeing the fish in butter gave it a lovely, savory browned crust and wonderful flavor. I was afraid that the leek flavor would be too strong (it has a LOT of leeks in it), but the kids both loved it. A couple of other epicurious readers recommended sauteeing the fish in olive oil, to cut the butter content (why would you want to do such a thing???), but another reviewer recommended added a little pre-cooked, crumbled bacon to the lentils, to add even more sumptuous flavor. I, myself, never pass up an opportunity to monter au beurre or throw in some bacon, so I may adapt a bit when I make this again.

I really can't recommend this dish highly enough. If your kids are a little adventuresome, they'll love this, but it's also "fancy" enough to impress at a dinner party. Would have been sublime with a better wine choice, but we drank what we had on hand, which was OK. If you like the idea of salmon and lentils, but want some other options, these two recipes look great, too:

Herb Crusted Salmon on Puy Lentils with Red Wine Sauce

Salmon with Bacon and Lentils

Chicken Shawarma with Fattoush Salad

Yummy and VERY easy. I didn't put the tomatoes on our pitas, because we were already having a lot of tomatoes in the salad, in fact, Girl dumped her bowl of salad ONTO her pita and ate it that way.

For the fattoush, I adapted a recipe for "chopped vegetable salad" that was in the same issue of Cooking Light, but changed it around so much that it really wasn't the same, so here's my version:

Fattoush

2 cups chopped cucumber
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 cup halved grape tomatoes
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
(The original recipe also called for some chopped green bell pepper, but I didn't have any on hand. It would have been a nice addition, so I'll add some next time. Maybe some garlic, too?)

Gently fold all above ingredients to combine. In a small, separate bowl, whisk together:

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Pour over salad and toss gently to combine.

Toss in 2 cups coarsely crushed pita chips (recommended: Stacy's brand, from Costco) and 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp of ground sumac powder (If you can find it. Try Kalustyan's, if you're determined to find some.) and toss salad gently again to combine. Sprinkle a little more sumac on top. Serve immediately, before the pita chips get soggy. If you're not serving it right away, reserve the pita chips separately until ready to serve.

40-garlic clove chicken with roasted brussels sprouts and mashed potatoes.

This recipe is from Fine Cooking magazine, which doesn't allow free access to their online recipe forum, but I did find the recipe on another website here (please ignore the grammar and the hash-smoking references).

It was absolutely delicious and will DEFINITELY be made again during the winter. It's the perfect, savory, comfort food for cooler weather. Mmmm.... The kids weren't wild about the plain garlic on the baguette (although I thought they would be), so I will probably take the garlic and improvise a simple garlic toast next time (mix the roasted garlic cloves with butter, parmesan and herbs and spread on bread, then lightly toast it).

For dessert, I made Pumpkin Creme Brulees (which were DELICIOUS) with little maple shortbread "leaf" cookies, for garnish, and Ice Cream Sundaes with Pomegranate Caramel Sauce, topped with whipped cream and fresh pomegranate arils (for my little brother, who doesn't like pumpkin)

Although being able to make a good roast chicken is supposed to be the sign of a great cook (or maybe BECAUSE of this), I have been intimidated by roasting a whole chicken. The kids are usually a little frightened of meat that actually LOOKS like meat and prefer, boneless, skinless little portions of protein. In spite of all this, I decided to give roast chicken a try. I made this chicken by fusing together two roast chicken recipes:
the first one was included on the back of Colorado Spice Company's Tarragon Chicken Rub and the second one is Ruth Reichl's Roast Chicken recipe from her book Garlic and Sapphires (all three of her books are fabulous and you should read them NOW, if you haven't already).

Basically, I followed the rub directions, but doubled the olive oil, because I was roasting two chickens, instead of one (as specified in the recipe), and then added the lemon and followed the time and temperature instructions in the Ruth Reichl recipe. My oven has a thermometer (as most ovens now do) that can be inserted into meat and then plugged into the side of the oven that will alert you when the interior of the meat has reached a certain, programmable temperature. I LOOOOVE this feature because I'm lazy and forgetful because it's very helpful and convenient. The chicken turned out beautiful and juicy (although my camera flash makes it looks bland and pale). I will definitely be roasting chicken this way again.

For the potato pancakes, I used this recipe from epicurious. They were delicious, but when they tell you to press the moisture out of the potatoes, they aren't kidding. Don't try to save time on that step; you'll regret it. We served them with sour cream on the side.

The hollandaise was left over from Boy's special birthday breakfast and was delicious over some simple steamed asparagus.

We ate this dinner last night with my little brother and his wife, who announced to Boy and Girl (Hubby and I already knew) that they were going to have a new baby cousin in May! Little Brother has started a "New Dad" blog that you can check out here:
Little Brother's "The New Dad" blog

It will be VERY exciting to have another little sprout around next year and Little Bro and his wife (who is a teacher) will make wonderful parents. We are VERY excited and plan to spoil this child rotten.

Inspired by my friend, Trish!

Cooking Light published an "Every Night Korean" menu in their August 2008 issue that I decided that I had to try as soon as I saw it.

I made this Spice-Rubbed Flank Steak (*see note below) and this Watermelon-Ginger Punch (read the note in the link about lycopene...I didn't know about that and found it interesting...lycopene is good for "boy parts", you know...) and planned to make Kimchi-Style Cabbage to go with it. I looked through the ingredients and made sure that I either had them in the pantry or put them on my grocery list. I dutifully bought flank steak, Napa cabbage, daikon radish and got ready to cook last night. That's when I read through the recipes, in full, and discovered a line in the Kimchi recipe that said, "Cover and refrigerate one week.". DRAT! I thought it was kimchi STYLE cabbage, not regular old "pickle it forever" kimchi. I wasn't trying to make the real thing! I decided to go ahead and make the steak and the punch and just made some edamame and rice to go with it. I'll give the kimchi a try another time...

I was kind of bummed (we all really like cabbage and all of us except Boy like anything that's pickled), but the kids probably wouldn't have eaten it, anyway...

The steak was really good, but had a definite spicy "kick" to it. Boy loved it, but it was a little too hot for Girl. The punch was really good, but we all agreed that we would use less ginger (or maybe even leave the ginger out) if we make it again. I love ginger, so I really liked it, but the rest of the fam thought it was a little strong. This sounds crazy, too, but I might put a little pinch of salt in it next time. I really like salt on my watermelon.

* Cooking Light doesn't have the steak recipe online, but it's simple:
rub the steak with a little toasted sesame oil and then rub it with a blend of brown sugar, salt, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, freshly ground black pepper and ground ginger and then grill it. 1/4 tsp of all of the spices except salt (use 1/2 tsp). 2 tsp each of the brown sugar and oil.

Mmmmm...

Yet another pair of great Cooking Light recipes...
Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Mustard BBQ Sauce
and Fresh Lemon Rice.

These were both delicious and a big hit with everyone.

If there's anything that makes your kitchen smell better than bacon and onions cooking together, I don't know what it is...

...unless, maybe it's Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin. This was really delicious and VERY easy.

I found this recipe in Cooking Light and gave it a try a couple of days ago. This was a BIG hit with all of us, especially Hubby, who thinks that we should ALWAYS have chicken thighs instead of breasts. I tend to prefer breasts, because they're aren't as "chewy" and fatty, but I have to admit that thighs are more tender and have MUCH more flavor. They are faster and easier to cook than breasts, because it's easier to tell when they're done in the middle. They are cheaper, too. I buy them in a large package (organic) from Costco and there are 12 in a package, so you can make this recipe and then have 4 left over for another night (maybe rubbed with pesto and then grilled?). This recipe made enough to feed all of us for dinner once, 3 of us for dinner another night and still have some left over for 2 of us to have lunch on another day (some of the leftovers got frozen for future use another day).

This recipe was VERY good and very, very easy. To go with it, I cooked some udon noodles and then tossed them with a little toasted sesame seed oil, lightly sauteed minced garlic and fresh ginger and sliced green onions and then sprinkled a bit of black sesame seed on top of each portion. I also sauteed some zucchini slices (see the next post for instructions - it was FABULOUS).

We will DEFINITELY be making this again.

I made this recipe from Southern Living (April 2008) tonight and it was SO yummy. Not exactly South Beach-y, but it was Hubby's first night home from a business trip that required staying at a hotel with abysmal food, so I wanted to make him something nice. I sauteed some zucchini in a little butter and Baby Bam to go alongside.

That's my Mom's Salad Dressing there. Yummy. Big hit with Girl.

We love our usual pork tenderloin recipe so much, that I was hesitant to even try another one. Seriously, I just thought that it wouldn't even be possible for another recipe to come close, but this was really good! It must be the delicate simplicity of the seasoning blend and baking/broiling procedure BACON that makes it so good! I know that I'm a little late to the party, but I have just recently "discovered" McCormick's Montreal Steak seasoning. I know that's a little like saying that I just "discovered" you can buy butter now, instead of churning it yourself, but, hey...I had never heard of it or used it before. I bought the lower salt variety (you can always add more salt) and it's really tasty. Honestly, I think if I had NOT used the low-salt variety in this recipe, it would have been too salty. It was perfect, as is. I did use more bacon than the recipe called for (about 10 slices) because 3 slices wasn't enough for the bacon to wrap all the way around (I separate the 2 tenderloins and bacon-wrapped and baked them individually). This will definitely be a "keeper" recipe. It was really simple (3 ingredients!) to assemble and easy to cook, though it does splatter a bit of bacon grease in your oven, so be prepared to do a little clean-up afterwards.

The tenderloin was so pretty, all trussed up with the bacon. It looked like a dragon roll.

Tenderloin, wrapped with bacon before baking/broiling.

Tenderloin, after baking. This smelled great while it was cooking. The kids thought I was making "breakfast for dinner".

For dessert, I decided to spoil the kids a bit, too. We recently made the (3.5 hour) drive from Houston back to Austin (after our Alaska trip) and stopped in La Grange to pick up some "Dublin Dr. Pepper".

If you're not familiar, the Dublin bottling plant is one of the VERY few remaining in the country that still uses the "old" Dr. Pepper formula, without high-fructose corn syrup. They use pure cane sugar. In fact, the label has the little "Imperial Sugar" logo on it (made in Sugarland, Texas, where much of my family either lives or has lived, thankyouverymuch). Comparing "regular" Dr. Pepper to an old-fashioned "Dublin" Dr. Pepper is like comparing T-bone to tofu. The cane sugar sodas are just more subtle, not as overpoweringly sweet and just SO much more delicious. They are also only available in a limited distribution zone surrounding the bottling plant. Alas, they are not available in Austin, so whenever we make a pilgrimage toward Houston, we always have to stop and get some. Well, Girl has been asking for a "Dublin" float for dessert for quite some time, so tonight I made a batch of Mexican Vanilla ice cream and obliged. Those were a really big hit, too.

Overall, a good meal and a good night. Very nice to have Hubby back at home. This first week of school (one more day to go!) has been a little hectic and we're all tired and a bit cranky. We are all looking forward to an extended weekend this week.

Jerk-Grilled Chicken

Jamaican Jerk Seasoning (scroll down for the seasoning recipe)
boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded slightly to flatten (to help them cook uniformly)
(I used about 1/4 cup of the seasoning for 5 large chicken breasts.)

Spray your grill/grill pan with Pam (or brush with oil). Rub the seasoning all over the chicken breasts and then let them sit at room temperature for a few minutes (15?) while you heat up the grill. Grill over pretty low heat until the inside of the chicken is done, but still juicy, and the outside is nicely browned. Hubby cooked ours last night and he did a PERFECT job. Slice the chicken into about 8 pieces per breast. Depending upon the size of the breasts (and the hunger of your guests), you can get 1 1/2 to 2 servings per breast.

Pineapple Salsa

I can't link to it, or give you the exact recipe, because it's from Fine Cooking's "subscribers only" website, but it's basically diced pineapple, bell pepper (I used an orange one), radishes and minced cilantro, seasoned with a little salt and pepper and a dash of lime juice.

Gallo Pinto Coconut Rice

I used long-grain brown rice, with mostly coconut milk (and a little chicken stock) for the cooking liquid. When it was almost done, I stirred in some canned (drained and rinsed) black beans. Season with salt and pepper. When we were in Costa Rica a couple of years ago, we were served Gallo Pinto (rice and black beans) at every meal and we loved it. Every place does it a little bit differently, sometimes with tomato and/or onion, sometimes with cilantro, sometimes shaped into little timbales, but always delicious. I think that "gallo pinto" actually means "spotted rooster." Funny. Btw, "pico de gallo", another of our favorite foods, actually means "rooster's beak."

Crunchy Roasted Corn,
adapted from a recipe from Great Country Farms

6 ears fresh, raw, corn on the cob
3/4 cup mayonnaise
about 1 tsp. BBQ seasoning
2 Tbsp freshly-squeezed lemon juice
2 to 3 cups dry, plain (unseasoned) bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a large baking sheet lightly with Pam (or brush with oil).

Whisk together the mayonnaise, lemon juice and seasoning. One at a time, brush each ear of corn liberally with the mayonnaise mixture and then roll in the breadcrumbs to coat and lay each one on the baking sheet.

Bake, uncovered, for 35 to 40 minutes until lightly browned and crisp. Last night, I baked ours for 35 minutes, but it really would have been better if they had gone a few minutes more, so I would recommend cooking yours until they are darker than mine is in the photo.

Nota Bene: You can use your choice of seasoning/flavoring, instead of the BBQ seasoning. Some good options:

a little cumin (one of our favorites on corn on the cob)

Baby Bam

Finely chopped chives and a little salt

Finely chopped fresh jalapeno and cilantro

seasoned salt (or No-salt seasoning)

Italian seasoning or, just omit the seasoning altogether and use Italian-seasoned bread crumbs

Absolutely no pretense at healthy or gourmet food here, just good old fashioned junk food. Nothing green at all on the plate. Girl is at a birthday sleepover tonight, so it's just me and the boys. I thought (correctly) that this would be a crowd-pleaser.

Oven-Baked French Fries

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut your potatoes into thick planks (fry-shaped, maybe 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch wide). Sprinkle the fries lightly with sugar (about 1 Tbsp. per 6 small-to-medium-sized potatoes) and your choice of seasoning. BBQ seasoning would be good, or Baby Bam, but I used this No-Salt Substitute Seasoning, because I like to have a little control over the amount of salt on my fries; I like to be able to taste them after they're cooked and add the salt, at that point, so that I can be more sure of the correct amount.

Toss the fries with a generous coating of canola oil. Pour them out onto a very large baking sheet and bake until golden, about 30 minutes, but you'll need to keep an eye on them. They will stick to the baking sheet, so you won't be able to turn them during cooking, but, if you have put enough oil on them, they will toast on the bottom side, too, and will "release" from the pan when they are done.

When they're done, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool for about 1 minute, then use a large spatula to remove them to a large plate lined with paper towels to absorb any excess grease. Salt liberally with salt or Fleur de Sel.

While the fries are baking....

Patty Melt Sandwiches

serves 4

for the patties:
1 lb hamburger meat
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup finely chopped white onion
1 medium-sized garlic clove, minced or pressed
1 to 2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh Italian parsley, to taste
1/4 tsp ground mustard
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

butter or margarine

4 slices of your choice of cheese - Swiss would have been great, but we only had 'Murrican on hand, so we used that.

8 slices bread of your choice - it should be fairly hearty, dense bread and shouldn't be sliced too thinly - We used a round sourdough loaf.

Blend together all patty ingredients (kinda gross, but really best to do it with your hands). Heat up your grill or a grill pan. I usually spray our grill lightly with Pam and then fire it up on high heat until I'm ready to put the meat on, then I'll turn it down to low while the meat actually cooks. Cook the patties until done, turning as little as little as possible. When the patties are done, pull them off the heat and assemble the sandwiches.

Top each patty with a slice of cheese and place it in between two slices of bread. Lightly butter the outside of each sandwich. Put the assembled sandwiches back on the grill (or grill pan or griddle or whatever you're using), over low heat, and cook until the bread is toasted and the cheese has melted, turning only once, if possible.

The fries should be about done by this point, so pull them out, pour the Zinfandel (or maybe one of these?) and ketchup and dig in.