Cooking is one of my favorite ways to decompress and shift my focus from work back to spending time with my family. Our apartment is right next to a grocery store, so it's easy to grab stuff for a recipe on my way home from work.
I'm a big fan of An Everlasting Meal by Tamar E. Adler. For instance, last week I prepared pork tenderloin w/ sage and lemon (browned in a skillet and then 20 min. in the oven at 450°F) on Sunday with a spinach and mushroom sauté w/ a garlic cream sauce on the side. The next night we had big salads with the leftover pork, nectarines and a lemon vinaigrette.
We almost always make our own chicken stock, often with the carcass and leftovers from a simple roast chicken and whatever produce in the fridge needs to be used up.
One of my favorite techniques lately is to mash up a few garlic cloves (skin on) and then put 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a cast iron skillet and infuse the oil with the garlic over medium heat for a few minutes. Then, whether we're having shrimp or chicken or fish, I chop the meat, pat the pieces dry, and season it with salt, pepper and a bit of crushed red pepper. After discarding the garlic, I turn the heat up to medium-high/high and after 5-8 min., get a nice golden crust and texture.
We make fish tacos at least once every two weeks, almost always w/ Red Snapper. We buy almost exclusively organic, and try to work lots of produce into our meals. One of my favorite ways to do this is with a fricassée, b/c there's a lot of flexibility in one kinds of things you can mix into it, much like a stew. It creates a full meal in less than 40 minutes (mileage may vary depending on how much chopping you need to do).
As far as diets, we try not to eat processed foods, and keep the carbs in check unless we're craving pasta or pizza, and keep alcohol to two drinks (usually wine, unless the meal pairs really nicely w/ a particular beer).
I'm a big fan of An Everlasting Meal by Tamar E. Adler. For instance, last week I prepared pork tenderloin w/ sage and lemon (browned in a skillet and then 20 min. in the oven at 450°F) on Sunday with a spinach and mushroom sauté w/ a garlic cream sauce on the side. The next night we had big salads with the leftover pork, nectarines and a lemon vinaigrette.
We almost always make our own chicken stock, often with the carcass and leftovers from a simple roast chicken and whatever produce in the fridge needs to be used up.
One of my favorite techniques lately is to mash up a few garlic cloves (skin on) and then put 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a cast iron skillet and infuse the oil with the garlic over medium heat for a few minutes. Then, whether we're having shrimp or chicken or fish, I chop the meat, pat the pieces dry, and season it with salt, pepper and a bit of crushed red pepper. After discarding the garlic, I turn the heat up to medium-high/high and after 5-8 min., get a nice golden crust and texture.
We make fish tacos at least once every two weeks, almost always w/ Red Snapper. We buy almost exclusively organic, and try to work lots of produce into our meals. One of my favorite ways to do this is with a fricassée, b/c there's a lot of flexibility in one kinds of things you can mix into it, much like a stew. It creates a full meal in less than 40 minutes (mileage may vary depending on how much chopping you need to do).
As far as diets, we try not to eat processed foods, and keep the carbs in check unless we're craving pasta or pizza, and keep alcohol to two drinks (usually wine, unless the meal pairs really nicely w/ a particular beer).