What's for dinner 1/19/2010

Tonight's menu:

• Maple Dill glazed salmon
• Glazed carrots
  
• Kraft Mac n Cheese

So a 1/2 glamorous meal for tonight.
I found the recipe for the salmon in a magazine. I've never tried it in the oven, just on the grill. It's too icky to go out and work the grill so I'm going to attempt to do this in the oven instead.

Recipe for Salmon:

1. Marinade:

• 1.5 t Dijon Mustard
• 1 T balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 c maple syrup
• 1/2 t minced garlic
• 1 t dill
• 1/2 t salt

• Whisk ingredients together

 
2. Marinate salmon for 1 hour.
3. Bake for 13 minutes at 375
4. Broil approximately 2 minutes



Glazed Carrots:

1. Drain 1 can of pre-sliced carrots
2. Put in small saucepan along with 3 T butter or margarine
3. Bring to light boil
4. Add 1/4 c brown sugar
5. Reduce to simmer
6. Simmer approximately 5 minutes

Results: The salmon turned out PERFECT!!!! It had a nice sweetness to it from the maple syrup. I used dried dill so it didn't seem to be very "dill" flavored. I mostly tasted the syrup. Cooking in the oven resulted in a nice even done-ness. Aside from the hour of marinating, the prep time and cook times were relatively low. One could probably prep and marinade in the morning and have an extremely flavorful, yet quick dinner.

Tips I've found helpful with salmon:

1. It's worth paying the money for a quality piece of fish. We used to cheap out and get the individually frozen pieces when they were 10/$10.... Then we made the "mistake" of buying a good piece of fish. It's made all the difference. Exception to the fresh is best rule: No Name Salmon filets are quite good

• Sometimes I really wish I lived on a coast where I could get really fresh salmon. But meat department of my local Cub foods will have to do....
  

2. Defrosting: I prefer to either leave in the fridge overnight or thaw in warm water as opposed to the microwave. I've found the microwave tends to start cooking the salmon