Grilled Salmon...

Tonight, we had grilled salmon for dinner in the garden...
it was a good meal to serve on my new bluebird dishes.
Aren't they cute? Since I can't attract them to my yard, I can at least have them on my table.
Dinner was salmon using a recipe we have used many times this winter on the broiler but it works great on the grill as well.
Broiled Salmon with Rosemary (from Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes)

Salmon is high in protein and has heart-protective benefits associated with omega-3 fatty acids found in their fish oil. It is suggested that we eat fatty fish twice a week.

Servings: 4 servings Time: 10 minutes Points: 6 ww points
• 4 (5 oz.) pieces of salmon
• olive oil spray
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 tsp fresh, chopped rosemary
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• salt and fresh pepper to taste
Combine lemon juice, rosemary, salt, pepper and garlic. Brush mixture onto fish.

Spray the rack of a broiler pan with olive oil cooking spray and arrange the fish on it. Broil 4" from the heat until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork (approx. 4-6 minutes per 1/2" of thickness. If fish is more than 1" thick, gently turn it halfway through broiling).

My notes: We usually only make two pieces of salmon but I still use the same amount of lemon juice & rosemary but only one lg clove of garlic. For tonight's grilling I brushed the grill with olive oil as well as the filets to prevent sticking. Worked great and will be a summer staple as well.
I can't wait until we will be dining surrounded by blossoms...

Marsha - Thumbs Up
Jeff - Thumbs Up

Mother's Day Tribute

In honor of my mother this Mother's Day, I am joining Barb (Foley's Follies) and many other bloggers in tributes to our Moms. Please click on the link above to visit Barb's blog and see the others participating.
This is my mother, Alma, on her wedding day in 1943. A bride during wartime there wasn't a fancy wedding but a new wedding suit and a ceremony in the pastor's parsonage. Below, is the one and only photo I have of just me and my mom (the others include siblings and dad). We were on a camping vacation in northern MN and notice she is wearing a dress. I don't think I saw my mom wear anything besides dresses until I was in high school and those polyester pantsuits came in style during the early 70's. She was a fantastic seamstress and sewed all of her clothes as well as most of ours.
This is the last "nice" photo I have of her taken at my wedding, she was fighting for her life battling with cancer but still looking beautiful! Within a year she was gone...breast cancer took her away from us at age 54. How I wish she could have seen me grow as a woman and to meet my wonderful children...I always hope I have done a good enough job of instilling in them my memories of her...I am honored to have her good dishes and I too save them for special occasions.
The pattern is Tea Rose by Knowles...I used one of her sets of earrings for napkin rings.
When I store these dishes in the cabinet I even keep the cups in the bowl like she always did...Mother's know best.
We grew up a "meat and potatoes" farm family and mom always had a large vegetable garden. Many hours were spent freezing and canning vegetables and we bought fresh fruit by the case when in season and mom canned all of our own peaches, pears, cherries and plums.
She was a wonderful cook and we always had great meals and I decided to some of my favorites for my tribute meal. First off is the salad...orange jello with grated carrots and sometimes my favorite way to have it included crushed pineapple. Then scalloped potatoes which was always served with meatloaf at home (which I also love) but for this meal I chose country style pork ribs. Our vegetable is probably my very favorite...carmelized butternut squash.
The centerpiece of our table was also dessert...Mom's Mile High pie. This was a favorite of our childhood and in her last months when I was her caregiver and we would go through her recipes so I could copy my favorites I found out it had uncooked egg whites in it. I haven't had it since and it has been over 33 years. I have often wondered if it tasted as good as I remembered it and now with pastuerized egg whites I thought it would be "safe" to make. Note to my sisters/brothers...it was all I remembered and more...delicious!
These photos don't do it justice...it had started to melt while sitting pretty as our centerpiece.

Mom's Recipes

Salad - grate homegrown carrots into orange jello.
Scalloped potatoes - her version involved cream of mushroom soup...mine is simply cream, onions, salt and pepper.
Squash - peel and cube a butternut squash. Bake with a generous amount of brown sugar and a few pats of butter. Stir occassionally to carmelize.

Country Style Pork ribs
Brown the meat on all sides. Mix together
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vinegar
2 TB ketchup
2 TB brown sugar
1 TB dry mustard
Pour over meat and continue to cook at med heat until the pork is done and the sauce evaporates down to a thick bbq sauce.

Mile High Pie
1 10oz pkg of frozen strawberries
1 cup sugar
2 egg whites (I used Eggbeaters pastuerized egg whites from a carton)
1/8 tsp salt
1 TB lemon juice
1/2 pint whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
Baked 9 inche pie shell
Place partially thawed strawberries, sugar, egg whites, salt and lemon juice in the mixer bowl and beat at medium speed 15 minutes or until mixture holds it's shape. In a separate bowl, whip the cream and add the vanilla. Fold into the strawberry mixture. Put lightly into the pre-baked pie shell and freeze two hours or overnight.

Some of the other mementos I treasure of my mom are pieces of her jewelry, an enameled compact given to her by my dad and a tube of her lipstick.

The Great Cooking Magazine Challenge..

My friend, Suzy (Kitchen Bouquet), started The Great Cooking Magazine Challenge back in March. Sometimes, life just gets hectic and I have yet to participate in a challenge because most of my magazines don't get read for months. Yesterday was an exception, I received my latest issue of Food Network Magazine while laid up with a bad knee so I sat down to read it. I came across a healthy recipe for fish tacos that looked worth trying. I immediately wrote down the ingredients I needed as I had planned on grocery shopping today. We had them for dinner and they were delicious...but I really had to laugh at my inaugural effort in this challenge. The tasty recipe I found for Tilapia Soft Tacos with Chipotle Cream wasn't found in an article with a famous food network star chef, it was in an advertisement for Mission Tortillas.
I haven't gotten the patio dining set out of storage yet, so we ate under the satellite gazebo. It was a beautiful spring evening still warm enough to eat outside at 8 pm. I had my taco with water, and brought out a beer for my dining partner but he opted to go back inside for a glass of milk.

This is why I love those tulip dishes...the garden tulips are really starting to open.

Tilapia Soft Tacos with Chipotle Cream
recipe from FN magazine Mission tortilla advertisement and also on http://missionmenus.com/


4 Mission® 8 inch Soft Taco Carb Balance Flour Tortillas
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1/2 teaspoon Ground Cumin
1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
4 cloves Garlic minced
3 tablespoons Fresh Cilantro chopped
1 pound Tilapia Fillets
2 tablespoons Lime Juice

2 cups Mixed Greens

Chipotle Cream Sauce:
2 canned Chipotle Chilies in Adobo minced and seeded
1 cup Fat Free Sour Cream
1/4 teaspoon Salt

Recipe Instructions:
1. Mix the Chipotle Cream Sauce ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
2. In a skillet set at medium-high heat, add the seven ingredients from the olive oil through the cilantro. Sauté those ingredients for 5 minutes.
3. After the 5 minutes, add the tilapia and cover and cook for 3 minutes or until fish is fully cooked. Then add in lime juice and let cook for 1 additional minute.
4. Heat the tortillas according to the package instructions. Lay each of the warmed tortillas on a cutting board and place one-quarter of both the field greens and fish on the center of each tortilla. Then top each with equal amounts of the Chipotle Cream Sauce.
5. Fold the tortillas over to form tacos and serve.

My Notes: I used the Mission Plus "Heart Healthy" tortillas and light sour cream. I also cut and pasted this recipe from the website but the magazine version was for grilling the fish so that is what I did. Grilled on med-low temp after spraying the grill surface with cooking spray.

Marsha - Thumbs Up
Jeff - Thumbs Up

I have been looking at old photos, mementos and recipes of my mom's this week to join in the Mother's Day event hosted by Barb, Foley's Follies. Here is a quote from her describing the event "All our welcome to join in with the participants linked through Mr. Linky. Another reminder of the Mothers Day Tribute the weekend of May 8th. Please stop in and post photos and recipes or special heirloom items from your Mother, Grandmother, Mother-in-Law or anyone who is important to you on this day! Mr. Linky will be up and running!"

Please come back this weekend to see my tribute to my mom and also head over to Barb's to see all the other's joining in.

Flashback and Foodie Friday...

It's Friday so once again that means I am joining Michael (Gollum) at Designs by Gollum for Foodie Friday and
Suzy at Kitchen Bouquet for Flashback Friday.

This week's foodie friday is themed for Cinco de Mayo and I had some trouble finding flashback photos showcasing food photos for this event. But, I did find this photo showing one of our favorite snacks in a Mexican pottery dish...homemade salsa with chunks of fresh avocado served with flour tortillas baked with pepper jack cheese...
and going way back to last fall, a bowl of chili with cheese and tortilla strips.
In keeping with the Mexican theme, let's flashback to last summer's garden and showcase...
the Mexican Shell Flower (Tigridia pavonia)...
and the thousands of Monarch's that migrate through each fall on their way back to Mexico for the winter.
Thank you Michael and Suzy for hosting these events. Click on the links at the top of the page to see other's participating.

Chicken part two...

Since I bought the family pack of chicken breasts we had them for dinner again tonight. This time I made Honey Lime Grilled Chicken but since it is raining and only 46 degrees, I chose to bake them at high heat with the air-bake feature turned on rather than stand out in the cold to grill.I found this recipe on a blog called "Mommy's Kitchen", but forgot to bookmark the exact page.

1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup lime juice (about 4 limes)
1/2 cup Mr. Yoshidas Gourmet Sweet & Savory
4 - (4 ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

Mix the marinade together in a zip lock bag. Add the chicken breasts and marinade in the refrigerator overnight or 4-8 hours. The blog author said "you can use teriyaki sauce, hoison sauce or pineapple juice if you cannot find Mr. yoshidas sauce. I get mine at Sam's club" so I used hoison sauce but only about 4 tablespoons. I will definitely make this recipe again, trying it on the grill next time.

Marsha - Thumbs Up
Jeff - Thumbs Up - he is so funny these days, if he sees I take a photo of my plate he knows to give me the thumbs up or down so he just flashes me the symbol after a few bites ;}

Chicken with Sour Cream and Salsa

Cook Time: 35 minutes
Ingredients:
4 each skinless boneless chicken breast
1 package taco seasoning mix
1 cup salsa
1/4 cup sour cream
Preparation:
Place chicken breasts in a lightly greased shallow baking dish; season with the taco seasoning mix. Pour the salsa over the chicken; bake at 350° for 35 to 45 minutes, or until chicken is tender. When ready to serve, remove the chicken from the casserole, stir sour cream into salsa, then return chicken. Serve sour cream chicken and sauce with warm tortillas and Spanish rice.

I saw this recipe at southernfood.about.com a while back and I had some leftover sour cream to use up so we tried it tonight. My only change was adding some sliced black olives. No tortillas in the house so we had it with store bought black bean and cracked pepper bread and Trader Joe's fire roasted sweet corn. Not a "pretty" dish but it sure tasted great.

Marsha - Thumbs Up
Jeff - Thumbs Up

Spring brownies...

spring has arrived with the first tulips blooming outside and...inside. Of course, after the first blossoms comes the arrival of the bees and butterflies.
I bought this fun bugs and butterflies cake pan thinking how fun it would be to use for garden tea parties. My first effort was mocha brownies with chocolate ganache. They tasted wonderful and looked pretty darn cute.
I think you will be seeing lots more bugs and butterflies as summer arrives ;}