Smoked Salmon Pasta with Capers and Dill

It's amazing how certain combinations of ingredients just work so well together. Lemon, capers, and dill are one of those, I can think of a number of recipes that have at least two if not all three of those. And they are not all German.  The basis of this one was a Jamie Oliver recipe, modified slightly to fit the ingredients we had in the fridge. It's always like that, a little substitution here and there...which I actually really like to do, as you can discover new things. Of course it can always bomb too, but that is just bound to happen once in a while when cooking. Anyway.

This turned out to be really flavourful and super easy (actually I hate that expression, sorry). We had a shrink-wrapped pack of smoked salmon - probably 3/4" thick, not the thin slices, although that could work too - from B.C. from my parents' last trip out there. Not sure how much it was, the piece was 8" long and 1/2" wide, turned out to be enough for the two of us. Good thing SSO ate already.

Smoked Salmon pasta with capers and dill

I ended up not liking the pasta shells I used, I would go with something else next time. But that is what we happened to have. I think I needed to add more freshly ground pepper as well - a healthy dose would have provided a good counterpoint. I also used some cream Sherry instead of white wine, since we only had a little bit of white left in the fridge and it was SO's favourite. I was worried the Sherry would be too sweet, but it turns out that the lemon and capers were just tart enough to balance the sweetness.

Next time: different pasta, would thicken the sauce more, and use more pepper

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: n/a

Pizza Crostini with bbq chicken

This is one of my favourite simple lunches (or dinner in this case) to whip up.  We had bought a baguette the other day and didn't end up eating it. We were also in need of hitting the grocery store, so were out of the quick soup or Kraft dinner, and I didn't feel like an omelette. So after carving up the baguette in long diagonal, thin slices, I found some random veggies, left over bbq chicken, and tomato sauce. Perfect!

Pizza crostini with BBQ Chicken

So after pasting a bit of tomato sauce, there was a bit of sliced mini peppers, sliced green olives (SSO's fav), sliced mini tomatoes, and cheese. Put those little delights on a cooling rack over a baking tray, 15 minutes in the oven and voila.  Deliciousness.

Next Time: nothing to change really, this is a use-what-you-have sort of situation

Me: 8/10
SO: 8/10
SSO: 8/10

Slow cooked ribs, Hasselback potatoes, and Avocado Spinach salad

This was the Mother's Day meal for SO.  Inspiration came from a number of sources. The night before we had fabulous Maui Ribs at our friends' place - they recently came back from Hawaii, and were inspired themselves to serve them up. The got the ribs cross-cut at the local Chinese superstore, marinated them for a long time, and then grilled them. Very tasty. Anyway, we felt like having ribs again.

The second source was our local butcher, which we love. Great quality, and good prices. Often you have to buy things in largish batches, if not Costco size. So we came home with 3 x 2 packs of pork back ribs, meaning 6 full racks in all. They went into the freezer except for 1 two pack.

Finally, the third source (not really inspiration but necessity) was our new bbq. It is not a super high end affair, but is big and shiny, and has lots of burners and features. The problem is, it has a higher output then my last one, so I suspect I don't have the correct diameter of pipe for the natural gas supply. If you put one burner on it looks strong, but put all four on an they look like they are simmering. This would be a bad thing. No more high heat searing (aha! except I have a searing burner, which I haven't tried yet), although I will get a licensed dude to come take a look eventually. ALL this to say, it has forced me to cook things long and slow.  Which of course is perfect for ribs.

Slow cooked ribs

I've always been a bit afraid of ribs. I've tried many ways of cooking and they all turned out horribly. Tried boiling them first (bad idea), baking (not so good), slow cooker (worst idea EVER), and most bbq attempts did not turn out. So I was reticent to proceed.  Which method then?  I never usually have to go further than my "Big Weber book of Grilling", it is pretty awesome. So I pretty much followed their "Kansas City style ribs" recipe. I didn't like the "mop" very much (see here for a difference between "mop" and "baste"), mostly because of the unnecessary celery bits, other than that the ribs turned out awesome. I ended up cooking them almost perfectly for the first time in my life. I was pretty stoked. It was pushing 2.5 hours at around maybe 275 F.  How do you tell if they are done?  Here is an interesting link at the Amazing Ribs website.

Part 2 - I've been noticing these Hasselback potato recipes all over the interweb lately, so I thought I'd wing it and try it.  Now, SO is a potato expert, cooker and eater. So I was unsure about the venture. But I wanted it to be a surprise none-the-less, so I gave it a whirl and it also turned out very nicely.

Hasselback Potatoes, with bacon and cheese

Part 3 - Needed a salad to go with the meat.  I've been really into spinach lately, not sure why. Usually simple sliced mushrooms on top. I've also been into avocado, because of the great taste and health benefits, and because it is gosh darn fun to cut up. I love it when it just pops out of the skin in one whole piece.

Avocado-spinach salad with olives and mini sweet tomatoes

Next Time: I would stick with the rub on the ribs, but maybe try a different baste. I under cooked the potatoes by probably 10 minutes, and it needed a bit more cheese. The salad was fine.

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 7/10