melting your mouth

I’m only a little embarrassed to admit that the inspiration for this salad was one of those fliers they have near the door at Whole Foods. I know it’s not all that creative or unusual, but what can I say, sometimes I just need a little push to think outside my narrow little box. I’ve always made tuna salad pretty much as I had it growing up, with canned tuna, mayonnaise, relish, salt and pepper, and maybe a little celery if I have it. Which is all well and good, but with all that mayo, it’s not very good for you. This is a healthier alternative which, when served over some nice leafy greens, makes for a pretty balanced meal. It’s great after a hot or long day, when you don’t feel like spending too much time in the kitchen, and we keep all the ingredients for it on hand. We don’t really have a set recipe and it varies every time we make it, but here’s the gist of it.

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I apologize that the posts have been so sparse lately. I’ve just returned from a trip to Long Beach for a meeting, and preparing for that has also been keeping me pretty busy for the past month or so. I’ve had less time to cook than usual, and even less time to blog about it. But, the good news is that things have calmed down at least a tad, and so more tasty treats from my kitchen should be appearing here in the near future.

Today, something simple: another recipe recommendation, this time from Simply Recipes. Lately, when I’m faced with persistent questions of “What’s for dinner?” or “I wonder how to make (XYZ)?” Elise’s Simply Recipes blog has become my go-to source. And she seldom lets me down. Her recipes are, as you might assume, reasonably simple, and her instructions are very clear. This recipe for pan-seared salmon with a sauce made from avocados was no exception. I don’t think I ever would have thought of combining avocados and salmon, but since both Matt and I love both of those foods, as soon as I saw the recipe Ik new I had to try it. The creamy avocado matched very nicely with the flavor of the salmon. And it’s just so pretty, too.

I was amazed how smooth the avocado remoulade got — after food processing the avocado it was a bit coarse, but as soon as you add the olive oil it becomes silky smooth.

My only complaint about this recipe is the recommended cooking time — my salmon wasn’t nearly done in the middle after the 3-4 minutes per side she recommends (and I like my meat and fish on the rare side), so next time I’ll use slightly lower heat so I can get it done all the way through without having the outside be too crispy. And yes, I’ll definitely be making this again.

You can find the recipe here: Pan-Seared Salmon with Avocado Remoulade

So I got the idea of stuffing acorn squash with pears a month or two ago from a post at briciole, someone commented suggesting gorgonzola, and I went from there. This is good as a not-too-sweet dessert, which was how I made it, but it could probably be a side dish or even a main dish with a few sides. This was a very good combination and one I will definitely make again.

Ingredients:
1 Acorn squash
about 1/3 c crumbled Gorgonzola
about 1/2 c Pecans, roughly chopped
1 Pear, chopped into 1/2″ cubes
a couple T Brown sugar

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 F. Cut acorn squash in half and scrape out seeds. Put a little bit of water in a jelly roll pan, and place halves of squash upside down in the pan. Bake for about 45 minutes, until squash is just tender. Meanwhile, mix gorgonzola, pecans, pears, and brown sugar. I’m not really sure if the amounts I listed above are right, so eyeball it. When the squash is done, turn it rightside up and mound the filling in each half. You may have to slice off the top of the squash so that it will sit flat. You want the filling really mounded up as much as possible, as it will cook down a little bit. Empty the water out of the pan, and bake the filled squash for another 7 minutes or so, until the topping is a little bit brown.