Back in action

If anyone's still around....

Sorry for being MIA lately.  This house is taking up apparently way more of my time than I thought it would.  This has led to many nights not cooking and lack of remembering to take pictures of things I eat.  However, as of last night...the cooking is back on track!

A few nights ago, we had planned on perhaps having our first very small dinner party.  I went to Whole Foods and bought 2.5 lbs of salmon and 2 lbs of brussel sprouts.  Unfortunately, the dinner was cancelled and I was stuck with 2.5 lbs of salmon and 2 lbs of brussel sprouts.

I had just marinated the salmon in a random mix of things.  Some of the ingredients being:

Red miso
Chili sauce
Stoneground mustard

I'd give you more exact but it's been about 4-5 days since I made it.

So we had a Memorial Day BBQ and I, unfortunately, didn't take pics of the food but it was good.  Since we weren't going to making the salmon for a couple of days I threw it in the freezer.  I was a little worried about what would happen to it since it had been marinated, sat in the fridge overnight, frozen, defrosted, refrigerated and cooked.....but luckily it came out well! 

We recently made a Costco trip and in the trip decided to make a random purchase of Pineapple Habanero Sauce. I would highly recommend this to anyone who things that sounds good b/c it is pretty dang tasty.  

After throwing the salmon on the grill,  I thought: "Why not dump some of that onto the salmon?" So I did...

As for the brussel sprouts....for Valentines Day, Eric and I went to a super delicious restaurant called Root Down in the Highlands.  We had the most amazing brussel sprouts and needed to replicate them.  Luckily, I was able to find a very similar recipe online at my favorite website, Smitten Kitchen.  I made some tweaks to it since I didn't feel like buying all of the ingredients.  This was my second time making it and I think it turned out just as well.  Here is the original recipe:  Balsamic Braised Brussels with Pancetta.  Some things I eliminated:

bread crumbs
butter
parsley
thyme
shallots

I used shallots last time but we didn't have any on hand or onions so instead, I threw in mushrooms and the dish still turned out amazingly.  I highly recommend that if you are a fan of brussel sprouts, that you attempt making these at least once.  They are incredibly easy, a little time consuming, but delicious!

Final meal was great.  It's good to know that after a couple of weeks I'm still capable of cooking good food. It may not be the prettiest of presentations but it sure does taste good. I think that's one of the best things about cooking at home...it doesn't have to be pretty! :)