After being a vegetarian for many, many years, I surprise even myself sometimes with how much I love fish.  And not just sushi — I like it cooked but tender, seared and crispy at the edges, like this recipe.  A year ago, salmon was barely on my radar, and now it’s one of the few non-veggie dishes that’s part of my regular rotation.

This recipe is everything that’s wonderful about spring.  I’ve sung the virtues of fresh corn many times on this blog, and this season is no exception. The first time those green un-shucked ears appeared in the market, it was all I could do to stop myself from buying the whole carton.  If you’re thinking of an elegant summer dinner party sometime soon, I’m sure that your guests will love this dish as much as I do.

Now just pair it with some spring garlic bruschetta and some fresh, seasonal homemade rhubarb ice cream, and you’ve got yourself a pretty impressive summer meal. Do I hear July Fourth calling? I thought so…

Salmon with Fresh Corn and Pepper Salad Recipe

INGREDIENTS

For the salad:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup fresh corn kernels (from about 1 ear), boiled for about 5 minutes
1 red bell pepper, diced
Juice of one lime
Salt
Pepper

For the salmon:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp mayonnaise
2 6-ounce salmon fillets
Salt
Pepper

DIRECTIONS

In a small bowl, mix together the corn, pepper, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, toss to coat evenly. Set aside.

Spread a thin layer of mayonnaise over the salmon filets, sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Saute the salmon filets in olive oil over medium-high heat for about 6-8 minutes, or until the fish flakes with a fork. Transfer the salmon filets to a platter, and spoon the corn mixture over them. Serve.

Katy: I’m hungry.

Chad: Are you serious?

Katy: I didn’t eat that much for brunch.  I just had that little salad.

Chad: Why do you do that?  You always order some salad and then you’re hungry again half an hour later.  We go out to brunch so that you won’t be hungry.

Katy:  [Silence.]  But, um.  I’m hungry.

It’s conversations like this that make you think, hmmm.  Maybe I am doing something wrong.

Some people over-order at restaurants.  Their eyes are bigger than their stomachs, or they are just poor decision-makers, or everything just looks too good to choose just one thing.  I, unfortunately, tend to be the opposite.  Faced with an abundance of choices, I always go for the daintiest choice, the one that is least likely to hold me over to the next meal. It is becoming a serious problem.

So when I cook for myself, I tend to do the exact opposite.  Hence, this gorgeous artichoke chicken, that is hearty and delicious and will not leave you hungry again in forty five minutes.  And for something this decadent looking, it is not even particularly unhealthy.  Full of flavor and pretty enough to serve to guests, this is about as perfect a meal as I could imagine.

Who knows?  Maybe if I saw it on a menu, I would even order it.

Artichoke Crusted Chicken Recipe

INGREDIENTS
2 six-ounce chicken breasts, pounded thin
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup artichoke hearts, drained and chopped (I used canned artichoke hearts, but frozen ones that have been thawed would be fine)
1/3 cup grated white cheddar cheese
Salt
Pepper

DIRECTIONS
Salt and pepper the chicken and then sauté each chicken breast in 1 tbsp olive oil on medium-high heat, for about 8-10 minutes, flipping once, or until the juices run clear when pierced with a fork. Set aside.

Mix together the mayonnaise, artichoke hearts and cheddar cheese until evenly distributed. Spread the mixture over the sauteed chicken breasts, and then broil at 400 degrees for about 3 minutes. Do not take your eyes off them — broiling can lead to burning faster than you can imagine. When the cheese is melted and bubbling and the tops are golden, remove and serve.

Serves 2.

I have a really cool (I think, at least!) post coming up later this week, but I realized I’ve been very heavy with the style posts and light on food posts lately!  So I wanted to squeeze in this awesome, super easy panini recipe before I did.  There’s something much more special, to me, about a panini as compared to a regular sandwich.  In the extra few minutes it takes to quickly grill it, you suddenly have a warm, delicious meal that doesn’t feel everyday.  And what cheese isn’t better melted?

These are a pain to cut once they’re cooked, but if you can do it patiently and neatly, I think this might actually make a cute appetizer for a party, sliced into strips!  If not, they’re a perfect, easy, healthy lunch.  And aren’t you relieved that for once I posted something healthy?  I don’t actually live on chocolate fudge and meringues, I promise.

Turkey, Provolone and Apple Panini Recipe

INGREDIENTS
2 large ciabatta rolls
1/4 pound turkey
4 thick slices provolone cheese, sliced
1/2 an apple, thinly sliced
Olive oil

DIRECTIONS

Slice the ciabatta roll in half and fill with the sliced apples, provolone and turkey.  Brush olive oil over the top and bottom of the sandwich, and grill in a panini press for about five minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the tops are marked.  Cut in half, and serve.

Makes 2 sandwiches.

Sometimes the simplest meals are the best. Really, when you have pasta, chicken, good cheese and tomatoes, do you really need much else? Probably not. This site has been really focused on dessert recipes lately, and while I love a great recipe for candy or cookies or cake as much as the next girl (probably more, in fact), every once in a while I have to throw in something healthy and substantial.

Also, for those of you who commented on last week’s Splurge or Steal post, the “Steal” cocktail ring is the one on the right! It’s $4.80 from Forever 21. The other is gorgeous too, and it’s from Max and Chloe, available here. Enjoy!

Pasta with Tomatoes and Mozzarella Recipe

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 pounds plum tomatoes, seeded, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes, chopped
8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into strips
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp capers
1 pound chicken breast, cooked and cut into pieces
12 ounces rotini pasta
Salt
Pepper

DIRECTIONS

Mix tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, mozzarella, capers and oil in medium bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender. Drain the pasta and return the noodles to the pot. Add the chicken and the tomato mixture and toss gently over low heat, until everything is heated through. Season with salt and pepper again and serve.

Sometimes, the simplest meals are the best.  Bread and cheese is one of those examples, and this sandwich is only a slight step beyond that.  Perfect for lunch on a day where it’s just starting to get chilly and you want something warm and hearty that you don’t have to slave all day over.  And there’s something a little more special about paninis, compared to plain old turkey sandwiches.

The New York City marathon is in a few more weeks, and although I’m not running this year, just thinking about it makes me remember all the days of turkey salads and turkey sandwiches I ate when my vegetarian diet wasn’t cutting it.  I still eat mostly vegetarian dishes now, as I’m sure you can tell from reading this site, but I have a soft spot in my heart for all those turkey lunches.  And good luck to everyone who is running this year!

Also, in case anyone has been having trouble finding old recipes, I have *finally* updates the archives!  So check out all my old recipes here, or old style posts here.  If there’s something you’ve been trying to find and couldn’t do it using the search function, try there.

Turkey, Tomato and Brie Panini Recipe

INGREDIENTS
2 large ciabatta rolls
1/4 pound turkey
4 ounces brie cheese, sliced
2 plum tomatoes, sliced
Olive oil

DIRECTIONS

Slice the ciabatta roll in half and fill with the tomatoes, brie and turkey.  Brush olive oil over the top and bottom of the sandwich, and grill in a panini press for about five minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the tops are marked.  Cut in half, and serve.

Makes 2 sandwiches.

Let me tell you, I had a happy husband when these came out of the oven.

And what’s even better?  They’re actually good for him.  Usually, when Chad orders chicken fingers at a restaurant, all I can think about is that giant vat of oil in the back that’s frying them up.  Meanwhile, he thinks he’s making a healthy choice — sigh.

So one of the things I put on my Labor Day weekend recipe list was a homemade chicken finger recipe, and I will say, crusted with panko and dusted with a little garlic powder, they are a major step up from those greasy, deep fried slabs of dried out meat you’ll order at restaurants (you *know* they don’t save the good parts of the chicken for the fried dishes).

If you have picky kids and are concerned about them developing unhealthy food habits, these are easy to make and completely delicious.  The panko mimics the crispiness that usually comes from frying, so these turn out crunchy out the outside, hearty on the inside, and totally delicious.  One trick for getting extra crispiness when you’re baking these  instead of frying: bake them on a wire rack so the air can circulate above and below the chicken fingers — that way you won’t have mushy spots where they sat on the baking sheet.  Serve them with this homemade honey mustard, or your favorite barbeque sauce!

Oven-Baked Chicken Fingers with Honey Mustard Recipe

INGREDIENTS

For the Chicken Fingers:
1/2 pound chicken cutlets, pounded thin and cut into strips
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup panko
1 tbsp garlic powder
2 tsp salt

For the Honey Mustard:
1/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp mustard
2 tbsp honey

DIRECTIONS

For the Chicken Fingers:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Place the beaten egg on one plate for breading, and the panko on another plate. For each chicken strip, dip it first in the egg, and then in the panko, and place it on a wire rack over a baking sheet (like what you would use to cool cookies). If you don’t have a rack, just place the chicken directly on a baking sheet, but you will need to turn them halfway through baking. Sprinkle the garlic powder and salt across the chicken fingers.

Bake the chicken fingers for about 10 minutes, and then increase the heat to 450 degrees and bake for another 10 minutes. Serve warm, with honey mustard.

For the Honey Mustard:
Whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard and honey, and serve immediately or chill until ready to use.

Serves 2.

Ah, August.

It didn’t seem this year, like you’d ever come.  The weather, as I’ve complained here so regularly, was April rain for the entire month of June, and I missed July on my honeymoon.

But August I’ve seen.  August has come in full force this year.

For all of you non-New Yorkers, August in Manhattan is sort of a phenomenon.  Everyone you know is out of town from Friday to Sunday, so good luck making plans or trying to host a dinner party.  You’ll go on a normal errand that you plan your weekend around, and you’ll find out that the store you were hoping to visit is, doh, shut down until Labor Day.  The sidewalks are so empty that you can actually walk through most neighborhoods without having to elbow your way past oncoming pedestrians, but you wouldn’t want to walk anywhere, because the city is so full of rank, muggy heat that you really can’t leave your apartment.

But, most important of all (arguably), the farmer’s market is full of cucumbers, bell peppers, and gorgeous, fresh husks of corn.   Can you guess where I’m going with this?

After picking up our CSA box and getting a grocery delivery early in the weekend, I actually conceived this salad without realizing that all the ingredients were sitting in my refrigerator, waiting to be assembled.  I breaded the scallops in panko and seared them for extra crispiness, and Chad, who is usually not the hugest scallop fan, actually went back for seconds on this.  If I’m totally honest with myself, I think he even liked it more than the peanut butter cake.  Men and their lack of sweet tooths, I will never understand it.

But I would happily serve this salad at a dinner party, once everyone comes back into town in September.  Hopefully the corn will still be around, because my future guests will really be missing out if I had to use frozen corn.  If you have to be stuck in New York City in August, at least we get a few perks.

Seared Scallop Salad Recipe

INGREDIENTS
3 cobs of corn, boiled and kernels cut off the cobs
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
1 large red bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoon white wine vinegar
8 large sea scallops, patted dry
1/2 cup panko
2 addition tbsp olive oil
Salt
Pepper

DIRECTIONS

Mix the cut corn kernels, cucumber, bell pepper, 3 tbsp olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and set aside. Divide the salad into four bowls for serving.

Dip the scallops in panko until lightly crusted.

Heat the additional 2 tbsp of olive oil (you don’t need to use extra virgin for this) in a large skillet over high heat. Sear the scallops for about 2-3 minutes on each side, or until they are cooked through. Place two scallops over the salad in each bowl, and serve warm or at room temperature.

Serves four.

I almost always prefer couscous to pasta. It’s easier to make, just as versatile, and no draining required.  And when it can be combined with two of my favorite veggie ingredients?  Yes, I think we’re done.

This isn’t a dish you’d serve to impress guests.  Frankly, it probably isn’t a dish you should post about on a food blog.  But it’s easy, simple, healthy and really good, and if that’s not the kind of food you’re proud of, then what is?

I’m back on Wednesday of this week, with honeymoon pictures to boot.  I’m writing this post up four days before the wedding, so I’m going to keep it short, but let’s hope that I’ve read a lot of good books, done a little writing, and gotten a fantastic tan over these two and a half honeymoon weeks.  And if it didn’t rain for the wedding?  That’s just icing on the cake.

Spinach and Mushroom Couscous

INGREDIENTS
1 box couscous
2 shallots, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 package fresh or frozen baby spinach (about 5 ounces, either way)
1 package baby bella mushrooms (about 12 ounces)
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt

DIRECTIONS
Cook the couscous according to the directions on the package (including 1 tbsp of olive oil), and set aside, covered, to keep warm.

At the same time, saute garlic and diced shallots in 3 tbsp olive oil. When fragrant, lower the heat and add spinach, musrooms and 1/4 cup water. Cook until the water burns off, the spinach wilts and the mushrooms are cooked. Add to cooked couscous and salt as needed, toss to combine, and serve.

Guess what I should probably not be eating three days before my last wedding dress fitting?  Um, this.  But seriously, I got a panini maker as a present at my bridal shower, and I have been itching to try it out.  When I had two leftover fresh figs in the fridge around lunchtime on a weekend, there wasn’t a chance on earth I was going to pass this idea up.

Yes, I’m writing this in advance.  I’m on my honeymoon for the next two weeks, but I’ve got you guys covered:  every few days, a new recipe will go up via WordPress’s auto-post function, and I will be coming back to all your lovely comments when I get home!  And just to show that I’m not posting my b-list recipes, even while I’m gone, I chose this one.

Because if you’re looking to splurge, even on a pre-wedding diet, this is it.  Fresh figs, some of the earliest in the season, great local bread, olive oil and a really good, oozy brie cheese.  Yes, four ingredients, and the result is an amazingly delicious, completely indulgent, but totally easy to make lunch.

And I will say in advance, that even having eaten this as a hearty, delicious lunch, I’m pretty sure I will still fit into that lovely dress.

Panini with Figs and Brie

INGREDIENTS
1 large ciabatta sandwich roll
2 fresh figs
4 ounces oozy brie cheese (I used fromage d’affinois)
Olive oil, for brushing

DIRECTIONS
Slice brie and figs thinly, and layer them over the bread.  Brush olive oil inside the bread, and on the top and bottom of the sandwich roll.  Grill on a panini press for about 4 minutes, or until the bread is toasted and cheese melted.  Cut in half and serve warm.

I’m very excited that this week, this site hit its millionth page view!

When I think about that, it sort of makes my head explode — the internet is really so amazing, and I constantly appreciate the fact that I get to reach so many people just by putting up my own photos and recipes.  When I get emails that people have actually tried and served my recipes, all across the country and throughout the world, it’s pretty much the quickest and easiest way to make my day.

One of the really exciting things about having a website is that it’s a slow process of regular growth.  Last year around this time, I was thrilled to get a hundred visitors a day — now it’s several thousand.  I’m thrilled to revisit this next year, and see how far I’ve come,

So, to celebrate, I’m posting a recipe that’s simple, fresh and perfect for the early days of summer.  I bought freshly made ricotta from the italian market near my apartment, but if you wanted to go all out, you could make your own with these instructions.  This is an easy, healthy weeknight dinner, and an excellent addition to your go-to recipe list.  And I’m excited for zucchinis and summer squash to come into season, but you could also make this with spinach or broccoli, if you want to convert it to a more wintery recipe.  Enjoy!

Last, but not least, the winners of the Singing Dog vanilla beans are comments #13 (AJ) and #50 (Katie) — I’ll be emailing later today for your addresses!

Pasta with Riccota and Zucchini

INGREDIENTS

1 box (1 lb) gemelli pasta, or similar
1 fresh zucchini, jullienned into 2″ slices
1 fresh yellow squash, julienned into 2″ slices
2 tbsp white wine
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup fresh ricotta
1 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon
Salt
Pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Cook pasta according to the directions on the box. drain it and reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water for sauce. In a separate saucepan, saute zucchini and squash in olive oil, then add the ricotta, white wine and tarragon and heat through. Add enough pasta water to thin out the sauce, then add salt and pepper to taste, and toss with the pasta. Serve.