Excitement

I have noticed that my interest in cooking at home goes up when the weather gets nicer. When it's gloomy and dark outside, I just want to curl up on the couch with a good book, my laptop or a movie. I might think about food, but I don't want to get out from under my blanket. It's easier to order some takeout. But the weather is finally getting nicer here and my cooking will continue especially since the opening of the farmer's market is on April 11th! I can't tell you how excited I am for the farmer's market. Shopping at the grocery store just isn't the same!

On Thursday night, I took another cooking class with Chef Nancy. It was nice because Jackie brought along some friends and we talked about doing a huge cooking party at Jackie's house in the future (she has a lovely kitchen that I just LOVE). This class was a new concept at the Merc, where you pay a little more and receive a cookbook with your enrollment. I loved this idea (which adds another cookbook to my ever growing collection)! This class was called Vegetarian Thai and she choose the cookbook Real Vegetarian Thai by Nancie McDermott. Unfortunately, this cookbook is no longer in print, but you can try getting used copies of it from various sources. I was a little iffy on taking a vegetarian class because we love meat in this family. It's not to say that we don't eat vegetables, but we do usually eat meat during dinner. Since Chef Nancy was teaching the class, I put my worries aside and still enrolled. She is also a meat eater, so I knew that I was in good hands. She picked four recipes for the class (not the real names of the dishes, but I don't have my cookbook with me at the moment); two potato pot stickers, a rice salad dish, a coconut sauce noodle dish and a sorbet. I will be making all of these in the future once I get to the Asian market in Kansas City, but I was especially impressed with the noodle dish. I can't wait to make this one myself! Expect future blog posts of the recipes from this class.

Other news is that we are going to New Orleans this weekend for a foodie weekend. Chris' favorite food website Roadfood.com is hosting a New Orleans food festival. We use their website a lot when traveling and have about a 90% success rate with the choices that they have picked on their website. I am really excited because one of my food blog idols will be there. Ed Levine, the creator of Serious Eats, will be part of the Q&A on Sunday and also join us at the crawfish boil/pig roast on Saturday night that we are attending. I read Serious Eats almost daily. It's a combination of recipes, food news and restaurant reviews. They also have a lovely weekly newsletter that you can subscribe to. When I read that Mr Levine would be there this weekend, I was thrilled. Can't wait to eat my weight (plus some) in food this weekend in NOLA!

I have a few new recipes that I haven't posted on here yet. I'll get them up before I leave!

Homemade Vanilla Pudding

I had recently gotten vanilla beans from my friend, so I have been looking for things to make with them. I love vanilla pudding and I came across this recipe. Great simple recipe. I am not sure if the butter adds that much to the pudding or not, but I did add it. Note: This will not keep for a long time. It says within a day, so eat it quick!



Vanilla Pudding recipe from the New York Times
2 1/2 cups half-and-half or whole milk
2/3 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (optional).


1. Put 2 cups of half-and-half or milk, sugar and salt in a small or medium sauce pot over medium-low heat. If using a vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise and scrape seeds into milk or half-and-half using small sharp knife, then add pod. Cook just until mixture begins to steam.


2. Combine cornstarch and remaining milk or half-and-half in a bowl and blend; there should be no lumps. Fish pod from pot and discard. Add cornstarch mixture; cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture starts to thicken and barely reaches a boil, about 5 minutes. Immediately reduce heat to very low and stir for 5 minutes or so until thick. Stir in butter and vanilla extract, if using.


3. Pour mixture into a 1-quart dish or 4 to 6 small ramekins or bowls. Put plastic wrap directly on the pudding to prevent formation of a skin, or do not cover if you like skin. Refrigerate until chilled, and serve within a day, with whipped cream if you like. Whisk to remove lumps if needed.

Spring Break 2009--Da Smoke--final part of TX trip

Chris' aunt lives right outside of San Antonio, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. She doesn't cook at all, so she has her favorite little restaurants close to her house. They are all little hole-in-the-walls and we tried her favorite BBQ place while visiting her.

Da Smoke is located in Adkins basically in the middle of nowhere. As soon as we got out of the car, the smell of BBQ welcomed us into the tiny restaurant. No frills with plastic picnic rooster table covers.
My plate of ribs and brisket with greens (amazing) and fried okra (one of my favorite things).

Chris' plate of ribs and pork tenderloin with potato salad and gumbo.

Nathaniel's plate of brisket with fries and green beans. The green beans were amazing with onions, potatoes and bacon cooked with them.

They had fried chicken as the special for the day. I was tempted because Aunt Cathy had raved about the fried fish, but I was pleased with my choices as was everyone else. Great little restaurant with no frills and delicious food!

Spring Break 2009--Cerroni's Purple Garlic

Cerroni's Purple Garlic is a great little hole-in-the-wall in strip mall that my in-laws frequent all the time. It's hard to get me eat at an Italian restaurant because I make a lot of Italian food at home. But this is one of my favorite restaurants in San Antonio. It's a small little operation where the owner makes all his own bread and pasta for the restaurant every morning. He serves his food on styrofoam plates with plastic forks, but his food could be served on fine china. It's a simple menu of pizza, pasta and sandwiches. This is the kind of place that I wish Lawrence had.


Fresh Tomato and Basil Bruschetta. The owner uses extremely fresh tomatoes and basil on homemade bread. My mouth is watering just thinking about this dish.


Marinated Eggplant in some sort of balsamic vinaigrette. Quite tasty.



My meatball sandwich on that wonderful homemade bread. It looks like a small sandwich in the pic, but.........

look at how huge the meatballs are! There were four of them in that sandwich!

Chris' special pasta. Some sort of gorgonzola, sausage, mushroom, etc, etc. pasta dish. Since I am not a huge fan of gorgonzola or sausage, I couldn't tell you how this tasted. But Chris loved it.

Nathaniel got a pizza to go (didn't get a pic of this). He wasn't feeling well and wanted his food to go. He ate it all before I could get a shot of it. The pizza got a big two thumbs up from the foodie kiddo. I was hoping to try a bite, but it never happened!

Spring Break 2009--Threadgill's--Austin, TX

Threadgill's is one of those Austin restaurants that has been around FOREVER. Janis Joplin even was a waitress there back in the day. Our friend, Doug, who has lived in Austin hadn't been there yet, so we decided to skip the downtown area (South by Southwest music festival was going on). I had checked out the menu before and still didn't know what I wanted when I got there.


Chris had a Poboy sandwich. Not really sure why since we are going to New Orleans soon. It was decent, but nothing really outrageous.



Nathaniel's burger. He also ordered a side of mashed potatoes because he couldn't decide on fries or mashed potatoes. Good choice. The mashed potatoes and gravy--heavenly.

Doug's buffalo chicken sandwich. I took the pic from the side, so you can't see that this chicken is as big as half the plate! It's a chicken on steroids! They also gave him blue cheese crumbles (not my favorite) instead of just blue cheese dressing.

I picked their famous chicken fried steak. It was decent, but not so good that I would order it again. It's a different story when it comes to their sides. I had debated on if I should just get the three or five sides plate (I wish I would have). They have a list of 20ish sides and I would have had a hard time limiting myself to five. My sides of cheesy grits and fried okra were amazing.

It's worth checking out if you are in Austin and looking for a decent home cooking type of meal. Especially to eat some of those yummy sides!

Spring Break 2009--Liberty Bar--part 1

Every year for spring break, my son and I usually go out to CA to visit my side of the family. But since my parents are out of the country for a few months, we opted to go down to see the in-laws in San Antonio for part of the week. We didn't do much besides eat and hang out with the family, but that's the best kind of vacation when visiting family!

The restaurant that we go to almost every time in San Antonio is the Liberty Bar. I have a love/hate relationship with this restaurant. I seem to be the only one who has these issues with this place. Chris and his parents love eating here, but I have a good meal here only every other visit and this time was not one of those times. Nathaniel wasn't a fan of his steak and the roasted tomatoes on his plate were cooked too long, so that they were extremely mushy.

Chris ordered the All Day Special. Take note of the price...haha.

Liberty Bar does have the most delicious hummus. They grill the pita bread and the hummus has a little bit of heat to it. Love it!

Chris' dish was really tasty. The sweetbreads were firm, not mushy with a great grilled flavor.

My dish was not so great. I ordered a pasta dish (they make their own pasta) with tomatoes, onions and salt pork, which I ordered last time and loved. But I was brought out the thyme, garlic and olive oil one instead since the waitress didn't write everything down and misheard my order (even though everyone else heard me). The first plate was just some plain pasta with some very bitter garlic (pretty disgusting), so I had the waitress take it back. I noticed that I was brought out a larger plate of pasta because instead of throwing the first dish away, they just mixed it in with the one that I ordered. This didn't work well and resulted in a plate of pasta that I barely ate.

They do make great desserts. I had some mango ice cream to go and Nathaniel had the chocolate cake, which was an amazing looking layer cake. I am sure that Liberty Bar will be in my future again since everyone else likes it, but I can't say that I give it my recommendation without any reservations.

Penne alla Vodka

Note--Picture is not very exciting looking and dark. Sorry about that!

I have been craving Italian pasta the last few days. I am pretty sure it has to do with the fact that I dvr-ed a bunch of Food Network episodes about pasta recently. My pantry is full of different kinds of pastas at any given time because I love how versatile it is. After viewing a couple of pasta episodes this morning, I decided that I really wanted some pasta carbonara, but I was missing a few ingredients to make it. So I went through Lidia Matticchio Bastianich's cookbook Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen and found a simple, quick recipe for Penne alla Vodka. I love vodka sauce and find it funny that many people will buy the jarred stuff when it's super easy to make yourself. I used to make Giada's Vodka Sauce, but with the 1 cup of vodka in there, it's best made a day or two ahead of time. Lidia's only requires 1/4 cup, so that the vodka does not overwhelm the sauce. I didn't put parsley in this time since I didn't have any on hand with any effect on the delicious taste of the sauce. Enjoy!

Penne Alla Vodka from the cookbook Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen

Salt
One 35-ounce can Italian plum tomatoes (preferably San Marzano) with their liquid
1 pound penne
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
10 cloves garlic, peeled
Crushed hot red pepper
1/4 cup vodka
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter or olive oil for finishing the sauce, if you like
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for passing if you like

Bring 6 quarts of salted water to a boil in an 8-quart pot over high heat.

Pour the tomatoes and their liquid into the work bowl of a food processor. Using quick on/off pulses, process the tomatoes just until they are finely chopped. (Longer processing will aerate the tomatoes, turning them pink.)

Stir the penne into the boiling water. Bring the water back to a boil, stirring frequently. Cook the pasta, semi-covered, stirring occasionally, until done, 8 to 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Whack the garlic cloves with the side of a knife and add them to the hot oil. Cook, shaking the skillet, until the garlic is lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Lower the work bowl with the tomatoes close to the skillet and carefully — they will splatter — slide the tomatoes into the pan. Bring to a boil, season lightly with salt and generously with crushed red pepper, and boil 2 minutes. Pour in the vodka, lower the heat so the sauce is at a lively simmer, and simmer until the pasta is ready.

Just before the pasta is done, fish the garlic cloves out of the sauce and pour in the cream. Add the 2 tablespoons butter or oil, if using, and swirl the skillet to incorporate into the sauce. If the skillet is large enough to accommodate the sauce and pasta, fish the pasta out of the boiling water with a large wire skimmer and drop it directly into the sauce in the skillet. If not, drain the pasta, return it to the pot, and pour in the sauce. Bring the sauce and pasta to a boil, stirring to coat the pasta with sauce. Check the seasoning, adding salt and red pepper if necessary. Sprinkle the parsley over the pasta and boil until the sauce is reduced enough to cling to the pasta.

Remove the pot from the heat, sprinkle 3/4 cup of the cheese over the pasta, and toss to mix. Serve immediately, passing additional cheese if you like.

Red Cabbage with Apples and Honey

I love cabbage. But for some reason, I don't eat it that much. While reading the Serious Eats newsletter today, I came across this amazing recipe for red cabbage with apples & honey. I was making Italian beef sandwiches for dinner, so it was a great side to make. Super easy and delicious. It braised in the oven for a couple of hours and makes your houses smell amazing (the bacon in there probably helps). Yummy!

Dinner with Friends Part 3 (and the final part)

The picture of the chicken tagine isn't that great, but the dish is wonderful--promise!

Chicken Tagine with Lemon and Olives

1 chicken, cut into 8 serving pieces, or 8 of your favorite chicken parts (I used all thighs)
olive oil for browning chicken
2 medium jalapenos, seeded and sliced lengthwise (optional)
1 medium red bell pepper, sliced
1 medium onion, sliced
2 inch piece of ginger root, peeled and grated
4 large garlic cloves, minced
2-3 large fresh ripe tomatoes, chopped or a 14-oz can
1 Tbs. Ras el Hanout
1 teas. turmeric or saffron
1 teas. cumin
salt and pepper to taste
2 c. chicken stock plus a little extra as needed for cooking
4 sections preserved lemons, pulp removed and discarded, peel sliced into thin strips
1 cup mixed Mediterranean olives
1/2 cup chopped cilantro, additional for optional garnish
rice or couscous to serve
harissa hot sauce to serve

Season chicken with salt and pepper and brown in hot olive oil. Set aside. Pour off all the fat, reserving 1 tablespoon. Saute peppers and onion in the reserved fat until softened. Add the ginger and garlic to the peppers and onion, cook for three minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook for three minutes. Add the Ras el Hanout, turmeric or saffron, cumin, salt and pepper, and chicken stock to the pot and simmer gently for 10 minutes.

Arrange the chicken pieces in the pan, covering well. Cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes or until the chicken is very tender. Add stock, if necessary. On top of the chicken, add the preserved lemon, the olives and cilantro. Simmer a little longer to blend the flavors. Sprinkle with additional cilantro. Serve with hot couscous or basmati rice. Pass the harissa at the table for diners to stir in as they wish. Serves 4.

Dinner with Friends Part 2

Part of the chicken dish requires making your own spice mix for it and a Moroccan hot sauce. Here are the recipes for both.

RAS EL HANOUT

1/2 tsp. anise seed
1 tsp. fennel seed
8 whole allspice berries
8 cardamom pods-seeds only
8 whole cloves
15 whole black peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
1 Tbs. sesame seed
1 tsp. coriander seed
1/2 tsp. cumin seed
pinch of dried hot red pepper flakes
pinch of ground mace (can be left out if you don't have it)
1 Tbs. ground ginger
1 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg

In a spice grinder or mortar and pestle, grind fine the first 11 ingredients. In a small bowl, stir together the rest of the spices with the spice mixture until combined well. Place in a tightly jar in a cool dark place up to six months. Makes about 1/4 cup.

HARISSA (MOROCCAN HOT SAUCE)

1 teas. cumin seed
1/2 teas. coriander seed
1/2 teas. caraway seed
4 hot red dried chlies--stemmed but not seeded, rough chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled
3/4 teas. coarse salt, or to taste
1 medium red bell pepper--roasted, peeled, and chopped coarse (you can roast it yourself or use jarred roasted red pepper)
1 teas. tomato paste
1 Tbs. olive oil

Toast whole spices and chiles in a dry skillet until fragrant, then cool. With an electric spice grinder or mortar and pestle, grind seeds and chiles fine. Transfer ground spices to a small food processor and add garlic and salt. Grind mixture to a paste. Add roasted pepper, tomato paste, and oil. Process to a coarse puree. This will keep, covered in a jar in the refrigerator for weeks. Serves as a condiment with the couscous and tagine. Makes 1/2 cups.

Note- I will probably double the recipe when I make this next time. Everyone loved it and there wasn't a drop left! Also great with eggs!

Dinner with Friends Part 1

A couple of weeks ago, we had Jackie and Bruce over for dinner. I served them Moroccan chicken with couscous. It was a time consuming meal, but well worth it in the end. There are multiple parts to this, so you won't be able to just whip this up after work. This is menu from another one of my wonderful classes with Chef Nancy.

To start, you will have prepare some preserved lemons a week ahead of time for the chicken tagine. You won't want to miss out on these since they add a delicious salty element to the tagine that you will not have otherwise.

Preserved Lemons

4 large lemons (use organic ones because you'll be eating the peel part!)
2/3 cup kosher salt
1 cup fresh lemon juice
olive oil

To make preserved lemons, scrub 4 lemons and cut each into 8 wedges. In a bowl, toss the wedges with 2/3 cup kosher salt and transfer to a 6 cup glass jar. Add 1 cup fresh lemon juice and cover the jar with a tight-fitting lid. Let lemons stand at room temperature for 7 days, shaking the jar every day to redistribute the salt and juice. If you are going to keep these for a long time, place a small film of olive oil on the top of the lemons after the week is over. Store in the jar and refrigerated for up to 6 months.

Cumin Scented Couscous

1 cup quick-cooking couscous
1 1/2 Tbs. unsalted butter
2 shallots, peeled and minced
3/4 teas. ground cumin
1/4 teas. crushed fennel seeds
1 1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth, canned or homemade
3 Tbs. minced flat leaf parsley

Place the couscous in a medium sized bowl, set aside.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallots, cumin and fennel, cook, stirring frequently, until shallots are translucent, about 2 minutes. Add the broth and salt to taste. Bring to a boil.

When the seasoned broth is simmering, pour it over the couscous, stir and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let stand until the couscous has absorbed the liquid--about 7 to 10 minutes. Remove the plastic and add the parsley; fluff the couscous with a fork. Serve hot.

Serves 4.

Moroccan Carrot Salad

6-8 medium carrots, julienned

2 teas. paprika

1/2 teas. cinnamon

1/2 teas. cayenne

1 teas. cumin

2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice

1 Tbs. sugar

5 Tbs. light olive oil

salt to taste

Blanch carrots briefly in boiling salted water. Combine all the dressing ingredients in a large bowl. Drain carrots and add to dressing while still warm. Adjust seasoning and serve at room temperature. Serves 6.

Miami part 3-Bahama Fish Market

Bahama Fish Market is one of those amazing finds that I just happened to come across when researching Miami the first time we were there. I was googling Cuban food and found Three Guys from Miami, which helped us you with our picks of places to eat down there. Bahama Fish Market was so good the first time, that we decided to put it on our list to go back to. It's a fish market with a large restaurant with a HUGE counter to sit at if you want and extremely fresh fish. Most of the customers are Cuban and the waitresses speak limited English. The prices are reasonable and the food is delicious.


Smoky fish dip. This stuff is so good that I wish that I could eat this all the time.



Crab and fish croquettes---not full of fillers like some croquettes are.

I am not sure what the Cubans do to their rice, but it looks like plain rice--yet doesn't taste like plain rice. Maybe they cook it in broth or something? Anyone know the answer to this? And one of Chris' favorite foods-fried plantains.

The special of the day was squid and rice. It looks black because of squid ink. Doesn't look really appetizing, but it was delicious.

And my fried scallops. They weren't heavily breaded, so they were light and really tasty. Yummy!

If you happen to make a trip out to Miami and love seafood, you'll want to make a trip to this place--cheap, delicious Cuban seafood!

Miami part 2-Joe's Stone Crabs

If you watch any travel food show to Miami, chances are that they will talk about Joe's Stone Crab restaurant. Stone crabs have a small body, but huge claws (to be able to crack oyster shells). The crabs are harvested by only removing one claw (so that they can still eat), which grows back the next year. They are seasonal in Florida from Oct 15-May 15 and we luckily got there the last weekend of the season last May. These crab claws are amazingly sweet and meaty, which has landed them on my favorite foods list.

We got to the restaurant around 8 PM and it was a packed house. The wait ended up being over an hour (which was ok with me since I filled the time by drinking wonderful Cosmos at the bar), which was impressive considering how large the restaurant is and the fact that it was a Tuesday night!

We started with oysters. I love oysters, but living in the Midwest means that we don't eat them except when traveling to the coasts.

Our sides were their famous hash browns (super crispy) and cole slaw (a mayo-apple cider dressing which was sweet & tangy). That dish is melted butter for the claws, but I prefer their mustard sauce that is at the left of the fork.

Two orders of select stone crab claws. Better than king crab legs or lobster! I could live on these.

And for dessert, their famous key lime pie. We aren't big dessert people, but we can't pass this pie up. Last trip, we had ordered one, but we realized that we needed another one! Really amazing.

Can't wait to go back!!!

40-some-hours-in-Miami, part 1

Chris and I just celebrated our 5 year anniversary of our first date on Tuesday. Since it's still winter, we decided that heading south to Miami would be nicer than going north to Chicago. Good choice since it had just snowed in Lawrence and we lucked out with some sunny, gorgeous weather. We had just gone to Miami in May 2008, where we fell in love with food, people and city. It's such a great place for foodies especially fans of seafood and/or Latin cuisine.



Luckily for us, Latinos love to eat late at night since our flight didn't arrive till 9:30. Our first meal was at Versailles Restaurant, a late night joint that has been a Miami institution for years now. We didn't get there till about 10:30 and were surprised that it was still a pretty packed place late on a Monday night. I got one of the Cuban plate specials, so that I could try a little bit of a bunch of stuff. On my plate is the yellow Cuban rice, yuca (the white pile and not to be confused with yucca), fried pork chunks (meat under the onions), tamale, fried plantains (the left side of the rice), some sort of shredded pork and a croquette (top by the pork chunks). Chris ordered the palomilla steak dish, but our pic didn't turn out so appetizing, so I decided to leave it out. It was all quite tasty, but my favorite was the fried pork chunks. They were incredibly tender and juicy while being lightly fried (not breaded). Plantains are also a favorite of ours and these were delicious.

The next day, we decided to pick up some sandwiches before the spring training game. I had read up on restaurants with a website, Three Guys from Miami, that I had used when we were in Miami last. We needed something quick and easy since we needed to drive over an hour to get to Jupiter for the game. Enriqueta's Cafe seemed to be a good choice and when we pulled up to it, Chris was already smiling (he loves the hole-in-the-wall locations). It had been written about in Food & Wine magazine back in Dec 2004, so why not give it a try? The Cuban style chicken sandwich was what the Three Guys website raved about, so we both ordered it. The chicken was perfectly seasoned and juicy, topped with tomato, lettuce, cheese and super crispy french fries. For about $5.50, you couldn't go wrong! Delicious!

More Food Blogs For Your Reading Pleasure

I must admit that I spend a lot of time reading other food blogs. That means that I drool over the recipes and wonder when I can fit trying them out soon. It also means that I often wish that I had a better camera, so that I can have some more professional shots like some of the other bloggers. Not going to happen anytime soon, but I can keep dreaming.

I came across this list of 50 of the world's best food blogs. Currently, I read about 40-some food blogs on a fairly regular basis and always looking for more! Some of my favorites are on this list and I am happy to find some more to add to my list of must-reads. Enjoy!

50 World's Best Food Blogs

Miso-Sake Salmon with Soba Noodle Salad

Another delicious recipe from Chef Nancy!

Soba Noodle Salad
1 lb soba (I used a buckwheat one)
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 Tbs sesame oil
2 Tbs rice vinegar
2 tea. sugar
1 tea. chile garlic sauce
1 red bell pepper, julienned
1 cup sliced scallions, divided
2 carrots, julienned

Cook noodles according to package directions. Rinse with cold water and set aside to drain well.

In a small bowl, mix soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar, sugar and chile garlic sauce . In large bowl, toss noodles with sauce to coat well. Marinate at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours in refrigerator, tossing occasionally.

Stir in red bell pepper, 2/3 scallions and carrots. let stand at room temperature up to 2 hours, tossing occasionally. Mound noodles on top and scatter remaining scallions over noodles. Top with seared salmon.

Serves 8

Miso-Sake Salmon
8 (6 oz) skinless salmon fillets
1/2 cup mirin
1/2 cup sake
2 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs rice vinegar
1/4 cup white miso
2 Tbs brown sugar
vegetable oil for searing

Combine mirin, sake, soy, vinegar, miso and brown sugar to make a marinade. Coat salmon fillets with the marinade, cover and refrigerate for 12-24 hours. Longer than 24 hours and the fish may be too salty.

A few few hours before you are ready to serve, prepare the noodle salad and set aside. Salad is best if you make it at least 2 hours in advance.

Heat vegetable oil in a non-stick skillet until just starting to smoke. Remove salmon from marinade and wipe off excess. Sear salmon over medium-high heat until well browned on each side and fish is just cooked through, about 5 minutes per side. Serve salmon with noodle salad.

Pad Thai

I really love pad thai when it's done right, which isn't often in most Thai restaurants in America. I was thrilled to see that Nancy made a delicious pad thai in her class the other night and I was excited to make it at home. I made it for Chris for lunch on Saturday and he loved it. The recipe seems like a lot of work, but it's just a lot of ingredients to prep. Once you have all the ingredients ready to go, it takes a very short time to get it cooked.

Pad Thai recipe from Chef Nancy

8 oz rice noodles
3 Tbs. oil, divided
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 oz, boneless pork, chicken or beef, cut into thin stripes
3-4 oz pressed or fried tofu, cut into thin stripes
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tbs. fish sauce
1 Tb. soy sauce
2 Tbs. sugar
2 Tbs tamarind liquid (1 heaping Tb. tamarind pulp dissolved in 3 T water and strained. I used 1 1/2 teas. of tararind paste instead)
1 teas. paprika
1 teas. chile-garlic sauce
3 cups bean sprouts (divided)
3 scallions, trimmed and cut into 1 inch lengths
2 Tbs. dried shrimp, finely chopped
1/2 c. ground roasted peanuts
3 Tbs. cilantro, chopped
lime wedges for servings

Soak the rice noodles in warm water for 30 minutes, or until soft. Drain and set aside. Assemble all ingredients before beginning to cook. Heat a large skillet until hot, then add half of the oil. Add the garlic and stir-fry briefly, about 15 seconds. Toss in the meat and stir-fry until it has changed color. Add the tofu and cook 20-30 seconds. Pour in the eggs and cook until it sets aorund the meat and tofu slices, less than a minute. Break it up a little, then transfer to a plate and set aside. Combine fish sauce, soy, sugar, tamarind, papriks and chile sauce in a small bowl and set it by the stove. Heat remaining oil, add the noodles and stir fry until translucent. Add half the bean sprouts and the sallions, tossing until they wilt. Add the dried shrimp and then the fish sauce mixture and cook about 1 minutes. Add the reserved egg mixture and gently toss. Toss in the half of the peanuts.
Turn out onto a serving platter or plates. Sprinkle with remaining bean sprouts and peanuts, and garnish with cilantro. Serve with lime wedges for squeezing over. Serves 2-4.