how do you know you're about to have an awesome dinner?!...

... when your pre-dinner drink looks like this:

i'll give you the ingredients, but you you have to work out the proportions that work for you [read: i was so excited to make this that i didn't even bother to think about measurements! ;)]...

tropical daiquiri
rum, duh!
mango
strawberries
orange juice
mango sorbet
ice

cut the mango and strawberries ahead of time and freeze [i was trying to use as little as as possible].  in a blender, mix all of the ingredients, except the ice,in a proportion to your liking.  if necessary, add ice. [i used 3 or 4 cubes].

now for the main course...

i'm sure the salmon looks familiar... it's the tropical salmon i posted a couple of months ago.  the salad, however, is new.  truth be told, i fully intended to make the dish the same way i always do, but i was watching "Giada at home" today and all of a sudden the little lightbulb in my head went off ::DING:: :) i believe the episode was call "aloha L.A." or something like that- she was throwing a Hawaiian-themed party in her beautiful backyard.  one of the recipes were these cute little fish taco appetizers that had a mango, avocado, and arugula salad- those looked so good that i automatically started trying to figure out how could make them... without going to the grocery store... it was my lucky day- i just happened to buy an avocado, mango, and salmon yesterday! HOORAY!! :) but i didn't have any tortillas... BOOO! :(  so i decided to make the salmon the way i'd been planning on making it, and altering the sidedish to mimic hers... here's the breakdown:

mango,avocado, and spinach salad
1 mango, diced
1 avocado, diced
2 cups baby spinach
1 tomato, diced
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1.5 lemons
1- 1" piece of ginger, shaved? [what the heck is this called...use the microplaner after you're done with the lemon... it's easier to do this when the ginger is frozen! ;)]
2 tbsp olive oil
s+p

in a small bowl, mix the lemon zest and juice, the ginger, s+p.  add olive oil.  when well incorporated, add everything except the spinach [you don't want it to wilt, do you?! ;)]  mix carefully so as not to destroy the yummy avocado.  cover and chill until ready to eat.  when ready, add the spinach and lightly toss. 

enjoy! ;)

ps- i was totally planning on making dessert... but the giant drink had soooo much stuff in it- mostly good stuff, i swear- that it unfortunately counted as
my appetizer, my drink, AND my dessert... oh well...

i'll just have to make/post it tomorrow... ;)

busy sunday!

so, i've been kinda MIA lately.  so sorry... but it's ok, i think i made up for it today!  i made a breakfast pastry, Paul's Nan's biscotti, and a delicious soup...

I started out the day by making a yummy breakfast pastry filled with mixed berries...

Mixed Berry Breakfast Pastry
1 cup sliced strawberries
1/2 cup raspberries, sliced
1/2 cup blackberries, sliced
1/4 cupblueberries
2 tbsp strawberry jam [or whatever jam you have on hand]
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed and rolled out to ~12" square
egg wash
honey

preheat oven to 400.  in a bowl, mix all berries and the jam.  let stand about 10 minutes.  in the meantime, roll the thawed puff pastry on a well floured surface until it's  12" square.  move the pastry to a cookie sheet covered with a silicon mat [or parchment paper].  place the berries in the center of the pastry using a slotted spoon [so that you don't get too much liquid into the pastry.]  fold the pastry around itself.  brush with egg wash.  bake fpr about 20 minutes or until pastry begins to brown.  brush with a little honey to help the browning and sweeten the dough a bit. don't add the honey in the beginning... the dough will burn... let stand 15 before cutting.  i served it with a little of the juice that was extracted from the fruit and a big cup of coffee.

after a little tv watching and the purchase of more butter, it was on to Paul's Nan's biscotti... the third try was definitely the charm... let me preface this recipe with the fact that i hate to bake simply because I HATE TO MEASURE!!! i'm an eye-baller... and in the off chance that my "measurements" don't quite work out, that's when i start to a pinch of this and a little of that... anyway, here's what happened last night when i tried to make these... 2 rookie mistakes: 1. when i read the recipe, i read tbsp, not tsp... so i had to throw out the dry ingredients and start over.  mistake 2. i made it past the dry ingredients... but when i got to the part where i had to add the eggs to the creamed sugar and butter, i made the awful mistake of adding the first egg straight into the batter... and it was a bad egg! UGH, i know better!!!! so i called it a night and started over today.  [i saved the dry ingredients in the bowl]. 

so here's the deal with this recipe... it was Paul's beloved Nan's recipe, so you'll have to go to Paul's page to get it! while you're there, check out the rest of his stuff- he's one hell of a cook! ;) Giusto Gusto

ok, so my biscotti aren't the prettiest, but man were they good!  the whole thing with biscotti is that they're twice baked- once as a big log, then you cut them and bake them again... well, mine took a little longer to set the first time, so the cuts weren't the cleanest... oh wells, they're still DELICIOUS!  i served them with a little more of the fruit extract from this morning.  tomorrow night i'll try them with Nutella- OM NOM NOM! next time, i think i'll line the silicon mat with slivered almonds, so that they stick to the bottom of the biscotti!

after doing a few other things around the apt, it was on to dinner- a yummy asian soup recipe i found in my "Real Simple" magazine... now, you know me, i can't follow a recipe, so i'll give you all of the substitutions along the way...

Asian dumpling soup with mushrooms and edamame
2 32- oz containers of ow sodium chicken broth
1 2-in piece fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 16-oz pkg froxen pot stickers [i used chicken & veggie ones]
2 med carrots, sliced [i used 2 big handfuls of baby carrots, cut in 1/2]
4 oz shiitake or white mushrooms, sliced
2 cups frozen shelled edamame
1 bunch watercress, thick stems removed [i substituted spinach bc i had it]
zest and juice of 1 lemon [not in the the original recipe]
2 cloves of garlic, smashed [not in the the original recipe]
1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
pinch kosher salt
sliced scallions for garnish

 in a large pot, combine the broth and ginger [and the lemon zest and garlic] and bring to a boil.  add the pot stickers and the carrots and simmer until tender- about 8 minutes. 
add the mushrooms and the edamame and simmer until heated through- about 2 minutes.
stir in the watercress [i used spinach], the soy sauce, and a healthy pinch of kosher salt.  [add the lemon juice].  sprinkle with scallions before serving.

the garlic added a little punch and the lemon brightened it up a bit.  all in all it was delicious - surprisingly filling!