Salmon in Lemon Brodetto w/ Pea Puree
I finally had a day off of work, which meant I could finally cook for me! After spending the day cooped up doing homework because of the blowing snow outside, I decided to make a semi-fancy dinner for myself as a reward for all of my hard work. =) This dish is plated kind of similar to the Cajun Salmon w/ Spicy Eggplant Salsa that I made a little while back, but has extremely different flavors. So, if that dish didn’t suit your taste, this one just might!
I have to say this might be one of the better things that I have tasted in a bit. The Lemon Brodetto gives the salmon a nice citrus kick and the pea puree tones it down with a rich flavor. I tweaked the original recipe, from FoodNetwork.com, and lowered the measurements for lemon juice. The lemon was just a tiny bit too strong with the original portions. I love how much flavor there is in this dish, plus it is super easy to make!
Honey Barbecue Glazed Chicken
It is interesting to me how quickly my brain can shift my food preferences throughout the day. Each day, sometimes even each hour, I feel like I am changing my mind about what would be good to eat. For those days when you want something sweet for dinner, a honey barbecue glaze is perfect. I think I have come up with a tasty honey barbecue glaze recipe that can easily be tweaked to suit any personal preference; I am looking forward to experimenting with it too! This recipe is great for weeknights, when you do not have much time for dinner. It goes great with Oven Roasted Potatoes as well!
Chipotle-Lime Shrimp Taco Salad w/ Cilantro Vinaigrette
You know those nights when you have an entire meal planned out in advanced, but when dinner time roles around you just don’t feel like eating that oh-so-exciting dish? Well, last night was one of those nights. As delicious as sun-dried tomato and feta stuffed chicken sounded, I just wasn’t in the mood for those flavors. I wanted spice and citrus. I decided to save that for another night. Instead, this is what I came up with.
The cilantro vinaigrette pulls this dish together. It adds a nice tangy flavor that is a great compliment to the spicy shrimp. Roasting the tomatoes gives them move flavor and juice, making this recipe even more delicious! I was planning on eating this with guacamole and salsa, but tasted it and realized it didn’t need any additions and was perfect as is.
Italian Sausage & Tortellini Soup
As I have mentioned numerous times before, I try not to eat pasta when I am not at work. So, to serve with the Double Tomato Bruschetta, I chose this recipe for an Italian sausage soup. Yes, I know that tortellini still counts as pasta, but it is a bit fancier and this recipe doesn’t use very much of it. This soup captures the essence of true Italian flavors- basil, tomato, garlic, oregano, and red wine- and is a great alternative to the typical Italian pasta dinner.
Mahi Mahi Tostada w/ Roasted Red Pepper Aioli
I love reading food blogs; I find myself constantly reading through recipes during my free time. I think that is great to find recipes from other people, rather than a recipe website, because it gives life to the recipe and usually puts a story with each dish. I especially love trying recipes from my Mom’s food blog, Cooking With Michele. It is fun to chat about our posts and new recipes; our cooking has brought us much closer throughout the past year and I love it. With that said, here is my tweaked version of my Mom’s Mahi Mahi Tostada recipe.
Pizza Casserole
Recently, I have been thinking about how great it would be to do catering. I have also been cooking for friends quite a bit, which I love. Both things involve cooking for a crowd, which can be hard to do. The more I do it, the more fun it gets. It is hard to think up original recipes for large groups sometimes, so I am really excited to share this one. This week I needed a meal to feed 14 friends. I didn’t want to do chili again, so I began to brainstorm and search the web. Casserole recipes are great for large groups and pizza is great for parties, which makes this pizza casserole the ultimate party dish. The original recipe that I found, form Country Kitchen Cooking, used pasta instead of breadsticks. Since I work at Noodles & Company, I decided against using the pasta. I think the breadsticks give it much more flavor. I made my green bean casserole to go with the meal and help my ski bum friends get some nutrients into their dinner. This spin off pizza is easier to make and won’t keep you in the kitchen for the entire party!
Chicken, White Bean, & Chorizo Enchiladas w/ Green Chile
I have an addiction to Mexican food, or any food similar to it, so I am always looking for new recipes so I am not eating the same thing again and again. I have made enchiladas before, but only with chicken. I also have attempted to make green chile before, but put an entire bag of extremely spicy chile peppers in the food and ruined the dish (I had to add an entire jar of tomato sauce, and entire bag of cheese, and milk to make it even semi-bearable!).
I can now say that I have found one of the best enchilada recipes and green chile recipes. Thanks to Drick’s Rambling Cafe for the enchilada recipe, which I tweaked a bit. I will definitely be keeping this recipe for future meals. I chose to slow cook the chicken so that I could easily shred it, plus it gives it much more flavor. You can cook the green chile with pork if you would like, but I felt that it wasn’t necessary with all of the meat in the enchiladas.
Cajun Salmon w/ Spicy Eggplant Salsa & Minted Cucumber Relish
This is probably the fanciest recipe I have ever made. A friend of mine typed this recipe up and sent it to me during her vacation, I had been looking forward to cooking it with her. I was like a little kid with a new toy while I was cooking and plating the food. It is always fun to make fancy dishes that you can plate nicely. This recipe has a LOT of flavors in it, but my friend and I decided that the cucumber relish really isn’t very necessary and it would probably have been better without it. The eggplant salsa was very unique, but really good!
Cream of Asparagus Soup
This recipe is awesome, but is kind of like my lobster recipes in the sense that I cannot afford to make it all of the time, since asparagus is so expensive! I was lucky enough to go to Costco with my Mom this week though (I have the best Mom in the world!), which meant large quantities of asparagus. This soup was a hit among my friends this week, when the weather was well below zero for a few days. It is really good if you serve it with garlic bread!
Indian Meatballs w/ Curried Vegetables
I came across a recipe for Indian Meatballs while I was in New Zealand last summer, but never got around to making them. This week I decided to add to the recipe I found to make this dish. This dish is not very spicy because the coconut milk tones down the curry, but can be made spicier with Siracha if you desire. This took me a bit longer than I expected… I never realized that making meatballs was such a hassle!
