Oh Boston how I adore your delectable culinary collectables

Opening institute class tonight (a class which meets once a week for students and other singles or young marrieds to be taught from the scriptures and the words of ancient and modern prophets). I am choosing to attend the class called Presidents if the Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints]. Today's class was, in a word, phenomenal. Brother Austin taught us the reasons why this class is important, the ways in which we can well prepare for each lesson, and the cruciality of applying what we learn to our lives. Essentially we honor God by following the prophets, and we honor the prophets by reading and listening to their words and truly knowing what they, being the mouth of God, are asking is to do. We discussed being truly converted to the gospel and how that not only requires constant renewed commitment but is defined as having "a motivating faith in the Savior and his gospel, ... a love of God with a fixed determination to keep His commandments." If we are truly converted God will show us how and what to change. Angels will coach us. We need to remember this EVERY day, sometimes every hour, minute, second.

"Heavenly father never asks us to do anything that isn't calculated to bring us joy."

God is Love.

After institute we had a rather incredible pizza dinner. The pizza boxes of course were a picture of Italy rather than a logo or restaurant name, so I may never find this pizza again. But please, join me in the joyful remembrance of this incredible masterpiece: eggplant, bacon, mozzarella, tomato sauce, dough, and feta...

Other pizzas included but were not limited to: spicy chicken with roasted red peppers, cheese, pepperoni, supreme, BBQ chicken, more veggies with thin red onions and feta...

I love you, Boston. But please. It's time for Spring!

Soul Food

Thanks to AA History Month at work, my palate is learning about soul food. I simply couldn't pass up this lunch option. Pulled BBQ chicken, beef ribs, Mac n cheese, mashed sweet potatoes, and a roll. Did it taste as good as expected? Well... At least it filled me right up!

Fooled You!

Some months ago I brought my lavender plant in to work with me. It was looking pretty dry and shriveled when I came back from my Christmas trip to Peru, but after a few waterings I looked up from my computer screen and beheld tender green shoots springing out from what appeared to be brown and dead stems. Could have fooled me! My lavender thinks it's spring! And I'm ok with that :).

Mozzarella Meat Loaf

1.5 lbs lean ground beef

1 egg

3/4 C cracker crumbs

1/2 C finely chopped onion

2/3 C ketchup (in two different 1/3s)

1 T Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp oregano

1/8 tsp pepper

2 C shredded mozzarella cheese

2 tsp brown sugar

Combine beef, egg, crumbs, onion, 1/3 cup ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and oregano. Mix well and shape into a flat rectangle about 10x12" on wax paper. Sprinkle cheese evenly over meat, roll up like a jelly roll and press ends to roll to seal. Place in a shallow baking dish. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes. Drain off fat from pan. Mix remaining 1/3 cup ketchup with the brown sugar and pour over the top and bake 10 to 15 minutes more.

courtesy of Montgomery Ward Relief Society's "Loaves & Fishes and other great dishes"

I suspect that this would serve... 7

P.S., if you dump all 2/3 C of the ketchup in before baking, well let's just say you won't enjoy eating that every day for the next week. Follow directions!

Baked Mediterranean Tilapia

Baked Mediterranean Tilapia (serves 4)

4 Tilapia Loins
1 large or 2 medium Vidalia Onions (or yellow onions) sliced ¼” thick
2 medium tomatoes sliced ¼” thick
4 Tbsp fresh chopped basil (or 2 Tbsp dry basil)
8 cloves chopped garlic
4 Tbsp olive oil
12 Calamari olives chopped

1. Defrost tilapia loins. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Sauté sliced onions in olive oil 2 or 3 minutes on each side until translucent
3. Place onions in baking pan. Place fish on top of onions. Sprinkle with olives, garlic and basil. Top with tomato slices. Salt & pepper to taste (we put S&P on the fish and on the tomatoes
4. Bake uncovered 12-15 minutes or until fish is opaque

Notes: we served this with asparagus, rice, and salad. We decided less garlic and more basil and we used green olives and black olives for lack of Calamari olives.

For the more pictorially inclined...

And now for your entertainment, we have Cooking with Sarah! Brought to you from the Loftus headquarters in Cincinnati, photography by D Loftus.

"There is no price for awesomeness... or attractiveness."

1. Defrost tilapia loins. Preheat oven to 375°F.

2. Sauté sliced onions in olive oil 2 or 3 minutes on each side until translucent

2.a peel onion, don't forget to smile...

2.b. Chop onion. Please realize this is an incredibly unsafe method, only shown for sheer comedic value. Notice that the tomatoes were already sliced. Magic!
2.c. Sauté those onions! When combining hot olive oil with anything in a frying pan, don't forget your Mickey Mouse apron. This is very very important.
3. Place onions in baking pan. Place fish on top of onions. Sprinkle with olives, garlic and basil. Top with tomato slices. Salt & pepper to taste (we put S&P on the fish and on the tomatoes

3.a Just look at that!

3.b chop olives. This may or may not be the most effective way of cutting olives in half. I'll leave this up to your interpretation and subsequent discretion.
Ohai! Yep, I'm still in this scene.
3.c Smash and chop your garlic. Don't be afraid to really smash the garlic. If it helps to sing "King of Anything" by Sara Bareilles while you do so, be my guest.
3.d Place tilapia loins on top of sautéed onions. We added a few sprays of "I can't believe it's not butter" butter.

3.e Grab your basil from the garden and wash it!
3.f Roll your basil. I find it best to roll it longways before cutting, but you're the cook!
3.g cut your basil and look at how cool those curls are!
3.h Put olives and garlic on top of tilapia loins. Dexterously distribute your basil curls.
3.i time to put those tomatoes on! Then add salt and pepper...
4. Bake uncovered 12-15 minutes or until fish is opaque. Yes, the smile is required and is a validated cooking method. Don't question me, I'm a scientist! (I'm also well-versed in hyperbole...)
mmmm, look at that!
This meal just keeps getting better. Bring out your Asian roots and put some fruit and salad on the table on funky Japanese appetizer dishes!

Well, there you have it. Beauty, personified and seasoned.

Conference Weekend Indulgences

So here's a snapshot or two of the things I made for myself during conference weekend (General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This happens twice a year where the General Authorities, men called by revelation from God to be special witness of Christ, speak to the general membership all over the world via satellite about how to come closer to Christ). The first is straight-up pancakes ala bisquick whatever I could find in my fridge. In this particular case that meant soy milk instead of cow milk, so I added some cream to that.

And then we have my wacky attempt at Caprese. I had found a mozzarella ball on sale, so I just had to buy it. Which meant I had to buy tomatoes. And hey, check it out -- I still had fresh basil growing in my garden! So I decided I wanted a few more carbohydrates and rolled the mozzarella (sliced) in breadcrumbs. I would recommend going with a true, well-researched recipe including olive oil. But I just stuck all of that in the oven for a few minutes and enjoyed it all with a piece of toast.

Rosemary and Thyme and whatever else you've got!

Here's another easy one:

Sweet potato

Asparagus

Chicken

Olive Oil

Rosemary

Thyme **fresh from Sarah's garden!

The Orange Stuff

1. Wash and peel sweet potato, chop into disks and then into quarters.

2. Place foil inside a pyrex (or any other) pan, arrange sweet potato quarters on foil. Drizzle with olive oil, add rosemary and thyme until you feel like stopping, mix it up with your hands. NO UTENSILS ALLOWED! :-)

3. Bake at 400 for approximately 30 minutes, depending on the age and nature of your sweet potato (some of them are a little rough around the edges, just sayin')

The Green Stuff

1. Break off stems, rinse, and break again for bite-ish size asparagus

2. Steam (layer on frying pan, add water until almost covered, boil water and cover until desired tenderness is achieved).

3. Eat with a completely different meal, put leftovers in refrigerator.

4. The next day when you decide to make the meal this blog post is about, take it out of the refrigerator and throw cold asparagus pieces in with the sweet potato for the last 15 minutes of the bake.

5. Threw you for a loop there, didn't I? Time lapse! Now back to the future.

The Chicken Stuff

1. Follow directions - depends if you're using frozen, fresh, or funky chicken.

2. Cut in chunks and add to orange/green stuff just before enjoying

For extra flavor, toss in some Feta Cheese and breathe deeply!