Light and sunny

When it's hot outside you don't want to heat up the house by cooking too much.

One of my new favorite recipes is this lemon, parsley, and caper vinaigrette from the back of one of the jars of capers I bought. It's dead easy- fresh lemon juice, chopped parsley, a spoonful of capers, olive oil, and salt & pepper.

Once the vinaigrette is ready, toss it with some beautiful tomatoes and set it aside.

While all of that is marinating, heat up your skillet to cook the salmon. I tend to prefer my salmon about medium or even a little medium-rare. Cook a little longer if you prefer yours more well done.

I seasoned the salmon simply with salt and pepper before putting it in the pan.

While the fish is cooking prepare your bowl and dress the lettuce with the vinaigrette. Once it's ready to go, flake out the salmon and add it to your salad.

It's a great dish for a hot summer day. The lemony vinaigrette and fatty salmon are just that little punch the tomatoes and lettuce need. Give it a try!

Party of One

Sometimes, cooking for a party of one can be harder than cooking for a big dinner party. I find that it takes more thought to scale back a dish to make just one good plate.

But just because you are eating by yourself doesn't mean that you dinner shouldn't be any more delicious. Treat yourself!

I was home alone on a Saturday night and decided to make myself dinner worthy of any of the restaurants that I might have chosen to visit. Since it was just me I tried to keep it simple and keep all the cooking confined to one pan- a cast iron skillet in this case.You don't need a cast iron skillet to do this but it is helpful to have a pan that can go from the stove into the oven.


Bone-in pork chop, roasted fingerling potatoes and cherry tomatoes with sauteed spinach.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

I started with a beautiful bone-in pork chop from Whole Foods. I seasoned it with salt, pepper, and paprika. Before you season the chop, put your pan on the stove to heat it up. You need the pan to be hot in order to get a good sear on the meat. Once you get the chop seasoned up, drop it in the pan and sear on each side for about 3 mins per side.

Seared pork chop

Once you've turned the chop over the second time, add some fingerling potatoes and cherry tomatoes to the pan. I like fingerling potatoes for dishes like this because they are smaller than even regular red potatoes so that makes them great for quick meals. They also tend to have a different texture and more subtle taste then other potatoes.

Let all of this cook together in the pan for another 3-4 minutes.


Once the oven is ready put the whole pan in the oven and cook for another 5-8 minutes depending on how well done you prefer your pork.


After the time rings, take the pan out of the oven and remove the pork chop, potatoes, and tomatoes to a plate. That will give the pork chop time to rest before you cut into it. Beware that the tomatoes can be very hot so give them a little bit of time to call off before biting into them.

While the pan is still hot from the oven, add about 1 cup of uncooked spinach to the pan.

The spinach will wilt quickly in the heat of the pan. Once it's at a texture you like, plate everything up.

In may case I piled the spinach on top of the potatoes and tomatoes then shaved a little parmigiano. I like the slightly salty, slightly nutty flavor of the parmigiano- it ads a great flavor to the roasted veggies.

Serve with a crisp white wine or a mild pinot and dinner is served!