Hi blog buds!

As I am sitting here in my home office getting some work done, I’m enjoying the last few rays of sunshine hitting my windowsill before the snow moves in. Yes folks, you read that right.  It is mid-May and we are expecting more SNOW!  We have the possibility for a LOT depending on what the temperature does.  I think I’ll be doing some SUN SALUTATIONS tonight in order to ward off the snow.  Here’s the view from my window at the moment:

Remember the “good ol’ days” of September when I wrote about how the Colorado tourism board should pay me commission for all the gushing I was doing about hiking in our lovely mountains and sunny weather?  I miss those days!  Hopefully all my cold weather writing hasn’t turned any of you off from Colorado.  It’s USUALLY gorgeous.  We’ve just had a REALLY odd year of weather, unlike any winter I’ve seen in the 19 years I’ve lived here.

But I won’t think about it right now.

I’ll pretend snow doesn’t exist.

And imagine myself on a beachfront somewhere, kind of like I did when I was Summoning Summer with Salmon Cakes.  Salmon, I’m looking to you again for some help.

This time around, I decided to make Salmon en Papillote (“in paper”).  That feels a little “beachy”, don’t you think?  I’ll visualize myself on the patio of an oceanside restaurant, sipping some Riesling, with this on order:

The first time around I marinated two small salmon filets in a mixture of soy sauce, garlic, onion powder, ginger and lemon juice.  Then I placed them (skinside down) in my parchment paper, wrapped them up and baked in the oven at 350 degrees for about 12-15 minutes.

The second time around, in lieu of marinade, I placed 3 slices of lemon UNDER the salmon and sliced tomatoes on top of the salmon while it was steaming away inside the papillote. That was even twice as delicious.  The lemon steamed into the salmon – the flavor was fantastic.

Filet #1 was plated with some roasted cherry tomatoes, corn, grilled portobello mushroom and a little basmati rice:

Mmmm DEEE-LISH!

But wait!  There’s more!

The leftovers were even better.  Filet #2 was used in this AHHHMAZING salad:

Salad ingredients (starting with the bottom layer in the bowl and building upward):

• arugula
• spinach
• herbed goat cheese (sprinkled on)
• sliced roasted beets
• sliced hard-boiled egg
• diced avocado (1/2 a fruit)
• sauteed kale and beet greens (look at me using my WHOLE beet, leaves and all!)
• sunflower seeds
• Annie’s Light Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
• Leftover salmon

OMG friends!  This was one of the best salads I’ve had in a long time, and the fact that I didn’t pay a restaurant $15.95 to make it for me was an excellent BONUS.  You have to try it yourself at home!

One of the things I’ve been doing with my salads a LOT over the last year is adding warm roasted veggies to the cool salad greens.  I love that combo.  I’ve mentioned it before here on the blog, but I’m just really loving making my salads that way.  My friend Keri sent me home from Girls’ Night fajita dinner with some leftover fajita veggies (peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, squash) and I reheated the veggies, added them to my cold spinach with a hard-boiled egg and roasted cherry tomatoes, dressed with some Annie’s Roasted Red Pepper Vinagrette.  Another lip-smacker to be sure!

Do you have a favorite combination of veggies to use in your salads?  Or a favorite restaurant salad that I should try to recreate at home?

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Salmon Tip – Keep Your Skin On: I recently learned that a majority of the Omega 3 fatty acids in salmon are located between the skin and the flesh.  So if you don’t mind keeping the skin on during cooking and then eating down TO the skin after cooking, do so!

Have a great day friends!

– Shari B.  =)

Tags: beet salad, goat cheese, salmon en papillote