Pesto chicken and Greek shrimp saganaki with medium-rare filet mignon and a butternut kale orzo

The filet mignon is seared, roasted to 128°F and rested with whole rosemary sprigs laid over the top rather than chopped through it. The branch scents the fat while the meat cools and then lifts straight off. Slicing happens after the rest, never before. The pesto chicken breasts and thighs run the opposite way: pesto pushed under the skin, cherry tomatoes tumbled around them, hot oven until the tomatoes split and their juice becomes the only sauce that tray needs.

Blueberries and strawberries are still worth buying at the market in late July, so the arugula salad got both cut large, with chopped pecans and the balsamic dressing packed apart from the leaves. The mini bell peppers were the other seasonal buy — roasted until the skins blistered, then finished with kalamata olives and feta while still warm so the cheese slumps into them. Both are better on day two than the day I made them. Neither wants a fridge any colder than it has to be.

Reheating is short here, because most of this is cooked right to the edge already. The pecan crusted salmon filets want 8 minutes at 375°F uncovered; the shrimp saganaki 6 minutes at 350°F and not a minute over; the butternut squash kale orzo needs a spoon of water and 2 minutes covered. The rosemary filet mignon and the arugula berry salad stay cold, and the steak is at its best sliced straight onto those leaves.