First dinner in our new house

This is where the magic happens (or at least my version of it LOL)

After over a month in a hotel, we finally moved in to our house on Monday.  It will be home for the next six months before we pack up AGAIN and move to Rio De Janeiro for a year.  Yes, sometimes the Navy gives out excellent assignments!  Anyways, I digress.  After unpacking boxes for three days, I decided it was time to give my kitchen a good spin, so I made a lovely meal last night.

It was 'first dinner in new house/belated birthday dinner for my hubby'.  I made halibut steaks with pepitas, tomatoes, and capers, mushroom risotto, green beans with caramelized shallots and a zucchini ribbon salad.  The green beans tasted waaayy better than they look in this photo.  Hey, I'm a cook not a photographer!
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I started early in the day with the zucchini salad because it was easy to make ahead and it needed to chill with the dressing on it anyways.  It was really easy to make and I think it looked gorgeous.

You just have to use a vegetable peeler on the the zucchini to make those pretty ribbons.  Then half some cherry tomatoes, throw in some feta cheese and Italian dressing. Yes, I used bottled dressing but I usually make my own.  I just moved in, give me a break!!!

Once it was tossed together, I covered it and let it chill in the fridge until dinner time.  After that was done, I went ahead and blanched and shocked the green beans.  I blanched them for about 5 minutes then shocked them in ice water to stop the cooking. 

I took a break and unpacked more boxes.  Oh what a fun break that was.  Thankfully, it was time to get back in the kitchen.  I sliced the shallots then melted some butter and caramelized them until they smelled amazing and got some color to them.  

I prepped the rest of veggies and got the rest of the ingredients ready.  Then I started the risotto and then finished everything else up.  I plated everything up just as my family came through the door.  Perfect timing (for once)!

And you can't have a meal like that without wine (or at least we can't) so we had a lovely bottle of Chateau Julien Chardonnay (a local wine).


Everything turned out really delicious but I wish I had a tad more feta cheese in the zucchini salad.  I also wish I had time to make the strawberry pie that my hubby has requested I make (never made one before so it will be a first).  Oh well, next time!  I think I'll actually do the strawberry pie next week if I can manage to get to the farmers market to pick up some fresh strawberries.

If anyone is interested, here are the links to the recipes that I loosely followed

Halibut
Green Beans with Caramelized Shallots
If you want the other recipes, just let me know and I'll send it or post it here.