My [Real] Culinary Ode to Spring

Ok. Take Two.

I harassed my husband over the weekend to make sure I had everything I needed for this post. And then yesterday morning while walking back from the gym, Steve remembered that his company randomly had the day off.  It was basically the best conversation ever:

Me: "I am NOT ready for this week to start. I feel like I need one more day."
Steve: "Yeah me too. Wait, what's the date today?"
Me: "The 15th..."
Steve: "HA! I don't have to go work today!"

We took the day off and did all of the things we wanted, and now TODAY is the beginning of the week. It's basically Monday. But not.

But as I tried to tell you last week, I have been super inspired by the warm weather and bright blooms that are taking over the city. And since our neighbor just gifted us a grill, we have become barbecuing fiends (so much for being mostly vegan right? Grilled tofu just doesn't cut it when it comes to warm weather food...sorry guys).

[INSERTED HERE: big disclaimer. Some of these photos are shitty. Especially the ones where things didn't go as planned, and things were burned and raw, and I couldn't find my good camera, and it was 10:30pm, and Steve and I were yelling at each other...you get the idea. It was iPhone magic with bad lighting, but I wanted at least something to show you guys. So no judging. K-thanks.]

First Up: The Most Sparkly Spring Lemonade Ever Made

You can find the recipe for this delicious drink here. 

This bright and spring time drink combines cucumber and dill with traditional lemonade to make something ridiculously refreshing. I changed up the recipe a little and used sparkling water instead of still because then it's one step closer to champagne. Which most drinks strive to be champagne. In fact, we agreed that this is a perfect drink for a brunch or a bridal shower, but if you're feelin' boozy, some clear alcohol (vodka or silver tequila or un-aged rum) might make this the best spring drink of all time.

Second: Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Plums

So this was the recipe that TOTALLY WENT SIDEWAYS. Like I'd mentioned, our neighbor has recently gifted us her grill, so we're still figuring out some of the quirks.

Like for example, living on the 15th floor of our building can make for some awesome wind tunnels, making it so that the grill cannot get hot enough to actually cook your dinner. And then you and your husband start bickering, and the plums get poached and not caramelized making them fall apart ALL OVER the grill and making a giant mess, the tenderloin continues to be raw and you have to send it back to the grill 4+ times, and you try not to yell at your husband for not knowing how to cook (even though until you got married the only thing he could make was cereal, so how could he magically become Bobby Flay overnight?) and dinner doesn't get on the table until 10:45pm, and by that time the meat is shoe leather, you hate each other, and no one wants to eat the damn thing anyway.

We learned those things about our grill this week.  That and apparently knowing where the hot spots are can be helpful.

So as you look at these ones, image how gorgeous this dinner would be at your house, where you don't live in a high rise, there are no wind tunnels, and you know how to use your grill:

We served this tenderloin with an apricot glaze, and along side a mixed green salad of grilled plums, grilled onion and a apricot vinaigrette:

Again, the plums ended up more poached than grilled....so imagine something prettier right here. Lol.

Finally for dessert, we snagged the last few of the grilled plums and sprinkled them with some blackberries and walnuts and then topped it off with a drizzle of both honey and a balsamic reduction sauce:

This looks so gross. I wish this looked as good as it did in my mind. Bleh.

So after we were ready to kill each other over ruined dinner, we decided the best way to move on was to get back on the grill the next night. And THANK GOD Steve is a kind person and a fast learner, because we pulled together and nailed it the next night.

Three: Honey Jalapeño Chicken with Cilantro Dressing

I am realizing that I don't actually have a picture of the cilantro sauce I put on these. And I'm so sad BECAUSE IT WAS FREAKING DELICIOUS.

For the chicken, it's a simple marinade of honey, soy sauce, olive oil, and a crap-ton of jalapeños. I think I only marinaded for 30 minutes or so, and there was still a good amount of heat. If you wanted to soak these babies for like 2 hours, you could end up with some nice lip-burnin noms. You can find the recipe for this one here.

Like I said, I served this over a cilantro-lime rice, and along side if a Cilantro Dressing.

The dressing was super simple:

- 1 c. cilantro
- 5 tbsp. white wine vinegar
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 minced jalapeño

I used a food processor to blend that up to a fine chop, and then slowly poured in about 1/2 c of oilve oil (I think the recipe called for a cup, but I don't like my sauces that oily.....that's what she said).

Serve that up with a beer, and nice dollop of sour cream (I used low fat greek yogurt), and you have a grilled, spicy, and refreshing dinner.

Nice redemption team Heffer-Brown.

Four: Shaking Beef Salad

I stole the recipe from Skinnytaste, so you can find the full description here.

Again, most of this Ode has a theme....grilled meats and fresh salads. There was something about this Vietnamese  inspired salad that made me want to reach inside my computer screen and put it in my face. So this dinner made the cut even though it was technically cooked over a grill. The steak pieces had a nice crust to them buy cooking them over high heat in a wok, so it was kinda like grilling. 

I can't eat onions without doing a quick-pickle - it has this great way of taking out the bite of the onion while allowing the flavor that onion offers to still permeate. Steve's not the biggest fan of the added acidity of the vinegar, but when I cook I make it the way I like. Lol.

In fact, it's so rare that Steve is in the kitchen, I took a picture of it just to prove that it happened. This is Steve helping to "shake the beef." hahahaa. [insert all of the inappropriate jokes in the world here].

And we're killing two nights in a row! The shaking beef was DELICIOUS, and if you follow all of the calorie cutting tips that Skinnytaste recommends, you have yourself a super healthy dinner. 

Five: Meatball and Pesto Sandwiches!

What is more spring than pesto!? Ok, that's actually a total lie. Basil is a late summer thing....so I'm out of season here. But I did make my pesto with arugula which is totally my foodie-love-affair and I honestly look forward the entire year to when arugula gets into season.

I made these meatballs with a 50/50 of beef and lamb, and then added a few goodies to make sure they would stay moist:

- 1/2 c ricotta

- 1/4 c panko bread crumbs

- 1/4 c fresh parm (grated)

- 2 tbsp red chili flakes (this was awesome, added a little heat to make some complexity in flavor)

- 2 eggs beaten

- 2 cloves garlic, minced

Mix that all together and you get these lovely suckers:

I used these great new stainless steel pans that my mom bought me a few months back. I'm still learning how to cook with them, because let's be honest, cooking on stainless steel scares the crap out of anyone. I keep telling myself "the food releases when it's done....the food releases when its done..." but it's still hard not to imagine your entire dinner burnt to the bottom of a pan.

But I think we did alright:

For the pesto, I used about 1 cup of baby arugula. I had some basil on-hand  so I threw some of that in to soften the sharpness you can sometimes get with arugula (like 1/2 c??).  Add in 1/2 cup of walnuts, 2  cloves of garlic, and some pepper, and then pulsate the crap out of it with your food processor. Again, I took about 1/2 c of olive oil and poured it into the processor while it was running to create a nice chunky pesto. If you wanted to top this sandwich with a mild cheese, like provolone, that could help add some creaminess. I found that the fat percentage was already a bit high with the lamb, so I opted to leave it out.

In the end, it was nom:

Ok, so I hope you're starving now. Starving and inspired to get out there and make some fresh spring time deliciousness!

See you tomorrow,

J