The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship with Food

"It's so beautifully arranged on the plate - you know someone's fingers have been all over it."--- Julia Child

You know what kind of food I'm talking about. Those gourmet meals delightfully assembled with what seems like only aesthetics in mind. I love food like that. But I haven't yet mastered the art of taking good photos of food, let alone non-food objects. I don't have pretty dinnerware, or pretty backgrounds. I envy those who do. There are several food blogs out there with wonderful pictures. Even my sister-in-law has some terrific photos on her food blog. Mine aren't so great...at least not enough to be hailed as "artsy fartsy." So with that disclaimer in mind, here are the pictures:

Grilled Salmon with Lemon-Dill Sauce, Wild Rice and Red Pepper Soup




This recipe came from the P90X meal plan cookbook with a few adjustments for our personal tastes. The meal also called for steamed asparagus but we forgot to pick it up at the market among other things. It would have looked nice on the plate, eh? Everything turned out really well despite that.

Red Pepper Soup

Ingredients
2 cups white wine (I used white grape juice instead)
1 onion, finely chopped
5 roasted red peppers (click on link to learn how to roast red peppers)
2 cups celery, chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
2 plum tomatoes, chopped (I used Roma tomatoes)
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 cups fat free chicken broth, low sodium
2 tablespoons dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon each: ground white pepper and ground cumin
dash salt

1. Heat wine (or wine substitute) in a large, heavy soup pot over medium heat. Add onion, red peppers, and celery. Cook and stir.
2. Add tomatoes, tomato past, and broth; cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes.
3. Puree soup in a food processor or blender. Return to the pan, add seasonings, and heat through.
Serves 12 (I cut the recipe in half and gave what we didn't eat to our friends)


Lemon-Dill Sauce

Ingredients
1/2 cup shallots, chopped
2 cups white wine (or white wine substitute)
2 tablespoons arrowroot
2 cups fat-free chicken broth, low sodium
6 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemongrass, minced
1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped

1. Coat a large saute pan with cooking spray and saute shallots until soft (not brown), moistening with wine if necessary.
2. Dissolve the arrowroot in 1/2 cup of the chicken broth. Set aside.
3. Add remaining wine to shallots and reduce by half. Add remaining chicken broth and reduce by half again.
5. Return the sauce to the pan. Add lemon juice and lemongrass and simmer over low heat fora bout 30 minutes, until thick. Strain out the lemongrass and stir in the dill.
6. Drizzle over grilled salmon.