This is the first week I’ve been faced with not one, but TWO great, easy recipes to choose from!  After a couple of weeks of no entries, it was nice to have a couple entries.  In the end I went with Dawn’s suggestion as Patty and Erik had already done a great job of cooking theirs and photographing the results!  Their recipe can be found at their Family Diners blog.  Take a moment to check them out, they have some other great recipes on there as well.

Dawn’s recipe got a thumbs up from Sabrina although we edited it a little.  We didn’t add the pepper to the salmon (Sabrina’s not a fan) and we substituted lemonade for lemon juice (a chef’s gotta do, what a chef’s gotta do).  Eeek! I just realized we left out the cheese topping too.  That would have been good.  At any rate, the video will be ‘coming soon’.  Until then, here’s the recipe as Dawn wrote it.

Penne Pasta with Asparagus & Salmon

Prep Time: not much, 10 minutes?

Cook time: maybe 20 minutes depending on fish

Post Cooking Prep Time: 10 minutes if the fish is boney

Ingredients:

• Pear (slice & serve with pasta dish)
• Penne pasta (rice based in this case)
• Asparagus
• Wild salmon
• Garlic
• Parsley
• salt & pepper
• Old Bay seasoning
• Olive oil
• 1- 2 tsp Lemon Juice (fresh squeezed if possible)
• Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Put the asparagus in a baking pan (or cookie sheet with sides) and pour a little olive oil over it. Crush a clove of garlic on top and add few grinds of pepper and a little salt. Roll the asparagus around in the pan so that everything gets well coated.

Place the de-boned salmon in another baking pan (with skin side down if it still has some on it). Crush a clove of garlic on top, a little salt & pepper, Old Bay and a splash of olive oil. Coat & rub it all in a little. Bake both asparagus & salmon at 425 degrees until the asparagus is tender and the salmon is just cooked through. (The asparagus will take about 15-20 minutes to get tender; the salmon should take about 10-15.) Meanwhile, cook the pasta.

When the asparagus is done, cut it into one to two inch pieces. Break the salmon up into bite size pieces with fork.
Once the pasta is cooked & drained add olive oil until well coated, then add the lemon juice, parsley (and any extra garlic) to make a light sauce. Combine the pasta and asparagus in a large bowl and toss well. Then add the salmon and toss gently so that the hunks of salmon stay relatively intact; finish off with sprinkling of parmesan cheese. Serve with sliced pears and enjoy!

A quick recap.  Week #8′s challenge was to take the following ingredients and make a yummy recipe.

• Line and Hook Caught Wild Alaskan Salmon
• Ginger Root
• Brussels Sprouts
• Red Potatoes

The winning recipe was sent in from Kitchen Gadget Girl.  I’m still amazed at not only the support I’ve received for my crazy, wacky idea of a website, but the resources from those like Kitchen Gadget Girl’s website and tweets on Twitter. Thank You, Thank You!

I followed her plan almost to the letter.  I let salmon sit with some wheat-free soy sauce and fresh grated ginger.  I’d say go sparingly on the ginger as it was a bit much for my liking.   Her times in the oven were close enough for me.  I added about 15 minutes to the fish because of thickness and that ended up giving the sprouts a nice roasted flavor on top.  here’s what she sent in:

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Ok, I am thinking some sort of ginger soy marinade for the salmon, then roasting all together in the oven.

I would start the potatoes first, cutting them into similarly sized pieces as the Brussels sprouts (definitely in half, but if the potatoes are larger, then cutting them into quarters). Toss in olive oil and salt, then roast for about 20 minutes at 375-400F.  [NOTE: I also added rosemary and dried cilantro]

Add in the Brussels sprouts and push the potatoes and veggies to the outside of the pan. Put the salmon in the middle and continue roasting the whole thing for 15-20 more minutes, until the fish is cooked through.

Timing and temperature are uncertain, depends on your ovens characteristics….

This week there is no winning recipe. Insert frowny face here.  But that’s ok, I whipped something up anyhow!  I didn’t have enough time to film and cook as I had a hungry 7 year old and she took precedent over the filming this week.  I’m still getting down this whole process and appreciate those who have subscribed to the blog and are hopefully learning along with me.

Now then, with the previously mentioned ingredients in mind, this is what I whipped up.

Ingredients

• 2 Free Range Chicken Breasts
• 2 Yukon Gold Potatoes
• Fettuccine Rice Pasta
• Carrots.  Well, actually, I skipped the carrots.  So ignore this!
• Olive Oil
• Pasta Sauce
• Rosemary
• Basil
• Olive Oil
• Garlic Powder
• Thyme
• Dijon Mustard

Recipe

1. Boil up the pasta
2. Cube up the potatoes so they are the size of dice.  The six sided kind, not the Dungeons and Dragons 20 sided monsters.
3. Place the cubed potatoes in a 13×9 backing dish.
4. Douse potatoes with olive oil, rosemary, basil and garlic powder
5. Set in oven at 375F for about 25 minutes.  Or until your kid complains a lot.
6. Heat up the pasta sauce to your liking.  I actually just put the pasta in a Pyrex bowl on the burner I used to boil the noodles with it off.  It worked well and didn’t require nuking it.
7. In a medium fry pan, preheat some olive oil (have I mentioned I love olive oil?).  Then cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and place them in.
8. Sprinkle with thyme, basil and rosemary.
9. Goose about a tablespoon of dijon mustard over this yummy goodness.
10. Cook on a low-medium heat until just about done, stirring occasionally, or lots, whichever you like.
11. Then throw your fry pan in the oven with the potatoes.  I’d suggest something that can take the heat, like a nice All-Clad Stainless-Steel Fry Pan.  Put it in when the potatoes have about 15 minutes left to cook.
12. Remove everything from the stove and serve the chicken over the pasta and top with pasta sauce.  Add the potatoes on the side.

I know what you’re thinking.  Huh?  You’ve got two starches in there!  And mustard with pasta sauce?   But it worked!  And further, it worked for my daughter who loved it.  If you’d like, leave out the pasta sauce and maybe add some honey to the mustard chicken over the noodles.

Either way, don’t stop cooking!  Until next week, have fun in the kitchen!

Even before the video for week #6 comes out, it’s time for the next weekly recipe challenge!  A recent trip to the grocery store brought home some more simple ingredients so this should be an easy one.  If there is more than one recipe offered up, I’ll pick one at random.  Unless I’m bribed with organic chocolate.

The ingredients this week are:

• Free Range Chicken breasts
• Yukon Gold Potatoes
• Fettuccine (yes, I’m in a pasta kick after last week’s recipe)
• Carrots

For those new to the site the idea is simple; take those ingredients and up to two of your own and post a recipe in the comments section of this post (or link to your own site).  You can use any of the Spices & Herbs listed here.  It’s just that simple!  You have until 10am on Friday, that means a whole extra day!

Good luck and good cooking!

  It was a good trip down to California for the filming of week #6′s recipe challenge.  My friends Liz and Jesse were gracious hosts and even helped with the filming! Jesse manning the camera while directing and Liz as my stylish co-host for episode #6.  The video will be ready in a day or so, but first I thought I’d list out the selected ingredients and recipe.

Liz was in charge of picking ingredients and we did it on the fly while visiting a local market in Oakland.  Her choices were:

• Chicken Sausage
• Red onion – chopped
• Garbanzo Beans – 1 can, drained
• Linguine

Liz also added fresh spinach and some kale we picked up for free at the meat market, as well as Romano cheese.  You will also need olive oil, salt, pepper, 1 cup chicken stock and 2-3 cloves of chopped garlic.

1. Boil Linguine until it is al dante, set aside
2. Pre-cook kale in salted water, set aside
3. In a large sauce pan, heat olive oil on medium heat and cook onion for 1-2 minutes
4. Add chopped garlic and cook another minute
5. Throw in the sausage that has been sliced into 1/4" thick ‘coins’.  Stir and cook for another couple minutes.
6. Add drained garbanzo beans while stirring, cooking for 3 minutes
7. Mix in greens and stir until spinach is wilted while adding in 1/2 cup of chicken stock
8. Drop in pasta and add rest of chicken stock.  Stir for another minute to let pasta soak up taste.
9. Serve and top with grated Romano cheese.
10. Add salt & pepper to taste

The only entries for this week’s challenge didn’t quite fit the bill (didn’t use all ingredients and seemed, well, tough!) so I ended up winging the recipe this week.  Here’s my best bet at what I did, followed by the video.  And in the video, my seven year old daughter took over the camera action and added in her own commentary, at one point telling me what I was mixing looked like poop.  Wow.  I know I’m not artful, but poop?  Cummon!   She ended up loving what I made so it wasn’t THAT bad.

Ingredients:

• King Salmon Steaks
• Asparagus
• Brown Rice
• Red, Yellow and Green Peppers
• 1/3 Cup Olive Oil
• 1/2 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
• Mustard Powder
• Old Bay Seasoning
• Dijon Mustard

Directions:

Cut Salmon into steaks and lay in 13×9 baking dish.  Mix together the olive oil, apple cider vinegar, mustard powder (to your liking) and Old Bay.  Sprinkle Old Bay Seasoning on the salmon cakes and the then coat with sauce.  Cover with cut peppers and sprinkle with more olive oil. 

Place asparagus on aluminum foil covered cookie sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil and Dijon mustard and mix to coat.

Cook rice per instructions.

Place salmon in 375F oven for 15 minutes.  When 15 minutes are up, place asparagus on top rack and switch to broil, but with door closed, for 10 minutes.  If you have  convection feature, turn it on now too.

After that 25 minutes, all should be done!  Place salmon, asparagus and peppers over bed of rice and serve!

I know I said I’d announce the ingredients on Wednesday but I just went shopping and am sooooo excited.  Yes, I’m actually excited about food.  Especially after my daughter commented that I have a lot of processed food in the house (ignoring the fact that I showed her how to chop mushrooms last night when we had salads!).  So without further such and such!:

This week’s ingredients are:

• Wild Alaskan King Salmon Steaks – you know, that part just back from the head that isn’t fillets? Yeah, that part.
• Asparagus
• Red, Yellow and Green Peppers
• Brown Rice
• Up To Two Of Your Own Ingredients

I’m thinking this list should be pretty easy, but see how creative you can get!  Don’t forget to check the Spices & Herbs page for other ingredients you can use for free!  

To enter, just drop a link or your entire recipe in the comment section below!  All entries must be recieved by 10am PT on Thursday the 19th.  Good luck!

 This week’s challenge was to take:

Hello!   This week’s cooking challenge is all vegetarian!  While I am not normally a vegetarian, it never seems to hurt to slack off chicken and fish for a bit.  Plus it’s often more challenging.  So this week, along with the normal rules, I’m throwing in the challenge of keeping the recipe vegetarian.  This means no dairy or meat.  I realize there are about a hundred ways to interpret ‘vegetarian’ but for me, this works for the time being.

If you need a refresher on the rule, check out the How It Works tab above.  I don’t have the other kitchen staples listed yet, but olive oil is definitely on there.  And flour.  And red wine.

This week’s ingredients are:

• Portabello Mushrooms
• Red Potatoes
• White Onions
• Italian Squash

You have 24 hours to come up with a recipe that I will attempt to cook and make delicious.  Feel free to use any of the Spices & Herbs available in the kitchen.  Submit your recipe by 5pm, PDT on Tuesday.  By the way “salad” doesn’t count for this one.

Thanks! And Good Luck!

Without further ado, except pointing you to the recipe, here is Mike Rupp’s creation; Kofta with rice, mushrooms and spinach.