We have one child. Dinnertime has been an evolving situation. When she was a baby, we made our own dinners, usually something relatively healthy, and gave her something she would eat. It was pretty easy for awhile. I could open the baby food jar, or as she got a little bit older, throw some eggs in a pan, or macaroni and cheese, pizza, applesauce, or some other “white” food she would eat. I realized as she got older that she needed to expand her horizons. I started to name the vegetables…”Ernie Green Beans!”, “Baby Bop Broccoli!”, and “Elmo Carrots!”. For some reason, that worked for awhile, and she would gobble them up, as long as they weren’t “spicy” (or in other words, as long as they were devoid of any kind of flavor). The only problem was that J wouldn’t eat the tasteless, watery vegetables that H liked. That meant I was still making at least two different dinners, but often three since J is a meat and potatoes man and I am almost a vegetarian. The short order cook phase lasted longer than I planned, but finally, we chartered a sailboat for a family vacation, when H was 8 years old. The boat came with a chef, who we all fell in love with…Chante’.

Chante’ was an incredible person…lovely, sweet, adventurous, hard working, inventive, and a wonderful chef. H was totally enthralled with her. The first meal she made for us was a beautiful Cranberry, Almond and Blue Cheese Quiche. H took one look at it and immediately asked for peanut butter and jelly. Chante’ made her a sandwich, lovingly, but I took H aside and mentioned that Chante’ was working so hard that we might need to at least try her dishes, before asking for something else. So that was it…suddenly, H was trying, and LOVING, tuna, lamb, snapper, shrimp, lobster, and all kinds of colorful vegetables that she had never tried before. H never looked back. She will now (at age 15) try anything at least once, and her palate is a lot more adventurous than either of her parents’.

So my job now became to coerce my husband to try new foods, especially vegetables other than potatoes, corn, or (cringe) canned wax beans. I roast vegetables two or three times a week, and onions, butternut squash, potatoes and asparagus are our favorites. J will eat the potatoes, onions, asparagus (as long as it’s overdone to the point of dry and crispy) and sometimes red peppers. I also steam green beans and saute with a little bit of butter and almonds and he’ll eat that. Until about two years ago, the only protein dishes he would eat included red meat, lamb chops, burned (seriously, black like charcoal) chicken, and sometimes swordfish. Now he’ll eat my sesame seed crusted Tuna, marinated shrimp, and thanks to our favorite restaurant in North Carolina, (The Brown Trout), Pecan Crusted Trout!

So now, after almost 18 years of marriage, every now and then I only prepare ONE thing for dinner, and we all eat it. Tonight was one of those rare times, and it was fabulous!

1 cup lightly toasted pecans, chopped (or any handful of nuts you have around the house)
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs (plain)
4 TBSP fresh parsley leaves, chopped
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 TBSP chopped rosemary leaves (or 1 tsp. dried)
4 trout fillets
4 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
Spray butter

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Combine all the dry ingredients, seasonings, and herbs. Brush each trout fillet with the softened butter. Sprinkle the buttered side of each fillet with the pecan topping and press firmly with your hand to completely cover each fillet. (J likes his Cajun style, so I will sprinkle his with Emeril’s Cajun spice mix also). Spray each crumb topped fillet with spray butter to moisten.

Brush a foil lined baking pan with the remaining butter. Place the unbuttered side of the trout (skin side down) on the pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the flesh is firm and flaky.

God, what a weekend.

Friday night we went to the MBA/Ensworth football game. Two rival private high schools here in town that had huge stakes in the game. Both teams were undefeated. The Ensworth head coach was the MBA coach for years until he left about 6 years ago to defect to Ensworth, which added the high school to it’s K-8th grade lower school. My friend’s son plays for Ensworth, so we went to support them. Ensworth wasn’t favored to win, but they pulled it out in an unbelievably close game. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill sat in the section next to us…they’re huge supporters of the school. At one point, cute Faith walked up the stairs, right towards me, smiling her cute little smile, looking a little more confused with every step, until she stopped next to me and realized she’d come up the wrong section. She had no makeup on, her hair was up in a bun, and she still looked radiant. Oh well.

J had a couple of clients in town for the weekend. We had dinner reservations to take them out Saturday night, but our very close friends were having a huge party that night as well. She was kind of passive-aggressively giving us a hard time, pretending she was kidding, but not really, about us not being there for the party. So we went by there early, had a drink, then took the clients to dinner for many bottles of wine and champagne (and a little bit of food, I think), then went back to their house for the end of the party. I was a little cold, so I grabbed this yummy blanket that my friend had knitted and wrapped myself up in it. A few minutes later, my eyes started itching. I had the sinking realization that her cat probably liked this blanket, too. I forget that I have developed this really weird allergy to cats that makes my whole face, eyes, mouth, and cheeks swell up like a balloon. And itch. Like you wouldn’t believe. As I started clawing at my face to relieve the itching, my eyes swelled almost shut. I went home to take benadryl and put cold compresses on my face, and by the morning it was almost back to normal. But I feel like I was put through a meat grinder. I wish I had taken a photo to document my loveliness, but here’s reasonable likeness to what I looked like. Pretty.

Last night we had the clients and their wives over for a small dinner party. The weather this weekend was so glorious. Low 80’s during the day, high 70’s at night, clear skies and no humidity. The clients are from Oregan, and this was their first visit to Tennessee. Now they think we have this weather all the time. It made Nashville look good. I made sesame seed crusted Tuna (seared on the grill), Israeli couscous salad, green beans, and a romaine/cranberry/toasted pecans salad with feta cheese and strawberry basil vinaigrette. It was probably the best meal we’ve cooked all summer. J’s roses were in full bloom, we made a fire in the fire pit, and it was the perfect end of the summer evening.

Here’s the way to make this tuna. It’s basically fool-proof, except that if you like it rare, it only needs to be cooked for a minute or two, or it becomes medium or medium-well, since it continues cooking after you take it off the heat. You can sear it inside over the stove, if you want, but cooking it outside helps keep the spattering oil mess to a minimum.

Black and White Sesame Seed Encrusted Tuna with Wasabi Citrus Aioli

One large jar Black Sesame Seeds
One large jar White Sesame Seeds
Salt and Pepper
Two large Tuna Steaks (the best quality you can get)

Unwrap Tuna steaks, but do not rinse (otherwise the sesame seeds won’t stick)
Place in large Ziploc bag, cover with sesame oil and marinate for 30 minutes or more.
Mix sesame seeds in shallow bowl, take tuna steaks out of oil and press into seeds, making sure they’re completely covering the tuna and pressed in.

Heat grill to high, place large skillet on grill and heat. Add a couple swirls of olive oil, and sear the tuna on both sides. Serve with wasabi aioli and pickled ginger, if desired.
*If your pan is hot enough, it should only take a couple of minutes to sear the tuna on both sides, if you want it rare.

Wasabi Citrus Aioli

Ingredients:
1 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 tablespoons Paprika, Smoked
1 1/2 teaspoons Wasabi Powder
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lime peel
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1 clove garlic, minced

Directions:
1. Mix all ingredients in medium bowl with wire whisk until well blended. Cover.
2. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

YUMMY!!

At Neiman Marcus in Chicago, you can buy huge, thick, chewy, delicious chocolate chip cookies. They also have white chocolate/macademia nut, snickerdoodles, oatmeal cranberry, toffee, and several different types of chocolate chip. I LOVE them! I had always thought these were the famous Neiman Marcus cookies that are the source of the recipe urban myth. You know, where someone asked for the recipe and unknowingly signed a charge for some huge sum for it. But after failing to find them at Neiman’s in other cities, I asked the Chicago sales clerk this summer about them. She said they’re made by a local baker, and are only available in Chicago.

For the last few years I have tried to find a good, gourmet-type recipe for thick, chewy, flaky, chocolate chip cookies like the ones in Chicago. I say “chewy”, but they’re not really chewy, per se, but they’re not crispy or cakey. They just kind of break off and melt in your mouth, and they’re not too sweet, or too hard. I’ve researched how to keep cookies from spreading so much when they bake. You have to have the right ratio of butter/shortening to flour and the temperature must be JUST right…to bake them quickly before they spread. I’ve baked up recipes that I thought were going to be perfect, but they were all disappointing-they’d spread out too much, and taste good, but they weren’t the thick, delicious cookies I was striving for.

This weekend I took a couple of interesting recipes that I had not tried before, and another one that I have tried, and looked at them side by side. I took some things from each recipe and kind of put them together into one batch of cookies. And you know what? They didn’t spread too much, and they were delicious! They just weren’t as thick as the ones from Neiman Marcus.

If you’ve ever had them, they are like 4 large cookies put together, they’re so big. I was thinking about that, and decided to use the last part of the dough for an experiment. Instead of 12 regular sized cookies, I made 4 really large ones, abut 1/3 cup of dough for each.

And it worked! They baked up nice and thick, light brown, soft, flaky, and delicious.

Now I’ve got to go run a marathon or something to work off the calories. But they were so worth it.

Here’s the recipe:

THICK, CHEWY, CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
Preheat convection oven to 375 degrees.

2/3 cup butter flavored shortening (chilled, cut into slices)
2/3 cup unsalted butter (cut in chunks)
1 cup white sugar
1 1/4 cup PACKED brown sugar
2 large eggs, ROOM TEMPERATURE
2 tsp. real vanilla extract
2 cups bread flour (spooned into cups and leveled off)
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (spooned into cups and leveled off)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 cups milk chocolate chips
1 cup toffee chips (or butterscotch chips)
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

In stand mixer, cream the shortening, butter and both sugars until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then add vanilla.

Combine the flours, baking soda and salt, stir into the creamed mixture. Stir in chips and nuts. Use a large tablespoon to round dough into balls. Don’t roll the balls, just make them rounded. Place onto parchment paper on ungreased baking sheets.

Bake 10-12 minutes in preheated oven. (I use convection oven and bake two pans at one time). Don’t overbake. Slide parchment paper with cookies off of pan, and let pan cool before scooping out next batch.

I made this pasta last night with whatever ingredients we had in the kitchen, and J said it was the best I’d ever made, so I think I should write it down in case I need to duplicate it someday.

Here it is:

Linguine with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Chicken Sausage

1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes packed in oil
2 Italian-style precooked chicken sausage links (can use more if you desire)
1 large sweet onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 Tbsp Gourmet Garden Italian Seasoning blend (in tube, like fresh…can use 2 tsp. dried)
salt and pepper to taste

1/2 lb. linguine (I used spinach)

Fill pasta pot with water and put on to boil. While water is boiling, chop onions and garlic. Heat large skillet over medium high, add sun dried tomatoes. Since they’re packed in oil, that’s all you need to saute the onions and garlic. Turn heat down while sauteing, so the tomatoes don’t burn. Cook, stirring with wooden spoon, until onions are translucent and a little crispy on edges. While they’re cooking, cut sausages in half, then 1/4 inch slices. Add to vegetables and continue to cook until sausage is heated through (J. likes them browned). Add seasoning blend, and salt and pepper. Cover and reduce to simmer. When pasta is cooked, don’t rinse, just add to vegetable/chicken mix with 1/2 ladle of pasta water, and toss. Add shredded parmesan cheese, if desired.

Oh my God!!! I try new recipes all the time, and most of the time they don’t taste nearly as good as they sound, but this recipe for Hummus with Sundried tomatoes was so good I almost ate it all by the spoonful. I’ll serve it to friends tomorrow, if it lasts until then…

SUN DRIED TOMATO HUMMUS

1 cup dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes (not in oil)
salt and pepper
2 cloves garlic, more to taste
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon pimenton, (spanish paprika), more to taste, optional
lemon juice to taste
Pita chips or raw vegetables, for serving

If time allows, soak chickpeas in water to cover overnight, if not, boil in water to cover for 2 minutes, then soak for 2 hours.

In a pot, combine chickpeas and tomatoes in water to cover and simmer, partially covered, until chickpeas are very tender, adding water if necessary. Drain, reserving a little cooking liquid.

Combine in a food processor with salt, pepper, garlic, oil, pimenton if using and reserved cooking liquid as necessary to get machine going. Puree, then add lemon juice to taste, along with more oil, pimenton or salt if desired. Serve with pita chips or raw vegetables. (This will keep, refrigerated, for about a week).