A Step By Step Guide to Dinner

Good Morning!!!

Today I was going to do another honeymoon re-cap for you, since I have a few more to go, but instead I am going to share with you some more step-by-step recipes.

My friend Lea, who needed the recipe that I posted yesterday for the Red Velvet Cupcakes ,is planning to make a dinner for someone special. 😉 I forgot to show you guys what I did with the cupcakes. We did not keep them at the house, we did not need 30 cupcakes…that could be dangerous. So instead I had Craig bring them into work with him, with a message:

They were thank you cupcakes for all of his co-workers for our wedding gift, which was a Keurig. It is definitely our most used wedding gift, as I use it everyday 😀

See that ‘carosel’ to the left of the Keurig? It is awesome for all of the K-cup flavors! I hated having them stashed away, so this was perfect! (I got it at Bed, Bath & Beyond in case you are looking for one!) Favorite flavor is the Dark Magic, because it reminds me of Starbucks- really strong!

Lea asked me for some help with the recipes since she doesn’t cook much. Of course I was more than willing to help…as you all know, I love to cook 😀 I wish that I could actually be there to help her cook the meal, but she is a good 3 & 1/2 hour drive from me

Just like the recipe yesterday, these are going to be very step by step. For those of you that are pretty advanced in cooking, you could just overlook the extra instructions & just get to the recipe. 🙂 The dinner that I thought of for Lea was:
Ginger Soy Salmon with Roasted Seasoned Potatos & Greek Style Green Beans. Remember how I told you one of my previous ‘fear foods’ was salmon, boy was I missing out! Fresh salmon is SO good, it’s one of my favorite foods now.

So here we go….

Before getting to the recipes, there are some things that must be done initially to get ready to make your dinner.

First things first, prep you oven. You will need to make sure that one rack is closest to the broiler, and the other rack is in the middle of the oven.
<– please do not make fun of how dirty the bottom of my oven is, I promise it’s just because I cook alot 🙂

Second, preheat your oven to 425 degrees. This is the temperature that you will need to cook the potatos at.

Third, prep your green beans for the Greek-style green beans. You will need approximately a HALF of a pound of green beans. To prep the beans, rinse them off in a colander & then snap off the ends. I also broke each bean in half, just so that they were easier to eat.
<– whole bean<– with the ends snapped off
<–pile of green beans 🙂

Finally, finish up your prepping by cutting up the potatos. First you will have to rinse them, then you can cut them up. You will need a 3 lb. bag of potatos. I actually FINALLY found the purple potatos that I have been searching for, (you know I had to try them, since they were purple 😉 ) so I decided to use those. But, you can use regular red potatos or yukon golds, which are MUCH easier to find.
<– PURPLE!
<–Rinse potatos
<–since the potatos are pretty small, you can just cut them into 4’s.

That’s it for the prepping, now time to start with the cooking!

First up–>

Greek-Style Green Beans
Recipe from Liz

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil (calls for 2, I just used one)
• 1 cup white onion, chopped (you can chop these yourself, or you can buy them pre-chopped at your local grocery store)
  <– that is my favorite knife to use when chopping veggies
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (I use the kind that is in the jar, that is already minced.- see below)
  
• 1/2 lb green beans, rinsed and trimmed
• 1 can tomatoes, diced (the tomatos that I used are above- just a 14.5 oz. can)
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 6 tbsp lemon juice
• sprinkle of oregano
• sprinkle of parsley
• sprinkle of basil
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium
   heat. Cook and stir the onions and garlic in the skillet until tender. – takes about 5 minutes, maybe a bit less- just kind of watch them- the onions should almost be clear in color
   
2. Mix the green beans, tomatoes, sugar, and salt into the skillet.
   
3. Add in the bay leaf (yes, it looks like a real leaf- you can find them in the spice aisle 🙂 ), salt and peper, and Reduce heat to low, and continue cooking 45 minutes, or until beans are soft.
   
   

While the green beans are on the stove cooking, it’s time to get the potatos ready!

Roasted Seasoned Potatos
Ingredients:
-3lb. small potatos, cut into 4 pieces
-1 tbsp. rosemary
-1/2 tbsp. garlic powder
-1/2 tbsp. onion powder
-1 tsp. salt
-1/2 tsp. pepper

1. Spray a cooking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Put your cut up potatos on the cooking sheet & then SPRAY THEM WITH COOKING SPRAY. (that’s key to getting them crispy!)

3. Get all of the spices together & then sprinkle the spice mixture over the potatos, then spray them again with cooking spray.

4. Place the potatos in the oven on the MIDDLE rack. Bake for about 30 minutes. (you won’t take them out after 30 minutes, because the will need to bake longer, but you will ADD your salmon to the oven too)

And LAST, but not least, time to get the salmon ready! You will be getting the salmon ready while your potatos are baking.

Ginger Soy Salmon
Ingredients:
-1 lb. – 1 & 1/2 lb. salmon, cut into 4 pieces
-1/8 tsp. ginger
-salt & pepper, to taste (about 1/8 tsp. each)

-1 & 1/2 tbsp. soy sauce
-2 tbsp. honey
-2 cloves garlic (just the minced kind that you can buy in the jar, like in the green beans above)
-1/4 tsp. ginger

1. Take the salmon & put it on a greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle the salmon with the salt & pepper & 1/8 tsp. ginger. (yes, ginger is on the ingredient list twice- SAVE the other 1/4 ginger for LATER)

2. Here is where you REALLY need to keep an eye on what you are cooking. Once the potatos have baked at 425 degrees for 30 minutes, turn the oven to “broil” & let it heat up for about 5 minutes, then place you salmon on the top rack (above the potatos) & broil for abou 7 minutes.
<– KEEP THE POTATOS IN THE OVEN.

3. While the salmon is broiling, combine the remaining ingredients (honey, soy sauce, garlic, & 1/4 tsp. ginger) in a small bowl. Stir to combine.

4. Take the salmon out & then brush (or pour) the soy sauce mixture over the salmon. Put it back under the broiler & broil for another 7- 10 minutes, or until no longer pink.

<–See the pink??? That means that it is NOT done & that you should broil it for a bit longer. (maybe start out with 2 minutes & then keep putting it back it for another minute until it is done. )

The salmon will FLAKE easily when done, as in the picture below:
<–Flakes easily

Now for the whole dinner, all put together…
<–Salmon
<–Roasted Potatos
<–Greek style green beans

And here’s my plate:

I know that there are a lot of steps, but I promise it’s actually an easy meal to make!! 🙂 Not only is it easy, but it is quite tasty, if I do say so myself 😉

Lea, here is your meal- I hope you both like it & I hope the steps are easy to follow! Like I said, you can make your dessert, which are the Red Velvet cupcakes the afternoon before he comes over & then start the dinner later. 🙂

Anyways, I hope you guys have a great day! If you try the recipe, please let me know if you like it or what I can fix! Enjoy your day 😀

If you have a Keurig, what is your favorite flavor??
What is your favorite way to eat salmon?
What is your favorite topping for potatos?
I HAVE to have ketchup! 🙂

Posted by Holly at Holly on the Run on June 21, 2011

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