Peruvian Ceviche

It's Peruvian night at the house tonight! This is the first of two delicious dishes we made, and I say we because Eric was a tremendous help. I think I bit off a little more than I could chew, but both dishes were done in just under an hour. 

The ceviche was Eric's favorite of the two. Not too much of a surprise since we love ceviche, but I really liked the sides served with it - sweet potatoes, corn and butter lettuce. I used mahi-mahi for the fish, my red onions I've been storing since harvesting, and cilantro and habanero (and corn on the cob) from the farmer's market. 

Mahi Mahi

Things I learned from this recipe:

Eric figured it out for me via Google, that sweet potatoes take 15 minutes to boil. They came out great, but I definitely prefer them from the oven.

I think cutting the fish slices thinner would've been better.

Would I make this recipe again?:

Yes

The recipe

Rainbow Carrot, Pea Shoot & Chicken Salad

I have been meaning to make this recipe since the summer started and I was happy to still find rainbow carrots at the farmer's market this morning. I love the colors and how cheery it made this salad. I also loved the trick of icing the ribbons to make them crispy - it really worked! I could not find pea shoots at a couple of different markets so I just left it out. All of the other flavors were great and the dressing was quite tart with the garlic and Meyer lemon which offset the feta. 

I ended up serving this salad with cold Japanese noodles since it was so hot today and that turned out to be a bad idea. Feta does not go well with other dishes that have a soy sauce base. 

Rainbow carrot ribbons

The dressing

Things I learned from this recipe:

I used pineapple mint and apple mint found at my farmer's market. Both have very unique flavors that I really enjoyed.

Do not serve goat's-milk feta cheese with Japanese food. 

Would I make this recipe again?:

Yes

The recipe

Skillet Apple Crisp

We had a very busy day today so I decided to make a dessert for breakfast which actually got served at lunch time. This is another delicious recipe from the America's Test Kitchen and it did not disappoint. I chose to use Honeycrisp apples and they were great. I should also note that I read "apple cider" as "apple cider vinegar" and I'm pretty sure this slight error in reading led to some really "flavorful" apples. I'm so happy my error didn't ruin the dish, but it was really the topping that saved me. It is so delicious I could've just eaten the topping on it's own. I also almost forgot the oats so I think they normally should be a little more blended into the top, but it didn't really matter in the end.

Topping

Apple mixture

Cider

Apples

Cooked apples

Pre-bake

Served w/ice cream

Things I learned from this recipe:

You need more ice cream than you think.

The topping would be excellent on oatmeal as well.

Would I make this recipe again?:

Yes

The recipe

Eggplant Parmesan (dinner)

I was tortured with eggplant as a child and since then I have never been a fan. It is one vegetable that I truly cannot stand so it was a stretch for me to make this recipe. I have been eyeing it in my pile wondering why I held onto it and then realized it was probably for the "Quick Chicken Potpie" recipe adjacent to this one...sigh. Once I add recipes to my calendar I do not like to remove them so off to the grocery store I went to pick an eggplant. I haven't a clue what a good vs. bad one is, but this one seemed fine. While they were cooking in the oven I kept tasting the sauce as it was simmering and kept thinking, "This is getting tastier and tastier." It started a little sweet and turned into a very nicely spiced red sauce. I liked it so much I've decided it will be my new pasta sauce - it's that good, and just when I thought it couldn't get better, the addition of fresh herbs and croutons was amazing. Really, everything but the eggplant was superb. Eric noted that he couldn't actually taste the eggplant at all. Lucky. He loved the melted mozzarella and everything on top as well. 

Onions & garlic

+ wine

Eggplant pre-bake

The sauce

Baked eggplant

Eggplant + sauce

+ mozzarella pre-re-bake

Things I learned from this recipe:

I still hate eggplant.

Would I make this recipe again?:

I would make it again without the eggplant and instead put it all on top of pasta (or chicken).

The recipe

Whole Orange Cake (dessert)

I'm attending an open house party tomorrow and thought it was a great excuse to make another bundt cake. I thought it was fascinating to use the entire orange for a cake and couldn't help but want to make it, but knew that we did not to have a whole bundt cake laying around. The taste, of course, is very orange-y but not overpowering. Eric thought it was the right amount of orange and sweetness and wasn't keen on me adding the icing. I decided I'm going to do that before leaving for the party tomorrow.

Egg & butter

Mixture

Whole oranges in the food processor

Mixture + blended oranges

All mixed together

Pre-bake

Cooling

Things I learned from this recipe:

I'm still considering trying to find a more accurate way to figure out if my oven has the right internal temperature. I cooked the cake for 10 minutes longer than the recipe called for because at certain intervals it was still soggy. Truth time: I finally realized that the open part of the bundt cake pan is really the bottom of the cake so that perceived sogginess was okay. When you finally flip the pan over that is the part you get to see which is probably why after 10 additional minutes of cooking the cake is a little more crispy than intended but we actually prefer it that way.

Would I make this recipe again?:

Maybe

The recipe