foodiefanatics

Hot weather last weekend led us to select some meals that could be done on the grill. We had people in and out all weekend so the food had to be flexible, quick to cook and not likely to heat up the house.  I made salmon burgers from cooking light (May. 09) that were good but needed a bit more flavor. I served these on some great Brioche buns from whole foods which I highly recommend.  These were easy to prepare, just throw everything into the food processor, form and they are ready to go. I refriged them for a while, making them stay together better. We put these on the grill and they didn't fall apart. 
Also on the grill, we made the Sausage, sourdough and bell pepper spiedini (bon may 09).  The kabobs were drizzled with a mustard vinaigrette which was also tossed with a light salad that the kababs were served on.  This was light, easy and tasty.
Farm Stand brownies from bon may 09 looked really good (with 3 1/2 cups of chocolate chips) but they ended up a bit dry. I don't know if I overcooked them or what. They taste great but the texture isn't so good.
Curried carrot salad with nonfat yogurt from bon, may 09 was a great use of both the carrots from the CSA and some hot serranos (the recipe didn't call for). I put the carrots and the serranos through the shredder and the salad was very tasty and spicy (just as good the next day too).

Lots of great recipes over the past month but hadn't the opportunity to post on them.
Potato au gratin (off the web, but I can't remember where) used dutch gouda, aged asiago, cheddar and gruyere cheese with just a bit of liquid. I thought it would be dry but it turned out great.
Halibut with coocnut red curry sauce (from Cooking Light 3/09). This is the best fish dish I've made. It is so flavorful and intense. Major flavors are the coconut and curry paste.
Creamy Caramel Pudding, Food and Wine 3/09
This is fast and good and almost healthy. Make sure to cook the caramel to an almost dark brown color to get a good color for the pudding.
Best ever nut brittle (food and wine on the web). This is very good and not difficult but it didn't have as much flavor as I would have liked. I sprinkled it on the caramel pudding.
Radish, cucumber salad with tarragon pesto (from bonappetiti 4/09). This was really tasty and a good use of CSA veggies.  It calls for grilled chicken but we used it as a side instead.
Waldorf Salad, Cook's Country, 4/09
I love apple salad and this one is tasty, crunchy and flavorful.
goat cheese and roasted corn quesadillas (cooking light 3/09) These aren't particularly flavorful. I wouldn't make it again.
Cucumber, buffalo mozzarella and farro salad (gourmet 4/09) This salad is wonderful, light, lemony and flavorul.  The fresh mozzarella is great.
Chocolate pistachio biscotti (everyday cooking, 4/09, p. 139) Not very chocolatey. I'm wondering if I need a better brand of cocoa.
scrambled eggs with sausage, mushrooms and fresh herbs (bon appetit, 2/03). Very good, sweet and flavorful
Pear clafouti, bon appetit 2/03, very good, I also used apples
Pan roasted new potatoes with rosemary (bon appetit, 2/03) just like the mission!  Great with both red skinned, idaho russet and yukon gold (which melt in your mouth). I've also added sweet potato
black bean burgers (gourmet 2/09). Kesh loved these and asked for them again. Simple recipe.
Brunch panini (rachelray 4/09) not as good as my other breakfast sandwich (see below) but pretty good. Includes raspberry jam and prosciutto.
Cucumber and radish salad (internet off Martha Stewart) another CSA recipe that was excellent and simple
Gnocchi nicoise (food network magazine 2/09) Kids loved this and the sauce of tomato, bacon, carrots, beef is very tasty.
Chilled cream of corn soup with white truffle oil (bon appetit--really old I don't know the year) This soup is almost other worldy. Very simple flavors that accentuates the corn and truffle. Really good.
Baked potato soup (cooking light, 10/02).  I made this for a party and people didn't want to eat it because of "all the cream". When I told them there wasn't any cream just blended potato and milk with some sour cream, they loved it.
Corn chowder with green chiles (vegetarian times, 11/02) Good but not very flavorful
Kale and white bean soup (gourmet 2/02) We really liked this soup even days later (especially days later). It is very tasty and the texture is smooth and silky. YOu can add Kielbasa for more flavor.
Southwestern style mashed potato cakes (cooking light 12/08)
Okay
Rigatoni with salami, oven roasted tomato and olives and capers (Food and wine) Very flavorful and very easy.  Can be served hot or cold.

This cake is very yummy. It's from Gourmet (March 2009).  A traditional pound cake infused with cardamom seeds and vanilla pods (I put in vanilla as well because I love vanilla).  The cake gets better over time as the flavors become more pronounced. Served with strawberries and whipped cream, the cake almost melts in your mouth. I cooked it in two loaf pans (the recipe says use a bundt cake pan).

For Easter, we were pretty non-traditional, but yummy.  We started the morning with a honeyed yogurt and blueberry tart with ginger crust (Food and Wine, March 09). This tart was easy and relatively healthy (you mix 10 graham crackers with 1/2 cup chopped candied ginger, 3 T butter and one egg white and bake. On top is drained Greek yogurt mixed with 2 T honey and spread with blueberries). I used frozen wild maine blueberries that had thawed and just put blueberries on each individual piece.
For dinner, we had hunks of bread spread with olive oil and grilled then sprinkled with sea salt (really good and really easy), a salad with a homemade creamy italian and a homemade mac and cheese

Hard cheese mac and cheese

Bring a pot of water to a boil and boil about 3/4 lb pasta (gemelli, fusili, something that will catch the sauce).
While the water is boiling, head 1 T olive oil in a large sauce pan and sear 3/4lb italian sausage (I used precooked. If it isn't precooked you need to fully cook it).  Drain. In the same pan, saute 2 chopped shallots, 1 T chopped garlic for five minutes. Add 3 T flour and stir for two minutes. Add 1/2 cup white wine, scraping up the bits from the bottom of the pan.  Then slowly pour in 3 cups of chicken broth and whole milk (I used about half and half).  Bring to a boil and turn off.
Shred 2 cups of cheese. I used a mixture of Italian Pecorino and sharp cheddar. Add the cheese to the hot milk mixture, whisking until it melts.  Add 1 1/2 cups peas (thawed if frozen) and 1/4 cup chopped jalapeno.  Mix in pasta and sausage and 1 t black pepper.

We had an unusual combo tonight. I made spicy chocolate thighs (the recipe called for wings but we like thighs better) from RAchel Ray mag (Feb 09, I believe). These were really good if you like mole. Lots of chocolate flavor. I would have liked a bit more spice next time around. Then I also made a green curry soup that we poured on udon noodles (and when the noodles ran out, ate on rice). The sauce was excellent. I invented it (probably not even remotely authentic).

Green Curry Sauce a la Vasudeva
Mix 1/2 t turmeric, 1 T chopped garlic and 1/2t salt in a mortar and pestle until paste. Add 1 T green curry paste and 1/2 T red chile paste (if you have it).  Mush it up.
Heat 1 T canola oil in a large skillet and add the mush. Fry for about 1 minute.  Add one can coconut milk and 1/2 can water and 2t sugar.  Stir until the sauce thickens somewhat (about 5 minutes). Add 1 T fish sauce and 1/2 squeezed lime. Taste for salt. If  too salty, add more sugar until the tastes are balanced. Put your noodles or rice in a bowl (probably could do some quickly steamed veggies as well or tofu) and ladle the sauce over. 
I'm just finished up a turtle ice cream pie so I haven't tried it yet. It's from bon appetit march 09 and features a graham cracker toasted pecan crust with ice cream and home made caramel topped with chocolate ganache (which is what I'm working on right now).  The caramel is made of brown sugar which I'm not sure I favor when making caramel. But we'll see.

Tonight, I've got an unusual combination of dishes. We're starting with a fig pizza with goat cheese and prosciutto (but I'm actually going to use sopresetta because I'm kind of tired of prosciutto and its texture).  I've got figs on my fig tree so I'm trying fig recipes. And, I'm retrying the pizza crust recipe from cooking light that I made such a mess of last time. That starter will be followed by halibut with corn gravy and chive mashed potatoes (Rachel Ray, 7/08).  The corn gravy is a mix of bacon, milk, chicken broth, corn, thyme and red bell pepper.  Dessert is a carrot cake recipe I downloaded from epicurious.com that was originally from Bon 10/04. 
I did a bunch of research before picking this recipe.  I looked through four different recipes trying to get a sense of the differences.  The recipes were quite different. Some had very little flour, other very little carrot. The Martha STewart recipe had 1 1/2 pounds of cream cheese and 3/4 cup of butter in the frosting!  Sounded great but too much.  This recipe had lots of reviews that were very positive and seemed a bit middle of the road.
I'm doing the crust for the pizza on the grill.  Hope it works out.

Thursday, the menu included avocado tomato stacks (cooking light, June 08) and Welsh rarebit burgers (Rachel Ray, 7/08). We had pecan pie for dessert.  The avocado tomato stacks were fantastic and looked good too. If I can ever figure out how to get the pictures on her, I'll post one.  Of course, once you cut into the stack the whole thing falls apart.  They were drizzled with a cilantro buttermilk dressing.
The Welsh rarebit burgers are fantastic if you like the flavor of the rarebit sauce (cheddar/Worcestershire/Guinness).  The burgers are browned in the skillet and then placed on pumpernickel bread with broiled rarebit sauce, tomato and bacon.