Summer in Chicago is great for grilling outdoors, and Paul has mastered the perfect steak (which we have about once a week now).

The other night we grilled chicken with homemade barbecue sauce and fresh Midwestern corn. The corn was delicious, no need for salt or butter or anything! We find it's best to remove it from the husks for quicker grilling. I made the barbecue sauce, based on some internet research and use of things I had in the kitchen, by combining a lot of rice vinegar (used up the bottle we had), about half as much marinara sauce, a spoonful of sugar substitute, a spoonful of canola oil, some soy sauce, and some hot pepper sauce. Just simmered that in a sauce pan for about 10 minutes, and it tasted just like barbecue sauce -- amazing!

I also made a cucumber and tomato salad, loosely based on this recipe that I found on the internet http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1758,129188-248196,00.html but with arugula instead of oregano and maybe a few other modifications.

We have added fish tacos as a regular meal, since we get a lot of tilapia and cabbage. I just picked up some whole wheat tortillas, and it's an easy, healthy, and delicious meal! The ones pictured are topped with purple cabbage and fresh cilantro, but you can use any kind of cabbage (although purple is really good!) and really any kind of fresh green herbs (I've used basil or arugula if that's what we had). Tomato is a nice addition, but I guess we didn't have one that night. Also, you can cook the tilapia any way you like. I think these may have been pan fried in a little olive oil, but the other night I grilled them in left over barbeque sauce (see next post).

I have been meaning to follow-up on Paul's latest barrage of posts. The special curry dressing is made by mixing together:
           3/4 cup canola oil (or olive works too)
           2 Tablespoons white wine
           1/4 cup wine vinegar
           2 Tablespoons soy sauce
           2 teaspoons sugar (or whatever sweetener you use)
           1 teaspoon dry mustard (or I just use regular dijon mustard)
           curry powder -- the recipe calls for a 1/2 teaspoon, but I use more
           1/2 teaspoon salt
           1/2 teaspoon pepper

I got this recipe from my mom, who used it on spinach salad. I have no idea where she got it, but it's apparently good on just about everything -- salad, meat, whatever.

For the roast chicken, I made a dressing based loosely on this turkey recipe from Scott Peacock and Edna Lewis http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/roasted-salt-brined-turkey who have a gourmet Southern-style cookbook. The essential piece is to take softened butter (I use a yogurt butter substitute) and smush in orange and lemon juice, fresh basil, thyme, or other fresh herbs, salt and pepper. Then rub this mixture over the outside and inside of the chicken. You can leave whatever is left inside. Turned out pretty delicious! (and the more complicated turkey recipe is good for Thanksgiving)

I used this for directions on how to roast it http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/My-Favorite-Simple-Roast-Chicken-231348

I'm also not sure that Paul emphasized the importance of letting the chicken thaw completely. We didn't do this, since we were way too excited to eat the whole chicken in our fridge, and I thought we were not going to get the frozen bag of giblets out of it. It was pretty stressful for a while there, but even with all that (and even being half frozen to begin with), it turned out great (see pictures Paul posted below).

Tonight's dinner was something special.
The highlight was this roast tomato dish that Helen made. We've been growing fresh basil, and we added it to some nice tomatoes along with some garlic. Then we just cooked the whole thing at 425 for an hour or so.

While Helen was doing that, I was grilling the steak. Grilling outside is way better than the grill pan, and it's been nice enough lately that I can do it. I was pretty happy with the way this turned out.

The steak was pretty tiny, so we grilled some fish as well. We didn't end up eating it, but now we'll have fish tacos tomorrow. Check back in four months when I finally get around to posting pictures of tomorrow's fish tacos. For now, look at those grill lines!

Here's the finished product. Definitely one of the better ones.

Ok, enough with the ancient history. Here's what we had for dinner last night.

Helen makes this incredible salad dressing with yellow curry powder, oil, and some other stuff. I don't know what's in it, she'll have to tell you. Sorry, the informational level of this blog has gone way down today. Anyway, this mysterious salad dressing is my favorite, and I contribute by finding new ways to use it. We've used it to marinate chicken a few times, and it's really great.

Yesterday was delivery day, which means tofu for dinner, since the meat arrives frozen and needs a day to thaw out. We had some salad dressing in the fridge, so I suggested that we add it to our baked tofu instead of the usual soy/ginger concoction. It was fantastic.

We paired the tofu with roast fennel. Fennel is my other favorite, and we're finally getting it again. Remember a couple years back when fennel was the hot ingredient, and every trendy restaurant you went to had like three fennel dishes? That was a special time. Anyway, now we make fennel at home. I wish I'd taken a before picture to show you how huge and bulbous the fennel was. Here's the finished result.

I barely remember this one. April 8 according to the EXIF info. In fact, it's possible that Helen cooked this for herself while I was out of town, and took some pics with my camera. The pork chop would have been made inside with the grill pan, since Chicago was still blizzarding well into April. That thing was a lifesaver over the winter, even though we almost died of smoke inhalation a few times.

Superfans of this blog will note that these pictures feature our coffee table, rather than the kitchen island. We're pulling back the curtain a bit more. Sorry about the mess.

Here's another golden classic that was hanging out in my camera. On April 1 (apparently) we roasted a whole chicken. This was a huge ordeal for us less-than-talented cooks. The thing was partially frozen, which made it really hard to get the giblets out. And we had to cook it FOREVER. But it was pretty delicious when done.

Every once in awhile we go crazy and order a whole chicken. The first time was a disaster; this one turned out pretty great! But it's way too much food for two people. Chicken sandwich lunches for weeks.

I was going to post some pictures from tonight's meal, but my camera is full of old, unposted food pics. Here's an awesome beet and tangerine salad that Helen made back on March 26:

This thing was delicious. I totally don't remember what we had with it, but it looks like steak and ramps. We were getting ramps for awhile; they're the hot new ingredient in trendy restaurants apparently. They're really good, but you can only get them for like two weeks every year. The veggies in this picture look like ramps, but March seems a little early, so maybe not.

I noticed that Paul left off mention of the delicious greens in his last two posts. You may have noticed them in the pictures. For several weeks we were getting nothing but cabbage, but in the past few shipments we have received wonderful organic greens -- kale, chard, spinach.

I like to have something green with every meal, and they are super easy to make. My favorite method is to saute them in a little olive oil. Once they are wilted after a few minutes, add salt and pepper to taste and maybe a little lemon juice. It's good to chop kale or chard into strips first. Also, it's a good idea to stir them constantly so the greens on the bottom don't burn.

Another simple Thursday night dish. Not very exciting, but I thought the chicken photographed well.

The cool thing here was how easily I was able to do this. Helen had to work late, and I was hungry, so I just sort of threw this together using whatever was in the fridge. No looking up recipes on the internet or anything. The potatoes and onions were a last minute addition; I needed some vegetables, so I chopped them up, added olive oil, rosemary, and black pepper, and tossed them into the oven where the chicken was already baking. I wouldn't have been capable of doing that six months ago. Especially since before the farm share, there definitely wouldn't have been any potatoes, onions, or fresh rosemary in the fridge.