Rating: 💋 💋 💋 😘
This week my horoscope told me that I need to take some "much-need personal time" and "chill out already." I think every cell in my body was craving that too, so I am glad the entire universe is in agreement on that.
Whether or not my propensity for making plans was acquiescent to the idea is another story altogether.
On Monday, I checked out Greenpoint, an area of Brooklyn reported to be very cool. While there, I read The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir - an excellent read, highly recommend! - while sipping an absolutely delicious Chai latte from Bagel Point. It had a vanilla twist that I loved. The staff there was also very nice and I made sure to leave a tip because I have been a barista and let me tell you, it can be a tough gig. From there, I shot a commercial with a super fun cast of actors, filmmakers, and photographers. It did not end until 1:00 in the morning, but there was something nice about seeing the city at night like that, gasping and cool and still for once.
Tuesday's big excursion included a trip to the Whole Foods in SoHo. It was absolutely wonderful and I think my best grocery shopping experience in New York City ever. I moved here five years ago. That's big. Most thrilling, they had every single ingredient on my list stocked, which has happened to me zero times before in a single grocery trip. I was elated. I was glowing. I wish I could go grocery shopping there every single week. Most exciting of all, I balled out and bought two fresh Atlantic salmon fillets, as a treat. It was my first attempt at cooking fish ever, so it was a little scary, but mostly exhilarating.
For my side for the week, I cooked a new vegetable dish of roasted cauliflower and tomatoes.
Recipe: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/cauliflower-with-tomatoes-recipe-2104976
I admit, I cheated and bought the pre-chopped cauliflower and romanesco florets. To be fair, that was more because I love the colorful vegetables than because I did not feel like chopping. It's just so much prettier when the veggies are multicolored! I did chop the tomato myself though, and the scent was absolutely intoxicating. A fresh tomato like that gives me hope for the warmer months to come. Thank God!
I also want to give a huge shout-out to Shannon for her aluminum foil technique - not only did it make clean-up way easier, it roasted the vegetables better than if they were on the pan in oil alone. The oil glazed and crisped the florets, the heat burst open the juices of the tomatoes, and the spices heightened the brightness of the vegetable's flavors without freaking out all the pain receptors in my tastebuds. The dish turned out even better than I thought and I am excited to make it again.
Additionally, last week I made these three-egg omelettes stuffed with spinach, goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes, and red quinoa, which also turned out great and I will be making again soon. I cooked way too much red quinoa though. It was my first time dealing with the little suckers and I enjoyed it, but even after reducing the recipe, it made more than I needed for the omelettes. As a result, I have a lot of quinoa to get through. Not wanting it to go to waste, I threw some of it in a pan with arugula, olive oil, and freshly ground black pepper, sautéed it all up, and used the quinoa dish as a bed for my dinner.
Now, on to the exciting stuff! My gateway into cooking fish was this Lemon-glazed salmon: https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a50886/glazed-lemon-salmon-recipe/
I would say this recipe is perfect for beginners, because I did not wind up eating raw fish and in fact, it tasted really good. I was positively thrilled by the fact that the raw salmon fillet looked just like the fish that cats eat in cartoons. The worst part about the whole experience is, as I went to flip over the fish after the first four minutes of cooking, the hot oil spit on me. I mean honestly, how rude!! One drop even pinged me in the forehead - bull's-eye! By the next morning the burns had faded though, so it really wasn't a big deal. It cooked very quickly and the sauce came together super well in this delicious lemon-butter froth. I only changed one part about the recipe: I substituted the appropriate amount of lemon juice instead of using fresh zest and lemon slices. I am simply not over accidentally biting into that lemon with my chicken at the end of January. I truly don't know if I'll ever make a full recovery.
Overall, I loved my dinner. The veggies were juicy and crisp and flavorful, the lemon sauce soaked into the piping hot quinoa and arugula, and it all went so well with the salmon. Also, I successfully cooked salmon! This is huge for me. Salmon is probably my favorite protein of all time, so knowing that I can now cook it for myself has given me a new sense of power. The skin was crispy and coated in the sauce, the fish flaked apart well and had a delicious, buttery interior, and I was in heaven. I was dancing as I ate. It was a very exciting time to be alive.
After going from a busy work week to a long weekend full of acting jobs, social activities, and errands, I forced myself to take a break on Wednesday. I spent most of the day cocooned with my screenplays that need editing, my Simone de Beauvoir, and some poetry, just for fun. I am freshly obsessed with that old Irish poem 'Donal Og' (https://poets.org/poem/donal-og). It is hitting me in a new way, and the lyrics of the poem have been stuck in my head all week like a song. Having a day with my books was the down time I needed, but I had to force myself to do it. I had been meaning to edit my screenplay, for example, since last Saturday. Always there is some excuse. It is funny too because whether writing or editing, I can think of a million road blocks, but starting is really the hardest part. Once you actually sit down and get to it, the words just fall out onto the page. I need to say this as a reminder to myself to just do it already more often.
When it came time to give my brain a break from all the words, I revisited the salmon. As much as I loved the lemon-glaze, I wanted to test out more than one recipe while I had the fish at my disposal. I reheated the cauliflower dish, sautéed up some more quinoa and arugula, and flipped open to a new recipe for Soy-glazed salmon. https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a44646/soy-glazed-salmon-garlicky-kale-rice-recipe/
This recipe comes with recommended sides of garlicky kale and brown rice, which I am sure is delicious and will definitely try at some point. I still had all that quinoa though, guys, so I cheated and made the fish alone with the same sides as Tuesday. I thought it would be an interesting experiment. The lemon matched so well with quinoa and roasted vegetables - how would the soy sauce compare?
Well, it did not splatter me while it cooked, but there was less of it and it was a more viscous sauce to start, so it started to congeal. I blame the clotted dijon mustard. Unacceptable! I was able to prevent the sauce from turning into a black char, but it was a scary moment. I love the crispy skin of fish, and this soy-glaze weighed the skin down, so that was a sacrifice. Still, it was easy enough to make and tasted pretty good. The sides worked equally well with either sauce, but the soy glaze definitely had a stronger flavor overall. This is to be expected though. A stronger lemon glaze would have turned too bitter, so it is a choice you have to make - fresh and zesty or thick and sweet. I enjoyed both, but I think I will be looking for a different soy-glazed salmon recipe to try, to test if another method works without posing as great a risk of charring or clogging the surface of the skin.
My major conclusion? I love quinoa with salmon incredibly. All the little flakes absorbed the juice so well and the salmon practically melted into the moist bed of quinoa. I am crazy about it. I can hold my head a little bit higher now as I walk down the street, prouder for having found success in the salmon-cooking department.
I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!
XX,
MK
P.S. My modeling website is now live and I am quite excited about it! Check it out here: http://marykatemagee.com/
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