Brine – lean meat’s best friend

When you are grilling or roasting lean meats, brining the meat will keep it moist and add flavor.  I use the same basic brine with turkey, pork and chicken.  The brining time changes from 1 hour for thin cuts of meats (less than 1 inch) to overnight for a whole turkey.  The brine adds salt … Continue reading →

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Mediterranean Zucchini Galette

A friend of mine showed up at my office with a bag of produce from his farm.  The bag included a rather large zucchini – the official orphan vegetable of Summer.  I said, “you could make Zucchini bread”.  He answered, “You could… but after you have had zucchini bread several times….” So, I had a … Continue reading →

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What Else We’ve been eating

Another catch-up post.  Here are photos of a variety of things we have been eating.  Enjoy.

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Pea and Tarragon Risotto

Risottos are great dinners.  They are versatile and easily adapted to what’s on hand.  The Williams-Sonoma’s Risotto cookbook has been my starting point for many risottos including this one.  Fresh sugar snap peas and tarragon are the flavoring elements.  Parmesan cheese adds depth and helps build the creamy texture.   We served this with a … Continue reading →

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Market Day – July 4th Weekend

Summer is reaching its high point at the market.  Beautiful things are coming on and the late Spring items are still hanging around. It is a great time to go to the farmer’s market.  I picked up three types of berries (could have been 5), fresh fava beans, the first small carrots and beets.  Really … Continue reading →

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Pork Medallions with Sage and Marsala

Pork tenderloin medallions are great weeknight dinner.  They are an easy to cook light meal.  These medallions have sage leaves pressed onto the meat and they are finished with marsala wine for a sweet sauce.  I served this with a asparagus and cannellini bean salad for lighter Spring dinner. Recipe: Pork Medallions with Sage and … Continue reading →

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Lamb with Mint Gastrique and Root Vegetable Hash

A mint gastrique makes a sweet and tangy pan sauce for organic lamb chops from the market.  The sweetness of the lamb and gastric is offset by the rich earthy and spicy root vegetable hash.    The two together make a really wonderful dinner.  The hash would be great with eggs for brunch or dinner. … Continue reading →

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Sirloin Tip – 3 more meals

One of the things I preach and practice is “cook once, eat many times”.  This doesn’t mean the same leftovers, night after night, all week long.  It does mean many different meals that follow on from the first dish.  Last weekend, we made the slow grilled sirloin tip roast.   During the week, we used … Continue reading →

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Slow grilled Sirloin Tip Roast

John Priske of Fountain Prairie Farms talked me into buying a sirloin tip roast.   It is a beautiful cut of meat that I hadn’t cooked before.  He showed me other steaks from the same spot.  They had gorgeous marbling so I thought it would be a good cut served rare to medium-rare off the … Continue reading →

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Oops – forgot the film moment

So – a bit of a mistake Saturday night – I forgot to put the memory card back in my camera.  I shot some lovely pictures of the Market Dinner I made but they are all in my memory and none in my computer.  The picture of the butterfly that has been hanging out with … Continue reading →

Filed under Easy, Featured Post, Featured Slides, Fuss-level, Meat, Not Meat, Recipes