I've been craving salmon. Major league craving it. The problem with buying salmon in a restaurant is that all too often it's dry. I like my salmon really moist. And, for those of you who are newer readers, fixing salmon at home is a bit of a challenge because Connie isn't fond of cooked salmon. Sushi, bring it on. Smoked, ditto. Cooked, uh, no thanks. But, last year I finally found a recipe that he rather likes. It calls for marinating salmon in soy sauce, dijon mustard and lemon juice. Then, you slather it with strawberry jam and bake it. Except, I used orange marmalade and smoked it on the grill. It was fantastic.
Now, I call Mom every evening on the way home. You might be right if you guessed that whats for dinner is a major topic of our conversation. Turned out salmon was on her menu that evening also. So, I told her about my recipe. You could just about see her nose turning up over the phone. Ewwww, that sounds really sweet, she says. Well, no, it's not really I said. Imagine my surprise when she announced the next evening that she'd slathered her salmon with orange marmalade and dijon mustard and LOVED IT. She said she may not fix it any other way ever again. Cool. I love it when someone else loves a recipe I come up with.
So, here's what the salmon looked like while I was smoking it:
Turned out I didn't have any marmalade so I had to rummage through the pantry to find an interesting jam. Raspberry peach champagne jam. Ok. It was great. Not as awesome as the orange marmalade was but still very, very good. And, yes, there were leftovers. I envisioned a salmon salad for lunch at the office. But, alas, I've been practically living at the office - or working at home - and fixing a big dinner any night this week has been a pipe dream. The leftover salmon became dinner. Connie actually commented that he's becoming a fan of my cooked salmon. I don't think you'll see him ordering it in a restaurant but he doesn't mind eating it at home.
Tropical Salmon Salad
Ingredients
romaine lettuce
cooked salmon (preferably leftover from )
raspberries
pineapple chunks (we had leftover grilled pineapple and it took it up a notch)
toasted sliced almonds
toasted coconut
balsamic vinegar (I used fig balsamic)
extra virgin olive oil
Directions
Shred the lettuce and put it in bowls. Place the pineapple chunks around the edges. Mound chunks of the salmon in the center.
Sprinkle on the raspberries. Top with the toasted almonds and toasted coconut.
Drizzle with the oil and vinegar.
I am so incredibly fortunate to have Connie in my life. He's the most curious man I've ever met. How does it work? Where does that road go? Case in point. On our recent trip to Rosewind Farms, we saw a mountain of dirt a ways away. What is it and where's the road that leads back to it. The entire trip to Huber Winery was spent surmising on it's origin and checking each drive for potential access. We finally narrowed it down to a drive down the road and around the corner. It was wide enough for big trucks and had a gate. On our return home, Google Earth came through. We were correct. Score.
But, I digress. One of the areas where I'm most lucky is that we have such similar taste. There are very few foods that either of us doesn't like. Since I'm the menu maker, those that I'm just lukewarm about don't show up often. Connie's not so lucky. He'd rather not have soup. But it's a regular on our menus because I love it. When it comes to most everything else, our taste is remarkably similar. He jokes that he knew he'd met THE ONE when he opened the meat drawer in my fridge and found it stuffed full of cheese. We counted our cheese stash the other day and had 18 different kinds of cheese. How much fun is that? How many people do you know who typically have a dozen tins of anchovies in their pantry? Yes, we do.
Needless to say, we love variety in our meals. I try and fix a seafood and/or fish, a chicken, a meatless, a pork and a beef dinner each week. And, since we both eat about any vegetable, I regularly experiment with new recipes.
There are two ways I fix asaparagus, however, that show up with great frequency.
One side note here - you probably noticed the potatoes in the photo above. I tried adding roasted garlic cloves to the potato stacks cooked in muffin tins. Major yum!
Asparagus with Teriyaki Dipping Sauce
steamed asparagus spears
mayonnaise or sour cream
Kikkoman teriyaki marinade and sauce
Mix the mayonnaise or sour cream with enough teriyaki sauce to suit your taste.
Dip the asparagus spears in the sauce.
This is also great with steamed green beans.
Grilled Asparagus
asparagus spears
italian dressing (we prefer robust or zesty)
Blanch asparagus spears.
Drain them and pour Italian dressing over the spears. Put the pan aside for about 30 minutes.
Grill the spears until they're done.
I hosted a networking group for my sorority.
It was supposed to be at the office but thanks to the flood, we all met at my home. It saved everyone from hiking three flights of stairs and having to wear layers of clothing to keep warm. It also saved me from schlepping serving dishes and lots of appetizers up the stairs. And, I got to try a BUNCH of new recipes. The majority came from two new to me cookbooks. This one, however, came from Southern Living. I'd clipped the recipe and put it in my portfolio instead of any of the envelopes where I normally tuck recipes to try. That way it did not get lost.
Now, before I go on about the recipe, you're probably wondering about the flood. Every once in a while our parking lot at the office floods. That's not too bad. This time, the whole parkway flooded, the flood doors failed, the elevator was out for two weeks, we had no heat for a couple of days and it was a total mell of a hess. Here's what it looked like:
Here's the parking lot:
See what used to be street there?
For once we weren't watching all the idiots run the stop signs...
Back to the recipe: I made a couple of changes. The original called for chopped parsley and croutons. I omitted the parsley, added the shredded romano and changed the croutons to garlic bread crumbs. I also used my homemade caesar dressing instead of bottled. That being said, bottled caesar dressing is one of the better bottled dressings in my opinion.
This was one terrific recipe. Connie and I did a trial run before my friends got there and we were very impressed. Then, all my friends loved these. And, best of all, when I pulled the leftovers out of the container the next day, they weren't soggy. The bread crumbs were a little worse for the wear but not terribly. This will be a go-to appetizer for us. It's fresh, different and tastes wonderful.
Caesar Salad Tacos
Ingredients:
romaine lettuce leaves
caesar dressing
chopped grape tomatoes
chopped cucumber
finely grated romano or parmesan cheese
garlic butter bread crumbs
Directions:
Drizzle a little caesar dressing down the center of each lettuce leaf. Sprinkle with a chopped tomatoes, chopped cucumbers, cheese and finish with garlic butter bread crumbs.
To make the garlic butter bread crumbs, melt a couple of tablespoons of butter in a small skillet. Add a very finely minced clove of garlic. Stir in 1/2 c of bread crumbs. Stir until the bread crumbs are nice and brown.
adapted from Southern Living
I confess, I've never been a huge fan of Sandra Lee's Semi Homemade. I try and do as much from scratch as possible. There are very few prepared foods I purchase. Jarred sauces and marinades and such sit on my pantry shelves forever. In fact, one of my goals this year is to get the pantry cleaned out of some of the older stuff. So, the concept of semi homemade just didn't appeal too much to me. But, the price tag of $2.99 did. And, when I skimmed the recipes there were a few that looked really good. So, I bought it. And found a couple of recipes I'd like to try in the first few pages. Then, read the rest of it on the way to Rosewind Farms. Pretty good cookbook.
As luck would have it, one of the things Maggie had awaiting us in the refrigerator was bangers. I love those things. Usually the only time I get bangers is at an Irish restaurant on Cape Cod. So, these were a treat.
The more I thought about it, the more it sounded like a good idea to replace the hot dogs this recipe called for with the bangers. Connie grilled them while I fixed the thousand island dressing and got the rest of our lunch put together.
This is one of those recipes you really don't want to eat in front of folks you want to impress. That is unless you want to impress upon them your dexterity with a napkin. How to catch dressing and sauerkraut drizzling down your chin. Oh, yum. We ummmmmed our entire way through these guys. The only change I'd make is to think about toasting the rolls on the cut side then turning them over and putting the cheese slices on top of the toasted side. I'd not necessarily want the cheese melted but just softened a bit. Come to think of it, a big old dill sandwich slice on this would've been good too!
Reuben Dogs
Ingredients:
Good quality hot dogs
spicy mustard
2 slices pastrami per dog
2 slices swiss cheese per dog
thousand island dressing
2-3 T sauerkraut per dog
rolls
Directions:
Grill the dogs until they're nice and browned.
Schmear them with spicy mustard. We like Guldens.
Wrap them in pastrami and pop them back onto the grill until the pastrami is heated through.
Cut the rolls in half lengthwise and toast them while you're grilling the pastrami wrapped hot dogs.
To assemble: Schmear the toasted rolls with thousand island dressing. Put the swiss cheese on one half
and top it with the sauerkraut then the hot dog.
Put the other half roll on top. Serve immediately.
This is the fruit salad I make whenever I need to "DO" a fruit salad. It's also the one I make when I just want fruit salad. Now, my brother's mother-in-law is one of those wonderful ladies who makes a fruit salad and takes all the pulp VERY carefully out of the oranges. I'm not. I don't have time and I've quit apologizing for that. It's the way it is. But, guess what? This tastes wonderful no matter what. The recipe originally came from Winners, a cookbook published by the Indianapolis Junior League. It's one of the few times I buy bottled salad dressing. Brianna's Poppy Seed. Most of the other poppy seed dressings are too gloppy and sweet for my taste. Not Brianna's. It's just about perfect on this. Now, the fact that the salad has cashews and bacon on it couldn't possibly have anything to do with how much I like it. You believe me there, don't you??? Ok, fine. Let's just say that this salad is fantastic!!
Now before I get to the recipe, let me tell you what this went with for breakfast. We were at Rosewind Farms for two breakfasts, so I made enough for three meals. That meant leftovers for lunch on Monday :-) Good deal! Saturday morning we had blueberry pancakes, ham and Fruit Salad Ole. I've discovered something that's good to know. I do not like some whole grain pancake mixes. I won some in a contest on Foodbuzz that was quite good. But, this was dry. Dry as the desert. We tossed the majority of the pancakes. Even shagbark hickory syrup couldn't save them. Sunday was much better. Maggie had sorrel growing in the garden so I wandered across the lane and picked a big handful. Then, I sauteed some red onion, the sorrel, shrimp and some herbs. Whipped eggs and feta cheese were poured over to make a lovely omelet. I'd show you a photo but someone forgot the extra camera batteries and the ones in the camera died... I know, it's terrible and I accept all the blame :-)
Fruit Salad Ole
Ingredients:
3-4 oranges
2 ruby red grapefruit
3-4 kiwis
1-2 bananas
2 avocados
big handful roasted, salted cashews
big handful browned, crumbled bacon
poppy seed dressing
Directions:
Section the oranges and grapefruit. Cut each section into bite-sized pieces. Peel and coarsely chop the kiwis, bananas and avocados.
Ladle into bowls and top with cashews, bacon and poppy seed dressing.
Typically by Sunday afternoon I have the menu made for the week. That wasn't the case last week. I mean, how exciting is it when the menu consists of Sunday evening and Wednesday evening? We met some friends for the two for one fish and chips at Claddaugh's, I hosted a colleague's long-term care seminar and I'm teaching a Social Security seminar. Not much home time last week. So, I did very little to prepare other than tear a few recipes out of magazines on the drive to and from the office. One of those proved to be a total winner. It was very easy to put together and tasted fantastic. Oh, and the super double bonus was that I had all the ingredients on hand. No trip to the grocery required. Connie could make his slices of happiness while these chicken breasts merrily baked away in the oven.
Baked Greek Chicken
Ingredients:
1 T olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 large cloves garlic, finely minced
1 10 oz box spinach, thawed and drained
freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 c crumbled feta cheese
2 T olive oil
1 T butter
1 c panko bread crumbs
1 large clove garlic, finely minced
1 t dried oregano
2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 c crumbled feta cheese
Directions:
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a small skillet. Saute the diced onion and 2 large garlic cloves until softened.
In another small skillet, melt the butter with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the panko, oregano and one large clove of garlic, finely minced. Stir until well browned.
MIx the onion and garlic mixture with the spinach, nutmeg and 1/2 c of the crumbled feta cheese.
Put the spinach mixture into an ovenproof baking dish. Top with the chicken breasts.
Top with the other 1/2 c of feta cheese then the browned bread crumbs.
Bake at 425 until the chicken breasts register 160-170 degrees, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them rest for 10 minutes.
adapted from Everyday with Rachael Ray
