Uncle Mike's Salmon

This looks like it is shaping up to be a Johnson week, now I just need something from Kristin & Kaitlin!

All of the Minch's like seafood, and even though Uncle Mike isn't technically a Minch he is married to one. Uncle Mike is a fantastic Barbequer, this salmon is sure to be a treat! Cooking on a cedar plank helps to keep grilled foods from drying up.

*The picture is of my dad & my grandpa with their catch in the Bahamas, it was taken in 1985 so no making fun of their shorts!

2 7-oz. filets of Wild Alaskan Salmon

Cedar Plank wood (non-treated), about 5”x3” if you use 2 pieces, or larger if you want to do both filets on 1 piece
Chorizo Topping

4 oz. Chorizo Sausage

1/4 cup Brown seasoned bread Crumbs

1 small Lemon
Lemon Butter Sauce

1/4 cup dry white wine

1 tbsp lemon juice

4 tbsp heavy cream

4 tbsp chilled unsalted butter

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar
Preparing Chorizo Topping:

Place Chorizo sausage on a fire burning grill and cook to well done. Place cooked sausage in refrigerator for 1-2 hours to cool After sausage has cooled, pulse in a food blender. Take ground sausage out of blender and pour into a stainless mixing bowl. Mix in 1 cup of breadcrumbs. Add the zest of 1 lemon and mix well.
Lemon Butter Sauce:

Simmer white wine and lemon juice in a saucepan for 5 minutes. Slowly add cream and cook until slightly thick. Turn flame down very low and slowly add chilled butter to emulsify. Stir in other ingredients and store in a warm place.
Preparing the Cedar Plank & Salmon for Grilling:

Soak non-treated Cedar Plank wood in water for a minimum of 3 hours. Place Wild Alaskan Salmon (skin side down) on the saturated Cedar Plank. Place approximately 2 ounces of the Chorizo breadcrumb mixture on top of each Salmon fillet, spreading it out and slightly pressing it into the Salmon. Place on fire burning grill and cover with a medal lid and cook for 15 minutes or until Salmon is medium well. The wood should be well saturated and thus not ignite. It will smoke and burn, but not catch flame. Slide wood and salmon on to a plate and drizzle with the Lemon Butter sauce. Yields 2 servings.

Aunt Karen's Creamed Chicken

Aunt Karen sent me this recipe for creamed chicken, what great comfort food! We had a cloudy afternoon in Scottsdale, with summer upon us it seemed like maybe this was the last day for comfort food until fall!

Cook4 skinned chicken breasts ( save juice, salt and pepper)

Remove from bone, bite size pieces.

Cook in steamer:

4 large carrots, diced

1/4 chopped onion, steam until almost tender

Add 1/2 pkg. frozen peas.

Mix all of the above with 2 cans reduced fat cream of chicken soup. If too thick add water from steamed vegetables. Serve over rice.

Saucy Shrimp & Scallops

Who says Mondays are no fun, we have another recipe from Uncle Mike & this one sounds AMAZING! Uncle Mike shares one of my addictions, feta cheese. While this recipe would most certainly give you bad breath, I think it sounds like a perfect meal to have an at home date with your love. (Maybe that is because I am married & Matt always has gum) Most people drink white wine with seafood but the combination of the feta & the sun dried tomatoes would be delicious with a Spanish Red like the bottle we drank over the weekend: 2003 Vilosell, it was a blend of Tempranillo, Cabernet, Garnacha and Merlot.

Serves 2
Ingredients:

2 oz Butter

1 tbsp Garlic, minced

1 Green Onion, chopped

10 Kalamata Olives, ½ pieces

2 tbsp Sundried Tomatoes, julienne

3 oz Shrimp (small count)

3 oz Bay Scallops

2 tbsp Lemon Juice

¼ cup Clam Juice

3 tbsp Feta Cheese, crumbles

2 tbsp Chopped Parsley

Salt & Pepper
Method of Preparation:
Heat butter in a sauté pan. Add garlic and green onions and sauté until the aroma fills the air.
Add Kalamata olives and sundried tomatoes – cook for 30 seconds.
Add shrimp and scallops, salt & pepper and sauté until firm – do not overcook.
Add lemon juice, clam juice and feta cheese – bring to a simmer.
Pour into heated serving dish.
Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve with crusty bread.

Chicken Madeira

I have a group of girlfriends who I go out to dinner with every month. Each month we pick a new place, the meal consists of wine, sharing hors d'oeuvers & girl talk. If you don't have a group of friends that you go to dinner with you should start. It's a fun way to catch up & try new restaurants. In March the ladies & I went to Grande Lux Cafe, a new place at the fashion Square Mall. The portions were so large we decided to share an entree & a delicious pizza. The entree was chicken Madeira & I have just about perfected it! If you made my roast for Easter you have the Madeira Wine, if you didn't you can find it in the section with Port Wine.

Chicken

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast

8 asparagus spears

4 mozzarella cheese slices

Madeira Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms

3 cups Madeira wine

2 cups beef stock

1 tablespoon butter

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Heat up 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cover each chicken breast with plastic wrap then use a mallet to flatten the chicken to about 1/4-inch thick. Sprinkle each fillet with salt and pepper. Sauté the chicken fillets for 4 to 6 minutes per side, or until the chicken has browned just a bit. Remove chicken fillets from the pan and wrap them together in foil to keep the fillets warm while you make the sauce. Don't clean the pan. You want all that cooked-on goodness to stay in the skillet to help make the sauce.With the heat still on medium, add two tablespoons of oil to the skillet. Add the sliced mushrooms and sauté for about two minutes. Add the madeira wine, beef stock, butter and pepper. Bring sauce to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes or until sauce has reduce to about 1/4 of its original volume. When the sauce is done it will have thickened and turned a dark brown color. As the sauce is simmering, bring a medium saucepan filled about halfway with water to a boil. Add a little salt to the water. Toss the asparagus into the water and boil for 3 to 5 minutes, depending on the thickness of your asparagus spears. Drop the asparagus in a bowl of ice water to halt the cooking. The asparagus should be slightly tender when done, not mushy. Set oven to broil. Prepare the dish by arranging the cooked chicken fillets on a baking pan. Cross two asparagus spears over each fillet, then cover each with a slice of mozzarella cheese. Broil the fillets for 3 to 4 minutes or until light brown spots begin to appear on the cheese.To serve, arrange two chicken breasts on each plate, then spoon 3 or 4 tablespoons of madeira sauce over the chicken.

Market Street Potatoes

Market Street is one of my favorite places to eat in Salt Lake. They specialize in fresh seafood & steaks. My family loves to go for their clam chowder or the corn chowder, I also loved going to Sunday Brunch with friends. The breakfast potatoes are amazing & lucky for us, the Salt Lake Tribune published the recipe, thanks to my mom for sending it! These potatoes would be great with omelets.


8 – 10 small white or red potatoes
1 C shredded cheddar cheese
1/8 C diced red or green bell pepper
½ C diced yellow onion
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Place whole, unpeeled potatoes in a large pan, cover with water & bring to a boil.
Reduce to a simmer and cook 10 – 15 minutes until potatoes are still firm.
Immediately drain & place in ice water to stop the cooking

Leaving the skins on, cut potatoes into one inch chunks. In a bowl combine potatoes, cheese, peppers and onions, Season with Salt & Pepper. Toss lightly to combine.

Put mixture in a shallow baking pan that has been lightly coated with non stick cooking spray. Cover tightly with foil, bake 15 minutes, remove foil bake 5 minutes longer.
Makes 4 servings

Zesty Tomato Soup

Sometimes you need to make a fast dinner, so you can fake a home made meal! Opening up a can of soup is fine but you can dress it up to make it yummy.

1 can (10.5 ounces) condensed low-sodium, low-fat tomato soup
1 can (10.5 ounces) filled with fat-free milk
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil or cilantro
2 tablespoons croutons
1 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan cheese
In a saucepan, add the soup and milk. Whisk together until smooth. Warm over medium heat about 7 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add in the tomatoes and herbs. Cook an additional 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Ladle even amounts into individual bowls and garnish each serving with 1 tablespoon croutons and 1 1/2 teaspoons Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately.

Meatloaf

I thought it would be funny to play an April Fool's joke until I worried someone might actually cook the recipe & curse my name. Well I guess my mom will get this joke, there are very few foods I will not eat, won't even be a sport about it & try them. One is Meatloaf. I know people love it, I am sure I would if I tried but as a six year old I thought it was horrifying and now I am an adult & exercising my right to eat what I want. (Seriously though as a non-meatloaf eater giving you a recipe on how to make it what a joke!) But as an American Dinner classic, I thought I should search out a good recipe for meatloaf. This one comes from the Food Network & I am not going to adapt it at all since I am not a meatloaf expert. If anyone has a fabulous meatloaf recipe please share it with me & I will post it for all the meatloaf lovers. Hope no one plays any mean jokes on you!

6 ounces garlic-flavored croutons
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 onion, roughly chopped
1 carrot, peeled and broken
3 whole cloves garlic
1/2 red bell pepper
18 ounces ground chuck
18 ounces ground sirloin
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg

For the glaze:
1/2 cup catsup
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Dash Worcestershire sauce
Dash hot pepper sauce
1 tablespoon honey

Heat oven to 325 degrees F.

In a food processor bowl, combine croutons, black pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, and thyme. Pulse until the mixture is of a fine texture. Place this mixture into a large bowl. Combine the onion, carrot, garlic, and red pepper in the food processor bowl. Pulse until the mixture is finely chopped, but not pureed. Combine the vegetable mixture, ground sirloin, and ground chuck with the bread crumb mixture. Season the meat mixture with the salt. Add the egg and combine thoroughly, but avoid squeezing the meat.

Pack this mixture into a 10-inch loaf pan to mold the shape of the meatloaf. Onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, turn the meatloaf out of the pan onto the center of the tray. Insert a temperature probe at a 45 degree angle into the top of the meatloaf. Avoid touching the bottom of the tray with the probe. Set the probe for 155 degrees.

Combine the catsup, cumin, Worcestershire sauce, hot pepper sauce and honey. Brush the glaze onto the meatloaf after it has been cooking for about 10 minutes.

Now here is a really funny meatloaf story, my sister being a newly wed decided to make her hubby a meatloaf dinner, lacking a loaf pan she formed the meat into a big ball...it never cooked through.