Salmon Pan-Seared with a Honey Soy Glaze with Almonds

I had dinner planned when I went to the grocery store, and I changed my mind in the middle of shopping. I didn't have any idea what I wanted to make so I created my own recipe.
1 lb salmon fillet
1/8 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup honey
1 T minced garlic
1 t Chinese five spice
3 tablespoons sesame oil
1/3 cup chicken stock
1/3 cup slivered almonds
Mix together the soy sauce, honey, garlic and five spice in a shallow bowl or pan and marinate the fish for half and hour or so.
Meanwhile heat up a large skillet ( I used cast iron) and add the sesame oil on medium-high. Place the salmon, skin side up, in the saute pan, include the marinate ingredients. Cook for about 10 minutes or until the salmon is seared on the top, about 10 minutes. Once seared, add the chicken stock and continue cooking. Turn the salmon over and continue cooking about 10 minutes or so. Cook down the sauce. When the sauce is quite thick in the last few minutes of cooking add the almonds, and stir to brown a little and heat.

Here it is in the pan nearly finished. It was quite tasty.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.
Audrey Hepburn

Bead Curiosities

Asian Inspired Honey-Vanilla Chicken

If you enjoy a favorable, moist meal, you will definitely enjoy this one. It is the marination that makes this chicken so moist. I felt rice was the perfect item to serve with this meal because it is Asian-inspired. I flavored the rice with some of the marinate. It tasted really good.

ASIAN-INSPIRED HONEY-VANILLA CHICKEN
Source: AllRecipe.com
Prep Time: 15 Min Cook Time: 10 Min Ready In: 45 Min
3 tablespoons soy sauce
½ tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon orange juice
½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, or to taste
½ teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast
1 tablespoon honey
meat - cut into strips
½ teaspoon minced garlic

1. Stir together soy sauce, orange juice, hot pepper sauce, vanilla, brown sugar, and honey until dissolved. Season with minced garlic, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. Whisk in sesame oil and vegetable oil until combined.
2. Toss chicken with marinade, cover, and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.
3. Adjust oven rack to its top position, and turn oven on to Broil.
4. Place chicken into a baking dish or baking sheet. Broil until golden brown, 5 to 8 minutes. Turn chicken over, and continue broiling until no longer pink, about 5 minutes more.

This is not all I have been doing, I wrote a few articles

Role Model: Lady Penelope Creighton-ward of The Thunderbirds

Role Model: Aloysius "Nosey" Parker of The Thunderbirds

Money...we Hate It! We Need It!

Role Model: Tin-tin Kyrano of The Thunderbirds

Ceos are Not Worth The Money They are Paid

Let me leave you with the words of James Madison
"The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted."

Stoved Chicken from Great British Cooking

You remember this book, right? I enjoyed the last recipe I made, Miss McFarlane's Honey-Glazed Chicken. it was terrific and so easy.

I decided to give the book another try. I decided to cook Stoved Chicken, found on page 96 of this cookbook. For this recipe I used my dutch oven.

Here it is, finished in the pot, straight out of the oven.
Here is the recipe...

Now this recipe does call for 6 chicken pieces to equal 3 lbs. When I went shopping that wasn't that easy to find. So I purchased some dark meat, and some white meat, all on the bone.
I also added extra chicken stock 1 and a half hours before it was finished as well as 2 hours before. I also added extra tabs of butter.

Here is my scrumptious plate...

Now this is a stew, cooked in a casserole in the oven. The potatoes and onions were cooked perfectly.

Here is a quote I liked from Danielle Steele

"...what she had learned from all of them. To be honest, and descent, and work hard, to live well, and love with all your heart, no matter what the price, and never be afraid to follow your dreams, wherever they took you."
Danielle Steele
Star


Are you ready for the new year?

Pomegranate Glazed Cornish Game Hens

Life is really complicated at times but at least we can cook. This is my Pomegranate Glazed Cornish Hens,  It was scrumptious. Here is the recipe

Pomegranate Glazed Cornish Hens
Serves 4 (each with half a Cornish hen)

1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon thyme

2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons pomegranate juice , from  Pom Poms Wonderful Fresh Airls (this comes with a spoon for snacking), divided

2 tablespoons honey, divided

1 tablespoon chicken stock

1 tablespoon white wine

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Season game hens with salt,pepper and thyme; Put put on them at the top and near the legs and cook on rack for 1 hr or until done. 

While chicken is roasting cook the Pomegranate Glaze.In a stainless steel sauce pan simmer juice with a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of honey until reduced to a syrupy glaze about 10 Mins.
Brush pomegranate glaze on hens 15 minutes before the hens are finished.

After you have put some of the glaze on the hens add the last of the Pomegranate juice along with a avrils, add the chicken stock and white wine and cook down the glaze and pour to even more syrupy and pour over the hens .Roast another 5 mins and serve.

The Cornish hens were tasty and enjoyable.

I also spent a little time writing for fun and I created these 2 articles

Role Model: Special Agent Ziva David of NCIS

Role Model: Dr. Donald 'Ducky' Mallard of NCIS

I leave you with this quote.

"Humor is just another defense against the universe."

Mel Brooks

Honey-Glazed Chicken Drumsticks

Tried a new recipe as you can see. These chicken drumsticks were mighty tasty. This recipe is from Steven Raichlen which I originally found in Food and Wine.
Here is the recipe...

CHINA-HONEY-GLAZED CHICKEN DRUMSTICKS                                                          Servings: 6

Steven Raichlen Food & Wine Magazine June 2002

18 chicken drumsticks	¼ cup chopped cilantro
2¼ teaspoons salt	3 tablespoons Asian sesame oil
2¼ teaspoons freshly ground pepper	Vegetable oil, for the grill
2¼ teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder	6 tablespoons honey, warmed
4 garlic cloves, minced

1. Make 3 crosswise slashes down to the bone on the meaty part of each drumstick. Put the chicken in a large shallow baking dish.

2. In a bowl, mix the salt, pepper, five-spice powder, garlic and cilantro. Add the sesame oil; stir into a paste. Rub the paste in the slashes in the chicken and spread any remaining paste over the skin. Cover and

refrigerate for 2 hours.

3. Light a grill. Lightly oil the grate. Grill the chicken over a medium-hot fire, turning occasionally, for about 35 minutes, or until just cooked through. Brush the drumsticks with the honey and grill until golden brown, about 1 minute per side. Serve hot.

I have been so busy I haven't been writing as usual, but so far I publish this article Role Model: Temperance Brennan of Bones. I also started reading The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien. 

I am also on Google+ Have you tried Google+ yet?

Miss McFarlene's Honey-Glazed Chicken

I know it has been a while since I have written. To start things off here is the chicken I roasted last night. It came from the book, Great British Cooking: A Well Kept Secret by Jane Garmey.
Here is a copy of my book.

Here are the ingredients.

Except for the seasoning of the salt and freshly ground pepper this is a 5 ingredient recipe. The watercress pictured is just for garnish.

Here is what the chicken looked like as it came out of the oven.

The chicken was scrumptious. I actually put extra honey on for glazing. It was so easy. The nice thing was after I took the chicken out of the oven I had an apple to munch on as well as an onion which I had stuffed in the chicken.

I am also planning to make a chicken salad with some of the chicken.

I am always interested in hearing from my readers. This is a great chicken to try if you like roasting chickens.

Apartment Rearrangement and New Computers

For dinner recently I made Honey Mustard Roasted Chicken. It had a wonderful flavor but instead of chicken pieces I used chicken breasts. The one thing I forgot to do was add chicken broth because I was missing the skin and bone from the chicken pieces which would have made the chicken moister.
I also wrote two articles, one was on the Double Parallel Brochure which is really part of a series of articles which I have written on brochures and their design. My most popular article in this category is the Barrel-Fold Tri-Fold Brochure. I look at not only the layout but how the customer reads the actual brochure and what types of information are best placed on certain brochures.

I also wrote an article called Corruption: Michael, The Guys and the Great Snapple Caper on Roswell This article is about corruption, of course. It has been so much in the news lately with the loss of jobs who can't resist writing about it especially with all the things in the news today.

This was also the month to rearrange the apartment. My boyfriend and I live in an 800-square foot 1 bedroom apartment. Sometimes the apartment can be a tight squeeze between his stuff and my stuff. We finally decided to rearrange the living room. My computer was all dusty and my boyfriend blew it out for me with a can of air and then an accident occurred. Needless to say after the incident my boyfriend bought me a new computer. I went from a 32-bit computer to a 64-bit computer. The one thing I can say is that I have a really great boyfriend. The one thing I can say is that the room is almost all arranged and the computer is up and running. The living room also has more light.

I also started making a necklace. I bought a bunch of beads from Ebay which came from China. I received this tip from another fellow jewelry maker.

He also took me to the movie Star Trek and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. The movies are both excellent and I don't recommend missing them.

Easter Eggs and Recipes to Satisfy

I have been very busy. This economy definitely keeps you on your toes. I am always looking for new business opportunities and trying something new. I have been so busy I have been unable to make any jewelry, but I am looking forward to putting forth the time.

I haven't been reading as much either. I should have finished the book that I have been reading by now. I am happy I will have more time starting on Friday, although I also have to catch up on work.

I have also been watching the world's going through Twitter. I have been using the add-on Twitbin with Mozilla Firefox. Twitter is great for learning. I found blogs by people in my field along with other tips and trends which can really be quite helpful. A big topic at this time has been the swine flu.

For Easter my family and I went to Old Lyme to The Hideaway Restaurant.
I had their veal roast for dinner. I really wanted lamb but was disappointed because they sold out. The meal was excellent and they were very busy.

While we were there we also celebrated my mother's birthday. My brother and I bought my mother a cake from Take the Cake! in Guilford, CT.
Their cakes are divine. This cake was terrific. This cake is a White Chocolate Mousse cake and it was rich and wonderful. It was perfect and not to sweet.

The one thing I have made time to do is write. I wrote an article for small businesses, Strategizing Your U.S. Business in a Global Economy, Role Model: Daphne Millbrook of Heroes, Power Plus Money Equals Success, and Queenie: The Life and Times of Merle Oberon. With everything that has been going on at in the business and financial markets I couldn't help but add information of what I saw that was happening with businesses that I have worked with.

I also cooked up some wonderful meals for my boyfriend. He is big for Caesar Salad Wraps. I made him and Easy Baked Caesar Salmon. I found this recipe along with the other below on Recipezaar.Chris loved the flavor and it was really easy to make. Their were only seven ingredients. It is a 30 minute meal!

We also had a Honey Curry Chicken. This was excellent also.
This recipe only had seven ingredients and did not take that long to put together, but this took an hour to bake.

I did have some time to do a little crafting. I did some decoupaging.
Here is a great hint for a book to get great pictures for decoupaging -- use an FTD catalog.

Have fun and happy living!!!