Asian Grilled Salmon and Red Pepper Soup

This month, I helped put together an article for Alive! Utah South Area, online magazine. You'll love the red pepper soup recipe. It is really delicious and so easy to make, not to mention low calorie. The salmon recipe is wonderful as well. Go check it out the original post here .

picture courtesy of Alive! Utah

Asian Grilled Salmon

1 side fresh salmon, boned but skin on (about 3 pounds)

2 TBSP Dijon mustard

3 TBSP soy sauce

6 TBSP good olive oil

1/2 tsp minced garlic

Light charcoal briquettes in a grill and brush the grilling rack with oil to keep the salmon from sticking.

While the grill is heating, lay the salmon skin side down on a cutting board and cut it crosswise into 4 equal pieces. Whisk together the mustard, soy sauce, olive oil, and garlic in a small bowl. Drizzle half of the marinade onto the salmon and allow it to sit for 10 minutes. Place the salmon skin side down on the hot grill; discard the marinade the fish was sitting in. Grill for 4-5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish. Turn carefully with a wide spatula and grill for another 4-5 minutes. The salmon will be slightly raw in the center, but don't worry; it will keep cooking as it sits. Transfer the fish to a flat plate, skin side down, and spoon the reserved marinade on top. Allow the fish to rest for 10 minutes. Remove the skin and serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled.

picture courtesy of Alive! Utah

Red Pepper Soup (Kitchen Close-up by Diedre Hall)

1 yellow onion

2-3 large red or orange peppers, cut into chunks

1 clove garlic

1 c. or more chicken or vegetable broth

1/2 Carrots or zucchini chunks, optional

1 tsp olive oil

salt

Cook the vegetable chunks in the broth until tender, then transfer to blender. Blend with other ingredients and season to taste.

Deidre Hall Cookbook Contest

Here is a picture of Deidre, the chef at Green Valley Spa, and Lynne in front of a cool blender/cooker by Cuisinart that they used during the demo.

True Random Number Generator Min: 1 Max: 5 Result: 5 The winner of the cookbook is Dee! I'll get that sent out to you tomorrow. Enjoy!

Country Pot Roast

I've told you about my favorite go to cook book, The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook. The recipes are fantastic, and no fail. I received the cookbook as a wedding gift nearly 28 years ago. We love the recipe for Country Pot Roast. I understand that the older version is better than the newer version.

We are not big meat eaters, but I do have a side of beef in my freezer that needs to be used up by June. Therefore, we eat meat about 1-2 times a week.

I have about 4 chuck roasts left to use, so I knew that we'd be having Country Pot Roast for Sunday dinner. It is so easy to make. Rub seasoning and flour into the meat surfaces, brown in some olive oil on all sides, and slip it into a crock pot.

Well, there is a bit more to it, but not much. Here is the link to the recipe. In the cookbook, it does not call for the broth, so I didn't add any. Serve it with mashed potatoes. All of that pureed vegetable/broth makes for a wonderful gravy!

Sweet Potatoes vs. Yams

I went to Harmon's in St. George last week to pick up some sweet potatoes. What is the difference between sweet potatoes and yams? Well, most everyone calls yams, sweet potatoes, but most of what you see in the store are sweet potatoes. According to the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission, sweet potatoes are grown in the US, primarily North Carolina. So really, both varieties above are really sweet potatoes. A true yam is a starchy edible root that is not smooth, but rough and scaly. If you're wanting a great source of vitamin A, then you better stick with sweet potatoes. In a one cup serving you will get the same amount of beta-carotene as you'd get in 16 cups of broccoli. They are also a great source of vitamin E and other essential nutrients. A super food for sure!

Winter Container Garden

I was just going through pictures on my computer. I have to get 3 to the high school for a senior slide show during graduation. Anyway, I found pictures I had taken in December of my container garden that I meant to share with you. I bought 2 packs of panels from Lowe's for $24.99 each. These hook together. I bought them to keep Pug and Luigi out of the "garden", because they were eating my tomatoes and cucumbers. I bought some plastic at the garden center to cover the thing once it became cold. I've been harvesting Swiss chard, spinach and bok choy ever since. Which reminds me, I need to get out there and water today :) I used office paper "clips" to keep the plastic from blowing off. Below is my awesome pot of bok choy. Great for stir fry! Top left is 2 varieties of Swiss chard, and another Swiss chard plant on the top right. Bottom left is spinach, and bottom right is the bok choy.

As you may recall, I brought my tomatoes inside and put them under a grow light. I had cherry tomatoes all winter. I recently just moved it outside, where it froze. It was covered with a spider mite, which I couldn't get rid of. I have my garlic and green onions under plastic on my patio table, which is on the patio. It gets sun, but it is covered. I'll endeavor to get some pictures of that as well. I need to get some seeds started by Saturday. Feb. 14 is the official planting day here in St. George for early crops.

Kitchen Closeup by Deidre Hall - Contest and Book Review

I had the opportunity to attend a cooking class at Green Valley Spa last Friday night featuring Deidre Hall (Days of Our Lives) and her friend, Lynne Bowman. My friend, Trish, had asked me the day before if I wanted to go with her. I quickly went to Deidre's website (just googled and found it), and after reading there that she mentioned Dr. Oz, Jamie Oliver, etc., I decided that this would certainly be worth the class fee.

I have to say, that initially, I wasn't sure what to expect. After all, what exactly would I learn that I didn't already know? What do most people know about nutrition anyway? I was pleasantly surprised with almost everything about the class. With Lynne talking about the food aspect of things, and Deidre cutting/chopping vegetables in preparation for the recipes (and playfully being the helpful side-kick), it felt like being in the home of a dear friends. It was lovely. No preaching, or lecturing; just the sharing of recipes and philosophies of eating good, nutritious food.

The focus was on a plant based diet. Three fantastic recipes were prepared and we were allowed to sample them all. I will prepare each of the recipes again, but I totally fell in love with the Red Pepper Soup. Fantastic! The recipe is so simple to prepare, you can hardly believe that it can be so delicious. If you are a follower of my blog, you know how I love organic, fresh vegetables. I'm a big fan of Swiss Chard, spinach and kale. But I have never seen a recipe for soup like this before. Just getting this recipe was well worth attending the class for!

We were given a copy of the cookbook for attending. It is a delightful, easy read. I sat down one morning after tending to the dogs, green smoothie in hand, and read the entire book in about an hour. I will get a few extra copies and give them as gifts to some of my BFF's. It's that kind of book. The recipes I've tried so far are dynamite.

Part way through the class, I realized just how wonderful the recipes were, and asked if I could get a book to give away on my blog. Not only did I get the book, but it is signed for the winner by both Lynne and Deidre! You'll love it, I promise! I also asked if I could share a recipe. Again, the answer was yes. I'll post the Red Pepper Soup in a separate post.

For the contest, you need to go to Deidre's website here. Click on the Amazon.com link in the lower right hand corner. This will bring you to the book on Amazon, where you can click on the "Click to LOOK INSIDE" link on the top of the picture of the book. Look through the book, and tell me what looks interesting to you, and why you'd like to win a copy. Simple as that!

• 
  One entry for doing the above and posting a comment.
• You can have another entry for posting the link to this post on your blog, and linking back in another comment on this post.
• A 3rd entry if you share the link on twitter with the name of the contest and share that with me in a 3rd comment. Or post it on your facebook page and comment.

Contest will go until Monday February 7, 2011 at 6 pm.