Salmon with Dijon Cream Sauce, Sauerkraut, & Easy Potato Cakes

Okay, first of all, this blog is going to take me a few minutes to write - not that anyone but me will notice. I made this dish last night and really, I was "winging it" the whole time. So I need to go through what I did mentally. 

I'm trying to post mostly dishes that my kids enjoyed. Occasionally, their tiny minds and tastebuds won't see (taste) the beauty of a dish, and it will get posted anyway, because, well, it's delicious. And their tiny minds can't see that. :) 

This one, my 5-year-old LOVED! I was a little surprised, because it's mustard and sauerkraut, but she loved it! 8-year-old: I think if I hadn't said "mustard" she would have liked it. She's insistent that she doesn't like mustard. Husband said I could make it again. This is big. Not sure if I've shared in the past, but once I made a pasta dish. I LOVE LOVE LOVED IT! I would still love it! Mind you, this was one of the first things I ever tried to make as an adult, so when I asked, "How is it?" He kindly replied, "Good!"  Good husband. Only he didn't like it. So after, oh I don't know, the 20th time making it - in probably 20 weeks - he told me he really didn't like it. Hmph. 

Lesson learned: Never ask, "How is it?", ask, "Would you like to have this again sometime?"

This one got a yes. Fantastic.

Now, to one of my secrets: I don't use real potatoes for mashed potatoes. I use Idahoan.

Sorry. I know, I know. There's stuff in them. Like, other than potatoes. I can't give them up yet. We love them. And they're EASY!

So, if you don't want to use the Idahoan potatoes, you're going to have to add the steps of making mashed potatoes. (Peel, boil, mash.)

The recipe is below. I'm going to add another post/recipe, also. My version of Tater Tot Casserole. I've seen a few floating around Facebook, and mine is my favorite. 

Salmon with Dijon Cream Sauce, Sauerkraut & Easy Potato Cakes

• 4 Salmon Filets
• 2+ T Dijon mustard
• 6 T Butter, divided
• 1 Shallot, diced
• 1 t garlic
• 1 C Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1/2 C White wine
• Idahoan Mashed Potatoes, any flavor, prepared following directions and cooled
• 1 egg

Preheat oven to 350. Have baking sheet set aside for salmon. Prepare mashed potatoes as directed (or prepare your own mashed potatoes, about 2 cups(?), more if you'd like more that 8 potato cakes. Whisk your egg a little, then add it to the potatoes and mix.

Begin by searing the salmon. Heat 2 T butter in saute pan on med-high/high. Brush salmon with dijon mustard. Sear both sides of salmon until starting to crisp, then transfer to baking sheet and place in oven. 

Saute your shallot and garlic in 2 T butter in same pan as you cooked the salmon. When the shallot is softened, add wine and heat until the wine starts to bubble. 

While your wine is heating, you can begin your potato cakes. I used a table spoon to scoop potatoes, made a ball, then flattened them so they were about palm-sized and maybe 1/4" thick. Heat your remaining 2 T of butter in a flat saute pan on med-high heat. When hot, place potato cakes in and heat until crisp, then flip. Remove onto paper towels.

Once your wine is bubbly, whisk in the cream and 2 T dijon mustard. The cream will thicken the sauce as it cooks. Don't let it thicken too much, you want a creamy mustard sauce, not mustard pudding, and it will thicken more as it sits. So just get it going, then turn it off. 

Your salmon should be cooked through. When it flakes, it's done. Like I said, I was completely winging this last night, at a few points, I had to stop and think about which step I should do next. With all of that, my salmon probably could have come out a minute or two before it did, but it was fine. With following directions, everything should either line up, or you might have to wait a minute or two for your salmon to finish, but not long. 

Either right after you bring your salmon out or in those two minutes your waiting for it to finish, throw some sauerkraut into the potato cake pan and just get it hot. Figure about one heaping tablespoon per filet of salmon. 

To plate: place one tablespoon of sauerkraut on plate, with two potato cakes on either side 

>   O|||O   <

See my diagram? :) 

Spoon a little dijon sauce onto the sauerkraut.

Place the salmon filet on top of the kraut, then top with a couple of spoonfuls of sauce. 

This was great, but I may try adding clove to the sauce next time. I'll let you know if I do and how it turns out. 

Grilled Tuna Steaks over Mixed Greens with Asparagus & Grilled Peaches with Honey and Vanilla Ice Cream

Hi!!!!

It's been, what, seven months since my last post? I would blame the tiny person who now lives with us, but let's face it, my posts weren't that regular before him... :)

 

BTW, meet Enzo:

 

Okay, so since this little person's arrival, my gourmet cooking has ceased to exist. My redneck cooking has, also. Really, all cooking that doesn't involve a microwave or toaster oven has ceased to exist, and those were rarely used. We have become quite friendly with delivery boys, though!

(Ahem, props to myself, however, for the huge Thanksgiving feast!)

 

So, now that sleep is happening and I'm getting some energy back, I SOOOO want to cook! And I want to cook (somewhat) healthy meals because, well, nearly three months post-partum I can barely squeeze my bottom half into a pair of jeans. I did once. They buttoned! I couldn't breathe, couldn't bend, and my phone wouldn't slide into my back pocket, but dammit they buttoned! No pictures. You're welcome.

 

So tonight, I wanted fish.

 

When I approached my husband with the idea of him grilling salmon (because we finally have a grill!) he rebutted with the idea of him grilling tuna. Deal.

 

The meal:

Grilled Tuna Steaks over Mixed Greens with Asparagus

Ignore the asparagus. We had it in the freezer and it was mushy and stringy. Don't freeze asparagus.

 

I wasn't sure what I wanted to put on the tuna to grill it, but I knew I wanted a ginger/soy mixture. I found at Publix, their Publix brand Ginger Teriyaki Finishing Sauce for seafood in the seafood department. It was great. If you have a Publix near you, try out their finishing sauces and butters. They're fantastic.

I also got Ken's Steakhouse Lite Asian Sesame dressing, just in case.

I ended up using both. If you can get the finishing sauce, I marinated the tuna in the finishing sauce for all of five minutes, then topped with the dressing after they were cooked. If you don't have access to the finishing sauce, just marinate in the dressing. The only difference I could tell was the thickness.

 

My girls LOVED dinner (except the asparagus, see above. We all usually love asparagus.) The dressing has a little bite, so go easy, but they ate all of it! They also loved dessert:

 

Grilled Peaches with Honey and Vanilla Ice Cream

I can't take full credit for that idea, I saw a picture on Pinterest. There was no recipe/directions, sigh, but they weren't really necessary.

 

Okay, so on to the "recipes"!! Quotes because there is no recipe, just directions!!! Yay!

 

 

Grilled Tuna Steaks over Mixed Greens with Asparagus

• Tuna Steaks (4)
• Publix Ginger Teriyaki Finishing Sauce for seafood
• 1 Bag Mixed Greens
• Ken's Steak House Lite Asian Sesame dressing
• FRESH Asparagus
• Garlic Salt

I had to use frozen tuna steaks, thaw them if you do, also.

Preheat the oven to 400 unless you're going to grill the asparagus. I haven't tried grilling it yet.

I spooned then brushed the finishing sauce onto each side of the tuna. Let marinate while the grill heats (and you feed and change the baby...) and prepare the asparagus.

Place asparagus on a baking sheet and season with garlic salt. Place in oven. Bake until starting to shrivel. We're real technical over here.

While the asparagus bakes, grill tuna to desired doneness. That's a word, I checked.

Pile a handful of mixed greens on a plate.

Top with Ken's dressing.

When tuna is done, place on top of greens and, if you want (we did) add a little more Ken's dressing.  

Serve asparagus next to the tuna and greens.

Delish!

 

Grilled Peaches with Honey and Vanilla Ice Cream

• Ripe peaches, one per person
• Honey
• Vanilla Ice cream
• Easy, right?

Cut the peaches in half and remove the pits.

Place peaches cut/flat side down on the hot grill.

Let cook until you have grill marks (again, SUPER technical!)

 Flip.

This time let them cook until the peaches are soft.

Drizzle honey on the plated peaches, top with ice cream, and drizzle some more honey for good measure. Add a little more honey. It's fantastic on the ice cream.

 

Okay, sooo..... Gourmet may be a little bit of a stretch for this one, considering how little effort was actually put in. And how few ingredients. And the fact that Publix and Ken's Steakhouse actually did the measuring and mixing.. Oh well, I say it's gourmet.

I Love Publix

For those of you not in Publix Land, you're missing out. Publix has this wonderful thing called Apron Simple Meals. You go in around 5:00 and there's this lovely person cooking up a complete meal for you to sample with the recipe and all of the ingredients right there. I LOVE it! I've made a few of these recipes for the family and they're all pretty great!

Tonight we had this week's meal, Cod Saute with Citrus Bearnaise and Quick Asparagus. I used tilapia because I had it, but it was delish! And the kids ate it all, which is icing on the cake (or milk on the cookie, since that was their dessert tonight!) There's a video below and the recipe at the above link.

 

 



Here are a few of the others we've tried:

Spicy Fish with Avocado-Chipotle Sauce and Skillet Potato Cake

Quesadilla Bake with Corn and Chile Taco Salad

Steak and Potato Flatbreads with Tomato Snap Salad





I know there are more, but these are the ones we've had recently. I'll share periodically what recipes we try and like!

As for the parsimonious factor: coupon! If you're new to couponing, some sites I recommend are:

• The Coupon Wizards & their Facebook page
• Insert Insanity & their Facebook page
• Southern Savers

I'm sure there are sites that cover other stores/areas, but these are the ones I'm familiar with.

I'm Gourmet

The downside to being six months preggers: I crave things that I sometimes can't find (or don't care to spend a fortune on.) The upside, at least for me: I'm suddenly a gourmet chef!

About midnight last night there were two things I wanted: a Stevi B's Loaded Baked Potato pizza and a filet with a mushroom marsala wine sauce and gorgonzola cheese.

Tonight I made the steak! It was absolutely fantastic! There wasn't a real recipe I used, I simply sprinkled the steaks with some garlic salt and cooked them on the stove in a little marsala wine. When the steaks were done, I removed them, poured the rest of the bottle into the saute pan, added the mushrooms, and let it simmer on medium high until the wine was reduced some. It reduced and thickened more after I took it of the heat, if you're going to try it. Spoon some sauce and gorgonzola on the steak and I served with some Idahoan Real Mashed Potatoes (best and cheapest instant mashed I've ever had!) seasoned with parmesan and garlic salt.

So I know being "parsimonious" means spending as little money as possible, and filets in a wine sauce doesn't EXACTLY fit that, but hear me out:

1. I'm pregnant. Which means I'm hungry. All. The. Time.
2. I'm pregnant. Which means my brain doesn't quite understand "logic".
3. When we were out the other night, filet medallions for one person was $30. I had mushrooms I needed to use or toss, I had garlic salt, I had parmesan cheese, AND I keep a stockpile of the Idahoan potatoes (which you can usually find for a whole freakin DOLLAR.) So, for the same cost I could have paid for dinner for just me - because face it, I'm not sharing (see #1) - I fed all four of us and we have leftovers! Suck it #2! That's totally logical!

Makes sense to me anyway...

Tomorrow I'm attempting the loaded baked potato pizza since the nearest Stevi B's now that we've moved is 42 minutes away. :(

Chore Charts

So, at our end of the year Girl Scout Leader dinner a few of us were discussing summer plans. While I'm thinking, "my summer is so planned out! We have camp one week, we're signed up for free bowling and free skating and we're going to hit the $1 movies and definitely take advantage of our Six Flags/White Water passes!" A friend did a heck of a lot better... She has her days planned out! I wish I had that much motivation during the summer, but I don't. She had one TERRIFIC idea though! She said her kids will start with two chores each day, if they do them, they're done, if they whine about them they get more chores added. I LOVE IT!

Unfortunately, I can't just toss out chores willy nilly... I need something cute and crafty to write them on - duh!

So, I needed something that I could change daily - chalk board, white board, etc. In a stroke of genius (ha!) I remembered seeing somewhere that glass works with dry erase makers. I dug through the drawer-o-junk, found the one [dying] dry erase market we had, and tested it on my least favorite drinking glass - that one that somehow ended up in my cabinet, and even though I don't like it, I don't toss it... Anyway - IT WORKED!

Because I'm a hoarder, this project didn't cost me a dime! I had everything I needed... Sad, yet, economically and environmentally friendly!

The frames started out cheap and Burgundy. I spray painted both white, after removing the glass, backing, etc. Then one I spray painted light pink and one I spray painted purple. Holding a can of silver metallic spray paint 3-4 FEET above the frames, I let the paint fall onto the frames. This way they were more accented by the silver than actually turning silver.

For inside the frames, using MS Word, I used a font I downloaded a LONG while ago called angelic, set my margins so my page was 8x10, and typed "Daily Chores" "1. 2. 3. 4.", and my appreciative, "...thank you!" One, I printed in pink, one in blue, each to match the colors going on in their rooms, and both were printed on green paper. Why green? Because at this point, I'm not going to the store, I had green, it's in both color schemes, and it's more fun than white. Good reasons.

I used the glass from a frame to mark the size to cut the paper, assembled them all, and decided they needed bows. They're for girls, after all.

Of course, I had ribbon in the right colors. Why wouldn't I? What I DIDN'T have? Hot glue sticks. Damn. Tacky glue it is! It took a while to set, but it worked! I missed that instant gratification hot glue provides, but hey, I needed a good HOUR to pound ONE nail into a bedroom door anyway, so it all worked out... Sigh...

Reese's Pie

I have to share my new favorite dessert!

It may have been done already, but if it has, I haven't seen it!

Back when I did catering, I could get this cookie dough that would make delicious, gooey, peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies. They were the best! I don't have access to them anymore... :( So to make up for it, I make this...

Reese's Pie! Or Reese's bars, or what ever you want to call them, it doesn't matter, your mouth will be too busy watering to call them anything anyway!

The best part: they're super easy! Here's what you need

2 Betty Crocker chocolate chop cookie mixes + required ingredients
16-24 Reese's cups, regular size
A 9x13 dish

1. Follow directions on the first cookie mix, add an egg and a softened stick of butter. Mix until you have a dough.

2. Press the cookie dough into the dish.

3. Unwrap all of the Reese's cups and place them in one layer onto the cookie dough.

4. Mix up the other cookie dough and drop it onto each peanut butter cup. Fill in larger holes as you wish.

5. Bake at 350° until set and brown on top. The directions for large cookies says 10-12 minutes. I would say start checking then? They take a while. One of these times I need to actually time it. Unfortunately, unless I'm following a recipe that specifically needs a certain baking time, I've never set a timer for the oven.

**Alternately: lately I've been using one peanut butter cookie mix on the bottom and one chocolate chip cookie mix on the top. I prefer a little more peanut butter taste, but that is up to your preference. Directions are the same, simply get the peanut butter mix and it's ingredients (which are different.)

Also, the last time I made them, hubby picked up mini Reese's instead of the regular size. I cut them in half and used them, but I prefer the full size. If you drop the chocolate chip cookie dough on top of the full size, the dough spreads evenly and envelopes the Reese's - the mini's that weren't covered melted while baking..

Country Chic Dresses

So it's been a while and you could probably go buy a dress cheaper than what I spent on these, but they are pretty cheap and REALLY easy to make as long as you have some kind of sewing machine!

 

Like I said, these were SO easy! In fact, they were easier than I thought they would be. My base: a $4 long sleeve tee from Walmart. :) I then used material that I really don't need to hem as the ruffles.  Supplies below are based on one dress:

• Long sleeve tee
• 3/4 yard of knit fabric (for 6" ruffles)
• 2-1/4 yards of 4" eyelet trim
• 3 yards of 4" lace trim

So when I said they were easier than I expected, that's because the knit fabric I found at JoAnn Fabric came in like a tube!! Meaning, it was a continuous circle! I cut my 6", tucked it around the shirt and sewed away! Yay! And the beauty of knit fabric is that it doesn't need to be hemmed!

 

I think the 6" knit ruffles and 4" trims worked perfect for what I wanted. If you wanted, though, you could use wider or smaller trims for different looks, you just need to adjust the amounts you buy of each.

Okay, so I cut my knit fabric: 

 

 I then put the shirt on my daughter and decided how long I wanted the dress to be and marked where the ruffle came to. She took off the shirt and I marked all the way around where the top edge of the knit should be and drew a line to keep it straight:

See my tube?! Fantastic! 

My 3-year-old took this picture.. And many others.. of the stitching on my comforter, her feet, the floor, etc. This one I'm sharing so you can see, if I can make this on this ancient sewing machine (that's far older than me, btw) it can be done on any sewing machine.. I don't even have the little piece that comes off for sewing sleeves! 

 

For sewing, you need to use a zig zag stitch so the fabric will still stretch around arms and shoulders. To keep the ruffles fairly even - because I'm a bit of a  perfectionist - I marked the middle of the front and back of the shirt and the middle of the flat fabric tube on the front and back. I used the shirt seams and tube folds as the other two points of reference. As long as the marks lined up, I was good! I hand fed the ruffles in, meaning the shirt laid flat and I shoved folds of the tube under the presser foot. If it looked like the marks weren't going to line up, I either stretched the shirt or adjusted the folds to correct it. If you have pins, you can always pin these marks together to make it easy. I didn't have pins. I still don't have pins. Which is why the pieces keep falling off of my Advent calender. Sigh.  

 

Moving on... I sewed the eyelet trim on the same stitch line as the knit tube. The trim came already ruffled enough for me, so I didn't bother ruffling it more. I did stretch the shirt a little and once again did a zig zag stitch so it would stretch. I started in the back and when I got around to the back again, I just overlapped it a little and didn't bother sewing the two ends together. They're fine. If you have an issue with it, use a little fray stop. See? Easy.

 

For the lace trim, I sewed just above the knit tube. In fact, the presser foot ran right along the edge of the knit. Once again, zig zag stitch and stretch, shirt just slightly, and overlap in the back.

 

Ruffles are finished!

I did three tiers of three rows - if that makes any sense! Basically, knit, eyelet, lace, knit, eyelet, lace, knit, eyelet, lace. The three tiers made my younger daughter's ruffles come up higher and my older daughter's fit more like a skirt, and I actually planned it like that. I almost only did two tiers on the bigger one for that reason, but three seems to be perfect!  I finished off the ruffles by sewing this ribbon-y trim around the top to tie in the back and pinned a flower on the front.



 

Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures while I was doing the sleeves. :( They were easy, I promise! Even without that handy little trick new sewing machines have! Once again, I put the dresses on the girls and marked just above their elbows. With the dresses off, I cut off the sleeves at the mark. This I actually chose to kind of hem - the lace, not the sleeve! I wrapped the lace around the flat sleeve and left about 1/4-1/2" at each end of the lace. I sewed the two ends of the lace together so I made a little tube and then sewed the tube onto the sleeve so the lace was on the outside and the seam is toward the armpit. Just a tip, don't try to make the lace fit the sleeve, stretch the shirt to make the shirt fit the trim. It's much easier.

 

I love these little dresses! And there are so many different colored knit fabrics available, you could do these in different colors for different seasons - like browns and creams for Fall?!

 

Also, if you aren't already aware, JoAnn fabric has an app! The best part about their app is that they have coupons!! I got all of my fabric and trim at 50% off, which was fabulous!! For other craft needs, Michael's also has an app. :)

 

If you decide to make a ruffley little dress, share your pictures!

 

-ML