32 Flavors

Today’s blog Post is inspired by The Daily Prompt

Vanilla with a Flake Bar

1. Coffee
2. Cherry Garcia
3. Key Lime Pie
4. Mint Chocolate Chip
5. Vanilla
6. Chocolate
7. Peach
8. Strawberry
9. Chocolate Chip
10. Orange Sherbert
11. Tiramisu
12. Rocky Road
13. Cookies ‘n Cream
14. Butter Pecan
15. Strawberry Cheesecake
16. Red Velvet
17. Carrot Cake
18. Thin mint
19. Peanut Butter Cup
20. Mocha Chip
21. Moose Tracks
22. French Vanilla
23. Cheeseburger
24. Pistachio mocha delight
25. Chocolate Malted Crunch
26. Heath bar crunch
27. Bubble gum
28. Fruity Pebbles
29. Apple
30. Banana
31. Pizza
32. Whiskey

What did I miss?   Which is your favorite?

Prompt for 14-Dec: Christmas Traditions

Today’s prompt is of my own making.

 Traditions: What are your Christmas Traditions?

The ladies are in the kitchen making toffee.   The recipe they are working from is on a printout of email to me dated October 24, 2004.  My wife and daughter are chatting away as they melt the butter and prepare the pan with nuts and dark chocolate chips.   My recollection is that my former boss gave us some of her toffee in December 2003 and we asked for the receive the following year.  My wife and daughter make the toffee every Christmas season and give most of it away.

On Sunday Laura and I will make another holiday favorite known as “Joan’s Rumballs”.   I worked with Joan for about 20 years.  Every year she would bring batches of rumballs and people would always joke about how strong they were as they walked away with 2 or 3.   Joan emailed the  recipe the Christmas before she retired, just a few  months before she passed away.   I haven’t had time to make them during the last few years, but they will get made this year.

When The Child was in Pop Warner Cheer I used to bring Joan’s Rumballs to practice to share with the other parents.  They were always well received, especially during competition.  They didn’t know about Joan, but after the first year, their eyes lit up when I brought them.  The best traditions require sharing.

At the start of this next week, I will bring a batch of  Joan’s rumballs into work.  For some people who have been there a while, Joan’s rumballs will have special meaning.   For others they will be just another sweet sitting out.

I guess that’s the second thing about traditions, they need context.

Christmas can be a socio-commercial exercise or Christmas can be a day of deeply moving spiritual and religious period of hope.  It all depends on our context.

Merry Christmas

Prompt for 9 Dec: Nutrition

Today’s prompt is courtesy of Cultivate 2012 Daily Prompt list

Foodie Friday — Cultivate Style: Food nourishes us. Some foods give us more enjoyment than others. Some foods leave us feeling less than ourselves. What foods nourished your soul and body this year? What food choices can you make in 2013 to cultivate more self-care?

One word: Salmon.

I’ve never really enjoyed salmon.  It’s always been a bland fish with not a lot of flavor.  Until….

In 2011, we took a Disney cruise to Alaska.  On the third day of the cruise, there was a huge barbeque which included freshly caught King Salmon.   Given my just below boarder-line high cholesterol, I thought I would try the salmon.  It was like no other piece of salmon that I had ever eaten before.  An abbondanza of  flavor exploded in my mouth and I became much more interested in salmon.

Fast forward to the Lenten season of 2012.  My wife and I abstain from meat during the Fridays of Lent.  We have found that the California Fish Grill is a great place to eat during Lent and we’ve gone there religiously  since.  It was there I discovered their very tasty Cajun Salmon salad. After Lent ended, I had a two-week, six country business trip in Northern Europe.  During that trip I found myself able to order and enjoy freshly caught salmon every day.

I have eaten more salmon in 2012 than I have eaten my 46 years previous on the plant. What I have learned this year is that there are two types of salmon.  Free and farmed.  Farmed salmon tends to be less expensive as well as bland.  Farmed salmon is best served with sauces and preparation that bring flavor to the fish.    Fresh salmon that has been caught (typically in Northern regions) is usually much more expensive, much more enjoyable and does not require a great deal more preparation other than grilling.  The rich flavor of the fish stands on its own.  I have also learned that in certain areas that do not have access to fresh free salmon, all one will get  is overpriced farmed salmon.  Never pay high prices for farmed salmon unless the preparation will justify the cost.

I have cataloged some of the best salmon dishes that I have come across on my blog.  The list is presented in order from most favored to lesser favorites.

1. Salmon & Asparagus on Orzo

2. Simple Salmon

3. Cajun Salmon Salad

4. Smokey Applewood Salmon Filet

5. Roasted Salmon with Blackberry Jalapeno Butter Sauce

6. Grilled Salmon from California Fish Grill

7. Thai Specialty Salmon

8. Chipolte Veggie Bowl with Smoked Salmon

9. Salmon with Pesto and Pasta

Even if you don’t like salmon, may I suggest just trying the Salmon & Asparagus on served on Orzo.  If you can serve it with a nice fresh piece of Alaskan or Northern Atlantic salmon, it will be even better.

Salmon & Asparagus on Orzo Pasta

Bon appetit!

Day 1 – Airport 2 Dunkin’ Donuts

Time away: 9 hours. One flight is 10 min behind me the next is two hours ahead.

Newark Airport means I have flown overnight and it also means a very unhealthy breakfast at Dunkin’ Donuts. California has many blessings, but DD isn’t one of them. I decided to indulge in a pumpkin muffin today.

The flight in was packed. I was in a middle seat between a very large man and a suit who didn’t think the rules about shutting off ones mobile device applied to him.

It’s 5:35am. Emails from Europe are coming in. Need to get some more Euros, Pounds and Swiss Francs.

Next stop, Philly. I need to be back here at this airport in 35 hours.

Yankees lost. Game 5 tonight.

How is your Friday going?

 

Salmon Saturday: Chipolte Veggie Bowl with Smoked Salmon

Salmon Saturday: Because there are so many great ways to prepare salmon and someone has to start writing them down.  Take these ideas and make them your own.

This weeks post was a bit of an on the fly idea. We stopped at Chipolte on the way home from the mall and I ordered my usual veggie bowl.

I order the bowl because just adding the tortilla adds 290 calories, 9 grams of fat and 670mg of sodium.

Once home, I chopped up some Alaskan smoked salmon from the store and added it to the bowl to add a little more protein to the meal.

The flavor from the veggie bowl masked the flavor of the salmon, nut I could still tell it was there.

Have a good week!

First draft posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Oranges? Already?

I was walking the back yard the other day and it struck me that there were a about 20 oranges already well-grown in my tree.

Oranges in August

As it was 97 degrees outside, I was a bit taken aback as these fruit won’t turn orange for quite a while. They will be ripe for the picking in the early part of next year. Then I realized that the early part of next year isn’t so far away.  Nature has to start early I guess.

Food takes so long to grow and yet we consume it so quickly. I am not just talking about fruits and vegetables.  Try and imagine about how many cows and chickens are needed to restock just Mc Donalds.  Think about how long it took to grow each animal and how much feed they required just to meat one day’s demand.  It gets a bit overwhelming to think about it.

I recall the two times that I drove through the Texas panhandle and had to roll up the windows from the smell of the miles and miles of cattle.  It all feels…. wrong.

Salmon Saturday Afternoon: Salmon with Pesto and Pasta

Salmon Saturday: Because there are so many great ways to prepare salmon and someone has to start writing them down.  Take these ideas and make them your own.

It’s about 6:30am on Saturday morning and I have no Salmon Saturdays ready to launch.  I have ideas of what I could write, but nothing really inspired me to write this month.   Then I saw Kat’s Friday Food round up and the picture of Great Grandma Turano’s Meatballs   and then I knew what I was going to write about and what I was going to have for dinner tonight.

A few months back, I had lunch with wife at Lascari’s grill near my work.  The special that day was a salmon with pesto sauce served with a side of pasta.   Sounds great, right?

This dish should have been advertised as a pasta dish with a side of pesto salmon.  The pasta sauce had a tangy rich flavor that more than made up for the the unremarkable salmon.  I am guessing that the salmon was previously frozen and very little went into preparing it prior to it being grilled.   The pesto sauce added nothing to the flavor and it sat there under a green death shroud.  I suspect this was once an inspired creation developed by a chef and edited by a bean-counter, who in his attempt to cut the total cost concomitantly destroyed the product.

One has to decide if the flavor is going to come from the fish, the pesto sauce or both.  In this case, I would probably lean on the pesto.  If I were to make this at home, I would start with a fresh piece of salmon.   The only reason I would use frozen salmon or farm-raised salmon is if I had a killer pesto sauce that I could trust to pull off the meal.
Now, back to Lascari’s…..

This one dish aside, I will say that the food at Lascari’s is always good.  The portions are filling and there is usually leftovers to take home.

What really stands out in my mind about Lascari’s is their commitment to the community.  Having had a daughter in Pop Warner and High School competitive cheer, Lascari’s has always been there to help the teams in the area with fund-raisers, both in their restaurant and on-site at football games and cheer camps.  I have had my fill of fund-raiser food over the many years.   Lascari’s is the one place that will always provide a high quality tasty meal.

Salmon Saturday Afternoon: Grilled Salmon from California Fish Grill

Salmon Saturday: Because there are so many great ways to make Salmon and someone has to start writing them down.  Take these ideas and make them your own.

A few weeks back I reviewed the Cajun Salmon Salad  from the California Fish Grill.This week, we tried the Charbroiled Salmon.  The Charbroiled  menu options include Swahi, Salmon, Trout, Tilapia, Ahi, Mahi Mahi, Catfish, Swordfish, Shrimp, and Barramundi. All charbroiled items topped with either garlic butter sauce or cajun style and presented with coleslaw, bread and the choice of fries or rice.

Charbroiled Salmon from the California Fish Grill

My first impulse was to go with the cajun spiced salmon, but as I reviewed a few cajun salmon ideas recently, I decided to go with the garlic butter.  The garlic butter was nice, but a bit bland.  I didn’t really taste the garlic at all.  I enjoyed this light meal and I wished I had gone with the cajun seasoned option.

The grilled zucchini was quite good.   It was cooked perfectly.   California Fish Grill does do great side dishes.

This place is always a good place to sit down and have a nice meal, no matter if you like salmon, ahi or catfish. Everything is good.

Salmon Saturday: Salmon & Asparagus on Orzo

Salmon Saturday: Because there are so many great ways to make Salmon and someone has to start writing them down.

This Salmon Saturday is brought to you by Calzone’s Italian Restaurant on the North Beach in San Francisco.  While having a visit with my cousins in San Francisco, they thought dinner at Calzone’s might be nice.  I was looking for Italian food the night before running the San Francisco Marathon.   The menu had pretty broad appeal, but as always, I looked for the salmon dishes first.

When I saw the salmon and asparagus on the pasta menu, had in my mind’s eye that it would be served with angel hair pasta.   Mixing the dish with orzo was a very pleasant surprise.

salmon & asparagus green onions & lemon parsley butter

This find was the highlight of my salmon-seeking month.  The dish was light and filled with flavor.  There was just enough hint of olive oil for flavor without it being greasy.      The parmesan cheese the waiter added touched up of flavor nicely.  The serving size was just right, unless one is carbo-loading for a marathon the next day.

Avocado and crab pizza

My cousin tried the dungeness crab avocado, onions & fontina. He was willing to part with and half a slice and when I sampled it, I understood why. The mixture of the crab taste with the avocado had an amazing flavor that was strong but no overpowering.
My lovely wife tried the margherita pizza, made with san marzano tomatoes, panna, garlic fresh basil & fresh mozzarella.   Again, very tasty and an excellent choice.

Calzone’s is a nice place to go sit and enjoy a meal.  It’s cozy, the service is good and the prices reasonable.

The tables lining the street which gave it a nice European flare, but let’s be completely clear on one point: DO NOT TAKE YOUR FRIENDS VISITING FROM ITALY TO THIS RESTAURANT AND EXPECT THEM TO THINK IT’S JUST LIKE HOME.  They will like the food, and it’s an very good American interpretation of Italian food.

I wouldn’t drive across San Francisco to eat here, but I would certainly go again if I were around the North Beach.

Salmon Saturday: Roasted Salmon with Blackberry Jalapeno Butter Sauce

Salmon Saturday: Because there are so many great ways to make Salmon and someone has to start bringing them together and writing them down.

This Salmon Saturday is brought to you by the Frugal Foodie Family!

Roasted Salmon with Blackberry Jalapeno Butter Sauce.

The blackberry Jalapeno butter sauce brings a great deal of flavor and actually overwhelms the taste of the salmon.  This is good if you have children or spouses who don’t like fish. It’s also good if you are using farm-raised salmon which tends to have less flavor.

I would not use expense salmon that has a lot of flavor in it.   Definitely a make again.