Picnic sandwiches

I make this sandwiches whenever we go to the beach, a park, or just to make a picnic. Everyone loves it and my little assistant can eat half of these portuguese roll without even thinking.
I often change the type of meat I put in - sometimes veal cutlets, sometimes roasted pork, chicken, or turkey breasts. I add mayo or mustard, cheese (swiss or some kind of portuguese), sweet pickles, and olive oil bathed sundried tomatoes (I let them stand on a bowl with olive oil for a bit before putting in the sandwich).
I wrap the sandwich well because they can drip, but they are absolutely delicious!

Stripped Bass

Grandma Cookie's nephew fished a big bass and shared with the whole family. Luckily, we were given a piece of it and cooked it on the same night. This was what I did - added some thinly sliced potatoes, sliced red onions, and small cut red peppers on the side. Cooked with some parsley, olive oil, garlic, and sea salt.

Spaghetti with vegetables

Another day using the left overs around the kitchen.
This time I cooked onions, red peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, and scallions on olive oil and garlic. I used a little broth to make the sauce and mixed it with the pasta. I loved it.

Creamy pasta with chicken and sundried tomatoes

I had a pack of chicken breast still half frozen by the time I should start making dinner, so I cut the chicken as small as I could to help it defrost and cook really quickly. I had no tomatoes, no tomato sauce, and no vegetables at home, as I was trying to empty the fridge before going grocery shopping again. But I found half of a zucchini and some sundried tomatoes in the fridge. While the pasta was cooking on the side, I cooked the chicken together with the zucchini and sundried tomatoes, with onions and garlic and olive oil. Added some broth from the pasta to help make some sauce, and added a bit of heavy cream to give it texture. Salt and pepper and dinner was done in half hour.

Tomato and herbs Frittata

This frittata is a recipe from a Food & Wine book I have and it is perfect for a brunch. The fresh parsley and a hint of fresh oregano and thyme gives it such a nice taste. And the tomatoes are so pretty set in a circle.

Fillet Mignon with Orzo

I often buy at Costco a big pack of their Fillet Mignon, that I find to be so tender and flavorful. When I get home I divide the meat in smaller quantities to make a variety of dishes. The other day I cut the fillet mignon into tiny cubes and made an orzo dish with it, using red peppers and spinach to give texture to the dish. It came out so delicious!

Pear and walnut tartlettes

Just for fun the other day we made some tartlettes and then shared the goods with the neighbors.







Here's the recipe:

1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3 ripe Bartlett pears, peeled, cored and sliced
3 large eggs
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, combine flour, confectioners' sugar, butter, 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon and salt; mix well. Press into the bottom of a greased 11 x 7-inch baking dish. Top with nuts and pear slices.
In the same mixing bowl, beat together eggs, brown sugar, vanilla extract and remaining 1 teaspoon cinnamon until well combined; pour over pears. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. (Because I made little tartlettes on muffin pans, I reduced the baking time to 10 minutes, but could have done 15 minutes at 325º also.)

Sardines and Chouriço

June is, in my mind, the month to eat sardines.
In Portugal, people eat them all summer long, however there's always a lot of festivals in June where sardines are the chosen food.
To celebrate, we went to a portuguese festival and ate grilled sardines and chouriço with bread and drank beer.
So good!

Empadao de Arroz

In portuguese cooking, Empadão is something similar to a lasagna but made with mashed potatoes (mashed potatoes on top and bottom and cooked ground beef with tomato sauce in the middle).
On this recipe, I added some vegetables in the meat mix and substituted the mashed potatoes for some rice.
It was delicious and very moist. My little assistant loved it and ate a lot of it!

Salads

The summer has arrived (unofficially) and time for salads is here!
Salads are healthy, lightly, refreshing, and very low in calories and it seems the perfect meal to have once the weather starts warming up. The tomatoes are starting to taste really good, but I also try to have a variety of different greens so that the salads are somehow different every night.

Cherry tomatoes:

Spinach salad with fruit and almonds:

Baby lettuce, spinach, cucumber, tomatoes, and cheese:

Lettuce, pea sprouts, cucumbers, and carrots: