Like Tehran Up In Here

After rallying to restore sanity to America last week we stopped at a suburban strip mall to carry out semi-fast food. We'd thought about sitting down in a restaurant to eat, but sometimes you just don't want to pay 2.5 times the retail value for a bottle of wine, you know? And you know when you're traveling with Steve there's always wine in the trunk. Anyway, Mom and Steve got Chipotle, and Phil and I got Moby Dick. You know, Moby Dick-- that Persian carry out chain.

What?!

I know!

Maybe it was 'cause I hadn't had anything but fruit leather for like 13 hours, but I really liked the Moby Dick. They had this wonderful little cup of dressing or something that was limey and minty and delicious. I put some of that on my lamb kabob with lettuce, onion, cuke, feta, and olives, and I was in heaven (I gave the tomato to Phil, natch).

Anyway, being the great human he is, Phil just found me a couple of online recipes for Iranian salad dressing, so I just had a mock Moby Dick dinner. I'd got a lamb kebob at Fresh Market today, and put that atop the old lettuce-onion-feta-olive-cuke salad, and topped it with the Iranian dressing. Sooo good.

Persian Dressing

4 T lime juice

4 T extra virgin olive oil

1 T water

2 T finely chopped fresh mint

dash of salt and pepper

Combine all and serve over salad or use as a marinade. Love it!!

Food Other People Cooked

I like cooking, especially for other people, but it's pretty nice to have someone cook for me once and awhile. Vacation week was filled with delicious food prepared by some of my lovely and talented friends.

The Laheys rocked the house with their veggie-fied chicken and noodles. I especially liked the addition of diced red peppers.

Laheys also provided a quick breakfast for Phil and me when they accidentally made too many microeggs. I believe each coffee cup contained two beaten eggs, cheese, green onions and lunch meat. Microwave for two minutes and here's breakfast! I had a piece of toast too. I think Laheys made like an egg mcmuffin-type thing. And if you use just one egg you just have to microwave for one minute.

Hartmans made a delish shredded chicken for burrito night. I think they put peppers, onions, and Mexican spices in a crockpot with several chicken breasts and let it simmer all day. I mean, I know they used the crockpot and the chicken, and I think I saw some pepper cutting early in the day, and I think I recall John talking about cumin. Roy's legendary guacamole is not shown, but was wonderful.

We were served a surprise meal in Raleigh before we headed back home. Annie got up early enough to home-make hashbrowns, poach eggs, and cook or re-heat and thinly slice whatever kind of beef that is for her upscale steak and eggs. Don't forget the basil garnish! This was a killah breakfast.

Wondering why the first and third photos look so good in this post? They were professionally photographed by Mark Lahey, of Mark Lahey Images. If you need a photographer for an upcoming event, find him on facebook. Or ask me for his number.

Mini-vacation '10

We got a four day weekend last week, so Phil, Hen and I went to Fort Wayne to see a Tin Caps game. I guess I took this picture as soon as we got there, because for most of our time at the ballpark it was cloudy and sprinkling. Then there was a bit of thunder and lightening. We made it to about the 5th inning, I think. It seems they played the whole game, 'cause while sitting over at a bar on Wayne Street we heard the fireworks. Maybe next year we'll get in an entire game...

After a fun day in Fort Wayne we went up to the Lauer's lake. This is a good lake because there aren't tons of boats all around and the cabin is really cute. It was so so so awesome to fall asleep under an open window, all cozied up with blankets. And Henry, oh my gosh. He loves going to the lake... he just tears up and down the hill from the cabin to the shore. He's so cute.

I brought back a bunch of corn from lake country and boiled it all up to freeze. These are cobs waiting to be de-kerneled. Once the kernels were removed, I spread them in a single layer on several cookie sheets, froze them, then packed the kernels in quart sized freezer bags. Kinda time-intensive, but fun. It'll be neat to have delicious farm-fresh corn this fall and winter.

Summer Solstice

Of course it's important to stay hydrated when it's hot out. To celebrate the longest day of the year I uncorked a bottle of Summer Solstice from Turtle Run Winery (Corydon, IN). Quite tasty and refreshing on this long, humid day.

This is the peapod and seafood stirfry I did. Garden onions satueed with garlic, add the seafood medly mix from Trader Joes (a frozen bag of raw shrimp, bay scallops, and rings of calamari), toss in peapods and add a bit of stir-fry sauce and voila! Super yummy.

And here's the Thai salad Phil made for himself yesterday... he spoke highly of this, and it looks and sounds really great. He compared it to nachos... every bite is different from the previous. One bite is lime-cucumber, the next bite is chicken-sesame-celery, etc. Looks like a great summer meal!

Yam Gai

4 inches of cucumber

2 skinless chicken breasts

3 small celery stalks (finely sliced)

3 Scallions thickly sliced

2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

3 red or small green chilies thinly sliced

1 tablespoon fresh mint finely chopped

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

2 tablespoons sesame oil

cut the cucumber in half and scrape out the seeds, cut crosswise and then cut each piece into matchsticks

poach the chicken breasts then shred then add all the ingredients and mix. Mix all liquid ingredients prior to adding into the bowl.

It's Not the Heat, it's the Humidity...

Yeah, right. It's hot, it's humid, it's (almost) summertime. I'm not here to complain about the insane weather we've had of late... well I kinda am, I guess. Giant severe storms! Super uncomfortable temps! I don't like it!

Every Saturday and Tuesday or Wednesday they have live music at Easley Winery, but last weekend's performance was ill attended. Maybe because it was so HOT and HUMID! The guy played good songs, though, and was fun.

It was so hot and humid that we couldn't stand to stay outside, which meant Italianfest and Fulton Street Art Fair will have to wait 'till next year, so we went to Brugge for incredible mussels, frites, and microbrews. This was a dark, hoppy beer called Deep Dark Secret. Mollie and I had hanger steaks and Dad had the mussels steamed with chilis, cilantro and garlic.

Maybe Weird, Definitely Good

One time at a vegetarian (ok, THE vegetarian) restaurant in Fort Worth I had a wrap with sweet potato puree, spiced nuts, and some veggies, and it was really really good. I had a butternut squash sitting around, so I decided to give that type of sandwich or pita a try. I cut a butternut squash in half, olive oiled and seasoned it with my Everyday Seasoning Mix from Trader Joes, and roasted it until a fork easily pierced the flesh (350 degrees for about 60 minutes). Then I took my handy dandy immersion blender to turn the tender squash into a puree. That's it! It is super good, btw. It's great on it's own, but it's also great as a sandwich spread.

I have made this in a pita and in a tortilla wrap, both ways produce pretty similar results. Smear the puree on, sprinkle crushed pecans (like the sweet and spicy kind!), layer sprouts, spinach, onion, add a piece of turkey or jarlsberg cheese and roll up (if it's on a tortilla). Really really good, and so pretty, what with the bright orange puree, dark green lettuce, purple onions, etc.

Blog about the foliage of the Indy zoo coming soon.