Shane got some Grey Sole yesterday, hoping it would be similar to his favorite fish, Black (or Dover) Sole. It wasn’t the same as Black Sole, but all agreed that it was a lovely fish when cooked with butter, dill, lemon, capers and green beans.

For the fish, I used this recipe (also below) from food52.com. Instead of snap peas, I used green beans from our recent  CSA box. The green beans worked well, they were heavier, heartier and less summery-feeling than snap peas would have been, but very tasty nonetheless.

Working through recent CSA boxes, has meant cucumber salad with every meal. Tonight was no exception. I usually just peel and chop the cukes and mix them up with some plain yogurt, salt, and sometimes olive oil, lemon or vinegar.

For our swiss chard, I used anchovies and garlic. If you’re an anchovy lover, this is a great thing to do with your chard leaves. You simply sauté up some anchovies and chopped garlic in olive oil and/or butter. When the garlic is soft, add chopped swiss chard leaves and cook until they’re soft and not bitter. Yum.

Rose was super excited about tonight’s meal, for some reason. Possibly because she did gymnastics for 5 hours, and only ate a scant quarter of a pb&j sandwich all day. She insisted on being photographed with her plate and then proceeded to eat every single thing on it. I guess starvation is a good way to get kids to eat.

• Butter-Seared Sole with Snap Peas, Dill & Capers •
from food52.com

4 tablespoons salted butter
4 (4-ounce) skinless Dover or Grey sole fillets
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 ounces snap peas, or green beans, trimmed
1/4 cup coarsely chopped dill
2 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed
3 to 4 tablespoons Meyer or regular lemon juice, to taste

Heat butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high until foamy and beginning to brown. Season fish with salt and pepper. Gently arrange fish fillets in skillet in a single layer, making sure that the pan isn’t crowded. (If necessary, cook the fish in two batches.) Cook fish, turning once with a thin spatula, until golden brown and crisp, 6 minutes. Remove fish to a platter or plates. (Reserve skillet and butter in pan.)

Return skillet to medium-high heat. Add snap peas to skillet and cook, tossing, until crisp-tender, 2 minutes (longer if using green beans). Remove from heat and stir in dill, capers and lemon juice. Serve fillets with snap peas.

As we ate dinner, all I could think was: this dinner is a win-win. Why? Because everyone was at the table, and everyone was more or less functional.

I pimped out yesterday’s chicken, rice and bean salad with more beans, more corn, more lime juice, more cumin and some sautéed scallions. We also had quesadillas (white and whole wheat) and silky-soft, roasted CSA bell peppers.

Everyone ate, no one puked. That’s a win-win-win-win, actually.

Yes, pasta with tomato and sausage sauce… again. It’s an easy, and pretty hands-off dish, and Rose and Shane like it. Get the recipe, and info on how to faux-vegetarianize it, here.

I am very excited about this new potato salad dish! It’s sort of potato salad, sort of potato side, because you roast the potatoes before assembling the dish and then serve warm or at room temperature.

With the potatoes, we had a green salad with an unthinkably terrible dressing, that I wont tell you more about. And steak. I am getting quite good at making steak, can you believe it? Tonight’s was a very loose interpretation of this recipe.

The potato recipe is from Saveur, and can be found here. It’s also below.

Of course I did a couple of things differently with the potatoes. Firstly, I used new potatoes instead of yukon gold. I didn’t use shallots, because we’ve been getting all kinds of curious and interesting onions in our CSA box lately. Because I prefer my onions soft, and perhaps slightly golden, but not brown, I didn’t quite brown the onions I used—which were like scallions with a baby onion at the bottom. For the garlic, I added a smashed bulb for flavor, and then removed it before mixing the onions into the sauce.

• Roasted Potato Salad with Sour Cream & Shallots •
from Saveur.com

2 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed and cut into ¾-inch chunks
3 tbsp. olive oil, divided
1½ teaspoons kosher salt, divided
freshly ground pepper
2 medium shallots, thinly sliced (about ¼ cup)
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
⅓ cup sour cream
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley 

Preheat the oven to 400°. Toss together potatoes, 2 tbsp. oil, 1 tsp. salt, and pepper to taste in a large bowl. Spread on a rimmed baking sheet in a single layer and roast, stirring once halfway through, until browned and cooked through, 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool slightly.  

While potatoes are roasting, heat remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan set over medium heat. Add shallots, season with remaining ½ teaspoon salt and let cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and brown, 5-7 minutes. Add garlic and stir until just softened, 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat.  

In a large bowl stir together the sour cream, mustard, and vinegar. Add the cooked potatoes, shallots, and garlic and gently toss to coat.  Add additional salt and pepper to taste and stir in parsley just before serving. Serve warm or room temperature.