Rustic Marinara

The evening of my flight home from San Anton, TPY surprised me with this tasty rustic marinara. He oven roasted the tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers and then gave them a light pulse with the hand-held blender. I think he then added a little wine, garlic, basil, and olive oil and simmered them a bit in a shallow saucepan.

Texas Breakfast

Ok, so hot on the heels of my calorie-counting pontificating I had the chance to belly up to a first rate Texas-size breakfast. What's a girl to do? Thanks to my sweet pals Joey and Riley for working the griddle!

Operation Deflation Salad Days

It's no secret that the past few months of traveling, business, and general kookiness has added on a few nummy pounds. So since I got back on my home schedule, I've been on Operation Deflation. The OD is generally a calorie management thing, where I try to manage not to inhale everything that comes within orbit of my face. (You can still watch Paula and Ina on the Food Network, you just can't put that pound of butter on your morning fried-egg-chocolate-chip-sandwich-scone anymore. At least for awhile.)

So, I've turned my attention to the elegant world of frozen veggie cutlets, which I've discovered to be the perfect hearty addition to a fresh salad. This one is drizzled with a homeade dressing of dijon, fig infused balsamic, tabasco, and a swiggle of olive oil- just enough to taste, but not enough to thwart the efforts of those of us trying to keep out BMI's in the green zone.

Contemporary Quinoa Salad Art

We took a weekend trip to the Windy City for art, shopping, and numnumnums. While checking out the Jeff Koons show at the MCA we had a delightful lunch at the Wolfgang Puck cafe. The presentation of the dishes we ordered lived up to the context of the location. This sculptural quinoa salad was surrounded by a little moat of a mint-laced vinaigrette. Eating it was akin to an archaeological dig, uncovering layers of micro-greens, marinated mushrooms, roasted red peppers, and purple potatoes.

We also had a great experience at this tapas bar: http://www.mercatchicago.com/

PB&J... &Basil

Trust me. Num. Num. Num.

Oven Roasted Summer Veggies and Salmon

The marinade for our roasted veggie mix started with lots of fresh ginger along with sesame oil, mirin, soy, rice vinegar and chopped garlic. We tossed it with baby bok choy, summer squash, and a variety of eggplant. We reserved some to also marinate the salmon. The veggies were roasted in a 450° oven for about 20-25 minutes, followed by the salmon for about 15.