Nice skirt.

We had a fun afternoon with friends at the beach, then went to their house for a BBQ. They cooked chicken, edamame, corn and salad, and I threw two skirt steaks under their broiler. This is a great cut of meat and very flavorful. I seasoned the steaks with some garlic pepper, kosher salt and a drizzle of olive oil. I lined a pan with aluminum foil and cooked them for about 3 minutes per side. They were pink in the middle and browned on the outside. A simple dinner with friends.

We are eating at our local deli tomorrow night as I have a class at the house.

Weekend meals

It's Sunday night, I've just gotten the girls to sleep and am not looking forward to going downstairs to clean up after dinner. We had a nice weekend and although it rained for most of it, we grilled Saturday evening for dinner.

I marinated 1 1/2 lbs. of peeled, cleaned and deveined shrimp and a dozen fresh sea scallops in lemon juice, olive oil, Greek Seasoning, and salt and pepper. I made some rice pilaf (one of those Near East boxed ones) and made a delicious sauteed sugar snap peas.

I heated a little olive oil in a pan and added in 2 garlic cubes. When they started to sizzle, I added in the whole snap peas and stirred them around for a minute. I added about 1/4 C. of water and cooked them on high for another minute or 2, just until the peas turned bright green. I added a pinch of salt and a shake of dried chives. I turned the heat off and also added in a small pat of butter. There was very little liquid left in the pan and the peas stayed green and crisp.

I quickly turned the grill to high, added the shrimp and scallops letting them cook for about 45 seconds on one side, them turned them, shut the lid and ran inside to plate the rice and peas onto a large platter. Once that was done, I hustled back outside and removed the scallops and shrimp from the grill. They were tender and had beautiful grill marks. I served them over the rice and was planning to bring Tsatziki sauce to the table, but forgot. It didn't matter and the meal was delicious.

I grilled the girls 2 hamburgers and boiled some ravioli as they were eating earlier since we were having company, and I put them to bed shortly after our guests arrived.

We ate the leftovers tonight (Sunday) and I also boiled some corn and steamed a couple of artichokes as my younger daughter has proclaimed they are her new favorite food, go figure...

We are planning to meet some friends at the beach tomorrow for an early dinner and I have a class here Tuesday and Wednesday, so those will be eating out nights as well.

Cookin' with sticks

It was a lousy rainy day in New England and our older daughter was at a play date with her best friend. We spent a quiet afternoon with our younger daughter and I enlisted her to help with dinner.

I planned on making swordfish and grilled vegetable skewers. This was something I knew she would enjoy helping with. I had her soak the bamboo skewers in some water while I cut 1 zucchini, rinsed a bunch of whole button mushrooms, and sliced 1 purple onion.

I had her add about 1/4 C. of olive oil to a bowl, along with a few pinches of kosher salt, a big squeeze of Dijon mustard, the juice from a lemon and a heaping tablespoon of a red pepper jelly (which in hindsight I would have left out, as it made the food a little spicy for Abby, but we LOVED it.)

I cut a 1/2 pound swordfish steak into cubes and Abby dumped all of the veggies and fish into the bowl. She stirred everything around while we talked about how delicious swordfish was and how it tasted exactly like chicken, in fact, it's name should be called Chicken Fish...

Abby and I skewered the ingredients while Kirk heated up the grill to high. I've found that getting the grill nice and hot, then turning it down creates a good carmelization to the food.

Once everything was skewered, I put them on the grill and let them cook for about 3 minutes, then turned the skewers and let them cook another 5 minutes. I took them off the grill and squeezed the last of the lemon juice on them, and covered the plate with foil until we were ready to eat.

I had also baked some potatoes to go with our food on a stick.

Abby loved the mushrooms and fish, not the onions or zucchini. It was great to see her try the fish and she loved making things on skewers.

Tomorrow we are having our 91 year old tennis playing neighbor over for dinner. I'm going to grill some shrimp and scallops, saute some snap peas and see what else we can cook on a stick!

Date night.

I'm convinced that whoever invented weekly date night clearly NEVER had children. In concept it's a good one, in execution, we are a little lacking.

Needless to say, we did have a date night tonight. I made the girls one of their favorite 15 minute meals, panko crusted turkey scalloppini, steamed green beans, and sliced pears. They were happy, and so was I because I can practically make it with my eyes closed.

The recipe:
1 package thinly sliced turkey (turkey for scalloppini)
1 C. panko
1/2 C. flour
1 teaspoon of Lawry's seasoning salt
ground pepper to taste
1/2 C. canola oil

Heat oil in a large nonstick pan on medium high heat. While the oil heats, combine panko, flour, salt and pepper. Rinse turkey and dredge in mixture being sure to coat both sides. Add turkey to pan and cook 2 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels and serve.

Pretty much a no brainer.

As for our dinner... a large popcorn, a bag of starburst and a diet coke all enjoyed in a dark room in front of a big big screen. A perfect date night!

Do you chimichurri?

I am taping a television show tomorrow morning and was inspired by the recent successful inclusion of plantains into our home. I've included the recipe below for tomorrow's show.

It will air on Connecticut Cablevision Channel 12 this weekend under the What's Cooking segment.

I pregrilled the chicken today and prepped a lot of the veggies, as we only have 12 minutes (which, by the way is an eternity in TV time!!)


Springtime salad with grilled chicken, plantains and Argentinean Chimichurri dressing

www.timetoeat.info

For the chimichurri dressing

▫ 4 cubes frozen parsley
▫ 4 cubes frozen cilantro
▫ 4 cubes frozen garlic
▫ ¾ C. olive oil
▫ ¼ C. red wine vinegar
▫ kosher salt and pepper to taste
▫ red pepper flaked (optional)


Salad
▫ mixed field greens or arugula
▫ ¼ thinly sliced purple onion
▫ ½ thinly sliced red pepper
▫ ½ C. cherry tomatoes
▫ ½ C. blanched green beans
▫ ½ diced avocado
▫ 2-3 boneless skinless grilled chicken thighs (Perdue chicken strips could also be used)

Plantains
▫ 1 C. canola oil
▫ 2 plantains
▫ 1 tbs. kosher salt
▫ 1 tbs. sugar
▫ 1 lime


To make plantains:
Heat oil in a large nonstick pan on medium high heat. While oil heats, slice plantains on the diagonal 1” thick. When oil is shimmering, add plantains so they don’t touch. Cook for 5 minutes per side or until golden. Drain on paper towels and squeeze a generous amount of lime juice over plantains. Sprinkle with a pinch of both sugar and salt. Eat immediately.

To make the Chimichurri dressing:
Crush all frozen herbs in a bowl with the back of a fork. Add olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and a red pepper flakes to taste.

To assemble the salad:
Place lettuce in a bowl; add onion, pepper, tomatoes and green beans. Slice the chicken into strips and add avocado before serving. Place the plantains around the edges of the salad and add dressing before serving.

Family chicken

My mother has been visiting and we've all been enjoying her stay. The garden has been planted (finally!) with the vegetables for this year. We've been eating out quite a bit, but I got my mom to make the chicken I grew up eating. There are no hard and fast measurements for this dish, but here is the general recipe:

• 1 whole cut up chicken
• 2-3 cloves of garlic ( I got her to use the frozen cubes last night)
• 1/2 C. ketchup
• 1/2 C. yellow mustard
• paprika
• juice from 1 lemon
• salt
• pepper
• 3 tbs. olive oil

Rinse and pat dry chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a large pan. When hot, add chicken, skin side down. Let chicken caramelize for 5-6 minutes until skin has browned. Turn and add ketchup, mustard, paprika, lemon juice, and garlic. Stir around until chicken pieces are coated.

Cover the pan and turn down to medium low heat. Cook for 25 minutes or until cooked through. I like to add a handful of carrots to the pan, when I add the chicken. They cook in a delicious flavorful broth.

The best way to eat this chicken is with a few hot peppers and some cooked rice. We usually make 2 chicken in 2 pans, because it is so good leftover the next day.

Filling in.

My mom has been here visiting for the past few days, hence the lack of blogging.

I will briefly recap our dinners for the last 3 days.

Last night- the last bits of the Ecuadorian pork, steamed broccoli, corn on the cob, H-U-G-E steamed artichokes which my younger daughter ate almost 2 of!

Wednesday- Sushi

Tonight, my elder daughter's art work is appearing in a town wide art show and we thought it would be fun to go out to dinner before the "gala opening". She, of course, has chosen Japanese food, good thing we all like sushi.

Saturday, my mom requested steamed lobsters and Sunday we are going out for Brunch so dinner is completely up in the air.

It feels strange to eat out so much as I am used to cooking. We are going to go on a Mother's Day hike Sunday morning and I was planning on baking banana bread for the trail. Recipe to follow.

That's the extent of my cooking these past few days.