Foodie Fridays: Easy Honey Mustard Salmon

From Everyday Dishes

My husband adores salmon, but I am not a fan.  I know it is supposed to be a very healthy food, but I dislike the strong, distinctive taste of this fish.  Until recently, I would only eat it smothered in teriyaki sauce, because the flavor masked that of the salmon.  Luckily, I recently found a recipe for Easy Honey Mustard Salmon that is simple, quick, and even better than the teriyaki version.  I think that roasting the fish at a high temperature makes a difference, as I tried a similar recipe baked at a lower temperature and it was not as good.  Best of all, my husband loves this recipe as well, so I can serve it any time and make both of us happy!

Easy Honey Mustard Salmon

2 T. mustard (I used spicy brown)
2 T. honey
2 T. lemon juice
8 oz. salmon fillet

Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil.  Whisk together the first three ingredients in a small bowl.  Place the salmon fillet on the baking sheet, skin side down.  Spoon the sauce over, covering the surface completely.  Roast at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.  Cut the fillet in half and serve.  Serves 2.
             

This 'n That Thursdays: Romantic Red Bedrooms for Valentine's Day

From Interior Magazine

Valentine's Day is almost upon us, so I thought I would feature romantic red bedrooms this week.  The problem with red is that, if not used judiciously, it is a color that can make a room look positively garish.  Fortunately, the following bedrooms manage to incorporate the color red while avoiding the bordello look (although, depending upon your style preferences, some of them may seem to come pretty close!):

From HeimDecor.Net

From Tagota

From Visa Signature Hotels

From 7 Amazing Creations

From Losing Horns

From Room Design and Home Improvement

From Home Decor Ideas

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day this Saturday, everyone!
             

Wish List Wednesdays: Miss Monroes Dalmatian Desk by Rebecca Allen

I recently discovered the "Miss Monroes Dalmatian" collection by Rebecca Allen on the DENY Designs website, and there are so many items I want for my home!  The one I covet most at the moment is the desk with steel hairpin legs and a bamboo-framed, Dalmatian-spotted aluminum top ($299):

 I love the simple lines and streamlined look, and of course the Dalmatian design is just the icing on the cake.  The price is reasonable and assembly looks easy, so this desk goes to the top of my wish list!  Incidentally, I don't know the reason for the name of the collection, but I like to think that the artist was inspired by this early photo of a young, fresh-faced Marilyn Monroe with her spotted canine companion (you were never lovelier, Norma Jean!):

From Lomography

             

Foodie Fridays: Chinese Shrimp with Broccoli

Shrimp with Broccoli is one of my favorite orders from Chinese restaurants, and it turns out this dish is not at all difficult to make at home.  I modified a recipe I found for Chinese Shrimp with Broccoli slightly to suit my taste and to use ingredients I had on hand.  I also added some Trader Joe's Rice Noodles I had in the fridge rather than serving the dish over rice.  This recipe was quick and easy and tastes just like the restaurant version, so I will be making this again!

Chinese Shrimp with Broccoli

3 T. soy sauce
1/2 C. chicken broth
1 T. rice vinegar
1 T. sugar
1/2 T. sesame oil
2 T. vegetable oil
1 large head broccoli, cut into florets (about 4 C.)
1/2 T. minced garlic
1/2 T. minced ginger
10 oz. shrimp, peeled and deveined
12 oz. rice noodles, cooked, drained, and well rinsed*

In a small bowl, combine the first 5 ingredients.  Whisk together until well blended.  Set the sauce aside.

Place a wok over medium high heat.  Add the vegetable oil.  When the oil is hot, add the broccoli sand stir fry for several minutes or until it has reached your desired tenderness.  Push the broccoli to the sides of the wok and add a little more oil if needed.  Add the garlic and ginger.  Stir fry for 15 seconds.  Add the shrimp and stir fry for one minute.

Add the sauce mixture to the wok and bring to a boil.  Cook for one minute, or until the shrimp are pink and fully cooked (do not overcook).  Add the rice noodles.  Stir until the noodles are thoroughly incorporated and the sauce has thickened.  Remove from the heat and serve.  Serves 4.

*Add a little oil to the cooked and rinsed noodles to prevent them from clumping.  The rice noodles were very starchy, and were in fact starchy enough to thicken the sauce.  If you choose not to use rice noodles (you can serve this over rice instead), add 1 T. cornstarch dissolved in 2 T. water once the sauce mixture has been added and boiled for one minute.  After adding the cornstarch mixture, cook and stir until the sauce thickens.

Chinese Shrimp with Broccoli over rice
(from Blog Chef)

           

This 'n That Thursdays: "The Librarians" Television Series

Cast from left to right: Lindy Booth (Cassandra Cillian); Christian Kane
(Jacob Stone); Rebecca  Romjin (Eve Baird); John Larroquette (Jenkins);
John Kim (Ezekiel Jones).
(From TNT)

I rarely watch television series on a regular basis these days, as I find it difficult to watch any show consistently every week.  One exception lately for me, though, is a new series on TNT called "The Librarians".  Based on three TV movies of similar name, the one-hour show continues where the movies leave off, transitioning from some of the original movie characters to a new cast of a younger generation.  In the first TV movie, a young man named Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle), extremely intelligent and well educated but with no goals for the future, receives an unusual invitation to apply for the job of Librarian at the Metropolitan Public Library.  Intrigued, he decides to go for an interview, and rather to his surprise ends up with the job.  However, this particular librarian position is anything but typical, and he soon finds himself pursuing the adventures of a lifetime.  Suffice it to say that magic is involved in all of these adventures, and the TV series continues this theme.

Noah Wyle returns for special appearances in the new series, as do the always wonderful Bob Newhart and Jane Curtin.  New cast members include Rebecca Romjin as the new Guardian for the Librarians, and three young recruits played by Christian Kane, Lindy Booth, and John Kim.  John Larroquette rounds out the cast as Jenkins, a Library Annex caretaker forced to reluctantly take the new recruits under his wing.  Special appearances by Matt Frewer as the evil Dulaque, leader of the Serpent Brotherhood and nemesis to all Librarians, add the necessary touch of menace to the show.

You can watch all episodes of Season One here.  Here's hoping that the series is picked up for Season Two!
             

Wish List Wednesdays: Painterly Pups Entry Mat

I was enchanted the moment I saw the Painterly Pups Entry Mat from Grandin Road.  The colorful indoor/outdoor mat is rugged, lightweight, and fade resistant.  It also comes in two sizes, 24x36 inches ($39) and 30x48 inches ($79).  Dalmatian lover that I am, I may just have to get one of each!

             

On the Homefront: Remembering Gia (2003-2015)

A few years ago, I read a guest post by Mark Spearman on The Pioneer Woman website entitled "The Dog Who Struggled to Be Good."  Patchie, the dog described in the post, was so much like my Gia that I had to comment.  This is what I wrote:

"Thank you for this story. We have a dog like Patchie right now. She is an almost totally deaf Dalmatian — the sweetest dog in the world, and quite beautiful, but who lives in her own little world which primarily consists of food! We got her when she was four years old and although someone trained her beautifully, she only minds when she is on a leash. I am sure her deafness is at least partially responsible for her problems, since she can barely hear you unless you are quite close. I have tried to get her to focus more on me, but she is too set in her ways, so I must maintain a constant vigilance over her or she will wander off to do her own thing and disappear for hours. She also detests strange dogs and will do her utmost to lunge at them when they walk by. I took her to an obedience class and was told by the instructor that she was hopeless!

As frustrating as she can be sometimes, though, when she is good she is very, very good — quite tolerant of her terrier mix “sister”, best friends with the Dalmatian mix we lost in December [2012] as well as the old cat we lost two years ago, and good-natured with all people. She is ten now and starting to show her age, but she will never change and I have decided that is all right — we can love her for what she is, not what we wanted her to be."

I was wrong about one thing -- Gia did change as she got older, in that she no longer felt the need to go after other dogs.  This may have been due to the fact that she developed arthritis, which limited her mobility and slowed her down a bit.  Even so, she loved her walks, and was ever "the explorer" that my husband dubbed her.  Whenever she got the chance, she would still try to escape the yard and wander the neighborhood, and when she could not, she patrolled the perimeter of our property relentlessly, presumably seeking a way out.  She was not trying to run away, because if we caught her in the act of escaping and got close enough to get her attention, she happily rejoined us.  No, our Gia just liked adventure, and roaming free to explore was in her nature.

Her arthritis gradually worsened and her walks became shorter, but she soldiered on and her love of life never diminished.  She lived for food, and enjoyed every bite, even though I had to hold her back end up while she ate her meals.  Then, on the last day of September, Gia began to have numerous relatively mild but inexplicable seizure-like episodes.  The University of Georgia vet hospital ran numerous tests and tried every seizure medication, but they could not figure out what was going on and none of the medications helped.  Thankfully, the seizures began to abate almost as quickly as they started a few weeks later.  I discovered that if we did not stress her with things like long car rides or being left alone for too long, the seizures could be controlled with a tiny dose of Tramadol (a mild opiate drug) at bedtime.  During all of this time Gia still had a voracious appetite, and would even stop seizing if offered food (she never lost consciousness during any of her episodes and was always aware of her surroundings).

Life seemed to return to normal for our Gia until the day before Christmas.  I went into town for a couple of hours to do some last minute shopping, and while my husband had the dogs out in the yard, the mail truck came down the driveway to deliver a package.  As he backed his truck up to leave, the mailman knocked our poor sweet girl down.  When I got back home I rushed her to the vet hospital, where they discovered that she had a pelvic fracture and possible internal injuries.  Over the next few days they found that she had a small urinary tract rupture, and she developed pneumonia as well, so she ended up staying in the ICU for a little over three weeks to give her time to heal.

Once again our strong, beautiful girl fought to recover.  The rupture healed and the pneumonia responded quickly to antibiotics.  Her caregivers at the vet hospital began to walk her carefully and she was soon walking again with almost no assistance.  She seemed well enough to come home, although they were concerned that her appetite was not as good as it had been.  We assumed that some of her medications were upsetting her digestive tract, and that as soon as we got her off of them she would resume eating well.  Unfortunately, we were wrong.

The day she came home, Gia was alert and had eaten well that morning.  She seemed delighted to be home, and with the assistance of a sling she got to explore her yard again.  She ate everything we fed her and drank a lot of water.  She even began to lose the sunken look she had developed while at the vet hospital.  That night I noticed that her stomach seemed to be a little upset, but I gave her some food and that seemed to help.  The next afternoon, however, her appetite diminished.  I tried taking her off of some of her medications, which she no longer needed, but although she rallied temporarily, it did not last.  More worrisome was the fact that she would not drink, and that her seizures started up again.  Even subcutaneous fluids did not help, and a week after she came home I ended up rushing her back to the vet hospital.  Gia was dehydrated, so she was given IV fluids, and the next day tests were done to try to figure out what was wrong.

That evening, I got a call from the vet with devastating news.  Gia had cancer.  Her x-rays had been clear just a month before, and her blood work was perfect the day she left the vet hospital, but now there were nodules on her liver and spleen and the blood values for her liver were sky high.  We made the heartbreaking decision to let her go.  Our girl was no quitter, but I could tell that she had nothing left to fight with.  She had lost so much weight, and she had no energy.  Her last morning was peaceful, and she rallied briefly when the student who cared for her all those weeks after her accident came in, just long enough to let him say goodbye.  Then she was gone, quiet and uncomplaining to the end.

My Gia -- beautiful, stubborn, sweet, headstrong, gentle, and willful, always determined to get her way, but quick to give kisses to anyone who wanted them.  She loved people, and all of the staff at the vet hospital came to love her.  I believe she was happy and comfortable up to the very end, and I am grateful for that.  My girl deserved every chance she got for the longest life possible, and when the time came to let her go she left us peacefully.  I know you are in a happy place once more, my wonderful Gia, with all of our other girls.  Run free, beautiful girl, and I know I will see you again.