All I wanted was a pickle.

...so I made salmon burgers really quick.

Roaming around the grocery store after 7:00 pm hungry and without a list usually ends poorly. Luckily I had made it past the produce section with a few of my weekly staples (greens, carrots, mushrooms, berries) before my unavoidable impulse buy happened. I went looking for red wine vinegar when I am confronted with a wall of pickles! Sweet ones, salty ones, square ones, round ones, flat ones, chopped ones... and it's summer now, so they've got to be sweet. I do a quick scan of the ingredients lists to weed out any that contain the dreaded HFCS, for argument's sake, and I stumble upon this adorable-looking pickle product! Wickles- Wicked Garden Mix, with pickled cukes, baby pearl onions, and cauliflower. I figured it might be a local product... since wicked works its way into the vocabulary of everyone in New Hampshire. Later to find out... not made here, made in Alabama... but still a delish pickle that I'm happy made its way into my heart! I mean basket!

What on earth could I eat pickles with? Thank goodness I'm standing right across from a wall of canned tuna and salmon... perfect! Salmon burgers! (And the marketing majors win, again. I needed vinegar, and due to perfect product placement, now I'm buying pickles and making salmon burgers.) Okay then! Inspired by memories of my mom's tuna burgers (which we probably ate with pickles) and a recent spread in Women's Health on quick and healthy burgers, I didn't think twice. Got home, threw this stuff in the food processor, and in 20 minutes I was eating a fresh, summery meal.

Into the food processor (man I love that thing) go canned salmon, an egg, a handful of oats, half a lemon's zest and juice, garlic, dill, a handful of fresh parsley, salt, pepper, and a few squirts of Sriracha sauce. A few pulses later, I formed patties, trayed up, and stuck them under the broiler for (what should have been) 5-7 minutes per side. I made them pretty small and kept them in for too long, but that was my only complaint. Yummy!

perfectly plated with collard greens, curry ketchup, and my new pickles

I should also mention that I will make any salty thing if it means an excuse to use my German curry ketchup. Simply the best condiment ever known to the world. My parents bring me back a few bottles each time they return to the States. (Surely a perk to having international parents. Danke!) These burgs were a good, solid start to my week. I ate them reheated for dinner, plus packed them in a salad with yellow cherry tomatoes and red wine vinaigrette. Making them reminded me of one of Mark's and my all-time favorite recipes: Red Lentil Burgers. Oh, I just went digging in iPhoto to see if I had a picture of that recipe... here!

college kidz gotta eat- red lentil burgs, pea penne with lemon vinaigrette and goat cheese. circa aug 2010.

Only 1 more week of my clinical rotation! Then things are happenin', people! Until then... eat up.


Enjoy!

What's so great about spinach, anyway?

I tried cooking a new vegetable! Collard greens! 


(I realize I just lost half of the people who visited my blog. But hang with me.  At least look at the pictures.)


Spinach is my go-to green. It's quick to cook, light in flavor, and many brands come triple-washed in bags. Sounds like a health-conscious cook's BFF... but what about all of the other greens? After all, I haven't given many of them a fair chance: mustard greens, turnip greens, dandelion greens, arugula, Swiss chard, kale, escarole. Enter, collard greens. I found a bag of triple-washed and pre-chopped collard greens at Hannaford (my grocery store in NH) for a tad cheaper per pound than spinach. So I gave it a shot... and you know what? I liked it!


Now, this was a trial-by-error cooking experience for me, a collard greens newbie. The typical preparation involves tons of butter, something called a ham hock, and half a day. Going for something simple, I tossed in a few handfuls of greens to some already-cooked brown rice, black beans and onion, wishing for it to nicely wilt like my trusty ol' spinach. Well... it just doesn't cook like that. These greens are tougher, and require more time on the heat than spinach. My first attempt was pretty crunchy.


On day 2, I decided to give my greens a little more TLC. I heated about 1 tsp of garlic basting oil (from Wegmans) on medium-heat, and sauteed chopped onion and more garlic for about 5 minutes, until brown. I added 2 big handfuls of greens, seasoned with salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. I covered the greens (as recommended on the bag... I'm not above following instructions) and let them cook, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes. The result was quite lovely; texture- al dente, taste- mellow.

They don't look too scary, right?

Now, I'm not about to call myself the collard greens cooking expert. In fact, I'll even point you toward Paula Deen's recipe if you want to see a more traditional preparation. But because I'm not sure when I might have "neck bone" on hand, my lighter saute was just what I needed on a cool fall day. I ate them in peace, along with a bowl of spaghetti squash marinara!

Pasta Imposta. (Say it like you're from New England.)

Looks like pasta, doesn't it? Well it isn't! It's squash! I put the entire squash in the oven (got the idea from The Pioneer Woman) @ 375 for about 50 minutes, scraped out the flesh with a few forks, and topped with my favorite jarred chunky basil marinara sauce. Woulda been better with cheese... didn't have any in the fridge this time. You can use some freshly grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano when you make this yourself.


I hope my first attempt at collard greens will inspire you to try something new... especially if it's dark, leafy, and green!


Until next time!