lunch date….. with my kitchen

Yesterday after his haircut Joseph stopped at the butcher shop and picked up flank steak and shell steaks. We lurve flank steak because, der of fajitas. However, when we came from church I did not feel like making fajitas, I wanted something different. I found this recipe and we loved it. I added my touch by also grilling onions with the marinade. It was so delicious. I also made roasted asparagus and plum tomatoes by simply adding olive oil, fresh thyme, salt and pepper, I also made an Asian inspired salad with edamame and carrots. I made delicious dressing that reminded us of our love for hibachi. It was very simple, soy sauce, ginger, lime, agave nectar, and garlic. It was fast and delicious.

edamame, carrots and romaine hearts

roasted asparagus and plum tomatoes inspired by Tyler Florence

flank steak with ginger marinade inspired by Aida Mollenkamp

Oh grill, how we miss you.

I know I haven’t posted much but I will try to update a lot more often. This is what we did the last time we grilled. It was an easy delicious meal. I didn’t get to take a picture of the steak because we ate it too fast.

Easy Grilled Zucchini and Red Onion

Mashed Grilled Fingerling Potatoes

Watermelonade

We had good friends come over and visit us last week. They called while we were at a local fruit/vegetable market. I had 1/4 of a watermelon and Joseph immediately grabbed a delicious black cherry pie. We had been wanting to buy watermelon but we are just not used to paying more than 6 bucks for a watermelon. I remember last summer we bought one for $15, that was all we ate for two days. I wasn’t sure whether to make watermelon sorbet or my usual watermelonade. Joseph convinced me to make the watermelonade because it would be an excuse to try out my new vintage looking ceramic jug. I totally agreed and started to make the delcious drink.

ingredients:

1/4 of a watermelon

5 limes

1/2 a pint of strawberries

1/2 cup of cane sugar

2 cups of water

3 leaves of lemon balm

3 leaves of mint

Directions

cut up 1/2 of the watermelon and blend until it is in liquid form (add a little bit of water)

pour 1/2 of liquid in pitcher

cut up strawberries and add to blender

squeeze limes in blender

add sugar

blend all of them and add to pitcher

mix them well in pitcher

with a melon baller scoop some watermelon and place in bag once you have done the rest of the watermelon place the watermelon balls in freezer for 30 minutes

chop up mint and lemon balm and place in glasses before serving add watermelon balls as well

serve drink and enjoy

Kitchen Sink Pizza

I adapted this recipe from Rachel Ray. Before I started working I had a lot of time to watch t.v. I never had cable in my life so I was quite content with watching food network all day. This lasted for about two weeks. This recipe is so easy and can be changed according to what toppings you like on your pizza.

1 (2 foot long) loaf Italian bread

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 ball of mozzarella cheese

1/2 package of pepperoni

1 can of mushrooms (drained)

1 can of sliced black olives(drained)

1 red or green pepper cut in long slices

chopped up ham

jalapenos

pizza sauce

1 tspn of garlic powder, Italian seasoning, onion powder, oregano,

3 leaves of fresh basil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

In a small bowl mix olive oil, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, onion powder, and oregano (oil mix)

Split bread lengthwise and hollow it out. Cut in half across, making 4 shells for pizzas

Brush bread with oil mix ,place in hot oven on cookie sheet and bake until bread is starting to brown(5-10 minutes)

Take out bread from oven and fill bread shells with basil, sauce and sliced mozzarella, add all ingredients remaining

Place in hot oven on cookie sheet and bake until cheese melts and bubbles and bread is super crisp, about 15-20 minutes

Mixed Berry Smoothie

Like many smoothies, this one isn’t hard to make but it sure is good, especially during this silly heatwave.

Take two cups of frozen mixed berries, two bananas (the browner, the better), and a half cup of milk. Blend.

You can always add ice if you choose to use fresh berries. But I’m just writing what she tells me.

Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette

From the back of a Good Season Italian Dressing box:

1/4 cup of water

3 tablespoons of fresh lime juice (I think she just squeezed 3 or 4 limes and called it a day.)

1/2 cup of oil (She prefers extra-virgin olive oil.)

2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro (Two big handfuls, give or take a finger.)

I was kind of disappointed to find that this was not packed in the mixed greens salad she made for lunch yesterday.

Chervil Pesto

There was a time when LorY was really into making dishes using pesto. That is until I asked her to cut back because every other meal had some sort of pesto in it.

Also, one of our favorite Food Network personalities is Tyler Florence who once remarked that chervil is one of his favorite herbs to cook with. Having never used chervil, LorY decided to plant some in her herb garden and it has taken like a weed. So she decided to trim the nice-sized bush she had grown and use it to make a pesto.

Take two fistfuls of fresh chervil (about a cup), two tablespoons of olive oil, a handful of pine nuts (half a cup, or thereabouts), a heaping tablespoons of minced garlic, and a handful of parmesan cheese and grind in a blender until finely chopped and even.

Super easy. Seriously.

Tri-Color Rotini with Chervil Pesto and Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette

So I’m still figuring out how I’m going to do this and it’s probably going to be a learning process so bear with me. Also, the one thing this blog will probably teach you about LorY is that actual recipes, you know with measuring and sizes, aren’t really her forte. Most of her cooking is done by sight, taste, and smell but I’ll give rough estimates if I can. Also, for recipes like this, this entry would describe the pasta salad as a whole and another entry would detail the creation of the pesto. So here goes.

Today’s lunch featured a tri-color rotini pasta salad with a chervil-lime vinaigrette. First off, I love tri-color rotini even if I can’t quite determine why, so this dish was already a winner. Also, being summer, she’s really trying to pull off cold dishes. So far, we’ve worked on mostly sides like potato salad, 3 bean salad, cucumbers in white wine vinegar, and black bean salad.

As far as I can tell, you take roughly two cups of tri-color rotini and cook until al dente. Just follow the recipes on the box, it’s not that hard.

Add about a quarter of a cucumber (chopped), some bean sprouts (an eighth of a cup maybe), a handful of black olives, a half-cup of chopped celery, and a bit of red onion (a quarter of a small one), and that should provide the basis for the salad. However, the kicker here was the handful of cremini mushrooms that came out of nowhere — definitely an inspiration that needs to be touted.

A half cup of chopped chicken adds some protein to the dish but this is one that could very easily be vegetarian if need be.

Cover it all and mix it in a splash or two (a few tablespoons) of cilantro-lime vinaigrette and some of the chervil pesto (to your liking) and refrigerate. Open it up a couple of hours later, once the flavors set, and enjoy a nice refreshing cold salad on a hot summer’s day.

If I were going to add anything to this dish, it might be some cannellini (white) beans for protein but that’s just me. Also, if you’re wondering why, if I’m just the eater, I’m making suggestions, it’s because that’s how we work. I may even post some of my own recipes on here once the site really gets going.