One-Pan Salmon and Kale on Brown Rice

     Confused about which fish you should buy?  Download a Monterey Bay Aquarium guide...

When Dave's gone (he's my dishwasher), I lean toward one-pan meals.  I like hearty, healthy, and satisfying potfuls that will feed me a few times.  I admit to laziness.  Evenings spent on the couch reading.  Kitchens that stay clean.

I also adore fish cooked with or in vegetables; it's one of my favorite meals for experimenting.  As long as there's enough liquid in the vegetables and pan and the vegetables are done (or nearly done) when the well-seasoned fish goes on top, the meal is usually successful.  Fish salads are next on my list; I love them, too!

Salmon Fillet en Papillote with Shallots and Tomatoes: Celebrating Julia Child's 101st Birthday One Day Late!!

(Note to readers:  this is actually a repeat post from MORE TIME AT THE TABLE...written and posted last year for Julia's 100th birthday.... This year, I'm already back from our Colorado house and enjoying a gorgeous end of the summer in Minnesota. Have fun. This is FAST FOOD.)


Not spending the summer in St. Paul, I don't have any of my Julia books on the shelf....And it's Julia's 100th birthday!  I shipped all of the ones I needed to work on the soup cookbook and I brought my own personal cookbook, but the whole library cannot come to Colorado.  Julia's books sit in Minnesota:

Grilled Fish Omelet with Greens and Spicy Yogurt-Dill Sauce

If I can't be inventive in my on-going attack on my mid-section and the arms that continue to wave after I've stopped, then I'm a lost cook.   Thanks to my testing recipes for others (and for my own cookbook), I've found that cooking nearly the same thing over and over again -- even  in the morning -- isn't such a bad thing.  I kind of like it.  I feel accomplished.  In a happy way.  Not like when I clean the bathroom, either--even though I also do that over and over again.

Take egg white omelets.  Other than a short-order cook, I just don't know anyone who's cooked more egg white omelets than I have.  There are months on end when I eat them every single morning.  This might be embarrassing, but as it works for someone who wants to save their calories for dinner, it's not.  I make the occasional foray into Greek yogurt and fresh berries, melon, or peaches for several weeks in the summer, but I quickly nix that when the berries start to come in by Fed Ex plane and the cantaloupe begins to have the texture of a cardboard box.  Then I'm right back to eggs.  On Sundays, at noon, I have whole eggs.  Yolks and all.  Very adventurous.  (Here's my baby tutorial on making omelets. Just in case. )  And making so very many egg white omelets, what do I do with all of those egg yolks?  My friends, that's why God made dogs and cheesecake:

Swordfish with Ginger-Asparagus Rice and Mango Salsa (Another Help! I've Got Leftover Take-out Rice and Don't Know What To Do With It)

I'm likely to decide on what's for Sunday supper as I sit at Sunday lunch.  Often there are leftovers, soup in the freezer, or a nice piece of cheese that only needs a nice glass of wine to balance out all of my food groups.  Whatever happens, I rarely cook.  Sunday's a work day for me and Sunday evening is one I like to spend with my best guy, the dogs, and a tv tray.

Salmon and Kale on Pea Risotto- With Music for Cooking

Here's another take on the salmon for one meal.  While this takes a little bit of time (risotto isn't as time-consuming as people make out, though), it's worth it as the leftover risotto is then lunch and perhaps a risotto cake in a day or two.  If you make extra kale, you can use it for snacks as this version is light, oniony, and crispy with a good dose of salt and pepper.  Try this:

White Wine and Lemon-Steamed Salmon Cooked on Broccoli

During the calorically dense holiday season, it makes sense to have a couple of fish, poultry, or vegetable dishes to pull out of your back pocket.  This dinner is simple to cook, but the taste is anything but.  Sauté a small, chopped onion with some garlic and add broccoli.  Next, splash in white wine and fresh lemon juice.  Add a couple of salmon filets, cover, and that's it.  The vegetables become quite tender (don't start them ahead if you want them really crisp) and are infused with the citrusy-wine sauce.  In short, they're luscious.  The salmon is very moist-- cooked barely done, and isn't all hopped up with fancy or fattening sauces.  It reeks of itself...just as it should.  There's enough for two nights or for you and a friend.  Try this:

A Fish Story: Foiled Flounder, Oven-Roasted Green Beans and Rosemary Potatoes

Fast fish dinner.  Very simple.  Wrap the fish in foil and put it in the oven.  Roast beans. Microwave and then sauté a few potatoes with rosemary. Just for you or you and a friend. Pick up a bottle of white wine and a pint of gelato.  You're set.  Except for the table.  And maybe your friend will do that.

Shrimp-Quinoa Salad with Feta and Tomatoes

Hot nights:  if you skip the quinoa and buy cooked shrimp, this is a no-cook dinner.  Another option is microwave rice.

Coming back from Colorado (where we spent most of the summer with Dave working on our old house and me writing the soup book), we took mostly back roads. You can go all the way from Colorado Springs to St. Paul almost without super-highways.   Perhaps it's possible to go all of the way, but we opted for a bit of interstate here and there.  (Once you get near the Twin Cities, it's a bit tougher to accomplish since someone changed the routes from roads to vrrrooomms years ago now.) What we saw, almost all the way, was dead corn.  Miles and miles of it.  Dried out, brown, or with sprigs and shadows of green here and there.  In some cases the farmers were just cutting it down unharvested.  The photos and stories of the drought when seen on tv are one thing; feasting your eyes on hundreds of miles of it is another.  Sad.  I occasionally tried to get a photo, but nothing really came out from the car window.  My mind kept going to increased fuel prices, food prices, and hunger.

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.

Tuna-Cannellini Bean Salad with Feta -- Pantry Dinner, Lunch or Both

In a perfect world, someone else would make your lunch.
Do your laundry.
Grocery shopping.
Make your iced tea.
Clean out your refrigerator.
Do your taxes.
Clean the leaves out of the flower beds.
Fill your car with gas.
Take your old books to the library book sale.
Mend your favorite jeans.

But since this isn't a perfect world, you might have to cook for yourself  AND do your laundry.  But.  If you "cook" this (and there's no cooking involved), you'll skip most of the above because this yummy ditty is made mostly from pantry ingredients.  No running out to the store for fresh fish or searching the shelves for a bag of dried beans.  Of course, you'll need to have kept a few fresh veggies, etc in your frig "pantry," but here's hoping you do.

Canned Salmon Salad or Simple Pictures are Best

While I'm not hard-pressed for grocery money ... right now.. at this moment...I have been.  I spent years feeding six of us and, before that, had fifteen bucks a week to feed two hungry adults.  Really.  I know from cheap eats and, btw, canned salmon salad is cheap eats.

Lately, I find I'm just heart-sick over the cost of groceries.  And I only have to feed two people and two dogs.  Everyone I know complains about it.  One friend recently described a woman speaking on NPR about wanting to eat healthily--to eat vegetables.  Her words were something like this:

Tomatoed Cod on Fennel with Sautéed Spinach

Mostly people don't realize it, but when you're out for Friday Night Fish-Fry in St. Paul (or anywhere), you're probably having cod.  It could be haddock or pollack, and we can almost be sure it won't be halibut, though that would be so tasty.  Served up with boatloads of tartar sauce and a tower of fries with cole slaw, it's nothing if not very, very beckoning.   Add to that the number of people who've traveled to the UK and are now hooked on "Fish and Chips" and you have a ton of folks walking around thinking this is one of their favorite meals. And way too often here, the fish is "all you can eat."

But get us in the grocery store or at the fish monger, and cod doesn't stand out.  Darker, sexier catches like salmon and tuna prevail and cod hasn't much to say.  I mean, what do you do with cod?  (What do you do with a lot of fish, in fact.  Whenever I'm in line to buy fish, the other customers are always asking the clerk how to fix this fish.  I've nothing against the clerks, but they are not often great or accomplished cooks.  If I can gently and gracefully chime in, I do.  Of course, if you know me, you know I'm neither gentle nor graceful.

Tuna + Spinach with Onions/Garlic in 15 minutes

Grilled Tuna and Spinach with Onions-Faster than Take-out and So Much Better

If you keep your eyes peeled, your local run-of-the-mill grocery store sometimes has fresh tuna at nearly canned tuna prices.   Well, that maybe exaggerates it a bit.  Still, it's not terribly expensive and doesn't need anything fancy.  This is a lovely meal for one.  Saute a pan of onions and spinach with garlic to complete the meal.  (Do it first so your tuna it hot.)

If you have any tuna left over, you can make a Salad Nicoise (a Provencal favorite) the next day.  Just slice your tuna kindly, add to the plate some boiled potatoes, sliced tomatoes, Nicoise olives (or Kalamata if you can't find Nicoise; the French tend to keep a lot of them.), some greens, anchovies( if you like) and steamed green beans. Drizzle the platter with a mustard or tarragon vinaigrette and Nicoise is nearly yours.  Perfect summer fare.  Is it summer where you are?  Anyway, before the Nicoise, you must make this simple tuna with sauteed spinach, onions and garlic.  Add a bit of baguette or even some leftover rice or potato and you're in the business of dinner.  Actually, you don't need anything else, though a bit of wine would go down well, as would a good book.

         Quote of the Day:  " Am I eating chicken or tuna?"  ~ Jessica Simpson

 Tuna and Spinach with Onions and Garlic in 15 minutes

• 1 small fresh tuna filet (Ahi is nice)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1T olive oil, divided
• 1/2 a small onion
• 3 cups fresh spinach
• 1 clove garlic, minced

Set your table and get out your drink before you cook.  Crack your window or light a candle to dispel the fish cooking odor.

1. Pat down the tuna with paper towels and season it well with salt and pepper.  Set it aside.
2. Heat 2t of the olive oil  in a medium-sized skillet over medium heat and add the onion.  Stirring regularly, saute about 5 minutes until softened.  Add spinach, throw in a pinch each of salt/pepper and cook down about one minute.  Add garlic and cook another minute. Remove to plate and set aside.
3. Add other 1 t olive oil to the pan, raise heat to high, and let heat briefly--about 30 seconds. Add tuna; sear 2 minutes.  (Don't move the tuna; let it sit still.)  Turn and sear the other side for 2 minutes.  Place cooked, rare* tuna on top of spinach. 
4. This meal is lovely hot, but is also tasty at room temperature.  Refrigerate leftovers well-covered and immediately.

Solo Cook Notes:

•  Make a bigger piece of tuna if you'd like leftovers.  Fish salad for lunch is a treat. 
•  *Cook the tuna longer if you want, but brown tuna is tough tuna.
• Top with some pesto if you have any.
• I like Pinot Noir with tuna, but some people prefer Chardonnay or even Sauvignon Blanc.  Unlike simpler, lighter white fish, tuna stands up to a bit more of a wine or sauce.

How's that vegan thing going?   Each day (Vegan for breakfast and lunch) finds me expanding and I've had things like: