Best made-up meal ever. Well, yet.

At 4:30 last night we decided to cook dinner and by 9 we were done eating. Plus we made it all up!

Salmon with Lime Pepper Jelly
- About a pound of fresh wild salmon, skin on, from the fishmonger (I heart the fishmonger)
- Thingy of lime pepper jelly
- Some red wine
- 3ish small cloves of garlic
- Some shallot - probably about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup
- a few green onions, sliced
- ~2 tbsp butter

Instructions for searing & broiling the salmon come from How To Cook Everything, which is a wonderful book.

Preheat oven to broil with rack in the middle. Preheat large oven-safe pan on medium-high.
Plop the fish, skin side down, into the hot pan. Make sure the fan is on and the door is open - there will be smoke. Stare at it until it's opaque about halfway up (make sure you check the thick end). While it is doing that, spoon some of the jelly on the top of the fish.
Add butter, shallots, garlic, green onions, a couple glugs of wine and pop it in the oven until it is just brown on top, or less. Five to eight minutes should do it. Take it out of the oven. Eat it. Be happy.

Next time will:
Use more of the jelly.
Take it out of the oven a tiny bit sooner.
Also, the whole thing turns out kind of sweet because of the jelly and the shallots; it wasn't too sweet, but with more jelly it might be - the driest white wine available, instead of red, might solve this.

We even made up the menu:

Spinach with Tomato and Garlic
Had fabulous mustard greens at Queen of Sheba the other day so was interested in cooked greens. Spinach seemed easiest. I poked around for recipes and found one mentioning fresh spinach with fresh tomatoes and garlic. At that point I remembered that I made this (of my own design) a couple of weeks ago with canned spinach and canned tomatoes and parmesan and put it on potatoes and it was good. It's way better with fresh:

- 1-2 tbsp butter
- 2 medium tomatoes, peeled and cut into thin wedges
- 2 cloves garlic
- some shallot, because there was some left over - probably about 1/4 cup
- 1 lb fresh spinach, washed etc. (I got 2 5oz packages - cleaning spinach is a pain.)
- s&p to taste.

Sauté garlic & tomato wedges in butter; add spinach, cover, cook on low for a while (15ish minutes), stirring occasionally.

Next time will:
Use canned diced tomatoes, drained very well. Maybe a tiny bit more garlic.

And of course my imitation Café Allegro fried potatoes - potatoes, butter, garlic, shallots, s&p and some cayenne. I used baking potatoes this time and it wasn't as good as the last few times, when I used small red and yellow potatoes. Those fry better and get smooth instead of mealy. But I love potatoes in 'most any form so that was fine.