Horseradish Crusted Salmon

1lb Salmon
1TBS horseradish
1 TBS course mustard
1TBS bread crumbs
3TBS sour cream
Salt and Pepper

Heat oven to 350, salt and pepper salmon. Mix, horseradish, mustard, bread crumbs and sour cream together and spread on filet. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Creamy Chicken with Apple and Portobello

2 tbs Butter
½ Onion
1 c. vermouth
1Carrot
1 c. Portobello
1 apple
1 lb chicken breasts
1 c cream




In skillet melt butter and sauté onions for a minute. Add vermouth, carrots, apple and mushrooms, let cook until vermouth reduces to half. Add chicken and cream. Cook until done.

Snapper With Tomato and Cilantro Salsa

2 Lbs, Snapper
2-3 large tomatoes chopped up
½ onion chopped
½ C. chopped cilantro
½ C. green olives
2 TBS capers
Heat oven to 350. In bowl add, tomatoes, onion, cilantro, and capers. Mix and season to taste. Season fish. Cover fish with salsa and bake for 30 minutes. Remove fish from the oven, and cover with olives.

Steak Enchilada

1.5-2 lbs flatiron steak cut up
2 cans rotel plus one can water
2 TBS cumin
2 packets of Sazon Goya Coriander & Annatto seasoning
1 tomato bullion (found in Hispanic food section)
red pepper flakes (depends on how much spice you like)
cheddar cheese


Add all ingredients (except cheese) to pot and cook on low, covered, for 3 hours. Pull meat out and set aside. In processor liquefy remains in pot.. Pour in a pan and reduce by half. Roll meat in tortilla, poor reduced sauce over and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes

Curried Mahi Mahi

This was born out of some leftover curry paste from the Thai Pork.

1 lb mahi mahi
1.5 TBS butter
1 shallot
1 can extra rich coconut milk
1 TBS green curry paste
2 TBS fish sauce
1/8 cup white raisins plumped
1 cup panko crumbs
¼ c flour
1egg
1tbs water
½ lb Acini di Pepe (no.70) pasta (couscous would work as well)
¼- ½ C oil (depends on pan size need to cover bottom)


Put water on to boil for pasta. Cut fish into 3-4 inch length strips. Season fish. Add 1TBS water to egg and beat. Combine Panko, and flour and season. Dredge fish egg mixture then in Panko mixture. Heat oil and fry fish. While fish is cooking, put pasta on to cook. Heat butter and sauté shallots for 2 minutes. Add coconut milk, fish sauce and curry and stir. Finally add raisins. Place two pieces of fish over ¼ C pasta. Spoon sauce over and serve.

Truffled Chicken

2 large shallots
½ cup wine
1 C. cream or half and half
1 tsp garlic (pre-minced)
3-4 chicken breast filleted and pounded out and seasoned
Asiago cheese
Truffle oil
Olive oil

Sautee chopped shallot in 1 tsp of oil for 1 minute. Add wine. Reduce to half. Add cream and salt, pepper, and garlic. Reduce to half. Line one side of chicken with cheese. Spoon 1TBS of sauce on top of cheese. Do this for each breast and roll. Set aside unused cream sauce. Secure with toothpick. Add TBS oil to pan and sautee breasts. About 7 minutes each side. Spoon remaining cream sauce over. Drizzle with truffle oil.

This would also be good with prosciutto and asparagus or substitute the asiago with gruyere.

Stir Fry Noodle Salad

¼ head of cabbage sliced
½ onion sliced
2 celery ribs sliced
3 carrots sliced
1 can of sliced water chestnuts
1 TBS oil
2 TBS soy sauce
1tsp sesame oil
½ tsp fresh grated ginger
1 10 oz. package udon noodle
½ red bell pepper


In wok heat 1TBS oil and 1 tsp sesame oil. Add veggies, ginger, and soy sauce and stir fry for 6 minutes or just until wilted a bit. Let cool. Cook noodles, remove and cool. Combine noodles and veggies, and add uncooked bell pepper. Stir. Poor dressing over and chill.

Dressing
½ C rice vinegar
1 TBS sesame oil
1 tsp fresh ginger
1 tsp sriracha sauce

Thai Pork and Green Beans

Again, this is not an original. My parents had friends that are Thia and she learned it from her. That said, I have never seen it on a menu anywhere so, hopefully you have never had it either. It is my husbands favorite dish. I love it because it is great and quick and easy. The spice level can be changed with the addition of more curry. My mom always made it with red curry, I usually make it with green. Honestly I don’t know the difference. My mom never had measurements it was an "eyeball it" recipe. This is great if you are like we are and you love pork lion but if you make a whole one, you have 5 meals. Cut off a bit and set it aside for this dish.

1-1.5 lb pork, tenderloin is best but not necessary
3-4 handfuls of fresh green beans cleaned ( I know not very precise but I am thinking about 5 cups).
1/3 can of curry
¼ C. fish sauce
1 TBS oil
3-4 C. Rice


In wok heat oil and add curry. Sautee curry for 1 minute. Add pork, and fish sauce. Cook until almost done. Add green beans cook until just done but still firm. Serve over rice.

Perfect Summer Pasta

I will ,yet again, rely on Penzys for this. They make a Italian Dressing base, that I just love. I use Rice Wine Vinegar and ¼ of the oil it calls for though when I make it. I use that dressing for the marinade here, however, I double the amount of base used when making the marinade.

3 chicken breasts
3-4 zucchini sliced up
3-4 squash sliced up
2 tomatoes chopped up
1 onion sliced up
2 cups marinade (if you don’t have Penzys use your favorite Italian dressing)
1 small package of feta
4-5 leave fresh basil chopped up
1 lb pasta

Grilling is a must for this I think. I have never tried it not grilled, but I can’t imagine it would be near as good, but give it a try

The night before put chicken breasts in ziploc bag and one cup of marinade. In another Ziploc put the veggies and the other cup marinade. Right before your ready to cook remove the chicken and veggies from the marinade. If you have a veggie pan to go on the grill, grill the veggies as well, just save ¼ C of the marinade (from the veggies, not the chicken!!) for later. If you don’t have a veggie pan, just do it on the stove top, and there is no need to reserve some marinade since cooking on the stove top allows the veggies to juice. While chicken is cooking boil the pasta. Once chicken is done, cut up into slices. Add veggies, basil, feta, and marinade reserve (if needed) to pasta , mix in. You can either just add the sliced chicken to the whole dish or plate the pasta/veggie mixture and add sliced chicken to the individual dishes.

This would also be great with artichoke and asparagus. Also smoked mozzarella or goat cheese might be a good substitute for the feta. Fresh rosemary might also be good as well.

Kofta---Kind Of

I have to say, I did not invent this, I have augmented this with feta. My parents lived in Turkey and this is the way they were taught to make this dish. That said, it does not even remotely resemble what you would find in a cookbook other than it is lamb dish--so go figure.



½ onion grated (grating is key)
1.5-2 lbs ground lamb
5-7 leaves of fresh mint minced
2 eggs
2 TBS Penzys Turkish seasoning (or use salt, pepper, cumin, and garlic powder)
Feta (sorry guys, you will have to eyeball this, look for about a 3 meat to one part feta ratio)

Mix together and form into equal size ovals about the size of two eggs(don’t ask me why you don’t make the traditional meatball ball. I am sure it would work, it just wasn’t the way I grew up having it). I think these are best grilled; however a broiler will work in a pinch. These get dry easily (how I don’t know?) so I would really recommend a meat thermometer if you aren’t one of those few that have grilling down to an art. I would cook it to medium. Now, we always ate these with tzatziki sauce and Tabuli as a side. However it is awesome in a pita with tzatziki on it and little lettuce, tomatoes, and sliced onion. Below is how I make tzatziki

1 individual container of plain yogert
¼ cucumber grated
1 tsp minced garlic (pre-minced stuff not fresh)
½ tsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Sometimes I put some feta in too, because I am a slave to all cheese, but that is your call.

Veggie Pasta Salad

1 16oz box macaroni
¼ sweet onion chopped
1 cucumber chopped
2 carrots chopped
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn
¾ C. Light mayo
2 TBS lemon juice
Greek seasoning (if you don’t have use salt, pepper and a little garlic powder)
Lemon Zest
Grated parmesan


Bring water for pasta to a rumbling boil. Add pasta. I recommend adding the frozen veggies a minute or two later, however you can also just add them with the pasta if you want. While the pasta is boiling, chop onion, carrots and cucumber. Once pasta is done, drain pasta and veggies. Run cold water over until pasta is completely cool. You can throw a cup of ice in there to speed up cooling if you desire. Add pasta mixture to chopped vegetables and stir together. Add mayonnaise and lemon and mix again. Add Greek seasoning ( I personally swear by Cavender’s) and grated parmesan to taste. If you have a fresh lemon and are so inclined zest ½ of the lemon over pasta. Just a note: I use lemon a lot. I think it give things a very fresh taste. It also allows you to cut the salt a bit and still get a good salt flavor.

This is a very light side dish that would be good with any veggies really so use your favorite or what is fresh. Good tomatoes are always super. If you would like to make it more of a meal, shrimp or chicken would be good, or for you vegetarians, add a can of black beans. I haven’t tried it, but if you were to add shrimp, old bay seasoning might be a nice substitute for the Greek seasoning. Go ahead, give it a try!!

Tilapia with Green Tomato Tapenade

1.5-2 lbs of Tilapia
1 TBS olive oil
1 TBS lemon juice
2 medium to large green tomatoes
¼ large onion
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 heaping TBS capers
Pinch basil
Salt
Pepper

Dice onion and Green tomatoes. Sauté until onion translucent. Add Rotel tomatoes, basil and salt and pepper to taste. Cook 5 minutes. While tomato mixture is cooking salt and pepper tilapia. In large skillet heat olive oil. Add filets and cook until done. Remove filets from pan and place on large plate or serving platter. With burner still on add lemon to pan that fish was cooked in. Swirl lemon around pan to incorporate the remains of oil (deglaze). Poor lemon/oil mixture over fish. Remove tomato tapenade from heat spoon over fish and serve.

The tapenade is great in pasta, served as an appetizer with bread rounds or the recipe would be great if you substituted another mild fish or thin chicken breast. It’s a great way to use up your green tomatoes at the end of the season. You can also make a big batch and freeze it, and it is a nice taste of late summer when it’s cold. I do have to say, I think this is good enough; I am looking forward to summers first tomatoes that might just not get a chance to ripen!