Spicy Salmon Tartar with Plaintain Chips

Jamie found this one in his most recent CCA magazine and, with all certainty, knew it would be a hit at our house.  Haven't tried it yet, but it's on the agenda for this weekend!

 Later.........

 WOAH!  We tried this one!  Amazing.  This is definitely going to be a favorite!  My only comment is the amount of sauce the recipe makes is WAY MORE than you need for 1 1/2 lbs of salmon.  So, I'd suggest making the sauce according to the recipe, then adding it, one spoonful at a time, to the chopped salmon until you reach the "sauce level" that looks yummy to you.

The sauce...

 Sauce and chopped salmon...

Also, the recipe didn't give instructions for making the green salad below the tartar in the picture in the recipe.  I don't know if this is it or not, but it definitely did the trick.  One small bag of plain shredded lettuce and one avocado. 

Add about 3/4 of the avocado to the lettuce and stir thoroughly.  Any chunks in the avocado will turn to mush, covering the lettuce.  The last 1/4, cube it in the skin like below.

Then scoop it out in layers.  This will create nice little "chunks" of avocado.  Mix this into the salad gently to make some tasty avocado bites.

Again, mix the sauce slowly into the chopped salmon.  And, no - the cat food isn't included in this recipe. ;)

Now for the perfect round shape.  Not happening if I have to do that by hand.  The right tool for the job?  A cookie/biscuit cutter or piece of 3"-4" pvc pipe.  My biscuit cutter wasn't very tall, so I added the green salad, then slid the cutter up a little, so I'd still have a mold when adding the salmon.

The finished product!

Homer-approved.

Cucumber Sandwiches...from OUR GARDEN!

The time has finally arrived!  Our garden has begun producing food large enough to eat!  The first harvest produced 3 jalapenos, 2 bell peppers, 2 (of some other kind of bell pepper looking pepper), one large cucumber (which is almost as round as it is long and a funny yellow color), one Japanese eggplant, and one small cherry tomato.

I totted the veggies all the way to Port O'Connor and back, hoping to use them on our long stay at the coast.  No such luck.  The only one that met it's demise was the eggplant - I introduced Jamie to Meme's famous fried eggplant.  Needless to say, he was an immediate fan.

So, returning home with our first batch of home-grown garden veggies reaching almost a week old, I had to find something to do with them.  While at the grocery store, browsing the cheese section, it hit me...cucumber dill sandwiches!  These were another first for Jamie and, once again, he's a big fan!  Our fat little cucumber has (so far) made 4 sandwiches - one for each of us for dinner the last two nights!

This is our sandwich, served with half of one of the not-bell-pepper-looking-peppers and a hot red cherry pepper (picked after we returned home).  The red pepper turned out to be so spicy that, instead of just eating them raw, on the side, we stuck the slices into the sandwich, which worked very well!

And, with peppers and HEB corn & bean pico...

Super Easy Basalmic Honey Redfish on the Half Shell

On our last trip to Port O'Connor, Jamie caught a VERY nice Redfish.  We found a recipe for this balsamic honey marinade/glaze - super easy and equally yummy.

Equal parts balsamic vinegar and honey
A little garlic
A little olive oil

Marinade for about 30 minutes, transfer the fish to a pan and place under the broiler for 12 minutes.  While the fish cooks, transfer the marinade to a pot and reduce on the stove to create a thicker glaze.  When the fish is finished, pour the glaze over the fish and serve!

We cooked the fish skin on, which I think works best with the hot, fast cooking that happens under the broiler.

May's Coast Food

We've managed to toil away the last two weekends on the boat in Port O'Connor.  The bounty wasn't huge, but it was enough to bring home for Sunday evening dinners each trip.

First, Jamie's flounder, grilled with a simple marinade of oil, lemon juice, woo, and creole seasoning - salt the fish before cooking. 

 Kabobs for a side.

 Also, roasted pablanos and quinoa.

The following weekend we returned home with two trout filets.  It was a repeat on the sides with the fish sauteed in a butter, garlic, green onion, caper sauce. 

Boudain Stuffed Pork Chops

Boudain Stuffed Pork Chops

This recipe came out of the cookbook my uncle, Chris, recently sent me - Texas Eats.  I LOVE this cookbook.  It reads like a novel of Texas history, culture, and how the two have come to influence the cuisine in the different regions of the state.

Trey and Jennifer Logan brought a batch of boudain when they came for my birthday.  Jamie and I ate one link immediately and put the other in the freezer.  When I found this recipe I knew exactly what the use for the second link would be!

Create pockets inside the chops to stuff with boudain.

 Stuffed.  (Make sure to remove the boudain from the casing before stuffing.)

 Hog rub ingredients.

 Check.

This was also the 1-year anniversary of closing on our house.  So, we added into the celebration the Champagne that the Galligans gave me (also for my birthday).

The grill-master at work!

Also helping.  Yes - that's Homer's newest favorite "chew stick."

It's hard to get grill marks better than that!

 And, how could you celebrate Saddlecreek's 1-year anniversary without a little Saddlecreek wine?

 All put together.

The look of approval!

Sherried Tomato Soup

For my birthday this year, one of Jamie's gifts was a pair of tickets for the two of us to attend one of Whole Foods' cooking classes.  Each class has a theme and this one was a menu of recipes by Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman.  The menu consisted of Wedge Salad with Homemade Ranch Dressing, Sherried Tomato Soup, Chicken with Mustard Cream Sauce Sauteed Spinach with Garlic Chips and Peach Cobbler.

All of the dishes were wonderful, but my special favorite was the Tomato Soup.