Blackberry Ginger Glazed Salmon

Another delicious summertime dish.  Fresh blackberries are cooked down with ginger and a hint of lemon into a thick glaze to go over salmon.  This is an adaptation of a Sunny Anderson recipe.

Blackberry Ginger Glazed Salmon


Ingredients:
½ cup water
6 oz. fresh blackberries
1 (½”) piece ginger, peeled and grated
½ tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp sugar
½ tsp cornstarch
1 tbsp olive oil
4 skinless salmon fillets
Salt and freshly ground black pepper


Directions
Preheat oven to 400°.


In a small saucepot over medium-high heat, combine water, blackberries, ginger, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until berries break down and sauce is reduced, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and strain into a bowl, using the back of a spoon to push blackberry pulp through. Return blackberry mixture to the sauce pot.  Dissolve cornstarch in a small amount of cold water and add that and the sugar to the blackberry mixture.  Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until thickened, about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid burning. Remove from heat and let cool.


Brush a baking sheet with olive oil and set fillets on top. Brush fillets with oil and season with salt and pepper. Once blackberry glaze is cool, pour half of it  into a separate bowl and set aside.  Using the first half of the glaze, brush it generously over salmon fillets and discard the rest.  Bake salmon for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and, using the reserved glaze, brush the salmon again. Bake another 8 minutes or until salmon flakes easily with a fork.  Brush with additional glaze before serving.


Makes 4 servings.

Super tasty.  Thickening the glaze with cornstarch was my addition; it was too thin and kept running off the salmon.  The cornstarch trick worked very well.  I also cut the glaze ingredients in half because I had tons of it leftover; it was way more than anyone could use for 4 pieces of salmon.  You could go a head and double the sauce and then reserve some for topping ice cream or something.  Yeah, it’s that good!

I know the picture isn’t the greatest, but isn’t it the prettiest salmon you’ve ever seen?  This dish is known as “purple salmon” in our house.

I served it with brown rice and green beans.  I love pairing fruit flavors with salmon, so this is a winner in my book.

Lentil Tacos

This is a new meatless main dish I tried last night.  My friend Barbara knew that I do meatless meals one night a week, and she had tried these and loved them so she passed the recipe on to me.  It came from the website Eat at Home.  Here’s my amended version.

Lentil Tacos

Ingredients:

1 cup lentils

1 tbsp olive oil

½ onion, diced

2 tbsp taco seasoning

2¼ cups chicken broth

6 taco shells

Lettuce

Salsa or taco sauce

Cheese

Sour cream

Directions:

Rinse and drain the lentils and drain.  Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Sauté the onion until slightly tender.  Add the lentils and taco seasoning; cook for a minute.  Add the broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for about 30 minutes.  Uncover and cook a few more minutes to thicken.  

Use this just like you would taco meat.  Place a spoonful of the lentils in taco shells and top with lettuce, salsa, cheese, sour cream, or whatever else you like on your tacos.

Makes 6 servings.

This was really good!  I’m not going to lie to you and tell you it tastes just like the beef; it doesn’t.  But it’s really good in its own right.  My meat-loving husband actually said that he likes these just as much, if not more, than any taco he’s ever had.  That’s pretty good!

The lentils are really easy to make, but best of all, they are super cheap.  This amount of lentils cost me less than 36 cents.  Wow!  I love cheap food!  Some people do the Meatless Monday thing to be healthier, or to be more environmentally friendly, but my main reason is to save some money (although the healthier aspect runs a very close second).  So these definitely fit the bill!

I did change the recipe slightly from the original.  I used my own taco seasoning instead of the seasonings listed in the recipe.  It also called for adding salsa to the lentils right at the end of cooking.  I left that out and just put salsa on my tacos separately.  I also reduced the amount of chicken stock slightly because I really had to cook it a long time with the lid off to get the liquid to reduce.

 Not a great picture, but here are the cooked lentils all ready to go into tacos.

This is good on either soft or crunchy shells, but crunchy is my favorite.

Thanks so much for the recipe, Barbara!  If anyone else has any good meatless main dishes, please share them with me.  You can comment here, or on my Facebook page.

Broccoli Salad

This is a recipe my sister gave me.  She made it for my nephew’s birthday party and I liked it so much I knew I had to make it.  We had a church picnic on Sunday which provided the perfect occasion.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it before it was devoured, so I had to make it again (darn!).

Broccoli Salad


Ingredients:
6 cups broccoli florets
½ cup onion, chopped
1½ cups cheddar cheese, shredded
1 (3 oz.) package real bacon crumbles or 8 slices bacon, crumbled
½ cup mayonnaise
½ cup vinegar
¼ cup sugar


Directions:
Combine broccoli, onion, cheese, and bacon in a large bowl.  In a small bowl, combine mayo, vinegar, and sugar, whisking until smooth.  Pour dressing over broccoli mixture and toss to coat.  Refrigerate before serving.  For best results, make a day ahead and refrigerate to let the flavors meld.


Makes 12 servings.

The amount of servings is just a guess.  This made enough for a picnic at our very small church, so if you are feeding a real crowd, you might want to double it.

It’s a very simple dish, but I find that in the summertime, simple dishes are best.  Especially no-cook dishes like this.  There’s nothing like whipping up a delicious recipe without even turning on the oven or stovetop when it’s hot like this!

Thanks for the recipe, Hil!

Honey Mustard Potato Salad (Mayo-Free Potato Salad)

This is a potato salad recipe that I created July 4th weekend.  I had been wanting to make potato salad for a while, but wanted to try something different than the usual mayo one.  I used a variation of Alton Brown’s honey mustard dressing for something else, and thought it would be good in a potato salad.  I already knew that honey mustard was good on potatoes because of my Honey Mustard Potatoes, so it wasn’t much of a gamble for me.  I had some Teeny Tiny potatoes that I got from Trader Joe’s; they’re even smaller than fingerlings.  But you can use any potato you like.

Honey Mustard Potato Salad


Ingredients:
2 lbs. potatoes
1/4 cup onion, minced
1 hard boiled egg, chopped
2 tbsp pickle relish
2 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
Anything else you like in potato salad
5 tbsp honey
3 tbsp Dijon mustard


Directions:
Peel potatoes if desired.  Boil in salted water until tender.  Drain; cut up into desired sized pieces.  Put them in a large bowl and add onion, egg, relish, chives, and whatever else you like in your potato salad. 


Combine honey and mustard in a small bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined.  Pour honey mustard over potato mixture and toss until well coated.


Can be served warm or chilled.


Makes 8 servings.

It turned out really well.  It’s such a nice change from the same old potato salad.  I served mine warm, but like I said in the recipe, it would be good served cold as well.  

This recipe is great for cookouts, picnics, or any outdoor meal.  Since it’s mayo-free, you don’t have to worry so much about keeping it cold.  And I’m guessing that this would go over better with kids than traditional potato salad!

Lemon Basil Muffins

You may be thinking, “Basil in a sweet muffin?”  But, yes, it works!  Lemon and basil are a perfect pair and they both scream “Summertime!” to me.  I saw these muffins on the blog Lovely Eats and had to make them.  I chickened out a little bit and only put in half the basil called for, but was happy with the results.  Don’t be fooled by the picture of the cut-open muffin; most of the others showed a lot more green than that one did.

Lemon Basil Muffins


Ingredients:
½ cup butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
3 eggs
½ cup sour cream
2 tbsp fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
Juice of 2 lemons
½ cup sugar


Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°.  Line a muffin pan with paper or grease and flour it.


Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy. Add the lemon zest, eggs, and sour cream.  
Stir in basil.  Gently fold in the flour and baking powder.


Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan and bake in the oven for 15-20 mins (or until a skewer inserted comes out clean).


To make the lemon sugar, mix the lemon juice and sugar together. Once the muffins are done, spoon the lemon sugar over the muffins immediately. The syrup will soak into the muffins and the sugar will form a crunchy crust.


Allow to cool for 10 mins before removing from the pan.


Makes 12 muffins.

I actually made my muffins with canola oil instead of butter.  I do that alot, to make them dairy free so that my daughter can eat them.  Imagine how dumb I felt when I got down to the part of the recipe where you add sour cream!  Oops! Oh well. They were okay with the oil, but next time I will probably try them with the butter to see what difference it makes.

I’m sure that you’re used to eating basil in savory applications, but it actually works really well in sweet ones as well.  Remember, the official name of it is sweet basil, as opposed to the other kind called Thai basil.  You must chop the basil very finely, though, so people don’t get a big chunk of it.

I think these are the perfect summertime muffins.

Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies

I usually make dessert one night a week: Thursday.  I chose Thursday because my husband has Fridays off, so Thursday night kicks off our weekend.  And, outside of summer, all of our favorite funny tv shows are on Thursday nights, so we get the kids to bed, dish up some dessert, and fire up the dvr.  

This Thursday, my husband had a minor outpatient surgery, so I knew I had to bring out the big guns in choosing a dessert to cheer him up and take his mind off any pain he might have.  If these brownies aren’t “the big guns”, I don’t know what is!

These brownies are composed of three layers: a layer of fudgy brownies (your fav recipe or my fav, a boxed mix), a layer of chopped up Reese’s peanut butter cups and chopped peanuts, and then topped with a layer of melted chocolate and peanut butter with Rice Krispies mixed in.  Wow!  Are you drooling yet?  If you like peanut butter, these are the brownies for you.  I got the recipe from The Stir, who got them from How Sweet It Is.

Peanut Butter Crunch Brownies

Ingredients:

1 box brownie mix, plus oil and eggs called for on box

1 cup Reese’s peanut butter cups, roughly chopped

½ cup salted peanuts, chopped

1½ cups (12 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips

½ tbsp butter

1½ cups creamy peanut butter

1½ cups Rice Krispies cereal

Directions:

Make the brownies as directed on the box in a 9×13” pan; bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Remove the brownies from the oven and top with the peanut butter cups and peanuts. Place the brownies back into the oven and bake an additional 6 to 10 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted and comes out clean. Remove the brownies from the oven.

In a microwave safe dish, melt the chocolate chips, butter, and peanut butter for about 45 seconds. The chocolate chips should keep their shape but will melt completely when stirred. Then stir in the Rice Krispies.

Pour the Rice Krispies mixture over the brownies and let cool.  Once cool, place the pan into the refrigerator. Refrigerate the brownies for at least two hours until serving.

Makes 24 servings.

Oh my goodness.  These things are amazing.  Very rich, very decadent.  I love the crunch from the Rice Krispies and the chopped peanuts.  

I consider these “fork brownies” because they are quite messy.  You have to keep them refrigerated because the top layer will get all soft and mushy at room temperature.  

These brownies are definitely going into my recipe collection, but I’ll probably only make them for special occasions.  They’re certainly a splurge!

Peggy from My Fiance Likes It, So It Must Be Good, chose to make this recipe when she was assigned my blog for the Secret Recipe Club in August 2011. Click on the button below to check out her post!

Tequila Glazed Grilled Peaches

Okay, so these don’t make the prettiest picture, but don’t be fooled; they are tasty!  This is a recipe I created all by myself.  I’ve been on a grilling kick lately and decided to try grilling fruit.  It’s fun!  Here’s what I came up with.

Tequila Glazed Grilled Peaches


Ingredients:
¼ cup honey
1 tbsp tequila
4 peaches
Whipped cream
Cinnamon


Directions:
Combine honey and tequila and heat over medium-high heat until just boiling.  Remove from heat.  Let stand a few minutes.  Glaze will thicken as it cools.


Grill peaches over medium-high heat until grill marks form and peaches start to soften.


Glazed can be brushed over peaches or drizzled over them.  Serve with a dollop of whipped cream and sprinkle with cinnamon.


Makes 4 servings.

My husband and I made this recipe together after the kids went to bed one night.  He grilled the peaches while I made the glaze.  He had a little trouble with the peaches sticking, so I suggest oiling the grate before laying the peaches down.

We didn’t skin our peaches, but I think I might do that next time.  It was a little bit bitter.

The cinnamon is certainly not necessary; it’s more for looks.  But it adds a nice touch.

I love tequila and the flavor really comes through in this dish.  The glaze is not really cooked long enough for the alcohol to be removed, so I would consider this an adult only dessert.

This dish makes for a sweet ending to a fun summer day.

Slow Cooker Soy Garlic Drumsticks

I like to keep chicken drumsticks on hand at all times.  I buy them in bulk when they go on sale for less than a dollar a pound.  I peel the skin off and freeze them individually so that when I am ready to cook, I can just pull out however many I need.  I keep them on hand for days when I don’t have a meal planned for whatever reason, or I need something easier or faster than what was planned because something came up.  I like to throw them in the slow cooker, topped with a sauce of some kind.  I have a few different sauces, and this is one of my favorite.  I got it from Taste of Home.

Slow Cooker Soy Garlic Drumsticks


Ingredients:
8 chicken drumsticks, skinned
1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
½ cup soy sauce
¼ cup packed brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 tbsp cornstarch


Directions
Place chicken in slow cooker. In a small bowl, combine the tomato sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, and garlic; pour over chicken. Toss chicken to coat.  Cover and cook on low for 4 hours.


Remove chicken from slow cooker and set aside.  Pour cooking liquid out into a small saucepan.  Add cornstarch to a small amount of cold water and stir.  Pour into the cooking liquid.  Bring to a boil until thickened.  Place chicken and cooking liquid back into slow cooker and cook for another hour or until chicken is tender.


Makes 4 servings.

The original recipe didn’t call for thickening the cooking liquid, but I really like doing that.  It makes the sauce cling to the chicken better and it’s really good drizzled over the rice.

This is one of my go-to easy dinners.  And it’s great in the summer because I don’t have to heat up the kitchen by turning on the oven.  Just a good recipe to have in your arsenal, so to speak!

Apple Chicken Sausage Boats

Who doesn’t love breakfast for dinner?  We sure do.  That’s why this recipe from February’s issue of Cuisine at Home caught my eye.  It was one of those recipes where, halfway through, I thought it was going to be a flop, but in the end it turned out just fine.

Apple Chicken Sausage Boats


Ingredients:
1 lb. ground chicken
1 apple, cored, peeled, and grated
¼ cup onion, minced
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp olive oil
4 medium eggs


Directions:
Combine chicken, apple, onion, brown sugar, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes in a medium bowl.  Divide into four equal portions.  Shape each portion into a 1” thick patty, then press a 2” wide well in the middle of each patty, leaving a thin layer on the bottom of the patty.


Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add patties, well side down, and cook until browned, about 4 minutes.  Turn over.  Gently crack an egg into the well of each patty.  Cover pan and cook over medium-low heat until egg whites are set and yolks begin to thicken, about 7 minutes.


Serve warm.


Makes 4 servings.

This is pretty tasty!  I’ve made my own chicken sausage before, so I was familiar with that, but the whole egg in a well thing was new to me.  The chicken mixture was kind of loosey-goosey and I didn’t think the patties would hold their shape after I put them in the pan.  Especially since you are supposed to put them in with the well side down.  I thought the whole thing would collapse and there would be no well.  But I was pleasantly surprised when I turned them over.  The well was still perfectly intact!  But then I came upon problem number two: my eggs didn’t fit inside the wells.  Either my wells were too small or my eggs were too big, but a lot of egg white spilled out of the well and into the pan.  But that ended up okay too; I just used the turner to kind of “cut away” the extra egg white from the sides of the patties after it was cooked.  In the future, I would try using medium eggs instead of large, which is what I usually buy.

The original recipe called for ½ cup of minced onion, but I read it wrong and only put in ¼ cup.  I’m glad I did, because even as it was, my husband’s only complaint was that there was too much onion.  If you’re not a big fan of onion, use only 2 tbsp.  Personally I liked the onion, but I could see how some people would think there was too much.  So adjust that according to your tastes.

The combination of the apple and the brown sugar gives this sausage a sweet flavor.  Jim loved that, but I would probably take the brown sugar down a notch if it was just me.  I would probably only do half a tbsp.  Also, the original recipe called for cayenne pepper instead of the red pepper flakes, but I don’t keep cayenne on hand.  The red pepper flakes worked really well to give the sausage just a hint of spice.  If you like your sausage spicier, increase the pepper flakes.

 The recipe in the magazine called for serving these on top of toasted ciabatta halves, but I didn’t have anything like that on hand so I made pancakes to go with them. 

Cross-section.  The yolks were cooked perfectly to our preferences.  If you like your yolk firmer than this, cook a little bit longer than the 7 minutes stated in the recipe.

We love having breakfast for dinner, so these sausage boats will be going into the regular rotation.

This recipe was included in the sausage recipe linky party over at Savannah’s Savory Bites. 

Steamed Artichokes with Lemon Garlic Dipping Sauce

So the other day while I was grocery shopping, I noticed a large display of beautiful artichokes.  I had been wanting to try cooking fresh artichokes for a while, so I picked up a few and took them home.  Cooking artichokes can be intimidating; in fact, I got a splinter from one just picking them out at the store!  But thanks to the very thorough directions from my favorite vegetable cookbook, Perfect Vegetables, it was really pretty easy and turned out great.  I decided to create my own dipping sauce to go with them.

Steamed Artichokes with Lemon Garlic Dipping Sauce


Ingredients:
1 lemon, cut in half
4 medium artichokes (8 to 10 oz.)
2 medium onions


Directions:
Squeeze the lemon juice into a large bowl filled with cold water.  Drop the spent lemon halves into the water.


Grasp the artichoke by the stem and hold it horizontal to the cutting board.  Use kitchen shears to trim the tips off the leaves row by row, skipping the top two rows. 


Rest the artichoke on the cutting board.  Holding the stem in one hand, cut off the top quarter (top two rows) of the artichoke with a very sharp chef’s knife.


Cut the stem flush with the base of the bulb.  Drop the artichoke into the bowl of lemon water.  Repeat with remaining artichokes.


Cut two 1½” thick slices from the middle of each onion.  Space the onion rings evenly across the bottom of a large pot and set one trimmed artichoke on top of each ring.  Fill the pot with water to ½” below the top of the onion rings.  Bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat.  Cover and cook until the outer artichoke leaves release easily when pulled, about 30 minutes.  Check the pot periodically to make sure the water has not boiled dry; add more water as needed.


With tongs, carefully remove the artichokes from the pot and cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.  Steamed artichokes can also be chilled and eaten cool.  Serve with Lemon Garlic Dipping Sauce.


Makes 4 servings.


Lemon Garlic Dipping Sauce


Ingredients:
½ cup mayonnaise
1 lemon
1 small clove garlic, or ½ large clove, grated
¼ tsp dried thyme, crushed


Directions:
Put the mayonnaise in a small bowl.  Zest the lemon into the bowl.  Add the garlic and thyme and stir until combined.  Use lemon juice or water to thin out the dip to your desired consistency.  


Serve with steamed artichokes.


Makes 4 servings.

Sounds like complicated directions, but they’re really not.  The book provides illustrations of each step, which I found very helpful.  I’m not one of those food bloggers that takes pictures of every step for every recipe (really, who doesn’t know what chopped onions look like?), but for this recipe, I think some extra pictures would be helpful.  The picture quality isn’t the best, but you’ll get the idea.

 Onion rings in the pot.  I only made three artichokes, so I only used three onion rings.  The book says that if you don’t want to use onions, you can just use a steaming rack.

 The artichoke as I brought it home from the store.  The book recommends medium-sized artichokes, but mine were large (13 oz.).  They took a little longer to cook and were not quite as tender as smaller ones would be.

 Pokey little tips of the leaves snipped off.

                                                                  

 After trimming off the top.  Note: you will need a very sharp knife and some elbow grease for this.  My knife is very sharp and I still struggled with it.  Those leaves are tough!

 After cutting off the stem.  The stem is much easier to cut off than the top of the bulb.

In the pan with the water.  

Artichokes are one of those fruits and vegetables that turn brown after cutting, like apples, avocados, and bananas.  (Is it only A and B fruits and veggies that do this?)  I made the lemon water as directed, but I had trouble keeping the artichokes in the water because they float.  The book didn’t address this issue.  You can kind of see in the picture above the order I trimmed the artichokes in; the top left one looks browner, the bottom one less brown, and the right one not brown at all.

A note on eating the cooked artichokes: Pull a leaf out, dip it in the sauce, then you have to kind of scrape the leaf with your teeth to get the meat out.  You don’t eat the entire leaf.  You can do that once you get to the really tender inside leaves, but the ones on the outside are too tough.  It sounds weird, but it’s good!

Jim loved the dipping sauce I created.  I used one clove of garlic, and thought it may have been too much.  So next time I will only use half.  But the combination of lemon and garlic was really good.

Overall, this was a fun experience.  It’s certainly not something I would do very often, but it went smoothly and now I can say that I have done it!