The Latest

This is a mortadella panini of Mario Batali's design (with ricotta and a horseradish sauce); rigatoni with roasted butternut squash, onions, sage, and bacon; and my own makeshift heirloom tomato salad with basil, parmesan, and tasty balsamic vinegar that someone put in my stocking.

Under one hour, easily under $5 per serving, liberal with the healthy stuff, and conservative with the unhealthy stuff that makes it taste sinfully good. And almost identical to a meal you could pay $25 for that would have lots more fat and might still take an hour of your time.

Avocado Tempura

Q: Is it weird that Health-Nut Xandy deep fried anything?

A: Yes.

Q: Is it weird that what he deep fried was a lightly tempura-battered avocado stuffed with shrimp and veggies (topped with Thai sweet chili sauce and sesame seeds), and he served it with a side of Asian coleslaw made with around 20 ingredients, mostly vegetables?

A: No.

Mascarpone and Other Adventures in Cooking

We tried a couple of new recipes tonight. One was really lame (shame on you, Giada). The other was fantastic and fresh (way to go, Giada).

If you've never used mascarpone cheese, do yourself a favor and try it. We'd been wanting to cook with it, but this was the first time we got to it. If nothing else, it's a great alternative for buttering bread (it's half the fat of butter, but has great flavor). I wouldn't use it for replacing butter in cooking, but it's great on bread and is commonly used in desserts and lots of Italian cooking. I got a big tub for a few bucks and it will last.

In this recipe, it was used to make the sauce creamy. This is shrimp on garlic bruschetta with arugula and tarragon. There are lots of other things going on (tomato, wine, shallots, etc), but mixing tarragon with shrimp was especially unique to me. If I'm called upon to make hors d'oeuvres for Xmas again, you guys might get to try this one.

One last thing... definitely try mascarpone, but DO NOT mispronounce it. People tend to pronounce it as though the R is before the S as frequently as they add imaginary syllables to nuclear (or larynx, if you're a Taylor).

Yet Another...

Let me know if these are getting old. It will probably slow down when Kara's school year starts. Also, feel free to ask for recipes if you want.

Here is a gourmet take on shrimp and grits. This is Shrimp on saffron-risotto topped with a lemon-fennel salad. I had fun making the broth from Riesling wine, shrimp shells, and lots of veggies. The lemon and fennel added a LOT. That's fresh thyme and fennel fronds you see as garnish.

Today's Gourmet

Broiled halibut on a bed of roasted leeks and cherry tomatoes, yellow cauliflower-potato gratin with Jarlsburg and Parmesan, and a side salad. Of course I made all kinds of mods to the gratin to make it healthy: less cheese, part skim, more cauliflower, fat free cream, whole wheat breadcrumbs, etc. I was proud because I made it all at the same time (see the steam in the pic!) and I made it ON TIME (about an hour total cooking and prep).

Food Pictures

Hey Tish!

I do a lot  of cooking these days, and every now and then, when a recipe is particularly original or demanding, I take a picture for fun and to help remember it. My mom suggested you might be interested in being included on these, so here's one.

This one is from a one-pot-meals cookbook I picked up on impulse from Williams-Sonoma. So far I've done two recipes and the flavors have been great, but the instructions have been absolutely abysmal. Completely wrong cooking times, typos, and steps that don't belong at all. Anyway, this is called "Vegetable Enchiladas" but if I ever decide to rewrite the recipe and fix it, I'd call it Mexican Lasagna because it's like lasagna, only you use corn tortillas instead of pasta, tomatillo salsa instead of tomato sauce, and queso fresca instead of ricotta, etc.

Here's the pic. Hope you're having a nice summer. I'll be thinking of you in our 75º days and 68º nights!

Love,

Xandy