Sweet Lemon Salmon

We love salmon.   Ever since the hubs and I were in college we have made salmon at least once a week.  My favorite way to prepare it was a recipe from Rachel Ray's 365: No Repeats, and it still is the husbands preferred method, however it is a lot of work, and it makes so many dishes.  After reading a recipe on my friend's blog Books and Bites that was very similar, but much simpler, I formed my own version.

Start by preheating the oven to 400°F.  Next place three or four, four ounce fillets in a glass baking dish, skin side down.  Season the fillets by squeezing juice from one lemon over them, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Next top each fillet with two tablespoons of brown sugar and mash it all down.

Place the salmon in the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until it is cooked through.

Drizzle some of the sauce over each fillet on the plate before serving.

Including prep time this dish takes less than a half hour to prepare, and it is all done in one small baking dish.  Enjoy!

Dinner Menu for the week of March 8, 2010

Here is our dinner menu for the week.

Monday:  Flying Saucer $2.75 pint night with the hubs.
Tuesday:  Tacos and Margaritas
Wednesday:  Ham and Potato Soup in Artisan Bread Bowls
Thursday:  Lemon Glazed Salmon with brown rice and asparagus
Friday:  French Toast with turkey sausage and fresh fruit
Saturday:  Homemade Mac and Cheese Broccoli Bake with salads
Sunday:  Leftover buffet

Banana Bread

One morning when grabbing a banana for breakfast I found they had all gone brown.  Well you know the old saying: when life hands you brown bananas, make banana bread!

The cast of characters for this performance:  banana, sugar, shortening, eggs, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon.

 

Get started by creaming the shortening in sugar together until it is fluffy.

 

Next add the eggs and beat until well mixed.  Add the banana and mix well.  In a separate bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together and gradually added to the mixer.  Finally add walnuts to complete the batter.

I love baking these in my mini loaf pan to facilitate portion control, and use a scoop to maintain even sizes for baking.

Bake at 375 degrees for exactly 30 minutes.

The loaves come out perfect every time.  Delicious.

Garlic and Rosemary Spiced Skillet Potatoes Recipe

If you have not had these garlic and rosemary potatoes, stop what you are doing, and immediately proceed to the kitchen.

Start by rounding up a few ingredients:  red skin potatoes, garlic, olive oil, rosemary, kosher salt, and coarse ground pepper. 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, slice the potatoes, chop the garlic and rosemary, and get ready to work.

 

 

Pull out the caste iron skillet.

If you do not have one, shame on you.

However, in this unfortunate event, any skillet that is oven safe will do.  Drizzle two tablespoons of olive oil in the skillet and heat over medium high heat.  On my electric stove the dial is set on six.  Add the garlic and allow to simmer.  It should not turn brown quickly, and it should smell really good.  If the garlic begins to brown too quickly, lower the heat slightly.

After a minute or so add the potatoes, salt, pepper, and rosemary.  Stir to get the the potatoes coated, then allow the potatoes to brown for about two minutes before stirring again.  Sprinkle them with a bit of cayenne if you like some heat, stir a third time, and allow the potatoes to brown for an additional two minutes.

Once they look something like this, pop them in the oven for ten minutes.  Pull them out, give them a good stir, then put them back in for another five to ten minutes.  When finished, they should look like this.

 

Quick and Easy Knit Wash Cloth: Perfect Beginner Project

It is starting to feel as if the yarn for the ballerina sweater is cursed.  First there was the entire rip it out mishap, followed by me leaving my pattern at my daughter's dance class last weekend.   So to take my mind off the woes, I started some quick and easy wash cloths.  These are possibly the best beginning projects for aspiring knitters.    Scarves are traditionally the first things people learn to knit, but now that I am making these wash cloths, it seems as if they should be the A-list project for beginners.  Like scarves, they are made of simple beginning stitches, however they are much smaller, thus knit up quite quickly.   The commitment to the project is less and the sense of accomplishment much greater.  Also, unlike scarves, there is more opportunity to then progress one's knitting skills by slightly varying the pattern, and still getting all the above mentioned perks. 

Then, there are all the benefits the finished project has to offer.  They are so diverse and wonderful for having around the house for dishes, bodies, dusting, and they make fantastic gifts.  A good friend of mine once gave me a gift basket with a few of these, some dish soap, bathroom soap, and a candle.  It was a great gift.

My current project is being worked from Paton's Grace cotton yarn on US size 5 needles.  I started by casting on 40 stitches, then started working in garter stitch (knit all stitches on both sides of the work).  After working 72 rows I had 6 inch square. 

 

Weave in ends and voilà, a beautiful wash cloth.

Garlic Shrimp with Brown Rice Recipe

So tonight I tried a new recipe from Gina's WW Recipes and it is a keeper.  Even the picky three year old ate most of her dinner.  It was delicious, few ingredients, and delicious.  Oh, and did I mention it is healthy?  Seriously, what more could you want from a recipe?!

To start off I pulled out the old rice cooker.

I have been going through my kitchen and getting rid of all those nifty gadgets that seemed like such a good idea when we were registering for wedding gifts, but have not actually been used in the past six years.  This was the rice cooker's audition for the role of kitchen gadget number 5 in our kitchen.  It was sprayed down with Pam, then filled with 1-1/4 cups of long grain brown rice, 2-1/2 cups water, and two chicken bullion cubes. 

I flipped the switch then checked back several hours later to find it warming the best rice that has been cooked in this house in six years.

How could this gem be in the back of our cabinet collecting dust?  The injustice! 

About 20 minutes before I wanted to serve dinner, I round up the major players:  shrimp, olive oil, garlic, limes, and cilantro.

 

Over medium high heat  the oil, garlic, and red peppers were sauteed.

 
 

Next the shrimp went in with a dash of paprika and salt.  They were sauteed for 2 minutes or so before being joined by the cilantro.  The end result was this.

 

These beautiful babies were then paired with the rice in a bowl to give this lovely combination.

 

The entire meal was rounded off with a small side salad and a glass of Spanish white wine.  A delicious, fast, healthy weekday meal.  The whole family enjoyed it and it will be one of our keepers.

Dinner Menu for the week of March 1, 2010

Here is what's for dinner in my house this week.

 Monday:  About 15 MinuteTortellini Soup from Rachel Ray: 365 No Repeats
 Tuesday:  Garlic Shrimp over brown rice from Gina's WW Recipes and a side salad
 Wednesday:  Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken   with brown rice from Gina's WW Recipes
 Thursday:  Lemon Glazed Salmon with rosemary red skin potatoes and broccoli
 Friday:  French Toast with turkey sausage and fresh fruit
 Saturday and Sunday:  Dinner out and leftover buffet.