Food on Friday # 36 ~ Summer
There is no overall theme to this week’s Food on Friday ~ except these are all great summer recipes from great cooks.
Starting this week with nectarine and fried mozzarella caprese salad from Tieghan Gerard at Half Baked Harvest. You know what? I’d like to be able to make a salad that looked half as good as any of Tieghan’s dishes, (I didn’t realise that pansies were edible…).
Nectarine And Fried Mozzarella Caprese Salad
We are all very used to eating food out of season, hell I can buy decent salad greens here in England at any time of the year. But I think we would all agree that local produce, in season, is far better quality than anything that’s been shipped thousands of miles before it gets into your local store. And, fish is something that a gourmet should only eat when it’s fresh and in season. English Girl Petra from Food Eat Love has this smashing recipe for Torbay sole with scalloped stuffed courgette flower…. Torbay is a great little harbour town on the English Riviera. Out of the way, quiet, and well worth a visit.
Torbay Sole With Scallop Stuffed Courgette Flower
Now from Anne, a professional chef from the California wine country, we have this absolute umami corn on the cob recipe. It’s well worth checking out Anne’s Tasting Everything blog for some super recipes.
Absolute Umami Corn On The Cob
I recently featured this recipe for thai larb chicken lettuce cups, but I liked it so much I’m putting it in again as a nice summer snack / appetiser. It’s from the White on Rice Couple, Todd Porter and Dianne Cu.
Thai Larb Chicken Lettuce Cups
Here’s a very quick and easy summer snack / appetiser recipe from Elise at Simply Recipes. This 15 minute shrimp scampi would go really well with a couple of cold beers, (or in my case fizzy water).
Shrimp Scampi
So, from the vegetarian / vegan Cookie + kate, (I’m pretty certain Cookie the dog isn’t vegetarian, but what do I know?), we have this mega crunchy romaine salad with quinoa. (Am I the only person in the free world who has never eaten quinoa?).
Mega Crunchy Romaine Salad With Quinoa
And the final food recipe for this week, from Andrea at Cooking with a Wallflower, we have this spicy summer vegetable chili. This is a great dish to use up all that stuff you’ve got hanging about in your refrigerator. This is also a vegetarian / vegan recipe, (or at least, I belive it is so).
Spicy Summer Vegetable Chili
For something to drink instead of beer on those hot summer days, we have this blueberry pomegranate mint limeade, also from Cooking with a Wallflower. (Why do Americans drink out of jam jars, instead of proper glasses? Weird.)
Blueberry Pomegranate Mint Limeade
A great big thank you to all the cool cooks featured in this week’s Food on Friday.
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Food on Friday # 34 ~ Salmon (mostly)
Some say that we should aim to eat a couple of portions of oily fish a week. And, that fish like salmon is a rich source of omaga 3, which does good things like stave off heart disease. All I know is that a well cooked salmon steak is much more fun than taking cod-liver-oil capsules.
When I mentioned to my friend in Orange County that I was intending to do a post on salmon recipes, she said I should include some other ‘fishy’ dishes. So there is also a cod recipe here. Who am I to ignore a smart woman?
First up this Friday, from Cooking up the Pantry, we have a pretty easy dish for a dinner with an Indian flavour, cheats salmon tikka.
Cheats Salmon Tikka
This is a really good post from Elise at Simply Recipes, because it also gives you some tips on buying salmon, (and other fish). Leaving that aside, I’m certain my friends will like this dish, salmon with lemon cream sauce, partly because you could also save some and have it cold as the basis for a great salad.
Salmon With Lemon Cream Sauce
This recipe fascinates me, so I make no excuse for including it today, even though it was only just in Food on Friday #32 which was all about BBQ. From Teighan Gerard at Half Baked Harvest, I really must cook this cedar plank salmon with watermelon feta salsa. (that’s if my friend ever lets me near her barbecue again).
Cedar Plank Salmon With Watermelon Feta Salsa
Cooking fish in foil is a brilliant idea. If Chungah from Damn Delicious hadn’t had this garlic butter salmon in foil recipe, I would have had to invent it myself. You really must try this, it’s so quick, easy, and so damn delicious.
Garlic Butter Salmon In Foil
This is different, 30 minute cajun salmon with salted lime butter, fromPennsylvania girl Jessica Merchant at how sweet it is. You know what? I think this is a 20 minute dish, which will please my friend in Orange County no end.
30 MInute Cajun Salmon With Salted Lime Butter
I found this site by courtesy of at Andrea at Cooking with a Wallflower. So then, Lisa at Healthy nibbles + bits is a lawyer turned food blogger, and she has this summery salad for you. Summer teriyaki salmon salad, which is an easy 35 minute dish In the same post she also has the start of her free 4-week meal planning challenge ~ pretty cool.
Summer Teriyaki Salmon Salad
From English girl Petra at Food Eat Love, we have something that should satisfy anyone’s craving for seafood. I give you salmon with scallops, pickle sprats, and roasted fig quinoa. taa daah!!! You know what? I would much rather eat this plate of seafood than I would like sushi.
Salmon With Scallops, Pickle Sprats, And Roasted Fig Quinoa
At the suggestion of a close friend I include this elegant recipe from Tasting Everything; cod with summer vegetables. The picture shows a very elegant dish as befits Anne, who is a professional chef from the California wine country.
Cod With Summer Vegetables
And, finally this week, from Heather Christo we have a bit of a collection for you, starting with grilled tahini glazed salmon with cucumber noodles. I’m very certain my friend in SoCal will like this dish.
Grilled Tahini Glazed Salmon with Cucumber Noodles
and then, how to cook salmon in 15 delicious ways, including this BLT salmon salad with creamy avocado green goddess dressing.
BLT Salmon Salad With Creamy Avocado Green Goddess Dressing
Also, how about this post? How to perfectly cook salmon ~ how cool is that?
How To Perfectly Cook Salmon
May I say thank you to all the cooks featured this week.
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
Food on Friday # 34 ~ Lunch
Eating a good lunch is important, if you’re not going to fade in the afternoon.
A lot of working people miss out on lunch, or buy from a deli, or eat at some greasy spoon, (cheap café or restaurant serving fried food), or Mexican joint, or have something even more unhealthy such as ‘pot noodles’. Instead of that, why not make your own lunch to take to work?
This week I’ve found some quick, easy, simple lunches for you. Many of these you can mostly prepare at the weekend for the week ahead. As it’s coming up to summer, and I don’t want to get into anything made with bread, (I’m avoiding wheat and flour at present), there are some salads here.
For hot food, the first thing you need to do, if you’re taking a great lunch to work, is check out the facilities in your lunch room. Do you have a microwave? If you do, then you are all set to make any of these recipes ~ but remember, you can’t microwave foil…
First this week, from the lovely Averie Sunshine we have this bacon potato salad. Averie has this as a side dish, but I think it will make a great lunch, and should keep chilled in the refrigerator for 2 or 3 days. And, if you make a batch, you can also use this as a side dish with your evening meal.
Bacon Potato Salad
From Chungah Rhee, (aka Damn Delicious), another potato dish you can prepare ahead ~ sausage, potato, and green bean foil packets. If you have an oven in the lunch room you could cook these packets at work, or you could cook them ahead and eat them cold, or whatever… And, you could swap bacon for the sausage…
Sausage Potato And Green Bean Foil Packets
Another potato dish, which you could eat cold or warmed in the lunch room microwave. From Heather Christo, smoky potatoes with asparagus and chorizo.
Smoky Potatoes With Asparagus And Chorizo
We are heavy on the potatoes this week because you can prepare them in advance, they are a better source of carbohydrates than bread, and they make a great base for a work-lunch salad. Tieghan Gerard at Half Baked Harvest gives us this grilled potato salad with almond-basil chimichurri and 7-minute eggs. And, that’s one substantial lunch.
Grilled Potato Salad With Almond-Basil Chimichurri And 7-Minute Eggs
Elise at Simply Recipes gives us this Mediterranean potato salad, personally, as a complete lunch I would add bacon or chicken pieces to this recipe, or use it as a great side dish.
Mediterranean Potato Salad
Anne is a professional chef in Wine Country, and on her site Tasting Everything she has this easy, light, and healthy feel-good fresh and light citrus and avocado salad recipe.
Feel-Good Fresh And Light Citrus And Avocado Salad
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For me, the secret to having a good lunch at work is to make too much food for dinner. If you choose your dinner menus well, then what you don’t eat at dinner, you can take to work the following day, or the day after. But, if you’re not that organised I have some lists of easy recipes for lunches you can make from scratch. From Ariel Knutson at thekitchn we have 23 make-ahead lunches to get you through the work week, while from Allyson Dickman of Brit+Co there are 17 make-ahead lunches to get you through the work week. And, The Everygirl has 15 lunches to make ahead for work.
From Real Simple I can give you 26 hearty satisfying lunches. There are some really good sandwiches, soups, and salads here, including this turkey salad with tomato and avocado.
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Finally for this week. After looking around the web for a long time, getting frustrated, I finally found this post from Eating Well ~ cheap healthy lunch ideas for work. There are 51 recipes in this post, most of which I could make ahead and take to work during the week. The recipes include this ravioli & vegetable soup, which will freeze if you make a batch and is perfect if you have a microwave in the lunch room.
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Thank you to all the great cooks featured in this week’s Food on Friday.
jackcollier7@talktalk.net
JackCollier7 
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