Pan Seared Pork Loin with Coconut-Tomato-Chile Salad

When R. and I were on a road trip last month, we stayed at her aunt’s house and enjoyed some cable television (a rare luxury!).  We happened to catch “All Star Grillfest” on the Food Network, which caught my eye since it was at my old stomping grounds on South Beach.  Since I am a huge fan of pork tenderloin, this recipe stuck in the back of my mind.  We did a little adaptation, substituting this and that, and it was still tremendous.  I just had some leftovers and I repeatedly exclaimed to myself over how delicious it is.  We had a few snags making it, but expect it will go much smoother next time, and it should only take about 30-40 minutes! We’ll definitely make this again.

 

Pesto Pizza

Not exactly a tough recipe.  Just used the leftover asparagus puree along with some zucchini, kale and mizzuna for toppings.  Tasted great, though.

 

Straw & Hay Pasta with Asparagus Puree

A while back R. picked up a vegetarian cookbook called Super Natural Cooking.  We picked this recipe out a while ago, and I think it could be a real go-to meal over the summer.  If you make the asparagus puree (which was very close to an asparagus pesto) ahead of time it would be something you could literally throw together in five minutes, and it’s really good.  I only wish we would have had the pine nuts that the recipe called for!  This could probably also be easily adapted productively.  You could add sausage, or capers,  or even sun dried tomatoes.

 

Cajun-Spice Catfish, Mixed Veggies and Rice

No recipe on this one, either.  Catfish was dusted with a cajun spice rub we had on hand (if you want to make your own it’s garlic powder, salt, paprika, onion powder, cayenne, and a little bit of cumin & black pepper) then baked at 375 for about 20 minutes.  Vegetables were potatoes, roasted red peppers and sugar snap peas steamed with a bit of oil and some oregano.  Rice was boring ol’ white rice.  Easy, but quite good.

You can tell we drastically cut back on the rub since the tilapia last time.  Far fewer tears were shed over this meal.

 

Tofu Pad Bai Gaprow!

People who know me well know of my restaurant eccentricities.  I really don’t like ordering something that somebody else at the table has already ordered.  So whenever I go out to a Thai restaurant, that essentially means that Pad Thai is right out (since inevitably someone else always orders it).  As a result, I’ve had quite a variety of Thai dishes I probably wouldn’t have tried anyway.  Gaprow is one of my favorites, and I’ve wanted to make it on my own for a while now.  This was a surprisingly easy dish, and came out fabulously.

 

Lazy Pork Pad Thai

Not a lot of preparation for this one, but it delivers.

 

Warm Cucumber Soup with Pasta

This made an excellent lunch. Light, easy, and a great way to use up several cucumbers that were past their prime. I did make the unfortunate choice to use soup pasta that happens to be shaped exactly like cucumber seeds, and so it was easy to perceive all the pasta as seeds.  But that’s easily fixed for next time.  I’d say this is yet another winner from the great soup-only cookbook.

 

Asparagus Pesto

I love pesto.  I mean *seriously* love it.  I love pestos of all kinds.  One of the best things about pestos during summer is that you don’t even need to warm them and heat up the kitchen.  Just blend the raw ingredients and serve at room temperature over recently drained pasta.  We made a delicious asparagus pesto a few nights ago.

 

Chicken with Garlic Scapes & Capers, Oven-Roasted Potatoes

Here’s something about me: I love garlic scapes and capers. I mean, I really love them by themselves, let alone in delicious concert. And, if this blog is any indication, I enjoy cooking quite a bit. But we were really close to just ordering a pizza today. But we resisted the temptation and wound up making a lovely, well-balanced meal, with a salad with lettuce, chard, shallot greens, carrots, and (yes!) a handful of capers. We adapted a chicken recipe from Edible Chesapeake (here) and half-adapted the potato recipe from one of our favorite sites, Cooking for Engineers (here)

 

Ginger Pork & Squash Stir-Fry (not as bad as it looks!)

We have a lot of leftover ginger from the Christmas Ginger Cakes that we made this week.  That, along with the squash we’ve had sitting around since our Farm Share ended, needed to get used before we both left for our holiday travels.  Although this dish looks kind of revolting, it tastes pretty great, and is super-easy!