Easy Salmon

This summer, my cousin gave me Gwyneth Paltrow's new cookbook and all the recipes are so good! We discovered her salmon recipe in the book, which is served with a sauce made from herbs and yogurt. We try not to eat a lot of salmon in the summer because when we come back to Scotland, we know we're getting the best of the best. So lately, now that we're back, we've been eating salmon about once a week and this is one of our favorite, easy recipes.

For two servings, you need two boneless salmon fillets (I buy them with the skin on because I like when the skin gets really crispy during cooking, but if you don't like salmon skin, it's not necessary). Sprinkle them with a little salt and pepper and heat some olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Depending on the thickness of the fish, cook for about 5 minutes per side. If it still looks pink in the middle after the 10 minutes, flip it again and cook a little more. I like to cut up some lemon slices and throw them in the pan as well.

For the sauce, which is loosely based on the one we found in the cookbook, combine 1/2 cup of cilantro, 1/2 cup of parsley, 1/4 cup of plain yogurt, one garlic clove and a pinch of cumin in a blender and blend until smooth.

The whole recipe only takes about 15 minutes to make, so it's perfect for a quick meal. And oddly enough, Everett loves salmon so I always make sure to save him some for lunch the next day.

Shepard's Pie

Scotland is all about comfort food and one of my favorites is Shepard's Pie, which I've made approximately 50 times in the six months that we've lived here. I use a recipe that I've adapted from The Joy of Cooking and it's the perfect dinner for a dark, rainy night - with enough left over for lunch the next day.

Shepard's Pie
Serves 4-6

Traditional Shepard's Pie is made with ground lamb, however I usually use a mixture of ground beef and ground pork (technically, using ground beef turns it in to Cottage Pie). I make mine in a 9x13 inch pan (the recipe below is based on using a pan this size) but it's easily adapted to whatever size you prefer. 

Ingredients
6-8 mashing potatoes for the topping, along with a bit of butter and cream to mash with

And for the meaty part:
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion 
4 stalks of celery
4 carrots
1.5 lbs ground beef, pork or lamb - or a combination
1/4 cup flour
1 cup beef broth
1 tbsp rosemary
1 tbsp thyme
A pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper

Make the mashed potatoes first: peel the potatoes, dice them, and boil until fork tender. Mash with butter, cream, salt and pepper and set aside.

Meanwhile, clean and chop all the vegetables. In a large pan, heat the oil and add the onion, celery and carrot, and saute until softened, about 10 minutes over medium heat. Add the meat, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks. When it's no longer pink, add the flour to thicken the mixture. Stir in the broth and let simmer for a few minutes, also adding the spices as well as salt and pepper. Transfer this mixture to your pan and add a layer of mashed potatoes to the top. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

Beef Stew

Many Christmas traditions revolve around food and in our house, there's no exception. We started a tradition when we lived in Cortina of eating beef stew on Christmas night for dinner. I'm not quite sure how it came about - Ryan always had practice on Christmas evening because he always had a game the day after Christmas - and after our big Christmas Eve party, I guess I didn't want to cook another elaborate meal, so we settled on beef stew which is hearty, delicious and super easy to make.

{Image via}

Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil
1 pound of stew meat (check weight)
1 large onion, diced
1/4 cup flour
2 cloves minced garlic
1 cup red wine
1 tbsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
4 cups beef broth
4 stalks of celery, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
3 potatoes, chopped

Directions
Heat the olive oil on medium high heat and add the stew meat. Sear until the outside is no longer pink, then remove with a slotted spoon and set aside on a paper towel-lined plate. Turn the heat down to medium and add the onion to the pot; cook until softened. Add the flour and stir to combine and cook for another minute. Add the garlic and cook for one more minute, being careful that you aren't burning anything. Add the red wine and stir to combine, scraping the bits from the bottom of the pot as well. Simmer the wine for two minutes, then add the thyme, bay leaves and beef broth, as well as a bit of salt and pepper. Also add the beef back in. Turn the heat down to low, cover and simmer for one hour.

In the meantime, you can chop up your vegetables. After an hour, add the carrots, celery and potatoes to the stew, cover again, and simmer for another hour and a half.

Serve hot with chopped parsley on top and crusty bread on the side.

Pecan Pie Tarts

December is the best time for sweets and we like to have some on hand at all times. This year, while making a pecan pie for Thanksgiving, I had extra filling and ended up using it to make these little tarts which were a big hit and are the perfect holiday treat.

I followed this recipe for the filling (I substituted the bourbon with scotch, because - Scotland! and left out the candied ginger too). I bought pre-made tarts at the store, poured the filling in and baked them at 350 for 30 minutes. And I have to say - while we are making Christmas cookies this year, these were much easier!

Green Bean Casserole

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I thought it would be appropriate to share one of our favorite Thanksgiving recipes - green bean casserole. But! This isn't the green bean casserole that's made with Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup and French's Fried Onions! It's a homemade version that Ryan created and perfected during the four years we lived in Italy when we didn't have access to ingredients like Campbell's and French's. We've never written down a recipe, so everything is very approximate, but I love this dish so much, mostly because of the great story behind it...

Feta Dip

We're starting to think about Thanksgiving over here, so this month I'll be posting two recipes that we're incorporating into our Thanksgiving menu in two weeks. First up: this lemony, garlicky feta dip which I usually make as an appetizer.

Image via

 I first made this dip several years ago and I originally used this recipe, which I've now adapted slightly.

Ingredients:
8 oz package of feta. Use good feta! I always buy a nice block of it and never the pre-crumbled kind
1 lemon - zest the whole lemon and juice half of it
1 clove of garlic, minced
6 tbsp olive oil + extra for drizzling
1 tbsp thyme (I always use dried)
Crackers, carrots and celery for serving

What to do:
In a blender combine the feta, lemon juice, half the lemon zest, garlic and olive oil. Blend for a few seconds until combined and then transfer to a bowl. Drizzle some more olive oil on top and sprinkle with thyme and the remaining lemon zest. I usually serve this with pita chips or crackers as well as carrots and celery.

Our Favorite Meals Abroad

When Ryan and I go to a new place, we like to explore: by wandering, by sightseeing and best of all, by eating. We're big believers in "eating where you are" - trying the local specialties - so we put together a list of our favorite meals that we've had over the course of our travels - so far....looking forward to lots more to come!

If you find yourselves in any of these cities and towns, check these restaurants out:

In Vienna, at Figlmuller: The best schnitzel in the world - truly. They're thin, cooked in three different pans and are as big as the plate they're served on (and yes, you can eat the whole thing). Sometimes I dream of going back to Vienna just to eat this schnitzel and for no other reason.

In Naples, at L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele: the best pizza in Naples, which therefore means the best pizza in the world. I'm not a huge fan of Naples because it's a big, bustling, slightly dirty, chaotic city and it doesn't have the best reputation....except for when it comes to pizza and then it's the best city ever. The thin crust, the fresh tomatoes and the gooey mozzarella...I would brave Naples traffic for this pizza any day.

In Monterosso (Cinque Terre), at Ristorante Gabbiano: their pasta with seafood is spectacular. So spectacular in fact, that we have no picture to show for it, because it got eaten immediately! Our only mistake was in sharing it...

And speaking of seafood, in Sorrento, at Trattoria da Emilia: the fried mixed seafood platter. We stumbled on this restaurant by chance one day when we were wandering. It's down in Marina Grande which (in April, at least) is a quiet part of Sorrento right on the sea. We were in Sorrento for five days and we weren't loving the food scene there - until we came here. We saw everyone ordering this platter, so we followed suit - and it turned out to be such a good decision that we came back the next day and ordered it again. It was that good.

In Lugano, at Ristorante Canvetto Ponte di Valle: when we were in Switzerland last December, we were overly excited to eat proper fondue and it did not disappoint. We basically went to Switzerland in the first place to eat fondue (and chocolate) and both were out of this world.

In Anstruther, at The Wee Chippy: fish & chips are a staple here in Scotland, so we were determined to find the best version of them ASAP. Following multiple recommendations, we drove to Anstruther one Monday where we taste tested several versions before deciding on The Wee Chippy's version as the best.

 
In Cortina, at Rifugio Col Taron: the sausage sandwich. This was an after-skiing favorite for us. It's sausage, cheese and onions, all grilled and on a roll and it's the perfect ski lunch (with a beer), while sitting outside enjoying the beautiful view of the Dolomites. I'm seriously going to miss that this winter. (Again, no picture, because who has time to take a picture when there's a hot sausage sandwich in front of you?!)

In Lienz, at the annual Christmas Market each December: the famous potato. We first discovered this potato three years ago, and I would think about it all year until December rolled around again and we could drive to Lienz and have one for lunch. The drive was about an hour and 15 minutes from Cortina, which might seem like a long way to go for a potato, but it was worth it - that's how good it is! It's a baked potato, with a crispy skin and warm filling, topped with a creamy, garlicky sauce and tiny pieces of speck. Paired with a gluhwein, it's heaven - one of my favorite things about December.

What about you?! Favorite meals while traveling? We'd love to hear any suggestions!

Cure-Everything Chicken Noodle Soup

Just in time for the fall/winter cold season, here's a recipe that we make all the time, whenever one of us feels a cold coming on. (I have one this week, so it's timely). It's a pretty classic chicken noodle soup recipe, and then we add hot sauce to clear out those nasal passages with every bite.

Ingredients
1 large chicken breast
Olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 celery stalks, chopped
4 large carrots, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
6 cups chicken broth
Grated ginger (from about a 2 inch piece of fresh ginger)
1/4 cup parsley
1/4 cup chives
Juice from one lemon
2 cups of noodles, whatever kind you like, but I always use whole wheat fusilli
Hot sauce for serving

Directions
Cook the chicken breast in a frying pan with a little olive oil and set aside when done. Shred the chicken once it's cool enough to touch.


Meanwhile, in a large soup pot, pour in a few tablespoons of olive oil and heat on medium heat. Add the onion and let soften for a few minutes, then add the celery and the carrots. Allow the veggies to soften for about 10 minutes. (I usually start with the onion, then chop up the celery and add that, then chop the carrot and add that, so that each vegetable has time to soften). Add the garlic and cook for a few more minutes. Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a boil. [Note: You can either add the noodles now, and cook them in the soup or you can cook them separately and add them later. I prefer the latter so they don't get soggy.] Once boiling, turn the heat down to low and add the ginger and lemon juice - simmer (covered) for about 30 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the herbs.

If you cooked the noodles separately, add some to a soup bowl and pour the soup in on top. Add hot sauce, if you like - we always use this chili garlic sauce. And make sure you bring Kleenex to the table with you!

Lentil Soup

Well! We've been super busy lately because we finally got all moved in to our new apartment (when we arrived, we were in a temporary apartment until our real one was ready) - more on that later, but that's what I've been up to all week.

For now - lentil soup. When we decided to move to Scotland, the first thing that I thought was: SOUP WEATHER!! I'm a huge soup fan and I love nothing more than a hot bowl of soup on a cold, rainy day - so I'm definitely in my element here. When we got to Scotland, I was pleasantly surprised to find that lentil soup was on many restaurant's menus because that's one of my all-time favorites. In fact, last year in Italy, I made it so much that Ryan asked me to stop. And we haven't had it since....until now.

What You Need:
Olive oil
1 yellow onion
3 cloves of garlic
3 celery stalks
4 carrots
1 cup of green lentils, rinsed
4 - 6 cups of chicken broth (I usually start with 4 and then add as the lentils soak up the broth)


What You Do:
Chop all the veggies and heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes until it begins to soften. Add the garlic and cook for one more minute. Add the celery and cook for three minutes, and lastly, add the carrot and cook for another five minutes. Stir in the lentils (I always use dried, but you could use canned as well). Add the chicken broth and bring it to a boil, then turn the heat down to low, cover the pot and let it simmer for about an hour, or until the lentils are soft.


This soup is so easy and there are so many different variations that you can do: sometimes I add fennel for a twist, or spinach. You could add potatoes if you like. And, when you're ready to eat it, you can top it with plain yogurt because lentils love yogurt. Ryan prefers his with goat cheese, and I always throw some chopped parsley on top.

PS - A few Christmases ago, my cousin gave me this cookbook which I am going to seriously tackle this fall/winter....


....and three more soups from Italy.

In Search of Fish & Chips

After last week's post, I got about 1,000 recommendations to go up the coast to Anstruther for the world's best fish & chips. So! Ryan had the day off yesterday and we headed that way.

There are multiple fish & chip shops in Anstruther and we tried two: Anstruther Fish Bar, first, which has won UK Fish & Chip Shop of the Year.

The fish was perfectly fried and flakey, and was definitely (so far, at that point) the best fish & chips of my life.

Until we went to The Wee Chippy, which is what the locals recommended, and the fish there was even more perfectly fried and flakey.

In the end, the decision was that The Wee Chippy had a slight edge. Anstruther was beautiful and we had a sunny day which was perfect.

Camping Breakfast Burritos

Who's going camping this Labor Day weekend?! We haven't been at home in the U.S. for Labor Day in about 5 years -  we're always overseas by the time it rolls around - but I wanted to share my absolute favorite camping food for anyone who is going camping this weekend (in Colorado, Labor Day camping is one of the most popular activities).

These breakfast burritos make me want to camp every weekend. We make them one or two days ahead of a camp trip and then freeze them until we're ready to go. Then we put them on ice in a cooler and pull them out each morning to throw on the grill. They're seriously the best.

  
Here's what you need: 

Depending on how many people you're cooking for/days you're camping for, you need one white or whole wheat (we always use the latter) tortilla for each person for each morning. So if the two of us are camping for 3 nights, we make 6 burritos before we go.

Scrambled eggs, enough for each tortilla.

Crumbled sausage (or bacon, if you prefer....or you can leave all the meat out!). We use Jimmy Dean Sage Pork Sausage Roll because it's easy to crumble and delicious.

Shredded cheese, like cheddar....or Pepper Jack, if you like more of a kick

Hot sauce - this is Ryan's favorite hot sauce for anything egg-related (also, funny story: we brought three bottles of this with us to Scotland this year because we're so used to not having hot sauce in Italy...but of course they have it in the grocery store here! Oh well.)

Here's what you do:

First cut squares of aluminum foil, large enough to lay a tortilla on - you're going to wrap them up in the foil when you're done.


Scramble the eggs.

Cook the sausage, crumbling it in the pan as you go. When it's no longer pink, transfer it to a paper towel-lined plate to drain the fat off.

Place a little bit of the eggs and sausage on each tortilla. Sprinkle with the shredded cheese and top with hot sauce. Wrap the tortillas up into burrito shapes and then wrap them in the aluminum foil.

And freeze them until you're ready to go!

You can also add different variations, like putting in potatoes or beans. Instead of sausage you could use bacon, or you could make them with spicy chorizo. My mother-in-law makes an amazing one with cream cheese. So, the possibilities are endless, but one of these and a cup of coffee is the best way to start any camping morning.

PS - My five camping essentials....and all of the photos were taken during our 2015 Adventure Trip.

Fish Tacos

Fish tacos are our favorite summer dinner. It used to be, when we lived in Italy, that we couldn't make proper fish tacos there so we'd load up on them every August before we left the US. We're not sure what we'll find in Scotland, but we're still in the habit of eating plenty of fish tacos every August while we prepare to leave for our next adventure.

Here's how we make them...

A Summer Corn Trick

August is corn season in Colorado and the other day our neighbor told us a trick....

...place a piece of bacon around an ear of corn, wrap the corn in tinfoil and grill it on medium heat for about 30 minutes. When it's done, the corn should be slightly charred and the bacon should be nice and crisp. We tried it the other day and the bacon gave the corn a great flavor - you don't need to add any other seasoning! Plus, who doesn't like bacon on everything?!

Grilled Artichokes

One of our favorite summer side dishes are grilled artichokes, and while they take a bit of time to cook, they're very easy prep-wise. Paired with a spicy aioli, they're a go-to for us all summer long.

To Prep:
Cut the artichokes in half length-wise and trim the stem. Cut out the wispy, feather-y part down by the artichoke heart and discard. Lay each artichoke half on tinfoil and drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes (or whatever seasoning you like). Wrap each half in its tinfoil.

To Grill:
Grill the artichokes on medium heat for about 30 minutes. They should be soft and steamy when they're done - and hot! Unwrap them carefully.

For the Aioli:
Mix a few spoonfuls of mayonnaise in a dish with about a teaspoon (or more depending on how spicy you like) of Sriracha.

Summertime Aperitvo

One thing that we picked up in Italy was the tradition of "aperitivo" which is that wonderful/fun/relaxing time of day when everyone stops working and meets friends or family for a drink. The drinks are always accompanied with snacks, which, in Italy, are usually things like olives, potato chips, peanuts, mortadella wrapped around bread sticks...

We haven't let go of the aperitivo tradition even though we're in Colorado for the summer - here are three aperitivo snacks we're loving this summer:

Kale chips! Recipe here.

Sweet potato fries with dipping sauce: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and peel one or two sweet potatoes and cut them into a French fry shape. Spread out over a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil (we like to add some truffle oil too!) and sprinkle with sea salt and a bit of paprika. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring once after 15 minutes. If you need to crisp them up further, you can stick them under the broiler for a few minutes at the end. For the dipping sauce, mix a bit of mayonnaise with a teaspoon of Sriracha.

Roasted Cashews with Rosemary: Mix unsalted, raw cashews with olive oil, fresh rosemary and salt and spread out on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until the cashews become crunchy.

 And - our favorite summer drink, the Paloma!

Summer Salad for 4th of July

Happy long weekend! What's everyone doing for the 4th of July (if you're in the USA)? We're heading to Maine tomorrow for the weekend....in the meantime, here's a great summer salad if you're heading to a 4th of July BBQ this weekend:

Watermelon + Feta Salad
Serves 4

In a salad bowl, combine about 4 cups of arugula, 2 or 3 cups of chopped watermelon, about 1/2 cup of crumbled fresh feta cheese and a few chopped mint leaves. Drizzle olive oil and fresh squeezed lime juice over the salad and add salt and pepper to taste.

This is so refreshing for a hot summer day! We're taking the week off for vacation but we'll be back next Thursday with more recipes, travel tips and adventures. 

Palomas

What's your go-to summer drink? My favorite has always been the Paloma. It's not quite as sweet as a margarita and it's so refreshing on a hot summer afternoon. We made them yesterday and drank them on the back porch:

Here's how to make them: pour 1 oz tequila into a glass and add equal parts (about 1/2 cup) fresh squeezed grapefruit juice and soda water. Add crushed ice, a slice of lime and a sprig of mint. So easy and they're such a pretty color!

Pesto Three Ways

One of our favorite dishes is spaghetti with homemade pesto and roasted cherry tomatoes but that can be pretty winter-y....and now that summer is here (!), we feel like eating lighter meals, preferably outside. But! Pesto is so versatile and you can put it on so many things other than pasta - here are three that we like for the warmer months:

Orange + Fennel Salad

This salad is our first recipe of the summer, mainly because of the funny story behind it: we're constantly talking about how, in America, you can get anything at the grocery store, at any time of year, whereas in Italy we tend to eat more seasonally and we're never able to find things like jalapenos or coconuts. But. The other day, in our huge, American grocery store, we could not, for the life of us, find fennel. Fennel is a staple in Italy and it's one of the things that you can always find, so we got a big kick out of not being able to find it here. Of course, we went back two days later, and there it was, and so here is this delicious salad (which is popular in Sicily):

Orange + Fennel Salad
Serves 3

What You Need: 2 oranges, peeled and sliced (I usually cut across the orange);1 fennel bulb (remove the fronds but save), washed and sliced; a few slices of red onion; red wine vinegar + olive oil; salt + pepper

Directions: Arrange the orange, fennel and red onion on a large platter and drizzle with about a tablespoon of red wine vinegar and some good olive oil. Add some of the green fronds to the top, sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve.

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October!

It's October and I am BACK! In the past two weeks, I spent a full 10 days visiting my parents which included a long weekend in Illinois for a friend's wedding, lots of cheddar cheese (of course) ...and kale, and overuse of the internet to compensate for our lack of in Cortina (which has now been fixed!). I flew back to Italy last Saturday night, Ryan picked me up in Venice on Sunday afternoon and we spent the rest of the day and night looking for George Clooney and eating delicious risotto at one of our favorite restaurants (Osteria il Milion).

Speaking of risotto, last year we did the risotto of the month and made seven different risottos....well, this year, we're switching it up to pasta. We LOVE pasta (who doesn't?) and we're in Italy - it's a match made in heaven.

Our first pasta dish this season includes pesto, shrimp, roasted cherry tomatoes and homemade linguine. I made the linguine and the pesto myself because I was feeling adventurous and because it was made on a night when Ryan had practice until 9 pm - but obviously store-bought everything works fine too!

Linguine with Pesto, Shrimp and Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Serves 2


For the pasta - we made pasta in great detail here but for two people I roughly use 1 cup of flour and one egg with a little water mixed in, if needed. Or you can use enough dried pasta for two people.

For the pesto - 2 cups fresh basil, one garlic clove, 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1/4 cup of pine nuts, a little salt and pepper, mixed in a food processor until smooth. Add more olive oil if needed to make smooth. Spoon into a dish and mix in 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese. Can be stored in the fridge for later or used right away - we make our pesto on the chunkier side.

For the shrimp and tomatoes - About 8-10 shrimp per person, washed and dried, cooked in a little olive oil. Meanwhile, coat the cherry tomatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in a 400 degree oven for 10-15 minutes, or until they begin to burst open.

Split pasta between two bowls and top with pesto, shrimp and roasted tomatoes. Add extra Parmesan, salt and pepper as needed.