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My daughter was down this weekend and I gave her the option of what she would prefer for dinner Sunday night. Fish was her choice, now I had to find a recipe. 

Back in March 1999, I found a recipe in the magazine Prevention. In the issue they had a section titled Fast and Fabulous, Fill Up and Slim Down. One of the recipes that I have been making over the years is the Fish Fillets over Lentils and Vegetables. I normally make it was white fish fillets, but instead of the fillets I selected from the fishmonger at Wegmans fresh caught North Carolina Shrimp ($14.99/lb.) and scallops from Point Pleasant ($19.99/lb.). It was an indulgence, but in the end delicious. Both the scallops and shrimp were sweet and tender.

As Wegmans has bulk section of nuts, grains and legumes, I purchased green lentils there. I cooked two cups of raw lentils in four cups of water.The lentils doubled in quantity when cooking; I only need two cups cooked. For the scallops, I tossed them in Wegmans basting flour and when cooking, I seasoned both them and the shrimp with salt and pepper. 

It was the perfect summertime meal!




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Here is a follow up to my earlier post regarding our visit to Eataly. We had the spring pea ravioli last night for dinner. Wow, it was fabulous. The taste was light and refreshing. My husband thoroughly enjoyed them.

I did a quick online search to find out what type of sauce to use. My daughter had suggested dressing it with butter.  However, I did find a recipe on Eataly's website for making your own spring pea ravioli and it included a sauce. It was simply butter, salt, pepper and the zest of lemon. What a difference just adding the zest can make to a sauce. It real brightens up the flavors of main component. 

​I can't wait until the weather cools down and I can make another excursion to Eataly.
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It's Restaurant Week in New York! My husband and I had today off, so we took a one day vacation to Manhattan. I made reservations for lunch at Park Avenue Summer, however, before lunch we took a subway ride up to the Frick Collection.

The Frick Collection is a small museum, originally it was the home of Henry Clay Frick. The museum is on East 70th Street, just off of Fifth Avenue. It was a magnificent home, I especially like the interior garden room.
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At our house, you can't have enough chicken or pasta recipes on hand to mix things up. My husband and I love our pasta. It's terrible to say, but unfortunately, we can eat almost one pound of pasta between us.

Two weeks ago in the New York Times food section, Melissa Clark had a recipe for Creamy Corn Pasta with Basil. It has six ingredients and could be prepared in 30 minutes. What better time to try this recipe out, than during corn season.

I must say it was a quick recipe. It didn't take long to prep the ingredients. Once the pasta was plated, I drizzled some EVOO over it and additional Parmesan cheese. It was good, but I think it could have used a bit more lemon juice to brighten it a bit. On my husband's second helping, he added more black pepper. I should have tried the corn before pureeing it to see how it tasted.

​He said he would eat it again. It's worth a try if you want a quick seasonal pasta dish. Some readers comments on line said they were going to add their dishes bacon, grape tomatoes and shrimp and garlic. Play around with the extra ingredients and see what you come up with.
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Last week when we had dinner at my girlfriend's house, she made sangria, but a white sangria, as she knows I prefer white wine. 

When I got home, it got me thinking about a sangria recipe that I had in my files. I haven't made it in a long time. However, with the heatwave that we're having, I'm going to have to locate a fruity white wine. By the way, my girlfriend was able to find a red wine sangria mix at the Wine Outlet in Manasquan. Recipe after the jump.
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I was home today and feeling kind of ambitious. I wanted to make something, but didn't know what. As I have to work tomorrow during the day, I thought I would surprise my co-workers with some muffins. 



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​During the week I have been making myself tomato sandwiches for lunch. While at Wegmans this morning, I decided to pick up some Antonio's Mozzarella ($7.99/lb) and make a tomato salad for lunch.

Using a serrated edge knife, I cut the tomatoes and mozzarella approximately 1/4" thick. I alternate tomato slices with mozzarella. Next I salt the tomatoes, put a chiffonade of fresh basil from the garden and drizzle on some excellent EVOO. Slice up some Italian bread and you have heaven on plate.
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During the hot days of summer, my husband prefers a cold meal, don't we all. However, someone has to be in the warm kitchen to prepare it so that it's cold by the time it's dinner. So today I thought would be a good day to prepare scallops. However, in order to make this as easy as possible, I swung by Whole Foods instead of driving up to Wegmans. Whole Foods had U10's at approximately $30/lb. Discouraged, I left and thought I would go to Wegmans. However, it was too hot by midday so plan B had to be developed.

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This evening we had been invited to a friend's house for dinner and I offered to bring dessert.  Jersey peaches are now in the market, so I decided to make a peach cobbler. Since I was short on time today, I stopped at Matt's Farm Market to pick up the peaches ($1.79/lb).

​The peach cobbler recipe is from the September 1999 issue of Gourmet magazine. It requires just your pantry basics. I did tweak the recipe by adding some freshly ground nutmeg, about a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of salt to the peaches to highlight their flavor. I also picked up a pint of vanilla ice cream to go on top. 

My friend made clams oreganata as an appetizer. I've never made them before and they were delicious; they even had a bit of a kick to them. Our main course was  linguine and white clam sauce, which  is a nice change from the red sauce. It was nice and light summertime meal.  She also served a toss salad with a citrus vinaigrette. Eccellente la mia amica!

​Peach Cobbler
Gourmet Magazine, September 1999
 
Active Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Serves: 4
 
6 large peaches, cut into thin wedges
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon cornstarch

For biscuit topping
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup boiling water
 
 
Cook Peaches:
  1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
  2. Toss peaches with sugar, lemon juice, and cornstarch in a 2-qt. nonreactive baking dish and bake in middle of oven 10 minutes.
 
Make topping while peaches bake:
  1. Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Blend in butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in water until just combined.
  2. Remove peaches from oven and drop spoonfuls of topping over them. Bake in middle of oven until topping is golden, about 25 minutes. (Topping will spread as it bakes.)
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A few years ago, a co-worker of my husband brought this salad to an office party. My husband was so taken with it that he asked for a copy of the recipe. I don't know where she got it, but it is a wonderful and makes for an easy supper.

Some ingredients that you'll need are: LaChoy Rice Noodles, sesame oil, sesame seeds and peanuts. Wegmans has all the aforementioned ingredients. Instead of cooking chicken for this recipe, I purchased a rotisserie chicken and pulled off the meat for the salad.  



​meet donna

A former teacher, shop-a-holic, empty-nester redefining quick, family approved dinners.

​If you have questions or comments, click on the envelope icon above to contact me directly. 

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