The Blogging Bog

Image found here

I would like to take the time to apologize, dear readers, for being so terribly behind in my blogging! I'm afraid I've just been bogged down with life the past couple of weeks. I'm still getting over the plague & trying to get my life back in order now that I'm fully functional. I've spent most of this weekend just cleaning the freaking house! Illness = gross house! *Sigh* Well now that my life is back in order (mostly), I look forward to jumping back in to blogging with both feet! I have quite a backlog of posts for you & I'll be springing those on you shortly :)

Spring is in the air here in the Pacific Northwest; our yard is alive with the courtship of finches & chickadees, the first blossoms have opened on our plum tree, and the daffodils & tulips are preparing to give us quite a show. I can't wait for spring's bounty to hit the farmers' market! I must admit to daydreaming about asparagus :) Mexican asparagus has been taunting me from our neighborhood organic grocer for weeks, but I continue to resist it's siren song knowing that my local farmers will have plenty for me in just another couple of weeks. Must...RESIST!!

Well my lovelies, I'm off to work on more blog posts for you! Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for reading & bearing with me while I work through the blogging bog!

Down with the sickness

Image totally stolen from the interwebs

Hello Dear Readers! I have been sick with a particularly nasty cold for the last week & home from work 4 out of the last 6 business days. Frankly, it sucks. And I don't know about you, but when I'm sick, I'm grumpy & exhausted. Additionally, I really have not been hungry at all. This is in direct contrast to my food loving nature! So I thought I would post about how my eating habits have been affected by being sick.

• Too exhausted to cook: This means that what I eat either does not need to be cooked or DBF cooked it for me. Pickles, oranges, apples, & toast have been making up a good share of my dietary intake lately & DBF has been absolutely wonderful cooking dinners!

Pickles! No cooking required!

• Nothing tastes good: Due to sinus weirdness, lots of food tastes off to me. For example, DBF made some lovely shrimp scampi pasta last night that my brain said tasted like chicken. Ice cream still tastes delicious, however & I've been through my fair share in the last week. (Hey, I'm eating consciously & listening to my body, it's just that my body says "I want Ice Cream!")

Chocolate Ice Cream always tastes good :)

• Lots of Fluids: I've been through a ton of Orange Juice in the last week & I've been supplementing water & OJ with Emergen-C. Also, hot tea with honey, mmmm...

"it's got what plants crave"

• Pharmacuticals: Nyquil, Robitussin, & Suphedrine have taken their turns running through my system. 

LOL, I have no idea! This just came up on a Google Image search for "cough syrup" & I think it is awesome.

 Otherwise I've been too busy sleeping, snuggling with my kitty, & watching mindless television to eat much. I'm just doing the best I can to get better ASAP!

2/20/2011 - Day 36 - Farmers' Market Day!

Ham & cheese croissant with 12oz decaf mocha from Fresh Flours

Sunday is Farmers' Market day around here and that means breakfast at Fresh Flours. YUM! I know I had more pictures of the Farmers' Market experience in last week's post, but I had already half eaten my pastry last week before I thought to take a picture. Lest you think that all pastries from Fresh Flours look half eaten, I present this photo as proof to the contrary :)

DBF went skiing this Sunday, but two of my good friends, Shiloh & Pete, joined me at the market & we ran into some more friends, Dan & Hannah, there as well. It was a beautiful sunny day in Seattle! We picked-up a variety of yummy treats including some salmon fillets for dinner.

 

Pete & I hadn't seen each other in almost a year, so after going to the market we decided to spend the day together hanging out at my house. We chatted & caught-up on each others' lives & played some video games. Then we got hungry & made dinner together: grilled salmon + sunchokes with hollandaise sauce + sauteed swiss chard. 

I marinated the salmon in lemon juice, olive oil, minced garlic, & Trader Joe's every day seasoning. Then I wrapped it with aluminum foil & grilled it over medium heat for about 4 minutes a side. I roasted the sunchokes in olive oil & spices for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. I made the hollandaise sauce with the trusty recipe from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook which never fails me. Pete was the chard man & cooked the stems up with some butter & balsamic vinegar until tender & then added the leaves until wilted. 

Better Homes & Gardens Hollandaise Sauce

• 1/2 C butter
• 3 egg yolks, beaten
• 1T lemon juice
• 1T water
• salt & pepper to taste

In a thick bottomed pan over low heat or a double boiler, combine eggs, lemon juice & water. Add about a third of the butter & whisk until melted. Whisk CONTINUALLY. It will melt slowly & that's OK, that's what you want. Just keep whisking. Repeat with the second third of butter. Repeat with the last of the butter. Continue to whisk until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat & eat! :) Tip: Do not get impatient & turn the heat up. You'll wind-up curdling the sauce that way.

Catching-up with old friends, delicious! :)

P.S. Don't feel too bad for DBF for missing out on all of this deliciousness. He had a dinner of freshly smoked salmon at our friends' cabin in the mountains ;)

2/19/2011 - Day 35 - Busy day breakfast of champions!

Saturday, 2/19 was a very busy day for me, Dear Readers. I hosted a big birthday party for my very best friend Susie that evening & had a bunch of running around to do all day. I knew I wouldn't have an opportunity to eat between breakfast & dinner, so a good breakfast was really important to start the day off right.

While I was running around the house like a crazy person, DBF made us this WONDERFUL breakfast! Scrambled eggs with spinach, shallot, Camembert cheese, & mushrooms with sliced apples & a glass of milk on the side. It kept me going strong all day!

2/17/2011 - Day 33 - Leftover chicken & mashed potatoes

 

Leftover chicken & mashed potatoes! Exciting, I know :) Served with some apple cider we bought from the Farmer's Market last weekend. YUM!

True fact: Chicken skin is the bacon of poultry! I LOVE crispy chicken skin! I think it is pretty much the most delicious part of the bird. Unfortunately, after the chicken is cooked, that golden deliciousness looses its crispiness :( However, I've found that it can be refreshed to its former glory in the toaster oven. WIN! I actually ate a good-sized piece of crispy chicken skin right before taking this picture. It was delicious! I have no regrets! :)

2/15/2011 - Day 31 - Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy & rosemary bread

 

Tonight we roasted up a chicken we've had in the freezer for a bit & mashed a big pot of potatoes. A simple & delicious dinner with the added benefit of LOTS of leftovers! We'll be eating this bird for the rest of the week!

I stuffed our bird with carrots, apple, & onion chunks, seasoned her with some fennel salt, garlic salt & some Italian Seasonings blend (contains rosemary, thyme, oregano, & parsley). Roasted at 350 degrees breast-down for about 45 minutes, then turned her over & finished roasting until the meat thermometer said she was done (about 45 more minutes). Then I made a simple gravy from the pan drippings, water, & flour. Served with a big green spinach salad that DBF whipped up. Delish!

I also wanted to give you, my Dear Readers, a glimpse into the Sustainable Eating Project dining experience. 

Ninja Salt & Pepper shakers DBF gave me for Xmas always accompany our meals

Fragrant orange roses grace our table this week in honor of Valentine's Day

Sapphire (aka Sapphy-Cat) usually joins us at some point during dinner as stealthily as possible to avoid human detection ;)

"Hey! Where's MY NOMS!?!?!" - Sapphy

There you have it! Happy eating! :)

2/14/2011 - Day 30(!) - Happy Valentine's Day :)

For Valentine's Day, DBF & I decided to just stay home & have a quiet, romantic night to ourselves. We got all dressed up, cooked dinner together, savored our meal at the table leisurely while enjoying each others' company & then watched the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World together. It was lovely :) 

Now, I know that some people hate Valentine's Day. I've heard many impassioned arguments & while I agree that we should show our love to each other every day, not just once a year & that Valentine's Day as the dayyoushouldbuylotsofjewelryandflowersoryouaretheworstmanintheworldandyouregoingtohellOMG holiday of post-Christmas over-consumption is disgusting, I still LOVE Valentine's Day! Valentine's Day is a day set aside to celebrate LOVE! Love yourself, love your friends, love your significant other, love your family! It's LOVE Day! I just love Love, don't you? Best of all, love is FREE! Despite the messaging of advertisers everywhere, you can celebrate Love Day for $0. Give a hug, smile at a stranger, call-up a friend you haven't heard from in a while, all of these are ways to spread the love :)

Our Love Day meal was New York steak (from Skagit River Ranch), with Wild Boar ravioli (from Pasteria Lucchese), topped with a mushroom Camembert truffle cream sauce, plus broccolini with butter on the side.

Marinated steak

• Worcestershire sauce
• Balsamic Vinegar
• olive oil
• minced garlic
• Trader Joe's Every Day Seasoning
• garlic salt
• other spices to taste

I like to mix-up my marinade in a plastic bag & then throw the steaks in the bag, toss to coat & let sit in the fridge for a while. You can put whatever you want in the marinade, but the above list is my fail-safe list of ingredients. I'll often throw in some Italian Spice blend or whatever fresh herbs I have on hand. I've even been known to dump in the last of a bottle of whatever oil & vinegar based salad dressing I have languishing in the fridge. YUM!

I reprised my Mushroom Camembert Cream Sauce from a couple weeks ago, but it seems I've missed truffle season :( I was not able to acquire any fresh truffles, so I used Mt. Townsend Trufflestack cheese instead of plain Camembert. It's essentially their standard Camembert cheese but with truffles in it, so the effect was pretty much the same :)

We pan sauteed the broccolini with butter, boiled the pasta per the package instructions, grilled the steaks to a perfect medium-rare and VOILA! Delicious, romantic Valentine's Day dinner for two :)

2/13/2011 - A Typical Day at the Farmers' Market

I thought it would be interesting to bring you along with me, dear readers, on a typical Farmers' Market excursion. DBF & I have our routine down solid at this point :) Though we could get all of our food delivered to us via our CSA, we just love the market so much that we make a point to go every week. Picture above: the entrance to the Ballard Farmers' Market, out of all of the Farmers' Markets in Seattle (and there are a LOT of them), this one is our favorite.

First stop at the market: Fresh Flours Bakery.It's not technically part of the Farmers' Market, but it's on the same street & it's too delicious to pass-up!

We usually wake up on Sunday (late-ish) morning & go straight to the market, so picking up breakfast is a must! Here I'm eating a swiss cheese & onion savory croissant (which I've already eaten the crispy brown top off of) & DBF has some sort of savory sausage pastry. Plus hot chocolate for me & drip coffee for him.

Once we're fed, we make a circuit of the market before purchasing anything to see what the different vendors are offering & at what prices. We love seeing what's freshest & sampling what the vendors have to offer: smoked salmon, apple slices, dried apricots, & goat cheese samples are pretty typical of the goodies handed-out as we mosey around.

Usually the first thing we buy with our limited budget is meat, because 1) it's the most expensive & 2) we tend to base our meals around what meat we have on hand. Our favorite place to buy our meat is Skagit River Ranch. We actually visited the farm last summer and got to see with our own eyes how well the animals are treated. They were totally open & welcomed us to explore the farm, pet the animals, & play with the dog. When they say the chickens are free-range, they mean it! There were chickens strutting all over the property, completely free to sit on your car, chase the dog around, or pick bugs from the grass. And let me tell you, their chickens are BEAUTIFUL! Not like those sickly albino chickens that industrial agriculture breeds. We also saw lambs, sheep, & baby chicks while we were on the farm, as well as a troupe of horses. We didn't have time to visit the cow & pig habitat while there, but I'm sure they're just as happy as all of the animals we encountered on the farm. And let me tell you, happy animals TASTE GOOD!!!! ;)

On this trip we bought 2 boneless pork chops & 2 NY strip steaks (Valentine's Day Special). We plan to cook the chops up with the surplus of apples in our crisper drawer & to grill one of the steaks for Valentine's Day.

Next, we visited the adorable & amusing Italian pasta vendor at Pasteria Lucchese. I don't know what the guy's name is, but he's always there & always exclaims how beautiful you are in his wonderful Italian way when you visit his booth :) (Shop keepers take note: Cute men who give you compliments do good business!) We've tried the Venison Ravioli & the Duck Ravioli before & decided to try the Boar this time. The frozen pasta comes in a container that contains about 2 servings (when served as a side dish) & cooks up in less than 10 minutes. Easy AND delicious! (Though it's a bit pricey at about $13 a container. It's a special treat for us!)

DBF as cheese-model. So cute!

To round-out our meal plan for the week we stopped by our favorite cheese booth, Mt. Townsend Creamery. We had planned on making a truffle cream sauce to go with our Boar ravioli, but the mushroom booth was out of truffles. Instead we purchased Trufflestack cheese from Mt. Townsend & will make the sauce from that instead. We also bought a harder, aged cheese (Trailhead) for grating over salads.

So there you have it! A day at the Farmers' Market! We'll use these few extra ingredients plus the milk & cream we get from Twin Brook Creamery via our local grocery store to create sumptuous meals from our CSA produce. Happy eating! :)

2/10/2011 - Day 26 - Cherry Pie

I actually made this pie on Tuesday night but we ate it on Thursday, 2/10 for Game Night! I bought 2 pounds of local frozen cherries at the farmers' market last weekend for only $3 a pound! I immediately thought "PIE!" This pie was super easy to make. I used this recipe I found on www.piechef.com. I did heart cut-outs on top instead of lattice work in honor of Valentine's Day & to show all of my gaming friends how much I love them. Awwww! 

Here's the recipe (stolen straight from www.piechef.com. GO THERE! She's seriously awesome!)

Cheery Cherry Pie
9" pie crust, plus extra crust for top crust, lattice, or pie crust art
5-6 cups frozen cherries (or 2 pounds)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour

(1 cup = about 0.25 liter)

Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C).

Place frozen cherries in a large bowl. If time permits, let them thaw for about an hour. This softens them up and helps them absorb the sugar and flour better.

Mix sugar and flour in a small bowl. Pour on fruit and mix to blend. Let the mixture sit for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Pour into pie crust and spread evenly.

Roll out additional pie crust and place on top of berries. For this pie, I like a lattice crust, but here are some other options:

- Make pie crust art, using cookie cutters or a knife to cut out different shapes and place on top of fruit. If you're making this pie for Valentine's Day, decorate it with hearts.

- Make a traditional double-crust pie. Place top crust on fruit and pinch the edges to make a tight a pretty border. Cut some slits in the top to allow steam out.

Bake at 425 for 10 minutes. Lower temperature to 325 and bake for an additional 40-50 minutes. Fruit and juices should be bubbling around the edges.

Tips from Jane

- If you don't have time to thaw the cherries, just let them sit in the sugar-flour mixture a bit longer and stir them often to spread the sugar and flour around. If you have some left in the bowl, sprinkle it evenly on top of the fruit.

- You can also make this with fresh cherries. In that case, you'll have to pit the cherries. Frozen cherries do have certain advantages! (particularly in the winter)

- Since I like to fill my pies with lots of fruit, they sometimes spill over. To protect your oven, place an old baking sheet or some aluminum foil on the bottom rack of the oven.

Easy as pie! :)

2/9/2011 - Day 25 - Spinach salad with Apples & Camembert

  

Wednesday is Yoga Night, which means DBF is usually in charge of procuring dinner. It's wonderful to come home from yoga all sweaty & blissed-out & have dinner waiting for me :) Have I mentioned how awesome DBF is? Because seriously, he's AWESOME! 

This particular Wednesday, DBF made a spinach salad with apples, Camembert cheese, craisins, & oil + vinegar dressing. Served with a big glass of water & an apple quarter on the side. The perfect post-yoga meal :) 

P.S. Check out the awesome new silverware we got from my Mom for Christmas! Ooohhh, pretty!

2/8/2011 - Day 24 - Leftover steak stir-fry

  

I can't believe I'm so behind on my posts, dear readers! This entry has been languishing unpublished for a week! Well I'm going to give you the short-short version to get the ball rolling here!

Tuesday, 2/8 we sliced up the leftover steak from Monday night & made a stir-fry with broccoli, carrots, onion, mushroom, garlic & various sauces & spices we had laying around. I browned the onion & garlic in chili & sesame oil then added the meat & veggies & some oyster sauce, sriracha sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar. I'm very un-scientific when it comes to making stir-fry. My philosophy is really to dump in whatever I have on hand that I think will taste good. It usually turns out quite enjoyable! :)

As always in our house, DBF made the rice as he is a god at making rice & I am completely inept at it. Seriously! I have no idea what my problem is! I'm so lucky to have DBF around to make perfectly moist & fluffy rice for me :)

Our CSA: Full Circle Farms

Photo courtesy Full Circle Farm



DBF & I get the majority of our produce delivered directly to our door weekly via our friendly CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), Full Circle Farm. There are literally dozens of CSA programs available in the Seattle area with a variety of different characteristics. Some CSAs require you to pay for a certain number of weeks up front, others you have to pick-up your box from a centralized location, others are only available for part of the year. Here are the characteristics of the Full Circle Farm CSA & our main reasons why we decided it was the right one for us:

• Produce available year-round
• Home delivery
• No contract or pre-payment required, just pay weekly for every box delivered & cancel any time
• Online account management for convenience
• Substitutions allowed & easy to make (if, for example, we still have onions from last week, we're not in the mood for celery, or we want to swap-out New Zealand kiwis for Washington apples)
• 10 produce items per box per week for only $35 per week
• Additional organic grocery items available for purchase & inclusion in our weekly delivery via their green grocer including bread, meat, pasta, additional produce, cheese, dairy, etc. In theory, we could have ALL of our groceries delivered to our front door weekly, but we happen to like making the trip down to the Farmers' Market every weekend to scope out deals & see what's fresh :)
• All produce & grocery items list their location of origin. I love knowing exactly where my food comes from & the freedom to take a pass on Mangoes from Peru

We've received 3 deliveries so far & just LOVE it! The only qualm with the program I have is that they're not necessarily focused on local produce. When our next delivery contents list is posted every Wednesday we have to go through & swap-out any items that come from farther away than we're comfortable with. We prefer to eat the vast majority of our foods from the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, & Idaho), but we will make some exceptions for food grown in California (I just don't think I could truly live long-term without oranges). Very occasionally we will also accept produce from Mexico, but those are special treats :) Our rule-of-thumb is that if we're getting produce from farther away, it needs to be something that we just can't get locally, ever. Not just something that's out of season here, but still growing in the greenhouse that is California. For example, you can't grow oranges, olives/olive oil, or avocados in the Pacific Northwest, so we make exceptions for them. The food still has to meet our standards of being grown organically & sustainably.

CSAs are becoming more common throughout the country as the locavore movement expands. The cost benefits & knowledge of your food's origin are definitely excellent reasons to see what's available in your area! Happy hunting :)

P.S. If you decide to try-out Full Circle's CSA, tell them Erin Bassett sent you! Also, they're running a promotion right now until March 1st 2011 that if you sign-up, use the promo code "EATHEALTHY", & tell them I referred you, you can get $15 off your first box & I will get a $15 credit for referring you. What a deal! ... and no, CSA does not pay me to write good things about them & I am not affiliated with them in any way.

2/7/2011 - Day 23 - CSA Delivery Day + Steak & grilled turnips for dinner

Monday is our CSA delivery day! YAY! This week we got turnips, sunchokes, onions, cameo apples, gala apples, d'anjou pears, broccoli, tangelos, cremini mushrooms (double order), kale & spinach. This definitely gives us some great options for dinners this week! :)

For dinner I grilled up the steaks we bought from the farmers' market (marinated in Worcestershire sauce, Grill Mates seasoning, olive oil, salt & a little water). We actually had 4 steaks & saved 2 for leftovers this week. I peeled the turnips & cut them into big thick slices appropriate for grilling (though I admit I lost a few to the grill gods). I seasoned the turnips with olive oil & some Fennel Salt our CSA included in our box this week as a sample. I don't like usually like fennel, but it was ground up finely & mixed with other spices. The flavor was really good with the turnips! DBF made a wonderful big spinach salad with Camembert, apples, craisins, & nuts with olive oil/vinegar dressing on the side. Accompanied with a glass of Rosé, it was the perfect start to the week!

2/5-2/6/2011 - Days 21-22 - Farmers' Market Day, eating out & making CHEESE!

This weekend went way too quickly, dear readers! How is it already Monday? Here's an overview of where our time went :)

Saturday - Because of Superbowl festivities on Sunday, we were forced to switch-up our regular Sunday Farmers' Market ritual. This week we headed to a different market held on Saturday & picked up lots of goodies for the week! A whole chicken, a couple steaks, honey, 2 lbs of frozen cherries (mmm, pie!), & some other odds & ends to help us round out our CSA delivery for this week. We had originally planned on picking up breakfast at the market, but this unfamiliar market did not have the ready-to-eat selection we are used to from our regular market so we left looking for more immediate food.

We headed over to our neighborhood greasy spoon for some standard diner fare. Eggs over easy, toast & hash browns for me. Some sort of scramble/omelet dish for DBF. Yeah, I have no idea whether or not anything in our breakfast was organic or local, but we were still supporting local business, right? The spirit of this project is to eat as sustainably as possible, not to get caught-up in rules.

After breakfast, I dropped DBF at home & headed to the Beer/Wine/Cheese-making supply near our house. I've been thinking about trying to make my own cheese for a while & recipes I've found online sound fairly straightforward. We eat a LOT of cheese in this household & the local organic stuff is just SO expensive. By making cheese myself I can get a beautiful local product for a fraction of the cost! I picked up the basic supplies I needed & then finished-off my shopping trip by stopping at our local organic grocery for supplies.

Everything you need to make cheese: Big pot, milk, thermometer (that goes down to at least 50 degrees), liquid rennet, powdered culture, & a sterilized pillowcase (not pictured)

I followed this straightforward recipe: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/makecreamcheese.htm

It was SUPER easy! Just warm the milk, add the rennet & culture, let set undisturbed for 16-18 hours, strain the curds using a sterile pillowcase for 8 hours, DONE! The hardest part is getting the stuff back out of the sack.

I hope to have more pics for you in the future :)

Saturday night DBF & I went out to eat to one of our favorite regular spots, Pies & Pints (mmm...comfort food! + plenty of leftovers!) Then went over to a friend's house to hang out & watch movies. It was a good day :)

Sunday - I honestly spent the first half of the day playing Lego Harry Potter on xbox which I am completely addicted to :) I did make a batch of homemade butter first, though. Then DBF & I went to a big Superbowl party at our friend's house to watch the game. We pigged out on pizza & junk food, but hey, what's life for if not the occasional indulgence? :) After the game we came home & I made a big batch of granola for breakfast for the next couple of weeks.

To summarize the weekend, we indulged in some non-local non-organic food (though there definitely were some organic Cheetos on Sunday!) but I worked hard to make my own "value added" local organic food (butter, cheese, granola) for consumption this week. As with all things, moderation is important. If 95% of all of the food I eat is local organic, that really does go a long ways towards having a smaller carbon footprint & contributing towards my health & the health of the earth. But that 5% wiggle room to enjoy eating out & snacking on game day makes this whole project truly workable & practical. :)

2/4/2011 - Day 20 - Date Night at home: dill salmon, rosemary mashed potatoes & broccolini

My lovelies, I'm sorry I don't have any pics from Thursday night (last night). It was game night & our group completely DEVOURED the Runzas! The warmth in my heart I feel when feeding my friends & loved ones completely makes up for any frustration felt during the cooking :)

Tonight, DBF & I decided to have a Date Night & home & spend some quality down-time together. We made dinner together (I was in charge of the salmon & broccolini, DBF was on mashed potato duty) & then ate leisurely at the table, chatting & catching-up. It's crazy sometimes when you live with a person you have it in your brain that you spend lots of time with them. While it's true that DBF & I are in close proximity to each other more hours out of every day than not, we often find ourselves engrossed in our own separate interests or otherwise "together" but not really together together. It's important to just set aside some time exclusively to have "face-time" with each other to maintain a healthy relationship. I find myself completely blessed to have a partner I can talk to for hours about anything & everything. By doing regular, mostly informal Date Nights we make sure to spend some time directly enjoying each other's company without distractions. It's lovely :)

Broiled Salmon

• Salmon
• 2-3T minced fresh dill
• squeeze of lemon juice
• light drizzle of olive oil
• Trader Joe's Everyday Seasoning (or just salt & pepper to taste)

Preheat oven to 375. Drizzle olive oil & lemon juice over fish. Rub dill & seasoning into the fish & make sure the olive oil & lemon juice is evenly dispersed. Bake for ~10 min or until fish flakes but is still moist.

As a native of Nebraska, I always make DBF (a Seattle native) check my fish for done-ness. I have a tendency to over-cook fish (but I ROCK at cooking animals that live on land!)

The broccolini I just sauteed up with some butter & garlic salt. DBF made the potatoes in the usual way with butter, milk & garlic salt, but added a few tablespoons of minced fresh Rosemary! DELISH!

Dill salmon + rosemary mashed potatoes + broccolini

To round-off our Date Night, DBF & I headed to a new-to-us coffee shop in the neighborhood for hot beverages & a little sweet treat. Perfection :)