BLT Salad

My favorite day to read the newspaper is Wednesday. That is the day the food section appears. This past week the recipe for a BLT Salad was featured. Chris asked if I had seen the piece and I told him the ingredients were already on the shopping list.

It was perfect for dinner tonight as it got really hot out today! I did the croutons under the broiler rather than in the oven so it would take less time.

I visited my Dad this morning and grabbed a photo of the poppies. More had bloomed since my last visit.

I remembered my mom reciting a poem about the poppies.

IN FLANDERS FIELDS POEM


By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky

The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead: Short days ago,

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved: and now we lie

In Flanders fields!

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields

If you have time the story of the poem, the writer and the association of the poppy with war remembrance can be found here.

Pork with Leeks and White Wine

It is funny sometimes how dinners come together. Tonight for instance. I had taken pork cutlets out for last night's dinner but oops forgot about those scallops. Anyway we had the scallops last night so the pork was going to be tonight's dinner. Of course 6pm came around and I had not done anything to prepared. Busy day and all so dinner was on the back burner, sorry for the pun.

Earlier today I had sauteed some leeks for what I thought was going to be tomorrow, Monday, night's dinner. Pizza with Leeks and Fontina cheese. Are you following this so far. Well we are not having pizza tomorrow night. Sigh those scallops threw off my whole schedule.

Okay back to tonight's dinner. We have leeks and pork... sounds good so far. I dredged the pork in flour and browned it on both sides. I added the leeks and some white wine. Popped the pan in the oven for 15 minutes. Presto! Quite good if I do say so.

Side dishes. Roasted Artichokes with Prosciutto. Yeah that was interesting. Found the recipe on the Food and Wine site. Not bad but not sure I would make it again. It tasted fine but I was not blown away by it.

Another side dish was Jasmati Rice. Always good but this was perfect because it was pre-cooked and in the freezer. I had made a big batch the last time I made it and froze the extra. I had purchased frozen rice at Trader Joe's once and thought I could easily do that!

Scallops with Pasta and Summer Vegetables

Let's start at the beginning.

This was the beginning. A Pomegranate-Lime Fizz. Simple to make and delicious. I think it is very important for every woman to know how to make a good drink. This is now my drink of choice.  Cheers.

I was planning on making tonight's dinner last night but no way did I feel like attempting it. So here we are tonight with Scallops with Pasta and Summer Vegetables. Not sure how I found this recipe but it is a YouTube video. Thank you Chef Justin Timiner. I made a couple of changes. I used Pappardelle noodles and did not add arugula, GRRRR I forgot to add it to my list! Oh and no mushrooms.

Just a few ingredients.

 

 The dish was quite good and speedy to prepare!

Meet me at....

Wow another crazy work day. I emailed Chris at lunch to let him know I was not able to get out to the store so he should not expect too much in the way of dinner. His reply back was to meet him at a restaurant. Now that is just want a person wants to hear. Well it was music to my ears! So I continued on with my work until after 5 without it bothering me because I did not have to sit in traffic, Memorial Day weekend is the beginning of the Friday night commute from hell, and secondly I knew I would not have to do dishes tonight!

We ended up at Friends and Company. We had not been there for quite some time. But dinner was as good as it always is. We started with Fried Mozzarella Balls. Nice and light with a touch of crushed red pepper. And the dipping sauce was a marinara that was, dare I say it, as good as mine!

Chris had a special, Beef Tenderloin with a Pink Peppercorn Sauce with Roasted Potatoes. The meat was like butter! I had the Beef Stroganoff, I am a sucker for egg noodles. The sauce was so flavorful and the meat was nice and tender.

Dessert, no way, we were too full. But later on I had a 100 calorie Klondike Bar!

And a post with no photos...
Wait a sec... here are a couple of cute cat photos!

Happy Friday!

Not Quite a Wordless Wednesday

Wow I can't believe it is already Wednesday. I stopped by my Dad's on the way home from work tonight and took some photos of some of the flowers in his garden. I thought that they would be perfect for a "Wordless Wednesday" post. I was tired and really didn't have much to say. But when I walked in the door Chris was taking the Baked Macaroni out of the oven and it looked "picture perfect." Oh well. I now find it necessary to write. First we have the photos from my Dad's garden. Poppy, Iris and Chive flowers

The Baked Macaroni right out of the oven and when I plated my serving it looked need to have it's photo taken.

And while we are on the subject of food and photography there was an interesting piece in Eater National today. Chefs on Photography in Restaurants. Enjoy!

Musical Interlude

This was such a treat...

Not Sure What to Begin With....

 We could start with the Grilled Balsamic Pork Tenderloin.

Or the Grilled Broccoli! Lets just say if you like broccoli you will like this. If you don't like broccoli, well sorry....

Oh but this was interesting. Crunchy Couscous Galette. And it received a warm reception! I used Israeli Couscous so I had to adjust the recipe a bit but this has definite possibilities.

Bucatini all'Amatriciana

Yes we are revisiting a meal from not too long ago. Kind of long day at work so I wanted to keep it simple. But simple is usually the best. So for this dinner the only ingredient I needed at the store was the pancetta. Not bad. A quick run into the grocery store and I was all set. Keeping it short tonight... Happy Friday!

Eggs in Purgatory

It's all about the sauce and this sauce was good. It was just a basic Marinara that I made on Sunday.
I added green beans and hot dogs (that way everyone is happy). I poached the eggs in the sauce tonight. Not sure how a meatball ended up in the pan... Anyone?

Chicken Parmesan

Today I left some Chicken Cutlets in the fridge to thaw. When I walked in the house I was greeted with....

 Nice job Chris!

What did we have for dinner a year ago...

Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Vinaigrette and a Stuffed Bread

What did we have for dinner 2 years ago...
Grilled Rib Eye Steaks with Blue Cheese Crusted Tomatoes

Zucchini, Onion and Bacon Tart and Spinach Soup

The Zucchini, Onion and Bacon Tart was pretty easy. I sauteed some onion and zucchini added cooked bacon and used some of the Pate Brise with pepper that I had in the freezer. I broke 2 eggs on top of the sauteed vegetables after they were on the pie crust. I folded the crust up and popped it in the oven. Dinner can't get simpler than that.

 

Spinach Soup. Food Styling by Chris.

 

Of course I have this fear that there will never be enough food, I have no logical explanation for this feeling. So I made a soup! Spinach Soup! Yeah I think Chris went back for seconds... I found the recipe on a box of Ronzoni Ancini Di Pepe. One of these days I will tell you the story about my mom and the Ronzoni Brothers!

Ingredients
1/2 onion
, chopped
2 tablespoons butter 

1 can (46 oz.) chicken broth

1/2 cup Ronzoni Acini Di Pepe, uncooked
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Salt to taste

1 package (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach
Grated Parmesan Cheese

Directions

Cook and stir onion in hot butter until tender but not browned.
Add chicken broth and bring to a boil.
Add pasta, nutmeg, and pepper; simmer about 5 minutes.
Add chopped spinach and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Season to taste with salt, if desired.
Sprinkle with cheese.

Hey and don't forget to stop by the Facebook page. I promise I will not hound you every day about this.

Happy Mother's Day and Grilled Pizza

Happy Mother's Day to Lenore, Ann, Tara, Heidi, Cindy, Caitlin, Julianne, Jeanine, Jeanne, Terri, Debi, Becky, Carolyn, Julie, Michelle, Lucille, Kimberly and Lucy!

Tonight for dinner we had one of my mom's go to meals for a Sunday night... Yes Pizza! She use to mix the dough early in the morning and then it would rise by the heat vent wrapped in a blanket all day. She and I would roll out the dough and add the tomatoes and herbs and cheese. She made like 4 at a time. Quite the assembly line.

 

Well tonight I added meatballs, still craving meat even after last night's dinner! But our pizza was grilled. Yes it was a lovely warm day so we took advantage of it and grilled our pizza. We added the meatballs and kalamata olives. On mine I added some of the zucchini we grilled last night. The shapes, well lets just say they were interesting. Anyway the crust was nice and crisp and not at all greasy.
I hope everyone enjoyed their mothers today or enjoyed the memories of their mothers like I did.

The Grill is Open and We Have A Facebook Page

This has been a long week of Vegetable Stew and Farro Stew so I have been looking forward to tonight's dinner. Luckily the weather cooperated. Chris grilled sirloin steaks and zucchini. My contribution was roasted potatoes. I know I make them all the time but I like them! Back to the steak. There is nothing like a steak on the grill. So tender and the bits of burned fat. I almost ate all of mine. And the veggies were as good as they were last summer. The potatoes were of course delicious. Nice and crispy and seasoned with salt, pepper, rosemary and sage and olive oil.

And as an added treat I pulled a bottle of wine off the rack and popped it open. Tomaiolo Riserva 2003 Chianti. It was perfect with dinner. The black cherry was so predominant. Talk about wine pairings!

And on another note I have been wanting to make a granola bar for the longest time. I found this recipe a while ago and finally had time to make them. It is really hard to eat just one!

Oh wait one more thing... the Facebook page! Yep that is what I did today. Hope you stop by and visit! And don't forget to like it... I am sure you will!

Chicken Piccata with Capers

Tonight's dinner was the result of a Google search. I typed in chicken and the choice of Piccata presented itself. I had everything in the house so no run to the store at lunch was necessary.

I opted for couscous in place of the spaghetti and sauteed some zucchini and yellow squash for a side dish. Another simple Friday night meal! Click here for the recipe.

Leftover Minestra di Verdure Stile Ribollita

Notice anything different in tonight's photo? Yes pasta! I was off today so I made a dish of baked macaroni for later in the week, or I may freeze it for much later next week. Anyway I had too much pasta (too much pasta is a good thing) so I added it to my Minestra di Verdure Stile Ribollita leftovers. Excellent addition!

Minestra di Verdure Stile Ribollita

Minestra di Verdure Stile Ribollita or Ribollita Inspired Vegetable Soup comes from Briciole. Briciole is a blog that I just started following. The photo is what caught my attention first, then the fact that I love Ribollita. I think my choosing this recipe has to do with the weather. This past week has been so cloudy and chilly made me want a pot of soup for the week. Of course the day I made this soup, Sunday, what was in the sky? Yes the sun!
Here is the link to the recipe, this way you can read the story about the soup too! The only change I made was using canned pinto beans. 

Lazy Lasagna

Brilliant! I found tonight's recipe on A Season For All Things. I had all the ingredients in the house except the ground beef. But I had sausage! I also opted for homemade sauce.

Lasagna in a flash. I would not call it lazy. It needs a more positive name. Time Saving Lasagna. Speedy Lasagna. Only One Skillet and One Baking Dish to Wash Lasagna. Yes that's it! Can you tell I really hate doing dishes?

Stuffed Chicken Thighs in a White Wine Caper Sauce

Stuffed Chicken Thighs in a White Wine Caper Sauce. I know you are probably saying the same thing Chris said, "Chicken Thighs?" Yes chicken thighs. I just prefer them to the breast. And they are inexpensive. So lets give them a try.
I found this recipe on Italian Food Forever. If you have time you should spend a little visiting the site. It is packed with lots of recipes I would like to try.
Tonight's dinner was more on the fancy side for a Sunday night in our house, the is the home of Sunday night pizza.

So why stop at the stuffed chicken thighs, I had some fennel left over from Friday night's dinner so I made Braised Fennel. It was okay. But I would have been happier with zucchini.
And with all this stuff I decided to keep the starch simple. Perfectly cooked Arborio Rice.

And before dinner we had a couple of visitors. First there was the turkey.

Then there was the duck who did not know what to make of the turkey so she left rather quickly.

And as I was getting ready to post this Chris said the male and female duck were back. I am sure the male duck did not believe his mate when she told him about the turkey!

Foodstock and Butternut Squash Ravoili

Let's start with dinner. First of all I was exhausted. For some reason I woke up at 3:30AM and did not fall back to sleep. Grrrrrrrr.
And today was Foodstock, more on that later.

I needed something fast for dinner. The less pans involved the better. No I did not order pizza, tempting as that was. I had some Butternut Squash Ravioli in the freezer. We had this back in March. Followed the same sauce recipe. Yes it was just as good. How could you go wrong with butter and cheese and sage.

Now on to Foodstock. What a fun day. A day surrounded by food writers and bloggers and restaurant owners and reviewers. And best of all was a seminar with Molly O'Neill, yes Paul O'Neill's sister.

The day started with Faith Middleton interviewing Ruth Reichl. They talked about a wide range of topics. One thing they brought up which I never thought of before was prepared organic food in the freezer section that is microwaved in plastic containers.
Another topic they touched on is aging wine in water. Did you know Thomas Jefferson had wine put on ships that sailed back and forth to Europe to help age the wine?
Another topic was the industrialization of organic food, or that organic food they sell at Walmart. Lets just say it is not recommended.

Next up was Eric Asimov. One thing he stated was that bottles of wine are products of thought and work.
Champagne and potato chips? Both he and Faith said yes. Something about wine, salt and fat... I will have to check on that one.
New best wine values are from Spain and Italy, Sicily to be exact.

Lunch break. Food truck galore.

I picked the grilled cheese truck, The Whey Station. Grilled Brie and Bacon Marmalade. I love brie and it was the first time I have had Bacon Marmalade. Lets just say it won't be my last!

Then we came to Molly O'Neill. In the kitchen there is a beginning, a middle and an end. Cooking equals power. And being terrified at times is great. The food you eat shows who you are, what you have and where you want to be.

Okay I will not go on. All I can say is today was a great day! I even met some cool people. Judy from Milford, Joan and Jay from NY, and Lee White who is a food writer for the Shoreline News. And wow I am beat.

Will I make it to the super moon... I will let you know tomorrow.