Well, unfortunately, I’m too late to enter this food blogging event (happens too often), but I really wanted to, so I’m posting this anyway.

Tasty Tools is a monthly food photography event hosted by Joelen’s Culinary Adventures. April’s theme was scoop - use any kind of kitchen scoop and photograph it. View the entries and winners.

Lately, I’ve been eating a lot of brownie-loaded chocolate ice cream (blame Dan - he brought home the first carton, and now I’m hooked). And last fall, while visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Oak Park, IL, near Chicago, we discovered this wonderful little shop called Olive and Well. It’s a specialty shop that carries mostly olive oils, balsamic vinegars and various gourmet condiments, breads and sauces.

They have lots of small casks of olive oils (probably hold a couple of gallons) with little paper cups for tasting. We tasted almost all of them and finally settled on one. Then I noticed the vinegars - and I’m a vinegar freak, just ask Dan - so I went over to see the flavors … and then I saw it - strawberry balsamic vinegar. I poured some into a little tasting cup and lifted it to my mouth - before I could even taste it, the aroma tingled my nose and my mouth watered instantly. I knew I was going to be buying this one So I did.

And what goes better with chocolate than strawberries? That’s right - strawberry balsamic vinegar. Scoop out some brownie-chocolate ice cream and drizzle it with strawberry balsamic vinegar - a dessert truly to die for.

Oh, about the scoop Years ago, when we first moved into the neighborhood and I was on the board of the Civic League, it seemed like every few months, someone was having a Pampered Chef party - I had one annually for a few years myself. This is one of the gadgets I got during those years. Works great - it has anti-freeze in the handle that flows down into the scoop when you use it, to help melt the ice cream so it scoops more easily. I love it.

Our spring garden of greens is going gangbusters. I actually made a salad for a dinner party for eight using some of the red and green leaf lettuce from the garden, but as usual, I was behind getting the food ready, so I didn’t have time to take a picture. It was delicious, though!

But last night, I made fish tacos for the first time, using a recipe from Cooking Light magazine. Turned out great. Instead of cabbage, of which I am not a huge fan, I used red and green leaf lettuce from the garden. Next week, we’re going to use up the bok choy in some stir-fry. Should be good

Here’s the garden from a couple of weeks ago:

And here is a pile of washed lettuce ready to be sliced thinly for the tacos:

And the recipe:

Fish Tacos with Lime-Cilantro Crema

Crema:
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 tbsp. low-fat mayonnaise
3 tbsp. reduced-fat sour cream
1 tsp. grated lime zest
1 1/2 tsp. fresh lime juice
1/4 tsp. salt
1 garlic clove, minced, or 1/4 tsp. garlic powder

Tacos:
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
1/4 tsp. ground red pepper
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1 1/2 pounds red snapper fillets (I used flounder)
Cooking spray
8 6-inch corn tortillas
2 cups shredded cabbage (I used leaf lettuce)
2 cups shredded jalapeno Monterey Jack cheese

Preheat oven to 425F. To prepare crema, combine the first eight ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

To prepare tacos, combine cumin and next five ingredients (through garlic powder) in a small bowl; sprinkle spice mixture evenly over both sides of the fish. Place fish in a baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 425 for 9 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork, or to desired degree of doneness. Place fish in a bowl; break into pieces with a fork. Heat tortillas according to package directions. Divide fish evenly among tortillas; top each with 1/4 cup cabbage or lettuce, 1 tbsp. crema and 1/4 cup shredded cheese.

And the fish tacos, served with Mexican rice.

This is my entry in the food blogging event “Grow Your Own,” hosted by Andrea of AndreasRecipes.com.

So the idea of Recipe Remix is, take a “staple” meal and mix it up a bit. Make it different. Choose from one of these and get creative:

• Shepherd’s Pie
• Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup
• Baked Ziti
• Franks & Beans
• Tacos
• Meatloaf

Since Sunday was going to be chilly and windy, I decided to go with Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup. The day before, I made my first-ever focaccia, with rosemary from the garden and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. OMG, it’s great. And it was easy, since I let the bread machine do the first half of the work. Then I just had to put it in a pan, let it rise some more, drizzle with evoo and sprinkle with rosemary and cheese, and bake while we took the dog for a walk.

I also thought I’d get a different kind of cheese for this. I’d never had Kerrygold Aged Cheddar imported from Ireland, and it sounded good, so I bought some. Guess what? It’s good

Grilled Cheese Sandwich on Focaccia

1 loaf focaccia
4 slices Kerrygold Aged Cheddar Cheese
1 tbsp. olive oil

Heat grill pan and rub with paper towel dipped in olive oil. Cut focaccia into sandwich-size pieces and cut in half. Place cheese on bread bottoms, put tops on, and grill on both sides till golden.

To go with this luscious grilled cheese sandwich, I made tomato-pesto bisque. A cook in a local restaurant that makes amazing tomato-basil bisque told me how she does it - I couldn’t believe it was that simple. No peeling or seeding the tomatoes? I’m in. I didn’t have basil, but I had pesto, so I used that this time. Both work great

Tomato-Pesto Bisque

2 14-oz. cans diced tomatoes
1 8-oz. can tomato sauce
1-2 tbsp. basil pesto
Salt and pepper to taste

Whizz the tomatoes and tomato sauce in a blender, then put in a 2-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in basil pesto. Heat to boiling, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes. Adjust seasoning to taste.

On April 2, Barbara and I went to Imperio Inca, a Peruvian restaurant on 21st Street in the Ghent neighborhood of Norfolk. I love that place. It’s the only restaurant I know of in this area that serves ceviche as an entree.

Barbara had Lenguado a lo Macho: Grilled flounder topped with a Peruvian pepper sauce along with shrimp, calamari, mussels, and clams, and served with white rice. It was good, but a bit bland, so Barbara asked for some hot sauce. They have a green Peruvian sauce to spice things up - that helped a lot.

I put together a plate from three a la carte dishes: Leche de Tigre, a Peruvian fish ceviche cocktail; Papa a la Huancaina, or halved boiled potatoes served on lettuce and covered in a spicy Peruvian cheese sauce garnished with olive and a slice of boiled egg; and half a roasted chicken, marinated in Peruvian spices.

The ceviche was excellent - spicy-hot and tangy.

I liked the potatoes, too. They’re served cold with the spicy sauce on top - very good.

Didn’t get a good shot of the chicken. It tasted good, but I didn’t get any flavor of the Peruvian spices it was supposed to be marinated in.

I could have written this, too: “I like to believe that I was born with a pen in one hand and a book in the other.” But Meena beat me to it. People who know me know that I always have a book or three going, I subscribe to about 7 magazines, I read the newspaper every day and Newsweek every week, not to mention all the cookbooks … I don’t know how I keep up

And now Meena from Hooked on Heat is combining all of these loves in a new food blogging event: The Cook’s Book Club. I just ordered the book, “Serving Crazy with Curry,” from Amazon.com. I’m really looking forward to this.

I discovered the New York Times No-Knead Bread recipe a few months ago on SteamyKitchen.com and have made it a few times myself. Just doing my part here to get the word out You, too, can make delicious artisan bread at home with just a few minutes of hands-on time.

Just plan ahead by about 22 hours. It needs to rise for 18 hours right after mixing, then roll it around a little, then let rise another 2 hours before baking. But with the price of bread rising so much lately, it’s nice to be able to throw together water, flour, yeast and salt and get this result the next day:

There’s a new food blogging event starting this month: Tasty Tools, hosted by Joelen’s Culinary Adventures. Wow, there was a huge response to this event! The round-up of all the recipes is here.

All crafts require the proper tools, so each month, Joelen will select a kitchen tool and to participate, you make a recipe that requires that tool and then blog about it.

Not being a fan of corned beef and cabbage, I made a delicious spring-green risotto for St. Patrick’s Day this year. One of the ingredients is Parmesan cheese, so I used my (fairly) new box grater to grate the cheese for the risotto.

I used to have a triangular grater, but it was awkward to use and had little feet on it - I’d lost one of them, so it didn’t balance properly and was a pain to use. So with the kitchen renovation, I bought a new one (along with other new stuff - new kitchen, new stuff ).

The new grater has a bottom piece to hold the ingredient you’re grating, and measurements on the side, so you can see how much you have. Pretty cool

And here’s the recipe for the risotto, adapted from Dan’s Ultimate Shrimp Risotto. This is the best risotto recipe I’ve found, and it can be customized for whatever ingredients you would like to include.

Risotto with Spring Vegetables

5 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup dry white wine, divided
6 tablespoons butter
1 to 2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/4 dried crushed red pepper
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon fresh tarragon
3/4 pound uncooked medium shrimp, peeled & deveined
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 1/2 cups Arborio (risotto) rice
1 1/2 cups steamed spring vegetables such as asparagus tips, peas, green beans
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Bring broth and 1/4 cup wine to a simmer and hold over low heat.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add crushed red pepper and sauté for 30 seconds, then add shrimp. Sauté until shrimp begin to turn pink, about 2 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 cup wine. Simmer until shrimp are just cooked through, about 2 minutes. Do not overcook shrimp or they become tough. Drain shrimp, reserving cooking liquid.

Melt remaining 4 tablespoons butter in heavy large saucepan or skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté until onion is pale golden, about 4 minutes. Add rice and stir to coat, about 2 minutes. Add 1-2 cups broth mixture. Simmer until liquid is absorbed, stirring often. Continue adding broth mixture 1/2 cup at a time, stirring often and simmering until liquid is absorbed before adding more, about 20 minutes total. Don’t “drown” risotto.

Add vegetables and cream to risotto.

Cook until rice is just tender and creamy, about 5 minutes longer. Add a final shot of white wine. Stir in reserved shrimp cooking liquid. Add shrimp. Add Parmesan. Remove from heat.

Stir in 2 tablespoons parsley into risotto. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to plates. Sprinkle with remaining tablespoon parsley.

Last Wednesday, our TNT dinner group went to a new Mexican place that just opened in November - Plaza del Sol, at 22nd Street and Colonial Avenue in Ghent.

It’s an interesting space. There’s a large patio up front, with tables for dining al fresco, and a bar and dining room inside. It has a two-story ceiling and attractive Mexican decorations on the walls.

The food was just okay, though. Barbara, Susan and I all had the chicken fajitas with a side of refried beans. Nothing special there. I like the beans better at San Antonio Sam’s because they mix in lime juice and top with cheese to give more flavor.

Jane had a bowl of chicken tortilla soup. It looked good, and had lots of chicken in it, but it was not hot when it was served. The manager took care of that right away - we appreciated that. We’ll probably go back and try something else, but right now it’s just - so so.

When we first bought our house, the wife of one of Dan’s co-workers gave me part of her rosemary shrub. I had several herbs that I had been growing in window boxes attached to the fire escape outside our apartment in Norfolk’s Ghent neighborhood, and all of these were planted for the time being in a half-whiskey barrel.

This is our rosemary shrub a week or so ago - it’s blooming One day last week, I was cutting back the thyme, which is under part of the rosemary, and kept brushing against it, setting off waves of rosemary and thyme fragrance. Mmmm.

Our first exchange student, Olaf, from Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany, helped us dig out our first herb garden, and it’s grown from there. I love cooking with fresh herbs, as well as fresh veggies. Can’t wait till the veggies are grown enough to pick.

Anyway, this is about the perennial herbs that are available now. We had a dinner party last weekend, and I made the Herb-Crusted Pork Roast from the January 2007 issue of Cooks Illustrated. It was delicious

I used rosemary and thyme from my garden and basil from the store. One friend brought the penne with four herbs and cheese, and another brought the homemade applesauce with rosemary. It was quite the herby dinner

Herb-Crusted Pork Roast

2 1/2–3 pound boneless center-cut pork loin roast
Table salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 large slice hearty white sandwich bread, torn into pieces
1 ounce grated Parmesan cheese (about 1/2 cup)
1 medium shallot, minced (about 3 tablespoons)
4 tablespoons olive oil, plus an additional 2 teaspoons
Ground black pepper
1/3 cup packed fresh parsley or basil leaves
2 tablespoons minced fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1 large clove garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1 1/2 teaspoons)

Cut pocket in side of roast. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Pulse bread in food processor until coarsely ground (you should have 1 cup crumbs). Transfer crumbs to medium bowl (do not wash food processor workbowl) and add 2 tablespoons Parmesan, shallot, 1 tablespoon oil, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Using fork, toss mixture until crumbs are evenly coated with oil.

Add parsley or basil, thyme, rosemary, garlic, remaining 6 tablespoons Parmesan, 3 tablespoons oil, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper to now-empty food processor workbowl and process until smooth, about twelve 1-second pulses. Spread 1/4 cup herb paste inside roast and tie. Season roast with salt and pepper.

Heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add roast, fat side down, and brown on all sides, 8 to 10 minutes, lowering heat if fat begins to smoke. Transfer roast to wire rack set in rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil.

Spread remaining herb paste over roast and top with bread crumb mixture. Transfer baking sheet with roast to oven and cook until thickest part of roast registers 145 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 50 to 75 minutes. Remove roast from oven and let rest 10 minutes. Internal temperature should rise to 150 degrees. Using spatula and meat fork, transfer roast to carving board, taking care not to squeeze juices out of pocket in roast. Cut roast into 1/2-inch slices and serve immediately.

This is my entry this month in the food blogging event Grow Your Own, hosted by Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes. The round-up of all the recipes is here.

On Saturday, March 1, Dan and I saw Food Network Chef Bobby Flay give a cooking demonstration at the Norfolk Scope in downtown Norfolk. It was a lot of fun, except for the part where I fell down the steps at the bottom because I was admiring the “Mesa Grill Cookbook” I had just bought instead of watching where I was going. They called a paramedic, but I was fine - just needed some ice to keep the swelling down on my knee We had great seats - on the floor of the Scope, about 20-30 feet from the kitchen set-up. Very nice

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