Appetizer or Dessert? You Tell Me.

I offer you this:

It smells a little like this:

And tastes a LOT like this:

 and this:

And for sure this:

We had a very special dinner tonight.  Lucas Burns is leaving L.A. tomorrow for graduate school in Georgia!  Hey, wait, I never thought of this, but Georgia peach -> peach -> nectarine, it was a THEME app!

Jere made his amazing, summer pasta dish for the family, with quinoa pasta, today's farmer's market tomatoes, red onion, red and green basil, (oh, the smell!), butter, parmesan cheese, and a dollop of cottage cheese on top.  Delish!
So I got these suckers ready for an appetizer, but as I posed earlier, they could easily be a dessert too, if you can bear waiting to shove them in your mouth.  Plus, they should be warm, so I had no choice tonight, timing-wise.  This dish is kind of, how do I describe it?  Uh, hmmm, well.....sexy.  That's the word, SEXY, they send you into another realm of existence, if I do say so myself.  And they are hard to resist, seriously.  They're the perfect dripping, salty/sweet combo, I defy anyone to not moan when you take a bite.

The boys diving in

Here's what you do:

Turn grill onto about 400 - 450 degrees

Halve ripe nectarines, (or peaches, if you like, but personally, I'm a sucker for a ripe nectarine, especially from the farmer's market)

First, put them skin side up, cut side down, you know what I mean, on the grill for 4 minutes

Flip 'em over

Fill them with a little blue cheese, (we used raw blue, easier to digest)

Grill 'em for 4 more minutes, or until the cheese starts to melt

Remove from grill

Drizzle with a little honey over the cheese-side of the nectarine, (again, we use raw honey, aren't we annoying?)

Serve, and try not to eat the entire platter, it's rude.

I think Gillian was happy she arrived when she did.

Good luck, Lukie!  We'll miss you so much. We've enjoyed every minute having you so close, being able to watch Henry grow up has meant the world, hanging with Bode during his "infant" stage, surfing with Daddy, and cleaning every single dish in my kitchen.  You're a good man, Lucas Burns, a top-notch brother, son, step-son, and friend, now go kick some film school ASS!

Summer's Almost Over: Reunions and Halibut

Yes, I'm still here, and alright, I'll admit it again, I'm not the most consistent blogger, but who says you have to write daily, weekly, or bi-weekly even!?!?  Who made the rules?  Well, I'm making my own, and I only blog when I want to, so there!  (But please keep reading me...)

Truthfully, summer gets a bit laaaaaaaazy for me.  It always has and probably always will.  I'm a camper at heart, spent the majority of my life at summer camp, (you know us Jews), 8 weeks a year, away from home, learning how to do things you can't learn under parental supervision.  That's all I'll share, supposedly my parents read this.

This summer I haven't stopped cooking at all, quite the opposite, (I'm in LOVE with scallops these days!), but we do travel quite a bit, there's lots of family time, and blogging ends up on the back burner.  We go back east to Martha's Vineyard for a couple of weeks:

Right Where We Want To Be.

Henry turned 3, had ourselves a "Cars" theme party, we love going to the beach, we venture to Michigan to visit Grammy and Grandpa, and of course, I HAD to go to my 25th high school reunion.  YIKES!  Thank god for name tags, but even WITH name tags, I ended up having a 15 minute conversation with someone I did not know, and I still don't believe he graduated from Seaholm High School, Class of '86, GO MAPLES!

The 80's For Me

His wife, bless her heart, was right along side him, pretending to care what the hell came out of my mouth.  Sweet people.  (NOT Maples, though, for sure.)  Great to see the 'ole gang.  Ain't it funny how everyone changes but no one changes?  Crazy.  I meant to get up there and do a little karaoke.  "Total Eclipse of the Heart," dedicated to my main man, football player, one year older than me, TOTAL CRUSH, Kevin McClanahan, but the night got away from me and my pipes weren't in the best of shape by showtime.  Probably best.

Turn Around Bright Eyes

My crush on Andrew McCarthy, circa 1980's, was on a different level entirely though.  I remember it vividly.  Driving to see "Pretty in Pink," opening weekend, BY MYSELF, which you just didn't DO at Seaholm if you knew what was good for you; but I wanted, nay needed, to be alone with Andrew.  That's right, ALONE.  I don't know WHO the other people were in the movie theatre, but I didn't invite them, and they were frankly bummin' my herb.  I shut them out.

I'm a much saner woman now, (I hope), and I'm very happy to be getting back to my life in LA.  I'm looking forward to school starting for Henry, my hubby will be getting back to his gig on "Burn Notice," which is hard, having him in Miami for so long, but I'm also undertaking something new in my life which I'm thrilled about.  I've enrolled in a year-long nutrition course at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, http://www.integrativenutrition.com/, so I'm about to get SUPER annoying regarding health and nutrition.  (I know, GET?)  It's turned into quite a passion of mine, and I'm really excited to continue this education that I've begun taking very seriously for the past 6 months.

And now, Halibut in Soy Broth:
(I'm not crazy about using soy sauce, here comes the annoying part--because soy beans are genetically modified, or GMO, but it was only 2 tablespoons, so I took one for the team.)

One halibut steak, about one pound
1 tablespoon Olive Oil (recipe called for vegetable oil, which I don't use, or peanut oil, which I didn't have, so...)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon peeled and minced or grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 cup chicken broth (or beef, vegetable stock, or water)
(You could add scallions to garnish after it's cooked, but I didn't have any.)

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat with olive oil, after 2 minutes, raise to high heat.  Cook the fish for 60 to 90 seconds on each side, just until it begins to brown.
Turn the heat to medium-low.  Sprinkle the garlic and ginger around the fish, then drizzle the sesame oil over it.  Add the soy sauce and stock (or water) to the skillet, raise the heat to medium, and bring to a boil.  Turn the heat to low and cover.
Cook for about 5 minutes (depending on the thickness of the halibut).  Remove the cover and, with the fish still in the liquid, raise the heat to high and reduce the liquid by about half, which should take one or two minutes.
Garnish, if you want, and serve!  So tasty and savory.  I put it over some quinoa and sauteed some green beans, it was light and lovely.  I don't have any pictures of my creation tonight, but come on, you know what halibut looks like!  Yum.

I can't believe the summer's almost over, it's never long enough.  Never.

Saying Goodbye to the Ocean