We have an oregano plant in the garden that’s getting a little out of hand, so I decided to make some oregano pesto. Nothing goes better with oregano pesto than lamb.
For whatever reason, people get intimidated by roasted rack of lamb. They envision a Passover/Easter feast with mint jelly and overly-complicated, old-world side dishes. It doesn’t have to be that way. Rack of lamb is just the ovine equivalent of the pork chop. Who’s intimidated by pork chops?
Sautéed spinach is one of the best side dishes you can make. It’s nutritious, it’s easy to cook, it tastes great, and it goes with everything. I always keep one or two boxes of frozen spinach in the freezer, but it’s not very versatile. Whenever I see a good deal on fresh spinach (especially baby spinach leaves that don’t need to be trimmed), I buy it. They were selling big bags of spinach at the market for a couple of bucks this weekend, so I bought one. I should have bought two. We served it with some very ripe roma tomatoes and some grilled amberjack.
I baked a couple of loaves of homemade bread over the weekend. I used Michelob Ultra Amber for both of them and they tasted great. The first loaf was my basic no-knead bread:
The market had bunches of parsley on sale this weekend, so I decided to make a chimichurri sauce. Chimichurri is kind of like the Argentinian version of pesto, except they put it on everything. Ketchup is probably a more apt comparison when it comes to usage. The authentic version makes a very strong sauce that needs to be toned down for most Americans. My version does that while staying pretty close to real thing.
I love to eat. I love cooking. I spend as much time perusing the aisles of the grocery store as I do the hardware store. It’s one of my favorite things to do. I like experimenting with new fruits and vegetables and exotic meats. I enjoy updating old recipes with new cooking methods. I subscribe to several cooking magazines and DVR a few cooking shows (mostly on PBS). I bring my lunch to work almost every day, not only because it’s cheaper than eating out, but because my food is better than most of the meals I can get in downtown Greenville in the middle of the day. To people that don’t really know me well, and even to some people that do, all of these attributes make me look like a food snob.
Lately, lots of people have been asking me why I spend time taking pictures of food and posting them on the internet. Anyone who’s ever had a cast on their arm knows that there’s nothing more irritating than answering the same question over and over again (except maybe when you get an itch on your arm and you can’t scratch it because of the cast; that’s probably more irritating). I thought I’d put the explanation in one place so I can email it to people instead of constantly repeating myself.
Sweet Vidalia Onions were on sale at the market this past weekend and we decided to make a dish that would feature them raw. I threw together a citrus vinaigrette pasta salad that was bright and fresh-tasting.
After we make fish tacos, we always have a lot of red cabbage left over. We usually switch gears form Latin cuisine to Austrian, and the wife makes some sweet and sour cabbage while I prepare the wiener schnitzel.
The farmers market had a bunch of fresh spinach on sale this weekend and I was looking for a new way to cook it. I decided to throw it in a pot with some other classic Italian ingredients to make a dish that’s hearty. You can think of it as a thin pasta or a thick soup. Either way, it was so good that I ate three helpings.
In honor of Mother’s Day, I’m naming it Minestrone di Smeraglia. It’s basically just a variation of a classic peasant stew.
Lately, *I’ve been craving chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. I think it’s because I gave up all sweets for Lent and my body still hasn’t taken in all the sugar it needs to make up for the absence. Chocolate mousse was to be my solution.
Of course, I’ve never made it before and heard it was difficult. I found a simple recipe and was determined to make my mousse work.
