valentine's dinner

So last week I went all out for a wonderful Valentine's dinner with my boyfriend. The semi-ambitious menu included parmesan dirty mashed potatoes, oven roasted vegetables, seared lamb combs finished off with poached pears. At one point there was smoke pouring out of the oven, and the fire alarm went off, but thank God that was from some left over oil burning off; I opened all the windows, turned on the fan and the rest of the night went off without a hitch :)

 Here are the recipes : everything is from memory so the measurements are a rough estimate. just remember to taste as you go!

Parmesan Dirty Mashed Potatoes
*serves 3-4*
 6 red potatoes
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
salt and pepper

1. quarter the red potatoes (make sure they are roughly the same size, so cut larger spuds into 6ths or 8ths so that everything cooks evenly)
2. salt and bring a large pot of water to boil, toss in potatoes, boil for about 15 mins or fork tender
3. drain the potatoes, add butter, cream and parmesan
4. mash the potatoes ( I like mine a little chunky)
5. add salt and pepper to taste

Seared lamb chops
*serves 2-3*
6 lamb chops
olive oil
rosemary
thyme
salt & pepper

1. bring lamb chops to room temp. marinate in 2 tbsp olive oil, liberally sprinkled with the herbs and salt and pepper for 30 mins - 1 hr.
2. coat the the bottom of an oven proof skillet with olive oil and bring med-high heat. Sear the lamb about 2-3 minutes each side.
3. transfer pan to oven to finish cooking, about 7 mins, for a medium rare cooked chop
4. remove lamb from oven and let rest 5 mins before serving

Oven roasted vegetables
1/2 onion
2 leeks
1/2 sweet potato
1/2 red pepper
2 carrots
olive oil
salt pepper
rosemary
thyme

1. preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. cut the vegetables so that they are uniform in size. I did mine in long strips
3. lay in a single layer on a cookie sheet, drizzle ample amount of olive oil and sprinkle generously with the herbs, salt and pepper. Toss until everything is coated.
4. roast for 20 minutes, turn the vegetables every 7-8 minutes so they don't burn.

red wine, pellegrino, candles to set the mood.











Dessert: poached pear and his favorite ice cream, graeter's black raspberry chip

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Poached Pear
*serving 2* adapted from Alton Brown
1/2 bottle Riesling wine
1/2 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup sugar
2 Bosc pears (peeled with stems in tact)

1. place everything but the pear into a medium sauce pan, bring to a boil over medium high heat
2. core the pears from the bottom, decrease the heat to medium low heat, place pears in the liquid, cover and simmer for 30 mins or until tender
3. remove pears from liquid, place in serving dish to chill in the refrigerator
4. increase the heat to high and reduce liquid to about 1 cup of syrup, about 30 mins, transfer to heat proof container and chill for 1 hour.
5. Serve pear with a scoop of ice cream. You can spoon the sauce over the pear and ice cream but I didn't because the ice cream was already flavored but just save it for later. I've been eating it over my greek yogurt in the morning.

Hope you guys all had a wonderful Valentine's :)

<3 jo

Fresh & Clean

Ok, first new post of 2012. A bit overdue but college students do have a lot to juggle. I've always been one to keep an active eye out for healthy recipes. And now that I've finally lost all my Germany weight, I'm not going back. One of my favorite ways to make a filling but light meal is making salads with a simple lemon or lime dressing.  The tang of these citruses brings enough flavor to satisfy and leaves me feeling really refreshed. Also I finally brought a microplane and it's amazing. I add zest to most recipes that call for citrus juice because its so much fun to use, plus extra flavor! Another new obsession of 2012 is pinnnnterest. Seems like everyone's on it these days, but that's where I picked up the inspiration for this southwestern salad; I made some minor adjustments based on what I had in my pantry.


Here's the recipe:
1 can red beans1 can sweet corn
1 tomato
1/4 red onion
1/2 red bell pepper
1/4 cup cilantro
1 avocado
2 lemons + zest
salt & pepper
cumin



1. open and rinse both cans. pour into medium mixing bowl.
2. chop the tomato, red onion, bell pepper and cilantro to roughly the same size of the beans ( you want everything to be uniform). add to bowl.
3. open, score and scoop of avocado. add to bowl. ( do this last so when you add the lemon juice it really gets a chance to cover the avocado and help stop the oxidation)
4. zest the lemons and add the juice.
5. add salt & pepper to taste as well as a dash of cumin.
6. gently combine all the ingredients so that everything is uniformly mixed.

Notes: The original recipe called for black beans, and lime instead of lemon. I'm sure that would taste delicious too. Also, I usually omit or drastically cut down on the the oil in dressings but you can always add some olive oil, if you feel like you need the extra body.

Verdict: freaking delicious. I popped a whole wheat tortilla in the toaster over with some cheddar inside to make a quick quesodilla to go with the salad. For next time, I'd imagined a tortilla spritzed with some oil and dusted with some salt, pepper, cumin or paprika and toasted up for home made tortilla chips would also be a very good accompaniment :)

<3 Jo