Breakfasts and Lunch

This is what Mac and I had for breakfast on Saturday. Ina calls it a Breakfast Fruit Crunch. It's strawberries, blueberries, and pineapple layered with low fat plain yogurt (she calls for regular yogurt, of course) and homemade granola, which I now love. I had no idea how easy it is to make homemade granola, and it is so worth it! This one has oats, coconut, almonds and honey.
We stopped in to Dirk's Fish to get some tuna I planned to make. But then I saw the soft-shelled crabs!! What says summer more than a soft-shelled crab sandwich? Nothing! I strayed from the Barefoot at Home cookbook to the Back to Basics to get Ina's outstanding sandwich recipe. We ate our sandwiches out on the balcony and enjoyed the beautiful summer weather. The breading has pecans actually ground into it, which I think helped to make it so good. I'll never be able to order this out again, because this one was so amazing!So I ended up not making the tuna for dinner, but I did make a blueberry crumb cake for breakfast. I already planned to share most of this breakfast with my cousins who live nearby, because it would be too dangerous to have that sitting around here. It wouldn't last long! Their absolutely beautiful baby, Annie, loves blueberries so I thought they might share - or not ;). I was able to make this crumb cake, because some lovely dears just bought me the 9" cake pans on my registry. Thanks ladies!

The recipes I used in this post:

Breakfast Fruit Crunch

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/fruit-crunch-sundae-recipe/index.html

Soft-Shelled Crab Sandwich

*Not available online currently, but in Barefoot Contessa, Back to Basics cookbook.

Blueberry Crumb Cake

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/blueberry-crumb-cake-recipe/index.html

In the kitchen lately...

Here's the Pavlova from Thursday night. It was delicious, easy and light!

Last night for dinner we had lamb kebabs with pine nut couscous. I haven't made lamb very much, so I was excited to try it. The recipe calls for Top Round Lamb, and I didn't know what that was, but the butcher at Whole Foods was very friendly and explained that it's the biggest muscle of the lamb leg, and it's very lean. They weren't selling any Top Round by itself, but the butcher was nice enough to cut the Top Round out of one of the whole lamb legs they were selling. Love him!

I cut the lamb in cubes and marinated it overnight in a very aromatic mixture that included olive oil, garlic, red wine, vinegar, rosemary, and thyme. The lamb cubes went on the skewers with red onion pieces. The recipe also tells you to grill some cherry tomato kebabs which were very tasty! The couscous was flavorful and perfect to accompany the lamb - the toasted pine nuts gave a fun crunch. Those are also currants in the couscous. In the green ramekin is a sauce for the lamb made with chicken stock, olive oil, lemon juice, rosemary and salt and pepper. It was great for dipping the lamb over pouring over the couscous.

Woops!!! I was so excited about eating the Peach and Blueberry Crumble that I forgot to take a picture! Here it is a little more than half way finished...you can tell how I felt about it.

PS Love my new apron!

Recipes from dinner last night:

Lamb Kebabs - This online recipe tells you to use yogurt in the lamb marinade, but the recipe I used from the cookbook does not. Your choice!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/marinated-lamb-kebabs-recipe/index.html

Couscous with Pine Nuts

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/couscous-with-pine-nuts-recipe/index.html

Peach and Blueberry Crumble

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/peach-and-blueberry-crumbles-recipe/index.html

Summer Garden Pasta and Broccolini

The pasta is light and delicious! The recipe tells you to marinate halved cherry tomatoes in good olive oil (I have some good stuff from Williams-Sonoma, purchased off the registry...), garlic, julienned basil, crushed red pepper flakes, and salt for four hours. So around 2:30 I began marinating the cherry tomatoes, and we sat down to eat around 7:30. Once you've cooked the angel hair pasta you just have to drain it and throw it in the bowl with the cherry tomatoes and mix it up! Add some parmesan cheese once you put it in the bowl. Yum! I'll definitely make this again :).

I don't know why I don't use broccolini more often! It was delicious tonight with a balsamic vinaigrette and a little squeeze of lemon at the end. And! You have to love that it's great warm or cold.

Stay tuned for dessert that's in the oven! It's called Mixed Berry Pavlova. It's a meringue disc that's covered with whipped cream and then topped with raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries. The berries are mixed with a raspberry syrup and each serving is drizzled as well. Normally serves 6, but I was able to halve the recipe pretty easily - which I love.

The recipes I used tonight can be found online at:

Broccolini

http://www.foodnetwork.com/search/delegate.do?fnSearchString=broccolini+with+balsamic+vinaigrette&fnSearchType=site

Mixed Berry Pavlova

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/mixed-berry-pavlova-recipe/index.html

The pasta is not online currently, but it is in the Barefoot at Home cookbook.

Tomorrow I'll be making lamb kebabs with couscous, and maybe some other surprises!