Fish
Grilled Vegetables Orzo with Grilled Fish
If it seems that I haven’t cooked in a while based on the absense of recipes, it’s true. This weekend the non-cooking trend was finally broken and I’ve been cooking for a few days. It’s been fantastic! I love my tiny kitchen and how comfortable I’ve become in it. And to keep the enjoyment going in the kitchen, I made a few of my favorites and of course an experimentation or two. I made my favorite roasted chicken and paired it with the potato & green bean salad and a slaw for the crunchy craving. And for the experimentation in the kitchen, I tried my hand at grilling veggies in a grill pan and thought that orzo and feta would...
Read MoreRoasted Veggies and Fish – Easiest Dinner
I’m always on the look out for an easy, quick, and nutritious meal. After work and after grocery shopping, I’m usually too tired to actually make something with the groceries I bought. So, this particular day, I thought I should just roast some veggies for the next day. Then, I thought “why not just add the fish and make a meal of it today?” And that’s exactly what I did. Ingredients: 1 lb package of asparagus 1 lb fish (I used cod) 1 large carrot, sliced into bite sized pieces Olive oil, salt, pepper Dill/parsley/cilantro (optional, to taste) Steps: 1. Drizzle olive oil on asparagus, carrots, and fish. 2. Sprinkle salt and...
Read MoreFish in Fresh Tomato Sauce
Tomatoes… My love for them knows no bounds. Even in this winter, when we have several feet of snow, I seek out tomatoes and try to make something where they’re palatable. You know what winter tomatoes taste like, right? The taste like… paper… or cotton…. completely flavorless and watery. BUT… if you cook them, they make delicious magic with garlic. This dish is also very quick, easy, and healthy. If you want to cut down on additional calories from olive oil, you can use a cooking spray or use olive oil spray can (I have a Misto Sprayer). Ingredients: 2 pints of tomatoes (I used yellow and red and you can see that I have...
Read MoreA Healthier Thanksgiving
I absolutely love Thanksgiving. It’s my favorite holiday. Not only do I get to cook up a feast, but people come and eat it and take food home too! But I also like the idea of having a day to get together with the family and count our blessings and all the positive and good things in our lives, no matter how small, for attitude is frequently half the battle. And this year, I wanted to keep the dishes on the healthier side so we wouldn’t feel quite so guilty for indulging. Come to think of it, it was quite a vitamin C and veggie feast. I had lots of red bell peppers and other veggies, used mostly healthy fats (olive oil) and banished soda from the table. Though...
Read MoreWhat should I do? Ft. Myers – Day 2 – Naples
It rained overnight and is overcast now. Bummer. I seem to bring precipitation where ever I go on my vacations (it rained in the desert in Israel, it’s raining here). So I’ll have to find something I can do that doesn’t require lots of sunshine. So after a lazy morning I decided to drive to Naples. I took a scenic drive, through Fort Myers Beach. Little touristy shops, restaurants, hotels, and motels dotted the way. In Naples, I stumbled upon a seafood shop which also happened to make something out of their fresh catch (Captain Kirk’s Stone Crabs Fresh Seafood Market). The very friendly lady at the counter was very helpful in explaining the...
Read MoreThanksgiving 2009
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I consider myself to be richly blessed and thank God for my blessings regularly. Having a nationally recognized holiday to do so is wonderful. In my family, I have taken over Thanksgiving responsibilities in the last few years and relish the opportunity to cook up a feast. And a feast it truly is. This year our menu was as follows: Appetizers: Baked Salmon Roasted Shrimp Cocktail Pickled tomatoes (store-bought) Hummus (store-bought) Smoked fish (store-bought) Goat cheese bruschetta Seafood Salad Roasted Red Pepper Salad Roasted Asparagus Main course: Vegetable Soup Mashed potatoes Turkey Dessert: Spice cake Puff Pastry...
Read MoreFish Creek, WI
We’re in Door County, WI, or “up north” as most Wisconsinites refer to anything “north” of where they are currently. We actually made pretty good time, 2.5 hours. No traffic or construction to deal with so the drive was rather nice.It was wonderful to see grandma so excited. She’s never been here before so to see her reaction to all the clean greenery was great.Our hotel is nice and we have lots of room, he beds are nice and big, the fridge keeps cold, and we have a table an chairs. We played cards for a few hours and laughed our butts off. It was nice. Reminds me when I was little and the three of us (dad, grandma, and I) went...
Read MoreBirthday Celebration
I know that it looks like I haven’t cooked anything in months. And it’s almost true. I have cooked things I already wrote about and have a few more recipes I haven’t posted. But let me start with the birthday celebration which was in early March. I made two roasted chickens, just to be sure I had enough. But one was enough. Everyone seemed to love it. I hope they weren’t just polite but actually liked it. I also made: Seafood salad Salmon “pizza” that was inspired by Emeril’s Smoked Salmon and Goat Cheese Pizza Bites. Mine had regular cream cheese instead of goat cheese and using store-bought dough made it extra...
Read MoreThanksgiving Part 2
The day is finally here and I’m giddy with excitement. I started cooking late last night and continued today. One of my big realizations was that everything except that was cooked, except the boiled potatoes, was baked. My oven fulfilled its baking duties fully. I love my stove/oven but as my mental list of my dream kitchen grows longer, I’m adding double ovens to that list. Or maybe it should be triple ovens. Today, we got together around 2:30 and people left after 8. We laughed and toasted and chatted and reminisced and remembered. And ate. And ate. And ate. That’s the “Russian” way. This year, as we toasted to the things we were...
Read MoreThanksgiving
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, in large part because I love all the cooking. Most people dread all the cooking, but I even take Wednesday off so I can make a few “spares”, just in case something doesn’t turn out and people still leave with overstuffed bellies. I still love the holiday, despite the mandatory family squabbling. But without further delay, here is the menu I’m planning (and yes, I take help where I can): Appetizers: Chicken wings (not a Thanksgiving staple, but I love them and they seem to go over pretty well with the family). See above Seafood puffs (puff pastry stuffed with seafood, store bought, and I hope...
Read MoreIndependence Day get-together
My family calls it Independence Day, not “4th of July” because it’s not just another calendar date. We do commemorate this holiday in our own way, which does not include flag-looking cakes and themed paper plates. We commemorate this holiday by remembering where we came from, what we had and what we left behind for a chance of a life in this country. There is at least 1 toast that celebrates our good fortune of being in this country, and at least 1 toast that celebrates our good fortune of being able to leave our old country. But as most celebrations, this one is on exception when it comes to food. So, without further ado, here is the menu for this...
Read MoreBaked Salmon
I found this recipe on FoodNetwork.com, but it had a few too many extra things, so I paired it down. Here is my version. Ingredients: 1 LB of Salmon Tamari (or low-sodium soy sauce if you can’t find Tamari) freshly ground black pepper (to taste) Steps: Rinse the fish and pat it dry. Put fish into oven-safe dish. Pour as much Tamri as you like. I like it quite liberally on the fish. It keeps it moist during cooking, as well as makes a nice sauce for spooning over your side dish (like rice). Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cover the dish with aluminum foil. Cook for about 15-18 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish. Take it out of the oven. If the fish is...
