No Pain No Gain...

Notice the title of today's posts? Yeah... I burned my finger under the broiler twice and then touched a hot tray. Pity me!

The end result: good salmon. So, all's well that ends well, I say!

I've said before that pretty much nothing can mess up salmon, in my opinion. I always seem to enjoy salmon, regardless of whatever sauce I apply. Once again, I've proved my point.

Today's recipe comes from Melissa d'Arabian, the latest winner of the Next Food Network Star. She has a section in the Food Network magazine about creating healthy food for kids. I can't speak for kids, but her salmon recipe sounded great!

Check page 88 of the Halloween issue for the complete recipe... I hesitate to copy it out here, since I don't believe it's printed anywhere for free. Suffice to say, it consists of vegetable oil, soy sauce, lemons, onions, light brown sugar, garlic, toasted sesame oil, pepper, and, of course, salmon.

Mmmmm... I've had a few bites and I think I'll definitely be making this again!

The Trials and Tribulations of Salmon Marinades

Today, I made Asian Grilled Salmon

I like salmon. I like salmon a lot. It's healthy, full of flavor, and easy to cook. Toss it in a marinade, grill it or put it in a frying pan for a few mins, and voila.

In this case, the marinade is made by mixing the following ingredients:

* 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
* 3 tablespoons good soy sauce
* 6 tablespoons good olive oil
* 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

Whisk them together in a bowl, then pour half of the marinade over the salmon and leave it sit for 10 mins. Afterward, it's supposed to go onto a hot grill. I don't have a grill (or a yard, sigh,) so I used a grill pan on medium heat. The recipe calls for 4-5 mins on each side. I ended up flipping it back onto the first side for an extra 5 mins, because the second side had some great grill marks and it still looked kind of raw.

End result: it's not my favorite salmon recipe ever. I didn't love the marinade. The 6 tablespoons of olive oil seemed excessive and didn't mix well with the other ingredients. Overall, it wasn't a flavorful enough marinade. I would rather it was sweeter.

I probably won't make this again, but I'll still enjoy eating it for dinner! :)

PS - Has anyone seen the movie Julie & Julia? Very cute and very funny! I highly recommend it :)

Crepes!

Sorry about the lack of posts lately... I'm going to try to post more!

Today's topic: crepes.

My friend and I tried to stop at a local creperie this afternoon, but it was closed. No problem, thought I. I'll just make my own crepes, thought I. I've seen other people make them. I've even helped other people make them. I mean, really. How hard can it be???

Famous last words. I ended up with a burned frying pan and a pile of bits of dough. Not quite the crepes I was hoping for!

What went wrong? I think I should have used a non stick pan. I thought I was, but clearly not. When I put a tablespoon of butter into the pan, that particular crepe worked better. Not great but better.

My flipping with a spatula skills may need some work too...

You might have better luck, though. Here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 2 eggs
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1/2 cup water
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 tablespoons butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter; beat until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.
3. Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Serve hot.


Source: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Basic-Crepes/Detail.aspx

Salmon With Brown Sugar and Mustard Glaze

Rumor has it salmon is very good for me, so I'm seeking out salmon recipes. Omega 3's and all that. If I eat it every other week, that's got to be good, right?

Salmon + brown sugar = yes, I will definitely make that

(Have I mentioned my love for brown sugar?)

The official title is Salmon with Brown Sugar and Mustard Glaze. It's courtesy of Bobby Flay, posted on the Food Network website.

We don't have a grill, so we used our broiler. And I may have added a bit more soy sauce than necessary. I was trying to pour out roughly 2 tablespoons and sloshed a bit more into the bowl :P Oh well, soy sauce is good!

This was a very, very easy recipe. Mix the ingredients in a bowl, brush the contents over the fish, broil for about 8 minutes... done. It tastes good, too! I will definitely make this dish again :)

Miracle Fruit?

Here is something interesting. Miracle fruit.

I've received all the spam emails about 'acacia berries,' but never really bothered to find out what they are. Then, a friend said she wanted to go to a Miracle Fruit Party.

A what?

After a bit of Google'ing, I now know about miracle fruits. Apparently they affect your taste buds, so anything you eat in the next 10-15 minutes tastes sugary. People have tasting parties; guests eat miracle fruit and then try things which would normally be gross.

I was intrigued... until someone told me about a CSI episode involving miracle fruit. The victim on the show was slipped a glass of Drain-o during a miracle fruit party. Because the miracle fruit had affected her, she didn't realize she was drinking poison and thus she was murdered. Yikes.

Maybe I'll just stick with regular sugar, thanks :)

Flour Power...

Practice makes perfect, or so they say... but they were apparently not talking about making banana bread!

The first time we made banana bread: Wonderful!

The second time we made banana bread: The boyfriend dropped the entire batter-filled bowl into the sink, directly under the running faucet.

The third time we made banana bread: I accidentally purchased self rising flour instead of all purpose flour. It certainly rose.

This weekend, I am determined that we will somehow make more banana bread. It can be done. It must be done, because I really liked it and I want more!

In other news, I recently came into possession of Cat Cora's book, Cooking from the Hip. Flipping through the pages, I see a lot of interesting recipes. I have absolutely loved her chicken fried with cornflakes recipe from the Food Network magazine, so I'm excited to see what else she has. I'll let you know how it goes! :)

Corned Beef... Without Cabbage!

I didn't make the Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage myself. Those of us who stay up until 5 a.m. don't wake up in time to start the slow cooker! Credit for this goes to my boyfriend :)

Verdict: good!

We've never worked with corned beef before. I actually had to ask if it was even available at the grocery store, that's how clueless I am. Our store had 2 different kinds, one of which cost about half of the other. Because we didn't know what we were working with, we chose the more expensive brand. That just seemed safer. We also weren't sure what kind of ale to use. We also skipped the cabbage part altogether. We just didn't want cabbage that night :)

Even with those issues, the end result was nice. My boyfriend said he was surprised by how tender the meat was. I've found all meat cooked in the slow cooker turns out like that. That's one of the things I love about slow cookers!

On the side, we had egg noodles. Yes, we're weird :)

Slow Cooker Chicken

Let's make Slow Cooker Chicken With Rosemary Apples and Onions!

I didn't serve over rice. And I didn't carefully measure... well, anything. For onions, I chopped up 1 large onion and 1 small onion. (Why do onions suddenly make my eyes water? I've never had trouble with this before. Maybe it's this brand?) I used 3 pounds of chicken, because that was the smallest size the grocery store had. And I used a LOT of chicken broth. I was concerned about the amount of liquid in the slow cooker, so I just poured and poured and poured.

How did it turn out? Decently.

If you were making it, I would recommend you serve it over rice. I think that would make it taste even better.

If I ever make it again, I may opt for boneless chicken. This is my first experience cooking with boned chicken. The taste was fine, but picking out all those bones got annoying. Besides, isn't the skinless chicken healthier? The point is, aside from the skin presumably helping to keep the chicken moist, it's not really necessary to use the boned kind.

Meat gets so moist and soft in a crockpot. That's one of my favorite things about crockpots.

So, what's the negative? I cook for the week. The idea was to have chicken for 5 days straight, Monday-Friday. I'm even okay with getting lunch out on Fridays. This chicken lasted until Wednesday. But... it's only supposed to make 4 servings, so I guess they were just telling the truth!

I might make this again. The taste is good, but, you know, I can make 4 servings of something in a regular pot. I usually reserve the crockpot for meals that will last the week.

Restaurants With No Prices?

With the recession, there's been a lot of news articles and websites devoted to saving money and eating cheaply. I love it. I'm young and just starting out - I could definitely benefit from budget advice!

The most popular advice: Don't eat out, cook meals at home.

Good advice. But some restaurants are taking a really interesting approach to making dining out more affordable and acceptable: No prices.

At The Java Street Cafe in Kettering, OH, there are no prices. Patrons decide what they want to pay for a dish. You'd think they'd be overrun by jerks wanting food for free, but apparently that's not so. The owner says that people "have to look me in the eye and say that that's what they think is fair." Nice to know that still works!

While researching that cafe, I came across another one: the SAME Cafe. SAME = So All May Eat. It's a nonprofit restaurant. Customers get a little envelope with their meals and they can put whatever they want inside. No need to even look anybody in the eye.

What a neat concept!

Banana Bread

"Oil and flour a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan."

It's bad news when the first step of a recipe makes me pause! Can you tell I'm not much of a baker? I've been experimenting with cooking, but I don't have much experience with baking. All I've baked is a few batches of cookies. So, when I see "oil and flour a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan," I think:

- how much oil?
- how much flour?
- how?

Not a great start to my banana bread!

Luckily, my boyfriend and I persevered, lol. (He has some more experience with baking than I do.)

We oiled and floured. We mixed and mixed and mixed. We poured. We baked. We checked. We baked some more. (After an hour, it wasn't quite done; nothing 10 more minutes in the oven couldn't fix.)

I should note: we did not use the cinnamon or the macadamia nuts. My boyfriend is allergic to cinnamon and I didn't want the nuts.

The end result was good. It's not my favorite banana bread ever. Parts of it are a little dry. Overall, though, the main portion of the bread is moist and flavorful. I expected disaster, but I'll totally eat this. I've already had two pieces!

People Pops?

If you're squeamish, stop now. Don't read the rest of this entry.

I mean it.

Look away.

Okay?

All right. Don't say I didn't warn you...

Sometimes, food just isn't any good. And sometimes, bad food is just plain funny. Case in point: this blog.

Michele writes a lovely blog about her adventures with a set of triplets and a younger son. I enjoy reading her blog and I especially enjoyed the post from 3/13, when she described serving her children all natural People Pops, lollipops flavored with Isomalt.

Wikipedia reports that children should only have 25g of Isomalt a day due to the possibility of "gastric distress." Unfortunately, Michele didn't see Wikipedia's entry before her kids ate 4 pops each.

I checked Google and there's a couple people singing People Pop's praises, especially as a treat for children.

Personally, I think I'll take Michele's experience to heart. I don't have any plans to seek out People Pops any time soon!

I do, however, have plans for chicken in the slow cooker and some banana bread. Stay tuned!

Oprah: Cat Cora and Tyler Florence

No one told me Cat Cora and Tyler Florence were going to be on Oprah two days ago! Man, I would have liked to see that.

Luckily, portions of the show, recipes, and a lot of other information are posted on Oprah's website.

One section features Cat's 10 Pantry Essentials:

1) Extra Virgin Olive Oil - I agree. I use it all the time.
2) Lemons - Lemons? An essential? I can't think of the last time I used a lemon while cooking...
3) Garlic - We use a jar of minced garlic. We're a bit lazy. But it's much easier and I don't notice much difference in flavor.
4) Brown Rice - Confession: I use white rice. Or saffron rice! Love saffron rice. Brown rice is healthier, though, so listen to Cat.
5) Canned Beans - No thank you. I'm not much of a fan.
6) Tomato Paste - I'm also one of those weird people who doesn't like tomatoes. I eat ketchup and tomato sauce, but not tomatoes.
7) Eggs - Yes
8) Frozen Vegetables - I should definitely eat more of these!
9) Spices - Certainly
10) Broths - I've only recently discovered how useful broths are

This is a good list, if we overlook the lemons, canned beans, and tomato paste. I think I would add onions to the list. Onions creep into just about every dish I make!

Rachael Ray on CNN

I'm a fan of Rachael Ray and, like everyone else these days, I'm interested in ways to save money. With that in mind, I found this article, titled Rachael Ray: Great Food Doesn't Cost a Fortune.

Her main points:

1 - Use the freezer more often
2 - Shop at farmer's markets
3 - Don't go shopping hungry
4 - Use coupons

Welcome

The official quote, from Rachael Ray, is "I can chop my onions any damn way I please." Or something close to that. She was referring to the fact that she's not a trained chef. I fell in love with the quote immediately. It completely sums up my culinary experiences.

I'm no chef. I'm not even so much a cook. I cook things, because otherwise I'd starve. I did a bit of cooking-for-fun in college, when I'd prepare meals for my family during breaks. After college, my boyfriend eventually moved in and introduced me to the Food Network.

Now, I'm addicted to Iron Chef America and Ace of Cakes, I know what lemon zest is, and I just plain like to cook.

This blog will (hopefully) be an account of my experiences in the food world, as I play around and experiment and just have a good time. Beyond that, I'm not sure what will happen.

Please feel free to follow along and/or join in as I chop my onion any damn way I please... :)