Lessons I learned in Ireland

Figure One. Scones are better in Ireland. So is the butter.
Figure Two. Guinness is good for you.
Figure Three. When asked the question "Would you like a bit of cream with your raspberry crumble," say yes.
Figure Four. When making a sandwich, good bread is obviously a necessity (good Irish brown bread, in this case). Also highly recommended, however, is shredded cheese instead of sliced.
Figure Five. Even if it doesn't look like much, fish and chips is truly a memorable meal when you're near the sea and have lots of salt and vinegar at your disposal.
Figure Six. If you ever find yourself in Kenmare, County Kerry, go to Mulcahy's. Order the pork.

Feast for a visiting friend

Recently, the puppy and the hubby and I played host to a dog called Snoot - Lucy's best friend from puppy-hood who tragically moved to California with his human, whom we shall call Ishmael. Ishmael came over to visit Snoot one day and I cooked a little feasty goodness for lunch. So very lovely to see this good friend and his gorgeous dog. Ishmael calls himself a Vegetarian of Convenience, so we decided to be a little inconvenient and eat fish (which he adores and which you all know is a recent project of mine).

I did a rerun of the lemon-tomato-baked chicken I posted about earlier, this time with Scrod purchased from the Court House Fish Market (about which I will be separately posting very soon). But! Before we get to the main course! The appetizer - swoon.What you see there is the end - it was so good I forgot to take a picture of the whole dish before diving into it - of a small green salad topped with some olive oil, some SERIOUSLY good Balsamico, and one plump, moist, delicious, melt-in-your-mouth, gorgeous scallop* with a little ribbon of prociutto. The salad was simple. A few mesclun and butter lettuce leaves, oil and vinegar, and that's it. The scallop was almost that simple. I wrapped the prociutto around the scallop and tossed it in a pan with a little olive oil (loose ends of the prociutto on the bottom for starters) and cooked it til it was golden brown on that side (about a minute?) and about 30 seconds on the other side (just til it started to brown). This resulted in a little crispy edge on each bite, but a creamy just-done middle. Delicious.

So, Ishmael, we enjoyed having you and Snoot visit. I hope you enjoyed the food enough to induce a repeat visit!


*Note: If you know me, you know that next to chocolate, nothing makes me go weak in the knees quite like a perfectly-cooked scallop.

Sesame Crusted Mahi-Mahi with Orange-Soy sauce

A success story from last week's creative cooking! I took two frozen mahi-mahi fillets, defrosted them and crusted them with sesame seeds (dredged in egg, rolled in sesame seeds). Then I pan fried them (canola oil) and made a little glaze-y orange-soy sauce. (garlic, juice of one valencia orange, drizzle of soy sauce, salt, pepper) Served with steamed Asparagus. Delicious!

Two Meals

One: Fish.

As you might recall. I hadn't until recently cooked fish before. I did try, though, and it worked out great! This is what I did.
I drizzled a casserole dish with olive oil, then placed a half-pound cod filet (cut into two servings) into the pan. I drizzled the fish again with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, some thyme and rosemary. Then, I chopped garlic and two roma tomatoes and sprinkled them over the top. I squeezed half a lemon over the fish and sliced the other half. I placed the slices on top of the fish and sprinkled capers over. Then I baked the fish until it was flaky. I served with steamed broccoli and buttery cous cous. Delish.

Two: Picnic.

Last weekend, my girlfriends and I descended on Northampton for our fifth college reunion. In a (feeble) effort to save money, we thought we would lunch on the grass on picnic food rather than forking out for a reunion-sponsored meal or schmancy restaurant option. Though I would be surprised if any of us actually saved money with this plan, we did indulge in one of the most delicious, nostalgic, idyllic early-summer picnics you could imagine.
On this plate:

• Satay noodles - the stuff of my dreams - from the State Street Fruit Store Deli. Oh, how I have missed these noodles.
• CRAZY delicious strawberries.
• Sunflower seed bread with cheddar and sopressata.
• Rosemary bread with brie. French Batard with smoked gouda. Bread from the Hungry Ghost Bakery.
• We also had prosecco with strawberry juice.

We all lounged on a blanket under the Big Elm Tree on Chapin Lawn and swapped stories and muppet imitations and news from our every-days. The funny thing was that even though we're five years and miles and miles away from then, it seemed like nothing more than the old every-day we had in college. Much love to all my Smithies.