Goat Cheese Lemon Poppyseed Salad Dressing

Some friends of mine always are amazed that I never buy salad dressing. It is so easy and tasty to make it yourself and customize for different salad options. Plus living by myself I never want the same salad dressing for a week so why bother with a whole bottle. It is very easy however to whip up a great salad dressing in two minutes or less. So go for it.
Basic Formula for Salad Dressing
Acid+ Oil + flavor elements+ immersion blender=Emulsion

Goat Cheese Lemon Poppyseed Dressing
Ingredients
Juice of 1 lemon
1 small piece goat cheese (size of a dice)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon poppyseeds

1.In a heavy container just a tiny bit wider then your immersion blender, I use a rocks glass, put the juice of one lemon.
2. Add the small bit of goat cheese ( this adds a lot of creamy texture) and the salt to the lemon juice.

3. Blend briefly with immersion blender.

4. While blending with immersion blender slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Allow most to mix in before adding in more. It will thicken up and seem more yellow.

5.Add in the poppyseeds and blend really briefly just to mix.

6. Drizzle over the Spinach, Chicken, Strawberry, and Goat Cheese Salad that you made up from the random stuff in your fridge.

7. Congratulate yourself on not having eaten junk food for dinner.

I found a great deal on Sperry Boat Shoes and Sandals I'm sharing

Ok I admit it I have a massive weakness for Sperry. I own more Sperry shoes then all other shoes combined not just for racing or sailing ( although that too) but for general casual shoes. I own so many different colors and almost always buy on sale. Normally Sperry shoes start at expensive and go to really expensive. So I am sharing with you the great deal I saw at Defender. In case you do not know Defender is a great online store for boat stuff.
Blue and Tan Bahama Boat Shoes
$9 Now $4.50 For size 9.5 and 5.5 normally these run $60

Seriously $9 Now $4.50 each that is insane if you have the right shoe size this is awesome

Sandals They had a ton of different women's sandals also $9 each with list prices normally about $50!!!!

White with floral Sizes 5.5 and 9.5

Then there are the silver and yellow sizes 6,7.5,8.5,10,11

These are also super cute Navy and Plaid but they sadly are only size 6 sold out

Plus how about these White and Ocean Blue for size 6,6.5, 7, 8.5, 9.5, 10. 11sold out

Then my favorite but not in my size are brown and leopard these are so great  seriously one of you readers who wears size 6 needs to get these and wear then just because I can not with my big size 10 feet. clearly purchased them as they are now sold out

I am in no way affiliated with Defender or with Sperry I just wear lots of Sperry shoes and sometimes shop at Defender. I ordered myself several of these pairs and wanted to share the great deal with you ladies. So cheap boat shoes and sandals and thus more money for spending on food and sailing.

I am very happy with shipping as well as they have already arrived. Here is a picture of the three I ordered.

My cheap new Sperry shoes and sandals

The blue and white sandals are my favorite as the texture of the blue part is amazingly comfortable I am going to go order the yellow and white pair which has that same texture now.

Edited to add :
Looks like they dropped the price to $9 for a few other pairs. I do know they have a minimum order of $25 but just buy a few pairs.
Other pairs at $9
Navy Starboard Boat Sneakers 
Size 6

White Starboard Boat Sneakers
Size 6

And for $19 

Linen and coral and leather Bluefish 

Size 12 sold out

Privateer Day Fells Point

This weekend was Privateer Day in Fells Point Baltimore. Privateer Day is the local celebration of the nautical history that Fells Point Maryland was actually a harbor for Privateers and Pirates in the late 1700 early 1800's. It has a great fake battle with Pride of Baltimore and  other vessels shooting cannons at each other in front of Fells Point. There were also all sorts of great people dressed up as pirates and 1812. sea shanties were being sung by musicians. Plus then all the cheesy Pirate hoopla. A great people watching time. I did not grab too many pictures as I was mainly chatting with friends as we walked around but a quick few.

Quick Healthy Breakfast Egg on Wilted Spinach with Pine Nuts

So a friend of mine and I were talking she never eats breakfast and only drinks coffee. She also wants to be eating healthier and in particular getting more protein.I mentioned I always eat breakfast and she complained that she only has time to make coffee and drink it. My argument is that you can eat a healthy filling tasty breakfast in exactly the same time. So she challenged me to do a blog worthy breakfast in the time it takes the coffee to perk. So away we go....
Put water in coffee pot
Put cast iron skillet on medium high
Put coffee grounds in coffee pot , push button
Put a tablespoon or so of pine nuts in skillet and three large handfuls of spinach.
Go to fridge pull out egg
Toss spinach around using tongs it is wilted.
Use tongs to take spinach and pine nuts out of skillet and into bowl
Crack egg into skillet
Grind pepper over egg and a little parmasean cheese
Go grab coffee mug and spatula
Fill mug with coffee
Put sunny side up egg over spinach
Pour milk into coffee

Eat while sipping coffee

Onion Rings inspired by David Lebovitz

Do you read David Lebovitz's blog? I do and normally it makes me want to eat my way across Europe. A few weeks ago however he posted about onion rings he made that were inspired by a Hooters cookbook. Now I have never been to Hooters and really have no desire to do so but he got me craving onion rings. So tonight I finally made Onion rings
The Batter
Mix together
1 cup flour
1 cup Dogfish 60 min IPA ( add 2 more oz if you like thinner coating)
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon powdered chilli pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt

Let this all sit covered while you drink the remaining 4 oz of the Dogfish head 60 min IPA and watch one back episode of Good Eats with Alton Brown. Open a second bottle of Dogfish 60 min to drink and wonder why in the world Alton Brown is no longer making Good Eats as it was the best cooking geek show. Now that this is done
Get the largest onion out of your onion drawer and slice it up. Look at the number of onion rings that will make and decide to only slice one onion as really who should eat that many onion rings.

Start heating up about 2 inches of peanut oil in your cast iron le creuset dutch oven.

The flour dredge
David Lebovitz says to just toss the onion ring slices in flour but I like my flavor layers so I did
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 pinch salt
All mixed together
and I dredged the onion slices through this and then into the batter and then into the oil. After the first two I decided that I like my onion rings with a thinner coating and added 2 oz more of beer from the bottle I was drinking. (This is the benefit for living alone and cooking for yourself you can pour directly from a half drunk bottle of beer into a recipe)
Cook the onion rings until pretty golden in the hot oil and then put on top of a draining rack or paper towels for the grease to drip away. Salt
Continue frying in batches of 3 or 4 until you have a heaping serving.
Eat while drinking the last of that second bottle of beer.

Black and White Tuna with Spicy Mango Sauce

Want a very impressive dinner for having friends over? Want it easy but fancy looking? Yet something the girlfriend who is constantly on a health kick of one of your best friends will still eat and love? Have I got the tuna recipe for you.

Ingredients for the Tuna (Serves however many tuna steaks you have)
White sesame seeds
Black sesame seeds
Tuna
Sesame seed oil
How to:
1. Ok yes you could use all the same color sesame seeds but not nearly as pretty. In a shallow small plate place the white seeds on one side and the black seeds on the other. Like so:

This is easiest to accomplish by putting one side down then using a knife to push to even it out and then keeping the butter knife in place put down the other seeds.
2. Preheat your Cast iron skillet and add a little sesame oil into it on medium high.
3. Using tongs carefully place your tuna steak down on the bed of sesame seeds and push strait down.
4. Using tongs only touching side of tuna pull out and reverse so other side is down and then push.
5. Still using your tongs put the tuna into the cast iron skillet .
6.Repeat steps 3-5 for remaining tuna pieces.
7. Turn tuna over carefully to other side using tongs.
8. Tuna is done when each side is seared and barely cooked through on the sides (you want it pink in the middle)

For the Spicy Mango Sauce (Serves 4)
Ingredients
1 champagne mango or small mango
1 tablespoon spicy sesame oil ( if do not like strong heat mix spicy and regular sesame oil depending on heat level)
3 tablespoons plain greek yogurt (I like chobani)

Instructions for Spicy Mango Sauce
1. Cube the mango. This is done by slicing down the flatter side of the mango and then hatching the mango with a knife and inverting it and cutting out the cubes

Champagne Mango

Mango hatched with knife and inverted ( see the nice cubes)

2. Put the mango cubes, yogurt, and sesame oil all together into a blender or into I container to use your immersion blender.
3. Blend together until smooth
4. Serve about 2 tablespoons per tuna steak.

Spicy Mango Sauce with black and white tuna

A top view of tuna with mango sauce

I added some rice in a ring around this tuna and mango sauce.

Thursday sailboat racing start

This Thursday evening was the first night of sailing racing.  On Thursdays I race a J22. The winds we re rather high for a J22 sustained 18 knots gusting to high twenties.  Lessons learned : one of the boats had a shroud bust due to not checking the cotter pins. Always check cotter pins and tape over them.  After the race  the knot on the main sheet block came undone. Whomever rigged the boats did not use a bowling knot but something else. We fixed it before docking but still has me double checking. 

Sailboat Strawberry Greek Yogurt Popsicles

I just got these new popsicle molds that look like sailboats. Here they are before I filled them.

Ok they look like capsized sailboats as they are all upside down

I bought them on amazon and the link is here if you want to get some for yourself. I'm thinking of maybe doing these as my first giveaway on this blog. Would this be an item of interest? Tell me in the comments.

Anyway I adore popsicles during the summer once it gets warm they are a great sweet treat to give you a little something cold and they are fun to play with in terms of random ingredients and little bits of different flavors. You an do almost anything with ingredients around the house. Today we are doing Strawberry greek yogurt popsicles ( and this makes them healthy enough that I hereby give you permission to call it part of breakfast) Wait am I the only one who ever eats yogurt popsicles for breakfast during the summer??

Ingredients
12 oz Chobani Strawberry Greek Yogurt
1/4 cup water
1 cup frozen slices strawberries
Juice of 1/2 lime
dash salt

Puree everything  together with your immersion blender or in your blender. These are very large popsicle so this makes enough for 4 sailboat popsicles but used to make 6 of my old molds.

Tasty Sailboat

I also tries layers with this mix and just blended greek yogurt and water. My layers need work but still cute.

Grilled Sesame Brussel Sprouts

This is almost too easy a recipe but I have now been asked for this recipe by two different friends both of whom rarely like vegetables and so that they are asking for brussel sprouts is amazing. One is a DC horse cop who swears that really anything beyond meat and starch has no place.I swear I do not get his aversion to green stuff and sweet stuff. The other one is a sailing buddy who came over for Easter and tried to convince my nephew that these were even tastier then jelly beans. To quote my three year old nephew "I like them I love jelly beans" Ok so well to a three year old they are tasty but not as tasty as jelly beans but hey what preparation of brussel sprouts would be as tasty as jelly beans to a three year old. He did pretty much eat brussel sprouts, jelly beans, and peeps and little else at Easter.
On to the recipe
You need
Brussel sprouts ( fresh not frozen )
Spicy Sesame Oil
Sesame Seeds

1. Cut the dry bottoms off the brussel sprouts and half them perpendicular to the bottom you want about 3 cups of halved brussel sprouts
2. Put them into a room temp cast iron skillet and drizzle with 2 tablespoons spicy sesame oil. ( I buy mine at the local asian market.)
3. Toss around in the skillet so that the brussel sprouts get totally coated
4. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sesame seeds toss again and arrange sprouts so most are flat side down

5. Put on hot grill and grill tossing once or twice until browned about 10-15 minutes depending on heat of grill and size of sprouts.I have also done these in the oven at 400 during the winter but I like them grilled better.

6. Toss in a bowl. Makes a great side dish ( this is Sailing Savor Single I'm single I will admit I have had this as a meal before so go ahead and have it as a dish for one too)

Late Night Snack- Goat cheese and strawberry

So I could not sleep and decided I needed a late night snack. Rummaging the fridge and pantry got me the following items.

Homemade bread (Made according to the italian dish blogs' recipe)

Goat cheese

Strawberries

Honey 

Ground pepper

I layered a little goat cheese on each slice of bread along with a large strawberry sliced  a tiny drizzle of honey. I started to take pictures but then decided it needed a quick grind of black pepper. 

late night snack

I know that it is not that fancy but seriously this is the perfect late night snack a little sweet a little special but super easy. 

So snacking on this while watching Bones on Hulu with the intent to get to sleep soon. 

Good night and enjoy your late night snacking. 

Easter Dinner Recap

I find it really useful to recap dinner party menus for myself and now that I am doing this blog I am going to share it with you.
Guests 4 adults 3 kids
Menu
Centerpiece- 30 chocolate covered peeps on sticks and 18 decorated cookies on sticks
        Note do not let the kids at the centerpiece as an appetizer they barely ate anything else. However                     chocolate covered peep on a stick was a huge hit as were the cookie sticks
Appetizer- carrots and peppers with hummus
                note:hummus was not a hit with the kids but the carrots were
Dinner-
10 lb ham (brown sugar glazed)
2 lbs asparagus(steamed with lemon)
1 lb brussel sprouts ( roasted with sesame oil and seeds)
10 twice baked potato halves( cheddar, garlic, sour cream, butter and horseradish)
                     Notes about twice as much ham as I should have made. Also about twice as much asparagus. Only had 3 leftover twice baked potato halves so good amount. The brussel sprouts were the sleeper hit almost all went and everyone loved them ( well except nephew who thought why eat brussel sprouts when there are jelly beans)

Dessert
Easter baskets, Strawberry lemon curd Triffle, centerpeice
               Note triffle one triffle bowl worth of triffle was the perfect amount only one serving leftover for breakfast this morning