Happy Father's Day and a Winner!

Good morning, my friends, and Happy Father's Day! If you are a father, have a father, know a father, want to be a father, want somebody else to be a father, are missing your father, or any other ways I forgot to mention fathers...then a happy day to you! Our father's day pretty much centers around food these days. I can't resist posting my favorite "Dad" photo though. Here's a father I knew a long time ago in a place far away:

He's already had his Father's Day Eggs Benedict this morning.

There will be more food later today. When I finish writing this post, I'll get busy making a lemon meringue pie. The rest of the food will have to wait until later in the day.

Fathers aside, we have important business to take care of this morning. It's time to announce the winner of Sadie's Gotcha Day Giveaway. Mr. Random has spoken, and the winner is:

#28--Lisa Marie!!

Congratulations, Lisa Marie! I've sent you an email, so check your inbox. And thanks to everyone who entered and left such nice comments for our tortie girl. If you didn't win, dry your tears. Next month will be my 13th Blogiversary. There will be another giveaway then. So...no need to sit next to your computer until then. I'll give you plenty of warning as the day approaches.

Anticipating that today would be a heavy-duty kitchen day, I gave myself a mostly leisurely day yesterday. I spent a good part of the morning hoeing and hand-picking weeds in the vegetable garden. First, though, I spent a good amount of time on the "Summer Sun" piece. I filled my hoop...

And then moved to the next position. It looks to be about two-thirds finished now.

The afternoon was devoted to sewing, starting with the Painted Ladies quilt. I had in mind to complete another vertical row. When I opened the project box, I remembered I had the third vertical row nearly complete when I worked on this last time. Except for the two houses on the right, everything was ready to go.

Some of the vertical rows have incomplete houses, which allows for the diagonal design. When I sewed them together, they went like this from left to right, and top to bottom.

Then, they were sewn to the first two rows.

I still had plenty of time left in my day, and so I went to work making another vertical row. These were all complete houses top to bottom.

By day's end, I had the first four of ten rows complete. They're easy blocks and fun to make.

That was the end of my sewing day. I was trying out two new recipes for dinner. I liked these recipes because (a) they sounded good, and (b) they allowed me to use up stuff in my refrigerator. Here's the thing about leftovers in the refrigerator. Often, I'm required to purchase something I need in small quantities, and then I'm hard pressed to figure out a way to use the rest of it. Those items tend to languish in the refrigerator until they've deteriorated to the point that I can throw them away without guilt. Only...I never can quite purge myself of the guilt, and so I really hate throwing that stuff away. I especially hate it when it's something that's rather expensive, even if in small quantities. 

Take fresh dill, as an example. It adds such a nice brightness to any dish. Sure, you can use dried dill, but fresh tastes better to this cook. With beautiful Copper River Salmon in the grocery stores right now, it seemed like a good time to try this recipe for Roasted Dill Salmon. 

The recipe told me to "choose a baking sheet or baking dish that fits the salmon snugly (so the juices don’t disperse and burn) and line it with parchment paper." As you can see in the image above (from the recipe) their salmon doesn't fit "snugly." Just the same, I chose an 11 x 7-inch baking dish and that worked well for me. The original recipe is from the NYTimes, and you might need a subscription to see it. If you can't see it, and you really want it, email me, and I'll be happy to send it to you.

On the side, I had more leftovers I was trying to get rid of without throwing them out. I had about three-quarters of a head of cabbage and some leftover blue cheese. It seemed like a good time to try these Roasted Cabbage Wedges with Blue Cheese Breadcrumbs. My picture was wholly unappetizing, and so I swiped this one from the internet. It was a good choice of a side dish for the salmon because both roasted at the same 425°F temperature.

And these were very tasty. We really liked the blue cheese bread crumbs. It was tempting to lick the plate in order to get every last crumb. The recipe originally appeared in Cooking Light, and I haven't been able to find it online since the magazine ceased publication. I'll give it to you here.

Roasted Cabbage Wedges with Blue Cheese Breadcrumbs

Recipe from Cooking Light

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 (2-lb.) green cabbage head

4 tablespoons canola oil, divided

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 ounces blue cheese

2 ounces rye bread or multigrain bread, torn into pieces

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Cut cabbage head in half, leaving core intact. Cut each cabbage half into 3 wedges. Place wedges on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush 2 tablespoons oil over all sides of cabbage wedges. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 425°F for 20 minutes. Turn cabbage over; roast 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, place cheese in a medium bowl; mash with a fork. Stir in remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Place bread in a food processor; pulse until medium breadcrumbs form, about 5 or 6 times. Add breadcrumbs to cheese mixture; mix well with hands, massaging to ensure breadcrumbs are well coated.

Remove pan from oven (cabbage should have roasted for 30 minutes at this point). Arrange cabbage so that one-third of the pan is empty. Spread breadcrumb mixture over empty side of pan. Return pan to oven; roast 5 minutes. Stir breadcrumb mixture; roast 3 to 5 more minutes or until breadcrumbs are crispy. Remove pan from oven. Serve cabbage wedges with crispy breadcrumbs.

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Okay, so that brings me to the end of the day. There will be more cooking today. The kids will be joining us for dinner tonight, and so I'm looking forward to a busy, but fun day. If there's time for sewing (highly doubtful), I'll get to work making the next two blocks for the Whimsical Garden quilt.