Ina Fridays -- Main Courses -- Israeli Couscous & Tuna Salad

   I'm going on vacation after this post. The blog is going with me.  See you late June! 

If you weren't up for a new tuna salad, this full-of-flavor high-five salad from Ina Garten's newest book BAREFOOT CONTESSA:  FOOLPROOF; RECIPES YOU CAN TRUST, might make you change your mind.  Made from a good many pantry ingredients (canned tuna, Israeli couscous, roasted tomatoes, olive oil) plus a short list of freshly-purchased ones (oil-cured olives, lemon, herbs), this meal comes together in about fifteen easy minutes.  While the couscous cooks, you're doing a bit of chopping; by the time the couscous is done, you're mixing up and serving.

Great for a hot night on the patio, you could stir this up in the morning before the heat begins--or even the night before.  Pop it in the frig and you're all set.  Leftovers are perfect for lunches.

Sesame-Shrimp Noodles with Fresh Vegetable Toppings or Lilacs in the Rain

A cool and rainy spring in Saint Paul keeps me cooking indoors.  Typically I'd be raking together a salad while Dave grilled chicken or salmon.  Instead, just back from our happy daughter Emily's graduation from seminary at Princeton, I'm slaving over a hot stove.  Well,  not really.

Here is Emily with her proud parents.  We sang in the choir! Go, Emily!

One-Pan Salmon with Whole Wheat Pasta and Vegetables--A Picture Recipe

My friend Jill says, "We're always looking for something else to do with salmon."    My friend Jim says, "Give me a side that I can make on Monday, but have enough leftover for lunch or dinner; I just want to grill a little fish or chicken each night."  As for me,  I like cooking anything in one pan, and while this isn't exactly in one pan, it could be if you use fresh pasta.  

This simple, but filling, healthy, and tasty entree fits the bill for all three of us and I hope for you, too.  Serves two with a lot of vegetables and pasta--good hot or cold-- leftover for another meal.    Adding another two salmon pieces would be no trouble and cold salmon is good salmon.  This is  meant to be the impetus for improvisation, not an exact recipe; you'll see why. Ingredients are in bold print.   Here's how in the PHOTO RECIPE:

Ina Fridays -- Sides, Soups, and Salads-- Easy Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Croutons

Since I'm writing a soup cookbook, I'm always interested in soups others make.  Not only family, friends, and neighbors, but also famous cooks like Ina Garten.  If I'm home and I've been working all day, I'm in front of the tv with my feet up at 3:00 Central Time when Ina makes one of  her appearances on Food Network's Barefoot Contessa.  While doing a little background reading for this post, I discovered this on FOOD NETWORK'S "10 Things You Didn't Know about the Barefoot Contessa":

Vietnamese Chicken Salad with Mango

Most people, when they decide to make salad, just make a salad.  A quick opening of the refrigerator door.  A glance at the counter.  A whisk and a shake of vinegar and oil.  I love almost every salad I make (surely I should be thinner) and Dave does, too.  With a couple of exceptions, I rarely repeat one, though I am crazy about fresh spinach with lime vinaigrette.  And, maybe even more, green beans and mushrooms with tarragon.  Or Caprese with bacon....  Well.

Baby Kale and Chicken Salad--10 Minutes to Dinner

 It is snowing, sleeting, and blowing in Saint Paul.  Again.  I mostly don't mind it.  As long as I don't have to drive.

When I came home from the market today, it was pouring tiny bits of frozen rain--treacherous.  I got the groceries up the slippery steps and emailed my boss I was opting out of a dinner meeting.   She agreed and canceled it.  Phew.  By then the biggest snowflakes I'd ever seen were flying like big crystal kites colliding over and over in a  shivering maelstrom.  My little warm kitchen never looked so good.

My welcoming committee.

Turkey Wild Rice-Vegetable Soup with Sherry and Walnut Garnish OR One More Snow Day in Saint Paul

It's spring in name only in Saint Paul.  Whereas many food writers and bloggers are already complaining about too many fresh pea or asparagus recipes, people here are still sniffling and shuffling around town in their by now worn-out snow boots. (Uh, there are not even pea tendrils in St. Paul because snow covers the vegetable gardens; see below.)  In fact, if you move here, you'll save a lot of money on shoes;  you only need them May - September.  Not only that,  you can write about fresh peas, rhubarb, and asparagus when folks further south are eating their first tiny tomatoes and are getting tired of grilling already.

This picture is out my front door this morning.