Grilled Chicken Sandwiches with Mozzarella, Tomato and Basil

Just look at that. You know you want it. I saw it on the cover of this month's Food & Wine magazing, and TOTALLY wanted it.

You can find the recipe here, but I decided to do it open face style like they had it on the cover. Ended up fork and knifing it, and it was soooo good. Who'da thunk a simple marinade of lemon, olive oil & thyme could rock so much?? All precariously perched atop some of Publix's rockin olive bread.

Poached Sockeye Salmon & Summer Vegetables

A dinner I whipped up the other night. The market had some beautiful sockeye salmon, and I just could resist getting some... its a rare treat.

I placed the salmon into a baking dish, rubbing all sides with olive oil. Covered about half-way with white wine, sprinkled with Tarragon, and one bayleaf on each fillet. Popped it in the oven at 375 for about 30 mins, or until it was done.

While it was baking, I chopped up some zucchini, red bell pepper, and onion. Sauteed the lot with some minced garlic. Seasoned with salt and pepper, and a sprig of fresh thyme.

Super yum and super easy. =) And... isnt it purty?

Sundried Tomato and Chaumes Stuffed Burgers

This was a yummy burger inspired by Amanda over at What We're Eating. She made these like a YEAR ago now, and I've just gotten around to making them. Goes to show how often I make burgers! Hers, of course, look infinitely better than mine... but... they were tasty!!


I've got about a ton of ground grass fed beef stashed away in the freezer, and decided it was about time to make use of some of it. So following Amanda's lead, I stuffed the patties with some chunks of Chaumes cheese, and sundried tomatoes. Sauteed some mushrooms with some bacon and used them as a topping.

Total, artery clogging, foodgasm.

Pork Pies

Dave loves pork pies. A traditional English meat pie, served cold. The idea seemed strange and a bit ew to eat a meat pie cold... especially pork.... I'm not sure why exactly. I had never seen, or even heard of one until last year when we went to visit his mum in the UK. The photo below is of my first pork pie during that visit (upper center), along with some other British specialties... some I've had, some I hadn't.



That was the first and last time I'd had pork pie. But every now and then Dave wishes aloud that he could find them here in the U.S.

But as luck would have it, we found this totally kick ass cook book called "Pie" Typically, here in the US... anything labeled "pie" is going to be of the sweet variety. But curiosity got the better of us, so we picked it up and flipped through a couple of pages. How glad we were that we did when we realized this was a VERY British Pie cookbook.

Needless to say, we bought it, and first order was Pork Pies. And I realized pretty quickly that I'd picked a more complicated recipe from the book. A jelly needed to be made from pigs feet, I worred at first I wouldnt be able to find them in our white bread markets, but thankfully the butcher at ours said he could order some, I'd just have to wait a few days.

Another complication, was that the dough had to be "hand raised" or hand formed, and held in position by parchment and string. I dont have any springform pans (though they have now made their way onto my wish list).. and I wanted to do this the traditional way anyway!



Many steps of making this included, making the jelly... making the filling... making the dough, which has to be formed while its still warm, otherwise it is unmanagable when cool. A hole is poked in the top, then baked. After it cools, only then is the jelly poured into the hole, to fill the spaces created when the meat shrinks during cooking. This is why, I learned, pork pies are eaten cold.... jelly turns to liquid when warmed... so when you eat it cool, you are treated to these beautiful little clumps of jelly scattered around and throughout the meat filling.

Dave has made a pork pie lover out of me. =)