Grilled Wild Salmon with Cucumber-Avocado Salsa

We discovered this recipe a few years ago and still keep it in our back pocket as one of our favorite salmon recipes for the summer. The cucumber-avocado salsa is great citrusy topping for some grilled wild salmon. We paired it with sweet potato fries and white wine because...welll..Julia likes sweet potato fries and wine.

Wild salmon ready for the grill after we topped it with salt, pepper, chives, and cilantro

Grilled Wild Salmon with Cucumber-Avocado Salsa Recipe

Baked Sweet Potato "Fries" Recipe

Salmon Burgers with Sweet Potato Chips

As the weather gets nicer and everyone starts rolling out their grills, we recommend salmon burgers as a great alternative to your traditional beef burger. It's one of our go-to meals that we enjoy a few times a year. We have tried a couple of recipes but this one from Cooking Light is our favorite and includes lettuce, cucumbers, and a lime-cilantro-jalapeño mayonnaise for toppings.

Recipe Link

We accompanied the burgers with some quick and easy sweet potato chips. When buying the salmon from your fish guy (yes, Philippe has a fish guy...his name is Ray), ask him to remove the skin to save you some work.

Finely diced salmon ready to be mixed with cilantro, green onions, lime, and jalapeño

The salmon patties will be pretty fragile, so be gentle with them

Earlier that day we started off our morning with some whole grain blueberry waffles. Here is the recipe: Link

Quick and easy, yet so tasty.

On Sunday Julia had her alumnae field hockey game, where
the alums put up a good fight against the current team.

Seb Visits for Steaks and Sweet Potato Fries

A few weekends ago my brother Seb came to visit for a weekend in New York. We decided that after his 6 hour bus ride, the guy might enjoy some nice steaks, some sweet potato fries and a beer or three. 

Steaks covered with a dry rub of paprika, pepper, cumin  and coriander

Sweet potato fries fresh out of the oven. We used a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper

Two people hanging out while someone else works in the kitchen

Can you feel the excitement?

The final dish

We also went to a beer festival in Brooklyn the next afternoon with my friends Dan and Nikki. In the background you can see the Empire State Building. We had a great time in the beautiful weather and tasted dozens of great beers.

Cheesy Pizza with Sweet Potato, Onions, and Kale

Tonight we got a little more creative with pizza-making, cooking up a less-traditional sweet potato pizza with caramelized onions and kale, another great Pinterest find from The Type A Housewife.com:

http://thetypeahousewife.com/2011/03/recipe-sweet-potato-pizza-with-kale-and-caramelized-onions.html

We have been wanting to try kale for a while since it's supposed to be so good for you, and since we both love sweet potatoes made in just about any way, this recipe looked like a winner. This time, we did the pizza crust right, purchasing fresh whole-wheat pizza dough that we rolled out and baked ourselves. On top of the crust, we made the mashed sweet potato layer (roasted sweet potatoes with milk and sage), which substituted for what would usually be marinara sauce. Then came the carmelized onions, kale, and cheese. Since we couldn't find any fontina cheese at the store, we just used whatever mix of cheeses we already had in the fridge...some parmesan, mozzarella, and a mystery cheese we can't remember the name of. Turned out great!

Sweet Potato "sauce"

Carmelized onions and a little too crispy kale...oh well!

MMM toasty

Chef Philippe Michel's Rating: "A-" Delicous. Next time I would add bacon or ham.
Chef Julia's Rating: "A-" Not at all what you should make if you're craving real pizza, but it's always fun to experiment with different variations. Would definitely make again!