For my first post...

Kenny and Zukes. Jamie and I had a pact never to go to the same restaurant twice while we lived here in Portland. Well, we broke it.

My First Post

Short, but sweet, this looks like it is a good book and skills worth acquiring:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=107019060&sc=fb&cc=fp"

Next post: the best dressing that uses only what you should generally have on hand and it goes on everything!

summer eats

Summer has been quite a season for good food so far. It's been a while since i've posted
so i thought i'd give a little sampling of what's been cookin...

strawberries and spinach with pepper and balsalmic vinegar

ATC's risotto with parmesan and pepper

Risotto cakes with the leftovers, stuffed with Mexican blend cheese!

Parmesan pepper polenta with pan-seared blacked chicken,
this one really turned out awesome, and it's so easy!

I just got back from my west coast tour here are some of the food highlights:
Portland: Lisa's french toast, waffle turkey havarti sandwich, Craig's steak sandwiches,
and the creme brulee was pretty good too.
LA: Kim's chinese chicken salad and asperagus risotto, delicious Pad Thai at Natalie's.
San Fran: Pho soup at an awesome Vietnamese place, and Matt's Rice a Roni.
Thanks to everyone who made the vacation delicious!

5 meals with 10 ingredients

I wish Mark Bittman would just make up a little menu and shopping list for me every week:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/the-10-ingredient-shopping-trip/

I like the part where he basically says, it's bacon, it's delicious, stop worrying about the fat.

Happy 4th of July - Watermelon Lemonade

Byron and I started a new holiday tradition of spending our holiday morning making holiday themed treats!! We had such a fun time, and thanks to our friend's tablecloth, our picture is incredibly patriotic.

We decided that we are going to try a new summer recipe for our 4th of July celebrations, and for our inaugural choice, we went with Watermelon Lemonade.

I wish I had thought to take a picture of the watermelon, the two lemons and the bunch of mint before we started making it, because those are three of the four ingredients!

• Just juice the two lemons (leave lemon rinds in), add a cup of mint leaves and 1/2 cup of brown sugar and pound with a wooden spoon until the mint is bruised and the sugar is dissolved.
• Food process your seedless watermelon (about 9 lbs) and run through a fine sieve until you have about 8 cups of juice (we went with only 7 cups and it was plenty watermelony) and add the juice
• Optional: Add one cup of vodka. We opted out of this one, so I can't vouch for it either way.

Sounds easy and delicious, right?

The truth is, de-rinding, cutting, processing and straining a watermelon is a little more work than you would first imagine. However, I thought is was delicious. More watermelon tasting than lemonade tasting, but that would be my preference anyway. And I think making the drink is at least as much fun as drinking it.

All told, it made for a delicious and refreshing holiday drink, perfect compliment for a BBQ.