Happy Easter!!!

Lemon cupcake covered with marzipan and lemon buttercream. African Violet royal icing flower.

Six hours later ... Dinner is served!

Roasted chicken, roasted broccoli, slow roasted tomatoes, sauteed fennel, glazed carrots and yeast rolls. My theory is that once you turn the oven on, you should cook as much stuff in it as possible. Damn. I really forgot to bake the mac and cheese. You've seen the glazed carrots before. We'll talk about the other stuff later.

Peace and blessings.

Tools of the trade:

• Joy
• Reverence
• Patience

Sugar and Spice

Williams-Sonoma has the most excellent recipe for spice-rubbed salmon. Since I found the recipe, I rarely make salmon any other way. It's just that good. I paired the fish with glazed carrots and my new favorite veggie, roasted beets. I got the veggie recipes from Cook's Illustrated. When I sat down to eat, I realized that each item on the plate had an element of sweetness and two had sweetness and spice.









I started with frozen wild salmon. (Yea Trader Joe's!) Thaw then rinse the fish and pat dry.
Toast your spices: fennel, coriander and cumin. Toasted whole spices have so much more flavor than pre-ground spices. (If you don't have whole spices on hand, toast your ground spices in a little olive oil and apply them as a paste to the fish. Make sure the paste is cool first.) Once your spices are fragrant (but not scorched), transfer them to a spice grinder. Give them a good whirl.






Add brown sugar and a pinch of Kosher salt. Mix well. The recipe gives a specific salt amount, which I never follow. Sprinkle the mixture evenly on the fish. Here is where I add additional salt if necessary. This way is easier for me because I judge salt better by sight. Pat the mixture into the fish. After seasoning, put the fish in the refrigerator for an hour.


Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large skillet, heat olive oil until almost smoking. Carefully add the fish, skin side up, to the pan. Sear for a couple of minutes. Carefully flip the fish (you should see good caramelization.) Move the pan to the oven. Cook until desired level of doneness. I'm a well-done, fish-is-flaky, kinda girl. I know ... the food police are on the way.


To the carrots! Actually, I worked on these while the fish was in the refrigerator.
I added rosemary and a touch of smoked paprika to the carrots and left out the lemon juice. They were good. Next time, I think I'll try cumin and a mix of sweet and smoked paprika. Add the carrots, chicken broth, sugar and seasoning to a nonstick skillet. Bring to a boil.Reduce the liquid and add your butter and a bit more sugar. You now have glazed carrots!
Dish it up and eat it up! I know the plate is missing some green. I was just too lazy to look for the frozen spinach and I hardly ever have fresh salad greens. on hand The leftover beets were a fine stand in.


See the appropriately sized piece of fish? Yeah. ... I finished the other half straight out of the pan while standing over the stove. My kitchen is a classy establishment.


Tools of the trade:

• All-Clad 12" Skillet
• KitchenAid Coffee Grinder
• Kuhn Rikon Fish Spatula
• Shun Santoku
• Totally Bamboo Butcher Block
• All-Clad 10" Nonstick Skillet