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September 2008

September 29, 2008

Green Beans with Garlic, Red Onion, and Mint

Green beans

The plan was to make these beans with tomato and fresh mint. Then when my guests arrived I found out one of them couldn't have tomatoes. Faced with either telling the guest to please go home or improvising, I chose to be the gracious host.

I was quite happy with the resulting dish AND nobody got angry with me. It was a good day.

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September 25, 2008

Potato Salad Recipe

Potato salad

What would a summer barbecue be without potato salad?

Okay, I know, summer is practically over. But the calendar never stopped me from firing up the weber and as long there isn't snow on the ground, I consider it barbecue season. Well, despite the ubiquity of potato salad at cookouts across the country, I haven't made any all year.This past weekend, I figured it was about time.

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September 23, 2008

Simple Grilled Salmon

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My brother lives in upstate NY (Rome, NY) and goes fishing every fall at Salmon River.   This time of year, the salmon run up the river to spawn, and fly fishing is avid here.   These salmon are in fresh water, and referred to as Steel-head.   The main difference, aesthetically speaking, is that the meat is white, as opposed to pink.   This is a fairly quick and easy recipe, since fish needs to be in marinade for as little as 30 minutes.  Adapted from Weber's Big Book of Grilling

Mix all ingredients below, and marinade fish for 30 minutes or longer.  Remove fish from marinade, and reserve remaining marinade.  Grill over INDIRECT high heat, for 10~20 minutes, depending on size of fish.  During the last 5 minutes, brush remaining marinade on fish.  I grilled directly on the (clean) grate, skin side down, and removed carefully with 2 spatulas when done.

1 large Salmon (or steel-head) filet.   Salmon steaks may also be used

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 tbsp dijon mustard

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp rice vinegar

September 21, 2008

Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Fontina, Bacon, and Arugula

Stuffed chicken breasts

Boneless, skinless, chicken breasts tend to be a little bland. That's why I usually use a marinade of some sort when I'm working with these. The nice thing about marinated chicken breasts is that you can keep the fat content low (which is why most people opt for this cut) and impart some nice flavor to the chicken.

Another option is to stuff your chicken breasts. You can get very creative going this route but with so many possibilities it's easy to lose site of the healthy aspect of the skiness chicken. Throwing caution (and calories) to the wind, I stuffed these with cheese and bacon. Some arugula was tossed in to ease the guilt.

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September 17, 2008

Stuffed Tomatoes Recipe

Stuffed tomato

I'm always on the lookout for food items that might be conducive to being stuffed with sausage. When you think about it, what (savory) dish wouldn't be improved by adding a few links of italian sweet? So what matters most, then, is size and shape and when I saw a boxful of large, ripe, tomatoes at my local farm stand, I knew I was in business.

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September 13, 2008

Artichokes with Fennel, Mint, and Toasted Pine Nuts

Artichokes and fennel

One of the great things about keeping this site going is that it forces me to experiment.

It's so easy to get stuck combining the same ingredients in the same manner over and over. I've made stuffed artichokes so many times that I wanted to try something different with them this time.I had some pine nuts left over from the last time I made Pesto and it struck me that fennel would be a good companion to braised artichokes. Anyway, this is what I came up with.

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September 06, 2008

Stuffed Clams Recipe

Stuffed clams

Eric said to put bacon in my stuffed clams, but not to use cheese. I too his pork-advice, but left a small amount of cheese in there for good measure. So, in part, this is his recipe, too.

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September 03, 2008

Cardamom Allspice Dry Rub

Ingredients:

  • 5-6 Pods of Black Cardamom
  • 1 Tbs Allspice Seeds
  • 1 Tbs Coriander Seeds
  • 1 Tsp Cinnamon
  • 1 Tbs Light Brown Sugar
  • 1 Tsp Chili Powder
  • 1 Tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper
  • 1 Tsp Kosher Salt

Combine everything in a spice mill. Pulse until everything is well combined.

Great on Chicken or Pork

September 01, 2008

Pesto Recipe

Pesto

Have I mentioned that my youngest son is an unbearably picky eater?

I'm pretty sure I have. So I was more than pleasantly surprised when he declared that he LOVED pesto. My wife come home with a tub-full from a local farmer's market and he simply couldn't stop smearing it on bread and gobbling it down.

So I dusted off the food processor and whipped up a batch. I have a feeling I'll be making it fairly often.

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