This evening, I made salmon burgers for dinner. The salmon burgers come frozen from Trader Joe's. I put them on buns and make a wasabi mayo to go on them.

Wasabi Mayonnaise

Put enough mayonnaise for two burgers into a small bowl. Sprinkle in a little ginger powder...looked to be about a teaspoon to me. Add wasabi powder - about two teaspoons went in. This is all really to taste - put in as little or as much as you like.


I served the burgers with edamame and apple slices with caramel sauce.

For dinner tonight, I made Stuffed Chicken Breasts and some delicious green beans!


Stuffed Chicken Breasts

I buy these bags of frozen chicken breasts from Trader Joe's for way cheap. I let them thaw a little in the fridge, then cut them in half - I guess butterfly them... I put whatever sounds good in the "sandwich" - tonight it was crumbled feta cheese and roasted red pepper and artichoke tapenade from Trader Joe's. In the oven for about a half hour at 400 degrees and they're done.


Green Beans

Toss fresh green beans with lemon juice, basil, salt, pepper, and diced fresh garlic. Spread on a baking sheet, cook for 12 minutes at 450. I put them in while the chicken was in there at 400, then jacked up the broiler once the chicken was out. After a few minutes, the garlic was nice and toasty.

So, that was dinner!

Tonight, I made a very simple dinner. Tuna salads.

I seared some tuna fillets and put them on organic romaine mix with some green peppers from my mom's garden. Then, I poured on the following dressing, which I made up on the spot:

Jalapeno Mustard Vinaigrette

Cut off the top of a jalapeno, take out the seeds. Cut into teeny pieces. Put in a cup/bowl/whatever. Add a couple of spoonfuls of honey mustard (I used Raspberry Honey Mustard from Robert Rothschild Farm. Add cider vinegar - however much looks right. Whisk together with a fork.

I made turkey meatballs last week, and froze a bunch of them for future meals. They came in handy when friends were unexpectedly in town last night. Meatballs are one of those things you should always make extra of, I think - if you're going to stick your hands in a pile of meat, you might as well stick your hands in a HUGE pile of meat. I made 3 pounds - about 70 meatballs - and still have another bag of them in the freezer.

Turkey Meatballs

The basic recipe is from my mom. I find it a bit too basic, though, so I add some things. The basic ingredients are ground meat, milk, a beaten egg, bread crumbs, and parmesan cheese. (If anyone is interested in the exact proportions, I would be happy to post them - you see, though, they're all the way in the kitchen and I'm...well, I'm hella lazy). To this, I add: fresh chopped garlic, a bit of garlic salt, dried hot pepper, and Italian seasoning. I have no exact proportions for my additions - I just sprinkle the stuff on top until it looks right. They're always slightly different, but that's part of the fun. I serve them with sauce (sometimes homemade, sometimes a jar - last night a jar) over spaghetti. Last night our friend Thom said "I haven't had meatballs this good since Little Italy in Boston!" Yay, meatballs!


Garlic Bread

In my little chef's chopper, I put a few cloves of fresh garlic and about half a stick of butter. Mixed it all up, then spread it on cut bread and stuck it under the broiler for a few minutes.


Salad

For the salad, I bought organic romaine heads (organic salad is just soooooo good), tore them up, and put it in bowls. This was served with balsamic vinegar and olive oil and a little ramekin of feta cheese.


Dense Chocolate Cake

Nigella Lawson's from How to Be a Domestic Goddess. One of the ugliest cakes in the world, but so delicious. It's almost like a souffle, but not nearly the pain in the ass I imagine a souffle to be. Served it with cream cheese to rave reviews.

What is your favorite meal to cook for guests?

Tonight was frozen burritos from Trader Joe's. Bean and rice. Mmmmm, delicious.

To accompany the tastiness, I made the following:

Corn

Frozen roasted corn from Trader Joe's. Boiled a small amount of water with some butter, added the corn and some salt, and cooked it for a few minutes.

"Refried" Beans

Used a can of black beans. Rinsed the beans and put them in a small pan. Smashed them up with a fork, then added butter and cooked over medium heat. When they started to get hot, I added cumin and salt. I usually also add coriander, but I was out of it (except for the whole seeds, and I didn't really feel like getting into that, since it was already after 8). The black beans turned out a bit dry - I usually use pinto beans for this, and they are perfect and creamy when they're done.

Mango Margaritas

I used a liquid mango margarita mix and added ice. The big fun trick to this is that I also added a cut-up mango. Then I blended it all in the blender and poured it into glasses I'd rimmed with colored sugar. Yum.

So, I tried playing around with my piece-of-crap software and came up with a picture. It's not what I wanted - when I resize photos it just does it from the corner, so the whole bottom of the picture has gone missing. But it still ended up okay, so whatever. Ugh. Picture angst.

I've decided to keep a journal logging my adventures in the kitchen. Though this isn't the first adventure I've had, and not my first tasty creation, it is the first I'm putting out there in the world.

Before tonight, I had never cooked mahi mahi before. I poked around on FoodTV.com for some inspiration, then did the following:

Mahi Mahi

Into a Ziploc bag I squeezed two limes and a lemon. I threw in some ground ginger, maybe a couple tablespoons or so. Then I shook in some soy sauce (3 tablespoons?) and some olive oil, what amounted to be perhaps one tablespoon. I put in four pieces of the fish, squeezed the air out of the bag, and left it there while I did some other things. After I did those other things, I put the fish on the George Foreman grill, sprinkled on some freshly ground pepper and kosher coarse salt, and cooked them for about 6 minutes, until they were nice and white on the inside.

Tomato Salad

I love cumin. This experiment was inspired by a recipe I found for tomato salsa with yellow and red tomatoes and a healthy dose of cumin. I modified things a bit. I cut up three big tomatoes and a handful of grape tomatoes, a sweet onion, four small green peppers, and some fresh chives. Everything went into a bowl and got drizzled with olive oil. I tossed everything around with my hands, then sprinkled on freshly ground pepper and the coarse salt and covered it all in cumin. Tossed it around with my hands again and it was done.

Couscous

I didn't do anything exciting with it, but it rounded the meal out nicely. Followed the package directions on some whole wheat couscous from Trader Joe's. Boil butter, salt, and water, add couscous and let stand 5 minutes. Then I put pepper on it. Done.

Lemon Sorbet with Blueberry Preserves and Pineapple Sage

I was given some homemade blueberry preserves by the lovely and wonderful Ruth Rose. As soon as it was in my hands, I thought "This would be perfect on lemon sorbet." I was right. I scooped out the sorbet, cut up some pineapple sage and put that on, then spooned on some of the blueberry goodness. Topped it with little whole leaves of the sage, and YUM.



So, that was dinner.

I need some user pictures for this journal. Only problem is, both photo editing programs on this computer SUCK. So, if anybody comes across any good pictures and is willing to cut them down to size for me, that would be awesome.