Easter Dinner for Two

Nobody around for Easter Dinner this year, so I'm pulling out an old recipe I've been making for years and years.  Found a Smoked Pork Butt in the freezer.  This is a meal where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  We'll have fingerling potatoes and a few slices of fresh pineapple for dessert.  So ripe and delicious and on sale this week.   If moved by the spirit, I may make pineapple fritters.


Smoked Pork Butt and spinach Gratin
a  1  1/2 lb. smoked pork butt, soaked in warm water for 15 minutes and the netting removed


For the Spinach mixture:
1 onion, minced
2 T. unsalted butter
2     10 oz. pkgs. chopped spinach, cooked, drained and squeezed dry
1/2 t. dried tarragon
1 cup heavy cream


1/4 cup dry white wine combined with 2 T. Dijon mustard and 2 T. minced parsley leaves
1/4 cup fine fresh bread crumbs
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
melted unsalted butter to taste.

In a large saucepan cover the pork butt with cold water and bring the water to a boil  Simmer the pork for 1 1/2 hours.
Drain the pork, and let stand for 1 4 minutes.  Cut into 1/2 inch slices.


Make the spinach mixture:  in a skillet,  cook the onion in the butter over moderate hear, stirring until it is softened. 
Add the spinach, tarragon salt and pepper and cook the mixture, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes or until  it is dry.
Add the cream, reduce it over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, for 3 to 5 minutes or until the mixture is thick, 
Add  salt and pepper.  Spoon the mixture into a buttered 2-quart gratin dish.
Arrange the pock slices over the spinach mixture, brush them with the mustard mixture and sprinkle them with the  bread 
crumbs and the Parmesan.  Drizzle the butter over the dish  and bake the gratin in a preheated 350 degree oven for 35 to 
 40 minutes or until the top is golden.  Serves 4 -6.  


This is tasty and we can eat in on Monday, too, and maybe eke a lunch out of it.  It is company-worthy if they eat pork.  

We did our first grilling tonight, to the song of a male cardinal who is happy to have found a mate, happy that spring is here, happy that there is plenty of bird seed handy.  Lordy, can he sing!  

Penzey's Butter Chicken Recipe

Fab recipe that tastes good and doesn't break the bank.  I am always looking for tasty chicken casserole recipes and this one is excellent.  Serve with basmati rice and a salad of your choice.


Penzey's Butter Chicken

We Eat First With Our Eyes

Last night's Tuna Salad with Fresh, not canned, tuna.  Such a difference.  Notice what pow! the tomatoes and bits of orange pepper provide. The dark olives and the greener bits of lettuce add even more pizzaz. The "midcentury modern" tablecloth is used regularly. 
Yowza! 

We Eat First With Our Eyes

Tuna Salad Supreme

I love seafood, when fresh and properly prepared.  Even in Boston, excellent seafood is sometimes hard to come by.  We usually head to Legal Seafood.  I've been eating a lot of scallops, and suddenly I feel like tuna.  Apparently tuna (sorry, Charlie) has become so pricey you can't even find it on a menu.  My new copy of Saveur arrives with hundreds of sandwich recipes, including one for homemade tuna salad.  Yum! 


I buy 12 oz. of tuna at $20 per pound, thinking that if I saw it on a menu it would set me back at least $26 a pop times 2 with wine and salads and maybe another side, and well, yanno, suddenly we are looking a more than a hundred bucks and the $17.00 worth of tuna seems like a huge bargain.   The recipes call for steaming, which I do, and then add chopped red onion, parsley, mayo, capers, lemon juice and salt and pepper.   Let chill.  Folks, I just took a bite and it's delicious. 


We got some good multigrain bread in case we decide to eat it in sandwiches.  I also have olives, little tomatoes, white asparagus, cucumber and orange pepper to serve on the plates, so we're going to eat our veggies, along, of course, with the lettuce.  This looks like a winner. 


Here is the recipe.  See for yourself. Homemade Tuna Salad from Scratch  


Tomorrow we're having something in the curry family called "Butter Chicken."  With a name like that, it just has to be good. 


If I can remember to, I'll photograph the plated dinner tonight to show you how colorful and delicious the tuna looks. 

So Colorful and Tempting- Just add good bread