Welcome, Summer!

It's only fitting that I write my first post of the "summer" on Memorial Day, the unofficial kickoff of the season.  It's a lovely 93 degrees F and humid outside... that part of summer I'm not so excited about, but I am excited about the food.  Summer food is the best.  Fresh delicious produce, simple salads, classic American cookout dishes (who doesn't love burgers/hotdogs fresh off the grill, potato salad, and a refreshing glass of iced tea ?).  It's even better when some -- or most, if you're lucky! -- of the ingredients come from your own garden.

A couple months ago I wrote about my burgeoning container garden.  Well, it was mostly an epic failure.  All that survived out of those many tomato seedlings is this one bad boy, who is still hanging on for dear life:

He's still growing little by little every day. I'll be quite impressed if he actually ends up producing any tomatoes!

In light of my tomato seedling failure, I gave up and purchased a cherry tomato seedling, which I'm excited about:

And as for basil...

The bunch you see to the left is all that's left of the basil I planted months ago.  The bigger plant on the right was a store purchase (there's another one too, not pictured).  All are growing like wildfire! :)

Sigh, cilantro.  This was grown from seeds, and was going pretty strong, but has started to wilt quite a bit the last couple days, despite plenty of sunlight, allowing the water to drain, and not over- or under-watering.  Cilantro seems to be a pretty fickle herb to grow.  Any pointers??

I purchased this lavender plant for the wonderful aroma and beautiful purple flowers that will bloom (and have already started to bud).

As for what's been cookin' lately...

In celebration of Memorial Day weekend, I felt compelled to make some sort of BBQ stable, so I went with this basic pasta salad recipe, with the omission of chickpeas and eggs, and the addition of fresh basil from my garden.

In the words of Paul, "Can you make this again??? I could eat this all week..."

And, nothing says summer like a simple caprese salad (again, basil from the garden).  I hope someday soon the tomatoes will be from my patio, as well. :)

Simple Memorial Day lunch.

What summer foods are you most excited about?

Cheers,
L

Sunday Dinner: "LGH" Tilapia, Green Bean Salad, & Roasted Potatoes

Here's a rundown of tonight's tasty (and pretty healthy!) dinner... pictures included, of course!

Paul's mom's green beans.

Paul's mom gave us a batch of green beans straight from her garden and I wanted to do something a little different.  A little different meaning, not in a stir-fry or steamed and eaten plain, which is the only thing I have ever done with green beans.  This is based on a fantastically simple recipe by Biana at TastyGalaxy.

Green Bean Salad thanks to TastyGalaxy (with a couple of my own little tweaks, of course)

• about 1 pound green beans
• a big handful of chopped pecans (her recipe calls for almonds, which I don't have on hand, so I substituted)
• about 1/2 of a small red onion, cut into slivers
• zest of one lemon
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper, which I forgot... oops!

1. Clean and wash the beans.  Blanch for 3 minutes.  Drain and immediately rinse in cold water or dunk in ice bath.
2. Combine lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
3. In a bowl, combine the beans, onions, and nuts.  Toss with the lemon mixture.

Nutty goodness.

The finished product.

I made the salad a few hours before dinnertime and let it marinate in the fridge until then.  The lemon infused the green beans and really enhanced their flavor, which is fantastic already.  I really love this salad.  It is crisp, refreshing, and so healthy.  Definitely a great way to showcase some quality green beans.

I can't wait 'til I can have my own real garden someday.  The quality of fruits and veggies from a well-tended garden is unlike anything you can get in the store.  Moving on to the main dish...

Lemon-Garlic-Herb (LGH) Tilapia

• 3 or 4 tilapia fillets, depending on size... should be about 1 pound altogether
• 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 tbsp butter
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
• 1/2 tsp dried parsley (or 1 tsp fresh)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Rinse the fillets in cool water, pat dry, and place in greased baking dish.
3. Pour the lemon juice over the fish.
4. Sauté the garlic in the butter until very fragrant.  Remove from heat and mix in the herbs.
5. Pour the butter mixture over the fish.  Bake for 12 minutes.  Fish should flake easily when pierced with a fork.

Before baking.

Yummy!

This turned out pretty fantastic as well.  The fish was soft, tender, with a delicate lemon flavor and little hints of garlic and herbs here and there.  This was my first time baking, as opposed to pan-frying, tilapia and I think it's a great way to prepare this fish (not to mention healthier).  Be careful not to over-bake because the fillets are so thin.  I'm also glad I sautéed the garlic and butter beforehand; I think it added a nice toasty flavor to the whole dish.  Side note: I actually used 3 tbsp butter, but I changed it in the recipe to 2 tbsp. I left some in the sauté pan, otherwise the fish would have been swimming in it (ha! see what I did there?)...and I was trying to go healthier.  Now for the second side dish...

No recipe here, but I had a couple extra potatoes to use up, and I already had the oven at 400, so why not roast them?  And dip them in spicy mayo, of course.  ;)

These always come out perfectly tossed in extra-virgin olive oil, sprinkled liberally with kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper, and baked at 400 for about 10 minutes.  Just make sure they are spread on a single layer on your baking sheet.

What did you eat this Sunday?

Cheers,

L