0 Melissa & Sean's Wedding

This weekend we celebrated the marriage of our friends Melissa Britos & Sean Sullivan in Virginia!  My sister Liz and my own little Ella were in their beautiful, intimate wedding on Smith Mountain Lake.

Ella was an incredible trooper!  Just moments before walking down the aisle she got badly burned by a hot curling iron on her upper leg.  I was doing her very last curl, and the iron swung around next to the chair she was sitting on and just seared her.  Worst feeling ever. But, she pulled it together and did her perfect flower girl duty, and then was the life of the party at the reception!  She danced all night long and never once complained about her poor leg.

See that wedding arch?  Sean made that!  He not only can speak Chinese and strike a mean pose, but he also knows all about floral wire and arranging blooms to their best advantage.  He helped all the girls do their wedding bouquets too.  What a guy!

It's rare of me to be impressed by wedding food, but my goodness, the food at the Craddock Terry Hotel where the reception was held was exquisite!  Mounds of fresh fruit, cheese and vegetables, huge cocktail tiger prawns, spinach & artichoke dip with tomato and garlic-rubbed crostini, a huge assortment of specialty deli meats, cheeses and roasted, pickled peppers and olives.

I would have been happy with just the hors d'oeuvres!  But the entree menu put to shame any other wedding food I've ever had.

Who offers a made-to-order 16 ounce ribeye on a wedding menu?!  That's crazy!  I ordered one, rare and it was great.  Ella and Ian got the crab-stuffed flounder, and the crab was real, honest-to-goodness blue crab, which made my Maryland heart sing.  

Beautiful couple, beautiful wedding.  Congrats Melissa & Sean!

3 Pastrami & Brie Sandwich

I'm not normally one to post recipes for sandwiches, unless they are of a controversial nature like the grilled cheese I posted a while back.  Okay, I'm totally kidding, except I think the pastrami and Brie combo is somewhat controversial for a lot of people.  But trust me!  So good.  So good.

Yesterday I visited my local butcher shop, Findley's, and got some amazing meats - freshly made pork sausages, (jalapeno cheddar, bratwurst and a garlic version which helped us win 2nd place in the chili cookoff last week)  Delmonico-end ribeyes, (ahhhhhhh *jaw hanging aslack*) house-smoked hickory bacon and this totally amazing pastrami.

For the bread, I used an earthy and rustic organic sprouted wheat bread from Harry's [Wholefoods] bakery, which actually tastes really great.

I toasted the slices, and slathered on plenty of real mayo (I like Duke's brand because they don't add sugar, and not because it's a health thing, it's their original recipe) and lots of brown deli mustard.

Now...controversy!  Brie.  A good, French double cream Brie that starts melting as soon as you get it to room temp.  Two thick slices.

I topped the slices with some organic lettuce, and sliced red onion (critical!  Must have onion, and it must be red, and it must be raw.)

Assemble thusly.

Devour.

It's so heavenly.  The earthy crunch of the toasty bread, the salty pastrami with the luxurious creamy Brie, and the spicy kick of that mustard....just heavenly.

9 Korean Barbecue and Asian Noodles

We took a field trip Monday to Super H Mart (I say field trip because it's about a 40 minute drive for us.)  How I'm awed by that place!  In fact, it was exactly one year to the day that I first discovered it.

In the fresh meat department I found fresh packed containers of marinated meats - chicken, beef, pork belly, etc..  There weren't any ingredients on the labels, but I took a chance on the chicken and the beef ribeye, hoping that they weren't too spicy.  I also got fresh heads of garlic, baby bok choy and some fresh pan fried noodles.  I also had veggies left from my produce basket for the week - some yellow squash, green scallions and sliced carrots, all of which I included in the stir fry.

I chose to use the ribeye for ease and speed of preparation because the slices were paper thin.  I wish I knew exactly what was in it, because it was delicious.  It definitely had sesame oil, sugar, garlic, soy sauce.  Hmm, sounds like Korean barbecue!

Here we have the prepared veggies - carrots, yellow squash, 5 or so scallions and 2 cloves of garlic.

I heated a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil in my wok (one that my mother brought me years ago on a trip to Japan...as you can see by the patina, it's been well-used) and threw in the squash and carrots, with a sprinkling of salt.

Next, over high heat I added the beef, a little at a time so that it didn't bring down the temperature of the pan too much, as well as half the scallions and all the garlic.  

When all the beef browned, I added the rest of the beef and the marinating liquid and cooked it until the sauce boiled.  Then I added some noodles to the sauce, and tossed through, cooking for about 3 minutes.

At the very end I threw in the baby bok choy.  They are very tender and only take moments to wilt, so it's the best time to add it.

Toss well with some cracked black pepper.

Top each bowl with a sprinkling of the reserved chopped scallions.

And have two bowls!  I was expecting leftovers, but the entire amount I made vanished during one sitting.  Even my noodle-hating husband had two servings!

16 Baja Fish Tacos

Wow. That's all I can say about these. WOW. We had these at the reunion (did I mention we did a LOT of cooking??) These are seriously, and I mean REALLY the best fish tacos I've ever had. The coriander is essential, and makes the entire dish. I used Mahi-Mahi and large shrimp.

For 2 people, you'll need:

1.5 lbs fish filets like tilapia, red snapper, mahi-mahi or other white fish and/or large shrimp
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp crushed coriander seeds
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
corn tortillas
lime-cilantro crema (recipe at the bottom)

Preheat oven to 425. Prepare a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray lightly with non-stick spray.

First, either crush the coriander with a mortar and pestle or run it through a spice grinder. This smells so, so good. It's lemony. It's amazing how different the coriander seeds are to the cilantro leaves it produces!

Combine all spices in a small bow and mix well.

Pat fish filets dry and sprinkle evenly with the spice mixture, and lay flat on the baking sheet.

Next, I tossed some large shrimp with the remainder of the spice mixture.

Arrange everything on the baking sheet and bake for 9-12 minutes, or until it's opaque in the middle and flakes easily.

My Mahi-Mahi needed a little longer to bake, so I pulled the shrimp out and set aside in a bowl after about 7 minutes.

While fish is cooking, toast the corn tortillas in a small skillet, or carefully over a gas flame. Cover with a tea towel and keep warm. Watch the tortillas carefully - my last one actually caught fire! Whoops.

Place cooked fish in a bowl and and break up into large pieces. Look at the amazing red hue.

Now here's the best part. Assemble tacos and top with a squeeze of fresh lime, and crema.

Suggested toppings:
shredded cabbage or lettuce
fresh cilantro
fresh pico de gallo
shredded Mexican blend cheeses
diced onion
fresh lime juice

I don't care if cheese and fish is a cardinal sin. Don't care. It's really good, and besides, my daughter loves anything with cheese.

Look at this!!

I could eat all of these by myself!

These were so amazing that I made them again the next night, except with ribeye steak. I made 5 times the amount of spice blend and I'm keeping it in a container in my spice pantry. I sprinkled the ribeye all over with the spices before searing the entire steak to medium, and after a rest I sliced into strips and assembled the tacos as shown above.

For the Lime-Cilantro Crema:
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro
3 tbls mayonnaise
3 tbls sour cream
1 tsp lime zest
1.5 tsp fresh lime juice
1/4 tsp salt
1 clove of garlic, minced finely

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside. I store the entire batch in a handy squeeze bottle. Seriously. Good.