Salmon Filets with Lemon, Stone Ground Mustard & Dill, Pan Roasted Garlic & Lemon Green Beans & Cold Mediterranean Orzo Salad

My inspiration for this meal comes from the unusually warm weather we've been having and the uncanny amount of candy I've been eating. I was in the mood for something extremely light and healthy to balance out the 50 mini twixs I stuffed my face with earlier in the day.


 I researched some Salmon recipes and made this one up - combining my favorite things from each. The cold Mediterranean Orzo salad's inspiration came from this Greek Panzanella Salad I make a lot. I wanted the same flavors but slightly different texture so this is what I came up with. The string beans I pan roasted with Garlic, Lemon and Olive oil. This is my favorite combo for any vegetable, it turns them instantly into nature's candy. 


Mediterranean Orzo Salad


1 lb box or orzo 
2 small cucumbers
4 medium tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic - crushed
1/2 cup of kalamata olives
1/2 cup of red wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup roasted red peppers
Juice of 1 whole lemon 
1/2 cup mozzarella or feta cheese - I used Mozzarella because that's what I had on hand. 


Since the Mediterranean Orzo Salad is served cold start making that first. Put a Pot of salted water on and bring it to a boil. While waiting for the water to come to a boil. Wash and cut all the vegetables into 1 inch bite size pieces. Cook the orzo according to the directions on the box. Once cooked to your desired tenderness drain and rinse the pasta with cold water. Once drained, throw everything into the bowl mix well and place in refrigerator for at least an hour.  ( I forgot to take a picture of everything together hanging out in the fridge! Opps!)

After the Orzo Salad is assembled move onto the String Beans.


Pan roasted garlic, lemon String Beans


A Big Bundle of String Beans - depends on how many people your feeding
Juice from 2 whole Lemons
4 gloves of garlic crushed


 Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wash and snap the ends off of each bean. Place the beans on a roasting pan and drizzle with lemon juice, olive oil and crushed garlic. Roast in oven for 1o to 15 minutes. I like to roast the lemons I squeezed and when they come out of the oven squeeze any remaining juices onto the beans. Shut the oven off and leave in the oven until ready to serve. 

Even the beans when they are cold are amazing! You could even combine the cold beans right in with the cold Mediterranean salad. 




Salmon Filets with Lemon, Stone ground mustard & Dill
Serves 5 


5 Salmon Filets - I like wild salmon rather then farm raised
A Bundle of fresh dill
1/2 cup to a 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil
5 cloves garlic
Juice from 2 while lemons + lemon slices
4 tbsp of Stone Ground Mustard 
Salt and pepper 




Whisk the Olive oil, Lemon juice, Mustard and salt and pepper together. Marinate the Salmon for about 15 mintues in the mixture. 

Before cooking place fresh dill and lemon slices on top of each filet. Cook on the Stove top from about 15 minutes (depending on the thickness). After Salmon is cooked throughly serve immediately - I like to serve it with some stone ground mustard on the side and be sure to squeeze the lemon slices onto the salmon as well. 

Bon Appetit! 

Vanilla Chai Tea Latte Cupcakes with Cinnamon Nutmeg Cream Cheese Frosting

Fall is in full swing and what better way to enjoy the fall flavors then a Vanilla Chai Tea Cupcake?? 

Over the weekend Garlic Goddess had a birthday party to attend. It was one of my good friends shin digs and I decided that the nutmegish/chai tea flavoring was the best flavor combo to go with. 

The batter is pretty easy. I used a Vanilla Chai tea mix as well as some nutmeg, cinnamon etc. 

As for the frosting well I'm in love w cream cheese frosting - so I added some cinnamon and vanilla to go with the chai in the cupcake. 

Makes 24 cupcakes 

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. cardamom
• 1 tsp. ginger
• 2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup apple sauce
• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/2 chai tea latte mix - made according to directions 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another. Carefully incorporate the dry into the wet. My batter was rather liquid-y don't fret! And I actually had enough for about 27 cupcakes. 

Before I put them in the oven!

Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes depending on your oven. Meanwhile start making the frosting. 

Frosting

16 oz low fat cream cheese 

3 tbsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp cinnamon 

2 tbsp nutmeg 

2 or 3 cups confectioners sugar 

Either using your hand mixer or my favorite, immersion blender, combine all the ingredients. 

(This cream cheese mixture would be great on a toasted cinnamon raisin bagel! yummm! Great for a fancy brunch and yet so simple- just how I like it) 

Since I was going to my friend's Birthday Party I wanted to have a bit of a fancier icing decoration - rather then just taking my spatula and smoothing the icing across. So I used a zip lock bag and cup the tip off. Worked a lot better then I had anticipated and my cupcakes looked like they came from some boutique cupcake joint.( If I do say so myself)

 I sprinkled the top of the cupcake with cinnamon and nutmeg, because well if you've ever gotten a Chai Tea Latte from Starbucks - that's what they do! 

Hope you enjoy this fall-licious cupcakes!! 

Filet Mignon with a Balsamic Red Wine Glaze, Garlic & Lemon Oven Roasted Broccoli & Cheesy Macaroni and Cheese

A lavish steak house dinner done at home. All these recipes are decadent and yet very simple to make. 

Filet Mignon is my favorite cut of steak - I love the tenderness of the meat, when cooked right it just melts in your mouth. It has less marbling from fat then other cuts of steak and subsequently doesn't have as much natural flavor. But this where you can combine the tenderness of the meat with a flavorful sauce. 

Filet Mignon 

• Lots and Lots of pepper 
• (5) 6 to 8 oz filets 
•  Oil for the pan 

I like to let the steaks sit out for about an hour to 30 minutes. If you apply heat to cold meat it shocks it and can cause it to toughen up.  Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. I start by liberally pepper the filet on both sides 1 to 2 minutes . Do a quick sear in the pan on both sides then finish off in the oven for about 4 minutes. Before you put the steak into the oven top them with a dollop of gorgonzola cheese. Once out of the oven - let the steak sit for at least 10 minutes before serving to let all the juices settle.   

Red Wine Balsamic Glaze 

• 1 cup Balsamic Vignette
• 2 Cups dry Red wine ( I used Cabernet Sauvignon)
• 3 tbsp onion powder
• 2 tbsp garlic powder 
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter 
• Salt to taste

Throw all the ingredients into a sauce pan and let it cook on medium-high heat for about 10 minutes. The sweetness of the glaze paired with the pungency of the cheese is a great taste sensation! Its almost impossible to mess it up, you could put in any variation of the ingredients and it would still be amazing.

So you could have guess a dry red wine would go best with this meal - I cooked with Cabernet Sauvignon so we drank it too. Never use those Cooking wines in the food stores - if you wouldn't drink it why would you cook with it?? 

I previously stated, Filet Mignon has such a mild flavor so it is often served with sauces. If the sauce has a stronger taste than the filet mignon, you have to consider the sauce when matching wines. In this case the sauce and wine are one in the same and this makes everything that much easier. 

Cheesy Macaroni and Cheese 

• 1 lb elbow Macaroni 
• 16 oz Shredded Sharp Yellow Cheddar
• 16 oz Shredded Gruyere 
• 1 1/2 Cups of plain Greek yogurt 
• 4 tsp Frank's Red Hot Original 

Make sure you put a pot of water on for the macaroni before you start anything. Waiting for water to boil when you have nothing else to cook is excruciating ! Hopefully by the time you put the steak in the oven it is at a roaring boil. 

Cook the macaroni according to the directions on the box. Drain the pasta then on low heat stir in the cheeses, yogurt and frank's red hot. If you do not have Frank's red hot on hand- you can use a teaspoon or 2 of cayenne pepper and maybe some smokey paprika. At that's all! its soo cheesy and sooo yummy! Keep the heat on low until you're ready to plate. 

Garlic Lemon Oven Roasted Broccoli 

• The Juice from 2 or 3 Lemons
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 4 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil            
• Bundle of Broccoli 

Cut the Broccoli into florets and place onto a baking pan. Drizzle olive oil and lemon juice onto the broccoli then the garlic. Roast in oven on 425 for about 10-15 minutes depending on your oven.    

There you have it a simple, decadent Steak House dinner - all done from the comfort of your own home. 

Fire-Roasted Tomato Bisque & Grilled Cheese

The inspiration for this meal came from the Italian Pantry Bistro and the past couple of rainy, dreary days that require nothing more then cosy sweat pants. 

Last week I had tomato bisque and grilled cheese from a restaurant in Cranford  the "Italian Pantry Bistro" - the food there is great, it has a real rustic, home cooked type atmosphere. I'm not much of a soup person but the tomato bisque there is to d i e for! They put bits of pecorino romano covered popcorn into the soup - an ingenious idea. 

Now I'm not going to lie, I have never made a tomato bisque and was quite nervous to do so. But in my opinion food is about exploring new things, maybe even encountering a few blunders along the way. That's how you become a better chef - learn from your mistakes! 

I wanted to recreate this lovely foodlious masterpiece while still putting my own spin on it. The recipe is as follows:

• 2 table spoons Olive Oil 
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion - diced
• 3 ribs of celery - diced 
• 3 carrots - diced
• minced garlic (about 4 cloves)
• 2 heaping tablespoons flour
• 6 cups low sodium chicken stock
• 2 cups white wine 
• 2 (28 ounce) cans fire roasted tomatoes
• 2 cups low fat sour cream 
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons
• salt 
• pepper
• 1/2 cup Grated Pecernio Romano 

Dice to onion, carrot and celery. Put them in the pot with the olive oil and butter, salt and pepper - let them saute for about 7 minutes then add the minced garlic. Cook the veggies for about 2 more minutes once garlic is added.

(Ladies the smell of onions sautéing is so great - if you want to trick your man get take out, but sauté some onions when you know he's coming home - he'll think you were slaving away cooking all day!!) shhh the Garlic Goddess didn't tell you that ;)

 Add the flour and stir together - let it cook for about a minute. Then deglaze the pan with the chicken stock and white wine. Following that add the tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, and salt and pepper . Cook on medium heat and bring to a boil  - about 15 minutes. 

Once everything has come to a boil shut the heat off and let everything cool down for about 5 minutes. I then take my handy dandy immersion blender and make everything smooth. ( If you're using a food processor make sure the mixture has cooled and only fill the blender half way - to avoid leaking). Once everything is blended add salt and pepper, the low fat sour cream and pecerino-romano cheese, you can use heavy cream but I prefer low- fat sour cream. Let the soup simmer for another 15 minutes more and you will have a hearty, tasty tomato bisque. 

As for the Grilled Cheese I have been making my grilled cheese a particular way for a few years now. I always, always use at least 2 cheeses and I always use spicy mustard with it. 

You need a good bread for this, I used a fresh brioche from the Breadsmith in Cranford. The cheese I choose was a sharp vermont white cheddar as well as a yellow cheddar. 

Instead of using butter for the outside of the grilled cheese I like to use a thin coat of mayo. Put the mayo on the outside of the one slice and put that little guy into the frying pan - on low heat. Then take the cheese slices and tare them in half and then into quarters. (Cheese melts better when its broken up) put the cheese on the slice of bread that is in the pan. Once that's done, the other slice of bread gets a good lathering of spicy mustard - the other side gets some mayo - smush the bread slice mustard side down onto the cheese and you know the rest ;)  

I'm pretty proud of the way this soup ended up. I hope you all will take a go at it on the next cold and dreary day!! 


It had great flavor - the pecornio- romano defiantly adds another depth of flavor. As for the grilled cheese well nothing complements a good tomato bisque more. If you want something to drink, I would pick a crisp and fruity Pinot Grigio.  


Bon Appetit - Garlic Goddess!!