Babycakes

Hot dogs. Wagon wheel pasta. Sliced carrots from a can. French fries. Goldfish crackers. Kiwi.

What do all those things have in common?

Claire will eat them.

Of course, she will eat just about whatever she can fit between her fingers as long as its sweet, fried, or tastes like a hot dog and doesn't require me feeding her with a spoon. (Sigh...cue the nods of agreement from moms who've been through the toddler phase.)

I don't think I've ever bought so many packages of hot dogs in my life.

But today I'm back to trying something else that worked a few weeks ago -- salmon cakes, in baby-sized portions. Babycakes, for short. (Yes, I know she's technically not a baby anymore, but she's still my baby and always will be.)

So hopefully, she will just love this for dinner tonight, along with her carrots from a can. I guess I can always give her another hot dog. Sigh...

Salmon Cakes (a.k.a. Babycakes)
(Courtesy of Kelly Oliver)

Ingredients:
2 (5 oz.) packages of salmon
1/4 cup dried bread crumbs
1 tsp. dried dillweed
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 egg
Dash of salt
1 cup dried bread crumbs
2 T. olive oil

Method:
Combine all ingredients, except for the 1 cup of dried bread crumbs and olive oil, in a bowl and mix well. Form into small patties. (This recipe makes about 6 small patties.) Put the 1 cup of dried bread crumbs into a separate bowl. Cover each side of the patties with the bread crumbs.

Heat a skillet over medium, and then add the olive oil. Pan fry each patty on both sides until golden brown, roughly 2-3 minutes on each side.

Serve to your baby, or to yourself!

These also freeze really well in case your baby likes them one day and not the next.

Quick Weeknight Meal: Salmon with Sweet-N-Hot Mustard Glaze

One of my favorite weeknight meals is salmon since it's usually a quick dish to prepare and it's healthy and delicious.  I'm always on the lookout for good ways to prepare it -- often I'll just bake it with some salt, pepper, and olive oil and then top it with pesto after it comes out of the oven.  This makes for an elegant dish that's very suitable for company, by the way.  (My favorite store-bought pesto is Bear Pond Farm, found at Whole Foods in the refrigerated section.  It's really fresh and delicious.)  Sometimes I'll top salmon with a nice chili rub.  But I think I've found my favorite salmon dish yet -- a sweet and hot mustard glazed salmon.  I love the mustard taste that blends so well with honey and a touch of heat.  This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Roasted Salmon with Sweet-N-Hot Mustard Glaze
(Courtesy of Robin Miller, "Quick Fix Meals")

Note: Since I usually make dinner for two adults, I cut this recipe in half and used one decent-sized salmon fillet.

Ingredients:
3 1/2 lb. salmon fillets, skin on and pinbones removed
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/2 cup honey
2 T. water
2 T. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. hot mustard powder (I substituted 1 tsp. of hot sauce for this ingredient and added 1 tsp. of regular mustard powder and it was delicious.)
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 T. chopped fresh dill

Method:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Either coat a baking dish with cooking spray or cover a broiling pan with aluminum foil and lightly coat it with cooking spray.  Place salmon on the dish or the pan and lightly season the fillet with salt and pepper.

Stir together the Dijon mustard, honey, water, lemon juice, hot mustard powder, and garlic powder.  Reserve half of this sauce for later.  Take the other half and spread on the salmon.

Bake the salmon for 15-20 minutes.

Stir the fresh dill into the reserved sauce.  When the salmon is done baking, top the salmon with the remaining sauce.

As you can see from the picture above, I added two side dishes -- stir-fried zucchini and garlic-butter noodles, both of which were delicious with the salmon.

Enjoy!

Easy Entertaining: Baked Lemon-Garlic Shrimp

It's funny how food moods change with the seasons.  Given how warm it's been (unusually warm for Washington, DC as well), I've been wanting lighter, fresher meals.  So when my family came for a visit over Easter weekend, I knew I wanted to make a shrimp dish.  I found the perfect one - Baked Lemon-Garlic Shrimp.  The taste was light and fresh, and it was definitely healthy.  I baked it in one big casserole dish and then served it over cous-cous.  Perfect!  This is a good dish for company since it's easy to assemble and it's healthy.  Your guests will thank you.

Baked Lemon-Garlic Shrimp
(Courtesy of  The Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step Cookbook)

Ingredients:
1 1/4 pounds large shrimp
1 bunch (10-12 ounces) fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
2 medium tomatoes, halved, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
2 T. olive or vegetable oil
Salt
1 garlic clove, minced
1 T. chopped fresh parsley
1 T. fresh lemon juice
1/2 t. lemon-pepper seasoning salt
Parsley sprigs for garnish

Method:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Shell and devein shrimp.

In bowl, combine spinach, tomatoes, 1 T. olive oil, and 1/2 t. salt.  Toss to coat.  Place spinach mixture in four 1-1/2 cup shallow casseroles. (I didn't have individual casserole dishes, so I just used one large casserole dish, which worked just fine.)

In the same bowl, combine shrimp, garlic, parsley, lemon juice, lemon-pepper seasoning salt, 1 T. olive oil, and 1/2 t. salt; toss shrimp to coat.  Arrange shrimp mixture over spinach mixture.

Bake 12-15 minutes, until shrimp are opaque throughout.  If you're using individual casserole dishes, the recipe recommends that you serve this dish by placing each casserole on plate and garnishing with parsley sprigs.  (I served the shrimp over cous-cous.)

Note:  This recipe makes 4 main-dish servings (it allows plenty for seconds or leftovers).  Each serving is about 205 calories, 26g protein, 6g carbohydrates, 8g total fat (1g saturated), 219 mg cholesterol, 865 mg sodium.

Quick Weeknight Meal: Shrimp and Pancetta on Polenta

Always on the search for an easy, yet tasty, dinner recipe, I came across this shrimp dish that looked like it was a quick, weeknight meal.  It was.  Tried it last night, and it took me roughly 30 minutes from the beginning to when we sat down to eat.  It was refreshing too because I have been making heavier, comfort-food type meals over the last few months.  The weather has finally started to warm up (60 degrees yesterday), and it was nice to have a filling, yet lighter, meal.

Shrimp and Pancetta on Polenta
(Courtesy of Ruth Cousineau, Gourmet, November 2009)
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Shrimp-and-Pancetta-on-Polenta-356050?mbid=ipapp

Ingredients:
1/2 cup instant polenta (you could also use cous-cous instead)
1/4 pound pancetta, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 t. hot red pepper flakes
3 T. olive oil, divided
1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes in their juice
1 lb. large raw shrimp, cleaned
1 T. chopped flat-leaf parsley

Method:
Make polenta according to package instructions.

Cook pancetta, garlic, and red pepper flakes in 2 T. olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat, stirring, until garlic is pale golden, 2-3 minutes.  (I used my trusty red Le Creuset Dutch oven...the pancetta creates a lot of splatter.)

Add tomatoes (with their juice) and simmer until the liquid is reduced to about 1/4 cup, 6-8 minutes.  Add shrimp and cook, stirring occasionally, until shrimp are just cooked through, about 3 minutes.  Season with salt and freshly-ground pepper.

Spoon polenta into shallow bowls and top with shrimp mixture.  Drizzle with remaining 1 T. olive oil and sprinkle with parsley.

Note on the tomatoes: Upon the recommendation of my Aunt Nancy, I picked up some Muir Glen fire-roasted diced tomatoes with basil and garlic at Whole Foods for this recipe.  She raves about their tomato sauces so I thought I'd give these a try.  Since they are fire-roasted, they definitely added a really nice element to this dish, though any diced tomatoes will work here.  If you're curious about Muir Glen, here's the website: http://www.muirglen.com.

Quick Weeknight Meal: Broiled Fish with Citrus and Herbs

I got to wander into Whole Foods this past weekend, which was quite a treat. I came out with two bags of groceries including green beans and a white fish I hadn't tried before: turbot. Whole Foods even gave me some inspiration for a way to prepare this delicious white, flaky fish. I used the Whole Foods iPhone app and found this gem. This is a great recipe that only takes a few ingredients and is super-simple to make. Try it and see if you like it too.

Broiled Fish with Citrus and Herbs

(Courtesy of Whole Foods)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup orange juice

1/2 minced shallot (I subbed in red onion here, which worked well.)

1/4 t. dried tarragon

4-6 oz. mild fish fillet(s) such as sole, tilapia or arctic char (I used turbot.)

1/2 t. extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and black pepper, to taste

3 chopped Kalamata olives (optional)

Method:

In a small saucepan, combine orange juice, shallot and tarragon. Simmer until thickened, 15-20 minutes; cover and set aside.

Heat broiler. Sprinkle both sides of the fish with oil, salt and pepper. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet and broil 5 to 6 inches from heat, just until fish is opaque and flakes easily with a fork, about 5 minutes per half inch of thickness.

When fish is done, transfer fillet to serving plate, spoon sauce on top and sprinkle with olives.

I served freshly steamed green beans on the side, and you could also add rice as another side dish to soak up the extra orange sauce.

So Good Salmon and Roasted Asparagus

I realize I've been posting more "sweet" recipes so far. Although I could pretty much eat anything sweet any time, I'm sure I wouldn't live very long. Thankfully, there are simple dishes like salmon and asparagus that give my diet some nutritional benefits. This recipe is great for a quick weeknight meal, but also nice for company. I'll often add cous-cous as a side dish.

I came across a great salmon rub from one of my favorite Food Network stars, Ellie Krieger. She recently posted this to her Twitter feed. Good stuff.

Salmon and Roasted Asparagus

(Salmon rub courtesy of Ellie Krieger)

Salmon Rub Ingredients:

1 t. cumin

1 t. coriander

1 t. garlic powder

1/4 t. salt

1/4 t. pepper

salmon filet (for two people)

Method:

Combine salmon rub spices in a small bowl. Place salmon (skin side down) on a broiler pan covered with foil. Drizzle some olive oil over the salmon, spread to thinly coat. Rub the spices onto the salmon.

Asparagus Ingredients:

1 bunch asparagus, washed and ends trimmed

salt

pepper

olive oil

Method:

On the same foil-covered broiler pan as the salmon, lightly coat the foil with cooking spray. Put asparagus on the tray and lightly drizzle with olive oil. Turn the asparagus to spread the olive oil. Lightly sprinkle with salt and freshly cracked pepper.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Depending on the thickness of the salmon, you may need to add a few more minutes, but be careful not to overcook it otherwise it will get tough.

One of the best things about this dish is that it's a one pan meal, which means cleanup is a breeze!

Alternate coating for the salmon: I often like to use pesto to top the salmon. You can use any store-bought pesto (or make your own if you have time). Instead of making the salmon rub, I will just lightly coat the salmon with olive oil and sprinkle it with salt and pepper. Bake the salmon for the same amount of time as noted above. In a separate pan, heat the pesto for a few minutes over low heat. Top the salmon with the pesto when you're ready to serve. The pesto-topped salmon is an especially elegant (and tasty) dish for company.

My mom often makes her own pesto, so I'll see if she will let me share the recipe. My parents are lucky to have a garden and they grow lots of great things such as tomatoes, zucchini, butternut squash, lettuce, and lots of basil to make pesto.