Lemony Zest :: Kim Lewandowski

Posts Tagged ‘Food’

When we had our paella dinner party a couple of weeks ago, for an appetizer, I made this marinated melon dish, adapted from here, and used my little Pampered Chef whisk to stir up the dressing.

Marinated Canteloupe and Prosciutto

1 fresh, ripe cantaloupe
12 thin slices of jamón serrano (I couldn’t find serrano ham, so I used prosciutto)
1 scallion, finely chopped
8 tbsp olive oil
6 tbsp sherry vinegar
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Cut melon in half and scoop into balls with a teaspoon or melon baller. In a small bowl whisk together the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Add the scallion and melon, mix thoroughly and chill for 2 hours. Shape ham or prosciutto slices into cones and serve with melon.

This is my entry in the August edition of Joelen’s Culinary Adventures, specifically for Tasty Tools.

Last Christmas, my mother-in-law, Barb, gave me a paella kit, among other lovely gifts. She knows how much I love to cook and have people over to cook for, so it was a really cool present It came with a bottle of Spanish extra-virgin olive oil, a bag of calasparra rice, a half gram of saffron, a paella pan and a recipe. So we just had to buy the meats, seafood and some of the veggies, since we used some tomatoes and onions from the garden.

We had two couples over for dinner last night and made the paella, and it was just delicious. I’m going to add to this post later, but I just wanted to get this photo up and show it to my MIL. Thanks, Barb

Joelen of Joelen’s Culinary Adventures has an unbelievable array of food blogging events going – don’t know how she keeps up with the round-ups. There are lots of tasty-looking recipes from previous events to read about and maybe try.

Right now, at the height of the summer, the event she has going on is Summer Produce, and we have lots. The basil and roma tomatoes are really coming in now, and the cucumbers are catching up. So I made a sort of caprese salad over greens for dinner one night. I know, using vinegar isn’t traditional, but I just love red-wine vinegar with this, so that’s what I use

Fresh basil, cucumber and roma tomato from the garden

Caprese-inspired Green Salad

3 cups chopped romaine
1 small cucumber, chopped
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup fresh mozzarella cheese, diced
1/4 cup fresh basil, julienned
3 tbsp. red wine vinegar
3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Layer half of romaine, cucumber, tomatoes, cheese and basil in each of two bowls. Whisk together vinegar, oil, salt and pepper and drizzle over salads.