The Perils of Penelope . . . pineapple, that is.

When I wrote in my last post :

 Stay tuned to find out the fate of Penelope Pineapple.  Will it be the grill, the blender, or something more sinister?! 

I didn’t actually intend to blog about the pineapple in my refrigerator.  BUT, dinner tonight was so good that I just have to share!  Not only was it really good, I didn’t ruin my calorie count eating it.  Sorry, it was not the grilled desert (but here is the link to my favorite gilled pineapple/desert), not the blender, it was the chopping block!  (Insert evil laughter here.)  

Grilled Tuna with Pineapple and Rice

This recipe fed my family of three with a lot of left-overs.  (Yum, I can’t wait for lunch tomorrow!)

First the tuna (2-6 oz. Steaks).  I marinated it for about 30 min. in the following ingredients.  A zip bag with the excess air pushed out works really well.  With the bag you don’t need to make a huge amount of marinade to cover the steaks.

• 1/4 cup Olive Oil
• 1 TBS Soy Sauce
• 2 TBS Lemon Juice
• 2 Cloves Garlic smashed
• 2 Tsp Grated Ginger Root

While the tuna marinated in the fridge, I started the rice cooking.  (Mini Rant:  DO NOT USE INSTANT RICE!  If you are bothering to cook real food, cook some real rice while you are at it!)  I used 2 cups (rice cooker size) of Jasmine rice (my fav!) and used a can of low sodium/fat chicken stock and added water for the rest of the liquid.  (Using low sodium/fat stock lets you control the amount of these ingredients in your food.  You can always add more if you want it.  It is not a diet thing, just a good cooking habit thing.)  I also tossed some minced onion (1/2 small), and ginger root (1 TBS) in with the rice.

While the rice was cooking and the tuna marinated, I chopped up the following:

• 1/4 Pineapple in 1″ chunks
• 1 Orange in 1/2 ” chunks
• 2 TBS Fresh Cilantro 
• 2 TBS Fresh Parsley
• 2 TBS Fresh Chives

(Some red pepper would’ve been nice, but I didn’t have any.)

By now your rice is well under way and you can grill the Tuna.  4 min. each side over high heat.  (The grill must be preheated.)  When rice and tuna are done, chop the tuna into bite size chunks.  Toss tuna, rice, fruit, and herbs together and add:

• Juice of 1/2 Lime
• 2 Tsp Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper

And toss again.

Serve with Soy Sauce or Nuoc Mam on the side.  I prefer Nuoc Mam myself, nothing like the salty sweetness to go with the ginger and pineapple!  What is Nuoc Mam?  Vietnam’s all purpose condiment made from anchovy extract, salt and sugar.  One of those things that is WAY better than the sum of it’s ingredients.

And now the Mom’s are out there saying, “Grilled Tuna!  My kids/husband will never eat that!”  But they will. Really.  My son has remarked that last two times I have served tuna “Mom, how come tuna tastes like chicken?”  I don’t know the answer to that (in part because it doesn’t taste like chicken to me), but I do know he eats the tuna with less complaint than chicken!

So, there it is; the first post about the pineapple in my fridge.  Tune in tomorrow when our villain will say, “Smoothies anyone?”

Wet Rub for Roasts

 I’m not sure if “wet rub” is a real term, but it does seem to describe the technique I have been using for several years.  I first heard about this idea when watching a Jamie Oliver cooking show on the the Food Network.  It suits the way I cook because it is unfussy and uses fresh ingredients. Pork, beef, chicken seem to work equally well.  

Here is a description of a pork roast I made for dinner a few days ago.

First, a trip to the garden for me, for you, maybe the market.  I gather fresh herbs that suit my fancy that day.  Today it was marjoram, thyme, and rosemary.  On other days I can include by season or mood, sage, parsley, cilantro, dill, chives, or oregano.  This is one of the wonderful things about cooking your own food, you get to adjust everything to your mood and preference.

I load the herbs into my mortar  along with, kosher salt, pepper corns, and olive oil and grind it with the pestle until it is a wet green paste.

From here it is easy.  Just rub the paste onto your meat.  If you are roasting chicken be sure to rub it under the skin as well as on the outside.

And then just roast!  I have found that a digital meat thermometer is the real trick to perfect roasts.  After you learn proper placement you will not only be able to know when the roast is done, but also be able to hit your doneness of choice without fail.  The other trick is finding days that I can both be home for the two hours prior to dinner AND not have a specific time to be somewhere after dinner.  Finding those days has rewards, not only do we have a marvelous dinner that day but we will also have lovely roasted meat for sandwiches or even a second dinner with very little work.

 

20 Years!

Yesterday was my 20th wedding anniversary.  It was a good day for the most part.

 After getting S off to school I had to go to the university for a while.  We are still in the process of moving.  Yesterday we had to sort things we didn’t think we would need for next year to go into deep storage.  Some things sorted easily, others were puzzling.  It was difficult to keep four scripts in my head and then say “yes, we might need that”, or “no, not gonna need it”.  

The part that was uncomfortable was that the TD started asking about what designs I wanted to do next year.  Which meant I had to start projecting what was going to happen with the adoption.  Also, I don’t think he is aware of the discussion I had with the program director, where I said I didn’t want to commit to more than my half-time contract until I knew what was happening.  In any case, I was starting to get a bit flustered because I didn’t want to have this conversation around students (who were hired to help with the move.)  TD is a smart guy, he must have known that I was struggling and didn’t ask again. 

After the sorting task I went to my office briefly to sign some purchase approvals, turn in receipts and the like.  That done, I did a little clearance rack shopping and went to lunch.  That is when it started to rain AGAIN!  I then called J to ask if it would be a problem if I didn’t pick up the mulch, fearing the mess the wet bags would make of myself and the car.  Turns out he was on his way home to surprise me for our anniversary!  So he got the mulch since he had the van, and we met at home.  We did a bit of yard work (rain stopped) until S came home from school.  And prepared to head out to dinner.

Just then my mom and grandmom showed up with gifts, since they (the gifts, that is) have been forbidden at the party on Saturday.  Gifts were opened, cooed over and maternal units sent on their happy way.  Then on to dinner!

We drove into the city to a well-known Spanish restaurant, Mallorca.  J and I both had paella and S ordered Alaskan king crab.  The food there is always wonderful.  S was in heaven, he loves seafood and he ate most of his crab along with some of my food.  He sampled deep-fried squid (our appetizer) mussels, clams, shrimp, langosta (mini lobster tail), and scallops.  Loved all of it but was luke-warm on the mussels.  For desert J ordered creme brulee and S and I ordered sherbet.  The sherbet was delicious and looked awesome.  It was made at the restaurant and used the empty fruit rinds for dishes, so it looked like a a big piece of frozen fruit on your plate.  S ordered watermelon and they even stuck mini chocolate chips in the sides to look like seeds.  I had the pineapple, and ate a lot more than I thought I could because it was so good.  

We over ordered though and brought home as much as we ate.  If you go, think of the paella as a dinner for two.  I think I will be eating paella for about three days.

Back home, for homework and baths and to bed with S.  J and I shared one of the mini champagnes left from New Year and called it a night.

But then, I could not sleep.  First it was party preparations, then work in the Fall and then what if there is no adoption.  First I was cold, then I was hot and then it was too late for a sleep aid.  If it is too late I can’t wake up gracefully to get S to school.  So today I will have a little extra caffeine and, if I’m really lucky, a nap.  But, I have a long “to do” list today, so I should stop blogging and get to work.  No parties for the lazy.

Easy Salmon Glaze

I made the world’s easiest glaze for our grilled salmon tonight!  So yummy too!  I just combined equal parts of orange marmalade and *hoisin sauce.  I heated it about 10 seconds in the microwave to make mixing easier.  I brushed it on the salmon when it was about half-way done, any sooner and the sugars would pass by the caramelized stage and burn.

*Hoisin can be found in the international or asian section of a larger supermarket.  I think of it as asian BBQ sauce.

A Slow Day

There is little to report today.  We are still waiting for our home study renewal package to come, it should arrive tomorrow.

 I spent most of the day in theatre storage packing props for the move.  This whole process promises to be exhausting.   Right now we are packing and moving all props and costumes to a lounge adjacent to the storage area.  The painters are right on our heels as we empty each room freshening everything up for the campus archivists to move in.  We can’t yet move our things into our temporary space because it is not yet ready.   This would only be half as frustrating if it weren’t for the fact that we will need to move everything again next summer.  Boy do I hope the new building is ready!

I picked S up from school and let him play briefly with his friend, but not for long.  Very chilly and damp today.  S is very excited about summer vacation and he asked about vacation as we walked home.  We looked on-line at Busch Gardens in Virginia since he said he was interested in the beach.  He was not really thrilled with what he saw and seemed much more interested in Colonial Williamsburg.  Fine by me, I’m more interested in Colonial Williamsburg too!  Well, one thing let to another (as on-line time frequently does) and next thing I know J is walking in the door and I haven’t even thought about dinner yet.  I had to work fast because S had his scout graduation tonight.  I grabbed some frozen quesadillas, tossed them in the oven.  In the fridge, plain left over white rice (I LOVE MY RICE COOKER!) and reheated it with a can of black beans from the pantry and a few seasonings.  Wow, what a good really fast meal it turned out to be.  It kind of blew my calorie count for the day (over by 300 ) but I did more physical work today than normal and cold damp weather always cranks up my appetite. It will probably even out just fine.  We finished up with enough time for homework and a little play time too.

Off to scout graduation.  Which was nice, not too organized, but under an hour!  Home, snack for S and bed!

Tomorrow, more mundane things, but hopefully I can get out to buy flowers for the yard.  The weather man says it will be a nice day.