I had some leftover salmon steaks I wasn’t too keen on eating. So I searched for some leftover recipes and came across this Easy Salmon Cakes idea. It sounded appealing, and I like crab cakes, so I gave it a whirl. For the filling, you first saute some onions and celery. This step created the most amazing smell in my kitchen. I could spend hours sauting onions and celery  just to recreate this smell.

Once that’s complete, you mix it with flaked salmon, breadcrumbs and some other ingredients. At this point, I should’ve known something was wrong. But I continued.

You pat the salmon mixture into patties. I attempted to do this. Note the attempt. What I should’ve realized earlier in the process was that the egg to bread crumb ratio was off. Too much bread, too little egg. The binder wasn’t enough to make these puppies stick. So my cakes, which should’ve felt more like hamburger patties, felt like stuffing balls. This made browning one side difficult, and flipping them onto a baking sheet for further cooking nearly impossible without the cakes falling apart.

Fortunately, I remedied the situation at the last minute with three cakes (one of which is pictured at the beginning of this post). The recipe was pretty good despite the binder issue. If I make these again, I’m going to add more egg and reduce the bread crumb amount, probably adding both ingredients slowly until I get the consistency I’m looking for. The taste was great and really set off by the Creamy Dill Sauce recommended.

OK, maybe champions don’t eat BLTs … or maybe they can get away with eating them all the time. But for this simple knitting journalist, this was a lunch to remember. You start with some amazing BLT sandwiches and add a side of homemade couscous salad. Now with the sammich, you have some extra tomato slices you don’t want to go to waste so drizzle a little bit of olive oil, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and a quick shake of sea salt for a delicious taste. Then, for dessert, add some pineapple chunks. Lunch of champions in my book!

On yesterday’s menu was a delicious garden salad with arugula, spring mix lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, pine nuts and strawberries featuring my homemade balsamic vinaigrette. I actually got the recipe idea from La Petite Tricoteuse. It’s just balsamic vinegar, olive oil, honey and a dash of sea salt whisked together. It’s really delicious.

For the main course, we had a delicious chicken sandwich on crusty bread. The bread with lightly brushed with olive oil and toasted. A thin layer of pesto mayo (mayonnaise and pesto mixed together) went on one slide followed by layers of chicken and mozzarella. Back into the toaster oven to melt the cheese a bit and then a slice of tomato and few leaves of fresh picked basil topped out the sandwich. Really delicious, really easy and tastes like what you’d find at an Italian sidewalk cafe.

I came home very ambitious to whip up some chicken and pesto sauce. Then I thought to myself, “I wonder if I can make a creamy pesto sauce?” Well, by George, I did and it was delicious. Coincidentally, I had all of the ingredients on hand. Here’s how I made it.

I cut up two chicken breasts into strip chunks and began sauting them in a little olive oil.

To make the sauce, I had some Trader Joe’s pesto, heavy whipping cream and pure Irish butter.

Once the chicken no longer had any pink on its outer edges and was starting to brown, I added a 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream,

about 2 tablespoons of Irish butter,

a little bit of olive oil to thin out the cream,

and some of the pesto (I’d say about 1/4 cup).

Stir to combine and then turn down the heat so the cream warms but doesn’t burn. Let simmer for about 5 minutes.

Then serve over rice for a delicious meal. Here’s the recipe:

Chicken and Rice with Creamy Pesto Sauce

2 chicken breasts
2 cups jasmine rice
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons pure Irish butter
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup pesto
sea salt, to taste

1. Set rice cooker to cook rice until done.
2. Cut the chicken breasts into strip chunks and saute in olive oil until no pink shows.
3. Combine remaining ingredients and reduce mixture to a simmer.
4. Stir occasionally, and simmer for five minutes.
5. Serve over bowl of rice.

You start with blueberries (We use Michigan-raised fruit that we pick up each summer.),

sugar,

and lemon juice.

You mix that all up together in a big saucepan.

Then you bring the mixture to a boil.

Then you add Pectin, which makes it jelly! Bring that to a rolling boil for a minute, stirring constantly, then you’re done!

Meanwhile, don’t forget to boil the jars in a big pan. Then you jar it all up and you’re good to go! (We couldn’t coordinate taking pictures of the pouring/jarring process, since it takes two people.)

This year, we made 41 jars, which is a record!

I went to Kuipers Family Farm today with my friend Beth. We wanted to pick some apples and take a look at the orchard store. They had five varieties available: Golden Supreme, Gala, Prima, Jonamac and McIntosh. I got quite a few of the Golden Supreme for eating and the Prima for baking. I only grought two Gala apples home and gave two Jonamacs to my mom. The McIntosh were so picked over there was nothing but squishy rotting apples left. Yuck!

The orchard store had a variety of tasty treats for the taking, including sauces, salsas, dressings and baked good mixes. I bought this cheddar garlic bread mix and was very excited to try it. I even mixed freshly grated cheddar cheese into the mixture.

Here’s a close up of one of the slices. See the delicious cheese swirls.

I also got some Lavendar Honey Sauce, Balsamic Vinaigrette, Sweet Onion Sauce and Chipotle Salsa. There were also some trinkets that I got for Christmas gifts, none of which I’ll reveal here. You’ll just have to wait!

The orchard was out past my mom’s in Maple Park so we made that our meeting point. I was able to pick up my hanging plant I forgot the last time I was there, so I hung it right when I got home. My kitchen window is starting to get a bit cluttered but I still really like it. The basket and plant really work best here. I did have to move my bell over from the right to the left side.

My Calphalon Commercial Hard-Anodized Chef’s Skillet with Lid was delivered today (from Cooking.com through the Amazon storefront). I’ve been really looking forward to trying out the pan, specifically with eggs. So tonight I might my classic turkey, cheese, and omelet bagel sandwich to give it a go. What a difference a quality pan is. I don’t have a picture of my other pan. Let’s just say, it has some flaws, including a hot handle after it’s been on the stove for a bit. This would make it difficult to flip the omelot or touch the handle at all because it was always hot. I got one of those rubber handle covers for Christmas, but it accidentally caught fire and was ruined.

The new and improved replacement doesn’t heat the handle because it’s beautiful Calphalon. And the omelet cooked evenly and with great golden color. The other pan seemed to burn the omelet and brown them too much.

There was debate before I ordered if the Everyday Pan was a better choice, but after some recommendation and input, the skillet won out and I’m glad it did. It is a very versatile pan and I look forward to cooking with it more.

I’ll take pictures of my pan while cooking at some point to show too.

Here’s the big pot to boil water to heat up the jars.

This rack makes it easier to submerge the jars for the final processing steps.

All the jars were washed in the dishwasher the night before.

My new Calphalon 8-quart stock pot I got for this cooking extravaganza.

I picked fresh basil from my herb garden to use in the sauce,

washed the basil in the salad spinner,

and processed it in the food processor.

Fresh onions go in my sauce too.

I used my Cuisinart Food Processor to chop up the onions as well.

Wow, that’s a lot of onion!

Then we put in some garlic—a whole bulb went in.

Cloves were processed as well, for easy chopping.

Into the stockpot, the onions, garlic and olive oil mix together until golden everything is golden.

Next went in the 14 cans of tomatoes into the pot. Because I multiplied the recipe by six, a bunch of different kinds of tomatoes went into the recipe, including: (2) 28-ounce cans Del Monte Diced Basil, Garlic & Oregano Tomatoes, (1) 28-ounce can Contadina Crushed Tomatoes, (2) 14.5-ounce cans Centrella (store brand) Italian Stewed Tomatoes, (4) 12-ounce cans Contadina Tomato Paste, (2) 6-ounce cans Contadina Tomato Paste with Italian Herbs, and (2) 6-ounce cans Jewel Tomato Paste. That totals 185 ounces or 11.5 pounds of tomatoes!

I then chopped up some fresh parsley.

Then all the rest of the spices went in: fresh and dried basil, oregano, sea salt, pepper and sugar.

The ingredients gets all mixed together in the pot.

Ethan wouldn’t quit crying until I set up a chair in the kitchen for him to sit on while I worked. Once he settled in, he was a lot happier.

While the saw was cooking, I turned 1 quart of frozen strawberries into jam. Here is the mixture of strawberries, sugar and lemon juice bowling to 220º F.

I was able to make two jars of jam out of the mixture. Because I had to get the mixture up to such a high temperature, I don’t know if I stirred enough so the bottom may have burnt a little. I have to try some before I’d want to offer it to anyone else.

As the sauce got closer to being finished, I got the water to a rolling boil.

The jar lids also have to be heated up.

Once the jam was set, I made some applesauce out of 10 cups of frozen apples from last season. The recipe is really easy: You cook the apples until soft, process them in the food processor to get a smooth consistency, add it back into the pan to add any flavorings—I added cinnamon, clover honey and a little bit of vanilla extract, and then jar the mixture.

All of my cooking gave me a yield of:

(2) 6-ounce jars of strawberry jam
(2) 16-ounce jars and (1) 6-ounce jar of applesauce
(13) 16-ounce jars of pasta sauce, one jar broke during final processing so technically multiplying the recipe by six with yield 14.5 jars of sauce.

I enjoyed the fruits of my labor by sitting down to a plate of pasta. I took out a few meatballs from the fridge and paired the entrée with a Caesar salad.

If that wasn’t enough, I got a craving for a deep-dish chocolate chip cookie. I tracked down this recipe and gave it a try. Of course, you can’t just make one cookie’s worth of dough, so I whipped up the whole chocolate chip cookie recipe and followed the directions to create a cookie dough roll to freeze for later. The other half of the dough, I rolled and then cut the cookies as if I was going to bake them. Then I used wax paper to pile them in a tupperware container and threw the whole bunch in the freezer. My idea is that one I get a craving for a chocolate chip cookie or a deep-dish cookie, I will have easy access to dough. I will give another update on the success of my frozen individual cookie idea in a few days.

I made the most delicious meal tonight! Sauteed tamari kale and grilled sesame ginger shrimp, with leftover risotto on the side. It was so delicious! For the kale, I heated a saucepan with a little olive oil, lightly tossed in the kale cut in strips and let cook. At the end, I added a bit of tamari sauce, chilis powder and sesame seeds.

For the shrimp, I coated the shrimp in Lawry’s Sesame Ginger marinade and some chilis powder and grilled on the Foreman until ready.

The risotto was from Trader Joe’s. I followed the box instructions.

Here’s a close up of the kale and shrimp. Nom nom nom.

Tonight’s dinner is Sesame Chicken! I made it from a mix where you marinate the chicken in soy sauce, cornstarch and water. Then you brown the chicken and add the seasonings and water. I chose the optional addition of pineapple chunks, added some Japanese chili powder and sesame seeds. It turned out to be quite delicious. I steamed some broccoli (although it looks kind of gross) and made some rice. Yum, yum, yum!