Do you live in Reno? Go, have a wonderful date night at Back of the House.

Brad and I both love to cook. In the last few years, the kitchen is where I am really able to get creative. Plus, we love to be in the kitchen together. We make a great team and have made some incredible food together, if I do say so myself. Friday night’s cooking class was no exception.

it's probably worth going JUST for the teacher - she was so much fun

pecorino romano with local honey. (ok no, we didn't actually cook this, but it was too good to not tell you about)

It was all so good, I barely even noticed that we weren’t cooking what the website said we would be. But that’s okay, it gives me a chance to experiment and make my own pasta some other time. And also to recreate this pizza + goat cheese:

caramelized onions, kalamata olive, purple/red/green grapes and pecorino romano pizza

sage and prosciutto wrapped chicken thigh with butternut squash orzo "risotto" with a sage cream sauce

We also had a nice lemon ricotta cheesecake for dessert, but didn’t prepare that one

We also had a somewhat unlimited supply of cabernet, hence the blurry-ish photos.

If you didn’t know based on my tweets last week, or by the fact that I may have ignored every attempt for friends and/or family to contact me, last week was The Great Reno Balloon Race. At my jobby job, part of my recent promotion is that I’m the new media coordinator for the event, so needless to say I was kinda busy. (Oh I also helped launch the website for our company’s new division – it’s been a busy few months). But that’s besides the point.

the point is, edamame hummus.

You guys. I have been wanting to make edamame hummus for some time now, and apparently Friday afternoon, after several 12-14 hour days, halfway through the event, I HAD to make edamame hummus. The recipe is approximate, at best, but I had to share it with you.

• Edamame (duh) – I used a packed of shelled, steam-in-the-bag microwave type (I steamed them for about half of the time suggested)
• Soy sauce – I think I ended up using a total of about 1/4 cup, but go about a tablespoon at a time until you’ve reached desired Umami
• Just a few shakes of chili powder, cumin, coriander and onion powder
• 1 garlic clove chopped, minced or smashed
• 1ish tbsp tahini (this flavor can get overwhelming, so use sparingly)

Food process it while drizzling in your extra virgin olive oil until you reach desired consistency. Food process it FOREVER. It’ll get smooth, but thick and sticky-ish. Enjoy with pita crackers and bring in to share with your coworkers while they marvel at your skills!

If I’m not careful, this blog could easily turn from a biking blog to a cooking blog.  So, I promise I’ll be careful.  But healthy cooking and eating is a big part of living an active lifestyle, so I’m making it fit into this blog.  So deal w/it

So, I know this amazing lady, Nancy.  She has this amazing restaurant/catering company called Dish.  She also writes this amazing blog where she shares recipes, and little bits of her life that go along with them.  I have been lucky to meet her through my former ( ) coworker, Katie.  They’re sisters, and you can totally tell.  These two women are some of the sweetest, most inspiring, genuine people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.  And if you know either of them, I know you’ll agree.  If you don’t, pop into Dish to say hi.  Or if you happen to be in South Bend, Ind., look up Katie.  The good thing is, seeing Nancy is like getting to spend time with a little piece of Katie, who is very missed here at this office.

Anyway!

I’m only slightly more experienced at cooking and recipe-inventing than I am at cycling (both couldn’t or wouldn’t have been done without Brad).  But it has been a longtime quest of mine to find yummy, easy, healthy meals, and lately I have been inspired.  Okay WE have been inspired.  (Although I think summertime lends itself to easy, yummy recipes, given the abundance of produce and lack of  willingness to spend time in a kitchen with hot appliances.)  So, although this has very little to do with any adventures on my bike (except for the fact that I rode my bike to the farmer’s market to get many of the ingredients), per Nancy’s request, here are some recipes from some recently devoured meals.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I’m dabbling in pescetarianism (actually, lacto-ovo-pescetarianism, but that’s besides the point), so coming up with really yummy meals that satisfy both my steak-loving boyfriend and me has been an extra challenge.

Garlic Lime Shrimp Salad
This dinner was a salad-conversion of something we normally make as tacos.

some homemade margaritas, too.

Ingredients:

• Frozen raw shrimp (I just eyeballed it), but you can use fresh
• Lettuce (whatever type tickles your fancy, but I think we used a spring mix)
• Avocado
• Sour cream (I used fat-free cause I can’t tell the difference)
• Queso fresco (usually with mozzarella in the grocery store), crumbled
• 4-5 limes
• Cilantro (and whatever other herbs you fancy – we used basil since it’s growing in our garden)
• Olive oil (or whatever type of oil you prefer)
• Garlic
• S&P to taste

Defrost the shrimp (if frozen) with some cool-ish water (not warm or hot, cause it’ll cook em!) and then soak them in a bit of lime juice, garlic and olive oil and S&P for just a few minutes before cooking.  We grilled them in our grill basket like this one, but you could saute them just as easily if you prefer.  We tend to grill just about everything though because it doesn’t make the kitchen hot, won’t make the house smell and makes cleanup A LOT easier.  Anyway, however you cook them, cook them until they’re pink and completely opaque.

For the dressing, combine your chopped up herbs, some more oil, lime juice and zest and S&P to taste.

That’s about it!  Assemble your salad and enjoy!

Variation:
For the tacos, we’ll usually cook the shrimp the same way (or talapia works nicely with the same marinade), replace lettuce with cabbage, use the same fixins and nix the dressing.  Best served with FRESH corn tortillas from King’s Ranch.

Asian-ish Salad with Fish and Peanut Dressing
Okay, so the name sucks, but it was still really good.  And all of these ingredients either came from the local farmer’s market or from our own garden.

i'm no photog, but this lighting is not showing the dish to its full potential

Ingredients:

• Fish (we used opah, found at the farmer’s market, but any fatty fish, like ahi or swordfish, would probably be good)
• Lettuce (again, we used a spring mix)
• Cucumber (we used lemon cucumbers – a little tangy, but mild)
• Cherry tomatoes, halved
• Creamy peanut butter (we used natural)
• Sesame oil
• Salad or canola oil
• Whatever combo of herbs you enjoy (here we used chive, basil and a touch of parsley because it’s what we had)
• S&P to taste

We seared the fish in a pan (make sure you’re using sushi-grade fish if you opt to leave it a little raw) but I don’t think we’d do that again for two reasons: 1) the opah had a funky texture raw (however forms a really nice crust on the outside) and 2) two days later, our kitchen/living room  still smells like fish.  It’s dense, so it’s a good fish for grilling, I think, but of course we’d say that.  Either way coat it with some olive oil and salt and pepper before you cook it and you’ll get that nice, crispy crust.

For the dressing, combine peanut butter, a TEENSY bit of sesame oil, salad oil, herbs and S&P to taste.  It wasn’t an exact science, we just put stuff in til it tasted good.

Then, assemble your salad and drizzle with dressing.  Super easy, and it only took about 10 minutes to prepare.

So that’s it!  Try them out and let me know what you think.  And, Nancy, if you come up with an improvements, please let me know!

Now … does anyone have a good, easy recipe for eggplant?