Weekending-Good eats

The weekend started with an early departure from work on Friday; Sophie had a grooming appointment and then she hung out at the office for a couple hours.  It was definitely a top down day, and we took the long way home.  Saturday was the day to get things done-inside.  The weather was soo yucky.  I had several "administrative" things that have been on my to do list for a while.  One important task was  to renew my passport before it expired.   I also wanted to clean the apartment, and do laundry so that Sunday could be my "play" day.  I managed to get everything ticked off before bedtime on Saturday- yea!

A couple weeks ago I went through both of my Deb Perelman aka Smitten Kitchen cookbooks and marked the recipes I wanted to try.  This weekend featured 3 of recipes all winners.

Saturday featured the seared halibut and gazpacho salsa with tomato vinaigrette from her first cookbook The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.  I substituted cod for the halibut, and did not make the salsa.  We had this with steamed asparagus and cacio e pepe potatoes anna which is a SK recipe from her newest book Smitten Kitchen Everyday.  Both of these were delicious.  Next time I do the fish I think I'll use halibut and make the salsa, but probably not the vinaigrette.  The recipe makes a lot and now I don't know what to do with the leftover dressing.

Sunday night we had the Chicken and Rice, street cart style from the Everyday book.  I used brown rice because that's what I had on hand, and I didn't have yogurt to make the sauce.   This dish was just okay, but on Monday I got the naan bread and the yogurt so I could serve the dish the way the recipe was intended.  What a difference it made having all the components.  I'd make this again, but add make it more red pepper so it'd be a bit more spicy.  That makes 3 down and about 30 more to go!  I haven't even begun to tag my Everyday Korean book, but think I'll get on that before the Olympics are over.  What's cookin' with you?!