Pi Cubes.

So Blake Makes had this nifty giveaway a little while ago for Letter and Number baking and freezer trays. And I won. The first of these food blog giveaways I won. -Finally-. Haha. But anyway. I won a nifty number tray. And once I got it, I decided I wanted to do something, but I didn't know what I could do. So I went into the pantry and spotted a canister of Tang. Ah-ha! Tang cubes! But then... not -just- Tang cubes. I could make.. Tang Pi Cubes! Yep. I made pi. Because I'm that big of a nerd. This should be expected. I took AP Calculus my senior year as an elective. I didn't need the credit. I just needed a class to fill up space in my schedule. So I took Calculus because I figured it would be an easy A. (And it was for me.)


So yep. I want to make pi cakes, too. :] A friend told me to make pi pie. But I don't think it would work in these. Too small. XD

So. Cupcake Hero, huh?

We were given free reign last month and so I decided to do those pumpkin cupcakes. Even though a part of me kept saying not to do it. Just wait. Because I had a feeling that October would be something like pumpkin or squash. Just because I did pumpkin in September. And look! October's theme is squash. Damn. I couldn't very well do my pumpkin cupcake again. Well. I could. There's nothing in the rules that says I can't. But I felt weird doing anything pumpkin-related. So that was out. And I've done zucchini before. So that was out. I realised that cucumber is a squash. But I couldn't think of what I could do with it. Mainly because I didn't think too hard and I don't like cooked cucumber. I like it cold, raw, and sliced. Just as is. So I thought and thought. And I finally came up with an idea. Butternut squash cupcakes. Have I ever had butternut squash? No. Did I know what it looked like? Yes. Perfect!

So that was good. All I needed then was a recipe. So I wrote one out. Yep. I created my own recipe. Using stuff I'd never eaten before. Aren't I tricky? Anyway. I had my cake. Now all I needed was frosting. I wanted something with maple. I thought about it and came up with either maple cream cheese frosting or maple marshmallow frosting. I asked people their thoughts and I got an even split between cream cheese and marshmallow. So I did neither. I made a maple buttercream instead. Of which I forgot to put lemon juice in. (It helps the texture come together I realised. Because mine looked broken. Even though it was quite smooth and yummy.)

And then for garnish I decided I wanted to put a single pecan on. Toasted, I decided. I had never had toasted pecans. I had only had pecans once, ever. Which was two years ago when my great aunt mailed us a giant Ziploc bag filled with raw pecans from her trees. By the time they got here, they had started to mould. Did I eat them anyway? Yep. I would grab a handful, pick out the mouldy ones, and eat the ones that were fine. They tasted very maple-y to me. We got through about half the bag before the mould took over and we threw the rest out. But anyway. You can put some chopped pecans into the cake if you'd like. I don't, though, because my mom is allergic to them. And after much investigating through the store I discovered that it's cheaper to buy raw mammoth pecans from the bulk dispenser in the health food aisle than anywhere else. The bags in the baking aisle were the most expensive. Then there were bags in the produce section. Then the bulk area. I've taken quite a fancy to the bulk dispensers. I needed a few bay leaves for something I'm making later this week. I got probably five or so for seven cents. I don't need that much, but it works because it was only seven cents rather than getting a jar from the spice aisle for five bucks. Yay for being cheap. Forgive me. I ramble.

So the end result was a spiced butternut squash cupcake (which reminds me of pumpkin), a buttery maple frosting, with a maple-y crunch from the pecan on top. And the cake was very light, too. Unlike most other spice cakes I have tried that are pretty dense.

Oh. And after further investigation, my cake appears to have more spice than I have seen other recipes have. This is because I have tried many recipes where they don't have very much spice, so it doesn't have very much flavour. So I decided to see what my cupcakes would be like with less spice. I baked up an incredibly scaled down recipe (three cupcakes) and tasted them. Without frosting, they were still pretty good. I didn't like them -as much-, but still flavourful. Then I put on the frosting. Yeah. Keep the spices as they were.

I also tried to make a variation on black bottom cupcakes, but with a butternut squash cheesecake filling and no cocoa powder in the cake and I added cinnamon. It was good. But they turned out more like pre-frosted cinnamon cupcakes than what I had hoped they would be. I still ate them. All three. Because I scaled that recipe down, too.

With the remaining butternut squash puree I had, I found a pumpkin pancake recipe and just substituted butternut squash puree for the pumpkin. And.. I used the leftover maple buttercream as my butter on them. They were pretty amazing.



So finally. The recipes.


Butternut Squash Puree. (In case you need help with this.)

1 butternut squash
oil

Pre-heat your oven to 350º F.

Cut the squash in half lengthmish from stem to.. whatever that circle thing is called. If you can manage to do it with a chef's knife or anything, great. I can't. I use the saw from our pumpkin carving kit. The one to cut the lid off. Yeah. It's the only surviving saw we have. Scoop out the seeds. You can either discard them, or rinse them off to roast later.

Brush some oil on a baking sheet. Lay the squash cut side down on the baking sheet. Bake for about an hour, or until tender. Turn the halves over, scoop out the flesh, and puree it in your food processor. Which is probably the easiest route. I don't have a food processor, though. So I put the flesh and a bunch of water into my blender to get it thoroughly pureed. Don't freak out about the water. After it's been pureed, line a colander with cheesecloth (read: paper towels) and set over a bowl. Pour the puree into the colander. Press some saran wrap onto the surface of the puree and put in the fridge to drain overnight. All the water that was added and extra moisture from the squash itself will drain leaving you with a thick puree. Ta-da!



Butternut Squash Cupcakes (makes 24; you can easily divide the recipe in half)

1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup (one and a half sticks) butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups butternut squash puree
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon baking soda (yes, that says tablespoon)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup vanilla yoghurt (it was supposed to be plain, but there was only one cup at the store that was all beat up)

Pre-heat the oven to 350º F. Line two muffin pans with cupcake papers.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix in the butternut squash and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Alternately mix in the dry mixture and yoghurt into the butternut mixture, starting and ending with flour.

Fill prepared tins two-thirds full. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.



Maple Buttercream

2 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (which I forgot to add)
1.5 sticks (3/4 cup) butter, cut into cubes and softened slightly
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

Combine egg whites and salt in bowl of a standing electric mixer or other large bowl.

Stir together sugar and water in a small heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over moderately high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved and washing down side of pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water. When syrup reaches a boil, start beating whites with electric mixer at medium-high speed. Once whites are frothy, add lemon juice and beat at medium speed until they just hold soft peaks. (Do not beat again until sugar syrup is ready—see below.)

Meanwhile, put thermometer into sugar syrup and continue boiling, without stirring, until it reaches soft-ball stage (238–242°F). Immediately remove from heat and slowly pour hot syrup in a thin stream down side of bowl into egg whites, beating constantly at high speed. Beat meringue, scraping down bowl with a rubber spatula, until meringue is cool to the touch, about 6 minutes. (It's important that meringue is fully cooled before proceeding.)

With mixer at medium speed, gradually add butter 1 piece at a time, beating well after each addition until incorporated. (If meringue is too warm and buttercream looks soupy after some butter is added, chill bottom of bowl in a larger bowl filled with ice and cold water for a few seconds before continuing to beat in remaining butter.) Continue beating until buttercream is smooth. (Mixture may look curdled before all butter is added, but will come back together before beating is finished.) Add maple syrup and beat 1 minute more.

Then frost cooled cupcakes and top with a pecan half (I think halve sounds better) if you desire.

Daring Bakers: Crackers.

So. Daring Bakers this month. I wasn't too thrilled. Crackers. They said we had free reign. Okay. But it had to be vegan. And we had to have a dip. That was vegan. And gluten free. Well. I don't think much about dips. Dips aren't that intriguing to me. And I'm not invited to any parties that require me to bring a dip. So that was a problem. I had never had spinach artichoke dip, though. But it sounded good to me. So I made that. Along with a carmelised onion relish. Woot. I also un-veganised half my crackers. I sprinkled shredded parmesan cheese on them. I liked those ones. I also cheated with rolling and just passed them through my pasta roller. I achieved even crackers that way. They weren't bad. Nobody touched the simply salted crackers, though. They all liked the cheese ones. And I made the mistake of taking some of the crackers with me to my high school to visit my old teachers. The Culinary Arts students aren't cooking yet. So they had nothing to cook and eat. I took out my crackers.. and they were gone in about a minute. Lydia ate some, then Landon had some. Shane got a couple, then Landon devoured the rest. I want to go back. Maybe I'll teach them how to make the crackers.

Posh Pumpkin Cupcakes.

These are basically my pride and joy. I am in love with these cupcakes. The recipe made ten. I ate five. That is how much I love them.

Cupcake Hero this month was Baker's Choice. The choice of picking at least two of the previous challenges and put into a cupcake. My first thought was chocolate and mint. It was brilliant. A chocolate cupcake with a layer of home made mint 'n' chip ice cream, and a mint marshmallow frosting. Yeah. I liked them. They weren't what I had hoped for. But. I decided they just wouldn't do. So I completely forgot about that idea and came up with a new one.

I had had a craving for something pumpkin. I thought about cheesecake, and then decided to make cupcakes. Cranberry pumpkin cupcakes. Hmm. With a cream cheese frosting. I also wanted to make dulce de leche. So I made a dulce de leche cream filling. Which was a marshmallow frosting with dulce de leche mixed in. And -then- I decided that with the leftover pumpkin I would have from the frosting I would use to make a pumpkin mousse. It was perfect. And it covered three themes. Cranberry, Clove, and Marshmallow.


They were utterly amazing. You had four different textures in one bite. I'm tempted to make it again. In layer cake form. Mmm... Just look at that ooey, gooey-ness of that filling. Who could turn that down? Fluffy, spiced pumpkin mousse. Creamy spiced cream cheese frosting. Spiced pumpkin cake studded with moist cranberries. Caramel-y, cool cream filling. Michael turned it down. He hates pumpkin. And cream cheese. I told him I'd make him some caramel cream filling, then. Just need to find a way to get out there. Anyway.

These cupcakes were rather time-consuming. Well. In the way that I spanned the cupcake-making over three days. I made these last week starting Monday to be assembled on Wednesday to have as dessert for our Thanksgiving dinner in September. Why Thanksgiving? Because I was making up the grocery list and nobody could come up with meals, so I decided I was making Thanksgiving dinner. 'Twas very yummy. My dad had such doubts about my doing a turkey breast because it's usually so dry. It was so juicy. I was quite proud of myself.

Now. Let it be known that you can easily use store-bought caramel sauce or dulce de leche if you'd like. I just wanted to try making it. It wasn't difficult. Just took a while.



Day 1: Dulce de Leche.

Dulce de Leche (adapted from Alton Brown)

2 cups whole milk
6 ounces sugar (by weight)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
5/8 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Combine the milk and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar is dissolved. Once it has dissolved, stir in the baking soda and continue to stir the mixture occasionally for about an hour and a half. In the last twenty minutes, don't leave the stove and stir constantly to prevent the bottom from scorching. You can turn the heat down as well if you'd like. It should be a nice dark caramel colour. Strain if you wish. I did. Because I didn't stick around the last twenty minutes and it scorched a bit. It had some bits in it that I didn't want. Stir in the vanilla extract.



Day 2: Cranberry Pumpkin Cake and Pumpkin Mousse.

Cranberry Pumpkin Cupcakes

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup buttermilk

Pre-heat oven to 350º F. Line a standard cupcake pan with ten liners. (Or twelve if you manage to stretch it that far, but I only got ten.)

Beat together butter and brown sugar thoroughly. Add in egg, mixing until completely combined. Then beat in the pumpkin and vanilla extract.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cranberries.

In three additions, beat the flour mixture in alternately with the buttermilk, starting and ending with flour.

Fill each cup about two-thirds full and bake for about twenty minutes. Cool completely.


Pumpkin Mousse

1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Whip the heavy cream to stiff peaks and set aside in the fridge while you get everything else ready.

Place the egg yolks in a glass or metal bowl. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and water. Heat until the sugar is dissolved. Start whisking the egg yolks and slowly stream the hot sugar syrup into them. Place the bowl over pot of boiling water, making sure the bowl doesn't touch the water. Whisk the mixture constantly for at least ten minutes. The egg yolk mixture should thicken and lighten in colour. It may take a few minutes more. Just keep whisking. If you want, you could use a handmixer I guess. But it really doesn't take too much strain to whisk that long. It just might get boring. I played music while I did it.

After it has thickened, remove the bowl from the heat, scrape it into the bowl of your stand mixer, attach the whisk attachment and turn it on to medium, medium-high speed. Let it go until the bottom of the bowl feels cool. The mixture should have thickened by then.

Meanwhile, once you've put the egg yolks in the mixer, mix the pumpkin with the cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Put it in the microwave for about thirty seconds to a minute. I did this to help release some of the flavour from the spices into the pumpkin.

Once the egg yolk mixture has cooled, switch from your whisk to paddle attachment. Beat in the pumpkin mixture until combined.

Fold a third of the whipped cream into the mixture to help lighten in, then fold in the rest. Refrigerate until set.



Day 3: Frosting, Filling, and Assembling.

Cream Cheese Frosting

4 ounces cream cheese, softened (I used Neufchatel; cream cheese with a 1/3 less fat)
2 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, to taste, optional

In your mixer, beat together the cream cheese and butter until combined.

Beat in powdered sugar until smooth. Mix in vanilla extract.

I then transferred it to a small bowl and at the last minute chose to throw in some spices. I didn't want to go searching for my measuring spoons, though. I just made sure I sprinkled in more cinnamon than cloves and more cloves than nutmeg. Tasted, then adjusted.



Dulce De Leche Cream Filling

1/4 cup egg whites (about two)
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons dulce de leche (I warmed it to make it more fluid)

Combine the egg whites and cream of tartar in your mixer bowl and whisk on high to stiff peaks.

Meanwhile, combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved. Then attach a candy thermometer and allow to boil without stirring until the syrup reaches 242º F.

With the mixer down to about medium high, slowly pour the hot syrup into the egg whites and whip until completely cool to the touch and the frosting is nice and thick.

Measure out the two tablespoons dulce de leche, scraping it into the mixture with your finger. Or you can use another spoon. Or just eyeball it. But.. I wanted to lick it off my finger after. You can add more dulce de leche if you'd like. Mix until completely incorporated.


Posh Pumpkin Cupcakes

Cranberry Pumpkin Cupcakes
Dulce de Leche Cream Filling, as needed
Spiced Cream Cheese, as needed
Pumpkin Mousse, as needed

The trickiest part is how to fill the cupcakes. You could always put the filling in a pastry bag fitted with a long, narrow tip and pipe it in. If that works for you. But I don't have one. And when I tried with the tip I had, it didn't work.

So instead, you can do what I did (if you so choose). I simply cut a conical "plug" out of the top of each cupcake. I inserted a steak knife into the cupcake at an angle about two-thirds of the way into the cupcake, with about a quarter inch border. Then I cut in a circle and lifted it up. Ta-da! Cone plug, hollow cupcake. Then I cut off most of the plug, leaving a little lid. I likened it to carving pumpkins. Except I was carving pumpkin cupcakes. Ha. I thought it was nifty...

Anyway. Once I'd cut out a plug in all the cupcakes and disposed of the centres.. into my stomach.. I began filling. I just used a small spoon from the silverware drawer and scooped a bit of the dulce de leche filling into each cupcake.

Once the cupcakes are filled, replace the lids. (Oh. I should have mentioned. It helps to remove each lid as you go, then replace, so you don't have multiple lids and you're not sure which one goes where. Yes, that is probably an unnecessary tip, but just in case.)

You can then pipe on some cream cheese frosting if you want, but I just plopped a spoonful onto each and spread it with the back of my spoon.

Finally.. the mousse. I had originally planned to just plop a big dollop of mousse onto each cupcake. And you can if you'd like. I figured I would go for a nicer presentation and I took out my #40 disher and placed a scoop on top of each.


Yeah, I only have Christmas cupcake papers. My grandmother gave them to me for my birthday (which is in June) so I'm using those until I need to buy more.

Gasp! An update! Nobody reads this anyway...

Really. They don't. And if you do, well. Then I'm wrong. It happens. Occasionally.

So anyway. I've basically been very lazy in posting anything I make. I have made quite a lot, it's just.. I feel the need to give more information on what I made. And I just didn't want to do it. Partly because after I made it, I went on and on and on to people about it. And my best friend kindly puts up with it as we chat on AIM. He just does other things and lets me talk, throwing in random statements of understanding even though he read nothing. Yes, it sounds like he doesn't care, but he does. He humours me and lets me ramble. And I do the same for him. :]

This post is actually two things. I had been wanting to do something with ground turkey. Why?

Because I hadn't used it except for in Culinary Arts I last year. And even then, I didn't directly work with it. I did the dessert. I think that was when we did the lemon mousse/soup. The night I made it.. it was soup. Then the next day, I got to class, took it out of the fridge, unwrapped the pan, and.... it had separated. Crap. I tried to fold it together, but it didn't work. It was flat. I tasted it. It was still amazing. Just.. not mousse. I tried heating up some of it with extra gelatin we had.. but it didn't firm it. We just got globs of creamy, lemony gummies. I loved them. But the entree was stuffed shells. With homemade turkey sausage. 'Twas good. So I decided I would make my own shells with the ground turkey. Except.. not sausage. I also knew that if I used a whole pound of turkey for shells.. I'd be eating them for the next week. So I made lasagna with the rest of the turkey! With thin slices of zucchini instead of pasta! Which I ate for the next five days... And I still only got through half of it before I had to throw it out.


Turkey Base

1 lb ground turkey (I used 93/7)
half a medium sized onion, chopped
about 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
salt and pepper
crushed red pepper, optional
oil

Heat up a large skillet and add he turkey. Once some of the fat from the turkey has rendered a bit, add in the onion, salt and pepper to taste, and crushed red pepper. Stir as you will, trying to brean the meat up as it cooks. Add in more oil if you need to. Towards the last few minutes of cooking, add in the garlic. (You can add it in the beginning if you'd like. I just fear burning my garlic, so I like to add it towards the end since it doesn't take too long to cook and I will still be giving whatever it is I'm cooking some flavour.)

That's pretty much it for that bit.



Stuffed Turkey Shells

1/3 of the cooked ground turkey mixture from above
about a half of a medium zucchini, chopped
salt and pepper
oil
parmesan cheese, grated (I bought a wedge and just grated some in until it looked good)
about a pinch of oregano
7 or 8 jumbo pasta shells, a little undercooked
marinara sauce, about a cup or more, depending on how much you want for the shells

In a skillet, heat a bit of oil. Mix the zucchini with some oil, salt, and pepper. Add to the pan. Try to get one layer and let it go until the bottom starts to turn golden, then stir and let the other side turn golden as well. If you need to, you can cover the pan to let the zucchini steam a bit if it isn't cooking through. Remove from heat.

In a bowl, mix the turkey, zucchini, parmesan cheese, and the pinch of oregano. Spoon into shells. You could always cook up some mushrooms or peppers or such to add to the mixture. But the peppers and mushrooms didn't look to good at the store. So I didn't do it.

Spoon a bit of marinara into the bottom of a square 8 x 8 baking dish, place the shells in the pan, and spoon a bit more sauce over the tops of each, sprinkle a bit more grated parmesan cheese and bake in a 350º F oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until heated through. You can cover it if you'd like. I chose to just throw it in the oven as it was. I wanted those toasty, crunchy edges of shell.




Turkey Lasagna

2/3 cooked ground turkey mixture
about half a head of broccoli cut into florets, cooked, cooled, chopped
1 16-ounce container of ricotta cheese
12 ounces of mozzarella cheese, grated (My grocery store makes some on-site, so I got that.)
2 medium zucchini, thinly sliced (I just used my peeler to cut thin ribbons off.)
parmesan cheese
2-3 cups of marinara sauce

In an 8 x 8 inch square baking dish, spoon a little marinara sauce in to just coat the bottom of the pan. Lay down a layer of zucchini ribbons. Top that with some turkey, then marinara, then mozzarella, broccoli, ricotta, then grate on some parmesan cheese, and repeat the process. I wound up getting three layers out of it, ending with a top "layer" of sauce and mozzarella. You can also change up what goes next to what, or add in more things. I actually meant to add in some chopped, frozen spinach. But I forgot about it because it was in the freezer.

Bake the lasagna in a 350º F pre-heated oven for about 40-50 minutes, or until heated through. Again, you can cover it if you'd like, but I feared the cheese would stick to the foil. So I left it uncovered.


I really liked the lasagna.. but I should warn you.. the zucchini has a tendency to let out liquid as it cooks. I let the lasagna sit for a bit before cutting. Ha. I still got a rush of cheesy, tomato-y liquid fill in the cut out hole. It isn't bad unless you don't like that. I ate it like soup. It was amazing.
Yay for sun glare on cheese!

Daring Bakers: Eclairs.

So. The Daring Bakers challenge this month was... eclairs. I love eclairs. In ninth grade, there was a fundraiser for band. Well. This was back in California, so the band fundraisers were actually good. This particular one sold cheesecake, cookie dough, jellyrolls, and.. eclairs. (The band fundraiser here in Texas? Personalised pens. Yep. Twenty-dollar pens that had your name on it. They told us we had to get a sample to show everyone. So we all signed the paper. Then once we got our sample pens they told us, "Oh, if you don't sell at least seven pens, you have to pay for the sample." Anyone want a black-ink green pen that has me name on it? I only write in blue ink. All they offer is black.) Anyway. I had my mom buy me the eclairs. They were amazing. I loved them.

So a few months ago, I decided I wanted to try making eclairs. They didn't work out so well. I didn't fancy them at all.

Nevertheless, I pressed on with this challenge. It called for a pate a choux, a chocolate pastry cream, and a chocolate glaze. I chose to follow the recipe for the choux and the glaze. Instead of pastry cream, I filled it with milk chocolate mousse.

They were... okay. I wasn't thrilled by the choux. I don't recall -how- long I baked the choux, but I know it was about thirty-five minutes or more. And -still- they weren't completely dry. They were still moist. But I was impatient. It was also really eggy. It made me think of french toast. But without any vanilla or cinnamon. When I paired it with the chocolate mousse, it helped some, but. It didn't help enough for me to make the rest. I made three. My sisters and I were home alone that night, so I made one for all of us. The youngest liked it. The other decided she didn't like the chocolate mousse.


With the rest of the mousse, I chose to make a chocolate mousse pie with. And just because I happened to have graham cracker crumbs in the pantry. I was addicted to that crust. Really. I baked it and it was toasty goodness.

Tacos. Fish Tacos.

Okay, so. There's not much of a recipe here. More.. just showing of the picture in hopes you find it interesting.

I had some frozen salmon I had been doing all sorts of things with. This was probably my favourite. I just made a rub for the salmon, cooked it in my cast iron skillet, cut it into chunks, and put it into two warmed flour totillas. Then I topped it with what I found in my fridge. Which was basically the leftovers from the hamburgers we ate the night before. It was amazing.


Salmon Tacos

1 4-ounce salmon fillet
seasonings or rub of your choice, enough to coat the fillet
oil
toppings of your choice (I used shredded lettuce, slice avocado, caramelised onions, and salsa)
two small flour tortillas, warmed

Rinse and pat dry the salmon. Sprinkle on your seasoning, then cover and set in the fridge for about fifteen minutes or so. (I simply seasoned it, and put it in the fridge while I prepared my toppings and heated my skillet.)

Which brings me to my next point. Preheat a small skillet and lightly coat the bottom with oil. Take the salmon out of the fridge and cook the fillet, about four minutes per side, or until cooked completely through.

Cut the salmon into chunks and divide the chunks evenly amongst the tortillas. (I cut my fillet into eight chunks and gave each tortilla four.) Top with whatever toppings you'd like. I chose left over carmelised onions, lettuce, and avocado, with a little salsa. Oh, my god. Those onions really made it so amazing, paired with the creaminess of the avocado, the cool, clean crisp of the lettuce, and the refreshing salsa. (Fresh local salsa... it's so good; I'm actually willing to pay the four bucks for it, so yeah. It's good.) It really was amazing.