Brown sugar, strawberries and balsamic vinegar. Can't go wrong!

Oh yeah, this was good!  We have made this once before, but our reduction turned out a black, sticky mess, similar to an oil spill.  This time; however, it was great.

We started with Emeril’s recipe and soaked the strawberries with the brown sugar and balsamic vinegar. When reducing the mixture, we added mint.  From there, we grilled a hanger steak and made the sides: baked potatoes and brussel sprouts (a favorite of mine).

Here is the finished product:

Deliciousness!

Salsa!

We decided to be adventurous with our strawberry meals and cook ‘outside the box.’ Alas, Emeril’s grilled salmon with mango, pineapple and strawberry salsa.  Rather than using Emeril’s rub, we used Tom Douglas’ Salmon Rub With Love. This was fantastic (with less jalapeno) and we will definitely make it again, come summertime.  Try it for yourself and let me know what you think!

Grilled salmon, our delicious salsa, wilted spinach and quinoa.

I’m enjoying this week’s ingredient as I type this blog post, and boy is it good!

Week 10: Strawberries!

First, a little education from Wikipedia: In addition to being consumed fresh, strawberries can be frozen, made into preserves, as well as dried and used in prepared foods, such as cereal bars. Strawberries are a popular addition to dairy products, as in strawberry-flavored ice cream, milkshakes, smoothies, and yogurts. Strawberries and cream is a popular dessert, famously consumed at Wimbledon. Depending on area, strawberry pie, strawberry rhubarb pie, or strawberry shortcake are also popular.

Our strawberries are “fresh” from Mexico and we have some great menu ideas planned!  Check back soon!

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An addendum from Brandon.  He wasn’t impressed with Wikipedia’s strawberry facts and encouraged me to add some information from “On food and cooking: the science of lore of the kitchen” — one of his favorite food knowledge books.

So, here it is: The strawberry is unusual in bearing its “seeds” on the surface of the fleshy portion, not inside. The seeds are actually miniature dry fruits, similar to buckwheat and sunflower seeds and the fleshy portion is the flowers swollen base, not its ovary. Strawberries don’t improve once picked, so they must be picked ripe.

For our second asparagus adventure, we made Emeril’s asparagus, artichoke, and mushroom saute with tarragon vinaigrette, but we made it our own.

I omitted the vinegar and instead added the tarragon to the saute, along with some  canned chicken.  Once the mixture was complete, we put it over orecchiette and enjoyed.

Veggies, chicken and tarragon over pasta

This meal was good, but it wasn’t amazing and we probably won’t be having it again anytime soon.

This is a favorite meal combination of ours: asparagus, turkey meatloaf and potatoes. It’s delicious and hearty and there are always leftovers for lunch.

The turkey meatloaf recipe is from Everyday Foods and can be found here.  I HIGHLY recommend it.  Delicious and easy. For the asparagus, I cut off the tough bottom section and put them in a skillet with just enough water to cover the bottom half of the asparagus.  I drizzled the dish with olive oil and added some garlic salt and pepper.  Turn the asparagus on medium-high and bring to a simmer.  Wait until the asparagus turns bright great, pull from the water and serve!  Delicious!

Yum, yum, yum!

Yum! Asparagus!

Hold your noses: this week’s ingredient is asparagus!

From Wikipedia:

Asparagus officinalis is a spring vegetable, a flowering perennial plant species in the genus Asparagus. It was once classified in the lily family, like its Allium cousins, onions and garlic, but the Liliaceae have been split and the onion-like plants are now in the family Amaryllidaceae and asparagus in the Asparagaceae. Asparagus officinalis is native to most of Europe, northern Africa and western Asia, and is widely cultivated as a vegetable crop.

We found some great recipes, so check back for the results soon!

Yum. Yum. Yum! My friend Nate made this soup and it was so good that I had to replicate it for myself.  We used the New York Times recipe and it was delicious!!

There was quite a bit of work in prepping the carrots for the soup…

Lots and lots of carrots

But it was worth it!  The soup turned our so, so good! I highly recommend this recipe.

Delicious-ness!!

Believe it or not, this meal was the first time I’ve ever roasted a whole chicken.  All-in-all, it turned out pretty well.  I followed Melissa Clark’s recipe very closely, but I roasted the chicken upside down.  Whoops. My favorite part of the dish was the roasted veggies– especially the carrots, garbanzo beans and cauliflower.  They were so, so good.  I would highly recommend this recipe, just make sure you roast your chicken breast side up.

Roasted chicken

The full meal deal

Brandon loves carrots and he’s quite good at cooking them.  He took the secret ingredient reigns on this meal and steamed some carrots and drizzled them with honey and parsley.   (He prefers dill, but I don’t like it.) We splurged and got the fancy multi-colored carrots from the Market.

We paired the carrots with turkey burgers and baked sweet potato fries, adding lots and lots of minced garlic (like the garlic fries at the Mariner’s games).  Delicious!!

Carrots, a la Brandon

Carrots, carrots, carrots

This week we’re trying a favorite snack of Brandon’s: carrots.  We bought some fun, multi-colored organic ones at the market, but most of our recipes call for your standard orange carrot.

From Wikipedia: Carrots can be eaten in a variety of ways. Only 3% of the β-carotene in raw carrots is released during digestion: this can be improved to 39% by pulping, cooking and adding cooking oil. Alternatively they may be chopped and boiled, fried or steamed, and cooked in soups and stews, as well as baby and pet foods. A well known dish is carrots julienne. The greens are edible as a leaf vegetable, but are rarely eaten by humans. 

What's up, Doc?