Okay, vacations are hard. I mean, it’s hard to get into the posting habit after a break. But I’ll try my best.

The other night — fine, last Sunday — jwa and I had some grilled salmon and a salsa with avocado, pomegranate seeds and grapefruit. This is a recipe I came across last year at the blog Frugal Cuisine, and one that I so fell in love with that I made as part of Christmas dinner. Recently, I thought it might go well with salmon. It did. In addition to the pomm, avocado and grapefruit, I added a bit of diced red onion and chopped cilantro for this version.

And we’ll probably have it again on Christmas. So good.

Grilled Salmon w/ Pomegranate, Avocado & Grapefruit
1 grapefruit
1 pomegranate (you’ll have some seeds leftover)
2 tbsp finely diced red onion
1 avocado, peeled and diced
1 handful cilantro, chopped
2 salmon fillets
another handful of cilantro
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper

To start, I made a quick marinade by combining the olive oil, vinegar, 1 handful cilantro, a little red onion and garlic in a food processor. Then, I marinaded the salmon in the fridge for a couple of hours.

To make the salsa peel and cut the segments out of the grapefruit. Cut those in half and toss with any grapefruit juice that has accumulated on your cutting board, a little diced red onion, the avocado, a little red onion and the chopped cilantro. Add maybe half your pomm seeds. Season a little with salt and pepper. Let it hang out while you cook your fish.

Heat up a grill (or other) pan and cook the salmon (season it first with salt and pepper) about 3-5 minutes per side, depending on the thickness. I did mine about 5 minutes and then 4 minutes on the other side. Remove from the pan and cover with foil. Let it sit for about 5 minutes.

Put a salmon fillet on each plate and top with the salsa. We had this with a side of steamed broccoli. Healthy!

Now, pass the Christmas cookies…

PS: Hooray for Hadley August!

We had this meal a couple of weeks ago and I think we’ll have to have it again soon. It was really tasty. The original recipe called for chicken thighs but it worked really well with chicken breasts. You could probably go with skinless and boneless (that would take less cooking time) but go ahead and live a little and use bone-in breasts.

Seriously, this was really good. Give it a few days before you actually want to cook again after Thursday and then make this…

Braised Chicken with Apples and Sage
Adapted from a recipe in Gourmet magazine
2 big chicken breasts with skin and bones (you could probably get away with 3-4 breasts with the amount of sauce that this makes, but lost of sauce is good so it woks with 2 breasts fine)
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp packed brown sugar
2 apples (preferably Gala; 3/4 lb total), peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges — I used one Gala and one Granny Smith, and I didn’t peel
1/4 cup toasted walnuts
1/2 cup chopped shallots (2 to 3) — I subbed half a white onion as I didn’t have any shallots
2/3 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp cider vinegar
1/2 tsp chopped fresh sage (rosemary would work well too)

Pat chicken dry and sprinkle all over with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then brown chicken well, starting with skin sides down and turning over once, 10 to 12 minutes total. Transfer chicken to a plate and pour off some of the fat if you have a lot in the pan — you want about 1 tablespoon in the skillet.

Add butter, brown sugar, apples, walnuts and shallots to fat in skillet and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until apples are browned, about 5 minutes.

Add broth, vinegar, and sage and deglaze skillet by boiling, stirring and scraping up any brown bits, 1 minute. Return chicken, skin sides up, to skillet along with any juices accumulated on plate. Reduce heat and simmer, loosely covered with foil, until chicken is cooked through and sauce is slightly reduced, 30-35 minutes. Check the temperature — you want it to be about 165 degrees.

Mmmm….it’s moist and tasty!

Okay, off to California Wednesday. Have a nice Thanksgiving, everyone!

Ah, a challenge that involves math. How fun. The theme was supplied by Cady at $40 a Week, which as you might see coming, was to spend $40 a week on groceries (per person) and come up with a meal based on those constraints.

Here, I will admit my laziness at not entirely sticking to the challenge as written. Although our grocery budget (for 2) is about $80/week, I didn’t specifically track that and actually, this week, I think we were a tad over since we decided to stock up on some wine.

But, through the magic of calculations, I deduced that if the budget was $40/week, that would work out to $5.72/day. Times two that’s $11.44 per day for two. And sure, that would mean that fish tacos are the only meal of the day but I am assuming that eating out doesn’t count. Right?

Plus, if I don’t see what jwa eats during the day and he doesn’t actually see what I eat — well, then that too doesn’t count. For the record, I had a cereal bar for breakfast and a turkey and cheese sandwich (and cup of lentil soup) for lunch. And I uh, found them. Yeah. I found them so they were free. So, I get the whole $11 amount for the dinner. Hooray!

fish: $4.50
4 corn tortillas: $1
romaine lettuce: $1
1 can beans: .99
1 cup shredded cheese: $1
tomatoes: $1
lime: .33
jalapeno: .20
cilantro: .79
assorted spices: free (’cuz I already had them)
oil: free (see assorted spices)

Total: $10.81 Woo!

This recipe is based on one from Bobby Flay which I’m sure is in one of his cookbooks. And yeah, I still am not a fan but whatever. I’ll use his recipe as long as I don’t have to interact with him or anything. ‘Cause that would be annoying.

Fish Tacos
(Feeds 2)
1/2 pound white flaky fish, such as mahi mahi, tilapia or turbot, which is what I used
1/4 cup canola oil
1 lime, juiced
1 tbsp chili powder
1 jalapeno, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
4 flour tortillas

Garnish:
Shredded romaine lettuce
Hot sauce
Shredded cheddar cheese
Chopped cilantro leaves
Chopped cherry tomatoes

Place fish in a medium size dish. Whisk together the oil, lime juice, chili powder and jalapeno and pour over the fish. Let marinate for 15 to 20 minutes.

Preheat a pan over medium heat. Remove the fish from the marinade place into the hot pan. Grill the fish for 4 minutes on the first side and then flip for 30 seconds and remove. Let rest for 5 minutes then flake the fish with a fork.

Wipe the pan out and return it to the heat. Place a tortilla in the pan and heat for about 30 seconds per side. Divide the fish among the tortillas and garnish with any or all of the garnishes.

Thanks again to $40 a Week for a great and challenging theme!

And bag. Which was something that I wasn’t going to get but then I changed my mind when I saw this bag at Zappos. Besides, what if I want to bring the camera? Or Lipstick? The room key? See, I need a bag! Especially when it is an awesome light green bag. I really had no choice.

The shoes are a citron-y green (Zappos called them yellow but I call them citron-y green) and the purse is celadon but pretty much matches the shoes. Perfect! Oh and the shoes are so comfy! Hooray! Shoes are J Shoes and the bag is by Inge Christopher. I have no idea why the picture has keys in it. The bags did not come with keys…

And I still love the brown pumps, but I can wear those normally, so I’ll still get use out of them. Okay, I’m going to try really hard to get my WCC post up tomorrow.

The other day I was searching around and came across a recipe for onion marmalade. I tried it, tweaking it quite a bit so let’s just call it mine. Okay then. Anyway, here’s what I ended up with. Delicious! Great on bread, chicken, uh, turkey* and anything else you could think to slather it on.

Sweet Onion Marmalade
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
3 cups chopped onions (about 1 huge onion — I used a sweet onion)
1.5 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup Balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup port wine
1 sprig rosemary
1/4 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
2 tbsp currants
Salt & pepper

Heat the butter and olive oil in medium heavy saucepan. Add onions and a light sprinkle of kosher salt. Cook for about 6 minutes.

Next, add the sugar and rosemary sprig and continue cooking until onions are very soft and browned, about 15 minutes. Adjust the heat as needed.

Add the vinegar and port and simmer for a while, about 5 minutes. A lot of the liquid will evaporate and you’ll be left with a loose, syrupy brown glob. It’s done! Remove the rosemary sprig and stir in the currants.

Taste and then salt and pepper as needed. Before serving, sprinkle the top with the fresh chopped rosemary.

Store in the fridge and then serve at room temperature.

* Ahhh, Thanksgiving. It’s kind of nice to say that this year we are going to James’ aunt’s house (hooray!) and I am not cooking. That gives me a year to think about next year’s menu! Ha!