Grilled Shrimp Kebobs

Nils made these grilled shrimp kebobs for Sunday dinner - he did a great job! He used wooden skewers and paired the shrimp with zucchini. He also threw on some red potatoes. Everything was delicious!!

Have you ever had grilled pineapple? It is one of the best desserts out there! We just brushed on a sauce of bourbon and brown sugar and let them cook while we ate dinner.
We enjoyed them plain this time, but it's also delicious with vanilla ice cream!

Pan-Fried Flounder with Squash Saute and Roasted Potatoes





I was in the mood for some seafood this week, and while we usually go for salmon (because we all like it and it's on sale often), the local grocery store surprised me by having flounder that looked relatively decent at a relatively low price. Plus, it was wild caught - bonus!!



I actually had very little to do with this meal, but it was so good I just had to share. Plus, I haven't been doing much cooking at all lately, what with my new job and all. Mike decided to pan-fry the flounder with panko breadcrumbs (I finally found some!) and roast some new potatoes, while Nils did the Squash Saute. That squash recipe is excellent - I like zucchini, but it had to be done right - it can NOT be slimy or squishy!! I highly recommend that you try this recipe!
On top of the fish is minced garlic and parsley - a great way to give it a little more flavor! The fish was crispy and delicious. I think Nils enjoyed dinner, because I caught him doing this with the leftovers:

Jalepeno Heaven

Mike picked some jalepenos off our plant and I was so taken by the waxy, vibrant color that I just had to take a picture. These went into the freezer until our next batch of tomatoes is ripe for some SALSA!

The Bounty for Today


My banana pepper is EXPLODING! I picked eight of them today, and there's lots more on the bush! Three of them were shared with the neighbors, three went into the freezer, and the others went into a salsa along with the tomatoes. This year is my first growing tomatoes, and I remember reading that once your tomatoes start to ripen, it's like a tidal wave. Whoever said that was right...I picked these this morning, and by evening four more were ready to be picked! But we're not complaning - just making ourselves fat on chips and salsa!

In the Garden


We're still getting some growth in the garden, depsite the full onset of summer here in sunny Florida!

My banana pepper plant continues to surprise me with how well it's doing. Clickity for biggity to see all the babies on that plant!!

Snap beans - waiting for a trellis! :)

In the background is the basil, which I've been religiously pinching off to encourage bushier growth. I swear, one day I trim it down and the next it looks exactly the same! The mint in the foreground isn't quite as fast a grower, but it's starting to spill down the sides of the pot! Time to make more Mint Ice Cream!

My Patio Princess tomatoes. I've been thrilled at thier production! They produce a fruit that's a little bigger than a cherry tomato. I got these from Burpee before I decided to grow mostly heirloom and open-pollinated seeds, but I've been so impressed with them that I planted the rest of the seed packet I had! I am also starting some Brandywine (heirloom) and Salsa tomatoes, which are specifically for making one of the very favorites foods. Mmmmm...salsa!

This morning I re-potted this orange tree into the tub you see here. I got the tub on sale, and although it's not really for growing plants, I put a layer of river rocks in the bottom for drainage and I think it will work just fine. Much cheaper than the other options I was looking at! It will make a fine home for this Page orange until it's big enough to go in the ground.

The bounty for today!



All washed up. The banana and bell peppers and the carrots will go into a stir-fry for tonight (stay tuned!) and the tomato will most likely go into Mike's mouth before I can do anything with it :) Our bounty is small this year, but hopefully next year we will have enough to really make a dent in our grocery bill and health goals!

Howie the guniea pig was more than happy to take care of the carrot tops for me. Gardening benefits us all!!

Alien from Outer Space?


Nope, it's a CARROT! From my GARDEN!!! I can't tell you how satisfying it was to pull these out of the ground. These guys were part of the "stick some seeds in the ground and see what turns out" experiment we did on the patio. They're being harvested a little late because it took me awhile to realize that, um....carrots need water. They're Little Finger carrots from Burpee, and they had a delicious spicy flavor.

This carrot sprouted under my pepper plant. The science geek in me thinks it's interesting how it turned out white due to the lack of sunlight.

Speaking of pepper plants, this is my bell pepper, almost ready for its first harvest! Oh, and that is NOT a weed you see....NOT a weed!! :)

Spring Mix Salad topped with Parmesan-Crusted Chicken and Creole Buttermilk-Black Pepper Dressing

A rather lengthy name for a delicious attempt to make up for The Meal of Sin we recently. I've made the Parmesan Crusted Chicken several times before...always a classic on salads! The Creole Buttermilk-Black Pepper Dressing is the second new recipe I've tried from the Crescent City Cooking book I got from the library.

This is my first attempt at making dressings that I've actually been pleased with, and it was even better the next day after having all night to sit in the fridge. The only thing is, I'm not sure that the final product was actually "Creole" - the only thing I can see that was Creole about it was Creole mustard - who the heck has Creole mustard lying around? I don't even know where I could get some, short of traveling 9 hours to New Orleans. So I used some stone-ground maple sugar mustard, and it was delicious.

I did use a little less mayonnaise (Miracle Whip, actually) and a little more sour cream to better suit it to our taste. I also used about half the horseradish that the recipe says is optional. The only thing I would do differently is not get lazy and actually grind the pepper myself!

Meat Loaf Wellington

Tonight I decided to make Meat Loaf Wellington for dinner. I tried the recipe back in December when I found it in a Taste of Home magazine; it uses crescent roll dough for the outside and has lean ground beef and mozzarella cheese inside. This time I made half of the recipe, and used the other half of the crescent roll dough to roll up some crescent dogs for lunch tomorrow. On the side we had a steamed vegetable mix from the freezer and a fruit salad (granny smith apples, bananas, kiwi, and blueberries from the freezer).

The verdict
I was pleased with this recipe last time, and this time it didn't disappoint me. As far as Mike is concerned, anything with meat, cheese, and bread is perfect. The fruit for the salad came from the Fresh Market (except the freezer blueberries), and I'm always amazed at how good the fruit is from there. I also love how they sell spring mix salad and spinach in bulk, so I can buy a little of each and have a variety in our salads, but not have any go to waste. This meal was also great because I was able to use up things from the freezer for our move: blueberries, vegetables, and Cool Whip. Anyhoo, I give this meal 5 out of 5 stars for taste and 3 stars for health.