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Rice recipe

Salmon recipe

Ingredients

Ginger, peeled.

Ginger, grated.

Organic Blue Agave Syrup.

Rice Vinegar.

Garlic.

Grated Ginger.

Glaze.

Glaze being added to salmon.

Glazed salmon.

BRAND NEW CAST IRON SKILLET! YAY FOR BIRTHDAY PRESENTS!!

Sizzle!

Basil.

Butter.

Roasted corn.

This is going to be a tough one...

Oh, maybe not.

Open bag, empty into pan, heat. The End.

Busy Stove Top.

Rice.

Rice+salt&pepper+corn

ACTION SHOT! Adding basil.

Mix and you are done.

Stir peas.

Finished meal!

I don't think that I can tell you how good fresh grated ginger smells. I would make this meal every week so that I can smell the fresh ginger. That good, really. Alright, so this is the first venture from the "I ♥ Trader Joe's®" cookbook and it went wonderfully. If every recipe I ever do is as easy and delicious as these ones then my life would so much simpler when it comes to this project! I was in now way exhausted when I finished the meal AND I finished on time! Woot!!! I also received a 10 for this whole meal. He did call it metaphysical perfection and if he had to name a the weakest link it would be the peas. I didn't even "make" the peas so they don't really count. The rice was the most delicious part, it was perfectly seasoned with the salt and pepper and basil; the basil was in now way over powering, and the corn added just the right amount of texture and flavor to make it unique. The salmon was also very delicious. The glaze was very easy and had a real depth of flavor that was a bit unexpected. It started off sweet and then the ginger kicked in with a great compliment of heat and the salsa finished it off with a combination of both of those flavors. The recipe called to cook the salmon in a casserole dish, but since I don't have one I used my brand new birthday present (from the boy's mom and grandma, Thank you!!!) a super spiffy cast iron skillet, and it worked perfectly. "A deceptively light meal with tremendous amounts of substance" that was the exact quote from the boy when I asked him to describe the meal in one phrase. Not too bad if you ask me. 

If you are wondering what makes a meal a 10 we have narrowed down the qualifications:

1.  He would want the whole meal to be made again in the future.
2. I could easily make it for guests.
3. He goes back for seconds.

Alright, I added the last one, but I honestly think that that is a huge factor when it comes to whether it is a 10 or not. So there it is! Until next week my lovelies!

Next week there will most likely be another recipe from this same cookbook so that I can try out a variety of recipes from it, to make sure that this week wasn't a fluke.

I ♥ TRADER JOE'S®!

Menu for 3/29:

• Corn and Basil Rice
• Minted Peas
• Sweet-Glazed Salmon with Corn Salsa

 Corn and Basil Rice:

Trader Joe's® Thai Jasmine Rice, Butter, Roasted Corn, Organic Basil Leaves, Salt& Pepper.

So we might just corn ourselves out on this one. Corn in the rice and on the salmon. Whatever, it'll be good at the very least, if not downright delicious.

Minted Peas:

Boom goes the dynamite, that's all she wrote.

Minted peas from the bag that I bought them in. I plan on following the directions on the back of the bag. I'll let you know how it goes.

Sweet-Glazed Salmon with Corn Salsa:

Fresh or thawed salmon fillets, organic blue agave sweetener, fresh minced ginger, crushed garlic, rice vinegar, Trader Joe's® Corn and Chile Tomato-less Salsa.

How does that sound for a Nom factor? Pretty darned delicious if you ask me, and since I am the one writing this blog, I did ask me and I said that the Nom Factor seems really high for this dish. All of these recipes come from the 'I ♥ Trader Joe's®' cookbook that I found at the local Urban Outfitters. I knew that store was good for something that wasn't ironic hipster clothes. Anyway, this is a WHOLE BOOK of recipes that are just from the ingredients found at Trader Joe's® stores. I have a feeling that you may find a lot of the upcoming weeks to involve this book. It is just that awesome. I am slightly jealous of the writers though. They clearly live in a part of the country that liquor is allowed to be sold in grocery stores. Here in Massachusetts that type of tomfoolery is frowned upon and you can only find grocery store booze in few and far between places. Even then it is normally only wine and beer, none of the really good stuff. But I digress, I am blessed with a plethora of Trader Joe's-es.

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Recipe

Ingredients.

Potatotes (pre-peeling)

Potatoes all chopped up and ready to be boiled.

Boiling!

Boiled!

Boiled and drained and steamy!

Butter and wet mustards

Creme Fraîche

Milk and mashed.

Total anniolation! AKA Mashed.

My tofurkey sausage.

His chicken sausage.

His finished meal.

My finished meal.

Alright here it is. Bangers & Mustard Mash. I forgot to mention last post that it was mustard mash and not plain mash, but perhaps from the three different types of mustard that I listed in the ingredients you figured it out. This was okay. He ranked it as a 7 and I agree with that. With the amount of mustard that was in the mash you would think that it was knock your socks off spicy, but it really wasn't. It just had a mild mustard taste, that is unless you bit into a mustard seed. Then you got a small dose of the heat. The recipe called for me to use an electric mixer to whip the potatoes into shape to make them creamy. I didn't agree with that, I like me some lumps in my mashed potatoes. It lets you know that they were at one time solid single things and now they are all fuse and together. I wanted the texture; that and I didn't want to lug my electric mixer down from its home above my fridge. The texture actually complimented the meal rather well, to the point that I don't think that super smooth potatoes would be good at all.They would have just lowered the 7 to a 5. Another thing is that we chose a sweet Italian chicken sausage for his bangers and he informed me that these 'sweet' sausages were actually spicier than the mustard mash. The recipe called for chicken or veal sausage and he doesn't like veal so, yeah. I really did follow this recipe to the letter this time and it has lead me to believe that a certain amount of my 'flying by the seat of my pants'-ness is a good thing. Or maybe it is what I am listening to when I am making these meals. This week it was NPR talking about Libya, last week I listened to Jim Gaffigan and laughed my butt off. I might be on to something there.


Next week I will make something from my new cook book "I ♥ Trader Joe's cookbook"

*POW* ~WHOMP~ ▓BANG▓ !!!

Menu for 3/23:

• Bangers & Mash

Bangers:

Chicken sausage, veggie Italian sausage.

"Bangers" is British speak for sausages for those who are not in the know. Now you are in the know. Don't you feel special?

Mash:

Yukon gold potatoes, whole milk, creme fraîche, Dijon mustard, whole-grain mustard, dry mustard, salt & pepper.

This is another Ina recipe. When we were looking for recipes last week and came across the tuna sandwiches from last week we came across this one too. It was decided that this would be another on we would need to try but that the tuna would be first. I have a feeling that this one may be a little bit labor intensive than the tuna, but just as delicious. I also think that the "mash" (British speak for mash potatoes, look at how much you are learning today!) is going to be a bit 'knock you socks off' spicy with all the mustard. That will be just fine though, it is allergy season after all and who doesn't need their sinuses cleared a bit, right? I am intrigued to be working with dry mustard as I have never worked with it before. We also had to go on a little bit of an adventure because our local Trader Joe's didn't have it. I told my darling that by the end of this little experiment I think I am going to have one of the best stocked spice cabinets ever. I might need a whole room just for the different spices. Okay maybe not a room, but I will definitely be needing more shelf space.

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Shopping list for tuna.

Shopping list for hummus.

Tuna ingredients

Hummus ingredients.

Celery.

Celery chopped HIYA!

Onion.

Onion chopped *insert karate chopping sound effect here*

"Together in perfect harmony"

Squeezing the lemon for information juice.

"Fluff with fork" so said the recipe.

Mixing up the tuna.

Hummus before...

Hummus after! Quite the transformation.

You're Toast!

Now You're Toast With Hummus!

Finished meal!

Ah man, this one was great! Not only was it rather simple, it was delicious, and healthier than most. I will tell you right off the bat that I received a 9 for this meal, and he said it would have been a 10 but the hummus was just not thick enough. I totally agreed with him. This was very yummy indeed but the hummus just needed more texture.

He said that it was "The perfect blend of crunchy, chewy, spicy, and salty." It was too. I tried to follow the letter of the recipes this week because I was starting to get a bit off track and fly by the seat of my pants too much. This experiment is meant to help me learn, not just to finish with something resembling food. As you can see I posted the ingredients as the book called for them. I found nearly everything and if I was trying to look harder I could have found everything with many trips to many stores. As it was I got at least 98% of the ingredients called for. I could not however, find all the ingredients in the proper quantity. A fact that might actually be a good thing considering I am only making dinner for my darling and I and not 6 other friends. Let's just say there were no left overs, so it is a good thing that I didn't find all the right quantities. 

We both thought that this was delicious and had a definite feeling of a spring time meal. It was rather simple too so I could easily see myself making all these things separately and then bringing them to a picnic with friends or a BBQ or something like that. From what I read in the recipe, the longer the tuna sits mixed the better it is because the flavors all mingle together. Next I make hummus though I will not use as much lemon juice and yogurt, the thicker the hummus the better for this recipe. 

Well week 11 is now in the books and it is onward to week 12. Next week we have decided to do another from the books: Bangers and Mash!