Thursday, June 28

Another late day. We bought some salmon kabobs with a peach salsa, so I grilled that (and a veggie burger for myself). We planned on grilled zucchini, but it was slimy when I cut it up, so I decided to skip that. My wife made a salad, and we heated up some leftover risotto.

I'm not very good with the grill. You can see bits of salmon that remained on the surface when I turned the kabob.

The salmon had some white viscous fluid seeping out of it on the grill. Rendering fat? I'll confess that I have nothing but ignorance on this one.

Wegnesday, June 27

I didn't get home as early as I intended today, so dinner was a bit of a cop-out. Creamed spinach and a simple pasta. The pasta's one of my favorites, it's dead simple and usually goes over well.

Boil some angel hair pasta. We've tried various other noodles, but I don't think any of them work as well. Chop some tomatoes and mince some basil and oregano. Mix angel hair, tomatoes, spices, as much minced garlic as you can get your hands on, mozzarella cheese and some olive oil. It's easier to mix if you add a bit of each thing a little at a time, otherwise you can end up with a ring of pasta surrounding a cheesy garlic mass with tomatoes on the outskirts.

Tuesday, June 26

This was one of the days when we don't even try to do the whole mixed marriage thing. On the left is what turned into cream of asparagus soup, the right became a mushroom risotto. On the back burners are nearly identical pots of simmering vegetable stock, because it didn't occur to me that both dishes called for the same ingredient. I wasn't planning on pointing this mistake out, but my wife noticed it right away.

I'm surprised at how little dairy goes into cream of asparagus soup. Saute some onion, throw in some chopped asparagus. Add a bit of flour and then stock. Then pour the whole thing into a blender (important safety tip: make sure the blender is less than two-thirds full before turning it on. hot soup flying everywhere burns a little bit) and puree. Maybe liquefy. Either way, blender the crap out of it. Return to pot, throw in a splash of half-and-half. Pepper's a nice touch. Oh, and before you do any of this, remove and save the top bits of the asparagus. Blanche those, and throw them in after the rest of the soup gets blended.


The risotto came out very well this time, but I honestly don't have any idea why. In the past it's been hit and miss, but tonight it was creamy and delicious.

Tuesday, June 19

My in-laws came over for dinner. I made cedar plank salmon for everyone (veggie burger for me). I didn't get any photos of the salmon this time. It's pretty simple. You take a salmon steak and put it on a 1/4 inch thick plank of cedar. Spread some brown sugar and black pepper on the top. Spread it thick. Grill the whole arrangement until it looks done. It's probably a good idea to soak the plank beforehand, but I forgot and so ended up soaking it in the sink after I'd spread the brown sugar atop the salmon. Oh, and watch your eyes, the cedar smoke stings a bit.

I also make an aluminum foil tray and grilled some asparagus in it.

Since my wife and I just got back from a trip to Italy, we also made a Caprese salad. This is the simplest thing ever. Slice mozzarella and tomato, tear up some basil, and layer. Drizzle with olive oil. It's impossible to not make this look good.

I don't know if this applies to anyone else, but if so remember that your sister-in-law doesn't like tomatoes BEFORE she shows up.

Welcome

Hey. I'm a vegetarian. My wife is not. Here, I'll talk about what we do about that.