This month, Lisa (co-owner of Let’s Dish! stores in MD and Northern VA) had her skills as the “woman behind the Let’s Dish! menu” put to the test by The Baltimore Sun. Though she has been putting dinner on the table for tens of thousands of families in the mid-Atlantic as our head of menu devlopment, this was a serious challenge: in just one afternoon, could she break the dinner routine for a family of four?

Yes, Lisa decided, heading up to Bel Air, MD, for a wintry afternoon with Sun reporter, Meredith Cohn, and local family, the Rhymauns. The series, called “Make Over My Meal,” is designed to help families “learn how to transform some of the less-than-healthful meals so many of us eat, with help from a pro.”

Lisa has certainly garnered plenty of experience on how to put together easy and delicious, home-cooked meals in her years of menu development for our meal-assembly stores. But, the Rhymauns presented a specific task: create a selection of new dishes for the family that use a limited set of ingredients and are relatively easy to prepare and cook. Ruth Rhymaun, a mother of two, also wanted healthy options for her family. Most of all, they wanted to change their routine. Ryhmaun is a good cook and her family enjoys her tried-and-true recipes - from Shepard’s pie to pasta, soup and burgers - but it was time to incorporate new ingredients and more variety.

Sounds easy enough, but Lisa works with a lot of recipes - so how to choose? After culling through ingredient lists and Let’s Dish! recipes, she decided to prepare three dishes using salmon - chock full of those healthy Omega-3 oils. All three meals are delicious and a dream to cook. (Salmon Cakes with Lemon Dressing - YUM!)

Here is the resulting feature on the front page of the Taste section of The Baltimore Sun (February 27, 2008), along with the full recipes for the three dishes Lisa prepared. Enjoy!

Break the Dinner Routine
(by Meredith Cohn, February 27, 2008)