0 Last night's dinner....

I wasn't planning on posting anything today, but I felt so good after eating last night's dinner that I felt compelled to share.  I hope that those of you reading and following this blog regularly will someday get the same satisfaction from eating local foods and those things that you made, baked, cooked or canned yourself.

I started this blog too late in the year to share with you how to can fruits and vegetables, but I will put up a blog about how to do it next year when the time is appropriate.  I always get a good feeling when I can stuff - it's fun to do and you know you will enjoy great tasting produce all year long.  Last year, I canned peaches, tomatoes, pickled cucumbers and corn - and then ate them all year until fresh ones came into season again.

About three weeks ago I canned a few dozen jars of pickles - 2 dozen each of Bread & Butter and Garlic Dill and a dozen Japanese pickled carrots/cucumbers/radish.  So last night's dinner consisted of locally grown fingerling potatoes, yellow squash, home made/canned pickles from local cucumbers and salmon (I wish that part had been local too).  It was so delicious and especially satisfying because I knew most of it came from a couple of local farms. 

You never really know how pickles are going to turn out until you open the jar and last night was the first time I was able to open the Bread & Butter and the Garlic Dill pickles.  I wish I knew what kind of cucumbers I used for the Bread & Butter pickles.  I had never seen them before this year, they were a grey/green color and had ridges going down the length of them.  I had used them about 4 weeks ago for sour cream cucumbers and they were very crunchy, so I decided to use them for the Bread & Butter pickles too.  Well it was a good decision because they retained their crunch.  I saved a lot of the seeds and will try to grow them next year.  For the Garlic Dills I used regular & pickling cucumbers - they were tasty and had a nice snap to them too!  The Japanese pickles won't be ready to eat for about another 3 weeks.

For the rest of the dinner, I had broiled the potatoes, squash and salmon.  Mmmmm, good. 

I sliced the fingerling potatoes into thirds and the yellow squash into slices about 1/8" thick.  Laid them all on a aluminum foil covered cookie sheet with two pieces of salmon.  Brushed everything with olive oil.  Then I sprinkled a little salt on everything, some dill weed on the salmon, some garlic powder on the potatoes and the squash, a little oregano on the squash and then put the whole thing under the broiler for about 20 minutes.   When they came out, I sprinkled a little parmesan cheese on the potatoes and then served the whole thing on the cookie tray.  An easy and delicious meal in just under 30 minutes!

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0 Do you hate to cook? Do you think cooking is stressful?

Here are some ideas to make cooking less stressful –

1 Plan ahead - Don't wait until the last minute to decide what to cook.

2 Choose easy to prepare meals - make something with just a couple of ingredients.

3 Read the recipe ahead of time and get everything out and within reach ahead of time.

4 Count backwards from when you want to serve dinner and figure out when to start cooking each item so that everything is done at the same time.

5 Clean as you go - if you leave all the cleaning until the end, you'll hate cooking but if you clean as you cook it's much easier.

6 Make ahead or partially prepare for when you're busy - cook more complex or time consuming meals on your days off, somethings like lasagna you can assemble a day or two ahead of time and then pop in the oven when you're reading to cook them.

7 Delegate/share cooking with others, have someone wash/cut veggies, make a salad or set the table

Cooking really can be fun. Get your creative juices flowing. What do you like to eat? How can you make it taste better, make it look better or make it more interesting? When planning a meal try to keep it simple, that will make it less stressful and more fun.  

Try mixing different flavors within each meal – how about a salad with a balsamic vinaigrette (tangy), broiled salmon with a teriyaki glaze (sweet/salty), cucumbers in sour cream (creamy/spicy), steamed broccoli with garlic, crushed red peppers & olive oil (spicy), and a baked yam (sweet). This dinner is tasty, easy and quick to make – if you make the cucumbers in advance, this entire meal shouldn't take more than 20 minutes to make.

The key to putting a meal on the table quickly is to take advantage of your cooking times to make other things. In this example you have 10 minutes that the Salmon is going to be broiling and the yams are going to be baking, during this time you can make your salad. While you're either putting the dishes on the table or plating your food, you can steam the broccoli.

Balsamic Vinaigrette
1/4 c Balsamic Vinegar
3/4 c Olive Oil
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Put into a glass jar, seal, shake and serve. You can also add a crushed garlic and ¼ tsp oregano for more flavor.

Salmon with Teriyaki Sauce
2 Tbl Soy Sauce
1 tsp Mirin, or dry sherry
¼ tsp brown sugar
1/8 tsp ginger
2 salmon fillets

Put soy sauce, mirin, brown sugar & ginger into a small glass bowl, mix and heat in microwave for 30 seconds. Drizzle teriyaki sauce over salmon, broil salmon for about 5 minutes on each side.

Cucumbers in Sour Cream – see previous blog entry (September 2nd).

Steamed Broccoli with Garlic & Red Pepper
1 head fresh broccoli, cut into florets
1 tsp water
2 Tbl Olive Oil
1 garlic clove crushed
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Put olive oil, garlic & red pepper in a small glass bowl, mix and heat in microwave for 30 seconds. Put the broccoli into a microwaveable bowl, add 1 tsp water, pour olive oil mixture over broccoli, cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 2-3 minutes.

Baked Yams
You can bake the yams in the oven for about 1 hour or microwave them for about 8-12 minutes depending on the wattage of your microwave. Remember to pierce them with a fork before cooking. Serve plain (they're naturally sweet), or drizzled with olive oil, or with butter, or butter and brown sugar. 

The USDA recommends that you eat seafood instead of meat at least twice a week.  Yams and sweet potatoes have a lower glycemic index than baking potatoes and a lot more natural flavor.  Try using them in other meals that call for potatoes.

Tell me why you don't like to cook and maybe I can help you find a way to make it more enjoyable.  You can email me directly at homecookingisbetter@yahoo.com

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