Salmon Burger

Dinner is such a hassle these days. With the kids home all day, I get very little time to plan out our dinners, prep and cook. I usually think about dinner at around 5pm when the hubby is almost back home from work and I somehow scrape something together. Today I thought of trying a salmon burger. After all the weekend cookouts, we had a lot of left over chicken and sausages, using that in another dish would have been a better idea. But I was kind of tired of eating all this meat and that's why I thought to take the seafood route for dinner. I tried Paula Deen's Salmon Burger recipe from www.foodnetwork.com. But I did tweak it to my taste.

Ingredients

Salmon-1 lb(cleaned and cut into small chunks)

Garlic-1 cloves minced

Peppers-1/2 cup (diced-red/yellow/orange)

Panko-1/2 cup (Japanese bread crumbs)

Lemon juice- 1/2 tsp

Soy sauce- 1/2 tbsp

Salt-1/4 tsp(Lawry's Garlic salt)

Egg-1/2 (beaten)

Directions

1.Combine the salmon, garlic, peppers and panko in a medium bowl.

2.Next add the beaten egg, soy sauce, lemon juice and salt and fold this into the salmon mixture. I also added some black pepper.

3.Form into 4 patties and refrigerate for at least an hour.

4.Heat the grill to 400 degrees and  grill for 5-6 minutes or till it's done to your liking.

5. Toast some buns on the grill in the last minute of cooking and serve with lettuce and tomato and seasoned mayo. 

6.To make the mayo-I added soy sauce,oyster sauce and toasted caraway seeds and mixed well. Spread an even layer on each half of the bun. 

7.For some heat I garnished with jalapenos too! Served it with a side of potato chips and a pickle. A cold beer would be good too. :) Happy Grilling!!!

Cake Pops

It is summer birthday season at home. My first born has a July birthday and second child an August birthday, so we usually have one big celebration somewhere in between. A lot of thought goes into the planning of these parties. Unlike my husband who thinks planning a party just requires a tray of biriyani and some liquor.LOL!!!I LOVE PARTY PLANNING!!! This year we are going to have it at an Indoor Moon bounce Place, but I wanted to make it special so I decided to try and make some 'Cake Pops" to add to the favor boxes. When I looked online I needed to get a mold (molds cost anywhere from $10 and up) to begin with and then you have to bake the cake pops before getting started, that's when I stumbled upon a blog for easy and simple baking. They use Munchkins or Doughnut Holes instead. I tried dipping these in frosting and chocolate chips but they didn't coat them well enough but Candy Melts along with some oil/butter gave me the correct consistency to coat the cake pops. These desserts are very sweet so get your "sweet tooth" ready! Decorating them is the fun part for kids and adults alike!

Ingredients
Munchkins( from Dunkin Doughnuts)-25
Wilton 8" lollipop sticks-25
Wilton Candy Melts-1 bag
Oil/Butter-1 tsp
Sprinkles
Styorofoam
(Once done and candy hardened you can individually wrap these cake pops and tie with ribbon to make them look pretty)

Directions
1.Melt the candy melts according to direction on the back. Add some oil/butter till the consistency is nice and smooth.

2.Take all the lollipop sticks and dip the end of the stick in some candy and refrigerate them for a minute or two till it hardens.

3.Next take each cake and roll them in the melted candy melt till coated evenly. Shake off the excess candy and decorate with sprinkles before placing them upright in styrofoam. (You can see mine are done in Pink and Purple the fav colors of my girls!)

4.After they cake pops have set and candy is hardened, bag them in individual treat bags and tie with ribbon.

5.They can be made a couple of days in advance. Make sure not to refrigerate them because they will cause condensation.

Hint-You can also get Wilton's treat bags from Michaels or A.C Moore along with some fancy ribbon to jazz them up. 

Mango Pie

I first had Mango Pie when I was working in a Mental Health facility in Detroit. We would have regular potlucks and the Indian psychiatrist Dr. L brought in these yummy mouth watering pies. When I heard "pie" I thought of maybe sliced mangoes in between light flaky pastry, but I was mistaken, this was more similar to a cheesecake. When I asked Dr. L for it's recipe she was more than happy to give it to me and hinted to me that was the easiest to make and was a no bake recipe too. It's been a while since I made this, have a Fourth of July BBQ to go to today and I thought why not make some! This time round I added some crushed cardamon for extra flavor. You don't need to if you don't like the taste!

Ingredients
Mango puree-30 oz(Deep Alphonsa Mango Puree)
Cream Cheese(Philadelphia-make sure it's at room temp)-8 oz
Cool Whip-8 oz tub
Unflavored Gelatin(Knox)-2 packets
Condensed Milk-1 can
Cardamon-2
Graham cracker pie crust(Keebler)-3


Directions
1.No need to preheat the oven. :) Take the cream cheese and using a hand mixer blend till smooth.


2.Add the mango puree and condensed milk and blend for a few minutes till you have a smooth mixture. Also powder 2 cardamons without the skins and add. Mix well.


3.Next take the two packets of gelatin and add 1/4 cup cold water and mix well. Then add a little less than 1/4 boiling hot water and mix till there are no lumps. Add this gelatin mixture to the mango mixture and blend again for a couple of minutes.


4.Next take the Cool Whip and fold the entire contents slowly. Don't use the blender,just fold it in with a spatula.

5.Once everything is well incorporated you can equally divide the mixture into the three pie crusts.


6.Cover and refrigerate for several hours before serving.

You can slice the pie and serve each slice with some cool whip for some extra flavor. Happy Cooking!