Recipe Eighteen - Asian Style Steamed Salmon

It's been a while since I made anything out of my Food Revolution cookbook. I stopped trying out new recipes with only four left on my list of ones that I wanted to try. That's pretty much a shame, so I got on the wagon again with the recipe for Asian-Style Steamed Salmon on page 250.

Luckily, I found a piece of ginger stashed in the freezer, because the one in the fridge looked like this:

Um... yeah. Guess it's been there for a while! I have to remember to put them in the freezer when I don't use them right away!

I served this with a simple rice pilaf. I think my piece of salmon was bigger than the one used in the recipe because I had to steam it for twice as long as the directions stated. Since my mom hates all seafood except tuna fish on saltines, and my husband isn't much of a fan of salmon, I've probably cooked salmon less than a dozen times in my whole life. Even better, this is the first time I've ever bought salmon that had the skin on. I've never ordered it in a restaurant and had it served that way either, so I honestly had no clue if you were supposed to eat the skin.

I know.

So, because I have no pride, I took to Twitter where my tweeps told me that no, I should not in fact eat that skin. Good to know!

This was also the first time I've had broccolini. First of all, I had the hardest time even finding any! I looked everywhere. Even Whole Foods let me down. I finally tracked some down at Trader Joe's. It said it was baby broccoli on the package and I figured it was close enough. For all the trouble it gave me in locating it, I ended up not liking it very much. It was bitter. I don't know if it was a bad bunch, or if it was from cooking it too long, or what, but I didn't like it.

The dressing for this is what made it taste good. Unseasoned salmon steamed over plain water isn't very tasty at all! Pour a bit of the dressing on it however, and it's a whole new meal. The rice was a good accompaniment as it soaked up additional dressing.

Would I make this again? Probably not, as I have issues with fish smell. I know it's good for me, but the thought that my house and my clothes and my body smell like fish is hard to shake. If you don't have those issues, however, it is a tasty dish and well worth the effort!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Hands down, this is probably one of the easiest recipes that I make. Most of my cooking and baking is completely from scratch, but this is one instance where I'll definitely make an exception. These muffins are DELICIOUS, and not only that, they're not all that bad for you. Well, at least as far as baked goods go. They're made with pumpkin, which means they're full of fiber. They have no oil, so they're low fat. They're not super sweet, but just sweet enough with the addition of the chocolate chips. I think on Weight Watchers these are only two points each.

The ingredients: a box of spice cake mix, a can of pumpkin (NOT the pie mix, you want 100% pure pumpkin), a half cup water, and a cup of chocolate chips. I used Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips, so since they're dark chocolate I'm going to add "good for your heart or something like that" to my list of great things about these muffins. Also on the list? Only four ingredients. Kick butt.

Dump all of the ingredients into a bowl.

This is a dough whisk. I'm not big on the unitaskers in my kitchen, but I sure do love this thing. It makes mixing stiff doughs - even bread dough! - by hand a breeze. I got mine on Amazon, but King Arthur Flour sells them too. Be sure to get the 14" one if you get one.

Have your adorable helper mix everything together. Go back with a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides and make sure he got everything. (Tip: he didn't!)

Have your ridiculously cute, albeit pantsless, helper place paper liners in a muffin tin. Sure, you could grease and flour them, but this is SO much easier. Besides, I had these cute Halloween papers I wanted to use!

Fill your liners 1/2 to 3/4 full. I use a disher for this. Again, simplification is key! Bake for 15 - 20 minutes at 350 degrees, until a skewer inserted in one comes out clean. I like to use bamboo skewers instead of toothpicks to test baked goods because they're longer and I feel like I'm less likely to get burned that way.

They'll pretty much come out looking how they did when they went into the oven, which is another reason I like to use the disher. It leaves the tops smoother. You can also substitute chocolate cake mix for the spice cake mix. It's amazing and honestly, no one can ever taste the pumpkin in that version. You could also leave out the water and use a smaller disher to scoop the batter directly onto sheets of parchment paper for the most delicious, soft cookies ever.

Hooked on Halloween

I can't seem to stop making Halloween stuff. It's so much fun! I think I'm pretty much done, but you never know when you're going to come across something else. For instance, last night was 2nd Fridays in downtown Mesa. They had street performers, craft and snack vendors along the sidewalks, and a lot of the businesses stayed open late. We decided to check it out, and we were glad we did because it was pretty fun! Lots of people were in costume and they had a steampunk theme going on. There were also a lot of zombies. They seem to be quite in vogue this year.

There's a little scrapbook store down there called Mystic Paper. Since we were there already I decided to pop in and grab some ribbon. As I was checking out, I noticed this box of small plastic skeletons on the counter for two dollars. I grabbed one, brought it home, and made this:

Super cool, huh? I can't take credit for the idea. I came across it when I was looking for vintage labels as inspiration for my skull jar. It's from a blog called I Make Projects, and you just have to check out the other jars they did.

Here's a closeup of the label, which I copied borrowed word for word from I Make Projects. The jar is from an old jar of Fancy Pants paper flowers that I've had forever. I emptied it out, peeled off the label, and then shoved my little friend here inside. I mixed water with a little cornstarch to make it cloudy then tinted it with yellow and green food coloring. The label was just typed up in MS Word (font is Trixie Plain again), printed, cut out, then aged with four different colors of Distress ink and a stipple brush. I crumpled it up and roughed up the edges before running it through the Xyron sticker maker and sticking it on the jar.

I never posted a photo of the area on top of the toy storage dressers in the living room. What would you call this? A sideboard? Either way, it's another place that makes me happy. There's the Halloween banner over the mirror (I still have one left if you want to buy it, email me) that has a giant vinyl spider in the corner. Susan cut that one for me too, and let me tell you, for the first few days it was there it would freak me out when I'd glimpse it from the corner of my eye!

From the left, there are two apothecary jars, one with a handmade tassel on it and one filled with candy corn, which I find incredibly foul. It does come in handy for little boy bribes however! There is a glitter skull from the Dollar Tree in front of them. I think I'll call him Horatio, because he looks like a Horatio. In the tray I have two cut glass liquor decanters, both empty and both thrifted. There is a thrifted white plate with our monogram in vinyl that I need to hang on the wall. Next to them is my cheese dome cloche with another handmade tassel on top. In the back to the right is a ceramic floor tile with a vinyl design from Uppercase Living on it. I perched the second Dollar Tree crow on top. Next to the tray is my trifle dish, which I also got at a Goodwill. It's really just there because I can't figure out where else to put it. Then there is another thrifted apothecary jar filled with Pumpkin Spice Hershey kisses. I was so disappointed in these, because they're SO NASTY!!! I'm sending them to work with my husband as soon as I find something else to put in that jar. Finally, I have a plant, a rock that my son brought in from outside, and a metal star that I found in the Target Dollar spot to finish out the display.

Out on the front patio I have the wreath I made the year before last, and my Elsie inspired wooden skeleton. I made another mini bunting with the pinker because I thought that area still looked a little bit naked.

I moved one of the faux wicker chairs outside so that I could have somewhere to sit while I blew bubbles with the boy. I decided it looked sad so I made it a little pillow using leftover canvas from my baby buckle toy and some denim from an old pair of jeans that my chub rub killed. The back side is a solid piece of the striped canvas, so I can flip it over for a different look when I get bored. I think it came out really cute! I shoved a $3 travel pillow that I bought at the Walmarts for the baby in there. The mama giveth, and the mama taketh away! HA!

The pillow is brand new so it's a bit poofy still. That's why it's pulling at the opening by the buttons. As it gets used, it will lose some of it's fluff and that will flatten out. In other words, my seams are straight, I swear!

Here's a photo of the wall across from the front door. The bunting was up there from before, and there is the painted fabric pumpkin I made with the boy.

I really am happy with how everything in my home is arranged right now, with the exception of our bedroom, which I always hate. Everything has a place and there isn't really room for anything else. You know what that means - it's time to move! After just about five and a half years of living in this apartment, it's time to move on to bigger spaces. That means I need to start collecting boxes and packing up all my crap, which I am not looking forward to doing. Oh, and then there is that nagging detail of actually finding somewhere to live... I guess that's important too. Wish us luck!

I linked this post to Made By You Mondays at Skip to My Lou!

Love and Fear

I was reading a blog post that my friend Danea linked to on Facebook about bullying today. It's an excellent post, and if you have any contact with children, be it as a parent, teacher, caregiver, friend, or family member, I highly urge you to read it. It's very good. I was bullied as a child, but not as bad as the author. I was always a year or two younger than everyone else in my class due to skipping a grade. I also was very smart and usually the teacher's pet. Add to that one overprotective mom who didn't let me go anywhere or do anything, and some serious poverty... well, you might as well have painted a target on my back! I'm surprised it wasn't worse than it was, but after reading that post, I'm thankful it wasn't.

What I wanted to write about, was this other post that was linked to from the bullying post. It's entitled "You just broke your child. Congratulations." By the sixth paragraph, I was in tears. Not necessarily because I was feeling bad for this unnamed boy, even though I was. I was in tears because although that's how the post was set up, it isn't always dads who break their children. Sometimes it's moms. That could have been written about me, in the corner grocery store, with my mom threatening me for no discernible reason.

I firmly believe that there are two ways to raise children - through love and through fear. My mom was definitely in the "fear" camp. I hope that boy, where ever he is, can find love and learn that his dad's way isn't the only way it has to be, and I hope someone gives him a hug.

And now I'm crying again.

Good Mail

Now tell me, who doesn't love a "good" mail day? I know I sure do! It's always such a bummer when you open your mailbox and all you find are the weekly junk mail circulars, or worse, bills. No one wants to see that! However, toss in a couple of magazines, a catalog or two, and maybe a card from a friend, and now we're talking! The best mail of all, however? Definitely packages. Even if they don't come via they USPS, I still count them as good mail.

Today was a good mail day!

I know a lot of women, when they think of something in a bright orange box that's going to make them giddy with excitement, are thinking Hermes. Not this girl. I'm thinking, Le Creuset.

Ooooohhhh yeah. After waiting nearly a month and a half, my birthday present FINALLY arrived. Oh, we went through such a pain to get this! We ordered it on Amazon, through a third party seller who had it for $50 cheaper than anywhere else. It said it was in stock. First red flag - all of a sudden we're being told it won't ship until the middle of September. Then, when I went to check on it in the middle of September, the date had been changed to September 30th. I wasn't terribly worried though, because it also said that I could no longer cancel my order as it was being prepared for shipment. That meant it was coming soon, right?

WRONG! I got an email from the seller saying they didn't have the pot in stock, and didn't know when they would get it. They blamed Le Creuset and said they were a terrible company who didn't follow through and wouldn't get them their shipment. They said that Amazon would cancel any order that was not processed within thirty days, so they needed me to authorize them to process the payment and then they'd send me the pot when they got it. They just didn't know when that would be.

That's right - they wanted me to give them $300 for a someday...maybe.

Since I'm not an idiot, I told them to go to hell and cancel my order. I mean, I get that they didn't have the product, and I get that sometimes you have trouble getting your stock from a manufacturer. However, what I don't get, and what they could not explain, was how something that they didn't even have could be being prepared for shipment! What exactly were they preparing that made it so I couldn't cancel my order? Shady, shady dealings if you ask me. Before you order kitchen stuff on Amazon, um... send me an email to find out the name of the seller so you don't have to deal with that too.

Anyway, once they canceled my order (which, to their credit they did very promptly) I placed it again, this time directly from Amazon. Screw this third party business!

Here I am, a week later, with my pot happy on my stove. Sure, I had to fork out another $30 to get it, but that's pretty much what retail was anyway. Sometimes, a deal is just not worth the pain it gives you in the behind. It's the prettiest bright green, which didn't really come through in this dark iPhone photo. Bad blogger.

The other package I got today (yes, TWO!) contained this:

My Blurb book! I'm so excited about this, and it came out so nice. I had some issues with installing the software, and the customer service guy I talked to was no help at all. I ended up having to install it on the desktop instead of the laptop, but after that was done it was a piece of cake to put together. I took all of my blog posts from when I was pregnant and had them put together in this book.

I won a gift certificate on Blue Eyed Bride from Erin for $39.95 toward this, so it only ended up costing me $8 out of pocket. Not too shabby for a hardcover keepsake! It totally looks professional too, like I bought it at a bookstore.

Off to make dinner!