Blood Orange Salad with Olives, Feta and Fennel and Red Onion

1. Cut skins off a lot of blood oranges.   (squeeze the juice from the peels into a bowl).

2. Cut skins off some navel oranges.  (squeeze the juice from the peels into a bowl).

3. Keeping types of oranges separate, slice into rounds.

4. Thinly slice some red onion (keeping the circular shape)

5. Thinly slice a fennel bulb and toss with some lemon and olive oil to preserve it.

6. Heat some olive oil in a pan and toast some slivered almonds.

7. Pit and finely chop some oil cured olives.

8.  Mince some fresh rosemary.

9. Mix some honey into the reserved orange juice.  Squeeze a little lemon in to get the right sweetness balance.  I added some worshteshire to get more "body".  And some olive oil and shook it up.

To serve, arrange orange slices, onions and fennel to be pleasing to you.  Stacked might be cool...tonight we kind of scattered them.  I spooned a Little of the dressing over the orange, fennel onion arrangement.  Arrange the olive mash to your liking.  Tonight we clumped it around the plate.  Sprinkle the fresh rosemary and maybe some fennel greens for a little garnish and taste.  Sprinkle on the almonds and crumble some feta cheese on top.

Dinner at Olivia's

is always a special treat.

Tonight she made me a compari and pellegrino with a little lemon. This was a great way to start.

Sheila made crostini's with goat cheese, Olivia's sun dried tomatoes, a little parsley herb mixture and some smoked salmon or shrimp.

I made a blood orange salad. 

Steve made a radicchio salad with a simple wonder garlic vinaigrette.

Olivia then served chili pepper polenta cakes.

Diver Scallops on a bed a of sauteed fennel, leak, and spinach.

And if that was not heaven enough, Sheila surprised us with delicious coffee and chocolate shortbread cookies.  And Olivia dished out her homemade persimmon ice creme.

YUM!

 

the savory scones at farmer and the cook

the savory scones at farmer and the cook are SO GOOD that i have no desire to learn how to make them.  and i refuse to share mine.

this morning i called to find out if they were happening.  emy told me that they were "in the oven and should be ready in about 20 minutes"

oh!  i can't imagine i have done anything in my life to deserve such a special treat!

me and fried rice are gonna get married

yesterday i made fried rice with pre-made brown rice from rainbow bridge.  the nuttiness of the brown rice is awesome.  

for lunch i used shallots, kale, carrots, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, a splash of rice wine vinegar and eggs

for dinner i made it with leftover yellow onion, rosemary, sage, kale, lemon zest, lemon, roasted cashews, eggs and parmeson

for lunch today i made white rice and made the dish with shallots, jalepenos, kale, soy sauce and eggs.  i got an extra good "do" on it this afternoon.

"Italian Style" Fried Rice for One

1. In a non-stick pan, heat too much olive oil.
2. Pan Roast a handful of cashews. Remove with slotted spoon.
3. To pan, add 1/4 cup or so of minced onion and a mashed up clove of garlic. Add some red pepper flakes, thyme and a little turmeric for color.
4. Add leftover cooked cold white rice (about 1.5 cups).
5. Stir and mix and saute until starts to brown.
6. Add leftover baby spinach and mix up to wilt.
7. Push rice to the side and crack egg into pan and scramble. Mix into rice mixture.

8. Remove from pan. Grate lots of Parmesan into Rice. Stir in Cashews. Add Lots of Ground Pepper. Salt. Some Meyer lemon zest and a little lemon juice.

more tales of fried rice

and, did you know that you can make fried rice with just a little fat, a smidge of leftover minced onion, rice, egg and soy sauce? probably even less....

Fried Rice and Fried Tofu

So, like I said, I am i the fried rice current, but tonight we added tofu. It has been a LONG time since I made tofu.

Here is what I did:

1. Wrap extra firm tofu in paper towels and "press" tofu
2. In a shallow flat dish, like a Pyrex baking dish, mix tamari soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, toasted sesame oil, a little maple syrup, red pepper flakes and slice scallions
3. When Tofu has been "pressed" for about 3o minutes, remove from paper towels, slice no thicker than 1/4 inch and place in marinade. Best if can soak for about 30 minute.
4. Meanwhile, make some rice and put in freezer to cool down quickly.
5. Prepare your fried rice veggies. Tonight we used shallots, carrots, celery, kale and bok choy.
6. Start making the fried rice
7. When tofu has marinated enough, heat oil in pan and fry tofu (if necessary, keep batches in oven warn as cook the rest)
8. When fired rice is complete, pour the remainder of the marinade into pan and thicken.
9. Serve rice with tofu and sauce on top.
   

Fried Rice, Again!

So tonight, made the fried rice with:

shallots, scallions, carrots, celery, bok choy, kale, basil

so good.

Fried Rice with Greens

I often will get into "kicks" in cooking. This is one of the reason I do really well on the Ayurvedic Cleanse cuz I love the ritual of the same meal.

Today I give thanks for the Superbowl. I came home to an empty house for the first time in about 4 months. The boys are off watching the game in East End. I was giddy with delight when I realized the gift.

And I made some fried Rice which is my new favorite thing to eat.

1. Mince up some red onion
2. Mince up some turnip greens, bok choy, kale or chard or a combo. (Tonight I was lucky enough to have turnip greens which are my favorite and baby bok choy from B.D.)
3. Add some olive oil (or other favorite fat) to a non-stick pan and raise the heat
4. Add some red pepper flakes or other spice.
5. Add the onions and saute for a while then add the greens
6. When greens are wilted enough, add some leftover rice from the fridge, breaking up the clumps. (I bet this would be so good with brown rice!). Mix and allow to "brown". Eventually mixing in some Tamari Soy Sauce.
7. Beat 2 eggs in small bowl.
8. Push rice to the side and pour eggs into pan. Allow eggs to cook for a little bit before you start pushing them around. Eventually mix into rice and use your wooden edged spatula to break up the clumps.
9. Fresh ground pepper and a little soy sauce on the side to taste.

Enjoy your quiet house.