Jessica

Brown Sugar & Mustard Glazed Grilled Salmon

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Here is a fairly simple recipe that I really enjoyed, I think even better than the Maple Salmon one I posted recently, though Chuck doesn’t agree, then again being a Vermonter he has a special affinity for anything maple flavored.

This recipe is pretty quick and simple, though there are a number of ingredients. I paired it with what was supposed to be summer vegetable risotto (I’m still working on perfecting that one).

Brown Sugar & Mustard Glazed Grilled Salmon

3 tbsps brown sugar

1 tbsp honey

2 tbsps butter

1/4 cup Dijon mustard

2 tbsps soy sauce

2 tbsps olive oil

1 tbsp finely grated ginger (or 1 tsp ground ginger)

Vegetable oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

8 salmon fillets, 6 ounces each

Melt the brown sugar, honey and butter in a small sauté pan over medium-high heat. Remove from the heat and whisk in the mustard, soy sauce, olive oil and ginger. Let cool and pour over salmon. Allow to marinate for roughly 20 minutes. Grill on medium for 6 to 8 minutes to medium doneness, turning once after 5 to 6 minutes.

Fresh Tomato Sauce & Clams

By Jessica

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Sometimes when Chuck is out of town I treat myself. He’s not a HUGE fan of seafood like I am, so I take the time when he’s not home to indulge. I actually made this dish for my friend Amy who came over for the evening but since I have also made it for just myself a few times I decided to make it part of my Dinner 4 one Series.

This recipe I love for summer because I can so easily walk out to my garden and collect nearly everything for the sauce. In fact this time around everything in this recipe came from my garden or someone close to me. There is no lying when they tell you fresh is better. It is! And the delicious smell that continued to waft through my house the rest of the evening and into the next morning could not be more welcome.

The recipe for Fresh Tomato Sauce is below, for the clams I simply grilled them on medium heat until they opened up. It’s the same idea as steaming, or boiling them, but this is perfect for summer because it doesn’t heat up the house, and there is way less mess.

Once everything is done cooking I lay down some fettuccini, the warm clams and drown them in sauce. The recipe can be a little on the garlicky side for some (I can’t ever seem to get enough), so some may want to reduce it down to 1 or two cloves depending on taste. I really hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

Fresh Tomato Sauce

1 large tomato, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

½ a small onion, chopped

2 tablespoons butter

2 sprigs fresh oregano, chopped

1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 cup dry white wine

Melt the butter in a skillet, add onion and cook until the onion has softened. Add garlic, and cook for roughly one minute. Deglaze with wine, and allow some reducing. Stir in fresh herbs, and simmer roughly 3-5 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced to half. Serve over prepared pasta.

Double Crunch Sesame Chicken

By Jessica

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Oh Barry! Do you know what you have done? Created a monster!

A monster for Double Crunch Chicken. I believe you will recall that I made this recipe before, and loved it. There is something about the spice mixture in this recipe that sends me over the moon. Well the genius that came up with that recipe recently posted a similar recipe with an orange sauce instead (found here).

This got me thinking, what about other sauces? I have been thinking of trying to make a sesame chicken, because Chuck seems to love it so much from the Chinese food place down the road. That’s when I came up with this recipe; Double Crunch Sesame Chicken.

Can we talk about deliciousness? One of the things I love about this is the way the crust keeps the chicken moist, while also providing a strong base of flavor. I made the Double Crunch Chicken as per the directions, with one alteration, I swapped sage for garlic. As many of you know garlic is one of my favorite things in life. Then I made the sauce separately and served the chicken swimming in a pool of it, with a side of broccoli, also learning to tread sauce.

Could I have been happier? I don’t think so! I want to say I am a genius, but honestly I have to say it was all Barry. Thanks you!

I have to warn you, while I was making this I came up with another idea; Double Crunch Fried Shrimp anyone? Recipe for that coming soon.

Sesame Chicken Sauce

½ cup chicken broth

¼ – 1/8 cup vinegar

1 tbsp corn starch

½ cup honey

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

2 cloves garlic crushed

1 tbsp sesame seeds, garnish

Whisk together all ingredients (except sesame seeds) and bring to a boil. Boil until sauce thickens and turns clear, roughly 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low and serve warm.

The Warrior Wait

By Jessica

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This past weekend, one of my college roommates and I participated in the warrior dash, not that we did a whole lot of dashing. When we got there the place was a zoo, pretty much as expected, but what I didn’t expect was the lack of organization. Everything was kind of willy-nilly. There were no instructions for anything, and when you asked the volunteers, you know the people with the bright red “warrior dash” shirts on, where anything was you never got an answer, because they had no clue.

Any who we made it to our race heat and prepared to ~~run~~ ~~walk~~ hike up the side of Windham Mountain. In all honesty I probably could have pushed myself to run, but the idea of trying to run up the mountain with the mass of slow moving people in front of me was so unbelievably exhausting that I too just hiked it, nice and steady.

The first half of the course sincerely lacked any kind of obstacle besides hiking. The first few obstacles, aside from the mud pits, were pretty lame to be honest. Crawling under some fake barbed wire that’s 3 feet off the ground wasn’t even a challenge, I limbo-ed it. I liked the mud pits the best, mostly because it gave Carrie and I the chance to pelt each other with mud. It was pretty obvious that unless you tried you could very easily not get muddy at all until the last 3 obstacles.

Finally after what seemed like forever we got to a point where we could actually run, only to be met with… a line? Every single obstacle had a line, some of them included nearly a 10 minute wait! The best obstacles were jammed into the last 200 or so yards of the course, of course where the crowd stands to watch the participants finish. I will admit some of the obstacles were difficult for some people, not everyone has been hiking, rock climbing, and the like so watching some of the others I can understand that they can’t make the obstacles too difficult.

At the end, we got our free beer, and signed up for a free day lift pass, which was pretty cool, and then kind of stood around, while we finished our beer. In order to get food you had to buy tickets, and then trade those tickets for food. It looked expensive and I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with multiple lines. Other than that there really wasn’t much going on. So we left.

All in all I am sure the course was fun for many, and a challenge for some however I think that if you have any kind of athletic background it’s probably just a waste of time and money.

Am I glad I did it? Of course! If I didn’t do it I would know how it really is, I would always wonder. I can now say I finished it, without difficulty.

Rainy Day Italian Comfort

By Jessica

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A few days ago I was stuck at a cross roads. It was cold, rainy and gross outside. I had originally planned on having burgers for dinner, but the prospect of that did not appeal to me. Days like this require warm, thick, saucy, comfort foods. So I decided to take the hamburger meat that I had defrosted and switch my plan around to make a much more satisfying dish; my authentic Italian Ragu Bolognese.

It was a great way for Chuck and I to spend the evening. He helped me chop the vegetables, as well as a lovely little side salad with fresh veggies from both mine and my mothers gardens. It was the perfect rainy day evening.

Bolognese Sauce

2 tablespoons EVOO

1 yellow onion, diced

4 small carrots, diced

2 large celery stalks, diced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

4 strips of bacon, cut into ½ inch pieces

1 lb. lean ground beef

1 cup red wine

½ cup milk

1 can diced tomatoes

1 cup beef stock

1 package spaghetti, prepared according to package instructions

Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion, carrot, celery and garlic with a good pinch of salt and sauté for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the bacon and cook until vegetables are softened and bacon cooked, roughly 10 minutes. Increase the heat and add the meat slowly, stirring constantly and breaking up the lumps with a spoon. This allows the water in the beef to evaporate, and brown the meat. Once no pink remains, allow cooking until all the water evaporates and the meat caramelizes slightly, about 10 minutes. Be sure at this stage that it is just browning and not burning. Reduce the heat to medium and deglaze with wine, scraping everything off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon, while the wine reduces (2-3 minutes). Reduce heat slightly and add milk, tomatoes (with liquid), beef stock, salt and pepper, stir to combine and increase heat to boil. As soon as it begins to bubble lower the heat and allow simmering very slowly, until thick (about 20 minutes). Serve over cooked spaghetti.

Note: Typically this recipe uses 2 cups of milk and is simmered for 4 hours, I however don’t always have that kind of time, so over the years I have adapted the recipe to suit my tastes, and needs.

Oh added bonus: the total cost for this recipe (without the wine, you can use broth in its place) is roughly $6.75 and we got 4 meals out of it (2 dinners and 2 lunches), meaning that the cost per serving is about $1.69. AWSOME! With a $12 bottle of wine the total cost comes to about $10.75 or 2.69 a serving.

Jessica

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