Archive for the ‘food’ Category

dinner for two: smoked salmon salad with toasted almonds and blueberry vinaigrette

Monday, July 27th, 2009

After a couple hours picking blueberries at an organic farm half an hour from my house, I had most of a bucket full. That’s probably three or four pounds, I thought, not wanting to overestimate my achievement. I’ll make some muffins and freeze a few for winter. A nice little harvest.

My nice little harvest turned out to be eight pounds, not four. I started eating the berries as fast as I could. I don’t bake, actually, and I don’t even have a muffin recipe to turn to. What was I thinking? That, and dinner time was quick approaching. Here, boyfriend, I thought. Have some blueberries for dinner after a hard day at work.

I’d picked a head of lacey green leaf lettuce from the garden earlier in the day, and glanced around the kitchen for inspiration. A bag of almonds for snacking on at work, a chunk of wild caught smoked salmon, and ooh, a gold beet from the farmer’s market. Hmm, sounds like a night for fancy salad!

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Posted in Lucy, Recipes, dinner for two, food | 1 Comment »

Pretty much the best asparagus ever, as learned from my mom:

Monday, May 18th, 2009

Place desired quantity of asparagus in a pan that can go in the oven. My mom uses pie pans, I have a brownie pan, as long as it is shallow it’s fine.

Drizzle olive oil (extra virgin, first cold pressing; yes I am an olive oil snob) over asparagus. This, as most of this recipe, is done to taste. If you really love the flavor of olive oil, put more in. I’ve had it both ways, I prefer more of a drizzle than a bath, if that makes sense.

Add chopped fresh garlic. I typically use one peeled/chopped clove, and scatter the pieces around in the pan. Add salt and pepper.

Bake in the middle of the oven from 12-20 minutes. I know it’s a huge time range, but it really depends a lot on the size of the asparagus, and the desired firmness. I’m not a fan of squishy, but I prefer a bit softer than crunchy. Smaller sized asparagus I typically bake around 15 minutes. Larger stalks I’ve left in for 20.

This can be done with a variety of vegetables as well. It’s especially good with broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, potatoes. The only concern with mixing veggies is that they tend to cook at different times, so it’s a bit of trial and error, for me anyway. I’ll cook potato pieces a good 12 minutes or more before I add the asparagus and broccoli, which in turn need to cook a lot longer than the zucchini and yellow squash.

This is especially good next to a beautiful steak, but can make a dinner in and of itself.

Posted in Naomi, Recipes, food | 2 Comments »

dinner for two: nettle pesto, asparagus, and ravioli

Monday, April 27th, 2009

I think I’m going to start a series on recipes for two people, based on the awesome dinners my boy Simon and I make.

notes:

  • wherever possible, ingredients are organic and local. they are a little more expensive that way (very little, really, during farmer’s market season!), but taste oh-so-much better.
  • 99% of measurements are approximate — but we rarely make things that are hurt by eyeballing.

on to the foods!

nettle pesto, asparagus, and ravioli

it was my day off, and I promised to make something yummy for dinner. it’s one of my favorite things, when I have the time, to have something delicious ready (or close to it) when Simon gets home from work. we love cooking together, but I work until close to eleven five nights a week — so it’s especially fun to share good food with him at the end of the day.

I’m crazy about nettles right now — yeah, the stuff you snagged yourself on when you were a kid. cooked, even briefly, nettles lose their sting and are high in iron and tons of vitamins, as well as helpful with seasonal allergies. you can steam or sautee them as you would any green, or pour boiling water on them for a nice spring tea (local honey boosts the anti-allergy factor).

I ended up spending the bulk of the day working on my novel and visiting with a friend. I started this pesto about a half hour before he got home, but it was still ready in time. it takes a tiny bit of prep, but it tastes way fancier than it is and is always popular.

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Posted in Lucy, Recipes, dinner for two, food | 2 Comments »