Tonight’s menu:

Stir-Fried Broccoli and Shrimp

Amaranth

Mandarin Oranges

Broiled salmon with cranberry mustard glaze
Sautéed asparagus
Butternut Squash Apple Puree (sauté onion 3-5 minutes; add cubed large butternut squash and 4 peeled and sliced apples; cook 20 minutes until soft)
Gingerbread cookies (from Vergennes Laundry, yummy!)

Roasting root vegetables is my go-to side item in the fall/winter months.  Gather up whatever combination of roots you have available (acorn squash, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, potatoes, carrots, beets, radishes, pumpkins, turnips, etc.), toss with some garlic and olive oil and roast until tender.  I often add sliced apples, halved shallots, dried sage, or a little maple syrup or dark brown sugar  to the mix and they each contribute nicely to the overall flavor.

Tonight’s menu:

Baked haddock (dip filet in a little milk and then dredged in a mixture of 3 parts breadcrumbs to 1 part Parmesan cheese; bake at 500 until flaky)

Roasted root vegetables

Steamed green beans

Sliced melon

I haven’t posted much in this category in the last few weeks, leaving some perhaps to wonder,  is Amy eating anything?  A better question to ask might be, why is Amy being so lazy, because it is in fact laziness – and not a new fad diet in which no food is consumed after 4pm – to blame for the lack of blog activity.  And the reason for this laziness, my curious and most questioning readers might next ask, is because its summertime! Woo hoo!  A time for lazy summer evenings on a deck with friends. A time for late arrivals back home after squeezing in a quick dip after a long, hot day.  A time for eschewing the computer so that there is more time to chase fireflies with the kids.

Summertime is also one of my favorite times because it is a time for fresh-picked goodness from the garden.  Many items from tonight’s dinner came from our garden or kitchen – shockingly, not the shrimp.

Tonight’s menu:

Grilled shrimp

Coconut-ginger carrots (from Mollie Katzen’s cookbook, The Vegetable Dishes I Can’t Live Without)

Baguette

Green salad with golden and red beets, snap peas, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes

Sliced fresh peaches and blueberries

Who says you can’t teach a dog – or a man – new tricks?  My carnivorous male (a.k.a. the husband) graciously offered to make dinner tonight.  So tonight, Amy’s eating whatever the husband is cooking and keeping all nutritional critiques to herself.  Surprisingly, the carnivorous male did pretty well!  I silently and surprisingly nodded my approval as I heard him muttering to himself in the kitchen,  “okay, I have these sauteed beans for a protein, the salad and roasted sweet potatoes for a vegetable…..now I just need a fruit.”  Not too shabby there, carnivorous male.

Tonight’s menu:

Sauteed black beans

Roasted sweet potatoes

Green salad

Fresh pineapple chunks and mandarin oranges

Shout out to Otter Creek Farms and the Henderson family for a surprise delivery of potatoes and onions the other day.  Cold Vermont spring day, box full o’ onions – sounds like French Onion soup time.  The kids moaned and groaned hearing that the main ingredient in the soup is going to be an onion but I found that a few strips of duct tape placed strategically across their mouths worked nicely to minimize the whining.

Tonight’s menu:

French Onion Soup

Steamed broccoli

Roasted Pork Loin

Pears

The duct tape, okay, that never made it past a beauftifully imagined scene in my head.  Turns out that turning the stereo up a few notches worked just as well. And my kids, did say the soup wasn’t as bad as they thought. Hah.

This entire meal can be cooked on the same rimmed cookie sheet.  Good night to volunteer for after-dinner dish duty!

Tonight’s menu:

Teriyaki Salmon

Roasted shiitake mushrooms

Roasted brussel sprouts

Roasted fingerling potatoes

Fruit salad of grapes and chopped pluots

To make on one pan, first toss potatoes in a little oil and start roasting at 425 degrees.  While these are cooking, combine teriyaki sauce with a little sesame oil, rice vinegar, honey, minced ginger, and minced garlic. Spread a few tablespoons of marinade over salmon and set aside. Toss brussel sprouts in oil and minced garlic. Toss sliced mushrooms in oil and minced garlic in separate bowl.

After about 15 minutes, add brussels to pan in oven and increase heat to 450. Once brussels are lightly browned, about 5 minutes later, gather brussels into a group and place salmon on top. Spread mushrooms around salmon.  Cook about 8 to 10 minutes until all is done. Drizzle remaining marinade on top and serve.

We try to support the localvore movement as much as possible but there are definitely times when Vermont’s local foods get a little tiresome. In the case of local seafood, well, Lake Champlain can only yield so much.  Tonight’s dinner was a digression from buying local but it was a delicious digression!

Chipotle Shrimp (melt a wee bit of butter in saucepan; add some scallions, a chopped up chipotle chili in adobo sauce, 1 tbsp of the adobo sauce and saute for a few minutes; add a small amount of  broth (1/2 cup) and bring to simmer; add shrimp and after shrimp are cooked, squeeze some lime juice on top and serve)

Cheddar Grits (cook grits according to directions and once done, stire in some shredded cheddar cheese)

Steamed broccoli and cauliflower

Sliced pears

Nothing fancy tonight – not much time to spare in the blur of time between getting home from work and dashing off to the kids’ evening swim team practice.  

Cheese tortellini tossed with green peas, Parmesan cheese, and sauteed garlic and cherry tomatoes

Garden salad of greens, cucumber, shaved beets, shaved carrots, and sunflower seeds

Mandarin oranges (What kid doesn’t like these by the way? Even my “I hate fruit” child will choke down their required bite without much of a gag and pained expression.)

Spinach Stuffed Shells

Green salad with bell peppers, carrots, celery, and pistachios

Clementines

Gingerbread cookie