grill success

I have never been really great at grilling.  Ok, fine, I'm terrible at it.  As good as I am in the kitchen, move me outdoors and I'm an utter failure.  Still, last season we replaced our aging gas grill with a new model, with cast iron grates, a thermometer, and better burner control.  After all, there was a place on the patio reserved for a grill, and it needed to be filled.  Hmmm.

Anyway, the fact that we've been reducing the amount of meat in our diets led me to open that grill and use it very few times last season.  I think I can count the number of times on one hand, in fact.  I have been feeling really rotten about having bought the thing in the first place, and I vowed that this season I would use it more, and more creatively.

I've always been afraid to grill fish because it is so delicate, and I'm so clumsy.  But last night I tried again, and check this out.

 
 

I know, I might have snapped a photo before ravaging the thing, but do you see those grill marks?  They were gorgeous.  I was really pleased.  I used a firm fish (salmon) and oiled the fish, not the grates.  I left it on there on low heat for five minutes and then finished it on the skin side.  The fish lifted off the grates perfectly and stayed in one piece.

I hope to have more grilling successes to share as the summer progresses.

sharing

Sharing mango on a warm springtime afternoon...

guilt-free carbs

I remember well a time when I would never have put two starches in one meal.  I've struggled with being overweight my entire adult life, and even before the South Beach craze, which I joined briefly, I intuitively knew that consuming two starches at a meal was probably not helping my waistline.  However, a couple of months ago I was forced by some unpleasant health issues to adopt a wheat-free, gluten-free diet.  I've been up and down in terms of my enthusiasm for the plan.  While at times I feel as though there is nothing at all I can eat, the improvement to my overall well-being since I started eating this way has been undeniable.  And, the fact that I've lost a not insignificant amount of weight gives me the flexibility to eat polenta AND roasted sweet potatoes in the same meal.  Mmmm.


For anyone who might be interested, these were basic roasted vegetables (cauliflower, carrot, sweet potatoes--technically yams, I suppose--and turnips) that I tossed after roasting with some leftover mixed-herb pesto containing mostly parsley, some basil and cilantro.