Eating Local - Baby Greens with Fig, Blue Cheese and Walnuts + Grilled Flat Iron Steak

Tonight's dinner was another aim toward healthiness. I made the Baby Greens with Fig, Blue Cheese and Walnuts and added the Grilled Flat Iron Steak to make the salad a bit more substantial.



The beef was supposed to be marinated for 8 hours but since I didn't remember to do that before work, it ended up being marinated for 2 hours while I attended yoga class.



The salad was super easy to put together and the only change I made was to add some dijon mustard to the salad dressing. I believe dijon mustard makes any salad dressing even better.



I used dried figs since it is not fig season yet but I had to have them once I had spotted this recipe in the "Eating Local" book.

All in all, this salad was a win. It's one that I can see making again and again. Quite delicious!

Eating Local - Grilled Pork Tacos, Yucatan Style with Pickled Red Onions

It was Taco Tuesday and we always have tacos on Tuesday. Luckily Eating Local had a great Grilled Pork Tacos, Yucatan Style with Pickled Red Onions recipe on page 278.



The recipe calls for the creation of an achiote paste which requires annatto seeds. I searched high and low for those darn annatto seeds and even visited a Mexican grocery looking for them. Eventually I gave up and added some chilies in sauce to the marinate for kicks.



The tacos were spicy and tender though Scott did mention that he much preferred flour tortillas to the corn ones I served tonight. He said the flour ones don't fall apart as fast as the corn ones do and he does have a point.



The most surprising part of the meal for me was the pickled onions. Until about two years ago, I did not like onions but now, now I crave them. These pickled onions are pure crunchy delight.

Eating Local - Lamb Burgers, Garlic-Truffle Fries and a Lime Berry Tart

I recently acquired a new cookbook, "Eating Local". The photography is gorgeous and the recipes divine. I decided to take the challenge this week to prepare "Eating Local" dinners.



I started with Lamb Burgers from the book, added some Garlic Truffle fries from Steamy Kitchen and rounded off our meal with a Lime-Berry Tart from the June Bon Appetit created by Cindy Mushet. (As a side, Cindy Mushet is my baker crush. She's taught me so much about baking and if you are interested in baking, I highly suggest getting "The Art and Soul of Baking". It's more than a cookbook, it's also a great instructional guide.)



I started with the Lamb Burgers because they seemed simple and Scott loves a good burger. The burgers were extremely easy to make. They did make me wish that we had a BBQ but turned out great grilled on a cast-iron grill over the stove. I served them on Poppy Kaiser Rolls from The Essential Bakery and grilled some spring onions from the farmer's market as a topping along with the melted feta the recipe suggested. I added no other condiments or toppings. Scott commented that the burgers were perfect but thought they would be over the top perfect with some Bacon Jam from Skillet.

Burgers call for fries so when I saw Jaden's Garlic-Truffle Fries, I knew they would be the perfect accompaniment to our meal. The fries were delicious! My only complaint is how much grease was left on my stove after preparing them. If you fry food often, this is where a fry baby would really come in handy. For me though, a skillet full of hot oil was just fine. I don't have a mandolin which if you've seen my kitchen might be a bit surprising so I used my chef knife to slice the potatoes into thin strips before soaking the potatoes to wash off the starch. You fry these potato strips twice creating a nice crispy potato. The truffle salt and oil combined with the garlic and parsley make for a nice combination.



To add a bit of green to our meaty, fried meal, I made up a spinach salad. I took some spinach greens, threw in a few blueberries (left over from the Lime-Berry tart), added some pine nuts (but any nut would do), crumbled some feta cheese (from the burgers) in with the greens and lightly poured some dressing over the mix. I used my special french mustard dressing which I love making. Basically it's one part Dijon mustard, two parts olive oil, one part lemon juice and a dash of salt shaken together.



I finished our meal with a Lime-Berry Tart from the June Bon Appetit. I've never made a tart before even though I've always wanted to. I'm not sure what has kept me from tart making because it's fairly simple and so delicious!



The hardest part of this recipe was squeezing all the limes for the 3/4 cup of fresh lime juice. My fingers were beginning to pickle by the time I got my 3/4 cup of juice. The curd is dead simple to make. You just have to keep stirring so careful attention is needed so the curd does not curdle. I did make one change to the recipe, I used Duck Eggs instead of Chicken Eggs. I've heard that Duck Eggs are ideal in curd tart recipes because they make the curd recipes creamier. They were a great addition to this tart recipe.


Even Kato thought the tart looked delicious!