What's For Dinner?

It's the weekend and I didn't feel like cooking.  This is really quick.  Haven't tried it yet as it's still cooking on the stove.  Just thought I'd add it because it'll probably be good.

1lb of Linguiça, sliced
3 large potatoes, chopped/chunked
1 small sweet onion
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
Salt/Pepper to taste

Heat Olive oil in a pan on medium heat
Add potatoes, onions and linguiça to the pan and cook for 20-30 minutes (or until potatoes are done), stirring occasionally.  Season with salt/pepper to taste.

And that's it.

Let me start off by saying that I hate salmon.  I like the color, not the fish.  But I keep hearing about how good it is for me and how I should eat it, blah blah blah.  And yes, I've had it before.  I had it at my sister's wedding and it was wonderful.  However, I'm convinced that it wasn't salmon because it was so good.  It was blackened.  I tried ordering that out at a restaurant and it was gross.  Therefore, the wedding salmon wasn't really salmon.  hehe.


So leave it to my mom to invite us over for dinner a few months ago and server salmon.  You see, I trust my mom.  And she knows I don't like fish...but this is the same woman who told me that I would like tilapia and she was right.  And she was right about her salmon.  I loved it.


And a few weeks ago I found some salmon that comes frozen in little individual packages and I thought I'd try it.


What is nice about buying it that way is that it was 1.  on sale for a dollar each and 2.  I don't have to defrost it before cooking, so I could make it when I was ready and wouldn't be able to blame "defrost time" on why I shouldn't.


I called Mom this afternoon to get the recipe, which she recited off the top of her head while she was out driving the golf cart in Florida with my dad--they were running errands to the hardware store and grocery store.


I cooked up some roasted potatoes and a vegetable medley to serve with the salmon.  And I altered Mom's recipe from chives to green onions (because I couldn't find the chives I thought I had in the house).


So here it is.  You can double/triple it but since it was just us tonight...


Serves 2


2 frozen (or fresh*) salmon fillets
2 green onions, chopped (the white and the green part) (or 1-2 Tbsp of chives)
1/2tsp Worcestershire sauce (or to taste)
4Tbsp of mayonnaise


Preheat the oven to 350°*.  Put the salmon in a baking dish and mix the green onions (or chives), Worcestershire sauce and mayo in a small bowl.  Pour/spread the mayo mixture over the fillets.


Bake the salmon in the oven for about 25-30* minutes.  At about 25 minutes, remove it from the oven and check to see if the internal temp is 160°.  I basically cooked mine until it was 160° internal temp.

*Note:  The directions on the salmon package say 450° and 25 minutes from frozen.  You can try it that way...next time I make this I will see if it works.  However, if you're using fresh (not frozen) salmon, I would try 350° first.  

So it's that time of year...and my skin is aching, my sinuses hurt, etc....so before I get sick I like to make soup!  Plus my co-worker's wife is sick so I wanted to make some to her to help her feel better too!
Tonight's recipe was inspired by Italian Wedding Soup with a few twists and turns to make it something a little extra special.  I didn't actually measure anything, so I'm guessing at how much I put in of everything.  Feel free to add or subtract as you'd like.  It turned out REALLY well and cleared up my sinuses.  Had 2 bowls!!

This makes a lot of broth--since I was sharing it, I wanted to make sure I had enough.  I would say this could easily serve 8.

1-2 heads of escarole, washed and chopped
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1-2 small sweet onion, chopped or diced, depending on your taste
1 32oz container of beef broth
2 32 oz of chicken broth
2 cups of water
25-40 cocktail sized meatballs
9oz of frozen tortellini
1/2 cup parmigiana cheese
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp olive oil

In a large soup pot, heat olive oil on medium.  Saute onions until soft and add garlic, stirring so the garlic doesn't burn.  Add meatballs and stir to coat the meatballs.  Allow to cook for about 2 minutes.  Add water and broth.  Turn up the heat to Medium-High.  Stir in the escarole and cook until it wilts.  Add 1/4 c of parmigiana cheese and seasonings, salt and pepper. Stir in the tortellini and cover, bringing the soup to a boil.  Remove the soup from heat and stir.  Serve with remaining parmigiana cheese.