Smashed Baked Potatoes

Smashed Baked Potatoes - Yum!

24 ounces Dutch yellow baby potatoes ( we had to substitute mini red potatoes)
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large pot of boiling water, cook potatoes until tender, about 15-20 minutes; drain well.

Place potatoes onto the prepared baking sheet.  Using a well glass, carefully smash the potatoes until
flattened but still in one piece.  Top with olive oil, garlic and thyme.

Place into oven and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy.

Brussel Sprouts and Bacon Salad

Tim also made a couple great sides for dinner.  We love brussel sprouts and this was just one more great way to enjoy them!

Brussel Sprouts and Bacon Salad

6 slices thick cut hardwood smoked sliced bacon, diced
12 ounces brussels sprouts, trimmed, finely grated or shredded with a knife
1/4 cup sliced almonds

For the Lemon Vinaigrette
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons sugar

To make the vinaigrette, whisk together olive oil, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, and sugar in a small bowl; set aside.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add bacon and cook until brown and crispy, about 6-8 minutes.   Transfer to a paper towel - lined plate.

To assemble the salad, place brussels sprouts in a large bowl; top with bacon and almonds.  Pour the dressing on top of the salad and gently toss to combine.

Ginger Soy Salmon

After a long day of dealing with the snow.  We had ordered and had to pick up 9 sheets of bead board paneling from Lowes and then unload it from the truck and get it into our house.  9 trips later back and forth through the snow from the truck to the back door and the truck to the basement - both of us were popsicles and ready to stay inside for the day.  Tim cooked and I worked on the mud room putting up the bead board paneling.  It continued to snow outside and we both kept looking out our living room windows and just shaking our heads.

Tim made a post Valentines Day dinner since we didn't get to go to dinner Friday night because we had to shovel out our car.  We are driven to having fish twice  a week so Tim made this amazing salmon dish - so good!

Honey Ginger Salmon

1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
4 green onions, thinly sliced
4 salmon filets

For the Honey Ginger Glaze
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon Sciracha, or more, to taste
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds

To make the glaze, whisk together honey, soy sauce, sesame oil. Sciracha, ginger and sesame seeds in a small bowl; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together olive oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, sesame seeds and green onions.

In a gallon size Ziploc bag or large bowl, combine ginger marinade and salmon filets; marinate for at least 30 minutes to overnight, turning the bag occasionally.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly coat a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick spray.

Place salmon filets along with the marinade onto prepared baking dish and bake until the fish flakes easily with a fork, about 20 minutes.

February Birthday Dinner Party

We had been planning a birthday dinner party for weeks with our friends and neighbors to celebrate   February birthdays.  Marni, Tim and Stephanie all had birthdays this month and we decided to have one large dinner to celebrate rather then throw separate dinners.

Just getting to the dinner represented a challenge. I had bought cute new Sperry camouflage snow boots and new pants and was determined to wear them.  The challenge was how to get from the house through the snow to the truck without ruining the shoes and pants?  Well, I basically walked through the snow sans pants and just my boxer shorts, coat, sweater and sport shirt in my old LLBeans carrying a tote full of gifts and my new pants and shoes.  My legs were freezing and wet but I dried off and changed into my pants and cute new boots once I got to the truck.  Tim just looked at me - Really?

The dinner party was very nice.  Tim made sauteed mushroom tartlets and ricotta cheese and red onion relish on crostini for appetizers.  I brought the ingredients to make a champagne cocktail called - Barbotage - champagne, cognac, and Grand Marnier - Yum!  Marni made a pork roast and roasted root vegetables for dinner with a sorrel soup.  Stephanie made a chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache and cream cheese frosting for dessert.  It was such a good meal especially on such a cold weekend.  We talked long into the night and had a lovely evening.  Happy Birthday Tim, Marni and Stephanie!

Stop Snowing Already!

We are so sick of Winter and the snow.  The city is bad enough with all the slush and ice piled on the sidewalk but upstate has a completely different set of issues.  Unbelievable amounts of snow. We got to Poughkeepsie by the train, Friday night and when we walked to our truck - we realized that the garage had not bothered to plow out the parking lot and there were dozens of cars including our own buried by the week's snowstorm.  There was a plow parked in the lot but apparently they just got lazy and decided that they didn't need to finish the job?  That's probably why the company who runs it is named LAZ Parking.

Thank goodness, we keep a shovel in our truck just for this type of situation and we spent the next hour shoveling our truck out from snow that had it buried up over the wheels and several feet around the vehicle.  We managed to get out of the parking lot and drove up to our house but when we got there - there was a huge mountain of snow at the end of our driveway from the guy who plows our driveway.  We climbed over the mountain of ice and snow and then had to swim through 3 feet of snow in our front yard in the dark.  I am only 5'6" so I was drowning.  Tim had to walk in front of me so that I could step in his footsteps.  So much snow.

The garden was buried along with the pond and it's waterfall.  There was 3 feet of snow over the Bilco door that we had to shovel away to be able to turn on the water to the house from the basement.  We had lots of errands to run and just trying to get back and forth from the house was torment.  We had to re-evaluate our chore list and scratch off several projects that involved being able to walk around the house in the snow and that was just not going to happen.  I must have fallen into the snow a hundred times and my feet remained frozen all day.  We cannot wait till Spring!

Grilled Salmon with Horseradish Sauce

Our continuing quest to eat healthier this year!  Can't get enough Salmon.  Always looking for different ways to serve it.  So simple. The sauce was really good and the meal as always great!

Grilled Salmon with Horseradish Sauce

4-5 ounce Wild Salmon fillet
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons fat free mayonnaise
2 tablespoons fat free sour cream
4 teaspoons drained prepared horseradish
1 tablespoons chopped chives
1 teaspoon water

1. Spray ridged grillpan with non-stick spray and set over medium high heat until hot.
Sprinkle salmon with salt and pepper.  Place in pan and grill until lightly browned and barely pink in center.  About 4 minutes each side.

2. Meanwhile, to make the sauce, stir together mayonnaise, sour cream, horseradish, chives and water in small bowl, set aside.

Women Who Kill

Drew you in didn't it?  I am obsessed with how AOL draws you in with the titles of their email blasts.  It makes me insane.  I don't want to open up the news articles but it's the way they phrase their email blasts - I open them all up and there is no reveal.  Nothing is as scintillating as they hint.

Another Polar Vortex weekend.   What we have always loved about living up in Delaware County is that we don't have to care what we look like or wear when we go to the grocery store on Saturday morning.  Tim made a comment to me this morning on the drive over that I my hair looked like an old woman had put her wig on backwards - I am sure there is a compliment in there somewhere?  We make a run to the post office to pick up our mail.  Janet, our mail woman, who we love,  just had surgery so she was out.  We run through the grocery store and pick up what we need for the weekend and staples for the city.

Price Choppers in Delhi is one of God's gifts.  We love shopping there. However, there is usually only one lane open early on a winter weekend and while waiting - I become obsessed with the magazine racks next to the register.  Of course, because I am such a believer, my eyes landed on the new Life memoir mag rag with their new feature of Jesus.  However, I quickly moved to the new release of "Women Who Kill".  Now,  that will get me through a cold winter weekend!  The magazine promises numerous stories of "sex, slaughter and chilling confessions!"  It features photographs of Casey Anthony, Jodi Arias, The Manson Girls and Lana Turner?  ( Lots of filler).

Who publishes these things? I have to buy it and when I show it to Tim in the car, he grabs it out of my hands and I don't hear a peep out of him on the drive back to Bovina.  What we do to keep ourselves busy this winter?