July 11-15

Okay, Tam, this is all for you...have you tried any recipes yet?!?

• Thai Coconut Shrimp with Brown Rice okay don't let the picture fool you...this one was, well, pretty bad. Not sure if it was cooking error or recipe...though I'm leaning towards both. We used brown rice noodles and they were waaaay over cooked. The meal was rather flavorless. It didn't taste very Thai or coconutty (if coconutty is a word).
  
• Spiced Plank-Grilled Salmon We didn't end up grilling it on the plank. Eric grilled just the regular old way. Trout's (our local fish store) had sockeye salmon. It's a beautiful fish (if fish can be beautiful). It has a slightly different flavor than regular salmon. Eric brushed the fish with a little vegetable oil/salt/pepper. Everything we read about sockeye is that the flavor is wonderful on its own and not to put too much "stuff" on it. So we kept it simple. To finish the salmon, we sprinkled alittle fresh tarragon on top. For sides, we had wax beans, tomatoes and zucchinis in our CSA box. Eric grilled the zucchinis and I sauted the wax beans. The tomatoes were just tossed with olive oil and basil.
  
• Greek Grilled Chicken Breast Need time to marinate alert! We got a new grill pan and used it to "grill" the chicken inside. Okay, so now were asking ourselves why we didn't have a grill pan all along! I did the whole drain the yogurt thing here, but I really don't think it was all that necessary but there wasn't that much moisture that drained out. Also, we hardly used much so you definitely don't need to make a 1+ cup of it. For the sides, I got a bag of beets for $1.50 at England Acres (a farm really close to our house). I roasted the beets at 375 for an hour and sauted the tops.
  
• Baked Tilapia with Spicy Tomato-Pineapple Relish (haven't made this one yet).
• Burgers and beans Just a plain old cheeseburger here with CSA wax beans on the side. Cade tried one (cue Hallelujah chorus) and said it tasted like a french fry. Guess that's what happens when you dip it in ketchup. Cullen nibbled one, but to no avail! Don't know if I've mentioned this before, but my new favorite tomatoes are kumato (or brown tomato)...nice because we can get them from our local grocery store. Tossed with mozzarella + basil and a little olive oil=heaven

july 3 - 8

Hopefully this will be a less hectic, normal week...

• Thai Pork and Papaya Couscous I don't have the link to this recipe...I couldn't find it online. I got it from Clean Eating Magazine. It definitely needed more sauce especially paired with the couscous. I think I would try this one again after tweaking the recipe for a thicker sauce.
  
• Plank Grilled Scallops with Lemon-Mint Gremolata We used the cedar plank to grill the scallops and shrimp; however, since scallops and shrimp don't take long to cook, we really didn't get that smoked flavor we were hoping for. Guess we'll just have to save the plank for fish. The gremolata added a nice flavor. We used the mint from our herb pots. The cherry tomatoes and beans are from the CSA.
  
• Fruit and Gorgonzola Salad with Proscuitto haven't made this one yet...we ate the peaches and plums before we made the salad! Maybe next week!
• Grilled Yucatan Chicken Skewers Not bad, but we were expecting the chicken to be more flavorful since it had been marinating for a few hours. For sides here, I sauted some beans from the farmer's market in olive oil. I also couldn't resist Farmer Rick's cherry tomatoes so I tossed those with some mozzarella and basil.
  
• Grilled Shrimp and Lemon Skewers with Red Potato This was great! We didn't have long enough rosemary to use as skewers, next time for sure! I'd like to rename the red potatoes "drunken potatoes" because I added a splash of white wine to deglaze the pan...with all the potatoes we get with the CSA, I see alot of drunk potatoes in our future!
  
• Pork and Chorizo Kebabs with White Wine Marinade Not bad...the only problem was that the meats cooked at different rates so it turned out a little dry. We only had a half a bottle of wine to use although I don't think that's the reason the meat was dry. We cubed some watermelon and grilled it along with corn on the cob.

busy week

This week has been very busy...we were away for a couple days, went to Hershey Park, went to a evening concert. So I'm not sure which recipes we'll get made and which ones we'll do next week...

• Chilean Sea Bass with Pesto, Zucchini, and Carrots Our local fish store was out of sea bass so I had to get different fish. I couldn't resist the orange roughy topped with crab meat for myself. I figured Eric wanted to keep things plain for himself so I got tilapia for him. We're getting a ton of potatoes through our CSA so we had some for a side. For my dish, Eric grilled the zucchini we had left for my plate.

here's my plate...

here's Eric's...

he said his looked like a can of Alpo...

he wasn't a big fan of the poached fish in foil on the grill thing...

if Eric's going to grill, he wants to see the grill marks on his food:)

• Creole Shrimp with Garlic and Lemon Quick and good! We still had CSA shelled peas and some spinach we needed to use so I sauted the spinach with some olive oil and same for the peas. Eric likes things on the spicy side so I added crushed red pepper flakes.
  
  
• Pea and Bacon Risotto This hits the spot when you want something hearty. I love the crunch the sweet peas shoots provide and the bacon...well, yum! This time we used pancetta because we already had it.
  
• Chicken Thighs with Garlickly Crumbs and Peas Eric made this one...we used chicken breasts instead of thighs. Eric was frustrated that the recipe didn't instruct him to use dry/wet/dry method for the chicken prep because when he went to cook the chicken the garlickly crumbs were coming off. We used the shelled peas from our CSA. For the other side, we sliced peppers and CSA radishes.

• Pug Burger with Homemade French Fries