Random Cooking Notes from the Sandwich Life

We had salmon the other night. I ended up overcooking it which irritated me to no end but it turned out ok as the quinoa won the plate. I'd made a big batch of tri-color quinoa cooked in chicken stock the other day—just to have on hand. I sent Ernie out in the yard to get some mint and I took some cilantro from my window box. I probably had about 1/3 of a cup of each, maybe a bit more mint–oh, and some garlic chives as well. I made some garlic oil, added the herbs and some lemon juice, and whirred up in the food processor before stirring it into the quinoa with some salt and pepper. Ernie had not been too enthusiastic about the mint and cilantro but he loved it. In fact, the next night when we were talking about dinner he said that if we were going to have more quinoa then he wanted me to make more of the vinaigrette. I just ate the leftovers for breakfast and it held up.

Of course, I had saved a bit of the vinaigrette to pour over the salmon AND had some minced herbs and chive blossoms for on top. Sigh. But we forgot. And yes that's a huge piece of salmon, and yes I ate it all, and yes I was sorry.

Because Ernie is more restrained than I am, there was leftover salmon the next day so for mmmm, I guess it was brunch. I had the leftover salmon on a toasted gluten-free roll, a bit of mayo and salt and pepper. Ernie even took the skin off the fish and crisped it up so it was like having a little side of salmon flavored chips. Just heavenly.

I'm most proud of this dish even though it didn't turn out very well. I'm proud of it because I TRULY didn't want to cook and I did anyway. I completely overcooked the boneless skinless chicken breast (one of my least favorite things to cook) and added lots of celery leaves which were too bitter but you know, I did it.