What's for Dinner? Lemon-Garlic Roast Salmon

We don't eat out often. Partly out of frugality, partly from lack of choices in our rural area. So I cook dinner just about every night ... which means every afternoon about 3:30 I start wondering what the heck I'm gonna fix!

Part of my goal in writing this blog is to create my own cooking journal, documenting recipes I liked (or didn't like), strategies and sources. 

And, I'd like to share them with those of you who might also be wondering what the heck you're gonna fix tonight?

Last night's solution: Lemon-Garlic Roast Salmon

Salmon is one of the few reliable seafoods we can get up here in the high-mountain desert (I have no idea why), so I'm always on the lookout for new ways to cook it. 

I found this recipe in Lynne Rossetto Kasper's emailed newsletter, "Weeknight Kitchen". I subscribe to her newsletter, and also recommend her radio show and/or podcast, The Splendid Table.

This is a loosely-Greek-inspired marinade of olive oil, fresh lemon juice, garlic, comino and chile powder (or paprika) that I used for salmon, but Lynne says works well with other fresh fish. 

I liked the chile powder with the salmon, but if you've substituted a more delicately flavored fish, paprika might be a better choice. Especially Spanish smoked paprika, mmm ...

Anyway, it's a short (20 to 30 minute) marinade, then quickly oven-roast the fish with its marinade, less than 15 minutes.

I skipped the potatoes from her recipe -- didn't have time, and I wanted something lighter. Instead I made buttered orzo with freshly grated Parmesan, and steamed broccoli.

Quick, tasty, and a keeper for our dinner rotation!

--MaggieBelize

Designer, kNotes for kNitters

Website, www.LocalGringos.com

Sandia Park, NM

Favorite Foods from Fiery Foods Fiesta

We went to the Fiery Foods show in Albuquerque last weekend, and really enjoyed tasting all the hot stuff. We were a tad bummed out by the $15 p/p entrance fee, which I thought was a bit much, but other than that, a great day.

I loved more of the incendiary concoctions on display than I could ever list, but here's what I actually brought home in my shopping bag:

AlbuqCookies

As the name suggests, these sweet little tidbits are cooked up locally (by East Coast transplantees). 

My favorite, a biscotti-type treat made of chocolate and red pepper, isn't listed on their website yet. (Dudes, update your site!)  The photo here is the Chocolate-Pinon version.

In ABQ, AlbuqCookies allegedly can be found at La Montanita Co-op, Kellers Farmers Market, and Model Pharmacy, but I haven't verified this yet.

Sauce Goddess

What first caught my eye was the great logo of this San-Diego based company - then I fell in love with their self-described "obscenely delicious", non-smoky grill glazes & rubs. 

Wish I could have gotten them all, but finally narrowed it down to two: "Moroccan Twist Rub Rub" and "Sweet & Spicy Grill Glaze".

You can buy Sauce Goddess online, or at many retail outlets in California - none yet in New Mexico, more's the pity.

Los Cuates Salsa

Los Cuates is a local ABQ restaurant dishing up darn good New Mexican cuisine in general, and a truly stellar cooked salsa in particular. 

Their salsa is deep, dark red, gravy-like, with a smoky whiff reminiscent of chipotles - I love it so much I could drink it. 

So I was thrilled to find them at the show, offering 16-oz jars for $4, cash & carry! I didn't know you could buy the stuff outside their restaurants, and haven't seen it on local grocery shelves - but I'll look again, just as soon as this jar's empty.

Mmm, mmh! Hot stuff.

--MaggieBelize

Designer, kNotes for kNitters

Website,www.LocalGringos.com

Sandia Park, NM

The Yellow Pages Project - Free Paper, Going Fast!

Yesterday at my local post office I saw a huge bin of new phone books for distribution to our neighborhood. On the bin was a sign reading "Please Do Not Dump Old Books Here."  I guess that means all of last year's phone books are headed for the landfill.

The "Dex" yellow pages volume for the greater Albuquerque area has close to 2,000 pages, plus another 700 pages or so for the white pages volume. Multiply that by the 217,346 households in Albuquerque - yep, I looked it up - and you get a minimum of 586,834,200 pieces of paper dumped in the landfills every year. (Of course, that's assuming that every household has only one set of phone books, I'm sure many have two or more.)

That's at least 600 million pages of free paper going to waste, every year.

I came home with my new phone books, but took our old books - we have one set - to my craft room. This is the beginning of my "Yellow Pages Project": I want to make something with my nearly 3,000 pages of annual free paper!

Here's my first Yellow Pages Project: making paper beads.

I found basic instructions for making paper beads on WikiHow and Paper University. Over at A Storybook Life, she's making them from newspaper; Natasha Fialkov is using origami paper. There are loads more examples, just Google.

Here's a photo of today's Yellow Pages beads, drying now. I wrapped them on recycled cocktail straws, and used a strawberry box for a drying rack.

Tomorrow I'll play with inks & glaze to finish them.

Next up, I'm thinking about papier-mache masks - mADmen? - and maybe bracelets.

Please share your crafty ideas for the Yellow Pages Project by adding your comments & links below. 

Let's keep some of those 600 million pages in useful circulation!

--MaggieBelize

Designer, kNotes for kNitters

Website, www.LocalGringos.com

Sandia Park, NM