Salmon patties and brussel sprouts

Im not sure what sparked my memory but this recipe is from my childhood. Im sure my mom loves that Im trying to make things that she always used to make us. I invited both of my sisters over and told them that salmon patties and brussel sprouts were on the menu. When I told them that they both thought they were being punished or something. But I made believers out of them. I do have to give Lee the credit for making me even try brussell sprouts in the first place.

I cut off the ends of my little cabbage patch brussel sprouts (thats what they remind me of) and then cut them in halves. Peel off and discard any yellowed or browned leaves. Dont throw away the yummy green leaves that fall off while trimming though, they are my favorite part. I threw in some baby carrots for fun and sprinkled with EVOO, salt, and pepper and popped it in the oven at 375 for about 30 minutes.

The picture doesnt do them justice. The black looking pieces are your loose leaves and are crispy pieces of EVOO and salty goodness. Yummy! 

Now for the salmon patties. I cant decide how often I will make these, they were just okay. I think with more practice and tweaking they will be better. Its hard to taste because the mixture has raw egg in it so its a guessing game. 

I mixed 3 cans of salmon, 2 eggs, 1/2 C breadcrumbs, and 1 T chopped garlic and formed them into patties. I used too much oil and wish I would have just coated the bottom of the pan.

I heated the oil to medium heat and made sure it was bubbly before dropping them in. I just waited until they were golden brown before flipping them, about 3 minutes a side. 

Sister time

My sister has been coming to visit weekly now because I am a perfect stop in between work and her masters class. We normally cook dinner and watch the biggest loser. Today we were quite proud of what we accomplished, giddy actually. I had frozen tilapia, frozen green beans and didnt know what to do. So I used my allrecipes app on my phone and came up with this:

Garlic Parmesan Orzo

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Garlic-Parmesan-Orzo/Detail.aspx

 AND

Broiled Tilapia Parmesan

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Broiled-Tilapia-Parmesan/Detail.aspx

Impressive, right!?! We even decided to get fancy with our plates! I also wanted to share some of the little things that we tweaked and some of my favorite things that I used while cooking. 

Defrosting food in the microwave is a pet peeve of mine so we put the frozen fish in a plastic bag and filled the sink with hot water. It only took about 10-15 minutes to thaw. Both recipes called for a lot of butter and we got away with only using half of the called amount for the orzo. Next we swapped out the parsley and used a trader joes favorite:

I think these 1tsp cubes are awesome! They also have them in cilantro and garlic.

The fish was almost done, and we forgot about the green beans. Luckily my fancy steamer had them ready in just 3 minutes in the microwave. (Trader Joes frozen green beans taste very close to fresh!)

 

 Props to pampered chef...and sister talk!