March 2010

Today is my Friday! I can not even believe that this time tomorrow I will be on a flight to San Francisco and then on my way to wine country!

Earlier this week I took some inspiration from The O2 Diet and made
salmon salad stuffed cucumber boats. Now, the actual recipe called for a chicken, in addition to a bunch of other ingredients, but I improvised. I wanted to use salmon because of my informative afternoon at For the Health of it on Friday, and luckily we had some high quality canned salmon in the house.
Little secret. . . I actually buy this as a treat for my cats, and I decided to try some last week. Its tasty!  And it is nice to keep on hand. Sometimes its nice to have some non perishable items. With our crazy schedules, food, especially fish, sometimes goes bad before we can eat it!

I started out by draining all of the liquid and giving it to the kitties.
They were very happy 🙂 I mixed the salmon with a good shake of curry powder, 2 chopped apples, and 3 spoonfuls of 0% Greek yogurt.

I stirred everything together, then put it in the fridge to chill while I worked on the other components of the meal, roasted Brussels sprouts and potatoes.
When we were ready to eat, I cut a cucumber lengthwise, scooped out the seeds, and stuffed the halves with the salmon salad.

With Brussels roasted to perfection. this quick dinner provided enough fruit, veggies, and protein, along with a mix of flavors and textures. The cucumbers were SO crunchy!

I originally planned on pairing this with Sauvignon Blanc, which I think would have gone really well with this dinner. However, you might recall that earlier this week we had a never ending monsoon, and long, cold, gray days. As a result, we decided on a lighter bodied red, the first Pinot Noir produced by our favorite local winery, Travessia Urban Winery. You may have seen write ups on Travessia’s wine in earlier posts, one about their wine club event and the Coastal Wine Trail kickoff.

Light in color and body, this wine differs from Travessia’s other wines in that it is not made with Massachusetts grapes. Rather, it is made from Russian River Valley grapes. It is a very easy to drink wine, smooth, silky with a delicious hint of cherry. It went very well with our dinner despite the fact that it was a fish dish, and I can see it pairing well with many different meals. Its a good food wine that I would drink well into the summer because of its lightness.

If you live in New England and haven’t tried Travessia wine yet, you should!

And because she’s so cute and can open cabinets herself, a photo of Smuckers 🙂

I hope its a beautiful day wherever you are today. Enjoy it!

P.S. If you live in the Boston/Cambridge, MA area, there is a great event going on this Tuesday, March 25, at the Seaport World Trade Center. Cooking for a Cause benefits East End House . According to the press release I received:

“East End House has been offering vital programs and services to children, families, and individuals in East Cambridge, Cambridge and the surrounding communities for one hundred and thirty-five years. Currently, they  offer affordable, nationally accredited childcare and after school care, a middle school out-of-school-time program, a one-on-one mentoring program for at-risk youth, an innovative youth science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) program, emergency food assistance, senior support services, and volunteer and community outreach programs. With your help, we will continue to offer high quality programs that meet growing community needs.”

Cooking for a Cause features a long list of amazing local chefs like Jody Adams from Rialto, where I dined this week, along with other favorites of mine including Dante DeMagistris from Dante, Andy Husbands of Tremont 647, Will Gilson from Garden at the Cellar, and the amazing Tony Maws from Craigie on Main in addition to many others. Help a great cause while eating food from Boston’s best! 🙂

Also, just a reminder that my ALLY Foundation raffle ends THIS WEEKEND. To encourage entries, I have changed the raffle pricing. $10 gets you 2 entries, $15 gets you 4 entries, and $20 gets you 6 entries.

The prizes?

$100 gift card to Williams Sonoma

A mixed case of wine from Wine Cellar of Stoneham

A custom granola blend from me & goji

One month membership to all Healthworks Fitness Centers

A private tour and tasting for 10 at Westport Rivers winery

Visit htttp://firstgiving.com/meghanmalloyteamally  for information on The ALLY Foundation and on my Boston Marathon fundraising!