Orange Glazed Cedar Plank Salmon

Slowly but surely, I'm starting to find fish not so disgusting. I would go so far as to say the grilled salmon my husband made was even delicious. He got some cedar grill planks for Christmas and this was the first time the planks got used.

I forgot to take a picture of the salmon off the grill. The recipe was from the packaging on the Fire and Flavor grill planks. There was even a picture of the salmon on the front of the packaging, so I took a picture of the packaging to give you an idea of what the finished fish dish looked like.

There was hardly any fishy taste to this at all. The cedar plank does a good job of covering that up. We'll definitely be making this again over the summer.

Fire and Flavor's Orange glazed salmon
3 T Dijon mustard
3 T maple syrup (the real stuff, or it won't caramelize properly)
1 T balsamic vinegar
2 tsp orange zest
4 6oz salmon fillets
1 cedar plank soaked for 1 hour

Preheat grill to medium-low heat, about 350F. Combine mustard, syrup, vinegar and zest in a small bowl. Season salmon with salt and pepper. Brush fish with glaze. Place soaked plank on grill. Close lid and heat for 3 min. Flip plank with tongs and place salmon on heated side of plank. Close lid and grill for 12-15 minutes until fish is cooked to your liking. Remove plank from grill and serve.

Thankful Thursday 12

1. Blockette finally understanding the concept of stearing her bike.
2. Air conditioning.
3. The cats' clean bill of health from the vet.
4. Homemade popcicles.
5. Blockette's latest meltdown wasn't half as bad as her previous one.
6. Mother's Day Do-overs.
7. Unexpectedly making leftovers into an additional meal.
8. Watching Blockette splash in puddles after a rainstorm.

Fresh Broccoli Salad, Part 2: Electric Bugaloo

I wrote about Alton Brown's Fresh Broccoli Salad in August of last year. I'm just only now getting around to making it again. Who knows why. We really liked it the first time. I guess I must have just forgotten about it. Now that the weather is getting nicer, we've moved from soups to salads as a big part of our dinners.

This time I used toasted hazelnuts instead of pecans. I liked the hazelnuts better than the pecans. Of course that is probably because aside from my husband and daughter, hazelnuts are my favorite nut!

I still thought the dressing was overly acidic, even though I used a heaping Tablespoon of Dijon mustard instead of 2 teaspoons. Maybe I need to use a different vinegar, balsamic or red wine perhaps? I may also try honey mustard instead of Dijon mustard. It could be that the dressing needs more sweetness to balance the acid from the vinegar and lemon.

While eating the leftovers, I got to thinking about the sweetness of this dish. I wondered if adding craisins would do the trick. I still think the dressing needs to be sweeter because the acidity seemed to increase the tartness of the dried cranberries. While craisins are tart, they are mostly sweet, but in this dish I could barely taste their sweetness.

Don't get me wrong, the salad is good, delicious in fact, but it still needs a slight tweaking in my opinion. I must add that my mom and husband both thought this dish was fine as is. That was most likely due to the fact that they actually ate the tomatoes in the dish. The grape/cherry tomatoes do their job in providing the necessary sweetness. Since I'd rather not eat raw tomatoes, I need to find something else to balance the flavor of the salad.

Ditalini and Fennel Ragu

I'm having trouble remembering what I've made and written about on here. I thought I had written about todays post already, so I went through my previous posts searching for this recipe. I guess I'm imagining things, because I haven't written about Picky Palate's Ditalini Pasta in Beef and Fennel Ragu.Yeah, it is another one of those ugly but delicious red sauce dishes. It also makes a metric ton so unless you like to eat leftovers forever/have a large family of big eaters, be prepared to half the recipe or freeze it. I made a full batch and froze half, cause that's how I roll.

The first time I made this dish and froze the leftovers I was a bit leery. I thought the noodles might get gummy or chewy after defrosting. They didn't, and the defrosted leftovers were just fine. Even Blockette likes the leftovers.

Among the strange healthy foods Blockette likes to eat, Fennel is one of them. Until I made this ragu, I'd only ever had the seeds and fronds of the fennel. I'd never had the bulb-y white part. I have to admit I was a bit reluctant to test it out. Yay! Add another veggie to the list of those that everyone in the family will eat

This time around I added finely chopped button mushrooms. Normally, I'd quarter them, but Blockette doesn't like mushrooms. I thought I'd try to be sly and sneak them in. She noticed them, but only after she had eaten almost her entire bowl of dinner. She tried to be disgusted and refuse to eat the rest of her meal.

I asked her if she thought her dinner was tasty. She stopped and thought for a minute and agreed that she indeed had enjoyed the food that she had just eaten. I then reminded her that she had been eating mushrooms the whole time. She thought again and said, "Well, maybe I DO like mushrooms." Mark one down for sneaky moms!

Ditalini Pasta In Beef and Fennel Ragu from Picky Palate
8 oz Ditalini Pasta
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 bulb of fennel, thinly sliced
Pinch of salt
1 lb lean ground beef
Pinch of salt, pepper, garlic seasoning
26 oz favorite homemade or store bought pasta sauce
8 fresh basil leaves, chopped into chiffonade, thin ribbons

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Drain and set aside. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Saute onion, fennel and salt for 3-5 minutes or until softened. Stir in beef, salt, pepper and garlic seasoning; cook until browned. Stir in pasta sauce, basil leaves and cooked pasta. Season to taste. Simmer on low until ready to serve.

8 servings

Lava Flow in the Congo

When I saw this recipe for congo bars on Bakerella I knew I just had to make it. Originally, I had thought I was going to make it for my uncle in exchange for plants, but he forgot to give them to my mom when she came up to visit. Well plbbbt I say! Actually, it was a good thing that I wasn't planning on giving these bars to him. They turned out...well...not how I intended.

I baked the bars for 35 minutes, 5 minutes more than the recipe stated. The recipe also said to be sure not to over cook the bars. I thought that the center didn't look 100% set, but I figured it would firm up as it cooled.

After letting the bars cool for nearly 2 hours, I began to cut portions to my family. Excuse me, did I say cut? I meant scoop. The middle was a ooey gooey mess. A delicious ooey gooey mess. It was very much like a chocolate chip version of lava cake. We all happily consumed what was placed in front of us.

Had these been baked in individual ramekins there would not have been any issue. However, I baked mine in a 9x13 dish. The row of "bars" that I removed from the pan caused the rest of the gooey middle to ooze into the now unoccupied section of the pan. How was I going to store the leftovers? Not in our bellies! These bars were sweet and a second helping would have made us sick. So, back into the oven the bars went. For ANOTHER 35 minutes.

Here is what the bars looked like after they came out of the oven the second time:
You can hardly tell where the missing row was. The edges and the oozy overflow were considerably more crunchy than the middle, but not so hard that you'd break a tooth attempting to chomp on it. The middle was the best part, but I didn't hear anyone complaining about eating an edge piece once all the middle pieces were gone.

My mom did say that she thought they were the best that first day in there lava state. I told her that I would eat her portion if she didn't think the bars were good. She protectively pulled her plate closer to her and made a wall with her hands to hide her dessert from me. I'm not sure if she said anything cause she was so busy shoving bar into her gob.
So what went wrong?

The original recipe said that you need a pound of brown sugar. A. Pound. Of Brown Sugar. Ok, so I don't have a scale and I buy my brown sugar in the 4 lb bag. Someone commented on Bakerella's site that she uses 2 1/4 c of brown sugar when she makes her congo bars. I went with that.

Mrblocko thought maybe there was too much brown sugar. I did some research and found out that a pound of brown sugar is the equivalent to 2 1/3 c packed brown sugar. I highly doubt that less brown sugar would have made it more viscous.

Could it be the amount of chips used? I had a bunch of partial bags of chips in the pantry that I wanted to use up. I wound up using 3 cups of a combination of: toffee, semi sweet, butterscotch and caramel chips. The recipe says to use 2 cups of chips and a cup of nuts. But chips stay fairly solid while baking and don't become a part of the batter. The chips may melt but they stay where they are for the most part.

Was it my oven? I don't think so. Everything else I've baked recently has been cooked in the specified time listed in the recipe.

The only other thing I can think of was that the bars were baked in a glass pan. In the past I've had to increase baking times because I used a glass pan, but I've never had to double the baking time before. I read all the comments on Bakerella's site and it seems like I'm not the only one who had a problem getting the bars to solidify.

At first, I vowed that I would never make this dessert again. Now that the bars are all gone, I must be in withdrawal. Even though it's a million degrees out with 400% humidity, I have this strange desire to make another batch in a metal pan. I'm quite curious to see if the glass pan was the culprit.

Congo Bars from Bakerella
2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 lb. light brown sugar (Oh my and thank you!)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
11.5 ounce package milk chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

By mixer:
Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside. Combine butter and sugar using a mixer until blended. Add eggs, one at a time to sugar mixture, mixing on low in between each addition. Add vanilla and mix. Add flour and mix until combined. Stir in chips and then pecans.

By hand:
Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Set aside.Stir brown sugar into softened (not melted) butter in another large bowl until butter disappears. You can use the back of your spoon to help incorporate the two together. Add eggs one at a time to butter mixture and stir well after each egg. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts. Mix well. Add dry flour mixture and stir until well combined.

Coat a 13 X 9 pan with non-stick spray and spread batter evenly into dish.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Make sure you don’t over bake.

Thankful Thursday 11

How did it get to be Thursday already??? I really dropped the ball this week and forgot to be mindful of the everyday things I was thankful for. This is the 11th week I've been doing Thankful Thursday so I suppose one slip up in almost 3 months isn't too bad.

Oh, I've just thought of one thing as I'm writting this: The big black ants are only ants, not scorpions, wasps or tarantulas.

Grilled Pinata Rolls

How is this for fusion food? Chicken empanadas wrapped in an egg roll. Yeah. I don't even know what you call that. Span-sian? Asia-ish? Does it even matter? Nope. At least not to us Blockos. I found this recipe for Chicken empanadas with olives and raisins about two years ago over at the Gourmet Girl's blog. The original recipe isn't for a traditional empanada, but for an empanada styled appetizer using wonton/gyoza skins. In the past, that's how I've always made them.

This time, I saw egg roll wrappers sitting next to the wonton wrappers at the grocery store. That lazy girl in me said, "You'd fit more filling inside an egg roll. That means less wrapping, frying and fuss in the kitchen." That lazy girl would have did a little dance of joy, but well, that's a lot of work and she IS lazy.

Then, when I was assembling the rolls Mrblocko said, "I bet I could cook those on the grill, and that would save time and be a little bit more healthy too." How awesome is that? I was a bit skeptical. I had visions of our dinner in a blackened charred lump. Luckily, my paranoia was unfounded. The egg rolls came off the grill with a crispy bubbly exterior. They even had nice neato looking grill stripes.

Blockette liked these a lot. Even though they had evil olives. I think she's starting to come around.

Try as she might, Blockette could not pronounce the word Empanada. Every time she tried it came out pinata. So that is their new fancy name.

Grilled Pinata Rolls
1-2 cooked chicken breast, diced into 1" cubes (you could use raw diced chicken and cook it with the onion if you wanted to save time. We had some chicken that was already grilled, so we used that.)
1-2 T olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 heaping T tomato paste
2 tsp cumin
2 T chopped fresh cilantro
2 T chopped fresh parsley
1/3 c chopped pimento stuffed olives
1/3 c raisins ( we used half golden and half regular)
1/2 c white wine, white grape juice, or chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
1 package of egg roll wrappers
olive oil to coat egg rolls

In a medium skillet cook onion until caramelized. Add garlic, cumin, chicken and tomato paste. Stir to combine. Add cilantro, parsley, olives and raisins. Saute til warm, about 3 min. Add wine/juice/stock to deglaze pan. Stir occasionally until all liquid is absorbed. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside to cool. Once filling is cooled, add about 2 T of filling to egg roll skins. Fold and seal per package instructions. At this point you can pop these in the fridge until you are ready to grill. Once you are ready to grill, liberally brush each egg roll with olive oil to coat. Cook for five minutes on each side, on a low heat(about 325F), watching carefully so they don't burn. Serve with salsa, sour cream or guacamole for dipping.

One final note: The next time we make this we'll be adding a chopped up hard boiled egg to the mix and a bit of shredded cheese. There are so many other things you could add to these empanada egg rolls like cubed cooked potatoes, black beans, oregano, paprika, jalapenos, roasted peppers, rice, ground beef, mushrooms, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, peas, carrots, fish, or whatever strikes your fancy! There are so many different versions of empanadas, the possibilities are endless.