Melissa's Cooking!

(This is a post from back in July, that I just found in drafts…so keep in mind, this is from July

HELLO! I know it’s been SO long since I posted anything. I really have made some yummy food since the last cooking post. And I need to post them. But for now, I want to post what we made yesterday.

We joined a CSA (Community Support Agriculture) this summer. It’s awesome. We go out to a local farm and get 8 fruits or vegetables, a loaf of local gourmet bread and dozen eggs EVERY WEEK. So I am researching and/or coming up with recipes to go along with the foods we are getting.

So this recipe is using green beans, blueberries and potatoes from the CSA.

Let’s start with the Blueberry Sage Halibut.

1 cup blueberries
1 teaspoon snipped fresh sage
½ teaspoon black pepper

4 5- to 6-ounce fresh or frozen halibut steaks or fillets, about 1-inch thick
1 cup garlic croutons, coarsely crushed
¼ cup snipped fresh sage
1 teaspoon finely shredded orange peel
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon olive oil

Heat the oven to 350.

In a medium bowl mash ¾ cup of blueberries with a potato masher or a fork. Stir in remaining ¼ cup blueberries, teaspoon of fresh snipped sage, and ½ teaspoon of black pepper. Set aside until ready to serve.

Rinse fish; pat dry. In a small bowl combine crushed croutons, ¼ cup fresh snipped sage, orange peel, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Stir in orange juice and 1 tablespoon of olive oil until lightly moistened. Set aside.

Bake the fish for 20-25 minutes. (The halibut filet should be very fresh, and preferably about 1 inch thick. If it is thicker, it may take a few minutes longer to bake. Check for doneness by inserting the tip of a knife into the center of the fish. Halibut should flake easily when done, yet still be moist. Cook it until the center is still slightly transparent and not yet flakey and remove from heat. It will continue to cook and be perfect when you eat it. This dish is so easy and simple that the key to its success is fresh ingredients.) Top it with the mashed blueberry sauce.

(NOTE: Since this was made back in July, I don’t recall how to make the Honey Orange Green beans, besides for snapping the ends off of your beans, rinsing, and steaming them for 5 minutes. I guess you mix honey and orange with your beans

The Sage Roasted Potatoes. Heat oven to, well keep it the same as for the Halibut at 350 degrees. Cut up your potatoes. Mix them with EV olive oil, salt, pepper and freshly cut sage. Spread out on cookie sheet. Roast until crisp or as crispy as you’d like…probably about 40-45 minutes.

Creamy Mac & Cheese

I had a hankering for Mac & Cheese the other day. But how many times have we all resorted to the stuff in the box??! Um, not anymore!!! I looked for recipes online, but most of what I found had too many ingredients. Too much to it. All I wanted was simple. I wanted to use pasta, some butter and gourmet cheese…so I decided to just wing it and do it how I think I know how to and it turned out exactly what I had in mind!

Mac & Cheese Ingredients include:
(Try to use organic!)
(I cooked enough for 2-3 servings, but make enough for what you need and wing the amount of ingredients like I did…)
• pasta
• 2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 2 TBS of butter
• 2 TBS of milk
• Sea salt and pepper

Prepare pasta as directed. Once pasta is drained, return to pot on warm burner. Add butter, milk, cheese, salt and pepper and stir until all is melted…and perfect and creamy!

Steamed Green Beans & Carrots

So in addition to Mac & Cheese, I needed a couple other parts to this meal. Dave suggested Salmon, so he prepared the Salmon (which how to make is described here: http://www.melissascooking.com/2009/09/01/broiledsalmondish/)

Veggies were also needed to round out this meal, so I healthy steamed fresh green beans and carrots. I’ve described how to healthy steam before, but I’ll describe again…

Steamed Green Beans & Carrots Ingredients include:
(Try to use organic!)
• Fresh Green Beans (about 20-25 beans)
• Fresh carrots (about 4-5)

(Mediterranean dressing which includes…)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3 TBS extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• sea salt and pepper to taste

Healthy steam your veggies! (This is a gentle way to prepare your veggies to enhance their flavor, bring out their color, make them tender and preserves most of its ingredients.) Chop off the ends to your fresh picked green beans. Peel and chop your carrots up to about .5-1 inch chunks. Bring steaming water to a boil in your steamer pot. Add your beans and carrots. Cover and steam for 5 minutes…adding the garlic to veggies for the last 2 minutes of steaming. Transfer to a bowl and toss with the remaining Mediterranean dressing ingredients while veggies are still hot. They give you the amounts for the dressing, but I wing it….do what you want to what you like!

Enjoy!

On Sunday, August 30, for dinner, my husband and I cooked up some broiled salmon with a side of mashed garlic potatoes and a Mediterranean Medley of Veggies. This was my first time EVER making mashed potatoes, and they turned out to be SO GOOD.

I shall start with the sides…

(Note: We used a lot of garlic in this meal, so I should tell you a little tidbit about garlic. After you slice, chop, mince or press your garlic, you should let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes before eating or cooking. Click here to see how to Bring Out the Health Benefits of Garlic.)

Mediterranean Medley
• 2 cups of Broccoli florets cut into quarters
• 2 cups chopped curly kale
• 1 medium carrot
(Mediterranean dressing which includes…)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3 TBS extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• sea salt and pepper to taste

Healthy steam your veggies! (This is a gentle way to prepare your veggies to enhance their flavor, bring out their color, make them tender and preserves most of its ingredients.) Bring steaming water to a boil in your steamer pot. Add Broccoli, kale and carrots, cover and steam for 5 minutes…adding the garlic to veggies for the last 2 minutes of steaming. Transfer to a bowl and toss with the remaining ingredients while veggies are still hot. They give you the amounts for the dressing, but I wing it….do what you want to what you like!

Garlic Mashed Potatoes
• 2 medium-sized potatoes
• 3 TBS extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves of pressed garlic
• 3 TBS soy or low-fat milk
• sea salt and pepper to taste

First you want to ‘Healthy Steam” your potatoes. (While most will want to boil their potatoes, you probably shouldn’t as that will make them become watery and lose some of their flavor. Healthy steaming will enhance their flavor and preserve most of the nutrients.) Cut potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes using peeled potatoes. (For non-mashed potatoes, you can leave the skin on though ) Once the steamer pot is ready, steam the potatoes for 10 minutes. (Potatoes are done when you can easily penetrate with a fork.) Mash together with the rest of the ingredients.

What made these interesting, is that we have been using vanilla soy milk with our cereal in the morning, and that’s all we had…so we had hints of vanilla flavoring in these potatoes. Pretty darn good!!! Especially for my first mashed potatoes!

And finally…

The  “Quick Broiled” Salmon
• 1 lb Salmon fillet, cut in half
• 2 tsp + 1 TBS fresh lemon juice
• Sea salt and pepper to taste
• 2 TBS extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium clove garlic

Preheat the broiler on high and place an all stainless steel skillet (handle stainless steel too!) under the heat for about 10 minutes until it gets very hot. The pan should be 5 to 7 inches from the heat source. While pan is heating chop up your garlic and let it sit. Rub your salmon with the 2 tsp of fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper. (Note: you can leave the skin on, as after you broil it, the skin should peep right off.) Using a hot pad, pull pan from heat source and place Salmon on hot pan, skin side down. Return to broiler. Should take about 7 minutes, depending on thickness. Test with a fork for done-ness, as it will flake easily when it is cooked. Tis best with it’s still pink inside. Dress with the olive oil, 1 TBS lemon juice, garlic and salt/pepper to taste.