Pan Seared Salmon With French Green Lentils

How was everyone's weekend? Our weekend was pretty eventful, despite the heat. We went to one of our favorite Cuban restaurants, Havana Rumba. Sad to say, we didn't have a very pleasant experience. It's always busy, so we expected a wait. So we waited... and waited... and finally, after seeing couples and groups have their buzzer go off before us, when they came well after us... Andy decided to check on the status of when we would get seated. Come to find out, we were mistakenly skipped. (insert big sigh here)... So they seat us right away. Well, then we order and Andy always gets the "Vaca Fritas"... everyone knows what vaca fritas are right? Well, it's shredded beef that's flash fried with onions and peppers. What comes to the table? A marinated steak. NOT vaca fritas. Does Andy send it back? No, because we weren't about to cause a scene. We're not THOSE people. But sorry Havana Rumba... we probably won't be visiting again for quite some time.

Has anyone ever had any experiences like that? You've ALWAYS had consistent service at a place, and loved everything about them, until one night of service and/or food just ruins it all? It's just a bummer, that's all. We've been on a string of Friday nights where we've gone to some of our favorite places and they've just failed to deliver. Or maybe our palates have just grown too snobby to like what we once did? We're the ones that have changed, not the restaurants. Maybe? For right now, I'll leave that decision at a draw. It could be a little bit of both.

Now on to today's recipe, which is so simple, yet so flavorful. And yes, this was my first time ever cooking with lentils. I can't believe I've never used them before!

Ingredients:
Adapted from Korean American Mommy's Blog

1 cup French green lentils
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for rubbing salmon
1 onion, chopped
1 leek, white and light green parts only, chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 celery ribs, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 8 oz. salmon fillets, skin on

In a medium heat proof bowl, add the lentils and cover with boiling water. Let sit for about 15-20 minutes. Drain, and set aside.

In a large skillet, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and add onions, leeks, thyme, salt, and pepper. Saute for about 10 minutes, or until onions start to soften.

Add the garlic and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute or two. Add celery, carrots, chicken stock, lentils, and tomato paste. Stir until tomato paste is well incorporated and cover. Stirring occasionally, simmer for about 20-25 minutes, or until lentils are tender. Slowly stir in the vinegar until you reach the desired taste. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 450 F.

Heat a large oven-proof skillet over high heat. Rub both sides of salmon fillet with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. If you want a crispier skin of the salmon, make about 2-3 diagonal scores on the skin before you add it to skillet. This will create less surface area to heat and allow for the skin to crisp up faster.

Place salmon fillets, skin side down, in the skillet and cook for about 2-3 minutes, or until skin is browned. Carefully flip each fillet over and transfer skillet to oven for about 5 minutes, or until pink throughout. (I'd never cooked salmon this way either, I usually just use that method for steaks, but was pleasantly surprised that the salmon came out PERFECT doing this)

Serve the salmon over a mound of the lentil mixture and dig in!

I definitely loved this recipe. It came together in no time, and was definitely light and filling. Enjoy!

Crabcake Quiche

One of my favorite appetizers to have are crabcakes. I mean, who doesn't like crabcakes? Weirdos. That's who. (No offense to you non-crabcake lovers out there). The crunchy, panko crusted outer edges, and the soft meaty crab... the flavors are just superb... when done correctly, of course.

I've also recently developed a lover for quiches. Cheese plus eggs. How can you go wrong there?

So, the genius inside of me decided one night... why not combine the two? Hell... I could be one to something here. Unless it's already been thought up... but as far as I know, I haven't seen or heard of anyone else making this. So, consider yourselves lucky, because this is a knockout dish perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!


Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened, plus 3 tablespoons melted
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
8 oz. lump crab meat
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
1 small onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
small handful parsley, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

I've been in love with this simple cream cheese pastry dough. It's uber easy and pairs perfectly with practically anything savory.

In a small bowl, combine the flour and salt. In a large bowl, beat the 1 cup of butter and cream cheese until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Slowly beat in flour mixture until dough starts to form.

Dive the dough in half and shape into 2 rounds. (You can store the other half in the freezer in a freezer bag for up to 1 month for another use, or another quiche!). Cover and refrigerate the dough round for about 1 hour, or until well chilled.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine the crabmeat, panko, onion, and bell pepper. Stir in parsley, mustard powder, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Toss with melted 3 tablespoons of butter and heavy cream. Mix well and fold in eggs and cheese.

Roll out dough on a floured surface to about 1/8 inch thickness. Make large enough to fit a normal sized pie pan. Grease pie pan and preheat oven to 350F.

Set dough in pan and place pie weights or dry beans atop of dough. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until starting to brown.

Add crabmeat mixture and bake for about 25-30 minutes longer, or until filling is set. Let cool for about 5 minutes and serve!


I'm telling you, this was one of those light bulb moments like "why haven't I thought of this before?!" It was soooooo good. Happy weekend and enjoy guys!

Mint Chocolate Chip Frozen Yogurt

I first want to give Olga over at MangoTomato big props for posting a link to Veggie Belly's Photography post on her twitter page. I learned more from than 1 post than I did trying to skim my Nikon D40 reference book. So thank you! I know understand my manual settings a little bit more now thanks to you guys!

And also, I didn't win Battle Skewer over at Foodie Fights , but one of the judges, Greg from Sippity Sup (who happens to have a pretty informative and awesome blog himself!) commented in his write-up that he really liked my blog. Cool huh? Yeah, it's the little things that make me happy!

So anyway... while I was making this frozen yogurt, Andy and I had a conversation that went a little something like this:


Andy: What are you making?


Me: mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Andy: is that yogurt going in there?


Me: yeah.

Andy: then you're making frozen yogurt. that's not ice cream.

Me: oh who cares, it all tastes the same.

Andy: Umm no... no it doesn't. Frozen yogurt is not ice cream.

All my life I've never thought frozen yogurt tasted any different from ice cream. Am I alone in this? Either way, after making homemade frozen yogurt... I could definitely taste the difference.


Ingredients:
Adapted from Rocco Dispirito's Now Eat This! - "Mint Chocolate Chip Frozen Yogurt"

4 tablespoons powdered gelatin
1 cup whole milk
1 cup sugar
18 oz. plain Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
neon green food coloring
1 cup mini chocolate chips

In a large bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over 1/2 cup of the milk.

In a small saucepan, cimbine the remaining 1/2 cup milk with the sugar and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir until dissolved and then pour the hot mixture in the bowl with the gelatin and milk. Whisk until the gelatin is completely dissolved (this part is crucial because you don't want little chunks of undissolved gelatin to be mixed throughout the final product. Not tasty, trust me).

Whisk the yogurt into the gelatin mixture. Whisk in peppermint extract and a few drops of the neon green food coloring until you've reached your desired color.

Using an ice cream maker, freeze the mixture according to the machine's directions. I had the mixture in mine for about 25-30 minutes for a nice creamy, solid texture. About 5 minutes before you're ready to stop the machine, add in the chocolate chips. Serve immediately.

After tasting homemade frozen yogurt, I can definitely tell a difference between it and ice cream. So yeah, as much as I hate to admit it... Andy was right about something. =) Enjoy!

P.S. Check out our CSA bundle this week - we got a boat load of stuff!!


Watermelon
1 lb. green beans
2 eggplants
1 lb. peaches
1 lb. plums
4 ears of corn
4 hot peppers
1 fresh baguette

I took some of your ideas from last week and will definitely have some posts coming up. So feel free to suggest some stuff for this weeks goodies... I've got a lot of fresh fruit, so they're just great for whatever ideas you guys have in store!

Foodie Fights - Battle Skewer

It's that time again. Foodie Fight battle time. New this year, the guys in charge of Foodie Fights have decided to have an "open" battle every now and then.

You don't necessarily have to have 2 specific ingredients, but more a recipe based on an idea of sorts. The first was Battle Burger, the next Battle Frozen Dessert, and now Battle Skewer. A perfect battle for the summer.



While we didn't necessarily have to grill something, I always associate skewers with grilling, and so I chose to go that route.

Then was big decision on whether to use actual skewers or a "faux" skewer (lemongrass, rosemary, cinnamon sticks?, etc.)... but I decided to keep it old fashioned and stick with something traditional and packed full of flavor.



We've been getting these beautiful heirloom cherry tomatoes in our CSA packages every now and then, and they're just packed full of juicy goodness.


While I don't necessarily know the specific names of their type, I just like the way they come in a variety of colors and tastes.

Almost makes me not want to eat them because they're so beautiful.


I had some flat bread lying around, so I thought it would be perfect to make kabob sandwiches with everything I had. So enjoy the entry, because I know I enjoyed eating these babies.


Balsamic Beef Kabob Flatbread Sandwiches Ingredients:

1 & 1/2 lbs. sirloin, cut into strips (wide enough that they're fold onto skewers)
2 onions, each cut into 8 wedges
1/2 lb. heirloom cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil, plus 2 tablespoons
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon rosemary
2 garlic cloves, minced
8 pieces flatbread
butter (optional)
about 8 skewers

If you're using wooden skewers, you wanna let them soak for at least 30 minutes.

To prepare the marinade for the beef, combine the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, rosemary, garlic, salt, and pepper in shallow dish. Stir until well incorporated and add beef strips. Coat strips well and try to arrange in single layer. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in fridge for at least 30 minutes to marinate.

Prepare charcoal grill to medium high heat.

To prepare skewers, arrange about 4-5 beef strips in center and place 1 onion wedges on both ends of skewers.


The cherry tomatoes were so fragile and pretty, I didn't want them to get skewered, cook too fast, and just fall apart. So I opted to wrap them in a foil packet with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and place on indirect heat on the grill, for about 15-20 minutes, or until the tomatoes barely started to wrinkle.


Grill the skewers for about 10 minutes or so, for a good medium, or a little less if you like it more medium rare.

Toast the flatbreads on the grill for about 1-2 minutes per side, just enough to get them slightly crisp.


I like to unskewer everything and just mix it all up. That way, you can just take some tongs and throw in a random mix of ingredients!


Lightly butter inside of flatbreads, if you wish, and add kabob meat, onion wedges, and a few cherry tomatoes and you've got yourself one hell of a delicious sandwich.


Seriously. This rocked. I don't usually use balsamic as a marinade, but it was all I had in the house, and I decided to give it a go. And I'm glad I did because hands down, this is one of the best sandwiches, grilling sensations, I've ever made.

And I hope you think so too. And if you're so inclined, feel free to vote at Foodie Fights on Tuesday!

Watermelon Daiquiri

Well Happy Friday! I've got a 3 day weekend this week, so I'm actually ecstatic for today to be Friday! And to my utter joy, I made Foodbuzz Top 9 today too! So thanks guys!

I think I'll just spend my 3 days off catching up on sleep, cleaning the house (maybe), and just spending some time with the dogs!

It's no surprise that it's been hella hot these past few weeks of summer. And for some reason, the heat makes me want to drink. Or maybe I use that as an excuse. But nonetheless, I've gotten a wee bit creative with my drink-making skills. So out came this watermelon dacquiri using some ingredients we had around the house.


Ingredients:

2 cups watermelon, seeds removed and cut into cubes
crushed ice
1-2 shots coconut rum (or regular rum if you're not feeling the coconut)

In a large glass, combine the watermelon, crushed ice, and rum. Blend with an immersion blender until thick in consistency. At this point, you could strain the liquid if you don't want the texture of the watermelon in there, but I chose to keep it because I was lazy and I liked the watermelon bits. Pour into two glasses and drink up!

This was quite refreshing. Of course you could always just make watermelon slushies by omitting the rum, but I think the rum gives it an extra tropical feel, and makes it so it doesn't seem to be too hot outside. Enjoy! And happy weekend everyone!

Simple Bruschetta

It is hot. Too hot. Triple digits is just not cool. We should have listened to all the global warming hype and prepared ourselves for this. Why don't I just stay inside, you ask? Of course I would LOVE to stay inside our air conditioned home for the rest of the day, but being the active young lass that I am, I've got a volleyball match tonight and directly after that I have to play in a softball tournament! Yeah... I'm a glutton for punishment. All I can say is that I'm filling up my gallon jug full of water and praying that it'll keep me from passing out.

Anyway, now that I've vented my frustration with the heat wave we're having, I'll get to the recipe.

I've stressed this numerous times, but simplicity = bliss. The simple things in life are most often the best and that's exactly why I love bruschetta. With simple ingredients like tomatoes, basil, and olive oil... you can whip up a quick and simple bruschetta any day of the week.


Ingredients:

1 Large tomato, diced
about 10 fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
toasted hamburger buns (you can tell I was raiding my pantry again)

In a small bowl, combine tomatoes, basil, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix until well combined. Serve over sliced toasted bread (you can definitely do something other than hamburger buns, but that was the only bread product I had).

See... simplicity at it's finest. Enjoy!

Check out our CSA goodies that we got today...


3 ears of corn
2 lbs. tomatoes
1 lb. gourmet cherry tomatoes (they're soooo cute!)
1 & 1/2 lbs. peaches
2 green peppers

Any ideas on what I should do with this stuff???

P.S. This bruschetta is entered into Torview's Food Palette event!  Enter yours today!

Homemade Potato Chips

Don't you hate it when the weekend goes by so fast? It felt like just yesterday I was leaving work on Friday. But no, that wasn't yesterday. So no bright weekend in sight. Instead... the dreaded work week. Which only happens to be 4 days for me, so I guess I can't complain.

Our weekend was a pretty busy one. On Saturday, Andy's boss and his wife, and their two friends came over for dinner. It was kind of nerve-racking, really. But everything turned out quite alright and no food was left to waste. The menu, you ask? Well, I stuck to simple, elegant items:

4-6 oz. Filet Mignon (the butcher at the grocery gave me an off cut of tenderloin, but I made do)
Seared Scallop BLT's (halved scallops with bok choy, roma tomato, bacon, and homemade herb mayo)
Pasta Salad w/ pepperonicini, sopressata, feta, cherry tomatoes, and a drizzle of white wine vinegar
Steamed Asparagus w/ a little bit of butter and lemon
Blueberry Cheesecake Bars w/ fresh blueberry whip cream

Needless to say, I felt good about myself afterward (even though I've convinced myself that I overcooked some of the steaks, overcooked for my liking anyway... who knows, maybe they liked medium well/well steaks). It was a good experience and they all were encouraging and grateful about the meal, which at the end of the day... is all I could ask for.

And this was a tad late, but check out our CSA goodies from Wednesday: Some more red cabbage (any good cabbage recipes anybody?!), brussels sprouts, green peppers, corn, more potatoes!

The rest of the weekend? Sunday was spent out in the sweltering sun, playing putt-putt. Which apparently I'm not as good at as I would have thought. But good times spent with good friends all around.

And now... potato chips. While spending $2-5 on a bag at the grocery is easy and quick... why not make your own? It's definitely way more satisfying and you can play with the flavors! Just raid the spice cabinet and get creative!

Ingredients:

6 small new red potatoes, scrubbed
steak seasoning or salt
vegetable oil, for frying

See... with an ingredient list so small... why not?!

If you have a mandoline, this is even easier, but for those of us who do not have one (hint hint, I WANT one lol), we've got to put our knife skills to work. Try to slice the potatoes as thinly as possible, but if you like a thicker cut, be my guest.

Wash off the starch from the potatoes until the water runs clear. Let them dry on a paper towel while you heat your oil.

Add oil to a thick pan or dutch oven to come up about 2 inches. Heat under high heat and bring to a temp of about 365 F.

Add potatoes to oil and fry for about 3-5 minutes, or until they are golden. With a slotted spoon, transfer to a paper-towel lined bowl and toss with a bit of steak seasoning (or whatever spice you like).

See... so in about 15 minutes or less, you've got perfectly crispy, delicious, homemade potato chips right in front of you. And you didn't spend a dime (unless you didn't have potatoes in the house, but seriously, this is cheap). Enjoy!

And this was a tad late, but check out our CSA goodies from Wednesday: Some more red cabbage (any good cabbage recipes anybody?!), brussels sprouts, green peppers, corn, more potatoes!