liamsaunt

Spaghetti with crab, peas, basil, and lemon

Seared tuna over sweet potato puree (we have so many right now!) with red and green coconut curry sauces and a pear salsa with cilantro and lime.

Roasted cauliflower shawarma with spicy tahini sauce. I got the recipe in an email from NY Times cooking. It was actually quite good. I was not wearing my reading glasses when I started the recipe, so only used one tbsp. oil instead of the called for 5 tbsp., but it still was not at all dry. I also swapped cilantro for parsley, and made naan to go with it because I did not have time to make my pita recipe. Here's the recipe. It is probably behind a paywall if you do not subscribe to NY Times, sorry about that. Cauliflower shawarma

Flounder with a spinach and tomato cream sauce and orzo.

Crab cakes with horseradish aioli and a fennel apple salad, plus smashed potatoes. The crab cakes, sauce and salad recipes are from the Row 34 cookbook.

Salad with spiced chicken, avocado, peaches, boursin cheese and tomato with a bacon shallot vinaigrette.

Roasted mushroom flatbread

Orecchiette with broccoli and bacon cream sauce

I have palm sugar but used brown because the palm sugar I have is in big disc like lumps that work out to about 1/4 cup sugar each. I usually only use them if I need 2 tbsp or more because then I can just hack off a piece and melt it into the sauce. I've tried grinding them up in my spice grinder without much success. I suppose I should buy a different kind of palm sugar, but I want to use this stuff up first. Quick dinner last night, turkey tacos.

I did not really cook it, but I did warm it up. I did not measure anything, just dumped stuff in the blender until it tasted good. I used mango chunks, coconut milk, garlic, fish sauce, cilantro, chiles, lemongrass, and a little brown sugar.

Nut and seed crusted tuna with a mango sauce, coconut brown rice and spinach

Spaghetti puttanesca with monkfish added

So just to update, my husband said that we get Last Chance Kitchen directly through our cable provider, it is available on demand. When it first started airing, we had to watch it on our computer, but our cable company (Comcast) started offering it after the first season. So I guess that is not really helpful. 😑

Tagliatelle with wild mushrooms and roasted kale

Last night was supposed to be wild mushroom pasta, but husband had to go to a late work-related lunch so I changed to something lighter. We have an overabundance of cabbage from my farm share, so I made cabbage with pad see ew flavors, with rice and an egg. It was fine and used up one of the cabbages. Pasta tonight.

Here are two I got this week. I usually go through and put little flags on the recipes I am interested in trying. I have not had time to look at more than a few pages of the Vietnamese one yet. I am making a pasta dish from the Half Baked Harvest one for dinner this evening.

Lemon garlic chicken, roasted broccoli with lemon and parmesan, rice pilaf

We watch Last Chance Kitchen on the TV right after each Top Chef episode. I will have to ask my husband how he hooked it up, and will report back on that. We do record the episodes and watch on Mondays rather than Thursdays (mostly so we can skip all of the commercials). I thought Sam did confess to leaving his potatoes behind, but maybe I am remembering wrong. It's too early for me to pick my favorite contestants, but some of the food has looked really good this season. I really enjoyed watching the Dufresne challenge, though I would have liked a closer look at how they created some of the things they made (the tuiles in the first dish for example). I know it is tough to show everything when there are still so many competitors. The judges seem more restrained in general this season. I have noticed that they are usually drinking water while judging, so I think the days of tipsy commentary might be over.

Udon noodle soup with roasted summer squash, baby bok choy, roasted shiitake and black oyster mushrooms, and a six minute egg.

Haddock in spicy tomato butter sauce with pearl couscous

Thanks for sharing your renovation with us! It is very interesting. I love all of the storage space you have. I just wanted to comment on the backsplash quartz. If you are able, I really would bring it all the way up to your microwave, even if it means giving up the curve that you like the look of. I am not a particularly messy cook (well, maybe a little) and I find splashes all the way up to and even on my vent hood sometimes. At my old house, I had a shorter backsplash, and the paint above it got pretty grimy over time, even with frequent cleaning. I am sure you can bring in some softer lines or color in another way in that large beautiful kitchen. I really like your flooring color choice, by the way. It is very restful. And I agree about the floor transition piece needing to go ASAP. I would be tripping over that constantly!

Scallops with pea and pea shoot risotto and crispy prosciutto

It was a CD rom (I think?) containing every back issue of Fine Cooking from the year it was published through the year of the contest I participated in. I think I gave it to my local library.

Thank you! I have emailed them. Here is a funny Fine Cooking magazine story: My husband really hates Fine Cooking. Years ago, they use to do a year long "Cook the Issue" contest, where you would cook as many recipes as you wanted/could from their magazine for an entire year, and then submit a photo and review of the recipe. The person who cooked the most recipes would win a prize. Well, I love a challenge, so one year I decided to participate, and being the kind of person I am, cooked almost every recipe from every issue for the entire year. My husband would groan "NOT another Fine Cooking recipe!" when I would bring whatever odd thing I had to make to finish off the issue to the table. I won the contest, never used the prize, and he has never forgiven them. I did get a good salmon burger recipe from that contest though 😂

Wild mushroom mac and cheese and a salad with spinach, arugula, beets, and pecans. I also grilled some ribeye steaks, but this is my plate so no picture of the beef.