Spicy Shrimp Caprese with Lemon-Balsamic Vinaigrette

Summer and caprese go together like iPhone and plug-in, Mika and Joe, ice cream and hot fudge, or pick your simile.  This is true at my house and perhaps it is at yours.  It may be more true (is that possible) if you live in the places where the juicy, sweet tomatoes appear each year -- Illinois, New Jersey, Minnesota,  or add your state here _______________.  This is not true in Colorado where our nights are cool, rain is sketchy at best, and the growing season is oh, about a month long.  Maybe two.

Fried Egg on Potato Cake with Blue Cheese Wedge, Tomatoes, and Scallions

 Tonight I was hungry, but had had a fattening lunch.  A little egg supper was in order, along with a bit of salad.  I threw in a potato cake because I had some cold mashed potatoes in the frig. (Potato cakes are just leftover mashed potatoes patted out like a pancake and fried in butter until very crisp.) Hey, they needed to be used.  If you've never made anything on top  of a potato cake, now's the time.  Try this:

I'd Just Like a Little Chicken and Salad, Please

More than once, I've heard Ina Garten say (about roast chicken), "That's all that anyone really ever wants for dinner anyway, isn't it?"  If you're like me, you love roast chicken, but it definitely isn't the only thing I ever want for dinner.  Hello?  I love pizza, lamb chops, Vietnamese soup, beef stew, salmon...   But there maybe are a few nights in the year when you really do just want  a little chicken.  If you're not in the mood to roast a whole bird tonight, this meal is for you.  Especially if you keep frozen chicken thighs (boneless and bone-in) in the freezer at all times--a great treasure trove for very fast meals.

I happened to have made a huge vat of potatoes and vegetables to go with some fried trout for breakfast last Friday.  Saturday night, all I had to do was cook the chicken and I was about ready to eat.

Pan-Grilled Double Lamb Chops with Oven-Roasted Whole Carrots and a Make-Ahead Fresh Green Bean Salad

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's a menu you can make for you and a friend, you and a lover, or for special you with great leftovers.  Whatever you do, read through the whole thing before beginning.  This post features big double lamb chops (with a tapenade topping) grilled first and finished in the oven; meantime you'll roast large, whole carrots to go with it.  There's a make early green bean salad and I also give simple suggestions for wine and dessert if you scroll down to the end.

Start with a beautiful sparkler that needn't cost much.  I heartily recommend a New Mexico sparkling wine such as  Gruet rather than splurge on a French champagne.  Add some of the tapenade with baguette or crackers or a bowl of great potato chips--my favorite sparkler pairing.  Stay away from cheese; fresh vegetables would work wonderfully.  Just stick with something light; this is a big meal.  Lamb is a loving, but filling meal.  

If you're cooking for just you, open the wine, turn on the music, set the table, and enjoy a beautiful night.  If you've got a companion, the more the merrier.  Whatever you do, have fun cooking and taking care of yourself!

Make-Ahead Green Bean Salad with Cream Shallot Dressing    serves 2

This recipe calls for you to blanch the beans and fresh peas briefly in boiling water, drain, and cool quickly in an ice bath.  You can also cook them, separately, in the microwave for 2-3 minutes with just a couple of tablespoons of water in a microwave-safe covered bowl.

Walleye Salad

It's just a fact of life.  If you live in the upper midwest, you  probably love Walleye Pike.  (If you live elsewhere, you maybe don't know from Walleye.)  We travel to northern lakes to fish for them, we serve them at many, many restaurants, and we currently sell them fresh in the grocery store for $18 a pound or so. (Yikes.)  We cut them into "fingers" for starters, fry them up with mountains of fries served up with two cups of mayonnaise coleslaw for mains, nestle them into a bun for a Minnesota fish burger,  and occasionally place them somewhat uncomfortably on a bed of greens.

Pork Tenderloin Salad with Blueberries, Oranges, and Sherry-Honey Vinaigrette

 I could look in my mom's frig and think there was nothing at all to eat in there.  I might even be found staring blindly into the freezer, hoping something would come to me.  Usually it was ice cream.  But let my mom loose in that kitchen and in record time, there was a full meal on the table.  Practice makes perfect.  The early bird gets the worm.  Hunger makes the best sauce.  Desperation is the mother of invention.  Whatever.  She knew how to bring it, as they say.  It seemed miraculous.