A Splash of this, A Dash of that...

Back already, belly full and content.

When we last spoke, I was in the process of

orange, cawfee, evidence of a Kashi TLC bar, cawfee, cat-nappin', and photo-editin'.

And before I knew it, it was time to get in the kitchen!

I didn't have a true game plan, just knew I wanted to incorporate a sort of orange glaze for the salmon. I prefer fish with glazes :) I also figured on a basic garden salad for the side. This is what ended up on the table...

Hey, so I was sort of close! I'm not going to write up a recipe just because I don't have exact measurements, but here's how it all went down:

For four wild salmon filets, I sprinkled each side with some montreal steak seasoning, and sauteed in some olive oil for a minute or so on each side. Over them, I poured a mixture of the zest and juice of one lime, 2.5 Tablespoons Apricot/Mango preserves, 2 t. dijon mustard, 2 t. honey mustard, 1 packet of Truvia, a "dash" of ginger, and 2 T. balsamic vinegar. It ended up tasting quite good, however I did overcook the salmon just a tad. It resembled the last time I made salmon which was kind of disappointing, just because I like new things, but it still tasted great so no complaints :)

The broccoli turned out amazing! Which is sort of surprising because I had no gameplan; but as I was going through the fridge I found it and knew it'd been in there about a week and decided I'd rather have broccoli than a garden salad. We've also got some mushrooms to use up, so I heated up a pan with a splash of olive oil, 2 minced garlic cloves, and half a yellow onion until fragrant, then added 4 heads of chopped broccoli and a cup or so of chopped mushrooms. This was covered and left alone for about 4 minutes, and then I gave it a quick stir, re-covered, and left alone again while I mixed up approx. 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon honey mustard, and 2 laughing cow french onion cheese wedges. I poured this over the broccoli and left it alone again to let the cheese get all melty. This is where I started to get worried, thinking to myself "Jess, just because you adore honey mustard doesn't men everyone else does." BUT I just figured what the hay. They'll still eat it. They might complain, but it won't be THAT bad. The flavors would at least be consistent throughout the meal, right?

So, I pushed on; gave the broccoli mix a stir (started looking really good; some pieces were kinda burnt and crispy while others were still fresh and crunchy green) sprinkled with some montreal steak seasoning and crushed red pepper,a nd dinner was served!

Amazingly enough, the broccoli was very well received. Not to say the salmon wasn't; the salmon was loved, too, but I figure that's  kind of hard to mess up. Now that I think about it, broccoli should be hard to mess up, too. But this is me, we're talking about. Anyways. The first words out of my mother's mouth were "Wow. This broccoli is really good. What'd you do to it?" And I agree. That broccoli was really good. Try it! Please...?