Serious Stuff

It's serious clean-out-the-refrigerator time.  When I was shopping on Monday, I really wasn't thinking about eating out twice in a week - that pretty much never happens with us.  Not to mention the neighborhood produce, the tomatoes in the yard...  We have a few veggies to use up.

Tonight I started off with a link of andouille sausage.  Into the skillet it went with broccolini, a bell pepper, 3 portobello mushrooms, fresh spinach, 2 chopped tomatoes, a can of black beans, a few shakes of Tabasco, and salt and pepper.  A once-in-a-lifetime-dinner.  It came out great.

Tomorrow's Last Supper is going to be Asian-inspired, I think.

by Tim Dineen

Empanadas and Tomatoes

We have a few tomatoes to go through between now and Tuesday morning when we fly west.

We had planned to bring a huge basket over to Linda and David yesterday - and walked out of the house without them.  The vines are really going crazy right now.  We just can't keep up.  We'll pawn as many off as we can tomorrow, and then I'll just have to blanch 'em and freeze 'em, or make some sauce - something.  They won't go to waste.

Which brings us to lunch, today...  Empanadas I made a while back and froze, a fresh-sliced tomato, drizzled with basil oil.

Basil oil is simply olive oil and basil mixed in the blender with a bit of salt and pepper.  That's it.

These tomatoes are just so good.....

More for dinner, tonight!

by Tim Dineen

Dinner with Linda and David

It's fun having friends you have known forever.  Conversations can range from childhood to current politics and back to gossip about someone you haven't seen in 30 years - and back again.  There's no end to the fun.  And that's exactly how it was at our biannual dinner with Linda and David last night.  December at our house where Linda and I get Christmas presents, and late July/early August at their house to celebrate Linda's and my birthdays - where we both get presents.  It's a great tradition!  It's also fun because Cybil is invited and she gets to play with her cousin Molly.  (Cousin Murray, the cat, goes upstairs.  He and Cybil aren't kissing-cousins, at all.)  Uncle David spoils Cybil even more than we do - she loves to visit him!

Besides being great conversationalists, Linda and David know how to cook!  It's restrained non-stop eating of the best kind.

We started off with some basics - red pepper hummus and crackers, a locally-made sharp cheddar cheese, oyster-stuffed mushrooms that were out of this world...  I was actually eating and talking too much to get pictures...

And then we moved into the dining room for dinner...

A beef tenderloin coated with fresh herbs and oven-roasted.  Perfect.  Just perfect.  Accompanied by oven-roasted potatoes and steamed local green beans.  You could taste the freshness!  It was simple, elegant, and delicious all in one.

Linda also made a Spinach and Strawberry Salad with a Poppy Seed Dressing that totally rocked!

Linda's Poppy Seed Dressing

• 1/2 cup white vinegar or red wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• 1 tsp grated onion
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp poppy seeds

Process first 5 ingredients in blender about 20 seconds.  With blender on high, gradually add oil in a slow, steady stream.  Stir in poppy seeds.

Serve over fresh fruit or spinach.

Great with spinach and strawberries.  (Marinate strawberries in dressing approximately 1 hour before serving - spoon over spinach.)

And then we started on desserts.  Yes, desserts - plural.  The opening salvo was chocolate fondue with strawberries, fresh pineapple, and marshmallows.  We stood around the fondue pot on the kitchen island because everyone knows that calories consumed standing up don't count.  We didn't count a few of them.

It was a perfectly warm/cool-breeze evening, so out to the deck we went with rounds two-and-three of the desserts - Poppy Seed Pound Cake with an Orange Glaze (hafta use up those poppy seeds, right?!?)  and Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream.  And a tray of Chocolate Brownies and assorted candies.

We sat outside for several hours talking, laughing, eating, and just having a wonderful time.  I do have to admit that I ate more than one of everything and I loved every calorie-laden minute of it.

A mere 7 hours after arriving, we were heading home - with big smiles, gifts galore, and full tummies.

December's going to be here before you know it - time to start thinking of what to do for our next get-together, here!

by Tim Dineen

Razzleberry Dressing

Every time I pull down the lingonberry vinegar, I think of Mr Magoo's Christmas Carol and Tiny Tim singing "and razzleberry dressing...". I lead a sheltered life.  What can I say?!?

Unfortunately, I just used the last of it and last time I was at Ikea, they didn't have any.  (I did pick up a bottle of lingonberry concentrate so maybe I'll make my own.)

But I digress...

Tonight's salad was a 'start cleaningt out the 'fridge we're going on vacation in a few days' concoction.  I cut up one boneless/skinless chicken breast and sauteed it with a splash of the aforementioned lingonberry vinegar.  I pulled it out of the skillet and added some mushrooms and broccoli.  I let it all cool a bit and into a big bowl it went with a big handful of spinach, 6 sliced radishes, 2 shredded carrots, a huge tomato from the garden, sliced and diced, and 2 hard cooked eggs, also sliced and diced.

The Razzleberry Dressing was a splash of the lingonberry vinegar with olive oil and salt and pepper.  Nothing else.  Simple.  I added the dressing, tossed everything together, and onto the plates it went.

I didn't do a nutritional analysis tonight, but I know that I did well enough that I can do a bit of something for dessert, tonight - after the treadmill.

Oh...  and a secret for using less salad dressing?  Dress your salad in a salad bowl and then plate it!  Add about a third to a half of the amount of dressing tyou think you'll need and then toss well.  Odds are you will not need to add any more!

by Tim Dineen

Sweet Chipotle Beef

This is pretty much the epitomy of what we call "stuff" at our house.  A concoction of whatever is in the 'fridge or whatever I feel like throwing together for dinner...

Tonight's stuff was a Sweet Chipotle Beef served over oven-roasted red potatoes.  It sounds strange, but it rocked!  And it was only about 550 calories!  (Well... that's what my cheapo recipe analyzer says, anyway... )

I started out by thinly-slicing some eye of the round and browning it in a bit of oil and a minced chipotle pepper in adobo.  I pulled it out and added a sliced leek, 2 cloves of garlic, a bell pepper, and then corn cut from 2 ears... One chopped tomato.   I added about a half-cup of water.  Back in went the beef along with a tablespoon of tomato paste, a half-cup of Harry & David's Papaya-Lime sauce, a sprinkle of cumin, chipotle powder, salt and pepper.

I let it all cook down and then added about a teaspoon of Tabasco to kick it up a notch.

I quartered the potatoes (they were small to begin with) and after laying out on a sheetpan, spritzed them with olive oil and sprinkled them with chile powder, garlic, salt and pepper.  Roasted at 425° for about 30 minutes.

The potatoes went on the plate, the chipotle beef on top.

It was really good.

by Tim Dineen

The Other White Meat

I'm just getting around to talking about last night's dinner.  But... better late, than never, right?!?

We're still playing watch the calories and it's still working.  We've both dropped a few pounds.  Thank goodness it's summer and fresh, local produce is so plentiful...  this is going to give us a good start for the winter coming up...

Last night's fresh produce was a combination of zucchini, tomatoes, broccoli, leeks, and  mushrooms.  Just a slight drizzle of olive oil in the pan to get them started, and then a half-cup of red wine to finish them off.  The big-ticket item on the plate was probably the pork tenderloin - maybe 6 ounces... maybe 450 calories, give-or-take.  Maybe 200 calories for that cup of rice, and a hundred calories or so for the veggies.

It was good.

And then I decided we needed dessert...

So I made a baked egg custard.

For two of us, I used one egg and one egg yolk, 1 cup of non-fat milk, 1 tsp of sugar and a splash of vanilla. And one nectarine.

I sliced the nectarine and placed it in the ramekin, made the custard and poured it over the top and baked it in a water bath at 350° for about 25 minutes.

I cooled them in the water for about an hour and we ate them warm - all 152 calories!

Yum.

by Tim Dineen

Turkey on the Barbie

What a day was today!  There was a 21-home Yard Sale in our neighborhood today.  It was on 5 streets, advertised all over the place - and a huge success!  I'm beat.  We were up at the crack of dawn to get set up - and the early-birds were already out in force.  (And I'm sorry, but some of those early-birds are obnoxious as hell!)   The sale officially started at 9am, we were busy at 8am, and sold-out by 10:30am.  I was pretty flabbergasted! Only a couple of things didn't sell, and by 11am, we had a "free" table that was empty by 11:05.  A huge success, indeed.

It was fun seeing so many folks I know from work. (And even more fun getting the "you live here?!?" comments!)

While it really was a fun day, it was also quite tiring.  It's exhausting dealing with people going through your stuff.  I'm really glad we did it - we cleaned out a lot of stuff that really needed cleaning out and we got some vacation-cash for Seattle and Portland - but dayum, I'm all tuckered out!

When it came time for thinking about dinner, I was looking for something to do with a big ol' zucchini.  Our neighbor up the street has been keeping us supplied. (I will ALWAYS take fresh produce from a neighbor - always.  I will figure out what to do with it!)  She had dropped of a single gigantic zucchini a day or so ago and I wanted to use it while it was still garden-fresh.  I figured long thin strips cut on the mandoline would be the way to go with this one - and then onto the grill.  I sprayed them with olive oil and sprinkled on quatre épices (literally, four spices).

I picked up a turkey breast london broil and marinated it in a great summer marinade:

Lemon Garlic Marinade

• Juice of 2 lemons
• zest of 2 lemons
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed and minced
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 cup minced parsley
• 1/4 cup minced assorted fresh herbs (basil, cilantro, dill, whatever)
• 1/2 cup olive oil.

Mix it all together.  That's it.

This would work on anything - beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, fish, vegetables...

It went into a pyrex plate with the turkey breast.  And then onto the grill it went.

The rice was another fun creation.  I was looking for something to pop up the plate a bit and definitely bfound it with this:

Chimi Churi Japonica Rice

• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 plum tomato, diced
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp chimi-churi spice blend (I get it from Cost Plus when I'm out west)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 3/4 cup whole-grain japonica rice
• 1 1/2 cups beef broth

Saute onion, mushrooms, and garlic in a small pan. remaining ingredients and bring to boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and cook for 45 minutes (or however long according to the rice you use).

The anount of rice tonight was determined by the fact that I had a cup and a half of beef broth opened in the 'fridge.  It could have easily have been chicken broth, vegetable broth, or plain water.

And I'm really starting to look for whole grain rices.  I want that nutty, chewy texture.  Most of the brown rice on the market today looks like a browner version of white rice.

So dinner tonight was pretty good on the health-and-calorie-o-meter.  The turkey ran probably 250 calories - it was a generous portion and the rice probably hit 200 calories.  The zucchini was practically a giveaway.  Maybe 50 calories.  I bought a loaf of Italian bread (1/8 of a huge loaf is 200 calories and I know I ate less than that) so even adding another 200 calories, the huge dinner I didn't finish would have totaled 700 calories had I cleaned my plate.

I believe I have enough calories left over from today for a bit of dessert later on.....

by Tim Dineen