Month: February 2014
My Big 30! …. Just Getting Started
That’s right… I just turned 30 this month. To be exact I turned 30 on Valentine’s Day…yes, you read that correctly… I am a Valentine’s Day baby! I know what you’re thinking…poor Handsome. He does an amazing job every year with my birthday and Valentine’s Day, by making sure were celebrate each occasion. However, I am one of those people who like to celebrate my birthday ALL month long!!! Haha!
However, this year was different, this year was great! I am not one of those people who are really concerned about my age, but turning 30 did make me do some reflection on my life. It’s funny when you’re younger and you think you have everything all figured out with all of your plans…married after college…..have 2 children by the age of 27……. Well, myself, I did not have those exact plans, but I did have plans and certain goals that I wanted to achieve by the time of I was 30! I started thinking back about how certain events have taken place to lead me where I am today and I realized that everything happens for a reason……
This milestone in my life has reminded me of many things I am grateful for. I am extremely grateful for Handsome. I never thought I would meet someone so wonderful and amazing and I thank God for him everyday!
I am also so grateful for my wonderful friends and family! I am so thankful to have wonderful friends to go places and do things with. Handsome and I have the greatest friends.
I am also grateful to have spent my birthday festivities with such wonderful people…. Life is Good!
Simple Roasted Dinner
So I am all about conserving energy and time! Therefore I like to find ways to cook things together using either just the oven or just the grill. This dinner was inspired by a very cold night….BRRRRR… I don’t know about you, but I am OVER Winter and this cold weather!!! With it being so cold, of course I decided to go with the oven…this way it will warm up the house too! Just FYI I am very cold natured!!! So I have a tendency of standing in front of the oven while cooking to feel the warmth of the oven… I know, crazy… right?….but seriously I stay COLD!!
So I had already decided that I wanted to fix some roasted salmon, and I usually like to have roasted asparagus with salmon. Then I just needed to figure out what to serve with the salmon and asparagus, and I remembered I have this wonderful, easy, and simple recipe for roasted red potatoes. You see a theme here…YES…..everything is to be roasted.
Here’s the plan… I needed to sit down and figure out what the oven temperature was for each recipe and the cooking time.
Salmon 400° – 20-22 minutes
Asparagus 425° – 12-15 minutes
Potatoes 450° – 30 minutes
In order for me to conserve energy and time I decided to go with the middle temperature 425° for all of the recipes. This way all of the recipes would be cooked in the oven at the same temperature with adjusted times. Now I had to adjust my cooking time. Obviously if the Salmon was going to be cooked at a higher temperature then I would need to adjust the cooking time accordingly. I had to make some adjustments for the potatoes as well.
This is what I came up with….
Salmon 425° – 18-20 minutes
Asparagus 425° – 12-15 minutes
Potatoes 425° – 35-40 minutes
In order for me to keep things straight… so that I wasn’t putting the asparagus in at the wrong time, I went ahead and prepped everything so that when it was time to go in the oven, it was ready. I started out by prepping the potatoes first and once I got those ready and into the oven (I placed the potatoes on the top rack at this time, however they would have to be moved to the bottom rack to make room for the salmon and asparagus), I sat a time for 15 minutes, which would be the time for me to toss the potatoes and place the salmon in the oven. I then started on the asparagus. Once the asparagus was ready, I set it aside and began working on my salmon. After the timer went off and I placed the salmon in the oven, I then sat another timer for 10 minutes, which would be the time to toss the potatoes again and then place the asparagus in the oven. Once everything was in the oven I sat one last timer for 15 minutes. At this time I went and cut some french baguette and placed it on a baking sheet.
At the sound of the final timer, I removed the asparagus and potatoes from the oven and put the bread in and then placed the oven on low broil. I prefer to have some little crisp to the edges of my salmon… if you do not like the crisp, and then remove the salmon at this time. Now this process literally takes a few minutes so keep a close eye on the salmon and bread…..and when I say close eye, I mean don’t go flip through the TV or get on the phone…because it will burn QUICK!
VIOLA!!! Everything was ready at the same time and still warm! This process took about an hour from start to finish, with cutting and preparing the recipes to the removal of the salmon and baguette from the oven.
By the way, this is great way to prepare a large amount of food in the same cooking time and this also keeps the clean-up to a minimum. I hope you enjoy the recipes and the extra free time they bring! J
Roasted Salmon
Ingredients:
1 ½ to 2 pounds skinless salmon fillet
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup olive oil
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Sliced lemon pieces
Lemon wedges, for serving
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425°
Spray baking sheet with cooking spray; place salmon on baking sheet.
Drizzle salmon with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic.
Place a slice of lemon on the top of each piece of salmon.
Place in the oven and roast for 20 minutes or until the salmon is flaky. (I prefer my salmon a little crisp on the edges, if you prefer it less crisp then cook for only 12-15 minutes)
Roasted Red Potatoes
Ingredients:
2 pounds red potatoes, quartered
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
½ lemon, juiced
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425°
In a large bowl combine olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, parmesan cheese, and lemon juice.
Toss the potatoes with mixture coating each potato.
Place potatoes on a lined or pre-sprayed baking sheet.
Roast in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, tossing every 10 minutes.
Roasted Asparagus
Ingredients:
1 lb asparagus spears
1-2 Tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon Mrs. Dash
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425°F.
Rinse asparagus and cut off the tough ends. Lay the asparagus out in a single layer in a baking dish or lined baking sheet.
Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle with Mrs. Dash over the asparagus, toss asparagus with your hands so that the olive and Mrs. Dash evenly distributed over all of the asparagus.
Place pan in oven and cook for approximately 15-20 minutes, depending on how thick your asparagus is, toss every so often to prevent burning.
Ella & the Snow
Well it’s about time that I introduce our little one….Miss Ella! Handsome and I do not have any children just yet, so this is our little bundle of joy! This is Ella, she is supposed to be a Pocket-Pomeranian (which we have our doubts about), she is 7 years old and fully grown. She weighs about 9 pounds. Ella has such personality and full of energy as if she were still a puppy!
Over the past couple of weeks we have had a large amount of snow, which we are not really used to. Ella has never experienced snow in this amount before, so we decided to take her out in the back yard and see how she does. After watching the video, you can see for yourself that she ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!!!! We couldn’t get her to come in at first, but I think her little paws got cold and she decided to come in. You will notice that she is wearing a coat, now we are not those people…..you know the kind I am talking about… the ones that dress their pets up on a daily basis…. HeHe! We just got her that coat to wear when it is snowing or raining so that she doesn’t get wet! 🙂
Annual Family Ski Outing
Yesterday, we had our Annual Family Ski Outing. However, this is the first year for our family ski outing, but plan to have many more. Families are forever changing and growing, so it is important to create traditions and make memories. I love my family and I always enjoy spending time with them. So myself, Handsome, my sister and dad went skiing. We had a BLAST….it was absolutely HILARIOUS! I have to say that we are not the most athletic family, but we do have some coordination. I had not skied in several years and was not really sure I could remember how, but as soon as I got my skis on it came right back to me…….however, I can’t say that about the other members of my family that went…..some of them had a hard time grasping the idea of skiing. HaHa!!! I am not going to mention names, but they know who they are 😉
Dad and I did some skiing together and tried out a few different slopes and this is a view from the top of one of the slopes. Dad and I were sitting on a bench taking a break watching people take off down the slopes….some successful…. some not! I know it sounds bad when you laugh about other falling, but you just can’t help it …. oh and I am sure they would have laughed at me if I had fallen down!
We decided to take a little break for lunch…. So Dad is here on the left, and he is really not an angry man, but he said I took the picture as soon as he took a BIG bite of pizza…HeHe!!! Sorry Dad! Behind Dad is my sister, Amber and then on the right is my Handsome.
My sister and I love to take Selfies….no we’re not teenagers.. although at times I think we wish we still were….but we still like to take pictures together!
We really enjoyed ourselves skiing yesterday, on the other hand I am absolutely SORE!!! I guess I forgot that there were certain muscles I had not used in a while and yes I am feeling it today! It was a very beautiful day and an enjoyable time! Can’t wait to have many more family ski outings in the future!
Bluegrass Heart 