This Thai beef salad was outstanding — better than even some of the versions at my favorite Thai restaurants. Why? Because I can play, play, play with the recipe, and you can do the same. I made it my own by adding fresh mint, extra lime juice and several heapings of Thai ground red chile pepper for some serious kick. If you really want to bowl yourself over, sprinkle freshly ground toasted rice powder over the finished dish. The addition is utterly delicious and you’ll find yourself adding a sprinkle or two to many Thai dishes. Simply toast a few tablespoons of raw rice in a hot dry skillet until golden brown, then grind to a powder with a mortar and pestle. Meet my new favorite Thai beef salad. Now go make your own. This is easy weeknight cooking at its best.

Thai Beef Salad Up Close & Personal

To complete the meal, I added steamed broccolini that I adorned only with a few drops of sesame oil and a pinch of crunchy sea-salt mixed with lime zest.

Plated Meal

Steamed Broccolini with Sesame Oil and Lime Sea-Salt

Tonight’s winner was definitely the combination of the tare (soy basting sauce) and fresh oyster mushrooms from the farmer’s market. I divided the gorgeous mushrooms into clusters and had my husband (and grill master) baste them with the tare alongside the chicken. The result was a combination of flavors and textures — smoky, sweet, earthy, tender and crispy. Sensational!

Mushrooms Ready for the Grill

Certainly the chicken was good too, but I wouldn’t dumb-down the recipe with my laziness again (what can I say, it was a gorgeous afternoon and I wanted to be outside playing, not indoors rolling meatballs). I bagged the meatballs and used chicken chunks instead, clearly not an equal substitute. Using the spices as a marinade rather than mixed into ground meat didn’t quite work, even with the additions of chicken broth and rice vinegar. Thankfully, however, the tare basting sauce did an excellent job of hiding my mistake. In fact, I think just plain grilled chicken would be excellent with the tare, and would still allow for play-time.

Chicken Kebabs with Tare Basting Sauce

The seaweed salad was also surprisingly easy to make and fun to eat. I have found my go-to seaweed salad recipe. I would even whip this up on a take-out sushi night as I love customizing the ingredients to suit our tastes — less sugar, more vinegar, extra crunch, adding a bit of heat, etc. This is a must to make if you enjoy seaweed salad.

Seaweed Salad

This clam chowder was boring beyond belief. I am not even going to waste my energy writing up the recipe. Little flavor, no zip, sort of like eating water. Don’t bother. Unless, of course, you want to drop 10 pounds super fast.

Wow was this dinner fun to eat —  delicate lamb chops with a crispy, cinnamon-infused crust tempered by a brilliant green mint chimmichurri. Put this on your spring menu list.

Lamb Chops with Mint Chimmichurri

The “burnt” carrot salad was delicious, unusual and gorgeous on the plate. This would be a great dinner party dish. Charring rounds of goat cheese in a smoking hot cast iron skillet gives them a fabulous, caramelized crust.

Burnt Carrot Salad with Charred Goat Cheese & Arugula

Mushroom Soup with Hazelnut Gremolata

This first course soup was good, but I definitely think it could be better. I would increase the amount of dried porcini to amp up the mushroom flavor and perhaps add more grated orange peel to the gremolata. I do admit I didn’t use the butter the recipe called for and subbed in olive oil instead. This would likely be fantastic with the butter or a few spoonfuls of heavy cream.

Scallops with red onion marmalade: these were simple and delicious. The onion marmalade definitely makes this dish. I went ahead and made the marmalade ahead of time rather than follow the recipe, which calls for reducing the pile of onions in the scallop pan juices. Seems to me the scallops would get cold and lose their appeal if you go this route. I served this all with roasted brussels sprouts sprinkled with sherry wine vinegar. I would make this whole meal all over again.

Scallops with Red Onion Marmalade

Brussels Sprouts ready to go in the oven