Mediterranean Salmon en Papillote - Roasted Salmon Recipe

French is sexy: the language, the music, the fashion, and the food!  When sexy also happens to be delicious and easy, you know you have a winner on your hands!  This recipe combines the French technique en papillote with Mediterranean flavors.

What is en papillote?  The literal translation from French is in parchment, which is precisely what it is.  The parchment is folded into a pocket and allows the food inside to cook gently, without fear of overcooking.  While cooking, the items inside release juices that create steam and also concentrate into a lovely sauce.

The combination of ingredients points directly to the Mediterranean - briny olives, sweet tomatoes and peppers, with a hint of garlic and shallots.

Happy Halloween - Wine and Grape Carved and Drilled Pumpkin

Happy Halloween!  Last year I carved my first pumpkin - Maple Leaf Fall Pumpkin.  It was fun and I decided to do another pumpkin this year.  My sister, mangotomato, suggested that I use a different technique - drilling!  So I gave it a try.  Not wanting to go the traditional route yet again, I decided on a wine and grape design (thanks to my mom for the grape suggestion!)

What do you think?

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Dinner for Le$$ - Fettuccine with Shrimp, Garlic and Broccoli Recipe - Fitness Nov/Dec 2011

I'm finishing 2011 on a high note - with yet another recipe published in Fitness Magazine - check out their November/December issue!  In the past, I've developed four recipes for the Dinner in 20 (September 2010 Curried Shrimp with Mango Couscous, November 2010 Chicken Soba Bowl, April 2011 Lemon Thyme Chicken, and May 2011 Beef Stir-Fry with Avocado Salad). 


This current recipe is the first one for me in the new Dinner for Le$$ section.  Fettuccine with Shrimp, Garlic and Broccoli is a nutritious, healthy, and delicious meal for under $3 per person.  What's not to like?

For the Love of Pho - Vegetarian Pho at Home

How I wish I could remember the first time I had pho.  But I can't.  It must've been years ago, most likely on a cold rainy day.  I must've fallen in love with pho instantly.  Maybe it was the do-it-yourself approach, where you mix your own special combination of Sriracha, chili paste and hoisin along with cilantro, thai basil and lime. Maybe it was the slurping that went along with each bowl of pho.  Maybe the brisket, who knows!  I fell in love fast and hard.

Here in Seattle, I have had pho too many times for me to count.  More often, than not, I have been accompanied by my awesome pho buddy - Alla!  We've shared bowls of pho in the heat of summer and in the gloom of fall.  We celebrated life's happy moments with pho, and met over pho to heal broken hearts and soothe sore throats.  Last week, when I had a chance to try pho at home, there was nobody else I would've rather shared the experience than with her.

Individual Frittatas with Roasted Vegetables and Cheddar Cheese

I'm not sure what you have for breakfast, but I'm guessing it's not soup.  I, however, have had soup for breakfast twice this week.  On Monday I had hot and sour and on Tuesday it was egg drop noodle - both leftovers from Chinese take-out dinner my friend Alla and I had over the weekend.  While slurping peas, carrots and some sliced baby corn, draped in whispy egg whites, I considered that perhaps I should have something more appropriate for breakfast than soup.

Almost immediately, I thought about the Mother's Day post I wrote two years ago: Broccoli and Italian Sausage Egg Muffins.  Would you believe me if I told you that the post has had almost 52,000 views?  I’m not going to assume that every viewer has made the recipe, but even if one out of every 100 viewers prepared these broccoli and sausage frittatas, it would mean there have been 520 dozen of them out in the world, consumed for breakfast, brunch, lunch and possibly dinner.  I have received so many comments on this post that I decided to bake these frittatas one more time.

Random Ingredient Recipe Challenge

A few weeks ago I received an invitation from Marx Foods to participate in their recipe challenge.  I was intrigued - especially when I found out this was a random recipe challenge.  I said "yes" and started checking my mailbox on a daily basis for the box of ingredients.  When the box finally arrived, I found quite a collection of players inside - tri colored couscous, coconut sugar, dried lobster mushrooms, granulated dried chipotle chilies, and dried habanero chilies.  What to do?

I went ahead and selected couscous, dried lobster mushrooms, coconut sugar, and a dried habanero (I shall use the dried chipotle chilies some other time, perhaps in a flourless chocolate cake).  After some brainstomring, virtual tasting and visualization, I pulled out coconut milk, golden raisins, coconut oil, onion, garlic and kaffir lime leaf from my refrigerator/pantry and began to cook.  Below is my creation.  I invite you to taste it and let me know your thoughts.

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Red Onion and Cherry Jam and Toasted Pecans

I've had a butternut squash prettily nestled in an orange colander on top of my kitchen counter for longer than a month.  It's been sitting there quietly and patiently, waiting to be used up.  In the past, it most often had been used for soups - Pureed Butternut Squash, Potato and Poblano Coconut Curry and the simple Pureed Butter Squash.  I thought it was time to branch out and turn this buttery, slightly sweet squash into something else - why not a salad?  I was going to a food-centric book club potluck and thought everyone would enjoy a fall salad with butternut squash and a few other ingredients.  

Roasted Roma Tomatoes

Love for tomatoes runs in my family so much that my sister writes a blog called Mango & Tomato.

As little girls, we'd eat tomatoes like apples, biting into the ripe fruit and letting the juice run down our hands.  We also ate tomatoes pickled, marinated, or simply cut into wedges and sprinkled with salt.  We fought over tomato juice that collected on the bottom of the tomato salad bowl, eagerly waiting to soak up its goodness with a piece of crusty white bread.

As a grownup, I discovered the joy of tomato juice in a bloody mary, with lots of Tabasco sauce.  Sundried tomatoes entered my cooking repertoire, mixed with pasta and artichoke hearts or in a couscous salad.

Fall is for Apple Picking

My first experience with apple picking was back in Russia.  I must have been 8 or 10 years old.  What I remember, is climbing trees and picking up apples, loading them into hand-sewn sacks and dragging them back on the train to Moscow.  I don't remember apple pies or apple sauce ~ I'm pretty sure I didn't discover either one of these until I moved to the United States.  The traditional use for apples was apple cake, apple compote, and my favorite - marinated apples.

Apple picking, to me, is associated with fall, celebrating the bounty of the season, and connecting to the source of where our food comes from.  This year, I joined JConnect for apple picking at Piper's Orchard, inside Carkeek Park.  This orchard is over 200 years old and has multiple apple, pear, cherry, plum and quince trees.  There are also walnuts and chestnuts grown on the orchard.  The original plan was to harvest apples to donate to City Fruit, but unfortunately the apples and pears weren't ripe enough, so we ended up keeping the apples for ourselves.  Most of the apples we picked, weren't traditionally beautiful or perfect - but they were crisp, slightly sour, and perfect for the Apple Challah Rolls.