Salmon. Again.

I liked the previous salmon so much, I made it again. This time, I got the salmon at Safeway. It was much better and thicker, but also more expensive.

On a whim, I threw in shrimp as well. Sauce: honey, garlic, hoisin and soy.

That generated a lot of water, so I mixed it into the mashed potatoes. And added smoked paprika to the potatoes - that was just perfect.

Wings

What can possibly be better than chicken wings (honey garlic, in this case) and tater tots? Nothing. Nothing is better than chicken wings and tater tots. Except maybe bacon and hash browns. But besides that, nothing!

Best salmon recipe

I've been craving this salmon for a long time, but have been foiled every time by other delicious looking food items that I purchased instead.

Finally, I decided that the craving had to be satisfied. Sadly, the Sobeys salmon disappointed me gravely. The superstore salmons are about ten times better - no kidding. Costco salmons aren't usually very good, but they're golden compared to the Sobeys salmon I was unfortunate enough to endure.

ANYWAY

Honey, hoisin sauce, a touch of soy sauce, minced garlic. Mix in a cup. Throw the salmon on a pan, cook halfway, turn, pour the sauce mixture. After a couple minutes, cover with a lid. The whole thing cooks on medium heat.

The result is ridiculously delicious. The honey glazes the fish and caramelizes on top, and the garlic adds a spicy touch. The hoisin sauce envelopes the salmon and brings all the flavours together.

Of note: thin sliced salmon works poorly. The thicker the better (ie superstore, not Sobeys). Skins are ok because they prevent burning. Although salmon with skin on works better on a barbeque (I seriously need to buy me a BBQ).

The result: heaven in your mouth.

Butternut squash soup

One of my most favourite meals, and my number one soup.

I love it because it tastes delicious and is perfect in any weather. You can put all kinds of scary veggies in there, like brussel sprouts or broccoli or cauliflower or onions or celery, and your family won't know any better. And you only need to kind of chop up stuff - you'll obliterate it in the food processor later. Any spices work well.

I hate it because it's a pain to make. I don't care that all the websites boast how easy it is. Puréing the soup "in batches" is awkward, and hot, has inevitable spills and, thus, burns. Plus it's a pain to clean up after all the spills. And preparing the squash is a nightmare: it's extremely difficult to cut, peeling is even worse, and your hands are covered in white crap afterwards. Which I think is dead skin. Luckily, Costco had pre-peeled pre-cut butternut squash in boxes, so that saves about an hour and is extremely useful.

I also threw in a frozen fish patty, which was disgusting when fried alone, but went perfectly with the soup (ie: blended). Also I threw in bacon. Because bacon.

Then on top, dill and smoked chili. It was really good. I used a handheld blender and once I figured out how to use it, the number of spills and burns decreased significantly. But I still had a mess to clean up.

Bacon

The great (cardiovascular) sin of Man. The wonderful gift of the Pig (although probably involuntary). Bacon!

And because I bought 4L of milk from Costco, because that's the smallest size they had, I'll be having bacon with cereal. And with omelettes. To uh, use up the milk.

Semi-sober cocktail

I wanted champagne and acquired same. However, I somehow ended up alone this weekend (except for Cat, but she practices abstinence). And drinking champagne alone is depressing, never mind sozzlesizing.

Hence: fake champagne. Non-alcoholic champagne and wine to mix.

Not salmon

I had this random craving for salmon. I drove to the store, imagining exactly how I'll make it, trying to figure out if I had all the ingredients.

When I got to the store, the deli guy was offering samples of this breaded tenderized pork.

Anyway, long story short, I had breaded tenderized pork for dinner. Also I am never eating brussel sprouts again. Whatever health benefit they're supposed to offer, I think I'm set for a while.

Tonight's wine

I like this for two reasons. No, three reasons.
1. It's a Riesling. I've a thing for Rieslings. Also, I found that it goes surprisingly well with spicy seafood.
2. It's a cat. A blue cat. It also comes in pink cat and red cat.
3. You can "strangle it". As I am typing this, Cat is nuzzling to my hand, meowing at me, and biting me to get me to scratch her. But I can't strangle Cat. I can, however, hold the wine bottle around the neck tightly, and threaten Cat with it.

A lonely (but lovely) meal

So I'm working the entire thanksgiving long weekend. I'm not excited about it. My entire building smells of roasted garlic. I couldn't be bothered to make any fancy meal, although I would not have minded turkey. I spent today doing laundry, because it's the only time I have to do it.

ANYWAY I'll stop whining.

After visiting my family last weekend, I brought back a giant bag of peppers. My ideal way to deal with giant bags of peppers is to stuff them with ground beef or something like that. But that requires time and effort, and I was feeling too sorry for myself to bother.

So here was the result of the lazy way out:

Cut up peppers, cut up potatoes from an old bag I discovered in the fridge, and frozen beans. And turkey meatballs from Saveon (premade; they come in a box). I put the potatoes in the oven first, because they take longer, then I put in the rest, covered with foil to keep moist. I added tomatoes at the very end to steam them a bit. I used to hate steamed tomatoes, but now I love them.

Olive oil, Italian seasoning, some garlic spread (for some artificial roasted garlic smell), some paprika.

It was delicious!

Beer cocktail

Learned this one at our local Brewster's.
Mix together; enjoy.
Not as sweet as a straight cooler; and not as beer-y.
The glass is from Kriek Belgian beer, which is $8 per standard bottle. Screw that. Just vary the cooler and the beer and you'll get the same taste.