Summer Lovin

We have been working a few new recipes these days so I think it is time to put up another blog post so that I can have them as part of my online collection!  The photographers of the beautiful food have been given their kudos in the corresponding captions.  I'll kick it off with the Lemon-Garlic Shrimp Skewers we made for dinner tonight.  These were delicious and a great way to broaden your shrimp horizons...that is, if you are like me and have never grilled them before!

Michael Weschler

Next we have Cheddar Turkey Burgers with Mashed Avocado.  MAN these were delicious.  Flick and I are not generally huge fans of turkey burgers since they have such a narrow "perfect" window when they are not too dry.  These are kept moist with some grated red onion and cheddar cheese.  These will completely change your point of view on non-beef burgers, give them a chance.

Marcus Nilsson

Catfish always seems to end up with a cornmeal coating in our family - and the catfish meal we had a week or so ago is no exception.  What makes it really awesome is the Quinoa Saute that we served on the side.  This is a perfect summer side and loads you up with good-for-you quinoa and a decent serving of veggies.

The next two recipes are nods to some of the great food we have acquired from friends who have done some hunting/fishing over the fall and winter months.  Our friends up in Steamboat provided us with some amazing ground elk and elk tenderloins.  We incorporated the ground elk into our Shepard's Pie awhile back, but had been saving the tenderloins.  We finally got to cooking them and did a really simple crock pot recipe that you could easily use for a beef tenderloin if game isn't your thing.  They came out very flavorful and not tough at all - and elk is a very lean cut of meat!

The last recipe is a glaze for salmon that we have been using just about every other week on the Alaskan-caught salmon filets we were fortunate enough to receive from one of Flick's colleagues.  Neither of us are huge salmon eaters, so when we came across this recipe we decided it was the best way to prepare this amazing fish so that we could thoroughly enjoy eating it.  Happy summertime cooking everyone!

Back in the saddle again

Let's see if I still remember how to do this...

I feel a little sheepish that I just went off the radar without so much as a 'catch you all in a few months, I'm taking a break'.  Part of the reason for that was because I didn't know I was taking a break, it just kind of happened!  As much as I have enjoyed all this food blogging, since my 'real' job requires me to park myself in front of a computer for most hours of the day, it can be a bit of a struggle to continue that practice once I get home at night.  So I took a hiatus and have been enjoying the fruits of my labor.  I love having all my recipes on here! It makes meal planning SO much easier for me and we all benefit from me being happy, right? :).

That being said, we have had some new meals that I am anxious to share.  I am veering away from the 5 meals a week format and will just push out a few new recipes here and there as we try something and decide to make it part of our regular rotation.  Sound good? Great, let's roll:

I am really trying to up the vegetable count in our house.  Ellie is a bit more picky now that she realizes she has choices in life, so we are doing a bit more with vegetables to try and entice her to eat them.  Sometimes it is as simple as letting her eat them off of one of our plates (since that is so much cooler) but occasionally we need to sass them up a bit to tempt her discerning palate.  That was the plan with Sweet Potato and Brie Flatbread, but it didn't really work out. I figured we were going to knock it out of the park: cheese, bread, and sweet potatoes...yum! Well, Flick and I thought so but Ellie wasn't so into it. Regardless, this is a great pseudo pizza and we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Christopher Baker

Spring is in the air here in Boulder (until Tuesday that is) so we figured we would throw some steaks on the grill as a nod to the warm weather and longer days. We usually just rub them down with oil and some salt and pepper, but this time around we made Spice-Rubbed New York Strip with Avocado Lime Salsa.  I thought this was a great way to gussy up a nice steak - the rub added some flavor without overpowering the steak and avocado-on-anything is good for me so I called this recipe a winner.

Photo: Marcus Nilsson; Styling: Tiziana Agnello

There, I think that was a relatively successful jump back into things!  I don't have any of my own pictures to go along with these recipes since I just last night decided to post them (thanks Christa!) - so the pictures above are professional and all the credit goes to the photographer.  Oops, I mean, haven't my camera skills improved over the last few months?  Bravo professionals.  It's good to be back - I hope you all have a good week!