Good Friends and Good Food

My best friend from high school, Sharon, came out to visit me this weekend. Naturally, Adam and I had to impress her with a fantastic meal. What else do you do for a life-long friend? We started the night off right with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Mushrooms. After a few rounds of Wii bowling, we continued with dinner: Lemon-Parsley Tofu, Pesto Orzo, and Grilled Veggies. Adam and Sharon ate grilled Ahi tuna that was pre-marinated by Trader Joe's. I think they both wanted my tofu though! There's nothing like good friends and good food.

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Mushrooms

A week or so ago, Adam and I went to the Jack London Square Farmer's Market. We stumbled upon this stand with fabulous hummuses and pestos and just had to have some. After much discussion and tasting (my favorite part) we settled on getting a sun-dried tomato pesto. We've been trying to figure out how best to use it, and we came up with this super simple recipe. Any type of sun-dried tomato pesto, regular pesto, or just chopped sun-dried tomatoes could be used.

3 Tbs. sun-dried tomato pesto
1 Tbs. softened cream cheese
9-12 cremini mushrooms, with the stems pulled out
1 Tbs. breadcrumbs

1. Preheat the oven to 400. Mix the pesto and cream cheese together thoroughly. Place the mushroom caps on a baking sheet or dish. Stuff the caps with the pesto mixture. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until tender.

Lemon-Parsley Tofu

I made this recipe for just me, so the portion of tofu that I used was not that big. I believe the marinade could go far and provide enough for several portions though. Cut the amount of tofu needed for the number of people being served and adjust the marinade in order to be able to douse each piece of tofu with the mixture.

juice of 1 lemon
1-2 Tbs. parsley, chopped
1 tsp. mustard
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 tsp. honey
salt
pepper

3-4 slices tofu, 1/2-inch thick

1. Whisk together all of the marinade ingredients. Place the tofu in a baking dish. Cover one side with the marinade. Flip the tofu and repeat on the other side, pouring all of the remaining marinade over the tofu. Let the tofu sit for 2 hours for best results.
2. Grill the tofu over medium heat for 4 minutes on each side.

Pesto Orzo

We had a bunch of fresh herbs that needed to be used fairly soon, so we decided to make pesto. I don't have any measurements of how much of each ingredient I used, but I would just mix together the ingredients until you reach the desired taste. Store-bought pesto would also work with the orzo.

parsley (most of one bunch)
thyme
garlic cloves (3-4)
Parmesan cheese
olive oil
salt
pepper

orzo

1. Place all of the pesto ingredients into a food processor and blend. Add olive oil until a smooth, creamy texture has been achieved.
2. Prepare orzo as directed on the box. Mix the orzo and pesto together.

Grilled Veggies

We used broccoli, zucchini, red pepper, and a Vidalia onion. Any vegetable can be grilled though, as long as it's big enough to not fit through the grill cracks. We just bought a vegetable basket for grilling, so nothing can fall through, which means the sky's the limit! Simply coat the veggies with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper; then, place the veggies on the grill until tender and slightly blackened.