Simple Pleasures

I love the berries of summer and finding new ways to incorporate them in meals. In my opinion a simple salad for lunch on a hot day is a great way to experiment with the flavors of berries. In order to combat the junk food craving my 5 year old is having we took a trip to Dean and Don's and came home with blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, peaches, apricots, plums, and nectarines. My son has already eaten all of the raspberries and blackberries, but I got my hands on some of the blueberries before they were gone too. I made a simple salad of rocket greens, 1 oz. of feta, a handful of blueberries, lemon juice, and pepper. Next time I will have to add just a hit of zest so that I can add another bold color to this dish. Simple but satisfying lunch.

Jacques Pepin, Fast Food My Way

I have been watching this show every so often on the Create Network and on a recent library trip found a book of recipes from the show. I was inspired to try one for a light lunch after a trip to a local market found us some red radishes. I normally roast radishes or add them to a salad, obviously my french cuisine education has been lacking or I would have been eating these tasty bites long before now. It is simple, thinly slice a radish, cut up a nice baguette into slices, add some good quality butter, place radishes on top of the butter, dust with sea salt, and your done. I love this easy snack and will be on the look out for fresh from the radishes to enjoy in a new (well at least for me) way.

Bresaola and Montepulciano d’Abruzzo

I love Italian meats, one of my all time favorites is Bresaola. This air-dried salted beef is a beautiful shade of reddish purple that makes it a eye stopper when used in a rocket salad. Which is how I normally serve it. The other evening I decided to go for something a little different. I drizzled the meat with olive oil, squeezed a little lemon juice on it, added some fresh grated Parm and cut up some crusty bread and enjoyed with a montepulciano d'abruzzo. The earthy cherry and raspberry flavors of this type of wine make it an easy to drink red wine that with just a hint of acidity and tannins that make it hard to miss with these or almost anything else at the dinner table. Find a bottle and give it a try.

Fried Rice

I am sure that I have mentioned that I normally purchase fried rice from Trader Joe's but never again will I. For some reason fried rice was something that I was scared to make. I did not know how to make it, so I never bothered trying to figure it out, this changed when my 1 year old started eating solid foods. Fried Rice is a great food for new eaters as it has everything but dairy in one dish. I found a recipe on http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/recipe.cgi?r=25505 and started to play, I made some chicken fried rice and some beef fried rice, and both were a huge hit with the whole family. Here is my recipe modified from the link above:

Basic Fried Rice Recipe

4 cups of cooked rice

1 cup of frozen peas

1/3 cup of chopped carrots

1/2 cup of diced onion

2 tablespoons of butter

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

1 1/2 cups of cooked Chicken, Beef, or Pork

Cook rice following instructions on package. Pour rice into a large bowl to let it cool in the refrigerator. If adding meat to the recipe, cook meat and set aside. Scramble the eggs in a small pan over medium heat, separating the eggs into small pieces while cooking. In a large pan add some butter, and cook onions and carrots until the onions are translucent, set aside with eggs and meat if using. Melt 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter in the same pan that you cooked the onion and carrots over medium/high heat. When butter has completely melted, dump the cold rice in the pan and make sure that it is coated with butter. Add all other ingredients into the pan and add soy sauce. Cook rice for 6-8 minutes over heat, stirring often. Serve.

Yorktown Farmer's Market

I am blessed that I can wake up on a Saturday morning, pack up the family and head out for a 10 minute drive and be not only at a great beach area, but at the site of the end of the American Revolution. Yorktown is one of my favorite places in Hampton Roads and this weekend was the opening of the Farmers Market held at the Riverwalk Landing. There is a wide selection of seafood, meat, fresh herbs, plants, veggies, and baked goods at the market with some local businesses, and live music thrown in. One of my favorite things there is the bacon cheddar bread, forget about calories, forget about sodium, cholesterol, and anything else, this is a great bread that is worth the trip to the market alone. I was super excited to find a stand that as i was about to ask about their selection of herbs, I saw what I was looking for right away, french sorrel. I feel blessed. I am looking forward to next week's visit. To get more information head over to http://www.yorkcounty.gov/riverwalk/market.htm

Roasted Leg of Lamb

My husband loves Greek food, since he is going to be out of town for bit I asked what he would like to eat and a good bye meal and he asked for leg of lamb. I have never made this before, but boy would I again. This came out great, my only issue was that so many recipes for lamb tell you to cook it well done, why would you want to ruin a leg of lamb this way beats me, but I got mine out of the oven before it was too late. We served this up with some Mediterranean Style Humus from Trader Joe's, a Greek salad, and pitas.

Roasted Leg of Lamb

1 2-4lb butterflied leg of lamb

1/4 cup of olive oil

1 lemon

4 cloves of garlic

some fresh oregano

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Rinse lamb and pat dry. Place lamb fat side up in a roasting pan and season with salt and pepper. Using a knife make 3 slices spread out evenly in the lamb and add 1 clove of garlic into each slice. In a small dish or measuring cup pour 1/4 cup of olive oil, add the zest of 1 lemon, and the juice from half of the lemon, mince some fresh oregano and 1 clove of garlic and add to oil. Mix well and pour over lamb. Cook lamb for about 10-15 minutes per pound (for rare) basting lamb every ten minutes. Slice, serve and enjoy.

Teriyaki Sauce

I am a very bog snob when it comes to my teriyaki sauce only one will do, Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki. This sauce uses preservative free soy sauce, fresh ginger and garlic, onions, expeller pressed soy and sesame oils , and sesame seeds to create the perfect marinade for your meats. Over the weekend I used a great tri-tip roast from the farm and grilled up a great meal. My tip for the use of this sauce is if you are doing steak/tri-tip let is soak up the marinade for at least 3 days. I know that this sounds crazy, but every bite of your meat will have the great flavor of Veri Veri Teriyaki and you will not be disappointed with the results. Check out Soy Vay at http://www.soyvay.com/index.php you can find out more information about the company's products and get some great recipes.