Stir fried noodles with shrimp, green beans, and carrots

I am so excited about this recipe. This is the first time that I've been able to make a stir fry that actually tasted like something from our favorite Thai spot. Now, I have no idea if our local Thai place makes authentic food or not - I just know that it is tasty. My favorite thing to order from there is the drunken noodles - spicy stir fried noodles with veggies and shrimp. Contrary to what you might expect, there's no alcohol in drunken noodles - one theory about the name is that the noodles are so spicy that you need to drink beer to cool down. Anyway, a couple weeks ago I was craving drunken noodles and decided to see if I could make a decent version at home. I did some recipe research, and used this one as a starting point. The result wasn't quite what I wanted so I made some modifications and came up with the version that I'm sharing here, which is the perfect blend of sweet, salty, and spicy. It came out just as I had hoped and I love that I can make a homemade version of my favorite takeout dish. Now I just have to figure out how to make Andrew's favorite fried rice...

Tomatoes stuffed with roasted peppers, tuna, capers, and olives

My first week at the new job went very well - it was somewhat overwhelming, of course, meeting new people and getting oriented to the projects that I'll be working on. But overall, I feel like I've already learned a lot and I'm definitely excited about the work! I think the hardest thing was adjusting to a full-time work schedule again - I was surprised at how little energy I had for cooking when I got home each day. I'm sure I'll get used to the schedule soon enough, but for this week I made a meal plan to make things a bit easier. As I made the plan, I made sure to pick out a couple recipes from my new Middle Eastern cookbook to try.

This stuffed tomato recipe is perfect for this time of year, when the tomatoes are so great. It's a Tunisian recipe, and it's wonderful. The tomatoes are stuffed with roasted red peppers, tuna, capers, and olives. Add in some garlic, parsley, and a chile pepper, and I'm sure you can imagine how flavorful this is!

Orzo with shrimp, red peppers, and mushrooms

I feel like I've been seeing orzo recipes everywhere lately. On the blogs, there was this one and this one, and my cousin served an orzo dish when I was at her place last week. So I decided to join the club and cook an orzo recipe for dinner last night. Mediterranean flavors work so well with orzo, so I went in that direction - why mess with something good, right? When I cook pasta, I usually bulk it up with lots of vegetables, and this time I used red peppers and mushrooms. With shrimp, olives, basil, feta cheese, and a generous amount of lemon juice, this recipe is healthy and packed with flavor. I'm so glad we had a lot of leftovers - I can't wait to eat this for lunch tomorrow!

Mango fried rice with cashews and shrimp

You might have noticed that I've been posting a lot of original recipes lately. I'm officially done with grad school now, and I am taking some time off to relax and do some career-related introspection, along with lots of cooking, of course! Creating my own recipes is a little project that I've been working on now that I have more free time. I still spend plenty of quality time with my cookbooks and reading food blogs/websites, but the recipes I see serve mostly as inspiration as I develop my own ideas.

This inspiration for this fried rice recipe came from both a cookbook and a blog. I was flipping through one of my favorite cookbooks, Ottolenghi's Plenty, last week and a recipe for mango and coconut rice salad caught my eye. And then I saw Lauren's recent post about kale salad with mango and avocado which also looked pretty tasty. I don't know if it was the incredible warm weather last week, but I was really craving tropical fruit! Anyway, those two salad recipes ended up getting merged in my mind and morphing into this fried rice. It's got shrimp, cashews, mango, toasted coconut, onion, red bell pepper, kale, ginger, and loads of cilantro and basil (if there's one lesson I've learned from Plenty, it is that I shouldn't be afraid to really amp up the amount of herbs I use in my cooking). I'm very proud of this recipe - it's pretty freaking delicious. The mango ends up kind of melting into the rice and adding a great sweet fruity note to the sauce. I really loved the combination of the tropical mango and coconut flavors with the local New England kale - all the ingredients really come together into a well rounded, filling, and flavorful meal.

Salmon cakes

I still have a couple more party recipes to tell you about, but I'm going to save those for another time. For today, I'm going to tell you about a healthier recipe that is more appropriate for an everyday dinner. I ended up making these salmon cakes after buying canned salmon for the first time last week. Although I know that fish is very healthy, and I love the taste of seafood, I don't really cook fish that often. I would like to, but my local grocery store doesn't have great options for fresh fish, especially if you're concerned about sustainability. But recently I have been hearing a lot about canned salmon as a good alternative - it's easy to find wild rather than farmed, and it's a heck of a lot cheaper than fresh. Of course, canned salmon can't replace fresh for all applications, but it's perfect if you are making something like these delicious salmon cakes. I was thrilled with how these came out, and I am definitely going to start buying canned salmon more often from now on!

This recipe was adapted from one that I found on Epicurious. I cut down the amount of mayo and adapted the ingredients a bit based on what I had on hand. The cakes are full of flavor, soft and tender on the inside, with some veggies adding texture. The leftovers were fantastic for lunch the next day, and from the reviews online, it sounds like leftover cakes freeze well too. I love finding dishes like this that are simple, cheap, tasty, and healthy all in one!

Have you ever cooked with canned salmon?

Seared scallops with spiced butternut squash puree

Andrew and I don't exchange Christmas presents. Instead, we treat ourselves to a nice dinner at a restaurant that is a bit fancier than the ones we normally go to, and enjoy an evening out together. The first year that we were dating, we had a three-course meal at Rendezvous, the highlight of which was an amazing appetizer of seared scallops with Moroccan spices. This year, we had the five-course tasting menu at Journeyman, which included some of the most creative and inventive dishes I have ever had. To give you an example, one of the plates included rye bread ice cream. And it was good! Several of the courses at Journeyman also included vegetable purees, which had amazing complexity and depth of flavor. I was impressed - I didn't know something as seemingly boring as parsnip puree, for example, could be so delicious!

Anyway, after I bought some gorgeous sea scallops at the Somerville Winter Market, I decided to combine some favorite elements of our past holidy dinners into this dish. I spiced up a simple butternut squash puree with ras al hanout (a Moroccan spice blend) and served it with seared scallops. The combination was delicious - spicy and sweet, with a good mix of textures. And since I already had the cooked squash in the fridge, this dish came together in less than 10 minutes! It's so nice to know that we can capture the essence of some of our favorite restaurant meals right at home anytime we want.

What are the most memorable restaurant meals you've had?

Seared scallops with spiced butternut squash puree

Makes 3 servings

1 1/2 cups pureed butternut squash*

1 tsp ras al hanout (Moroccan spice blend)

9 large sea scallops (about 3/4 lb.)

1 tbs butter

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a small saucepan, stir ras al hanout into squash puree until well blended. Heat puree over medium heat until warm, and add salt to taste. While squash is warming, pat scallops dry with a paper towel and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place a large, heavy skillet (cast iron is best) over moderately high heat. When skillet is hot, add butter. When butter is melted and foam subsides, add scallops to pan. Sear scallops for 2 minutes per side, or until they are just cooked through with a golden brown crust. Divide squash puree into three portions, and top each with three scallops. Serve immediately.

*You can cook the squash however you want (for example, bake the squash whole until it is tender, then halve it, remove the seeds, and scoop out the flesh), and then puree the flesh in a food processor.

Baked mussels with parsley garlic butter

I love mussels. The best part of eating mussels for me is sopping up all the flavorful broth with pieces of toasted bread. For a long time I thought of mussels as restaurant food, but then I realized how easy they are to cook at home (and they are pretty cheap too!). Now I make them fairly regularly, either as an appetizer if we are having guests, or as a main course with a side salad. This recipe is my current favorite way to prepare mussels. All you have to do is make a compound butter with parsley and garlic, spread it over mussels in a baking pan, cover, and bake. It is very simple and you don't have to stand over the stovetop waiting for them to open up. The butter melts and combines with the mussel juices to make the most delicious dipping sauce for bread.