seared black pepper crusted tuna with creamy soy dressing

My mother-in-law introduced me to a lovely little store called Balducci's last year. I believe it's Maryland-centric, but I don't know for sure. It's a magical place filled with 14 month aged Manchego cheese, Champignon brie, deboned quail, and hard-to-find ingredients like Buddha's Hand Citron.

It is a place where one can find basil that smells and looks like real basil - in January.

Sadly, until I move up there later this summer I've only able to peruse their beautiful aisles on the few occasions I've had to get up there. That lovely mother-in-law of mine, or as I like to call her "The Good Food Fairy," brought me some tasty treats to tide me over in the food wasteland that is central North Carolina.

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five spice duck breast with honey soy glaze and sesame noodles

This has definitely become one of my favorite preparations for duck breast. I first tried it in DC over the holidays at my MiL's house, but both of us had difficulties with the prescribed cooking time. I botched it twice, and with the price of boneless duck breasts I was about to give up on the recipe entirely.

I gave it a couple more shots and I've come away from it very pleased. Turns out if you use a duck breast twice the size of the one the recipe calls for it's going to take a little longer to cook.

The five spice combination of star anise, clove, cinnamon, anise seed, and Sichuan peppercorn is the perfect accompaniment to the richness of the duck breast. The sesame noodles are flavored just enough to please, but simply enough to complement the rich, aggressive flavor of the duck.

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Lime and Honey Glazed Salmon with Rice

I wasn't sure if I was going to be too crazy about this recipe as I was making it - I needn't have worried. The combination of flavors presented was amazing. Lime, honey, soy, cilantro - all baked on a bed of rice.

For the first time in my life I'm living more than ten minutes from the ocean - or the Puget Sound - as such I've been buying very little fish. There's just something that skeezes me out about buying fish when I'm several hours away from the water. I know it's perfectly safe, but it just doesn't taste the same after it's been frozen and stored for a while then purchased and brought home and frozen again.

It loses all of that fresh, oceany-ness.

Thankfully I have a Whole Foods fairy that visited me a little while ago with a lovely cooler full of delightful treats. Included was some beautiful Coho salmon that I've been dying to try.

I saw this recipe in October's Bon Appetit. I didn't want to use the same vegetable, but the idea of a one pot baked salmon ready in under an hour was heartily appealing.

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Shredded Duck and Chinese Sausage Fried Rice

After eating that delicious roasted duckling last night I shredded the rest of the meat off the bones to make some fried rice. This is actually the first time I've ever made fried rice, and to be honest, I was a little intimidated. It seemed so complicated for some reason...a reason that I'm unsure of what it actually was.

It was easy peasy. Seriously. I see lots of fried rice in our future.

The key, apparently, is "overnight rice." Yesterday when Husband declared he wanted white rice with the roasted duckling, as opposed to the lovely roasted fingerling potatoes and zucchini I wanted to pair it with, I simply tossed double the amount I normally would in the rice cooker and threw it in the fridge overnight.

Obviously the ingredients for fried rice vary greatly; I can definitely see this as one of those 'clean out the veggie shelf' recipes. So awesome.

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