Valentine's Day Dinner

It was around noon on Monday that I decided that it just wasn't right to have leftover soup on Valentines Day. Even though we weren't planning on going out and instead had plans to go and work out, I didn't want to make dinner so 'normal'. So when I ran to the store and saw the last package of baby lamb chops sitting right in front of me - Perfect! I had been talking to a friend who was making lamb for the first time that night for her fiance and it was right in the front of my mind.

This time I took the extra step of removing the small piece of fatty meat under the chop to make them "Frenched". This step makes it much easier to eat the lamb chop and turns it into just a few choice bites.... A luxurious dinner if there ever was! For this dinner, I applied a rub of sea salt, fresh crushed pepper and rosemary and seared the chops on my grill pan. Only about 15 min from fridge to dinner plate - good food doesn't have to take a long time to make!

6/2/10 - Black Sea Bass over Grilled Asparagus

With the weather heating up its getting harder and harder to cook dinner inside each night! Especially with my kitchen on the 3rd floor...yikes! We have been using the air conditioner for quite some time now - our Living/Dining/ Kitchen area just gets too hot. And forget the oven - its just not an option (I had to wait for a rainy day last week to make the 2 racks of baby back ribs I bought a month ago!) This dinner was fast and easy to cook up however there is one tool that needs to become part of my utensil draw (which is already out of control! but sometimes you just need one more!). Today's Daily Special on Foodbuzz is a Slotted Fish Spatula.....nice and flexible and long! Perfect for flipping a beautiful fillet like this Black Sea Bass which was simply seasoned with salt & pepper and placed on top of a bed of grilled asparagus. As you can see from my picture....my fillet wasn't so delicately turned and is a bit broken looking. Luckily looks doesn't matter as much when you food is mouth-watering and delicious.

4/4/10 - Easter Dinner....Boneless Leg of Lamb

We were with family all weekend but left early on Sunday to beat traffic, which means I made my first ever Easter dinner. With lamb on sale this week at the store I couldn't resist picking up a small boneless leg to attempt a roast. I left it to defrost in my refrigerator on Friday afternoon and came home Sunday morning hoping that everything would be ready to go (it was!). We had a friend joining us so I tried to have dinner ready by 5 pm but as always I was a off by an hour. I assumed that the stores were closed because of the holiday, so I had to throw a nice dinner together with the left overs from the week.

I was a bit perplexed when I saw that my roast was wearing this elastic girdle but quickly figured out that it was a clever way to "tie" the roast. I studded the roast with garlic and lemon before coating it in salt & rosemary which infused a lot of flavor throughout the meat. I was happy that I got the roast on the right side of med- rare/ med line and everyone was happy. I added a side of raspberry chipotle maple glazed carrots, asparagus wrapped in bacon and finally a baked potato (simple but delicious!). I also served a small salad to start - mixed greens salad topped with pear and cheese (pictured above).

3/6/10 - Pan Seared Scallops with a side salad

Pan-Seared Scallops are so easy yet many home cooks feel they are out of reach. The true secret is to making sure the food is very dry ( I blotted the scallops on paper towels to absorb any moisture). Other than that all you need is a hot pan and some patience (don't flip prematurely)

2/7/10 - Super Bowl with out the snacks - Bacon wrapped Asparagus

I couldn't wait to try a fun new technique that I found online this week (I know it seems like all I do is go online to food blogs but I promise I do other things too) Bacon Wrapped Asparagus! So fun and a perfect mix of the healthy with the excessive! With all the snow on Saturday our party didn't end up as planned and this was pushed to Sunday and a different friend. No matter who dinner might have been with this was just delicious and not too hard to master. Some suggest that you use toothpicks to secure the ends of the bacon but if you are careful you can get them tucked in on their own

1/6/10 - Seared Mahi Mahi w Grilled Asparagus and Spiced Curry Yogurt Sauce

Another meal another recycling project....with the left over dip from our new years party starting to get a bit questionable I decided that I better get at least one more use out of this dip. It was a huge hit and definitely outside of my normal comfort zone (Most Asian food I can understand but Indian curries are a whole 'nother story)


This meal is a simple pan seared Mahi Mahi fillet with some grilled asparagus (tossed in olive oil and salt/ pepper first) but the addition of the curried yogurt dip (which as I mentioned earlier came out a bit thinner than I was expecting) tied it all together and made this look like a 5 star meal!