Among the stressors of school work, moving up to Seattle (temporarily), wedding planning, adjusting to long-distance fiance dating (and not doing it well), and the usual rigors of life, the cooking part of my life has fallen by the wayside. In fact the eating part of my life has disappointingly involved more Starbucks spinach feta wraps and university cafeteria meals than I would like to admit.
Luckily this past week was spring break - yes, that's right I'm approaching the ripe old age of over 30 and I'm still enjoying myself a little spring break action! I kept thinking, "Oooh I'm going to be in San Francisco, Dan and I should plan lots of little trips and visit the sites we haven't seen yet, dine at new-to-us restaurants..." But, when my feet hit the soggy, fog-soaked soil of this mildly temperate city we now call home, all I wanted to do was cook with Dan - and remember what it's like to have a real life with a real, live, in-person fiance.
And so we did.
On day two in SF, after enjoying a long weekend re-discovering my skiing-legs in Jackson Hole, I hit the grocery stores, all three stores in the area: Whole Foods, Safeway, and Trader Joes. I stocked the incredibly bare bachelor-esque refrigerator with all of the essentials and starting ripping recipes out of my stack of unread foody magazines.
The first dinner we had together, at home, I made up from a combination of Alani-edited recipes found in Martha Stewart's Whole Living and Everyday Food.
First I made a pesto:
In a food processor, blend until smooth
1 bunch parsley, big stems chopped off
1/2 bunch mint, stems removed
1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
(this was a little bland, so I added 1/2-1 tsp salt and one whole shallot...garlic might have been good too)
And a super simple yogurt sauce:
1 container (8oz) plain Greek yogurt
2 limes
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
salt to taste
Toast the almonds in a dry pan (no olive oil) until fragrant, let them cool for a few minutes before adding to the yogurt, lime, salt mixture. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. You can make this one day ahead to let the flavors meld together, but the yogurt will start showing some water, just re-stir.
Then I made some Quinoa and added the pesto with some grape tomatoes and snap peas
1 cup quinoa
2 cups water or broth
2 cups (or more) snap peas, blanched (that means you drop them into a boiling pot of water for like 1-2 minutes, until they turn bright green)
1 cup grape tomatoes sliced in half the long way
1/4 cup olive oil (or less)
1/4 cup minced red onion
Cook the quinoa until you see little white rings surrounding translucent grains, pour it into a large bowl. Add pesto, heaping tablespoons at a time, stirring and tasting the mixture until you like it (I think I added four). Add the cooked snap peas, sliced tomatoes, olive oil (until moist, but not soupy), and red onion and toss. Sprinkle with salt and ground pepper to taste.
And to round it all off, a beautiful piece of halibut:
Preheat the oven to about 300-350 degrees...my oven doesn't stay at one temperature!
Use 3/4 to 1 pound of white fish per person
Rinse it, pat it dry and place it on a piece of foil in the bottom of a pan (I use an old cake pan)
Salt and pepper the fish, place one pat of butter on each piece of fish and pop it in the oven. It took about 15 minutes in my oven. You just bake the fish until it starts looking opaque all around and when you insert a knife or fork the fish flakes nicely.
Serve the fish on a plate topped with yogurt sauce and the quinoa salad on the side. I also mixed some of the pesto with a little garlic and topped some toasted french bread with it and some Parmesan.
Really good dinner. So good to be home.
