This photo has been updated Jan 18, 2012.  All other pictures were from the original Vancouver trip in 2008.

This is an old post from April 2008 when my husband and I went to Vancouver.  I wanted to re-post it because I have a new (much better) picture, it tastes freakin' delicious and it turns out this recipe is in the Robin Miller: Quick Fix Meals cookbook I am reviewing.  Oh...and I MacGuyver'ed it a bit while cooking this recipe in Vancouver.  You'll see as you scroll down ;)


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I'm back from my week on the west coast. Can I just say how utterly awesome Vancouver and Victoria are? I was in my glory when we visited Lonsdale Quay Market and Granville Island Market. We don't have "markets" here in my small city in Southern Alberta. I get the pleasure of grocery stores and ONE small Asian store. But seriously....Granville Island Market?! Oh how I love thee.

We went on a Saturday and the whole market was buzzing and crowded with people. There was a huge organic produce section, many fresh seafood counters, fresh bread, fresh italian....EVERYTHING! Oh and there were buskers everywhere. It was so exciting. We were sick of eating out and wanted to cook a fabulous meal for my Father-in-Law. I had already decided to make my Roasted Salmon with Sweet 'n' Hot Mustard Glaze. We came to a fresh seafood counter and were utterly excited to see bright red salmon fillets staring up at us. We are used to frozen lumps of pink salmon (still good)...but not like this. This was Wild BC Sockeye Salmon....mmm.

We stayed in a guest room in Steve's Dad's apartment building. It came equipped with dishes, a few pots and pans and some cutlery, but no spices, salt....nothin'. I had to keep my cooking simple, since I lacked a stocked kitchen, so this dish was perfect. And seriously delicious. I think my father-in-law wouldn't mind if I stayed permanently in the guest room and cooked for him every night ;)

Recipe from Quick Fix Meals
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Serves 4

Cooking spray
1 pound salmon fillet
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup Dijon mustard*
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon mustard powder*
1 clove minced garlic
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

*Instead of using dijon and mustard powder, I just bought Heinz Bold and Spicy Mustard and it did the same thing. I've made this recipe a ton of times the original way and this tasted basically the same.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

So here is the gorgeous red sockeye salmon fillet we picked up at the market. Use whatever salmon fillet's you can get.


If you are like Steve and I, and staying in a guest room with almost nothing, you will need to go to the nearest McDonald's and swipe yourself some packets of salt and pepper.

If not, then just get out the ol' salt and pepper shaker. I use Kosher salt at home. Season up both sides of the salmon with salt and pepper and then place in a baking dish that has been coated in cooking spray. (I skipped this step since I didn't have any and it worked fine. But usually I use it, just to make sure my beautiful fillet doesn't stick.)


Once your fillet is seasoned up, you can go ahead and make the glaze. Combine your mustard, honey, mustard powder (if you are using it...and I recommend you do if you aren't using a mustard with bite), finely minced garlic and the juice of a lemon. Mix it all up good and then this is when I check to make sure the balance is good. Too lemony? More honey. Too sweet? More mustard. You get the picture.



Then pour about half of the glaze on your salmon. Chop up some fresh dill and add it to your reserved sauce.

Then throw 'er in the oven and let it roast for about 15 minutes until the salmon is fork tender. I kept this supper simple since I didn't have much, and I served it with a baked potato. Spoon more of that sauce over your salmon and dive in. It's so good, Steve's Dad was spooning sauce over his potato as well.
Gotta love those classy dishes the guest room provided us with.

Click here for a printable version of Roasted Salmon with Sweet 'n' Hot Mustard Glaze

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THE RESULTS?
Above and by far our favorite way to eat salmon. This is simple enough that I made it in my little guest room kitchen. We were all licking our plates clean after this one. So try it. Seriously.

Way back in the early months of summer, I was at my Dad's and browsing through his cookbook collection, when one in particular caught my eye.  I had just accepted a full time teaching position at my preschool and was wondering how I was going to balance it all when I snatched up my Dad's copy of Quick Fix Meals: 200 Simple, Delicious Recipes to Make Mealtime Easy by Robin Miller.  I remember getting back home and on a couple hot sunny days I filled up the kiddie pool and while my girls splashed and played I was lounging in a lawn chair reading this cookbook cover to cover to get her tips and tricks for getting dinner on the table with a much busier lifestyle.  I decided I would really like to review this cookbook next and hopefully learn a thing or two along the way.

This recipe for smoked cheddar stuffed burgers is super simple to make, not a lot of ingredients, quick to prepare and my favorite feature?  She gives you recipes to "morph" the leftovers into completely different meals on other nights.

Gotta love having a headstart on TOMORROW's dinner.

Recipe from Quick Fix Meals
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Makes 8 burgers

• Greek Pita Pockets with Tzaziki - warm up 4 leftover burgers, cut in half and place into soft pita pockets and top with cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes and tzaziki (either store-bought or homemade).

• Spaghetti and "Meatballs" - bring a jar of spaghetti sauce to a simmer.  Cut 2 leftover burgers into 2-inch chunks and add them to the sauce. Simmer 5 minutes to heat through.  Stir in some chopped fresh basil and serve over spaghetti, topped with parmesan.

• Vegetable Beef Soup - In a large stockpot, combine 6 cups beef broth, 2 leftover burgers cut into bite sized pieces, 2 cups diced potatoes, 1 cup chopped onion, 1 cup chopped celery, 1 cup chopped carrots, and 2 bay leaves.  Bring to boil, then turn down to medium and partially cover the pot.  Simmer 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender.  Serve.

Lacey and I.

I have another wonderful Secret-Secret Geography Club dinner to share with you.

Eight months after Joel and Lindsey moved we finally asked a couple girls from our church (one's a chef and one's a die hard baker and cook) to add to our ranks. After much deliberation the six of us decided to visit France for our culinary travels. We had already done French food with Joel and Lindsey (which I still must tell you about!), but since it's such a vast and rich cuisine we knew that there was so much more to explore.

We had it all planned out:
I was going to do the appetizer with some Oeufs en Cocotte.
Lacey was going to bring some French wine as well as Coq au Vin.
Dan and Lisa were bringing duck and a terrine.
And Bailey had dessert covered with a croquembouche as well as macarons.

A feast of French cuisine!  The day of our dinner I started to think maybe we needed a salad as well and so I started researching and thinking I'd do a traditional Nicoise Salad, but then Steve stopped me and said "Kin think of how much food everyone is bringing!  We have enough."  So I backed off and stuck to the plan.

But by early afternoon Bailey delivered the bad news that she had gone to the doctor for a sore throat and he thought she had mono.  She would have to stay home (and eat all the profiteroles and macarons herself).  So disappointing!  But I guess we still had a bunch of food to eat and could make it through without dessert.

By 5pm Lacey called to say she had to work late that day at the restaurant, forgot to thaw her chicken, she hadn't started cooking her dish yet and Bailey was her ride out to our place, so she was cancelling too! Steve refused to let her back out and said we didn't care about the food, we just wanted her company.  In the end Lacey made it and came bearing two bottles of French wine and some French cheese.  All was well!

Our rocky start quickly mended when Dan and Lisa served their Roasted Vegetable Terrine with fresh herbs and goat cheese.

Hey, do you guys remember my Secret-Secret Geography Club posts?  You know how there were three of us couples who loved to try new foods, so we'd pick a country and then have an entirely International themed dinner party?  Those were so much fun and it's been aaaaaaaaaaa-ages since I've blogged about one of our dinners.  I have so many back-logged posts that were never unearthed and no new recipes to share with you since I've been sick with these dang kidney stones, so I thought maybe I'd share a dinner party with you.  This one's called: THE RETURN of the Secret-Secret Geography Club.

It's been more than six months since we've gathered together as a group to make International cuisine, and two and a half years since I last blogged about one of our meals.   We started with excitement, but after three years as a group and sampling over 20 different countries and cuisines I think we lost steam.  It also didn't help that one third of our group moved away.

But Lisa had the brilliant idea to plan a SECRET Secret-Secret Reunion for Dan's 35th birthday.  Joel and Lindsey drove two hours to surprise him and be here with us.

Dan was blindfolded and the smells wafted from my kitchen as he walked in the door and we all yelled "Surprise!"  We were all together again and in the business of making and eating incredible International food.  Our theme:  The Best of Asian Cuisine.  We took all the best dishes from the Asian countries we visited and recreated them.  It was a perfect theme since Dan's favourite countries were always the Asian ones, and we had so many mouth-watering recipes to revisit and walk us down memory lane.

I made a Korean vegetable and rice dish that Lindsey originally made called Bipimbap (beep-im-bap).  The veggies are all sauteed individually with soy sauce, sesame oil and a bit of fish sauce and then arranged beautifully on top of a bowl of rice with a heaping spoonful of gochujang (a Korean red pepper paste).  My husband is a hot sauce addict so I just happened to have some of this stuff in my fridge.


Dan and Steve have been bugging me for months to make this Beef Rendang from our Malaysian night again.  The depth of flavours in this dish are insane, with warm hits of star anise, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves and rich coconut milk.  The dish is spicy and sweet, warm and rich.  It takes over three hours to make, but both Steve and I decided it's utterly worth it.  This dish needs to be made in this house over and over again.  Waiting two years to eat it again is unacceptable.


While adding my star anise and cinnamon sticks, I smiled as I reminisced the very beginning of this group when we forged ahead in the unfamiliar territory of Moroccan cuisine and I hated it because of the cinnamon and licorice flavours in my savoury foods.  Every country we'd visit, I would turn up my nose when someone put cinnamon or licorice in the food and yet I'd always be pleasantly surprised.  My taste buds have really changed and expanded since starting this group and I owe it to my fellow Geography Club members and their amazing cooking skills.

Lindsey brought her scrumptious Chinese Pork Buns again and I was in heaven. This time she brushed the tops of them with honey before baking, giving them a lovely sweetness.  Fresh bread dough wrapped around spiced pork is a wonderful thing.


Lindsey also brought us a lovely Thai salad made of pomello's, cucumber, carrots, mint, peanuts and a dressing of fish sauce, chili's, lime and sugar.  Pomello's are an Asian cousin to a grapefruit but are much sweeter.  Lindsey got hers nice and fresh at the Asian Supermarket in her new city, which is much MUCH bigger than our little Asian market.


The first time Lindsey made this salad it also had shrimp in it, which sounds weird but was oh so good.


We also got to indulge in a beautiful little Asian fruit I had never tried before called mangosteen.  The outside flesh was a gorgeous purple colour.  Lindsey found some beautiful mangosteens at her Asian Supermarket and brought them for us to try after our meal.


She also showed us the proper way to open a mangosteen.  Place the green top in the palm of your hand and the bottom in the palm of your other hand.



Push the palms of your hands together until the aubergine rind splits to reveal brilliant fuschia innards.


The part of the mangosteen you actually eat is the white bulbs inside that look like garlic.



I can assure you it tastes nothing like garlic, but a sweet mix of strawberry and kiwi flavours wrapped up with warm vanilla tones.


It was a wonderful treat to break open our own mangosteens and each try one.




Lisa brought us some Asian inspired Lime and Mangosteen coolers to enjoy with our meal and later we sipped on some Japanese Plum wine and ate some salted dark chocolate that had chilies and pop rocks in it that they found in the States.  The chocolate had nothing to do with our Asian theme, but was delicious and so fun to try nonetheless.

We couldn't have a best of Asian food meal and not have Lisa make hotteok (ho-duck) for dessert.  Freshly fried yeast dough with brown sugar, peanuts and black sesame seeds sandwiched in the middle.  All of us love to talk about this delicious morsel and reminisce.  They were just as incredible as we remembered.

Click here to get a printable version of this week's meal plan with recipes

For more great meal plans, check out my complete list of meal plans or the Menu Plan Monday links at Orgjunkie.

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THE RESULTS?
These are ridiculously quick and simple to throw together.  The sauce is so flavorful and delicious.  Even if it's not summer time, these are worth it to make on a grill pan in the dead of winter.  They'll make you happy.

• Grilled Asian Beef Kebabs + Fried Rice

• Grilled Asian Beef Kebabs + Rice + Sauteed Bok Choy with Teriyaki Sauce