Sunday, 5/16/2010

Happy Birthday to my husband Ben!

We celebrated Ben's birthday tonight with our friends Ryan and Vanessa. I wanted to meet somewhere near Tacoma, half-way between our homes, so that none of us had to drive too far. I did lots of internet searching and finally found the Adriatic Grill. The restaurant's website was really nice, easy to navigate and full of great information. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time getting excited about an unfamiliar restaurant if it's website is poorly designed. Anyway, the menu had a lot of variety, the entree prices looked reasonable, and they advertised 1/2 priced bottles of wine on Sundays. Also, I was thrilled when Google Maps showed me a photo of the restaurant and it had a parking lot. Sweet! No street parking!

I made my reservation online and was pleased to receive a call a couple days ago to confirm. They had our table prepared for us when we arrived, complete with our requested high chair for Katie. They gave her some crayons and she actually used them to scribble with! Ok, she did try to eat them later on, but the nice waitress let us know they were soy based. We took advantage of the 1/2 price wine and shared a bottle of chianti. We toasted Ben for his birthday. Katie took notice and insisted on clinking (or clunking) her sippy cup into our glasses too. SO CUTE!!!

Ben ordered Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo. I had Steelhead Salmon with Fresh Pesto off of their Fresh Sheet menu. Vanessa enjoyed the Pesto Shrimp pizza. Ryan tested the lasanga, and Katie had a cheese pizza. For dessert, Ben got a complimentary cup of ice cream with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. He shared that with Katie, who showed, once again, that she loved ice cream! Vanessa and I each had a chocolate amaretto cake with amaretto ice cream. Whoa, sooo rich and delicious. Neither one of us could finish our dessert even though we wanted to. Ben had Affogato Al Cafe- a white chocolate ice cream drizzled with espresso and topped with whipped sweet cream and chocolate covered espresso beans. Ryan enjoyed a dish of spumoni.

Bottom line: I would HIGHLY recommend visiting this restaurant if you live anywhere near Tacoma.

Saturday, 5/13/2010

The birthday surprise for Ben's grandma was absolutely perfect! She was blown away that all of her family came to celebrate with her:) After a restful night's sleep listening to the ocean, we gathered for breakfast at the beach house. Then we headed back to the hotel so that Katie could nap around 11am. Turned out Ben and I needed naps too.

After our naps, we had lunch and headed to the beach to play. I should point out that it was Katie's first time playing in sand. Her Grandma Jennifer showed her how to brush her hands together in order to remove some of the sand. We went back to the beach house for dinner.

We had grilled hotdogs and hamburgers for dinner followed up with birthday cake and ice cream. The cake was carrot with raisins and nuts, so Ben passed on it. I am not usually a carrot cake fan, but I am always a butter cream frosting fan...so I had some:) Katie definitely enjoyed the cake!

Friday, 4/23/2010

Ben's been working late this week, so we haven't eaten together many times. I am thankful that he got home by 6:30 tonight so that we could share our meal. We had left over salmon cakes with a sweet fruit salad. The salad consisted of bananas, mango, pear, and mandarin orange segments. Delicious!

Katie had to eat around 5:30. She had cheese...and 1/2 a salmon cake and a quarter of a pear:)

Wednesday, 4/21/2010

ZESTY SALMON CAKES

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes (per batch)
Makes 6 large or 18 appetizer size cakes








Ingredients:
14 oz can of wild red or pink salmon (2 cups fresh cooked salmon can also be used
2 eggs, beaten
12 saltine crackers, crushed fine (I like to use 6 crackers and 1/4 cup panko break crumbs)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp chopped capers
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
fresh lemon wedges (optional)

Preparation:

1. Add the salmon to a mixing bowl. (Due to the way it's processed, any bones found in canned salmon are very soft and edible, and should be mixed right in. If you want to take the time you can pick through the meet fairly quickly and remove them.) Add the rest of the ingredients, except the oil and butter, and mix with a fork until well combined.

2. Shape into 6 patties about an inch thick (or 18 for appetizers). Heat the oil and butter in a saute pan on medium heat until the butter melts. Saute the salmon cakes for 5 minutes per side until golden brown. Serve hot with fresh lemon if you would like.

I have made this recipe several times, each time using fresh salmon that I pre-baked. This week I bought pre-seasoned salmon, lemon pepper, from the meat counter thinking it would add even more flavor. I won't do it again. The salmon was salted and I didn't think to compensate for that in the recipe. So, the cakes were a bit salty for my tastes. Better to stick with plain salmon. The ingredients in the recipe give it plenty of flavor.

Tonight I baked the salmon just before I mixed it into the other ingredients. I think I should have waited a bit so that some of the moisture could evaporate. The cakes were a bit moist and didn't stay together as well as I would have liked. I also didn't make them as thick as the recipe calls for, so that could have compromised how well they held up against handling and turning. Even though they didn't turn well and were a bit salty, they were still enjoyable. I mixed up my standard fish dip (ketchup, mayo, and worchestershire sauce) and had a small mixed green salad on the side.

Katie had grapes and strawberries along with her fish cake. She likes the dip too:)