Sunday Dinner: Mothers' Day

We made all my mom's favorite foods for Mother's Day dinner. She has great taste:

1. Salmon from Open Harvest



My sister marinated these mammoth salmon fillets in lemon and olive oil, then my bro-in-law grilled them to perfection

2. Asparagus


I tossed some thick asparagus with some olive oil, salt, and pepper and threw them on the grill as well. They came out a little charred and overdone, but they were still pretty good.

3. Caprese Salad


Organic tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, and fresh basil with salt, fresh-ground pepper, and a little bit of balsamic vinegar drizzled on top

4. Neal's corn and rice salad, guac, Le Quartier bread


The pasta salad was leftover from the day before

This is a great salad that my friend Neal makes all the time. Make 2 cups of basmati rice, then mix with a bag and a half of cooked corn, a cup of chopped roasted pecans, and a bunch of chopped-up green onions (we substituted chives and green garlic). The dressing is a basic red wine vinaigrette (1/4 cup vinegar, a couple tablespoons of Dijon mustard and 3/4 cup olive oil).

The guacamole was one of the best I've ever made, due to the awesome avocados they had on sale at Open Harvest. I crushed up 3 of them into a chunky consistency with with some lemon juice, cumin, garlic, and the mango-habenero hot sauce my mom bought at the farmer's market like 3 years ago.

Here's a shopping tip-- don't buy bread at Open Harvest on Sundays. They get rid of the day-old bread every other day of the week, but since Le Quartier doesn't make bread on Sundays, they just sell Saturday's bread for the same price.

5. Green tea and ginger sorbet



After two big meals that day, nobody wanted dessert. That is, until they saw this sorbet. It was so easy to make. Just boil 3 cups of water, then put 6 green tea bags, 3/4 cup plus 2 TBS of sugar, and a chunked-up knob of ginger and turn off the heat. Let it steep 5 minutes, then take out the tea bags and put it in the fridge to cool down. After a couple hours, strain out the ginger and put in the ice cream maker. I let the ice cream maker go for about a half an hour, but I think I'll turn it off a little earlier next time-- the end result was a bit too fluffy. I let it freeze in the freezer for a couple hours after I took it out of the ice cream maker.

The end result was FANTASTIC. The taste of ginger was nice, but not overpowering and the the whole thing was just really refreshing after a big meal. If you pour a little champagne as a sauce over the top, it's even better.