I am usually not a big soda fan but I almost always am tempted by the pretty glass bottles of Italian Blood Orange Soda, especially when it is hot outside. I think about some in a tall glass of ice (okay, sometimes with a little vodka in there too) and the next thing I know I have multiple bottles in my shopping cart.

Anyway, I’ve seen this type of soda at Trader Joe’s and Safeway so I bet I could find it where you live. Here is a fun thing to do with it.

You could, of course, also use regular orange soda.

Italian Blood Orange Float
Blood Orange Soda (figure about 1 cup per float)
Vanilla Frozen Yogurt or Ice Cream (a pint should yield four floats)

Scoop some ice cream or frozen yogurt into a tall glass. Two generous scoops works well. Pour in soda until it comes up to the top and foams. Mmmm…tastes like a Dreamsicle!

Hot! Hot! It is hot in Portland. About 99 Saturday and 95 today (Sunday). Thankfully, we are, hopefully back to the 80’s and 70’s (yay!) this coming week. I am not a fan of hot weather, which is one of the reasons that I wanted to move North, but we do get a handful of 90+ days each Summer. This is a nice recipe for those kind of days or any kind of day, really.

I wasn’t quite sure how they would turn out but I am happy to say that both jwa and I really liked these shrimp cakes. They are also a great use for a bag of frozen shrimp (defrosted) that you may have hanging around the freezer. Also, you can use panko for all of your breadcrumbs here, but personally, I kind of like to save my panko for breading-type applications and use regular, plain breadcrumbs for filler type uses. So, I used both type of crumbs here.

When I made these, I did a half recipe and got four nicely sized cakes, which along with a Spinach & Strawberry Salad, was a good amount for two people. The recipe as written below, should yield eight shrimp cakes.

New: Printable recipe pdf!

Shrimp Cakes
Adapted from Bon Appétit magazine
16 uncooked large shrimp (about 1 pound), peeled, deveined
1 large egg
1 green onion, chopped roughly
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp + 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 handful fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch of ground black pepper
1 cup plain breadcrumbs
1 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
2 tbsp (or more) peanut oil (or canola or olive oil — I used olive oil)

Coarsely chop shrimp in processor. Add egg, green onion, lemon juice, 1 tablespoon mustard, cilantro, hot pepper sauce, salt, and pepper. Blend in using on/off turns. Add 1 cup of plain breadcrumbs and blend in using on/off turns. Form mixture into eight 4-inch-diameter cakes.

If you don’t have a food processor, I don’t see why you couldn’t chop the shrimp by hand and then mix it in with all the other ingredients.

Place on a parchment lined baking sheet or plate and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.

Brush half of the remaining mustard on one side of each cake and dip in panko. Brush other side with mustard and repeat with the panko so that both sides are coated.

Heat 2 tablespoons of your oil of choice in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches (if needed), fry cakes until cooked through and golden brown on both sides, adding more oil to skillet as needed, about 6 - 7 minutes total. Serve with Lemon and Paprika Aioli.

Speaking of, this is a mighty tasty sauce. Originally, it was paired up with Fish Cakes (using halibut) but I figured it would work well for the shrimp cakes too. It really did!

Spicy Lemon and Paprika Aioli
3/4 cup mayonnaise
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp tomato paste
3/4 tsp smoked Spanish paprika (or 1/2 tsp Hungarian sweet paprika and 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper)*

Combine all ingredients in small bowl; whisk to blend. Season aioli to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

* But, really, imho, it is worth it to find yourself some Smoked Paprika because it is a little bit of awesome in a jar

My new goal is to post at least once a week. So sad. I was trying to figure out this morning why it is I’ve gotten lazy. Okay, one, because I’m kind of lazy. But also, (this would be point two) after having this blog for three (!!) years, most of the stuff I make around the house is not new. They are recipes that I’ve made and posted about before. There. I feel better now.

This is a great Summer meal. You could eat it all room temperature if it’s really hot or just have the sauce a little chilled. I used a little of my sauce as a quick marinade. I liked the way that worked as I also got grilled parsley and cilantro. Yes, cilantro. I added some of that to my chimichurri. If you don’t want to do that, just use all parsley!

New: Printable recipe pdf!

Grilled Halibut with Chimichurri
Adapted from a Gourmet Magazine recipe
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced shallot
1/2 tsp hot red-pepper flakes
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 (6- to 8-oz) halibut fillets

Whisk together the 1/3 cup olive oil, lemon juice, water, garlic, shallot, red-pepper flakes, and 1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper until salt has dissolved. Stir in parsley and cilantro. Let chimichurri stand 20 minutes.

Alternately, you can also do this in a food processor. That’s what I did as I wanted a finer consistency to my herbs and I was not really wanting to chop them finely.

Meanwhile, prepare grill for direct-heat cooking over medium-hot charcoal (medium heat for gas). Or, set your trusty grill pan over medium high heat.

Now, I took about 1/4 of my chimichurri sauce and spread it over the halibut before cooking. I let it sit for about 10 minutes. If you don’t do this, brush a little extra olive oil on the fish and give it some salt and pepper before cooking.

Oil grill rack, then grill fish, covered only if using a gas grill, turning once, until just cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes total. In my grill pan, I found about 5 minutes per side on medium to medium-high was good.

Serve fish drizzled with some of chimichurri; serve remainder on the side. Also on the side here is some whole wheat couscous and chopped cherry tomatoes.

First off, this was amazingly good. I mean I expected it to be tasty but it totally and completely surpassed my expectations. Especially the slaw. And it is finally almost Summer here in Portland. Woo!

Hey — I just realized that while I halved the steak and the slaw portions below, I made a full recipe of the marinade. Hmmm, I used some of that to brush on the meat while cooking, but I probably didn’t need as much marinade as I had, so I think the ratios below are just fine. And, I let the steak marinate in the fridge for about 5 hours. Reviews on epicurious.com also mentioned letting it go overnight. Good advice, I will probably do that next time.

New: Printable recipe pdf!

Grilled Asian Flank Steak with Sweet Slaw
Adapted from Bon Appétit
1/4 cup soy sauce
5 tbsp vegetable oil
5 tsp minced peeled fresh ginger, divided*
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1 1 1/2-pound flank steak
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
1-2 red jalapeños, diced finely
1/2 tsp orange zest
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
10 ounces of shredded cabbage mix
1/2 cup chopped green onions, divided

Mix soy sauce, oil, 3 teaspoons ginger, and garlic in resealable plastic bag. Add flank steak and seal bag; turn to coat. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes, turning occasionally. Or marinate up to overnight in the refrigerator.

Stir sugar and vinegar in small saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves; remove from heat. Add jalapeños and remaining 2 teaspoons ginger. Place cabbage, cilantro, orange zest and green onions in medium bowl. Pour vinegar mixture over and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Let stand while grilling steak, tossing occasionally.

Prepare barbecue (medium heat) or a grill pan over medium-high heat. Grill steak until cooked to desired doneness, about 6 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer to work surface. Let rest 10 minutes.

Slice steak thinly against grain and serve with the slaw. Use extra cilantro as a garnish if desired.

* I keep my ginger peeled and in the freezer in 1-inch pieces. This works well for me and I always have usable ginger in the house. Here I used a microplane grater to deal with the ginger quickly, which is fast becoming my favorite way to mince ginger.

So, if I post this today, maybe there will be an asparagus recall tomorrow? Originally, this was just an asparagus lasagna but i had some chicken sausage to add to it. Thus, making it Asparagus & Chicken Sausage Lasagna.

There was also, in the original, heavy cream that was whipped and spread on the top of the lasagna before baking. I was really intrigued by that but I opted to just use the goat cheese sauce for the whole thing. But at some point, I will whip some cream and bake it on the top of something, just you wait.

And it’s a good thing it has been cold here lately. Perfect lasagna weather! Although, I think we will be sunny and in the 70’s today.

Asparagus & Chicken Sausage Lasagna
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine
2 pounds medium asparagus, trimmed
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
4 chicken sausages, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 shallot, diced
Salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups chicken broth, heated
1/2 cup water, heated
5 ounces mild goat cheese, such as Montrachet
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest, or to taste
no boil lasagna sheets for 4 layers of noodles — I used about 8 full sheets (mine were about 4 X 6 inches) and 2 halved sheets
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Cut the tips off each asparagus spear and reserve half of them them. Cut the stalks of asparagus into 1/2-inch lengths.

If your asparagus is of varying sizes, use one pan for the thinner stalks and one pan for the larger stalks. That way, you can take the thinner stalks out of the oven first. In each of 2 large shallow baking pans toss half the asparagus stalks (and half the total spears) with 1/2 tablespoon of the oil, and salt and roast them, shaking the pans every few minutes, until they are crisp-tender, about 5 to 7 minutes. Set them aside. Lower oven temperature to 400 degrees F.

Heat a pan with the remaining tablespoon of oil and add the onion and garlic with a little salt. Add the sausage and cook until done. Or, if your sausage is fully cooked (mine was), just get it to brown a little. Set aside.

In a saucepan melt the butter, add the flour, and cook the roux over moderately low heat, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add the broth and the water in a stream, whisking, simmer the mixture for 5 minutes, and whisk in the goat cheese, zest, and salt, to taste, whisking until the sauce is smooth.

Ladle a little sauce into the bottom of your 9 X 13 inch, oiled pan. Arrange 1 layer of pasta and spread each sheet with 1/4 of the sauce.

Top the sauce with 1/3 of the reserved roasted asparagus and sausage mixture and sprinkle with 1/4 cup of the Parmesan.

Continue to layer the pasta, sauce, asparagus, sausage and Parmesan in the same manner, ending with sheets of pasta. So, you will have the bottom sheet of pasta, three layers of asparagus/sausage/sauce and a final pasta cover. Ladle on the rest of your sauce.

Add the remaining asparagus tips to the top and any super skinny stalks of asparagus if you had any. Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan on top.

Bake* the lasagna in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes, or until it is golden and bubbling, and let it stand for 10 minutes before serving.

* I made this in advance of baking it, storing it in the fridge for about 6 hours. I let it sit at room temperature before baking for about 45 minutes. I found that I needed to add about 5-7 minutes to the cooking time above.

This month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge is all about salads. The theme was picked by Mike of Mel’s Diner and he’s hosting this month. Yay, Mike! This theme sounds like a job for my newest cookbook, How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rosetto Kasper and Sally Swift. You know, The Splendid Table people.

This was one of the first recipes in here I saw and really, really wanted to try. So this WCC was the perfect excuse. I put a few arugula leaves on the bottom of my tomato stack to make it more salad-y. I also made about a half recipe of the vinaigrette (but with one full garlic clove) for two tomatoes. It worked well.

Both jwa and I liked this a lot and I am looking forward to making this with tomatoes from the garden. In like, September.

Ripe Tomato Stack with Pine Nuts & Mozzarella
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper
pinch red pepper flakes
1/3 medium red onion, diced (I used a sweet onion because that’s all I had)
3 tbsp dried currants
salt
2 tbsp (tightly packed) fresh basil leaves, torn
2/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
6 medium, ripe tomatoes
1 lb fresh mozzarella, packed in liquid, sliced 1/2 inch thick
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

In a small bowl combine the lemon juice, garlic, pepper, pepper flakes, onion, currants, and alt to taste. Let the mixture stand for 20-30 minutes. Just before assembling, stir in the basil and all byt 1/4 cup pine nuts.

Core the tomatoes. I was slightly confused about this but then I took out my apple corer, shrugged and used that. If you don’t have a corer, you could probably just use a shape knife to get the core out of the top of the tomato. I was just excited to use my apple corer and see how it would work with a tomato.

Cut each tomato horizontally into 1/2 inch thick slices. You should try to have the same number of slices for each tomato. I found it was helpful to have everything sliced up and ready to go (mise en place, if you will) for easier assembly.

Put the bottom slice of each on a plate and season with salt. Add a mozzarella slice, and about a teaspoon of the vinaigrette. Add another slice of tomato and continue in the fashion until you use the last slice of tomato.

Sprinkle the tomatoes with the reserved pine nuts and the olive oil. Serve at room temperature.

”

It may fall over…it’s still good. Thanks again to Mel’s Diner for hosting this month!

Yep, the post we’ve all been fearing. No, not really! It’s just taken some time to get the photos and then I got distracted trying to get some MyPublisher books together and I forgot to post here. Oops.

First off, our awesome photographer was Christina Gilchrist and we loved her. Her prices were reasonable and in the range we wanted to pay, her travel fees for Astoria were also totally reasonable, she was super nice and fun and we really like our photos. So, there you go. All of the pictures here (unless otherwise noted) are the ones she took. Grade: A

The Hotel Elliott was a pleasant surprise. Not that I didn’t think it would work out well, but, man, they were so laid back and pretty much an all-around pleasure to work with throughout the last year. Plus, the rental fees for the rooftop and wine bar were really good ($150 each) and although we had to book the Presidential Suite to use the rooftop for the wedding, it worked out to still be much cheaper (and nicer) than a lot of places we looked at. And it included an awesome room. Grade: A

The food was provided by Bridgewater Bistro in Astoria. They were also great to work with over the last year. I would definitely recommend them to anyone looking for wedding catering in Astoria. The rooftop appetizers were just amazing (I loved-loved-loved the tuna and the walnut crackers with pepper jelly and rogue blue). The crab salad, soup and cake were also great. There were a couple of small things — a missing salad course, no asparagus with the chicken and the broken cake topper (although, I did predict this might happen) but in the big scheme of things, we’re good with it all. They were down one person (Ann, whose non-presence perhaps made a difference) but hey, I’m still pretty pleased with it all. Grade: B

My favorite part of the ceremony? When we started to walk down the aisle, I thought I was going to start crying. Then, jwa stepped on my dress and I burst out laughing. I was able to smile and laugh my way through the rest of the ceremony from that point on.

Barbara Beach performed the ceremony and to be honest we first picked her because she was in Seaside and we wouldn’t have to pay travel costs. (Hello? Some of the Portland people we talked to wanted hundreds of dollars to travel and a hotel room for the night. For a 6PM ceremony. WTF? It’s a 2 hour drive between Astoria and Portland, even if you left by 7pm, you’d be home by 9pm.) Anyway, as it turns out, Barbara was great! We met with her when we first started working with her and she was always super responsive to emails and questions. She even gave us a keepsake folder of our ceremony afterwards and stayed to have a glass of champagne and a snack or two. Grade: A

Effesenden Music played a bit before the ceremony and for the rooftop cocktail hour. They were awesome and Wendy is really nice and great to work with. They played all of our requests and nicely filled in the playlist with songs that went with the mood we were going for (fun and relaxed?) I think we accidentally got the proper Pachelbel Canon in D instead of the fiddley, bluegrass sounding one, but not a huge deal. I also could have been too nervous to hear it correctly (probably the case). They played Beestung (Kristin Hersh) and Amen (Jolie Holland) and how cool is it to look across the rooftop, meet your husband’s eyes, and smile at each other in recognition to the Firefly theme song being played at your wedding? Grade: A

Let’s see, what else? Oh! My bouquet! I loved my bouquet! Lavish Flora in Portland made it for me. At one time I was thinking of doing it myself but I changed my mind about that. I really wanted those swirly little monkey tail/fiddlehead fern things and had no idea where to get any. No problem, Adria is a professional. She has, like, connections and stuff. I got my monkey tail! Plus, she has such an awesome house. And she even gave us some free, bonus flowers (orchids) for the table and made a great looking boutonniere for jwa. Grade: A

I’ve already spoken about my dress. But, yes, I got it at Tres Fabu. I ordered it about a year before the wedding and thankfully I had no problems. I also picked it up when it came in and stored it at home. I got it altered elsewhere. Yes, the owner of TF is pretty offensive. She basically accused me of not trusting them to store my dress for 9 months when I came in to pick it up (well, duh. Plus, you know, it is my dress and I’ve paid for it, why wouldn’t I want to take it home?) If I could do it all over again, I would have gone to other places and looked more but it worked out fine for me. Whew.

I bought a birdcage veil form a very nice woman in Texas but I ended up just not wearing it. I didn’t wear anything in my hair/on my head. If I could do that part over again as well, I might have tried to make an appointment somewhere to have someone try to fashion a non-crazy, simple bridal hair look for my head but, in the big scheme of things, not a big deal to me.

Little things I was very pleased with: my shoes (Amazon, $30), the tulips from Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm, the finger puppet place cards we made from Unemployed Philosopher’s Guild puppets (and wooden wheels and dowel rods from Michaels), my friend Vanessa reading an excerpt from I Like You, my purse from zappos and the table runner my mom made for the table.

We used jwa’s laptop and an itunes mix for dinner. Featuring all kinds of stuff including: When I Held Your Brains in my Arms - MST3k, I’ll Never Tell (too bad they pulled the video, but the audio is still there) - Once More with Feeling Buffy Soundtrack, Goodbye California - Jolie Holland, some Ida, Mark Lanegan, Unbunny, Throwing Muses and Polyester Bride - Liz Phair.

Another thing I loved about the Elliott was the second bedroom in the Presidential Suite that led out to the rooftop.

Oh and the last thing — the weather! It was sunny! In Astoria! In early May! All day! Hooray! Grade: A++

I am not scared of making substitutions in recipes. That might be either a good or bad thing, I’m not sure. For instance, the original recipe here called for bread flour and rye flour. What did I use? AP flour and wheat flour. Eh, why not?! Anyway, I was pretty pleased with the results.

This bread is very good but it is also very dense. I typically read the reviews on Epicurious before I make something, but I was so excited by the combination of figs and fennel seeds, that I forgot to this time. I wish I had as I would have known to let it rise much longer. One review said 3 hours on the first rise, others suggested letting it go overnight. Others said to let it rise in the loaf forms in the fridge overnight. All super good suggestions.

At one and a half hours mine barely made it to double the size for the first rise. But, I shrugged and kept going. Second rise gave it only a bit more volume, but in the name of science (science, people!), I carried on.

The result? A nice chewy crust a few minutes out of the oven. Slightly sweet and slightly savory taste. Great slathered with some goat cheese. I think this is one of those recipes that I will definitely make again and tweak a bit. I like using wheat flour but I might get bread flour for next time. And I will definitely give it 3 hours on the first rise and maybe rise the loaves in the fridge overnight before baking. If you make this and try any of these suggestions, let me know how it works out for you!

Fig and Fennel Bread
From Bon Appétit Magazine, recipe makes two 12-inch-long loaves
1 1/4 cups warm water (105°F to 115°F)
1 tbsp sugar
1 envelope dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
3 cups bread flour (Or AP works too if you are too lazy to go to the store)
1 8-ounce package dried Calimyrna or Mission figs, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 cup rye flour (I used whole wheat flour)
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp salt

Mix 1 1/4 cups warm water, sugar, and yeast in small bowl. Let stand until mixture bubbles, about 10 minutes.

Combine bread (or AP) flour, 3/4 cup figs, rye or wheat flour, fennel seeds, and salt in large bowl of heavy-duty mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Mix using lowest speed; gradually add yeast mixture, mixing until all flour has been incorporated (or to mix by hand, stir vigorously with wooden spoon until dough comes together).

Replace paddle with dough hook and knead until smooth and elastic (or to knead by hand, transfer dough to floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes).

Place dough in oiled bowl; turn to coat. Cover with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel and let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 1 hour. (I let mine go for 90 minutes but you may want to give it more time).

Turn dough out onto work surface and knead gently until deflated. Knead in remaining 3/4 cup figs. Cut dough in half; shape each piece into 12-inch-long loaf. Brush rimmed baking sheet with oil; transfer loaves to sheet, spacing apart.

Cover with plastic, then kitchen towel; let rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, about 35 minutes. Again, you may want to modify this with a longer time.

Preheat oven to 375F. Bake bread until crust is golden and loaves sound hollow when tapped, about 45 minutes. Cool bread on rack. If you want to be super scientific, you are looking for 200 degrees F on a thermometer, or so says Caprial and John’s Kitchen, what I just happened to be watching while my bread was in the oven. I figure they probably know about these things.