Lime-Butter Broiled Salmon and Asparagus

I decided to try another recipe tonight. The original recipe calls for grilling, but it is November and the grill is 4 flights downstairs. This meal serves 2.

Lime-Butter Broiled Salmon
Ingredients:
2 9-oz salmon fillets
1/4 cup butter (half a stick)
1/8 cup lime juice
2 cloves garlic (minced)
1 tbsp pepper
dash of salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to broil. Melt butter. Add lime juice, pepper and garlic. Mix together. Put salmon in a broiling pan and cover in about half of the marinade. Let it sit while the oven preheats. (This would be a good time to start the asparagus). Cook for about 7 minutes, cover the salmon with the rest of the mixture, and cook for 7 more minutes or until done (check by cutting into the thickest part of the salmon). Sprinkle with more lime juice and serve.

Broiled Asparagus
Ingredients:
1/4 lb asparagus (the amount is pretty irrelevant)
1/8 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 clove garlic (minced)

Directions:
Wash asparagus and spread it evenly in a glass pan. Mix together olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic. Cover asparagus evenly with the mixture (don't be afraid to use your hands!). Cook for about 10 minutes, flipping at the 5 minute mark. Add more olive oil if they look dry at the 5 minute mark.



This was surprisingly delicious. I wasn't sure how broiling would do with butter, but this actually came out really well. Also, I burnt my hand in the oven. Ouch! Ah well, battle scars.

Kelly's Breakfast of Champions!

First off: Star Trek Eggo Waffles. I found them at Giant. You have to eat them at least once in your life. Secondly, Morningstar Maple-Flavored Veggie Sausage Patties. Thirdly, Morningstar Veggie Bacon Strips. 

I find that cooking the "fakin' bacon" in olive oil in a skillet leads to the best results. Microwave them for 30 seconds or so if they are frozen, then throw them on the skillet with a bit of olive oil. Cook until they are crisp and pat them dry with a paper towel. Using the leftover olive oil from the fakin' bacon, cook the veggie sausage patties on the skillet. They are UNBELIEVABLE. Morningstar makes the best faux meat on the market. Top it off with a few Star Trek Eggo waffles and the world is your oyster! (Or waffle).

Making Caramel Really Isn't That Hard

I tried to make caramel today, and I think I did okay. There are two different types: wet and dry. Wet caramel starts with a sugar and water base, while dry caramel is simply sugar. I didn't have the ingredients to make caramel apples, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try just having some apples dipped in caramel.

I did some experimentation with it today. I started by making dry caramel and then added water to it. What I got was a thinner caramel base and then some neat-looking crystallized caramel that I could form into hardened shapes. I am NOT responsible for your safety if you try this. Adding water after the sugar is melted is DANGEROUS! It sputters and was probably a very stupid thing for me to do without protective gloves.

Still, it was pretty delicious and I can't wait until I can make my own caramel candies using the base I created!

In case you were wondering, I'll post how to make dry caramel:

Ingredients:
8 tbsp granulated white sugar

Directions:
Heat a saucepan to medium heat. Add the sugar and shift the pan around a bit so it is evenly covering the bottom of the pan. Let the sugar melt. It should take about 5 minutes. It will start around the edges. WATCH IT CAREFULLY! Once it starts melting, stir it a bit. Once it is liquid and is a dark honey color, remove it from the heat and put it into a glass bowl. (If you keep it in the pot, it will keep cooking and may burn.) This was the point where I added 4 tbsp of cold water to the mixture for my experiment. I then put it back on the heat to try to get it to mix better. I poured out the liquid into a glass bowl and ate the hardened part! Nom nom nom.

These are just my directions and this is in no way the best way to make caramel. It is just what I did.

Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

Do you have potatoes in your cupboard that are just threatening to rot there or sprout into some crazy potato bush? Fear not, for I am to the rescue! Upon realizing that I had about 3 bags of potatoes creating a musty environment in my kitchen, I decided to take action and make some delicious roasted potatoes. (And fake-gravy!)

Ingredients:
3 large white potatoes peeled and cubed (can be done with an equivalent amount of red potatoes)
1/8 cup olive oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Put the cubed potatoes into a large mixing bowl. Coat evenly with olive oil, stirring to make sure they are all coated. Add in all other ingredients and mix. Spread evenly in a glass pan (I used a 13x9 baking pan). Cook for 15 minutes, flip and if needed coat with more olive oil. Cook for an additional 15 minutes.

Presto! Roasted potatoes.

This is what I used for gravy. It is idiot-proof.

Broiled Soy and Ginger Salmon Steak

Salmon is hard to mess up. You can pretty much slap anything on it and it will be delicious. That being said, this is some of the best salmon I have ever eaten.

Serving size: 1 person

Ingredients:
1/2 pound salmon steak
Soy sauce
Ginger powder
Olive oil
Garlic
Salt
Pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to "broil". Thoroughly wash the salmon. Put in a ceramic cooking dish. Add enough olive oil to lightly coat the salmon on both sides. Add a bit more soy sauce. Finely chop the garlic. Sprinkle half the garlic on top. Add about 2 teaspoons of ginger powder. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put in oven for about 10 minutes. The general rule with salmon steaks is about 10 minutes for every inch of thickness. After 10 minutes, flip the salmon, add more olive oil, soy sauce, ginger powder, salt, pepper and the rest of the garlic. Cook for 10 minutes more or until the salmon is flaking nicely and is NOT pink on the inside. It should be a (duh) salmon color when cooked properly.

Serve with rice pilaf! I use the kind in the box because I am lazy.

Pasta Salad

This is a Kelly favorite. My mom's very own pasta salad recipe. Perfect on a summer day, on a winter day, on any day. It is delicious but can take a bit of preparation. The amount of each ingredient really depends on your personal tastes.

Ingredients:
1/2 box ziti pasta
1 head broccoli
1 or 2 tomatoes, or 1 box of cherry tomatoes
10-ish olives
4 artichoke heart pieces (from the jar, pickled)
1 red bell pepper
1/4 to 1/2 block sharp cheddar cheese
1 or two tablespoons mayonnaise (to taste)
splash of Ken's Steakhouse Italian dressing (about 1 tbsp)
1 tsp lemon juice
oregano
basil
salt
pepper
garlic powder
(All seasoning is to taste... but I would guess about 2 or 3 teaspoons of everything but salt. Maybe 1 teaspoon of salt)

Directions:
Cook pasta according to the directions on the box. (Come on, I know you don't need me to hold your hand through this.) Cut off the broccoli stem and chop it into small pieces (a bit smaller than bite-sized). Dice tomatoes or quarter cherry tomatoes. Dice artichoke hearts. Cut cheddar cheese into VERY SMALL cubes. And here I am going to give you a very life-saving interjection:

HOW TO PIT OLIVES:
Take an olive. Put it on a cutting board. Take a big old carving knife, or spatula or really anything flat and solid. SMUSH the olive. Slice the side of the olive if it has not already split. The pit should come right out.

Pit and quarter olives. Cut red bell pepper into 1 cm squares.

Drain the pasta and let it cool. Once it is cool, add mayonnaise, lemon and dressing. Mix it up well. Add everything but seasoning and mix again. Add seasoning. Mix again!

There you have a delicious pasta salad! Store in the refrigerator.

Final step: NOM IT ALL!

Vegetarian Chili! Very Tasty!

Here is my finally perfected (in my opinion) recipe for vegetarian chili. I have to thank my mom and the lovely allrecipes.com for helping me figure it out.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp oregano
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tablespoon (ish) olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 large onion (doesn't matter what color)
1 or 2 jalapeño peppers (depending on how adventurous you are)
1 to 2 cloves garlic
1 to 3 tomatillos (those little tomato-looking things with the big leafy things on them)
1 green or red bell pepper
2 stalks celery
2 cans diced tomatoes with diced chili peppers
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 can corn (NOT creamed! I made that mistake once)
OPTIONAL:
ditalini pasta
shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
In the bottom of a big pot, sautée the onion and garlic in the olive oil until the onion gets brownish (about 5 minutes). Add all the seasoning (you might need to put more olive oil in to accommodate the large amount of chili powder). Add jalapeño peppers and sautée for another 5 minutes. My mom says this takes the curse off. I'm not sure what that means but I am not going to take my chances with cursed garlic. Once the sautéeing is done, add everything BUT the beans and corn and cook covered for 20 minutes. Add water if it is too thick, and take the cover off if it is too watery. Then add the beans and corn for 10 minutes.

If you want to eat it over ditalini like I do, start boiling the water for the ditalini around when you add the non-bean ingredients. It only takes about 8 minutes to cook from the time the water is boiling.

Put the chili over the ditalini, add shredded cheddar cheese and voila!

Introduction

So here starts my foody blog. Here I am, a college student who is sick and tired of making Mac and Cheese for dinner every night. So I figure I would experiment and give hope to all food maniacs trying to eat under a budget.

All of my food is lacto/ovo/pesco vegetarian. Basically... no land animals. I'm going to go back in memory for the first few recipes, so no pictures for those. (Sorry!)