Salmon
Thanksgiving 2009
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I consider myself to be richly blessed and thank God for my blessings regularly. Having a nationally recognized holiday to do so is wonderful. In my family, I have taken over Thanksgiving responsibilities in the last few years and relish the opportunity to cook up a feast. And a feast it truly is. This year our menu was as follows: Appetizers: Baked Salmon Roasted Shrimp Cocktail Pickled tomatoes (store-bought) Hummus (store-bought) Smoked fish (store-bought) Goat cheese bruschetta Seafood Salad Roasted Red Pepper Salad Roasted Asparagus Main course: Vegetable Soup Mashed potatoes Turkey Dessert: Spice cake Puff Pastry...
Read MoreBirthday Celebration
I know that it looks like I haven’t cooked anything in months. And it’s almost true. I have cooked things I already wrote about and have a few more recipes I haven’t posted. But let me start with the birthday celebration which was in early March. I made two roasted chickens, just to be sure I had enough. But one was enough. Everyone seemed to love it. I hope they weren’t just polite but actually liked it. I also made: Seafood salad Salmon “pizza” that was inspired by Emeril’s Smoked Salmon and Goat Cheese Pizza Bites. Mine had regular cream cheese instead of goat cheese and using store-bought dough made it extra...
Read MoreThanksgiving Part 2
The day is finally here and I’m giddy with excitement. I started cooking late last night and continued today. One of my big realizations was that everything except that was cooked, except the boiled potatoes, was baked. My oven fulfilled its baking duties fully. I love my stove/oven but as my mental list of my dream kitchen grows longer, I’m adding double ovens to that list. Or maybe it should be triple ovens. Today, we got together around 2:30 and people left after 8. We laughed and toasted and chatted and reminisced and remembered. And ate. And ate. And ate. That’s the “Russian” way. This year, as we toasted to the things we were...
Read MoreThanksgiving
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, in large part because I love all the cooking. Most people dread all the cooking, but I even take Wednesday off so I can make a few “spares”, just in case something doesn’t turn out and people still leave with overstuffed bellies. I still love the holiday, despite the mandatory family squabbling. But without further delay, here is the menu I’m planning (and yes, I take help where I can): Appetizers: Chicken wings (not a Thanksgiving staple, but I love them and they seem to go over pretty well with the family). See above Seafood puffs (puff pastry stuffed with seafood, store bought, and I hope...
Read MoreBaked Salmon
I found this recipe on FoodNetwork.com, but it had a few too many extra things, so I paired it down. Here is my version. Ingredients: 1 LB of Salmon Tamari (or low-sodium soy sauce if you can’t find Tamari) freshly ground black pepper (to taste) Steps: Rinse the fish and pat it dry. Put fish into oven-safe dish. Pour as much Tamri as you like. I like it quite liberally on the fish. It keeps it moist during cooking, as well as makes a nice sauce for spooning over your side dish (like rice). Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cover the dish with aluminum foil. Cook for about 15-18 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish. Take it out of the oven. If the fish is...
