Weekend Recipes

1. Trent's World Famous Old Fashioned Grilled Fish Salad

The following recipe was provided by my favorite brother and tried by me for the first time this weekend:

Salad:
Lettuce
Herbage (a little arugula, or parsley)
Grilled Onions and Grilled Peppers (in the spice mixture)
Tomatoes (I used cherry)
Homemade croutons (also in the spice mixture)
Cucumber

Fish:
White Fish (Brother used red snapper, I used the more modest tilapia)

Spice Mix: Paprika, chili, sea salt, pepper, cumin

Coat the fish and the croutons in the spice mix.
Bake the croutons in a toaster oven.
Grill the peppes/onions, put them in a bowl.
Finish the fish in the same pan.
Throw it all together with a vinagrette.

Lovely! (ok, so mine didn't look lovely, but it was so tasty, extremely flavorful and healthy and i'll be making it again this week).

2. Everything bagel with tofu cream cheese, onions, tomatoes, cucumber and mixed greens (with a little salt and pepper on top).

This less of a recipe and more an excuse to show a photo of my lovely lunch.

3. Spaghetti with a spicy italian sausage sauce

This was easy and used a lot of leftovers I already had.

The sauce:

2 vine ripened tomatoes
fresh rosemary (a teaspoon)
one clove diced garlic
tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper
(cook down about 10-15 minutes until the tomatoes are totally broken up)

when the sauce is done throw in:
1 spicy grilled italian chicken sausage, a little pasta water and a little pasta, mix it about and throw on some parm.

My pasta is basically hiding underneath a delicious wall of parm.

4. Adorable cat


You just need one Joe.

Marital Problems

Sure they're staying together for the sake of the kids, but the passion is gone.

Also, how big is Torque? Christ, he looks bigger than Maude in this photo.

Bedazzling Station

That is correct. Your eyes are not deceiving you. The good lord has blessed me with not one, but two bedazzlers. Now all I need to do is hire a small cadre of child laborers (the bedazzler is not easy to use, it calls for a delicate touch) and the millions from Etsy will be flowing in. If you want to get in on the ground floor of this operation, I'd invest now. It's going to be huge.

Pork loin dreams

I have been obsessed recently with making roast pork loin. I'm not sure why. Anyway last night I had a few friends over and lived the pork loin dream. I couldn't find a recipe which matched what I wanted so I made my own - I call it rosemary garlic crusted pork loin. Sadly I did not take great pictures because I had people over and didn't want to wait to eat in order to hold a food photo shoot.

I made a paste of minced garlic (5 cloves), 2 tablespoons of finely cut rosemary, salt, pepper and olive oil. I coated the loin in the tasty paste and refrigerated it for about 3 hours. I put it on a roasting pan and browned it on 450 degrees for about 15 minutes before turning it down to 350 and roasting it for another hour and 15 minutes.

Delicious!!!

I also made a side pasta dish which I saw the delightful Ina Garten make while I was at the gym. It was a simple sauce made with whole sauteed cherry tomatoes, basil, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and a little reserved pasta water. It turned out well and was nicely balanced with the pork.

The entire meal turned out really well. Kathryn made a lovely salad, Kaori a fabulous toffee chip cheesecake and Ula and Suji provided the wine. The only downside to the evening was the strange bespectacled fellow in a dark hoodie who kept popping up outside the window and scaring people.

Un Poco de Mexico

I just returned from a lovely and relaxing 5 day trip in Mexico. I am going to wait until I get some photos until I blog about it (I left my camera at home because I am stupid). In the meantime, I will just share a couple of photos I took on my iphone.

This is TJ (aka "Gay Sugar Butter") who was the generous sponsor of my trip. He is seen breakfasting at the delightful hotel buffet we went to every morning.

This is the welcome home party that the animals threw for me when I arrived back in Portland last night. As you can see they were pretty excited.


On a sad note, I just went to the gym and not one person there complimented my tan. Bitches.

More Deliciousness!!!

I cannot stop eating spinach salad. I've had it 3 times this week (including a steak strawberry reprise salad on Friday) and yesterday's warm mushroom, spinach and egg salad.

This recipe consisted of warm mushrooms sauteed in olive oil with a little oregano, rosemary, salt and pepper poured on top of some spinach. I also threw on some crumbled turkey bacon, feta, thinly sliced red onion, hard boiled egg and a few croutons. I drizzled a little balsamic vinegar on top. It was satisfying, well-balanced and tasty.

Another delicious morsel is this video I saw on the internets today of American Idol runner up Adam Lambert performing at Mardi Gras in Australia. I am not sure of the demographic breakdown of the American Idol audience but it always seemed fairly mainstream consisting probably of teens and families. The fact that the American Idol tv show led directly to this performance is awesome. While I enjoyed the scantily clad male dancers simulating sexual acts with one another and the multiple drag queens, it is really his outfit that brings it home. He is wearing a leather studded jacket, leather studded boots, a harness, rubber (I think) pants and of course a large bejeweled codpiece. Yup, a codpiece. This guy came from American Idol. I love it.


The most delicious piece of news today is that I completed the journey I started on January 8th and ran 3 miles, in a row, without stopping. That is right, I have graduated from couch to 5K. I feel inordinately proud of myself.

Steak, strawberry and spinach salad

Last night I was in the mood for a hearty salad. During the summer I experimented with a variety of different fruit and protein salads. Last night I made a steak, strawberry, toasted almond, feta and spinach salad.

I just put some kosher salt and pepper on the steak (I used flat iron steak) and put it in a grill pan for about 10 minutes, toasted some almond slices and tossed it all together with some nice balsamic vinegar.

It was sweet, salty, crunchy and meaty and healthy. It was awesome and I am craving it again. Even if the combo sounds weird to you, you should try it. You'll love it.

Pretty Things

This is what I made for dinner last night and while it was tasty, I was more excited about how lovely it was. Two layers of alternating tomato sauce, baked and breaded eggplant slices and sauteed spinach with a poached egg on top and a liberal sprinkling of parm. Perfection!


One of my favorite things about living in Portland is the beginning of Spring when all of the pink trees start blooming.


Finally Joe, in repose.