It's not just Gouda... it's great-a!

Ok... I am sorry... I apologize in advance... but I am corny and just cannot resist the Gouda jokes!  So if you find them highly annoying, you might just want to stop reading.

So Todd and I have had a tradition for a while now of Italian Tuesday.  It came about because we have small group on Tuesdays, and Italian food is often very quick and easy to make (and by "make" I mean microwaving some frozen meatballs and boiling some pasta).  So as you can see from yesterday's post, I have decided to keep Italian Tuesday alive... now with just more challenging (and less microwavable) dishes.

Well, now thanks to Heather's inspiration, I have also added Meatless Monday as a tradition.  I refuse to go the route of tofu, but I am going to try to make a vegetarian dish each week... hence the gnocci.

So today as I got out some salmon to defrost I though, "wouldn't it be nice to start a fish night, too?"  And of course, being corny and all, my first thought was FISH FRIDAY!  But, Fridays tend to turn into leftover or going out night, so I have decided to call it Seafood Wednesday... not creative, but functional.

Tonight's endeavor... Glenn's Blowing Rock Salmon from www.allrecipes.com.  I must admit, I am not a huge fan of salmon, but since it is very heart healthy I figured I should try to eat more of it.

And this recipe was GREAT!  I had quite the time finding the Gouda in Martin's (it's in the specialty cheese section, and I just happened to start in the wrong direction when it was RIGHT beside me... plus I was distracted by being on the phone with Elizabeth).  But, alas, I found the Gouda section... but then I had to pick which Gouda to go with.  I had only written Gouda on my list, not smoked Gouda.  However, as luck would have it, the only Martin's brand (and there for cheapest) was smoked Gouda, so I went with it (Gouda call)!

I had never really experience Gouda before... but as the title says, it's great-a!  It has a very nice smokey flavor.

The recipe was very easy to follow.  I used frozen salmon fillets, and still it ended up very tasty.  I, of course, did not juice my own lemons, I just used lemon juice.  Also, upon filling the fillets with the crab and Gouda and closing them, I plopped the remaining crab and some shredded Gouda on top.  Despite grand reviews, I didn't really like the sound of the sour cream/lemon sauce... so I just skipped it.  Even without it, the dish was delicious! 

I paired the salmon with some oven roasted asparagus (simply drizzle asparagus with olive oil and some seasoning and bake alongside the fish) and some couscous with green onions.  This made a wonderful, fancy (but not complicated) dinner... and I think it should still be ok for Todd to take the leftovers for dinner tomorrow.

BTW... while I was cooking, I accidentally dropped about a tablespoon of butter out of the refrigerator... and Frosty ate it... WRAPPER AND ALL!  Yikes... hope that doesn't hurt her belly!  Crazy dog...

I'm undecided what's up next... but stay tuned... it might be Gouda!