Here's to my sister.

As we all know, food can conjure up great memories and the dish that I cooked Sunday night does just that for me. I moved to Boston in March of 2011 and although I was excited to move to the city that I was born in and always loved, being so far away from my parents was a huge adjustment. Yes, I went to college away from home, but never really felt the distance as I was only two hours away and was too busy partying. Did I say partying? I meant going to class and studying.

Anyhow, one of the main reasons I wanted to move to Boston was to be closer to my sister and brother-in law. I never lived in the same city as my sister after school as she is four years older than me and moved to Boston soon after graduating college. I love being only a 15 minute walk from them, it's really amazing. Also, being with my sister takes the edge off of being away from my parents and she takes care of me. 

One night, over the summer, I went over to her Charlestown condo and she prepared the dish below from the South Beach Diet cookbook. Side note: Although I don't live carb free (did I mention I was Italian?) I do try to lay off them for at least one meal a day which is very easy to do. This cookbook has great recipes that are healthy, low in carbs and easy to make. The dish below is one of my favorites. 

I'll never forget the night she made it for me because A. it was absolutely delicious and B. we sat up on her beautiful roof deck drinking wine and it was just one of those nights that I remember thinking, "This is where I am supposed to be." So, here's to my sister, memories and food.

Seared Salmon with a Creamy Dill Sauce:
Ingredients:
1/4 cup low fat mayonnaise
1/4 cup nonfat plain yogurt
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets, with skin
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 ounces alfalfa sprouts (2 cups)

Instructions
1. Combine mayonnaise, yogurt, scallions, lemon juice, and dill.

2. Season salmon with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add salmon, flesh-side down, and sear 3 minutes, until brown. Flip and sear another 3 minutes, until salmon is just cooked through.

3. Place a dollop of sauce on serving plate; top with salmon and a small mound of sprouts.

I like to serve with asparagus or something green on the side. Enjoy!

It doesn't get much better than pizza, wine and friends.

One of the many reasons I love food is because it has the ability to bring people together whether it’s for a celebration or just a casual night in. Recently, one of my best friends, who we will call Williala, moved to Boston. She actually dates my fiancé’s best friend so them moving here was really incredible for us.  They also love food just as much as we do so our time together typically includes a feast of some sort… and tons of wine. I can usually expect a slight headache and food hangover the morning after being with them and I love every minute of it. 

Williala was recently given a pizza stone for her birthday so Thursday night we headed over to their South End apartment to try it out.  By the time we got there, she had already prepared the dough using a Joy of Cooking cookbook recipe:

Ingredients (makes 2  12” crusts)
2 1/4 t. dry yeast
1 1/3 c, warm water
3 1/2-3 3/4 c. flour
2 T. olive oil
1 T. salt
1 T. sugar (optional)

Directions:
Combine water and yeast in large bowl and let stand 5 minutes, until yeast is dissolved. Add flour, olive oil, and salt. Mix on low speed about 1 minute. Knead for 10 minutes. Transfer to a bowl coated with olive oil and turn once. Cover with plastic wrap and a towel and let rise 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Get the pizza stone prepped. It’s important to note the pizza stone has to be preheated to a certain temperature to work and that often means leaving the oven on for quite a while before you begin to cook. It’s best to place your stone in a cold oven and then turn the oven on (475 degrees). The purpose of this is to allow the stone to absorb the heat evenly (usually takes around 45 minutes).



Heating up!



If you aren’t working with a pizza stone, just take a cooking sheet and grease and dust with cornmeal.

Once the dough is done rising, dust a second baking sheet with cornmeal and punch dough down and divide in half.

Dough perfection

Roll each piece into a ball and let rest, covered with plastic wrap, 10 to 15 minutes. Pull the pizza stone out of the oven and dust with cornmeal. Flatten each ball of dough on a lightly floured work surface and then transfer to the pizza stone/baking sheet. If you want to get fancy with it and you have a pizza peel, do all of this on that and then transfer to the pizza stone/baking sheet. Brush crust with olive oil, put on a layer of sauce and then add desired toppings.

We made two pizzas: one with mozzarella, spinach and Proscuitto and the other with mozzarella, sausage and pepperoni.

After about 15 minutes of being in the oven each, the pizzas came out smoking hot and ready to be consumed.

Yum a lum

I give Williala all the credit in the world for making pizza that even the Italians in the North End of Boston would have been impressed by! Pizza is also a great meal to make with friends because choosing the toppings is a group activity (the email banter the day before this was quite amusing) and can be customized to everyone’s likings. Enjoy!