Dinner Party – TV Dinner — healthy recipes for RA by Jamie Stelter

noah’s knockout sweet chili drizzle

jamiestelter — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:55:07 +0000

Today on TV Dinner: the best lettuce wraps I’ve ever made. Well, WE’VE made. Lemme explain.

I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, around the corner from a guy named Noah. We went all through school (and hebrew school) together and are lucky enough to still be very close — in fact I probably talk to him more than almost any of my other friends. That’s because we’re both up very early, so in the pre-dawn hours each day we email back and forth, rapid fire, about what we did the night before and what we have on tap for the day ahead. One of the highlights each morning is hearing what he and his wife Marissa whipped up for dinner — they too, enjoy cooking healthy meals at home a few nights a week.

So it was only natural to collaborate on the menu when B and I had them over for dinner a month ago. I already knew I was making pho — which turned out to be just feh, if ya know what I mean — so he suggested lettuce wraps for an appetizer. Genius, right?! Something in the same genre, but also light enough to save room for the main course. He even said he’d make a sweet chili sauce when they came over, so I made sure I had all the ingredients — and let me tell you, this ‘knockout sweet chili drizzle’ as he calls it, was nothing short of a knockout. It was the perfect mix of sweet and spice — zig and zag — that hits your taste buds like Bam! Boom!

I made mushroom/bean sprout wraps with scallions and mango, using boston lettuce — that’s what looked the most cup-like, able to hold food when I went to the produce stand in Chelsea Market — and poured Noah’s knockout sweet chili drizzle on top. With each wrap — I think I had 3? — I used more of the sauce.

Note from Noah: “I made the sauce again last weekend and crushed up a handful of cashews — added nice crunch and a bit of sweetness.”

mango, cucumber, jicama salad (dinner party, part 3)

jamiestelter — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 23:41:45 +0000

As soon as the snow started falling last Friday night I was dreaming about the beach. Fine, the food at the beach — Rockaway Taco to be exact — and their famous salad served in a ziploc bag. It is so simple and divine — long spears of cucumber, mango and jicama swimming in a citrus chile dressing. I thought I could recreate it in the same vein and serve it in individual mason jars — I’m working on my dinner party presentation here — but what seemed cute and creative just didn’t seem practical. So I chopped the veggies smaller, added pomegranate seeds, and plated it with the main course.

shaved brussels sprout salad

jamiestelter — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 01:30:00 +0000

This is the most delicious, most simple, most I-look-fancy-but-I’m-really-not salad.

And how gorgeous are those salad plates? This was our first time using them. I am so in love.

For the record I wasn’t going to serve bread of any kind at this meal, but since we already had a few drinks I called an audible and added a rando package of garlic croutons I had stashed in the cupboard — needed some carbs to soak up some of the tequila.

I’m going to make this another night as an entree, perhaps with a lovely piece of grilled fish on top.

spicy deviled eggs

jamiestelter — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 00:35:00 +0000