Summer Veggies

My new favorite past time is to cook while listening to my Edith Piaf Pandora playlist (La Vie en Rose in particular). Tonight I boiled some corn, roasted okra, and sautéed eggplant, peppers, and red onion. It was my first time making corn myself, and it was amazing! I'm not entirely sure why, because I didn't do anything too special. I just rubbed a little butter on it and sprinkled some black pepper on top after it came out of the pot.

It was also my first time cooking with okra. Unfortunately, I only had two small pieces of okra to cook with because I put the okra from Monday's garden haul into the refrigerator and it didn't fair too well. So Wednesday I only picked a couple more and tried leaving it out. I was able to cook with it, but I have still yet to figure out how to make okra last. To avoid any slimy disasters, I decided to just roast the okra in the oven. I chopped the okra into thick slices and spread them around in a little olive oil. After a dash of salt and pepper, I put them in the oven for about 10 minutes. They actually turned out really good.

For the other veggies, I sautéed them in a pan with some olive oil, minced clove of garlic, and some ground pepper. Simple but delicious. I love the smells that seem to instantly rise from the pan!

Last night I had salmon and green beans from the garden. The green beans I sautéed and seasoned the same way as the above vegetables. I was slightly disappointed that my purple beans turned a dark green after they were cooked. For the salmon, I marinated it with a little soy sauce, lemon juice, honey, black pepper, ginger, and half a clove of minced garlic. I've been wanting to try a honey marinade, but it turns out that most of the recipes I found were practically the same marinades I've been using plus honey. Though it tasted about the same, there was definitely a distinct taste of honey in a few of the bites.