So, I thought I would try to start sharing with you some of our dinners throughout the week. I usually cook every night but I obviously don't post everything. I am a working lady with a real job after all. Lot's of things I make are other recipes or variations thereof and are (most of the time) accessible and easy enough to make after getting home around 6:00.
So let's check out last week....
MONDAY - Grilled Salmon & Butter Lettuce salad with Toasted Baguette
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Nicholas and I are picky about our salmon. We don't eat farm raised. Did you know artificial coloring is put in the food of farm raised salmon to make them pink? Eww. We are currently using a frozen wild-caught salmon that I found at Costco (I think it is this one), it's pricey but worth it.
The butter lettuce salad was inspired by this Sunset Magazine recipe (in the picture above). Technically this is a Spring salad, but whatever. I had butter lettuce in my fridge that I needed to use and I had made this salad once before so I knew it was good. Here is what we did:
1 head of butter lettuce, cleaned and torn
1/4 cup of fresh dill, minced
1 tablespoon of fresh chives, chopped
1 heirloom tomato, sliced thin
1/2 bunch of baby asparagus, steamed and chopped into 3 sections
2 hard boiled eggs, quartered
salt and pepper to taste
2 cooked salmon fillets
Dressing made as called for in recipe, but doubled
I assembled the salad and Nicholas cooked the salmon. For the salmon, he brushes on olive oil, adds salt and pepper and sears it in a cast iron pan on the stove. He then puts the whole pan into the oven (350 degrees?) and cooks it just for a few minutes. Salmon doesn't take long. We placed the salmon fillets on top of our salad and dressed it. You won't need all the dressing, but I think you should double the recipe version. We had 1/2 of a baguette in the freezer, so I put that in the toaster oven at 200 and let it warm the whole time we were assembling/cooking. I did stop and buy the asparagus and fresh dill on my way home. (Soon I'll be sharing a trick to keep your fresh herbs fresh for way longer!). I also use Trader Joe's Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar instead of just plain champagne vinegar.
That's it!
TUESDAY - Dad's Kitchen, Fair Oaks
If you live in Sac you are probably familiar with Dad's. There is the sandwich shop and the kitchen, both great spots. They have also been featured on Diner's Drive-In's and Dive's. The recently opened a new location in Fair Oaks, closer to our new hood, so we stopped in with the parentals to try it. It was good as usual. I had the Hot Blonde (organic chicken, avocado, swiss cheese, tomato, roasted red onion, spinach and cucumber with garlic spread, brown mustard & pepper plant sauce on sourdough bread). The husband had the Warm Spinach salad, Step-Diggidy Dad had the Cowboy Burger and Mom had the Portabella Mushroom Sandwich. I recommend accompanying your dish with the delicious onion rings! I am also told this location will eventually become more of a tap house with mucho beers on tap just like the Freeport location. Yay Dad's & crew!
WEDNESDAY - Veggie Fritatta and Sweet Potato Latkes
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Fritatta is a great thing to make if you have an almost empty fridge, are in a hurry, want a vegetarian meal, are feeling lazy, or anything else! You can whip it up quick and put about anything in it. I also had some sweet potatoes that I needed to use up, so I followed this recipe for the Latkes. Here is what I did for the Frittata:
6 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/2 bunch of asparagus, cut into 3 sections
1/2 large yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 mini red bell pepper, chopped
1/8 cup red onion, chopped
1/4 jalapeno, diced
1 tablespoon of diced green chilies
1 teaspoon fresh dill, minced
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, minced
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, minced
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/4 cup chopped spinach
salt and pepper (a few grinds each)
Put the eggs and milk in a large bowl and whisk. Add everything else and stir up. Pour into a greased 8x8 glass baking dish. Bake at 350-375 until cooked through (at least 20 minutes, probably more). I literally had all this stuff in my fridge, so I just kept adding stuff willy-nilly. It was really good and the latke's were great. We had enough leftovers for each of us to take for breakfast this morning.
THURSDAY - Soba Noodles and Chicken with Eggplant
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Well I planned this recipe that I found a long time ago. But, we were tired and ended up eating frozen ravioli and jarred pesto.
FRIDAY - Gary Danko!
Lucky me I got to go to San Francisco all day Friday for my company Christmas Party. We had a fabulous 7 course lunch with wine pairings at Gary Danko. You can see our meal from 2011 here. It was enough to keep my tummy very happy all day. I hope to share pictures and details with you soon!
So that is it! Let me know what you think of the Dinner Last Week idea.
♥
TCW
P.S. PopSugar is doing a very cute quiz to help you find your style - since you're doing all that Christmas shopping you should buy something for YOU! You can take the quiz here.
Sounds like a great idea!
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