In House Picnic

The other night, I decided to surprise my husband with a candle lit dinner when he came home from work.  I get tired of doing the same thing every night, eat dinner at the kitchen table or eat dinner in front of the T.V., I wanted to switch things up a bit.  It was still too hot outside to have a picnic so I decided to have a picnic in our family room.  I laid down blankets and pillows and put candles all around the outside edge of the blanket.  I made my hubby’s favorite fish salmon with squash and a side of creamy polenta.  I didn’t have much time, so I didn’t make my own homemade polenta, but I did use Trader Joe’s polenta from France, and it is so good!  I had yellow and green squash so I cut it into thin slices sprinkled with fresh garlic and salt and pepper and then grilled salmon and tilapia seasoned with lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and pepper…yum-oh! I popped open a Michigan beer I had picked up from Total Wine and a bottle of Pellegrino with a squeeze of fresh lime and we enjoyed a romantic dinner just the two of us!

XO,

Rachel Ashley

Ingredients:
Fish
1 fillet of salmon
1 tilapia
2 cloves fresh garlic
1 lemon
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp Herbs De Provence
1 tbsp EVOO

Squash
1 yellow squash
1 zucchini
1/2 tsp of fresh garlic
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp EVOO

Polenta
1 bag of creamy polenta with carrots and spinach from Trader Joes : )

Recipe:
Start by mincing two cloves of fresh garlic.  Then take one lemon and zest it, be sure to not zest too deep (avoid the white part, it can be bitter).  Once the lemon has been zested roll it underneath your hand to get the juices moving and then slice in half.  Open your fish from the butcher and squeeze the lemon juice over both pieces of fish.  Sprinkle with garlic, 1 tsp of salt, fresh ground black pepper and Herbs De Provence.  Drizzle EVOO in a hot pan and grill fish for about 2-3 minutes on each side.

Take the squash and cut into thin slices.  Toss into a pan with EVOO, sprinkle with salt, pepper and fresh garlic.  Cook for about 3-5 minutes depending on how soft you like your vegetables.

As for the polenta, follow instructions on the bag.