Turkey Sausage with White Wine and Garlic, Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Garlic and Peppers and Onions

I went shopping today to pick up a couple of items for dinner.  Somehow when I go to this store I end up spending a small chunk of change, today was no exception.  I picked up the sausages that contain white wine and garlic.  I thought this would make a nice meal for tonight's dinner.

Cooked Sausage
Preheat a cast iron skillet over medium heat with a small amount of olive oil.  (I have a glass top stove and cooking with cast iron you have to be careful because if you heat it up too fast the pan will get hot and could cause the glass to break).  Place sausages into pan and cook.  Turning often so that they will cook evenly.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Garlic
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
2 cloves of garlic, pressed
small amount of olive oil
Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place sweet potatoes into a Ziploc bag along with garlic.  Add a small amount of olive oil, just enough to coat potatoes.  Shake and knead bag to incorporate the oil onto the potatoes.  Pour potatoes onto a cookie sheet and place in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until tender.  Turning potatoes at least once.  Serve

Sauteed Peppers and Onions
1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 vidalia onion, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt
Preheat a cast iron skillet over medium heat, add olive oil.  Place peppers and onions into pan, stir.  Continue to cook until onions and peppers become soft.  This could take as long as 15 minutes.  When the onions and peppers are about soft, sprinkle a little bit of salt (the salt will help to remove some of the moisture and flavor the peppers and onions).

Serve the above meal with a small salad.

Pork Bratwurst with Vegetables

I love this time of year.  Winter is over (I hope), flowers are blossoming, trees are starting to get their leaves and the weather is just right.  No humidity in the upper 70s.  When the weather is like this I love to be outside.  Cooking dinner is no exception.  All of tonight's dinner was cooked on the grill.

I will work this so that the order I list each food that was cooked, this is the order that it goes onto the grill.

Grilled Sweet Potatoes
1 sweet potato (ours was very large so it only took one for us)
small amount of olive oil
foil
Peel and cut sweet potato into bite sized pieces.  Place the cut sweet potato onto a large piece of foil.  Drizzle with a small amount of olive oil.  Fold foil over the potatoes to create a pouch.  Seal pouch on all sides.  Place pouch onto grill that has been heated to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.  Cook for 10 minutes.  Remove pouch to upper rack for 10 minutes.  Remove foil pouch from grill by sliding it onto a serving plate.  Keep pouch shut until ready to serve.  They will continue to stay hot.

Grilled Vegetables
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 zucchini, sliced in quarters
Place a cast iron skillet onto the grill (ours is a griddle type).  Let it heat up, spray with a little but of olive oil.  Place vegetables on the griddle and cook, adjusting heat as necessary, until vegetables are soft.  Stir vegetables around so that they will cook evenly.  Remove from pan and serve.

Grilled Pork Bratwurst
1 package of pork bratwurst (from a local farm)
Place bratwurst onto a 400 degrees Fahrenheit grill and cook, turning as needed, for about 15 minutes.  Remove and serve.

Small Side Salad
Mix of lettuce
Grape tomatoes
Sliced cucumber
Mix of beans (salad mix)
Place all ingredients into a bowl and serve with a little bit of olive oil and red wine vinegar.

Ground Bison Vegetable Mix Up

Seriously did not know what to call this post.  Really all I wanted to do was to cook the bison and add a bunch of vegetables to it.  Keep it healthy.

Ground Bison Vegetable Mix Up
2 pounds ground bison
1 onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 package of button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 - 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes (no salt kind)
1 small zucchini, sliced and then each slice sliced again
1 small can of sliced black olives
Small handful of brown rice pasta (gluten free), cooked
Salt and Pepper
1 teaspoon coconut oil
Heat a coconut oil in a skillet over medium high heat.  Add onions and cook until slightly soft, add bell pepper and cook.  Add bison and chop up into small pieces as you incorporate it into the onion and pepper.  Cook until bison is no longer pink.  Add tomatoes, mushrooms and zucchini.  Stir to incorporate.  You may need to put the heat on high to help cook off some of the liquid, however be careful to not burn it.  Once the zucchini becomes soft, about 10 minutes, add black olives and pasta to incorporate.  Add some salt and pepper to taste.  Serve

Along with this dish we had a side salad packed with a mix of greens (swiss chard, spinach, arugula, and baby lettuce), tomatoes, cucumber and a few pieces of red pepper.  Add a little bit of olive oil and red wine vinegar for the dressing.

Grilled Tuna with Rice and Salad

I apologize for being away for so long.  I have not been home and in my kitchen.  Tonight was the first time in a long time we actually had a chance to sit down at the dining room table and eat dinner, which made it very relaxing.

Marinated Grilled Tuna
The following measurements are approximate
1/4 cup tamari
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon brown sugar
juice of 1 lemon
Mix all ingredients together and place into a plastic bag.  Add tuna steaks.  Let marinate for about 20 minutes.  Place tuna on a preheated 600 degree Fahrenheit grill.  Grill for 3 minutes per side.  This was a little too long as we like our tuna a little more on the rare side.  The tuna we purchased from www.seabear.com which always has the best seafood.

I bought this rice that is called Organic Volcano Rice.  It is made by Lotus Foods.  This particular rice is described as A colorful blend of prized traditional brown and red rice grown on West Java's mineral rich volcanic soil.  I can say one thing about this rice, it was really good.  I cooked the rice per the package instructions.

A side salad was served along with this meal which consisted of lettuce, tomato, carrots, green peppers with oil and vinegar for a salad dressing.

Baked Salmon with Chipotle Smoked Sea Salt

Baked Salmon with Chipotle Smoked Sea Salt

3 - 4 ounce salmon filets (we purchase ours from www.searbear.com)

Chipotle smoked sea salt (we got this really awesome mixture of salts (6 in all) when we ordered from seabear)

Fresh ground pepper

Olive Oil

Heat oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit. Place filets onto a cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Place into oven and cook for about 20 minutes.  Cook until fish gently flakes, don't overcook it.  When you go to remove the salmon from the cookie sheet use a thin metal spatula and wedge it in between the skin and the salmon.  The skin will stick to the pan.

Along with this meal was cooked fresh asparagus and a side salad (lettuce, tomato, carrot, yellow bell pepper, dried cranberries,  sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, avocado, oil and vinegar).

Roast Chicken and Vegetables

The chicken finally thawed which allowed me to cook it tonight for dinner.  Here is everything I did.

Roast Chicken
Whole Chicken, rinsed off, patted dry (This chicken came from a local farm IdleWild Farm which I purchased at my local farmers market)
1 lemon, cut in half
2 heads of garlic, cut in half
a large bunch of fresh thyme
Sea Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Bottle of Chardonnay
Arrowroot
1 cup chicken broth (I make my own so all I had to do was pull it out of the freezer)
Place chicken in a roasting pan.  Place the lemon inside the cavity along with half of the garlic, and half of the thyme.  Tuck wings under the bird (looks like you are bending them the wrong way but it will keep the tips from drying out).  Place the rest of the garlic and thyme along side the chicken. Drizzle olive oil over top of chicken and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Place chicken in a preheated 350 degree Fahrenheit oven.  Cook for 1 hour.  Add some wine and the chicken broth to the chicken, return to oven to continue to cook.  It will depend how long to cook the chicken for based on its weight.  You want the internal temperature to reach 165 degrees Fahrenheit.  I used the whole bottle of wine while the chicken was cooking.  Once in a while baste the chicken so that it will stay nice and juicy.  At some point I put the lid on my roasting pan.  Once chicken is done, remove chicken to a platter and cover with foil.  Place the roaster over the heat on the stove top to heat up.  With a slotted spoon remove the garlic and thyme.  In a small bowl add about 1 tablespoon of arrowroot with about 1 tablespoon of water (you want to create a thick paste).  With a whisk, whisk in the arrowroot mixture to the broth wine mixture.  Continue to whisk and let the mixture come to a boil.  It should be thick like a gravy.  Add salt and pepper as needed. Serve over sliced chicken.

Roasted Vegetables
1 zucchini
2 small yellow squash
Fresh rosemary sprigs
Olive oil
Slice the zucchini and squash in half, in half again and then slice in to chunks.  Place both into a ziploc bag along with fresh rosemary, add some olive oil (enough to coat the vegetables).  Dump out the contents of the bag onto a cookie sheet.  Place cookie sheet into a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven and cook for about 30 minutes until vegetables are tender.  Flip and stir often to insure even cooking.

Side Salad
Lettuce
Carrots
Tomato
Bell pepper
Cucumber
Leftover bacon from last night's dinner (crumbled)
All served with homemade french dressing.

I got to thinking about this meal as we were sitting down to eat.  Everything about this meal with the exception of the lettuce, carrots and lemon came from local sources.  The cucumbers, tomatoes, thyme, and rosemary came from our garden.  All the other ingredients came from the local farmers market.  I should note that the wine is from Virginia.

I want to apologize for these picture, they are not the best.  I was in a hurry to sit down and eat and was having an issue with my camera. 

Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato Sauce

Right now we have tomatoes galore.  They are coming in from the garden faster than we know what to do with them.  Tonight my husband wanted me to make spaghetti.  I thought sure why not and why not do a fresh sauce to go along with it.

Fresh Tomato Sauce
This is a recipe from my Vitamix.  I am sure that you can do the same thing with a good blender.
6 roma tomatoes, quartered
1 small onion, peeled, halved
1 small carrot, halved
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 garlic clove, peeled
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Place everything in the blender and blend until smooth.  Pour into a saucepan and simmer for 35-40 minutes.

I made regular spaghetti pasta, served it with a ground beef sausage (grassfed of course) and a side salad with French Dressing.

French Dressing
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 clove garlic, pressed
1/4 cup ketchup
3/4 cup olive oil
Put all contents into a jar and shake until mixed.

Salmon with Fresh Peach Salsa

I really wanted to have something light for dinner so I opted to have salmon with a small side salad.

Salmon with Fresh Peach Salsa
2 - 4 ounce pieces of salmon
3 peaches
2 small tomatoes, de-seeded and chopped
1/4 of a spring onion (or a small onion), diced
fresh basil, finely chopped
Remove the skin off the peaches.  Place peaches into a pan of boiling water blanch them for about 30 to 90 seconds.  Remove from water and drop into a bowl of ice water.  Pinch skin to see if it will start to come off.  It should remove easily, if it doesn't place back into boiling water and cook some more.
Cut peaches in half and remove the pit.  Dice peaches into small sections, place into a small bowl.  Add tomatoes, onion and basil to the peaches.  Stir.
Place the salmon on a cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil, fresh ground salt and pepper and a little bit of seafood seasoning.  (I use a seasoning from Blue Crab Bay Company)  Place into a 300 degree Fahrenheit oven, cook for about 15 minutes or until fish flakes with a fork.  Serve peach salsa over cooked salmon.

A side salad with fresh dressing was a side to go along with the salmon.  It contained lettuce, tomato, and cucumber.

French Dressing
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 clove of garlic, pressed
1/4 cup ketchup
3/4 cup olive oil
Mix together

Baked Salmon with Quinoa Salad

I am sorry that I have been a way for a while.  I was at GFWC (General Federation of Women's Clubs) International Convention, which is a volunteer organization.  As we all know that when we are away from home you eat food that maybe isn't that good for you.  Of course in this case since I was at a convention I was eating the normal plate dinners that hotels and convention centers served.  I couldn't wait to get back into my kitchen today and make something, so that is what I did!

Baked Salmon

Preheat oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place salmon onto a cookie sheet lined with foil (I only do this because it makes clean up easier), drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes. 

Quinoa Salad

Prepare quinoa according to package directions.  

Few sprigs of fresh parsley, chopped

Half of a fresh green onion (green and white parts), thinly sliced

About 1/8 to 1/4 cup pine nuts

Juice from 1/2 of a lemon

Place all ingredients into a bowl and stir to incorporate ingredients.  Place cooked salmon on top of a hearty spoonful of quinoa.

This meal was also served with a small side salad of fresh lettuce from the garden.

Salmon with Strawberry Peach Salsa

My inspiration for this dish tonight was the farmer's market.  I went to the market this morning and of course was in awe of all the wonderful fruits and vegetables that were available.  I bought some strawberries and just figured I would make some kind of dessert with them but instead decided on a simple little something to go over some baked salmon.  The salmon we got was from SeaBear.

Salmon with Strawberry Peach Salsa
Preheat oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit
Place salmon on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake in oven for about 15 minuets.
Strawberry Peach Salsa
1 pint Strawberries
2 peaches
1 very small amount of Italian Parsley
Wash and hull strawberries, cut strawberries into small pieces.   Place a pan of water onto the stove and bring to a boil.  Add peaches to the water and let cook for just about 2 minutes (depending on how thick the skin is).  Remove peach from water and add to a bowl of ice cold water.  Pinch the skin of the peach it should come off very easily.  Remove all of the skin.  Cut peaches in half and remove the pit.  Cut peaches into chunks and add to the strawberries.  Dice up parsley and add to strawberries and peaches.  Mix gently with a spoon.  Spoon over cooked salmon.

Along with this meal we had a small salad of greens and tomatoes, served with a homemade french dressing.