Baked Salmon with Spinach

We order a lot of our seafood from SeaBear, they had a special for Mother's Day which was a shipment of Fresh Wild Spring King Salmon from Alaska.  I patiently awaited the UPS truck with the shipment of fresh salmon, this is what we were having for dinner tonight.  I didn't take into account that it was in fact Mother's Day this weekend and that the UPS driver would have a lot of packages to deliver, which meant mine would come much later than normal.  Have no fear the truck arrived we came inside opened the box and the cooler to find beautiful fresh fish.  Immediately I placed 2 of the filets onto a pan to cook.

Preheat oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place salmon onto a cookie sheet lined with foil (I only do this because it makes clean up easier), drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Along with the salmon I fixed wilted spinach.  Heat a skillet over medium heat, add olive oil.  We bought a bag of fresh spinach from the Land and Table event that we went to on Tuesday.  It was a gorgeous bag of spinach.   Add spinach to skillet, it won't look like all the spinach will fit but it will, turn the spinach with a pair of tongs, flipping the spinach over and around so that it cooks.  Cook until the spinach is wilted but not mushy.

Baked Spaghetti

I want to start off by saying that my mind works in interesting ways.  I came home from work and was trying to figure out what I wanted to make for dinner.  The first thing that came to my mind was macaroni and cheese.  Well I didn't have the cheese I needed and I didn't want to run out to the store, it was pouring down rain and it was a little chilly.  So the first thing I did was I went to the freezer to see what I wanted to make (figuring that this would give me some ideas).  With it being cool and rainy out I was in the mood for comfort food, which is why I think my mind went to mac and cheese.  I grabbed a package of beef sausage.  It is ground so it makes it easy to break apart as you cook it in a skillet.  The sausage has some spices to it which make it very nice.  We get it from Mountain Run Farm, who sells grass-fed beef.  So as I decided on the sausage I then thought okay I will make spaghetti, and then as my mind continued to process what I was thinking I then thought, ah ha, I know what I will make.  I will make baked spaghetti.  Here is what I did.

I made my own spaghetti sauce (I usually don't have jarred sauce in the house) to use for this dish. Here is what you will need:
1 28 ounce can of chunky tomato sauce
1/2 half can tomato paste
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon parsley
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
salt and pepper
1/2 cup romano cheese, grated
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
The above spices are an estimate.  Place everything into a saucepan and heat.  Stir occasionally and keep covered.  Cook until heated through.   Meanwhile cook the sausage until done.  Add to cooked sausage to sauce mixture.  Cook 1 package of spaghetti, cook according to package.  Preheat oven to 400 degree Fahrenheit.  Take a casserole dish and brush it with olive oil.  Add half of the cooked spaghetti to the bottom of the casserole dish, add half of the sauce and half of the cheese.  Then add the next layer finishing with the rest of the cheese on top.  Place in oven and bake for about 30 minutes or until it is just starting to brown.

Also had a side salad to go with dinner.  It was from a bag of greens that we bought at the market portion of the Land and Table event last night.  We also bought a container of Honey Lemon Lavender Chevre (goat cheese) last night from Spring Mill Farm.  I took the greens, washed them and placed them in a bowl added the cheese, topped it with a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a light splash of red wine vinegar.  Topped with a sprinkle of fresh ground pepper.

Meatballs in Pineapple Sauce

There is an event going on at the farm where we get a lot of our products from.  It is called Land and Table which is a Sustainable Traditions initiative to help cultivate sustainable agriculture and the local food movement. Tonight is a pot luck, open mic plus a market.  So for this I wanted to make something that was easy to transport and easy to eat.  The recipe comes from the Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook by Shannon Hayes.  When I made this, I doubled this recipe.  

Meatballs in Pineapple Sauce
For the Meatballs:
1/2 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 pound ground beef (since I doubled this recipe, I used 1 pound ground beef and 1 pound ground pork)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Mix all ingredients, except the olive oil, in a large bowl.  Shape into 1-1/2 inch balls (I used a large cookie style scoop with holds about 3 tablespoons).  Saute meatballs in the olive oil over medium heat, turning occasionally, for about 15 to 20 minutes, until browned.  Remove the meatballs, pour off the fat from the skillet, and set aside.
For the pineapple sauce:
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch (I use arrow root)
1 13-1/4 ounce can of chunk pineapple, in natural, unsweetened juice
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon tamari
1 small green bell pepper, coarsely chopped (since I was doubling this recipe I used 1 green and 1 red bell pepper)
Mix together the brown sugar and cornstarch, and add to the skillet used for the meatballs.  Pour in the pineapple and juice, and add the vinegar, tamari, and chopped pepper.  Over medium heat, bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Reduce heat immediately, add the meatballs, and simmer 10 minutes longer.

Since I didn't have a lot of time today to make this.  I made this last night, placed it into a ceramic crock pot bowl.  This afternoon I took the bowl from the refrigerator and placed it into the crock pot (the part that heats) and turned it on.  It didn't take very long for everything to heat all the way through and now I can carry the crock pot to the pot luck.

To go along with this part of the meal.  I also decided to make a pineapple blueberry mint salad.

Pineapple, Blueberry, Mint Salad
1 fresh ripe pineapple, core and outside removed, cut into bite sized chunks
About 8 ounces of blueberries (I used some blueberries that I froze last summer, if using frozen blueberries don't thaw out, just add to salad as is)
Fresh mint leaves, chopped
Add chopped pineapple, blueberries and mint together.  Mix and refrigerate.  You want to make this the same day you plan on eating it, the blueberries can be tough if left in the refrigerator too long.