Stuffed Tomatoes & Risotto with Turnips and Bacon

For this meal, we grilled some beautiful rib eye steaks from Costco (see my Perfect Grilled Steak post on how we do that) along with Stuffed Tomatoes & Risotto with Turnips and Bacon. The tomatoes were leftover from last week and the turnips were in this week's AHO box. For the tomatoes I used Sunny Anderson's recipe found here. I used panko bread crumbs and the last of the basil from our herb garden this year. The Risotto with Turnips and Bacon recipe is from Gourmet magazine. I found the it using the awesome Epicurious iPad app. We really liked the way that the spicy turnip flavor was mellowed out by the creamy risotto. And bacon, well doesn't it make everything better?!

Broiled Salmon with Roasted Tomato and Lemon Vinaigrette and Bok Choy

This week my AHO box had fresh marjoram in it. I have never cooked with marjoram, so as I was looking around the Internet I stumbled upon this recipe from Emeril on the Food Network website. The irony is that tomatoes and bok choy also came in this week's box and we had a salmon fillet in the freezer from my father-in-law's fishing trip to Alaska that we wanted to use. I'm not much of a fish eater and I usually shy away from Emeril's recipes because most of them are involved and time consuming, this one was quick, easy and turned out amazing! I used four regular tomatoes, seeded and chopped, and one full sized bok choy. If you are feeding four, you need would need two full sized bok choy, but for the two of us one was fine. The lemon in this dish cut the richness of the salmon and the marjoram added a subtle, yet elegant freshness to the dish.

Easy Chicken and Dumplings

Few things are more comforting that a bowl of chicken and dumplings, but it's tough to find the time to make the traditional version on a week night. This Rachael Ray recipe can be made in 30 minutes and is almost as good as my mom's. I added 2 tsp of fresh thyme to the biscuit mix because I love the flavor of fresh thyme with chicken.

Fig Salsa

This Fig Salsa recipe is courtesy of AHO. We've received several pints of figs over the past few months and this is my favorite way to use them! I used one serrano pepper with seeds instead of two jalapeno without seeds, which gave it a little more heat. We ate much of the salsa with tortilla chips. We also had it on grilled chicken breasts, which was awesome. This salsa's got heat and sweet and the mint really brightens it up.

Rosemary-Garlic Steaks with Potato Salad Fra Diavolo

This meal from Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals Summer Simplicity episode is the perfect farewell to summer. The arugula, tomatoes and Parmigiano-Reggiano salad cut through the richness of the Rosemary-Garlic Steaks. The Potato Salad Fra Diavolo, which is now my husand's favorite potato salad, has a strong smokiness that pairs perfectly with a big, bold Syrah. This is a great meal to have out on the patio or anytime you're craving the smokey, bold flavors of summer.

Pork Tenderloin with Fig Chutney

I had never cooked with fresh figs before this week. AHO definitely keeps me on my culinary toes. After tasting one, I thought I'd like to make a chutney to go over a pork tenderloin. Here's what I came up with.









Pork Tenderloin with Fig Chutney
Serves 4-6

2 pork tenderloins (~1 1/2 pounds each)
2 tbsp Montreal Steak Seasoning
2 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 small onion, diced
2 pints fresh Kadota figs, diced
2 tsp honey
zest of half a lemon
3/4 cup port
1/4 cup chicken stock
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1 cinnamon stick
salt
pepper

Rub tenderloins with grill seasoning. Cook on a grill preheated to 425 degrees until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 162 degrees. Let rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting.

Meanwhile, melt butter with olive oil in a sauce pan over medium low heat. Add onions and garlic and sweat until translucent. Raise the temperature to medium high and add figs. Stir often until the figs begin to release the juice (about 1 minute). Add the honey, zest, port, chicken stock, allspice and cinnamon stick. Bring to a heavy simmer and let reduce, stirring occasionally, until the chutney coats the back of a spoon (about 20 minutes). Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove cinnamon stick before serving chutney over pork.

*If you don't have port wine, you can substitute with 3/4 of dry red wine, a splash of brandy and an extra teaspoon of honey.

Ode to Mom & Chocolate Cake

Even though I don't have a recipe for it and I didn't make it, I had to post of picture of the birthday cake that my mom made. If I were to write a recipe for it, it'd have to be called Chocolate Coma Cake. I think she used 8 or 9 different chocolates. It was the richest, heaviest, most fabulously decadent cake I've ever had. We had a party of 10, everyone had a large slice and we were still had more than half of the cake left! Everyone LOVED it. I think it will be a new family tradition, as long as mom can remember how to replicate it!