Corn, Avocado and Tomato Salad with Honey Lime Dressing

I made this Grilled Corn Avocado Tomato Salad with Honey Lime Dressing tonight.

I found the recipe on Facebook and as I had a very ripe avocado sitting on the counter, it was  perfect for dinner.

It was delicious and something I highly recommend.

Here is the recipe:

GRILLED CORN, AVOCADO AND TOMATO w/ HONEY LIME DRESSING

1 pint grape tomatoes

1 ripe avocado

2 ears of fresh sweet corn

2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

Honey Lime Dressing

Juice of 1 lime

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp honey

Sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste

1 clove garlic, minced

Dash of cayenne pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Grilled Corn, Avocado and Tomato Salad

Remove husks from corn and grill over medium heat for 10 minutes. The corn should have some brown spots and be tender and not mushy. Cut the corn off the cob then scrape the cob with the back of your knife to get the juices. Set aside and let cool. Slice the tomatoes in half. Dice the avocado and chop the cilantro.

Honey Lime Dressing

1.     Add all the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.

2.     Combine the sliced tomatoes, avocado, cilantro and grilled corn and honey lime dressing and mix gently so everything is evenly coated. Be careful not to mash the avocados. Let the salad sit for 10-15 minutes to let flavors mingle

I did make a few alterations.  First, I didn't want to heat up the grill for two ears of corn, so I just cut the corn off the cob and sauté the corn in some olive oil until I got a few brown bits of corn.  I also used parsley instead of cilantro as I have a "certified" cilantro hater in the house.  And, finally…no cayenne as the cilantro hater is also not a fan of "heat".  I think he has a sensitive palate.

And here is what I served with the salad:

This is the world's best sandwich.  It's a salmon BLT on Ciabatta roll.  Oh my goodness.  Oh my goodness.

So wonderful and so messy,  but worth every bite.

Happy Friday everyone.

Yeah Sunshine

Finally able to bring out the toes from hiding.  It's been a long, long time since they've seen the sunshine.  Welcome back to the land of the living little guys.

Now let's see if I can find the screens for the bedroom windows.

TTFN.

Roasting Vegetables

One of the best way to eat more vegetables is to make them taste better.  One of my favorite ways to enhance their flavor is by roasting them.  I only started roasting veggies in the last couple years.  It started slowly and has expanded to include quite a wide variety.

Basically, here's the process:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Rinse and dry your vegetable of choice.  Place on a rimmed cookie sheet.  Drizzle with Olive Oil and season well with salt (I prefer Kosher salt) and pepper.  Toss with your hands to make sure everything is evenly coated.

Roast until tender and slightly browned.  Use a large wooden spatula or metal flipper to toss the veggies once or twice during the roasting cycle.  This helps them to cook more evenly.

This process works with asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, beets, brussel sprouts and any other sturdy veg you would like to try.  Obviously, the larger the vegetable pieces the longer they will need to roast.  Asparagus will likely take 10 minutes whereas cauliflower can take 30 to 40.

I do have some modifications for certain veggies.

Beets:  As beets are a very messy veggie, I cut the top and bottom off the beet and place in individual foil packs (making the foil into boat like shapes).  I them add the oil and S&P.  I then seal them and put them on a rimmed cookie sheet.  These suckers take a long time to cook.  I usually like to give them an hour or so.  Once the are tender, I open the foil packs and them them cool.  You can then easily slide off the outer skin and then slice them into a bowl.  They heat up super easy in a microwave if they need to be warmed.

Cauliflower:  You can click on the following link to  find my full recipe for roasted cauliflower .  Essentially you roasting cauliflower with olive oil, garlic cloves, thyme sprigs and S&P.  In the final 10 minutes you top it with a little shredded parmesan.  The recipe really does work wonders for cauliflower (hint…I don't really like cauliflower any other way.)  Again, don't forget to toss the veggies once or twice during cooking.

Brussel Sprouts:  These are pretty much at the bottom of my veggie list, but if you sauté up some diced bacon, drain and set aside.  Then replace the olive oil with the bacon drippings and roast until tender and browned…even brussel sprouts can be yummy.  (Remember to toss the cooked sprouts with the diced cooked bacon.)

If you've never roasted a veggie before, I sincerely hope you give it a try.  I think you will like it.

Vegetables!

With the warmer weather just starting, it's been putting me in the garden state of mind and of course vegetables come quickly to mind.

I've decided my next few posts will be all about cooking vegetables.  Learning how to properly cook vegetables so that they are delicious has been one of my best accomplishments as a home cook.

We will talk about roasting veggies and sautéing veggies, so that they turn out yummy.  (Even brussel sprouts.)

Stay tuned.

What's in Your Camera??

I finally got around to transferring my latest batch of photos out of my camera.  Here's a little of what's been going on around the old farm.

I am completely obsessed with eggs at the moment.  Poached eggs in particular.  When in doubt…this is what's for dinner and I couldn't be happier.  (How happy am I that the I was able to capture the steam rising off the eggs.  Marvelous.)

We took care of Luke and Logan for a few days, so there were lots of these photos:

Luke is such a sweetie and he had a little cold too.

Logan sitting still.  A small miracle.

Logan found a new game.  Turn water on…turn water off.  Over and over and over.

Note Joey's location.  This is his favorite spot during lunch time.  He always knows to sit by the youngest member.  He gets a lot of snacks that way.

And here is another food adventure.  Barbecue chicken salad.  Yummy.

And finally, a moment with Gigi and Luke.  He is explaining "Pokeman" to Great Grandma.  She has no idea what he's talking about, but you'd never know that by her attention level.

Note to self…turn up the heat.  Mom looks like she's freezing.

Firehouse Rules

My favorite sandwich place has officially been replaced.  Firehouse Subs have taken over that corner of my heart that loves a hot sandwich.

It used to be Potbelly's, but they just don't measure up to Firehouse.  Since there is one is Rochester, I have now officially become a regular.  Even talking about it make me hungry and I just finished dinner.

I'm not exactly sure how many franchises exist…but if you get a chance give it a try.  Yum!

Monuments Men Movie Review

The Monuments Men

Grade:  B++

It has been way too long since I've done a movie review.  Shame on me.  It's not like there haven't been worthy movies in the past months.  There has.  Saving Mr Banks,  Philomena  and About Time come quickly to mind.  But since I missed the boat on those, I don't want to miss out on recommending The Monuments Men.

I loved this movie.  This is kind of a older style of a movie making.  It focuses on telling a great story like movies used to do in the 30's and 40's.  There were some elements that maybe missed the mark of great film-making, but sometimes the story is all that matters.

George Clooney plays Frank Stokes who leads a band of unlikely solders…museum curators, art historians, sculptors, architects, into France, Belgium, Germany after D-Day to search out and find the art stolen by the Nazi's during WWII.  And for the first time in our warring history…"to the victors go the spoils" did not apply.  The goal was to restore the art to the rightful owners.  Unheard of at the time.

I thought the actors did good jobs with their characters…George does come off a little too "George" if you know what I mean…BUT it is the beauty of the art that steals this movie.  It is unimaginable the vast caverns of paintings and statues that were taken from homes and museums across Europe.  Not to mention the art destroyed through ignorance and stupidity.

Go see this movie.  I promise you will enjoy and appreciate it.

Have some popcorn for me.

Birthday Card Crazy Part 1

It's February, which means it's time to make a bunch of birthday cards.  I'm posting the first batch today.  Hopefully I'll be able to get to the next batch by next week-end.

For this series, I decided to use some of the cards that I've "pinned" on Pinterest as my inspiration.

Here goes:

Inspiration….

My version…

Inspiration…

My version…

Inspiration…

My version…

Big thanks to Pinterest for being a constant source of ideas and a great place to put stuff I want to remember.