under pressure! and an awesome recipe.

We are going to NEW YORK in a few weeks, and I am feeling some pressure to pick JUST THE RIGHT PLACES for us to eat. For, like, 24 hours. I get pretty stressed out about these things, especially when there are a lot of options, because I live for fun, quality culinary experiences. I really, really do not fancy myself a foodie, nor do I think I have any kind of talent. But, I enjoy the heck out of it and it seems like food experiences are always so memorable and special to me. Whether traveling, entertaining, or just hanging with my man, I want everything to be Wonderful. And really, I know... first-world problems. Honestly, I enjoy this kind of "stress," except for the effect it has on my waistline. Tight pants are the pits.

Sigh, anyway, I've been slacking on writing and even taking pictures of my dinners because D is on vacation and we've been having too much fun. However, I did make an awesome recipe the other night that was a huge hit with both my brother, who came over for dinner, and D. No leftovers! Everything was devoured. I'm calling it Turkey Gyros, for lack of a better name.

I was craving gyros the other day, but they always make my stomach so upset, and I wanted a healthier alternative to the greasy, rotating meat you get in little storefronts. I was also craving falafel, but I wanted to avoid any kind of greasy frying. This came to mind, and it was spectacular. The gyro-esque flavors were spot-on, and fresh summer produce made it even better. Plus, no stove cooking! Everything went on the grill.

I can't wait to make it again! I used Greektown Billygoat seasoning from the Spice House, which is a family favorite for everything from kebabs to burgers to dips, but any spice blend should do.

Turkey Gyros (serves 4-6, depending on appetites)

1.25 pounds of ground turkey (I prefer the white and dark meat)
2 T. plain breadcrumbs
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon good Greek seasoning
Ground pepper
6 pitas, flatbreads, tortillas, pocket bread, etc.

Toppings:
Tomatoes, sliced
Cucumbers, sliced
Onions, sliced
Fresh parsley, chopped
Tzatziki sauce (here is a great recipe - I prefer to use Greek yogurt)
Feta or goat cheese (optional)
Hot sauce (optional)

Mix the turkey through the pepper and form into two-inch patties. Make an indention in the middle with your thumb to keep the shape. Grill or pan-fry patties until cooked, remove from heat and cover with foil. Grill pita/bread as needed. Have diners fill pita with the patties and toppings. Eat hot!

EDIT: I should note that if your spice blend doesn't contain salt, you may want to add some to the burger mix. I'm trying to cut back on the salt, so I didn't add any extra, but that spice blend does contain it.

dinner, 7/22/11.

I've said before that I "like" "Food & Wine" magazine on Facebook, and I get some of the best menu ideas from them. They just do it right. Great tone, great posts and recipes, great photos. I love it all.

Friday night, at the suggestion of F&W, I made David Burke's Grilled Skirt Steak with Peaches, only I used flank steak. The butcher we frequent usually only has frozen skirt steak, and I didn't want to deal with it, so I got the flank. I really enjoy cooking flank steak. It marinates quickly and is easy to cook, and as long as you cut it right, it's delicious.

The peaches were an awesome touch and even the husband commented how much he liked them. I was pleased, especially considering that grilled fruit is not really his jam. This recipe paired wonderfully with the Arbor Brook Pinot Noir we enjoyed before/with/after dinner. 

Also on the plate was some grilled corn and a spinach salad. I've discovered an interesting method for making an almost-wilted spinach salad without the hot bacon dressing. I toast some sliced almonds in a pan and in the meanwhile toss the spinach with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and some soft goat cheese. Then, when the almonds are hot, I throw them in the bowl and mix everything together. It almost melts the cheese and softens the spinach, and it is soooooooo tasty. Don't forget salt and pepper!

Last night, we used the leftover steak for some tacos. That marinade pulls some serious double duty. Two perfect summer dinners!

dinner, 7/21/11.

Dinner was great last night! I made an awesome grilled veggie quinoa salad and just grilled some simply marinated chicken breasts. The night before, I had grilled a ton of red pepper and zucchini, so I just diced up the leftovers and tossed them into this salad. Elegant, easy, tasty, and any veggies you like would work! I'm just going to grill extra vegetables all the time now to have around for this recipe.

Grilled Veggie Quinoa
1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cups leftover grilled veggies, diced (zucchini, eggplant, pepper, onion, anything really!)
3 green onions, chopped
Handful parsley, chopped (or any herbs would work)
1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, halved

Dressing
1 T. white balsamic vinegar
1/2 T. lemon juice (more to taste, I like mine pretty acidic)
1 T. olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste

Cook quinoa and cool thoroughly. I find it's best to cool it in a bowl rather than the pan or it can get mushy. Add remaining ingredients and toss until well combined. Chill thoroughly and serve. Can be made the night before and leave the dressing off to avoid sogginess. Yum!

dinner 6/27/11. too ugly to photograph.

Wow, was dinner ugly last night. However, it was very tasty! A simple cucumber salad and some grilled garlic bread (still making our way through a baguette we bought Saturday!) aside some grilled dijon chicken.

I need to remember this marinade I whipped together because it was very flavorful, if ugly, and would be great with any veggies but specifically asparagus. Also, boneless or bone-in chicken work, either way. We used boneless, skinless thighs, but I think skin and some flavor from the bone would be great.

I don't think it was the chicken's fault that it was ugly. We just did a bad job cooking it.

Grilled Dijon Chicken
Amount of chicken your meal requires
3 tablespoons of Dijon mustard (Beaver Mustard is my favorite - it's SPICY)
3 T. olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 slice of white onion
2 T. each of fresh basil, parsley chopped
1 T. fresh rosemary
Juice and zest of one lemon
Salt & pepper to taste

In a food processor or blender, mix together mustard through S&P, place chicken in large freezer bag or a bowl just big enough. Coat with the marinade and chill at least one hour. Grill chicken until done, basting with the marinate as you put it on the grill (not after, the marinade has raw chicken!).

bounty. so much bounty.

Many Saturdays in Chicago we would leash up the dog and walk to the Green City Market early in the morning. Generally, we would get there right before the crowds hit but after the stroller brigade had invaded. We'd find some choice produce - usually squash, tomatoes, some herbs, mushrooms, whatever looked really great and in season - and enjoy our picks. It was a lovely experience and a great tradition of summer that I relish.

This Saturday, we made it to our first Portland Farmers Market at PSU downtown. Oh. My. Goodness. It put the Chicago market to shame, and the Green City market is nothing to sneeze at. Granted, Oregon is one of the top food-producing states in the U.S., but wow. Everything I saw was beautiful, with many organic purveyors and some fantastic food stands. I barely resisted the urge to buy a FOUR DOLLAR artichoke, just because it was so pretty. I don't even really LIKE artichokes that much! It just looked like the world's most beautiful, edible cactus.

I took the opportunity to play around with a Composer Pro and funky lens from Lensbaby and try to get some serious food porn.

Not technically food, but if you've ever eaten a Pine State Biscuit, you know it's the business. They have a stand at the market. Giant cast-iron pots of boiling oil with fried chicken in them = awesome.

Real seafood at the market. 

Garlic scapes! Now that I know what to do with these, I want to get some next week.

STRAWBERRIES. We bought a half-flat. On Saturday. There are two small boxes left. Nom.

 Sauteed veggies from Verde Cocina. More on this in a minute...

Some sort of pretty flowers. There were two people, pulling all kinds of beautiful flowers from buckets and hand-tying bouquets. Lovely.

This woman is hand-pressing and grilling corn tortillas for Verde Cocina. I watched her for 15 minutes and wanted to hug her. I could write a huge post on my love of Mexican food, especially fresh tortillas, but another time.

Chilaquiles. Fresh tortillas, scrambled eggs, white bean salad, kale, sauteed veggies, and kicky salsa with a little crumble of cheese. The. Perfect. Breakfast.

We ended up leaving with the aforementioned strawberries, a microscopic bag of morel mushrooms, a pound and a half of English peas, some zucchini, and a bunch of basil. I decided to give risotto a try for the first time. Wow. Something I learned about risotto: Your patience will be rewarded! It was perfect, and delicious, and the sweet, fat peas were amazing in it with some lightly sauteed morels. Like heaven. 

Heaven, right here...

We had a balsamic-strawberry and arugula salad and some grilled baguette to finish off the meal. It was magical. Oh Oregon. Just when I needed that boost! Can't wait to see what I discover next weekend. 

two-meal quinoa.

Dinner tonight is one of my favorite, lazy dinners. It involves only one pot, one bowl, and leftover veggies. If you're not me, you eat half of it and save the other half for tomorrow's lunch. If you're me, you eat two-thirds of it and then wonder how to pad it for another meal, or resist eating the remainder in an hour.

Here's how I make mine. Really, you can do whatever you want with it.

1/2 c. quinoa, cooked and cooled

1 can garbanzo beans, drained

1/2 cucumber, chopped

Handful of grape tomatoes, chopped

Onion, chopped

Green pepper, chopped

Basil

Splash of olive oil

Splash of red wine vinegar

1/4 lemon, juiced

Salt & pepper

Combine, chill for an hour, and eat! The best. By the way, what is up with recipes calling for quinoa to be soaked for hours or overnight? I rinse and cook. Maybe that's just me... Shortcuts abound! Bon appetit!

dinner. 6/9/11

It looks like the SUN is in my kitchen in this photo! And it's the only one I took! So deal with it. Ha. Chick food for dinner tonight. Tuna salad with tomato, red pepper, red onion, lemon, dijon mustard, capers, S&P. A couple of soda crackers. I've been craving zucchini, so I shaved a small one with the vegetable peeler and tossed it with lemon, olive oil, some mint, and a touch of parmesan.

I was happy. It was dinner. I didn't turn on the stove. Works for me!

dinner, 5/18/11

Kind of a boring dinner tonight, but it was really quick and very easy to prepare. I had a bunch of champagne mangoes that were just about to turn, so I diced them up with some red and yellow bell pepper, some onion, some cilantro, lime, and some minced jalapeno. Is anyone else mystified by the inconsistent heat of the jalapeno? Half the time, they taste like bell peppers. The other half of the time, my tongue withers off. This one was hot, and I liked it.

Wrapped some tilapia in foil after sprinkling it with some seasoned salt and lime. Grilled it for 10 minutes and topped it with the mango relish (salsa?). The side was a simple arugula salad, which didn't really go, but we ate it anyway. You know, I don't care much for tilapia, but it was cheap and quick and worked fine here.

pork and politics.

I made chipotle-pork cheeseburgers last night and I forgot to take a picture, and dang they were delicious. I also made a grilled romaine salad. Have to say, grilling lettuce is an awesome technique. If you're already using your grill, it takes about four minutes to slice some heads of romaine in half, brush with olive oil, and grill until charred/softening. I cut ours up first and dressed with a little bit of Caesar dressing, though serving the grilled halves intact would be great presentation for a dinner party.

(An aside here: Look, I try not to make this blog political for a number of reasons. Yoga and dinners are boring, yeah, but at least they don't stress me out. But I would be remiss not commenting on recent events.)

ANYWAY, we were watching some television, flipping through the channels, when I saw the announcement that President Obama would be speaking. I immediately flipped open my laptop and hit Twitter, news feeds, and Facebook at the same time. Soon, Wolf Blitzer was telling me that the presidential address would be regarding the capture of Osama Bin Laden. Nearly 10 years after 9/11, he was dead, killed by U.S. forces. Much like I can recall 9/11 and my parents recall events like the assassinations of JFK and MLK, I think I will probably remember how and when I heard this announcement.

It sent my mind back to where I was, where my friends were, what was going on in our lives that September a decade ago. How after the horrific events, we all wondered when it would be OK to laugh again, how we could ever board an airplane again, what did this mean for the future of our country? I knew people who joined the military in the following months, compelled by the desire to protect and defend the United States. Others of us had just graduated from college and wondered what this meant for our own futures? Not selfishly, but in the sense of our families, our working lives, our years ahead, and the shape of America as a whole.

For a long time, everyone seemed more patriotic, and while the fears we all carried faded, of course no one forgot what happened. I remember sitting in the Millennium Hilton in December 2003, across from Ground Zero, a week after it had reopened. The windows that were blown out had been replaced, rooms refinished, structures tested, and I was staying there on my first-ever business trip and first time in New York City. Every morning, I would wake up and watch the sun rise over the gaping hole in the ground and cry, unable to get the horrible images of destruction, despair, and death out of my head when faced with the ruins where so many had died. Being confronted with the reality of terror, adulthood, beginning a career I wasn't sure about after months of weird job situations, so far away from my family and friends, and alone in the biggest city in the United States, I was so scared. But I also was proud, seeing the backhoes hauling debris in the morning, digging out and starting over. I'd get myself up and put a suit on, hearing guys in hard hats yelling at each other in that only-in-New-York accent. Knowing this city would go on, and the world would go on, and I would be OK myself in adulthood and beyond.

I don't know if I feel that justice has been served by the death of Osama Bin Laden, but I am glad that he is no longer free in the world, especially living in a mansion in Pakistan. Those who lost loved ones and have lived with fear and devastation at his hands certainly deserve to feel vindicated. It doesn't feel right to me to outwardly celebrate someone's death, but as many on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere have posted, Mark Twain's quotation sums it up pretty succinctly: "I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure."

dinner, 4/29/11.

Decided I'd make a nice dinner since the husband had been out of town and I figured he was sick of eating in restaurants. I "like" "Food & Wine" magazine on Facebook, and the dinner suggestions they post are always great, so I went with Spaghetti with Escarole & Bacon and Mushroom Salad with Mint.

The only variations I made were that I (EGADS) microwaved the bacon for time's sake because it was 10:00 at night. Also, I used my preserved lemons in the salad instead of fresh lemon zest. YUM. The salad was awesome. I thought the mint would stand out more but really it gave the earthy mushrooms a subtle freshness and was great with the salty, preserved lemon. The pasta was great. I love, love, love Bionaturae pasta. The organic spaghetti cooked perfectly. For dried pasta, it's definitely my favorite product, and really hard to mess up and overcook.

We each had a glass of a Sicilian grillo that we bought a few weeks ago, and it was not right for this meal. Too mineral and seemingly acidic, but still tasty. Grillo is an odd grape, usually used in marsala and blends. It's gaining popularity as a standalone wine. I like it, but not with this.

Then we collapsed. I slept like a baby. This makes six days in a row I've eaten bacon. Relax, I only used four slices in the entire pasta dish. Hmm, wonder how I can get my bacon in today?

dinner, 4/27/11.

Haven't done a dinner post in a while. I'm pretty happy with what I pulled together for myself tonight. Sorry the picture isn't great. It's from my phone because I didn't want to get out the camera and freak out the dog while he is sick (he hates cameras).

Chickpea Stew

1/2 T. olive oil

1/2 onion, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 t. cumin

1/2 t. coriander

1/2 jalapeno, minced (optional)

Salt & pepper

1 can chickpeas, drained

Broth or water (enough to cover chickpeas in your pot)

1 14.5 ounce can crushed tomatoes (I used Muir Glen Fire-Roasted crushed tomatoes)

Squeeze of lemon, maybe one tablespoon

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until softening. Add spices, jalapeno, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in chickpeas and add water or broth. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Using a potato masher, mash the chickpeas to desired consistency. I like it chunky. Add tomatoes, cover, and simmer another 10-20 minutes on low. Stir in lemon juice at the end. Serve with cilantro, green onion, jalapeno, etc. I like mine with HOT SAUCE of course!

I also had an arugula salad with some lemon and olive oil and bleu cheese. Boring. But very tasty!

dinner(s), 4/7 & 4/8/11.

Thursday night, I just didn't feel like cooking, so we went to Podnah's down the street. They just relocated to our neighborhood, and everyone raves about the barbecue. We had a salad (mmm, bleu cheese dressing) and a half-rack of ribs with some brisket and sides. It was pretty good. Of course, nothing is as good as my beloved Oklahoma Joe's. The ribs were decent, and the sauces were nice, the sides were sides. Prices were good, too. My only real complaint was that the brisket was so poorly cut that it looked like someone else had eaten it first. It was totally mangled!

Friday, we decided to go for a walk and have an in night and make dinner. It was just lovely out. Sunny and 60 and beautiful, so we set the patio chairs up in the back garden and Dave made up a little cheese plate. We went to a great wine tasting last weekend and decided to open one of the bottles we had picked up, fought over the pickled artichokes, and had a nice, decompressing moment.

Just because I am unemployed doesn't mean my week was a piece of cake! I earned my share of that delicious, creamy lump of cheese on that platter. 

Dinner was spice-rubbed, grilled pork tenderloin, coconut rice with cilantro (I think I ate most of it!), and spicy asparagus. Big winner, and the hubs grilled the pork perfectly! This is all making us sound like major carnivores. Hey, we ate vegetarian Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday! Sometimes, you just have to use what you already have around.

For the record, last night we had a frozen pizza. Kirkland cheese, to be exact. Not really post-worthy (but meat free)!

dinner, 4/6/11.

Trying to get through whatever is in the fridge this week, so we had grilled chicken breast marinated in some lemon juice, honey, Stuarto's garlic olive oil (from my dad!), salt, and pepper. We threw some julienned preserved lemon on top.

Since it IS spring, according to the calendar, I've been craving light foods like pasta salad. Instead of pasta, I used some quinoa and all of the nearly gone veggies in the drawer. Today that was mini bell peppers, green onions, some broccoli slaw and basil. I tossed it in lemon juice and olive oil, Lawry's seasoned salt, and fresh pepper. It was a workable, pretty healthy meal. Of course, there is hot sauce on the quinoa. YUM.

I am not a food photographer. I plan on taking some photography classes one of these days. This was the best I could do!

food rules.

One of the huge blogging cliches: Posting about food. I know. But I love food and enjoy cooking. Not everything is a success, but usually I can put a meal on the table that is decent, ideally not too expensive, healthy, and probably won't make you sick. Neither the hubs nor I is picky. It's one of my favorite, favorite things about my husband: He will try almost anything once, and he is adventurous with food. I'm the same way, so it stays pretty easy around here, save for the occasional battle of man-wants-meat vs. girl-wants-veggies. Generally, and luckily, the only challenges are...

HIM:
No white stuff - includes mayo, yogurt, sour cream, overly stinky cheeses, etc.
No veggie products that pretend to be meat - there was an incident with some vegan pepperoni, and he has never recovered

ME:
No bananas
No maple syrup - no seriously, I can barely sit at a table when someone is eating pancakes

So, I broke one of the rules last night and used mayo in a recipe. If it's cooked, it gets past him undetected. And it was a hit!  Grilled eggplant sandwiches have been in the rotation for a while, but I decided to mix it up and go with "oven-fried" eggplant cutlets served it on toasted ciabatta rolls with fresh mozzarella, basil, tomato, and balsamic onions. Calorie-wise, it might be a little more than using just olive oil, but we didn't have anything besides a simple arugula salad on the side. Dessert was an epic fail, though... apparently the white food category includes creme caramel... "I like the caramel, but it's too eggy!" Sigh. A waste of a water bath and worry over burned sugar!

So, I am going to try and make a habit of (remembering to photograph and) posting dinner menus for doable weeknight meals, and maybe fancy weekend meals. I have a hard time remembering successes, so it would be great to record them for my own use! I'll try and post recipes if/when I use them. If I make something up, maybe I'll type out the recipe. Last night's dinner...

Recipes:
Oven-fried eggplant cutlets
Balsamic onions