Ricotta Spinach Pasta with Summer Veggies

This is a fast, basic, summer pasta dish. I adapted the recipe from Martha Stewart's Great Food Fast.

Fennel Crusted Bluefish and Faux Panzanella

Veggie-Orzo Summer Salad

This summer salad is quick, healthy, and super yummy. It is loaded with vegetables but it has such a simple taste. I think that it will be the next picnic food for me. It would also be a great dish to serve on the side of some cooked fish.

It was inspired by this blog and that cook, Cate, was inspired by another blog! So as you can see, it is was a typical cooking experiment for me.

Buckwheat Asparagus-Prosciutto Pizza

Pizza is an old favorite of mine that I like to make. I do not make the dough the "proper" way but it always turns out just fine. My dad taught me how to make it years ago and this is my version which makes things a bit quicker because I do not allow the dough time to rise. Because, let's face it, when I start to cook dinner its usually 10 pm and I have just bought the ingredients from the store. If I let the dough rise I wouldn't eat till 1am!

Zucchini-Carrot Curry Soup

This recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart's Great Food Fast. I recommend buying her book if you are interested in making cooking a little more simple. I have a tendency to over-complicate dishes so I enjoy cooking the recipes in this cookbook.

 This soup is very flavorful and healthy. I think it would work well for a picnic food as well.

Pistachio-olive Lamb Chops (served with sauteed summer squash and wild rice)

This was my second attempt at making lamb, ever. It was delicious! Part of that might be due to the fact that I got the lamb from the Brooklyn Kitchen's Meat Hook! If you haven't been there yet and live in BK I recommend you go go go soon! All the meat sold there is local and treated nicely. It was a celebration dinner with a few close friends for getting 3 job offers! Finally, a chance to work in a hospital as an OT!

Lemon-Thyme Chicken with Kale Chips and simple glazed carrots

This chicken dish is crazy good, pretty easy and relatively healthy too. The flavor is very rich. I served it with glazed carrots (see below) and Kale Chips (see previous post) because I had already eaten enough carbs for the day but I would also recommend serving it with a side of potatoes or rice to dip in the leftover sauce. The best part about it is that you can basically make it with things you probably already have in the house.

Japanese Pizza with Sauteed Fiddlehead Ferns

This "pizza" is more like an interesting dinner omlette. The recipe is adapted from my favorite site 101cookbooks. It makes two mini pizzas and can serve four people.

Kale Chips

These chips are a fun side to a meal. They are also a healthier snack alternative to potato chips and quite possibly the easiest thing to make.

Crispy Cilantro-Lime Sea Bass with Baby Red Potatoes

Blog Travels to Sonia's Part Deux

Cold Cucumber Soup...the blog's first trip!

Warning: This is the easiest soup you will ever make! :)

Last night I went to my friend Sonia's apartment so we could cook together. Since we used to live together we make a great team in the kitchen. This experience cooking was very different from all others. Since I was in a funk, I was happy to distract myself in the kitchen. So, sonia happily sat at the bar stools scrounging the internet for ideas on how we should make the meal we decided on. She gave me instructions on what to do and I did it. Made it brainless for me. The first course was to a cold cucumber soup, and the second was sea bass cooked with a side of potatoes (recipe to follow in next post).

Ingredients
3 cucumbers, peeled
3 scallions
2 garlic cloves, minced
32 oz fat free plain yogurt (Greek would make it the creamiest)
3 T fresh dill, chopped
juice from 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper

1. Cut cucumber and scallions (use greens and stems) into big chunks. Place in blender.
2. Add minced garlic, yogurt, dill, lemon, and salt and pepper (to taste) to the blender.
3. Blend until homogeneous. Serve cold.

Frozen Pretzel Raspberry Pie

Its damn hot outside. The weather forecast claims that it is only 83 degrees, but we all know that the weather lies. I am melting in my hot kitchen and the last thing I wanted to do was turn the oven on. Alas, I really wanted to make this frozen pretzel raspberry pie for a rooftop potluck I was going to, which required me to bake the crust. There are remedies for everything...

cucumber pb & j

I was browsing TasteSpotting (only the most fabulous, visually-stimulating food site) the other day when I saw someone had made peanut butter and jelly with cucumbers! I thought that was the strangest idea, if not even perhaps a little scary. So naturally, I had to try it for breakfast just now, yes breakfast at 1:30 pm! It's basic PB& J with slices of cucumbers and a pinch of sea salt. That's it!

The cucumbers make the sandwich so refreshing in this heat. I would even go so far as to say that the might even prevent your body from melting. I recommend giving it a try!

cold soba peanut noodles

Last night I went on a picnic with some lady friends. It was the first of the season, as all other attempts to picnic this spring were rained out. It turned out to be quite the feast. I didn't change the recipe that I used too much because it was nearly perfect. I have had other peanut noodles and the sauces weren't as good. This one really is a great way to feed a bunch of people at a picnic. I will definitely be making it to go to movies under the Brooklyn Bridge this summer!

Sauteed Great Northerns, Chick Peas and Kale

This past spring I started cooking with Kale. I had had it maybe once before but never got anywhere near it in the grocery store. I expected it to be very bitter and grose...sort of the same feelings I had about brussel sprouts as a kid. But I was pleasantly surprised by how great it tastes and now it is one of my favorite vegetables to cook with. According to Wikipedia kale is high in antioxidants, vitamins K, C, beta carotene, and calcium. Who can argue with that?

Pesto Sauce

This recipe is adapted from George Mateljan's, The World's Healthiest Foods. I recommend purchasing his book, which has rather lengthy descriptions of healthy foods and ways you can cook with them. His pesto recipe is great because it is much healthier than traditional pesto. Yes it has cheese and oil in it, BUT it is made with sunflower seeds instead of pignoli/pine nuts.

Homemade Pasta

Making pasta is not as hard as you think! With the right tools and ingredients it can be whipped up in less than an hour (including cooking!). I have tried making pasta by hand, machine, and with all types of flour. I have found that the best way to make pasta is to make the dough in a food processor because the dough always comes out to the perfect consistency. Making dough by hand is a lot more laborious, but it can be done. Then I use my pasta machine (thanks to Jeff and Sonia!) to shape the pasta. I use an Imperia dal 1932. I have the perfect system for this...I make the sauce and the dough and then Marc rolls the pasta through the machine. He loves toys so this is the perfect task for him. I'll give you some visuals to walk you through the process.

Fennel Salad

Simple, healthy, & fast...this salad serves as the perfect picnic accompaniment or side for a summer fish or pasta. Tonight I am made it to complement homemade pasta with pesto sauce (recipe to follow).