Hello to all my long lost fellow cyber chefs.  I apologize for the very long absence from the blog, but unfortunately my struggle with my migraine headaches took much longer (a full two years fighting) than I had anticipated.  Luckily, thanks to what my husband and I refer to as my “miracle drug,” I am just now starting to put my life back together, and part of that includes picking the blog up again.  So thank you to my loyal readers who have stuck with me, and welcome to those of you who have signed on during my silence.  Hopefully you will all enjoy the new posts to come.

And I hope you especially enjoy this particular dish – I think I have chosen a good one to start with.  This recipe comes from the most recent issue of Bon Appetit – from their “Fast, Easy, Fresh” section.  For those of you not familiar with the magazine, every month they designate a couple of pages to “every day” recipes that you can prepare quickly that are relatively healthy.  This section is what I consider to be the unsung hero of the magazine.  The flashy cover stories, the big photo spreads and the recipes featuring exotic ingredients are fun, but some of my best go-to meals have come from “Fast, Easy, Fresh.”  So if you are a BA reader, don’t skip over this section next time (as I admit, I used to do).  Instead, give the recipes a close read and see that several of them are very enticing, especially when they are offering exactly what the category promises – meals that are “Fast, Easy, Fresh.” (more…)

I hadn’t made this dish in years, until just the other night.  Having my left over dill from the Veal Paprika, I was determined not to let it go to waste (as so often my bunches of dill do).  I remember liking the recipe very much, but for some reason, it fell out of my regular repertoire years ago.  What a shame that was!  I forgot how wonderfully light and flavorful this dish is (and healthy and quick too!).  The salmon is grilled with a simple seasoning of salt, pepper, and lots of fresh dill.  The fish is then beautifully presented over “pickled” cucumbers, which marinate while the salmon is cooking.  All in all, this could easily be a 15 minute meal.   With a short ingredient list, easy preparation, a low calorie count, and refined taste, this meal is certainly a winner.  I vow to keep it in the rotation from now on.

Recipe: Dill Encrusted Salmon with Pickled Cucumbers

Have left-over dill?  Try:

Recipe: Veal Paprika

I would have to say that this was my first “signature dish.”  And it all came about with an elementary school raffle…

Years ago, my mother won a “Father’s Day Grill Basket” in a school fund-raising raffle.  At the time we neither owned a grill, or had a father that was at all interested in grilling, but nonetheless, we were now the proud owners of a grill basket.  A normal person would have given the basket away to a family with use for all the utensils, cook books, and funny grilling apron, but no – not my mother.  Instead, she marched herself to Home Depot and bought my father a grill for Father’s day.  Clearly this was the logical way to go about making sure this basket of goodies was put to good use.  So Father’s day rolled around and my father was presented with not only a new grill, but a whole basket of grill paraphernalia.   I have mentioned before that my mother was never all that interested in cooking but I promise you that my father was even less so.   And so from that day on, the grill became my new toy that benefited not only my dad, but my entire family.  (more…)