Quick and Easy Glazed Salmon!

               So I threw together this quick and easy dinner tonight and we really liked it. Especially for it being so easy and budget friendly. So I'll jump right in. 

Maple Glazed Salmon!!

       Start out by preheating your oven to 450. Using a shallow pan spray it down with some non-stick spray and place salmon skin side down. (unless you don't have salmon with skin of course!) 

        Now mix together about 4 tablespoons of maple syrup ( I used 100% ), 2 tablespoons soy sauce, a pinch of cayenne and about 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder. (Make sure it's not garlic salt or else it will be to salty. The soy sauce will be enough.) 

        Now use about half of the sauce to brush on the filets. Bake at 450 for about 5 mins. Take out and brush on the rest of the sauce and broil on low until finished cooking. (Mine took about 6 minutes.) 

Cooking time will vary depending on the size of your filets. Just a heads up- Line your pan with some foil. I forgot to do this and the extra sauce on the pan burned and it was a pain to clean off!! 

With this dish I cooked up some yellow squash and zucchini fresh out of my garden. I sautéed them with a little pat of butter and a pinch of sea salt on a lower heat. I like them to be a tiny bit browned. 

         With that I mashed up some red potatoes with a little butter, cream, salt and pepper. 

           And your DONE!!! That's it. It's that easy!!!! I know it's a short and easy recipe but I had to share for that alone. I hope you guys enjoy!!! 

        Want to know what I was sipping on while I posted this blog???? 

Ever heard of a passion tea lemonade from Starbucks? Well I decided to make my own at home to save a little money. With a little help from Starbucks of course! 

I bought Starbucks passion iced tea bags and Minute Maid lemonade (15 calories!!).

You don't even need to sweeten it because the lemonade does that for you. Yum!!!

For the Salmon:

4 salmon filets

4 tablespoons 100% maple syrup

2 tablespoons soy sauce

A pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

For Veggies:

Squash and zucchini 

Teaspoon butter 

Sea salt

For the potatoes: 

Red potatoes

Sea salt and pepper

Cream (I used half and half) 

A couple tablespoons butter

 

Recipes I will HAVE to show you!

Here are some of the meals I've made in the last 2 weeks or so. I took pictures of the finished product but didn't take pictures throughout me cooking them since I hadn't started the blog yet. They were all really really good! (Especially the chicken!) I will have to cook them again in the near future and show them to you.

Spicy Italian Sausage Fettuccine!!

Ok so I realized the lighting in my pictures are awful. I'll try and so something about that soon.
Today I'm going to show you a recipe I make that my papa gave to me. It is SO delicious!!
(Remember to season your food with salt and pepper always. Season as you go and taste until you think it's perfect. In this recipe don't season until you've added at least the heavy cream to the dish. The sausage will be salty so you could easily over season it.)

Here's what you need:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tbsp fennel seed
1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning
2 Tbsp crushed red pepper ( we like it spicy!!)
1/2 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 red onion, chopped
2-4 large cloves of garlic (we love garlic so I added 4)
1-1.25 lb spicy Italian Sausage
1 1/4 cup whipping cream
2 cans diced tomatoes in juice
1 Tbsp dried or fresh sage. (Optional)
1 lb pound Fettuccine
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

My husband and I live near St. Louis and yesterday we went up to a place called The Hill. It has AMAZING Italian restaurants, bakeries and Italian grocery stores. We went into this grocery store we love called Vivianno's and bought some of their fresh (dried) fettuccine noodles. It comes in a 5 lb bag and is priced really well! As I'm walking around the store I see their cheese section. They will just cut you any size you'd like and I decided on the Parmesan. Now I've always bought my wedges of parm at the regular grocery store and I love it. Well they had parm that was 8.99 per lb and 18.99 per lb. I decided to get the more expensive imported one. I told her to cut me about 8-9 bucks worth and then she cut us off a piece of each kind to compare them. HOLY CRAP!! It's a night and day difference, the imported one was so good!! Of course I won't buy that all the time but at least I know where to go to get amazing cheeses.
Anyway since I had bought the fettuccine and that amazing Parmesan I decided to make a fettuccine and remembered the recipe my papa had given me. This recipe isn't how I usually make my fettuccine sauce and this one has tomatoes in it. I will show you my fettuccine sauce soon.

I start out with a little bit of olive oil in the pan and add the crushed red pepper to it. Heat that a little while so the red pepper flakes flavor the oil. When your oil is nice and hot add your hot Italian sausage. Let the bottom brown up real nice before you start and crumble it up. I use a potato masher to crumble it up. That makes it much more easy to get smaller chunks. And it's faster!

After the meat is browned and cooked through add your fennel seeds, chili powder and Italian seasonings. (I even added a little more red pepper flake. We LOVE spicy!) Add your dried sage if you have it. If you have fresh wait until later. Mix that up and add your sliced up onion and garlic. I grate my garlic in. It's much easier than chopping it up.
Side note: if you don't have fennel seed and you don't feel like running to the store don't worry about it! Your sausage should have fennel in it.

After your onions and garlic have softened add your heavy cream. If you don't have heavy cream add half and half. Heavy cream will make your sauce thicker and creamier though. Let that simmer low for about 5 mins. This helps it thicken.

Now add your diced tomatoes and simmer low for another 15-20 mins. While that is simmering cook your pasta. Make sure you don't over cook it and make it soggy! Cook it until its al dente. Which means it still has some bite to it. Not crunch, bite! :)

Reserve about 1/2 to 1 cup of your starchy cooking liquid from the pasta. Only use this if you don't have quite enough sauce and your pasta seems to dry. You probably won't need it but just in case you'll have it.

A minute or two before you drain the pasta chop up your fresh sage and add it to your sauce.

Drain pasta and put it back into the pot you boiled it in. Add your sauce to it and toss it vigorously for about a minute. This helps coat all the pasta and it also helps the pasta soak a little of that sauce in. Since you cooked your pasta to al dente it can continue to cook a little so it draws some of that hot sauce in.

You can add your Parmesan before or after you toss the sauce with the pasta. Just make sure it's well incorporated.
You can use pre-shaved Parmesan and even the grated Parmesan that comes in the plastic can. I usually buy a wedge and grate it in myself. I feel like I get more out of it that way. (Maybe not. But it feels like it) :) Also if you have the crushed garlic out of the jar that's fine too!!

Now just serve in a bowl and top with some more freshly shaved parm.
We usually serve it with some buttered bread. Yum!

Another thing I wanted to add was that if your family doesn't like spicy you can still make this!!! Just use a sweet Italian sausage and omit the red pepper flakes! It is still just as delicious and full of flavor!! :)

I make this recipe a tad different than my papa. Remember you can make any recipe your own and to your family's liking/needs. He adds some dry basil which I didn't have and he adds a splash of dry red wine to the sauce. We don't drink wine so I didn't have any. I do use wine to cook but normally it's a white wine and I didn't want to go buy any red for just a splash. But by all means add it if you have it!!
I hope you guys enjoy!

Picky Eaters? Salt?

I started writing my first recipe post and I started rambling on about how my husband used to be the pickiest eater I've ever met. I realized that a lot if people probably deal with this and thought I should dedicate a post specifically about it.
When my husband and I first met I lived with my parents. He was always over for dinner and I noticed he wouldn't eat a lot of the things my mom would cook. I thought this was crazy because she made such delicious food. I started noticing he would stray away from certain foods. Onions, carrots, sour cream etc. He wouldn't go near veggies. The only ones he would eat were corn and peas. I thought this was strange. How could someone be THAT picky?? But then again I love food.
It took a long time but he will pretty much eat anything now. He learned he actually did like veggies! They just had to be cooked a certain way. He doesn't really like any crunch or to much texture to them. Personally, I do. So I have to cater to him when it comes to certain foods. I don't mind that at all. I make food so he can enjoy it. That's one of the things that makes me love cooking so much.
Of course I had to cook things several ways before he would decide he liked them. Mushrooms I have never convinced him to try. He says he has tried them and they remind him of eating snot. Ew!
I love them. So when I make something that calls for mushrooms I cook them separate and keep them to the side and add them to my plate at the end. Don't skip over a recipe because it calls for something one of your family members won't eat. Either cook it separate or omit it. Of course that doesn't work for everything but just keep that in mind before you skip over 20 recipes that call for mushrooms.
I've also learned since I've been cooking that I have my own style. We love bold flavors. And salt! :) I don't go crazy with salt but I've eaten meals someone has cooked that would have been amazing if it had more seasoning. I think a lot of people under season their food because they are scared of it. Don't be! Salt brings out the flavors of your dish. I'm not a huge fan of adding salt after you plate up food either. I like to give the flavors time to meld together.
I could and have cooked for someone who never really seasons their food and my food is just "to much" for them. They aren't used to having all that flavor and they don't like it. Which blows my mind that some people love their bland food. But to each their own.
We love our flavor but just in case I'm not going to put measurements for salt in my recipes. (Not that I use specific measurements for most of my stuff. I tend to eyeball a lot of my food) Just try and season as you go. Keep tasting your food until you think it's perfect.
I feel like I had so much more to say about this but my mind has gone blank on me.
I'm sure I will be able to fit it all in Throughout my posts.
:)