Food & Pictures

I have just a few more photos to share from our holiday celebrations. These are the kids with some good friends at our Christmas Eve dinner. Posing nicely of course.




Santa brought Porter a skateboard for Christmas, and Bryce took the kids to the skate park the next day to try it out. He is acting the part, but discovered that standing up on a skateboard is not as easy as it looks.

Molly thought the skate park was a fantastic playground too.

And here we are, decorating Christmas cookies for Santa. And us. And maybe eating a little frosting along the way.

Along with all the celebrating, I have actually been cooking a lot! Just not posting about it. So here goes:

Christmas Day we had Cinnamon Rolls and boiled eggs for breakfast. Yum. For dinner, we had a Venison Pot Roast (I modified this recipe a bit as my roast was small) with Potatoes, Buttered Cabbage (oh how I love cabbage, cooking it this way leaves a little crunch and is so, so good), and Cooked Apples. It was lovely.

We've also been working on our freezer supply of seafood lately, and I have to admit to getting a little tired of salmon fillets. Poor me, right? Anyway, we've had a couple of new salmon meals that have been good for changing things up. Grandma Allison made a Salmon Risotto while she was here that was absolutely delicious. I don't have an exact recipe, but it involved white wine, chicken stock, lemon juice, Parmesan cheese, and stirring in the cooked salmon at the end. I'll have to experiment with that one again. And last night I made Southwestern Style Salmon Cakes. They were great for dinner, and tasty again today as a lunch time sandwich.

Southwestern Salmon Cakes

adapted from a Cook's Illustrated recipe

4 cups flaked cooked salmon

1/2 large red bell pepper, chopped fine

1 cup frozen (and thawed) or fresh corn

1 4 oz can chopped green chiles

1/4 cup onion, minced

3 tablespoons minced cilantro

3/4 cup bread crumbs

1/4 cup mayonnaise

2 eggs

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup panko (or more breadcrumbs)

vegetable oil for frying

Mix all ingredients (except oil and panko) together in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. You can add more (or spicier) chiles if you like, this is very mild. Amounts are approximate, depending on the fish, you don't want the mixture too wet. Form the mixture into patties, and carefully coat with the panko or extra breadcrumbs. Heat oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat, and fry the patties on both sides until browned and crispy. Drain on paper towels and serve hot, with lemon wedges if desired.

And as a final note regarding the guitar cake. I got this awesome tutorial for it here. I make my own cake and frosting, but otherwise just follow the directions. I have made three of these cakes, and they always turn out. I have no skills in cake decorating without some serious help, and this site has been great.