Salmon, Salad, and S'more Pie. An Anniversary Dinner

Today is my second wedding anniversary!  We sort of eloped a year after meeting each other.  A year and 10 days to be exact. Well I saw him at work and I tracked him down, but that's a whole other blog post.  We went to the courthouse with our families and I wore a red dress and it was fabulous!  We threw a big party a few months later and the whole thing was just amazing and relatively stress less. 

Eating carrot cake after our wedding

 So for our first anniversary we went to Peru as honeymoon/anniversary celebration.  How do you top that for your second year?  Well, we bought a house!  Peru had been my dream since I was in the 6th grade, and my husband has wanted to own a house forever so we are accomplishing both of our dreams.  Since we just closed on the house a week ago, we decided that a dinner at home would be great and cost-effective way to celebrate our anniversary.   We had to celebrate a day early because of my husband's job, but it was quite the celebration nonetheless. Whilst my husband finished clean out our old rental, I cooked a feast.  Clearly I got the better task!

Our new house!

My husband is on a salad and healthy fish craze (I thought I would never see that happen) so I centered the meal around that.  I made a big salad, pan seared wild salmon with a sweet and sour chutney and homemade yogurt tarter sauce.  I also made a broccoli, cheese, and potato casserole.  Because I cannot have a meal without cheese.  And I absolutely love S'mores so I have been craving them since I bought some graham crackers and a brownie mix on a whim last week.  So I decided to make an impossible easy S'more pie for dessert. 
Let's start with dessert because life is short, eat dessert first! 

S'more pie

S'more Pie
One package Graham crackers
1 stick of butter
Favorite brownie mix or homemade brownies
2 cups mini marshmallows
1/2 cup butterscotch chips

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Graham crackers come in a box with about four plastic packages containing whole graham crackers inside.   Just open one of those and dump all of them into a large Ziploc bag. Take a rolling pin and take out some of your aggression and smash those Graham crackers until they are in small crumbs.  Melt one stick of butter on the stove.  Take out a 9" inch pie pan.  Glass is my favorite, but metal will do.  Pour the Graham cracker crumbs and the melted butter in the pie pan and mix together.  Then press the Graham cracker/butter mix into the pie pan and up the sides to make the crust.  I like a crispy crust so I like to pop the pie pan in the oven for a few minutes, but it isn't necessary. 

Now I hate boxed cakes, and cookies, but I have soft spot for good brownie mixes.  And they were on sale for 98 cents the other day so I bought a box.  Or two.  I use Pillsbury or Ghiradelli mixes.  I prepared the brownie mixture as instructed and threw in about 1/4 cup butterscotch chips.  Bake for about 30 minutes, and then I pressed the mini marshmallows on top of the brownie mix and let the pie bake for an additional 5-7 minutes.  In a small sauce pan melt the butterscotch chips with a little bit of butter and drizzle over the pie.  Enjoy!

Our anniversary meal

Pan-seared Salmon

1 pound wild salmon, filleted

Lemon juice

Lemon pepper

Dill Weed

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Salmon is actually really easy to make.  Salmon tastes amazing on its own, and you can pretty much season it anyway your want to, so I like to keep it relatively simple.  My aunt, uncle, and two cousins are all in the salmon fishing industry in Alaska and this spice recipe comes from them and has never let me down.  Simply marinate your salmon fillets in a little bit of lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper for about 15 minutes. 

Never marinate anything with lemon juice or citric acid for too long because the acid will start to break down the meat and cook it.  Ever heard of ceviche?  Ceviche is made from raw fish that is marinated, i.e. cooked in citric acid.  So 15 minutes is about perfect to get the flavor without cooking your salmon in lemon juice.

Heat a large saute pan to medium high and pour a generous amount of olive oil and a little butter in the pan.  When everything is sizzling place salmon fillets skin side down.  Turn pan down to medium and generously sprinkle lemon pepper and dill weed all over your salmon.  I like to add a little more salt as well.  Add a little bit of water and a tiny bit more lemon juice to the pan and cover.  Let cook for 5-8 minutes until the salmon has turned a lighter pink. 

Yogurt Tarter Sauce

Plain Greek yogurt

salt

pepper

onion powder

garlic powder

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons chopped pickles

So easy, so good, and so much better for you than store bought tarter sauce.  Just mix everything together and chill until you are ready to serve

Sweet and Sour Chutney

1/4 onion

2 teaspoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon coriander

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon

1/8 teaspoon paprika

1/8 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon water

I got this recipe for The New Best Recipe: America's Test Kitchen.  I wanted to do something a little different because it was our anniversary after all.  Combine all the spices into a small dish and set aside.  Finely chop onion and saute in the olive oil  in a small saucepan at medium heat.  Cook onions until translucent, about 3 or 4 minutes.  Increase heat to medium-high and toss in spice mix.  Cook for an additional 1 to 1 1/2 minutes until the spices start to smell strongly.  Add in red wine vinegar, sugar, and water.  Let the mixture simmer until it reduces.  Serve as a topping for the salmon.  Be cautious though, a little goes a long way with this spicy concoction!

Broccoli, Cheese, and Potato Casserole

One head of broccoli

2 red potatoes

1/4 chopped onion

1 clove garlic

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup grated cheddar

Dash of nutmeg

Breadcrumbs

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Chop all the vegetables into bite sized pieces.  Place in a small casserole dish.  Now make a rue!  I've never made one successfully, but it wasn't that hard this time.  In a small sauce pan melt butter and then add flour and whisk thoroughly until mixture darkens.  Slowly add milk, nutmeg and grated cheddar.  Mix until blended and pour over the veggies.  Top with breadcrumbs, over and bake for about 30-35 minutes, until the potato is soft.  Take off the cover and cook for an additional 5 minutes until the breadcrumbs create a nice crust. 

Serve, hot, bubbly and delicious.

Lastly make a large salad, I throw every vegetable I can in a salad.  I love to add nuts, cheeses, and dried cranberries on top.

It was quite the dinner and great way to celebrate our marriage and our new home!

Keep tasting,

Best Pizza Place ever!

Now I usually think that I can make most things rather well, but there is a pizza place in Yelm, WA that makes the best pizza I have ever had.  And I know when I've been beat, and their pizza is just better than anything I can ever make. 

My camera phone does not do this place justice

So if you are ever in Yelm or Olympia then please do yourself a favor and stop by La Gitana Pizzeria.  http://pizzerialagitana.com/wordpress/.  I think part of the reason is their food is so amazing is because the owners are a family from Italy.  They grew up around the world's best pizza and by the sweet grace of God they have brought their expertise and the finest ingredients to me!  They import all their meats, olives, and oils from Italy.  And they make this perfectly crisp and thin crust that I cannot even dream of replicating.  And to top it off they put their pizzas in large, warm, woodfire oven which cooks all those pizzas to perfection. 

Did I mention they have great Italian wine as well!

So do yourself a favor an stop by their Yelm or Olympia restaurants.  And don't forget to save room for dessert.  They have a tiramisu to die for.

Keep Tasting,