Recipe tip: Coconut-curry mussels and Thai summer slaw

Mussels. So cheap. So easy to make. Here's the latest recipe we've been dishing up during my maternity leave. While it is, of course, from Everyday Food, we tried out a Cooking Light slaw recipe that we'd had for years but never used. See, before Everyday Food came to rule our house we took a lot of advice from Cooking Light. Maybe it's time to re-up that subscription.

You can find the coconut-curry mussels recipe over on Martha's site.

I recommend serving it up with a flaky fresh bread (to sop up all the coconutty goodness) and this Thai summer slaw recipe from Cooking Light.

Recipe tip: Smashed salt 'n vinegar potatoes

Soon after Natalie was born, when the weather was still cold, I wasn't leaving the house too much, and the dinner donations from friends had stopped coming in, I started flipping back through our recipe notebook, searching for fun new recipes to try. Though I will periodically add new recipes to the notebook, it can take a couple years before we actually test one out. I decided that if we were going to cook most of our own meals these days, both as a reflection of trying to save money and because going out to dinner is increasingly challenging with an infant's early bedtime, we better spice things up.

Enter this salt 'n vinegar potato recipe (of course from Everyday Food -- contain your disbelief). It's like a healthier version of one of my favorite horrible-for-you snacks, salt 'n vinegar potato chips (specifically the Utz variety), and it's not very difficult to make either. This is particularly important because with Natalie going to bed by about 7 p.m. we find ourselves starting the dinner preparation process then, leading to a much later dinner time than we used to observe.

This dish is pretty to boot, served up last night with asparagus and spice-rubbed grilled salmon.

Mmmmm....malt vinegar. Mmmmm....sea salt. Visit Martha Stewart's site for the recipe.

Recipe tip: Roasted eggplant with tomato and mint

Eggplant. It's one of those vegetables I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole when I was a kid but I've come to fully embrace as an adult. We've basically been cooking it one way for years, though, so I wanted to try something new. Here's a new recipe we tried out last week that caught my attention because it combines many of my favorite flavors: feta, capers, onion, and mint. That last ingredient is key. Mint is something I love in mojitos but often forget that it's such a fun addition to legitimate dinner dishes.

This recipe, like so many others we use, comes to us courtesy of the Everyday Food fairy.

In all honesty -- and if you know me this is no surprise -- Matt was in charge of making this delicious side, so I have no insights to share on the cooking process, but I thought I would send you along to Martha's site for this fantastically simple recipe. If we have you over for dinner in the future you may find this is part of the meal. And with Natalie's increasingly early bed times, entertaining guests in our home after the baby is asleep may become a primary fixture of our social lives.

Recipe tip: Asparagus, goat cheese and lemon pasta

When you live in the world of "any minute there could be a baby!" you really change your grocery shopping list. We've been taking a one-day-at-a-time approach to meal planning for a while now, and in the process I've been looking for recipes that are non-spoilage-friendly lest this baby actually decide to enter the world when we have a few items stocked in our fridge.

That's why I was really pleased to see this asparagus, goat cheese and lemon pasta recipe linked to through Kate's latest recipe post on Elefantitas Alegres. For what it's worth, she got this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Follow the Smitten Kitchen link for the complete details. So, this is like a repost of a repost. But at least it's worth it.

I chose this recipe for Monday night's dinner because of its ingredients. I love goat cheese, lemon and asparagus, though lately roasted asparagus by itself -- the way we've been eating it for years -- has felt a bit boring. Drenching it in goat cheese and lemon and surrounding it in whole-wheat pasta is the way to go.

Besides using whole-wheat pasta, which is the only type we eat, we made a couple other simple adjustments to the Smitten Kitchen way of doing things. Because our grocery store was out of fresh tarragon and I didn't want to buy a $5 jar of an herb we hardly ever use, I opted for a pre-herbed goat cheese to add some flavor. Like Kate, we roasted the asparagus, since that's how we like it. Also like Kate, I planned to add some cherry tomatoes to the dish, but at the last minute forgot to remind Matt to add it in (and didn't want to chop up anything else while we prepared to watch Downton Abbey).

I have a feeling this recipe is going to follow us into the early-infant-care-days as well.

Recipe tip: Pumpkin Chocolate Whoopie Pies

As the Everyday Food fairy continues to grace us with our complimentary subscription, I figured it was time to start trying some new recipes. Specifically, we wanted to take a new dessert to our friends' house this weekend for dinner, so I opted for these very fall treats: Pumpkin Chocolate Whoopie Pies.

At first I was worried they sounded complicated, as it involves making both the cookies and the chocolate frosting from scratch. But if you're looking for a medium-difficulty dessert -- somewhere between whipping up a batch of brownies from a mix and making an apple pie from scratch -- these are the way to go. And just about everyone seems to love anything involving pumpkin puree, even though somewhat shockingly this was the first time I'd ever opened a can of pumpkin puree.

The great thing about these whoopie pies is that they're really two desserts in one, so if you decide not to go the whoopie pie route, you can still have some killer pumpkin cookies.

Another observation: I followed the recipe to a T, and I wound up with twice as much chocolate frosting as I needed, so next time I would make half as much. I'll give you the complete recipe, though, so you can make the call on how much frosting you'd like. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Whoopie Pies
(makes 10 whoopie pies)

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup pumpkin pie puree
1 cup light-brown sugar
1/3 cup unsalted melted butter, plus 1/4 cup at room temperature
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 3/4 cup powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, pumpkin pie puree, brown sugar, melted butter and 1/4 cup cream. Add flour mixture to egg mixture and whisk until combined.

2. Drop dough in 2-tablespoon mounds, 1 inch apart, onto two parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake for 14 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cool completely before frosting.

3. Using an electric mixer, beat room temperature butter, 1/2 cup cream, cocoa powder and powdered sugar on medium-high until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Spread filling on flat side of cookies and sandwich together.

Recipe tip: Spicy Coconut Shrimp with Mango-Basil Salsa

It's been a while since I shared a favorite recipe, probably because for a decent portion of the spring I was dealing with severe food aversions and not eating normal-people food, and our summer travel schedule got in the way of having many home-cooked meals more recently. But, after entertaining our neighbors Paul and Mimi last night, Matt and I remembered how much we love this recipe from the Food Network Favorites book.

This recipe calls for most of my favorite flavors: lime, basil, coconut milk, ginger, mango, garlic, jalapenos. (I also hope Baby Awesomerod will remember these awesome flavors from his/her time in utero, much like this NPR story suggests is possible.) The recipe, therefore, also allowed us to use up more of our basil, which continues to be out of control.

Matt, as you know, is the chef of the household, so all credit for this dish goes to him. I am merely along for the ride. I can't say Matt made any major modifications to this recipe, so here is a link to Dave Lieberman's Spicy Coconut Shrimp with Mango-Basil Salsa and Lime Jasmine Rice, with the promise that this is one of our favorite recipes of all time, and it's not terribly complicated, either.

One strategy Matt employs while making this dish is breaking out our Cuisinart rice cooker, which is right up there with our favorite wedding gifts of all time (thanks, Ted!). So, when he gets to the Lime Jasmine Rice portion of the recipe, Matt puts all those ingredients in the rice cooker and lets it do its thing. It comes out perfect every time.

And here's a bonus recipe. Because Mimi is also pregnant, I thought last night would be the perfect time to test out some mocktini skills. In my recipe notebook, I'd saved three pages of drink recipes from an old issue of Everyday Food when it featured alcoholic summer drinks. I decided to adapt one called Blackberry Crush for last night's festivities. I am proud of myself for going "off recipe" with this one, since I am really good at following directions but really bad at experimenting when it comes to food. Going with the philosophy that drinks are difficult to mess up, I blazed ahead and I'm happy with the results.

Blackberry Crush
Inspired by Everyday Food

Ingredients:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
16 blackberries
4 sprigs of mint
3 lemons
1 liter seltzer water

1. Heat water and sugar together to form a simple syrup. Allow to partially cool.

2. In a (pretty) pitcher, muddle blackberries and most of the mint.

3. Add the juice of the lemons, simple syrup and bottle of seltzer water. Serve over a glass of ice and garnish with the remaining mint. Should yield 4-5 glasses. (And, if you feel it's not flavorful enough, go ahead and squeeze another lemon into the pitcher and you should be satisfied. If you're not pregnant, you should add vodka to this drink.)

New ingredient: Quinoa

Last month's Wegman's magazine (which, like Everyday Food, arrives for free at our house) encouraged me to try some quinoa, so because I am easily susceptible to persuasion by grocery stores, I decided to give it a try. (Actually, Matt did the menu planning and grocery shopping on his own this week, so I guess the real credit goes to him, though I clipped the recipe, added it to the recipe notebook, and said we should give it a try.)

Quinoa is thought to be a "superfood," and that's a good enough reason for me to try it in a recipe, in this case Red Quinoa-Avocado Salad. I know quinoa contains a lot of protein and iron, but I didn't know much about its taste before yesterday; in fact, I didn't really know how to pronounce it until last month. Now that Matt and I have tried it, we agree that it tastes like -- nothing, really. At least not in this recipe. But maybe that's a good thing, seeing as I like all the ingredients of this salad and didn't need any other flavors mucking it up.

Red Quinoa-Avocado Salad
from Wegman's magazine
*The original recipe served 10, so Matt and I halved the ingredients so we could have some leftovers, but not too many.
1/2 box quinoa (approximately 3.5 oz.)
1/2 bag frozen, thawed corn (approximately 6 oz.)
1/2 cup freshly chopped cilantro
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/2 cup diced plum tomatoes
1 avocado, cut into small cubes
1/4 lemon juice and vinegar mixture
salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook quinoa. (In case you're new to this as we are, cooking quinoa is quite simple. As the package explains: 1) Rinse quinoa in water using a fine sieve. Bring water and quinoa package to boil in a medium saucepan; stir and reduce heat. 2) Simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes for water to absorb and grains to become tender. 3) Fluff with fork.)

2. Mix together cooked quinoa, corn, cilantro, green onions and tomatoes.

3. Fold in avocados and dressing. Season with salt and pepper.

Refreshing and good for you! Enjoy!

Everyday Food fairy

Last month we received a copy of Everyday Food magazine in the mail. You know how much I love that mag, but I had let my subscription expire many months ago. I can't remember renewing it.

So unless I was sleep walking and my over-productive mind logged on to the computer and renewed my subscription, someone else bought this for us. The question is: Was it you??? I've been asking around and can't figure it out.

Fess up, Everyday Food fairy! And, thank you! Now I have a number of new recipes to add to the recipe notebook, which has been hungry for some new dishes.

Easy phyllo/fillo entertaining

Last night I hosted book club, and as host it's typical to make some extra food even though we still handle our book club food assortments pot-luck style. Also, last month I brought a pathetic block of brie with me as my book club contribution, so I really needed to redeem myself.

I made cookies, my favorite blue cheese dip with veggies and chips; I heated up some Trader Joe's lemongrass chicken spring rolls; and I arranged some chicken salad in phyllo dough cups. Emphasis on arranging here. I neither made the chicken salad nor the phyllo cups. I hadn't used this strategy in a while, and I thought I'd share it with you if you're looking for a fast way to prepare some finger foods.

I discovered these wonderful frozen phyllo/fillo dough cups about four years ago thanks to my cousin Melissa. She served them filled with chicken salad at her daughter's first birthday party, and they were such a hit that I knew I'd stumbled upon a savvy entertaining idea.

Each box comes with 15 shells, and at a few dollars a pop they make an affordable way to simplify your entertaining prep work. The instructions say to keep the shells frozen and then defrost before serving -- but these shells as so thin that just a few minutes is all you need.

Have you used these phyllo shells before? Have you used any other easy techniques for preparing appetizers lately?

Recipe tip: Shrimp with white beans and bacon

In the spirit of healthy weeknight eating, I thought I would share with you our attempt at making up for the starch-heavy Thanksgiving Round 1 and Round 2 we observed over the weekend.

As is the case with many of our recipes, we cannot take credit for this genius combination, but we did make a couple modifications, some of which involve making the recipe easier. The original recipe in Men's Health called for seared scallops, but because I'm not much of a scallop eater, we substituted in shrimp instead. Additionally, as often as possible, we try to use dried beans as opposed to canned beans to cut down on sodium and BPA, but tonight's meal included canned beans because apparently everyone cooked dried white beans as part of their Thanksgiving meals, or something, so the store was out.

Matt further simplified the recipe by turning a two-pan recipe into a one-pan recipe that makes for easy weeknight clean up.

Shrimp with white beans and bacon
Slightly adapted from Men's Health

2 strips bacon, cut into small pieces
1/2 red onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
A couple shakes of crushed red pepper
14 ounces white beans (1 can or equivalent of dried beans)
4 cups baby spinach
1 lb. shrimp
Salt and pepper
Juice of one lemon

1. Cook bacon in saute pan.

2. Pour off half of bacon fat and add onion and garlic to saute until onion is translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Add a couple shakes of crushed red pepper.

3. Add white beans and spinach; cook until beans are warm and spinach is wilted, about 2 minutes.

4. Add shrimp and cook shrimp a couple minutes until they turn pink. Season with lemon juice and salt and pepper.

Eat this while crying during the conclusion of Toy Story 3. Youth is, indeed, fleeting.

Thank goodness for Thanksgiving

Of course I love the opportunity Thanksgiving affords us to catch up with friends and family, and I'm looking forward to all the social events scheduled over the next few days. But this year, what I'm perhaps just as thankful for is the opportunity to catch up on sleep.

Ever since taking a bus load of students to Kansas City, I've been exhausted. I guess midnight curfew checks will do that to you when you're used to being in bed around 9 p.m. Then add to that all the work I fell behind on while away plus newspaper deadline week, and you can imagine I've been craving some sleep.

So, I'm thankful that yesterday afternoon work ended early, and I could take a two-hour nap when I got home. And I'm thankful for the fact that after I fell asleep last night in the middle of Toy Story 3 I got 10 hours of sleep.

As for our actual Thanksgiving day plans, this afternoon and evening will be a laid-back affair with Matt's parents and Matt's brother and his wife. No one has to travel now that everyone lives in the same 15-mile radius. Lovely. And thanks to my friend Lindsay, I now have a new recipe to try out as an appetizer -- the Miraculous Blue Cheese Ball with Walnuts that she brought to our November book club. It truly was a book club miracle, and you know how much I love blue cheese.

Have a happy and restful day, wherever you may be!

Recipe tip: Basil garlic sauce

As the true fall weather makes its way into town, it's time to start using up the herbs that have survived a couple seasons productively growing themselves in my herb garden. I'm happy to report this year's herb garden was a major success, and we are managing to use up much of our herb supply before it starts dying. Basil in particular has flourished, so lately we've been making a lot of this basil garlic sauce.

Here's one of our six still-thriving basil plants

This recipe involves some of our favorite ingredients: oranges, ginger, CRP (that's crushed red pepper, for those of you unacquainted with my hot-food-loving husband) and...fish sauce?! Yes, we actually really like fish sauce as an ingredient, though clearly not as a stand-alone item.

We also like this recipe because it makes use of a food processor. When you're done, it is a little more to clean up, but throwing all your ingredients in there really makes food prep easier.

This basil garlic sauce would be great with a variety of dishes, but we find it particularly good with two of our weeknight favorites: salmon and pasta with vegetables. On the salmon, this sauce is a nice topping; in the pasta dish, this sauce is a sort of pesto.

This recipe came from (believe it or not) one of Glamour magazine's "How to do anything better guides" in the back of an issue. Enjoy!

Basil garlic sauce
Ingredients:
1/2 cup packed fresh basil leaves
1 garlic clove, crushed
orange zest (one orange)
1/2-inch piece of ginger, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup orange juice

1. In a food processor, combine all the ingredients, except for the orange juice.
2. Run food processor to chop into a paste, pausing once or twice to scrape ingredients from the sides of the container. Add orange juice until you reach your desired consistency.

Be sure not to add too much orange juice. We got a little OJ happy tonight and had a runny sauce, which isn't pretty but still tastes good.

Recipe tip: Salted toffee-chocolate squares

Book club girls, get ready. Here is the recipe I'll be sharing at our September book club. In the meantime, this is the dessert I'll also be bringing to our neighbor's house tonight. The divine salted toffee-chocolate squares, courtesy Everyday Food magazine.

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Place 13 (specific, I know) graham crackers on the sheet. Inevitably, this means breaking up your final graham cracker into quarters arranged vertically.

2. Cover the graham crackers using 1 package (8 ounces) of toffee bits (found in the baking aisle near the chocolate chips) and 1.5 cups coarsely chopped almonds. (Buy your almonds in bulk so you don't waste any!)

3. In a medium saucepan, bring 2 sticks (!) of butter and 1/2 cup of sugar to boil. Then allow to simmer and stir until mixture becomes syrupy, approximately two minutes. Immediately pour the sugary concoction over your graham crackers covered in toffee and almonds.

4. Place pan in over and bake until syrup is bubbling, almost exactly 12 minutes.

5. When your dish is ready, take it out of the oven and sprinkle on top 3/4 cup of chopped bittersweet chocolate. I prefer to chop up whole blocks of dark chocolate (which I also buy in bulk), but bittersweet chocolate chips work as well. Also sprinkle on 3/4 teaspoon of coarse salt. Wait for chocolate to melt before covering.

6. Cut into squares. I prefer to cut each graham cracker in half for an ideal portion. These treats are amazing and rich!

Happy dinner!

Friday happy hour: Tinto de verano

In honor of the ridiculous number of summer birthdays among our college friends, we'll be celebrating a little Friday happy hour pretty soon, but in the meantime I thought I would share our biggest summer discovery: tinto de verano.

If you've been reading my travel blog posts carefully, you might have noticed that I referenced this delicious beverage in almost all the Spain posts. But what is tinto de verano? Spanish summer wine. More aptly, I like to think of it as the world's easiest version of sangria.

Unlike sangria, which can involve quite a few ingredients, a decent amount of prep work and the urge to make an entire pitcher full, tinto de verano just involves three ingredients: red wine, a citrus soft drink of your choice, and ice.

Most red wines will work, though we've been partial to inexpensive red wines for this drink, our favorite being Crane Lake Cabernet Sauvignon that we can score at Wegmans for $4.99 per bottle. We've also really enjoyed a cheap zinfandel, including the Barefoot brand (I know, I was shocked too). I just recommend avoiding merlot in this drink, not because I have anything against merlot (a la Sideways style), it just doesn't mix well here.

For your citrus soft drink, I recommend Fresca. In Spain tinto de verano is often made using Fanta Limon or orange Fanta.

To prepare: Fill a glass approximately 2/3 full of ice. Fill 1/2 to 2/3 of the glass with red wine, depending on how saucy you're feeling. Fill the rest of the glass with your citrus soft drink of choice.

Happy Friday, and happy birthday to all my August birthday buddies!

Recipe tip: Grilled pizza

I know I've been doing a lot of recipe posts lately. It's because, with summer, Matt and I have greater chances of cooking at home frequently, plus we're trying to account for the fact that we're going to eat at restaurants in Italy and Spain for three weeks. So, we're saving money by cooking almost everything at home.

When we moved into our house three and a half years ago, Matt was thrilled to get a grill. We got a reliable Weber propane grill from Craigslist for $100, and we couldn't be happier. Not only do we grill fish, chicken, veggies, and the occasional burgers and dogs, but for the past couple of years we've been grilling pizza regularly.

Our friends are usually impressed with the finished pizza product, so I figured it was finally time to reveal a step-by-step grilled pizza how-to so that you can try your hand at some grilled pizza this summer.

Disclaimer: Making grilled pizza from scratch (aka making your own dough) does require some advanced planning, but it's something you can easily accomplish if you get home from work two hours before you want to eat OR you make the dough the night before.

Making the dough
Matt is our resident dough expert, so I had him walk me through the process the other night when we enjoyed our latest installment of grilled pizza.

Step 1: Mix the yeast with water. Let sit according to package instructions.

Step 2: In a large bowl, mix 1 cup flour, 1-2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt.

Step 3: Add yeast mixture to dry mixture. Mix together. Mixture will be wet. Continue to add flour one half cup at a time until dough has enough flour that it no longer sticks to the edges of the bowl. This means the final dough batter will have between 2 and 3 cups of flour.

Step 4: Spread about 1/4 cup of flour on a baking mat. Transfer the dough to the mat.

 Step 5: Begin kneading the dough. Rotate the dough ball as you knead. Add additional flour to prevent sticking as needed. This process takes approximately 5 minutes.

Step 6: Turn the pancake-shaped dough into a ball. Return the ball of dough to the original mixing bowl (after it has been rinsed out). Add 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil on top of the dough and make some you use the ball of dough to coat the bowl in olive oil. (You do this because the dough is going to rise soon, and you don't want it to stick to the edges of the bowl.)

Step 7: Cover the bowl with a dish towel and place the dough in a dark, cool place. We place our dough in the microwave and allow it to rise for at least one hour. The dough will double in size.

Step 8: Punch dough down and let is rise again for at least 10 minutes.


Step 9: Remove your finished dough ball from the bowl, and roll it out into two medium-large pizza pies. (We like our crust thin. When rolled out, each pie takes up most of a cookie sheet.)
Look how much I've grown!

When you're ready to make the pizza on the grill, heat the grill to as hot as it will go (which is between 500-600 degrees for our grill). We have a pizza stone that we keep inside the grill while it's heating up.

On the side of the grill without the pizza stone, place the dough directly on the grates for approximately one minute. (You will know it's ready when the side of the dough not touching the grill begins bubbling.)

Flip the dough, place the dough on the stone, then add the sauce and toppings.

Cover the grill for between 2 and 5 minutes, depending on how thick the dough is and how hot the grill is.

The other night our toppings of choice were cured, pitted olives, prosciutto, tomatoes, mozzarella, and then basil and thyme from our herb garden (but don't add fresh herbs until you're done cooking on the grill).

I have to say that for some reason I liked this pizza more than any other pizza we've made, and we've made a lot of pizza. I think the crust this time was especially crispy, and the toppings were right up my alley.

Recipe tip: Gazpacho

I never liked tomatoes as a child (kind of like how I never liked Brussels sprouts). Then I remember a time at the end of junior year of high school when my friend Sam made me some killer gazpacho, and I was hooked. Then Sam served gazpacho in shot glasses as a passed appetizer at her wedding, and I totally copied her a year later and did the same thing.
 
Got some tomatoes? Try some gazpacho!

So, last week when we had an end-of-year work party and my section of the alphabet was assigned to bring a lunch dish, I opted to beat the heat with this chilled tomato soup. I made so much that I thought I would have plenty for leftovers, but I went home with about half a serving left. I guess it's pretty good!

Turns out this is also the recipe I was looking for when my friend Lindsay asked me for the gazpacho recipe I made for her wedding shower last summer. Sorry, Lindsay, here's the real recipe after all.

Gazpacho
Adapted from the Wegmans menu magazine

1 cucumber, peeled
1 red pepper, ribs and seeds removed
1/2 onion
5 cloves garlic
46 oz vegetable juice -- I used a little less juice and added one more tomato I had already
3 (or 4) tomatoes
1/4-1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4-1/2 cup olive oil
juice of one lime
1 jalapeno pepper, ribs and seeds removed
1/2 cup cilantro
1 tsp kosher salt

1. Chop up the veggies (cucumber, red pepper, onion, garlic, tomatoes, jalapeno, cilantro) enough so they can easily fit in a food processor.

2. Add all veggies to food processor. Pulse until veggies look a little thicker than salsa. (I had to put in half the veggies at a time to accommodate my food processor.)

3. Add the blended veggies to a large bowl. Stir in vegetable juice, lime juice, olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt.

4. Chill gazpacho for at least two hours. Serve cold.

If you do not have a food processor, don't worry! I've also made this recipe in a blender. Technically, the recipe calls for the use of a hand-held blender, but we don't have one of those, and frankly I find a food processor or regular blender a lot easier anyway.

When I first tasted the finished product, before the gazpacho had time to chill, I worried that it was way too garlicky (and I love garlic). But as the gazpacho chilled, the garlic also chilled out, and the gazpacho was outstanding! Enjoy with a margarita or a mojito on your deck on a hot summer night.

Recipe tip: Brussels sprouts

One day about six months ago, as I was walking through the Wegmans produce section, I stumbled across the Brussels sprouts and thought to myself, "Hmmm, Brussels sprouts, that's something I never ate as a child." For what it's worth, I never had Brussels sprouts sent in my direction when I was a kid, so it's not something I flatly refused to eat like, say, broccoli -- something I still (mostly) hate.

I have to say: I love Brussels sprouts. The roasted variety, especially.

Here's what you do, on a weeknight when you don't feel like putting too much effort into cooking:

Roasted Brussels sprouts
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss Brussels sprouts with olive oil, salt and pepper.

3. While baking, every 10 minutes shake the baking sheet so that the Brussels sprouts can get evenly crispy around the edges.

4. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the sprouts have a crispy and golden-brown outer layer.

It's really the easiest thing in the world, and the crispiness of the Brussels sprouts coupled with the light saltiness of the seasoning is something delicious disguised as something healthy.

Tip 59: Simple syrup squeeze bottle

You know what I love about summer? Mojitos. You know what I hate about mojitos? Sticky simple syrup and all the work involved. Solution...

Tip 59: Make a batch of simple syrup you can store in an old-fashioned, restaurant-style squeeze bottle and store in your fridge for instant mojitos.

Aside from the simple syrup component, mojitos are actually a pretty easy-to-prepare beverage, but Matt and I noticed that the simple syrup is really what was holding us back. Who wants to boil sugar and water every time you make a mojito? (Our simple syrup is 2 cups water, 2 cups sugar.)

Oh little squeeze bottle. So humble, so efficient.

When Matt had the brilliant idea to store simple syrup in a squeeze bottle, it revolutionized our mojito experiences. Now the greatest amount of work that goes into making a mojito is muddling some mint from our garden with some limes, and the rest is cake (or club soda and rum, as the case may be).

Recipes: Everyday Food and Lindsay

One of tonight's activities included grocery shopping that we did not accomplish on Monday (our typical grocery day) or Tuesday (because we were both dead to the world). We also watched not just one but two of my absolute favorite shows -- Lost and Glee! All I need is to watch Modern Family in the same night to make it the ultimate triumvirate.

Dreamy? (and mysterious!)

Dreamy?? (also, is it weird that I love Emma's clothes? Is it too librarian of me?)

Dreamy??? (also probably my favorite episode)

Tonight also involved a new recipe: Pad Thai from our latest edition of Everyday Food. Now, if you read my good friend Lindsay's blog, you'll notice that she made this last night. This was a fairly insane coincidence, seeing as it was on our menu for tonight before I read her post, and I got a chance to read about her experience before we tried this out ourselves. She forewarned us that the recipe would not be terribly spicy, so of course that meant my husband, he-who-loves-Native-Hot foods (a nickname he picked up on his trip to Thailand), had to kick things up a notch with our various hot sauces in our house.

Oh, and, tonight we used the scallions I planted (or perhaps it's more accurate to say replanted) in our garden last month. Somehow we managed to unintentionally cook food this month that did not require scallions until now, so we haven't brought scallions into our house for a while. 

So, while Matt cooked, I filed recipes from this month's Everyday Food in our recipe notebook. Although this was not my original Thursday night dinner plan, I did make the executive decision that we'll be having the fish taco recipe from this magazine, another dish my friend Lindsay tried out before me.

I could get used to this....Lindsay, perhaps the best cook among all my friends (though she and my friend Sam may tie for that title), can just tell me what to eat each week, and I can stay just one step behind.