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Crispy Pan-Seared Salmon with Rhubarb Sauce

July 15, 2013 by Erica

Crispy Pan-Seared Salmon with Rhubarb Sauce

Good morning! We’re getting a bit more of a carnivorous start to the week than you may be used to here.

Crispy Pan-Seared Salmon with Rhubarb Sauce

Yum.

P.S. Do you like my asparagus bouquet?

Crispy Pan-Seared Salmon with Rhubarb Sauce

I’ve been eating a lot of salmon recently. Actually, the truth is that even when I went vegan, I had fish a few times, mostly in sushi because I juuust couldn’t resist. I love salmon, and I especially love ordering it at restaurants, where it tends to be the healthiest thing on the menu. The vegetarian options aren’t always the healthiest when you go to, say, a French or Italian restaurant. As much as I love some gnocchi in cream sauce, I can’t pretend to choose that “for health reasons” when there is a beautiful piece of healthy fish on the menu.

Crispy Pan-Seared Salmon with Rhubarb Sauce

That’s how I came to try salmon with rhubarb sauce at the inn where our friends Bill and Aspen got married in May. The menu was small and meat-heavy, so I chose fish (although I did steal a bite of Nate’s lamb, mmmm. I love lamb!) The restaurant at the inn was so good; I would have loved to order every single thing on the menu. I think we did our share, though, ordering appetizers, main courses, and a dessert! I would show you a picture of that original salmon with rhubarb sauce… but romantic lighting, iPhone camera, and a plate of food – we all know how that story ends. I’d rather show you these photos instead.

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Chocolate Terrine with Sea Salt and Thai Basil Ice Cream

July 12, 2013 by Erica

Chocolate Terrine with Sea Salt and Thai Basil Ice Cream

It’s chocolate lovers only from here on out. This is some serious chocolate.

Chocolate Terrine with Sea Salt and Thai Basil Ice Cream

A few years ago, I had this dessert at the restaurant Ten Tables in Cambridge, MA. I was out to dinner with my mom after work, and naturally ordered the most chocolaty thing I could find on the dessert menu – chocolate terrine with sea salt and Thai basil ice cream. I thought Thai basil ice cream sounded weird and that I probably wouldn’t eat that part; I was mostly interested in the chocolate. So misguided.

The first bite blew my mind. An ultra-chocolaty flourless chocolate cake topped with crunchy sea salt and fresh, creamy basil ice cream. The combination was SO unexpectedly delicious. I was in heaven.

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Fresh Pea Soup with Mint and Herbs

July 10, 2013 by Erica

Fresh Pea Soup with Mint

On Monday, we had green stuff. Today, we have more green stuff because on Friday, we have ice cream.

I just now realized that it’s green ice cream, but shhhh. It comes with chocolate. But let’s stick to green stuff for now.

Fresh Pea Soup with Mint

So, here’s the deal with this soup: I really like peas. But I don’t eat them very often. Sometimes I eat a handful of frozen peas (the best way to eat them, especially the big chunks!) if I’m looking for something else in the freezer and get distracted. And sometimes I buy sugar snap peas at my Asian market, because they are somehow always so fresh AND so cheap there. And every time those things happen, I remember that I really like peas. But then I forget again.

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Lemony Rainbow Chard Egg White Frittata

July 8, 2013 by Erica

Lemony Rainbow Chard Egg White Frittata

Since embarking on my ice cream journey, I’m become something of an egg white master. You see, every ice cream recipes involves egg yolks, and lots of ’em, but never the whites. So it’s no surprise that I have tupperwares full of egg whites in my fridge, just waiting to be whipped up into something tasty. Breakfast burritos are my go-to egg-white-user-upper-recipe. But they don’t contain nearly enough produce when you’ve also just received your very first heaping CSA box!

Lemony Rainbow Chard Egg White Frittata

This past week was my first CSA delivery of the summer. I’ve never tried out a CSA before, so I was super excited to receive all this gorgeous fresh produce straight from a local farmer. In addition to the above picture, I also signed up for a box of berries every week (blackberries this week, mmmmmm) and a dozen eggs every other week.

As excited as I was for all these goodies, I was also slightly intimidated. What do you do with turnips? What do spring onions taste like? (Answer: really strong green onions!) How long is this chard going to last in the fridge? Should I eat these beet greens or toss them? And how am I going to eat all this stuff on my own while Nate is in Peru for the next week?

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Red Beet and White Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

July 5, 2013 by Erica

Beet lovers, this one’s for you.

I would not necessarily consider myself a lover of beets. I adore beets in the right time and place (and have a slew of beet recipes on this site), but I also occasionally think they taste like dirt. Needless to say, I was a little wary of trying a beet ice cream. But once the idea suggested itself, I was too intrigued not to go through with it.

As I researched beet ice cream recipes, I found that the road was paved with mixed reactions: all the way from “rude essence of beet” to “damn tasty!” I decided to follow the recipe that was declared “damn tasty,” and was quite pleased with the results. It tasted nothing like dirt, and miraculously, seemed to be exactly the right time and place for beets.

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