Back to REALITY ! A Costco Method

After Graduation celebration, visits with relatives and friends...we needed a reality check! Too much celebrating and eating out is like when you've been on vacation mode. You know, what I'm talking about... too much of a very good thing catches up with you! If your like me, I love to try new foods and new places. but then after awhile, you just want healthy home cooked meals,  easy mode here cuz your still trying to catch up with everything. So we just craved a healthy simple meal. Finally, our daughter , Dana loves Salmon! after all these years of me asking her to " try it you'll like it !"

 She CRAVES IT ! Thanks to another college education experience! Aren't  we blessed with Costco  here in America ? So I made my errand  run to pick up their frozen Salmon. 

OH MY ! These Salmon steaks are SO BIG in portion size! So next time,when it's just my hubby and myself , we'll share...Another trendy thing when your an empty nester , I'm finding out. Love frozen fish, it's an easy way to have quick access to fresh Salmon. They are individually vacuum sealed, and so it's easy. Great plus in my book when your catching up or being the "busy Mom." Even thou I'm an Empty Nester, you still have to step up to the plate when they visit you!

We love fresh Asparagus! And Tis the Season for Asparagus here in California. Here's a tip I found to an alternative EASY method in preparing fresh asparagus vs. cutting the ends off.             It  is to snap off the asparagus ends. Hold an asparagus spear firmly towards the end and bend it until it breaks naturally. The spear should break at the point where it becomes tough .Using  EVVO  ( extra virgin olive oil ) drizzle it over clean asparagus that has been snapped at the stalk. You'll see it will be a more tender asparagus .  A sprinkle  of Sea Salt and cracked pepper over it and this time I had lemon on hand so I squeezed some over the Salmon. Yeah it's DONE !

Now, for the next side dish... I've been loving these Campari tomatoes I get also at Costco. These stay fresh longer and  are so flavorful. Keeping that in mind, I tried this recipe from Ina Garten. I adapted to fit for the 3 of us, as you'll see. It in all, was a nice change back to reality. ..but our family loves BREAD ! So, keeping that in mind of weaning  ourselves  slowly  from the carbs. I served my favorite bread, also from Costco. La Brea Bakery Demi-Baquette. I love to  keep  these on hand, storing in individually wrapped in foil and placing it in frozen zip lock bag.  Always ready for some yummy bread...don't you just love the smell of baking bread in the oven? Aw...Smells so good! One of my comfort foods for sure ! Wish we had smellavision for blogs right now... so I can share this yummy aroma going through our house.     

Drizzling  EVVO ( Olive Oil ) on my Pampered Chef stone pan. Drizzled again, with  EVVO and some fresh lemon juice from one large lemon.     Few twists from my Pepper grinder and sprinkle with Sea Salt.

Using drizzled EVVO over cleaned  & snapped asparagus stalks, sprinkle Sea Salt and cracked pepper over

Roasted Tomatoes I adapted to fit for the 3 of us.  from Ina Garten

•  8 Campari Tomatoes halved lengthwise, did not remove cores and seeds
  3 tablespoons good olive oil
  1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  1 large garlic cloves, minced
  1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
  1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  
  Directions:
  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
  Arrange the tomatoes on a sheet pan, cut sides up, in a single layer. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle the garlic, salt, and pepper over the tomatoes. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes, until the tomatoes are concentrated and beginning to caramelize. Serve warm or at room temperature. Hope you enjoy trying this Costco Method recipe out! Would love to hear your comments!

 Easy Healthy Reality Home Cooked meal with the help of Costco

 The Beginning of Stepping Back in Time with My Cherished Cookbooks

Sharon McAndrews Burkey

Mini Caprese Bites

This is the sampler that I served my Daughter Dana to test!

Here's one of my favorite appetizers!
It's a low carb and healthy option.
I served this when we hosted a Gala Appetizer Dessert Party for Christ Lutheran School and for a BBQ this last weekend for community service at La Mesa Dale Elementary.
My challenge, finding the right size skewers! I found really long skewers, thought they could be cut in half, but it doesn't skewer through the tomatoes nicely, and breaks the mozzarella cheese balls.Ugh! Note:to self to stock up on skewers. So I decided to leave the length. Instead of serving individually, which I did previously in non stem wine glasses. I needed to serve it buffet style. So, hunting around the house for serving dishes. I ended up serving in 3 glass cylinders and turned out to be a nice presentation. Love it when impromptu creative ideas come to mind!
Enjoy! Sharon

Mini Caprese Bites
Prep: 20 min. Grape tomatoes vary in size from week to week at the grocery store; some pints we found had only 24 while others had more than 40. Good news, you should still have enough mozzarella balls because they are generally sold in 8-oz. containers that have more than enough.

Yield: Makes 8 appetizer servings
1pt. grape tomatoes, halved
10 to 14 fresh small mozzarella cheese balls, cut into thirds*
32 (4-inch) wooden skewers**
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
6 thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
Kosher salt and pepper to taste1. Thread 1 tomato half, 1 piece of cheese, and another tomato half onto each skewer. Place skewers in a shallow serving dish.
2. Whisk together oil and next 3 ingredients. Drizzle oil mixture over skewers; sprinkle with basil and salt and pepper to taste.
*1 (8-oz.) package fresh mozzarella, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, may be substituted.
**Wooden picks may be substituted.

Southern Living, MAY 2008