Missing The Laughter and Pineapple Salmon

I realized today that the one thing I miss the most is the everyday laughter that the TBHITW and I shared.

Everyday we laughed.

From the heart, and the gut.

Just good old fashioned laughter. It wasn't attached to anything specific. It just was.

We were happy.

We laughed.

We joked.

We made each other double over. And told each other to STOP.

To an innocent bystander our laughter was probably lame. Maybe even a bit inappropriate. Perhaps even on the politically incorrect side.. most certainly, absolutely stupid to most. But to us, our repartee was funny; hysterical even.

I miss that. Laughter. Just because we were we.

I love salmon. It is versatile, healthy and easy to make. Salmon lends itself to so many versatile flavor profiles. This evening I added a bit of terriyaki and fresh pineapple and had a refreshing, light, yet satisfying meal. It didn't make me laugh, but it did make me smile and that's a start... right?

Salmon with Pineapple and Terriyaki: serves 2

Two boneless Salmon portions
Four fresh (or canned in pineapple juice) pineapple rings, reserve two rings for salad
Three tablespoons pineapple juice
Three tablespoons terriyaki sauce
One tablespoon brown sugar
One tablespoon butter
One tablespoon cooking oil

A half hour before cooking the salmon take the portions out of the refrigerator. In a shallow bowl combine terriyaki, pineapple juice and brown sugar. Stir to dissolve sugar. Add the salmon portions and two pineapple rings, turning to coat both sides and let marinate for 20 minutes.

Melt butter and oil in a saute pan large enough to hold the salmon and pineapple rings. Add salmon and pineapple to the pan and saute over medium heat (about 3 - 4 minutes per side).

Plate each salmon portion with a pineapple ring on top.

I served this with a spinach side salad that complimented the flavors of the fish.

Fresh spinach leaves, washed, rinsed and torn into bite size pieces
Two pineapple rings, cut into eights.
Half a red pepper cut into bite size pieces
A handful of matchstick carrots
Toss with a simple vinaigrette.

Old Yeller In The Cellar and Chinese Takeout

A couple of weeks ago the best husband in the world went to Michigan. You may remember, our 10 year old nephew had a cancerous tumor removed and TBHITW went to be with his family. 

Well it seems one night TBHITW and his brother were up late talking and his brother offered him a cocktail. Only because they are manly men they didn't call it a cocktail, they called it a drink. Anyway... the cocktail / drink they were having was this concoction that his brother had made in his garage. Yes, you read that right. Seems he took two big cans of chunk pineapple and one ginormous bottle of vodka and mixed them together and let it ferment for a good two weeks in his garage. The idea being that after two good weeks, you pour out the yellow vodka over ice and you have pineapple vodka. 

Apparently this is pretty good stuff because when TBHITW got home he suggested we make it too. So off I went to the restaurant grocery store that I shop at and got two industrial size cans of chunk pineapple (in its own juice) and a big old bottle of vodka. His brother said to use cheap vodka but I am not a cheap vodka kind of girl, so I got Absolute. Then I went to the Home Goods store and bought a fancy glass urn with a golden spigot on it. When I got home, I did like the best husband in the world told me and drained off the pineapple juice (I saved that for breakfast drinking and smoothie making), dropped all those pineapple chunks into the fancy glass urn and poured the NOT cheap vodka over. 

The golden spigot on the fancy glass urn began leaking immediately. So I put all that stuff into a big rooster pitcher and went back to the store, but they were clean out of fancy glass urns with golden spigots so I bought a five gallon thermos. It is red and it the kind of thermos you take fishing, or camping, or to a soccer game or some such activity that requires copious amounts of fluid. 

I varied from the original recipe in that I did not put our yellow vodka in the garage. That would just be too nasty because our garage is full of dirty things like garden tools, power tools and a robin who built a nest on a ladder and would attack any of us if we ventured in there. I put our yellow/pineapple vodka in the cellar, the wine cellar to be exact, which is a lovely place and is a joy to visit. 

So now it has been two weeks of fermenting this yellow vodka which I have come to affectionately call Old Yeller in the Cellar . It is drinking / tasting day! 

Which leads us to why we are having Chinese Takeout for dinner. Something tells me that after a couple of glasses of Old Yeller In The Cellar, I should not be around sharp knives or open flames. 

In case you found this hard to follow, here is the recipe:

Old Yeller In The Cellar

2 large, industrial size cans of chunk pineapple in its own juice (or 1,000 regular size, just kidding, about 10 regular) drained of juice.

1 large bottle vodka (its up to you whether you want to use the cheap stuff, I am not the judge of you)

1 large thermos or fancy glass urn with a non-drip spigot

Put it all together, wait two weeks. Serve over ice and order delivery for dinner. 

Happy weekend everyone! 

Talking Turkey

My husband asked me if I was going to blogviate today. As so often happens when we're speaking, I had no idea what he was talking about. Let me explain. My husband, whom I love dearly, likes to coin his own words. He patiently explained to me that blogviate was his version of "bloviate"; which didn't help me at all. So I looked up bloviate in the dictionary that is my constant companion since marrying this unique guy so long ago. Playing Scrabble with him is a real treat, but that's a whole different blog. Surprisingly, my New World Dictionary Of The American Language (2nd. college edition) did not list bloviate. So I turned to the Internet. 

Bloviate: (according to Wikipedia)

"To bloviate means "to speak pompously and excessively" or "to expound ridiculously". A colloquial verb coined in the United States, it is commonly used with contempt to describe the behavior of politicians, academics, pundits or media "experts," sometimes called bloviators, who hold forth on subjects in an arrogant, tiresome way.

The current verb 'bloviate' seems to be regarded as a back-formation from the noun blowhard.
The Oxford English Dictionary indicates that bloviate derives from adding a faux-Latin ending to the verb 'to blow' or boast, following a 19th-century fad of adding Latin-like affixes to ordinary words. However, others like William Safire claim that 'bloviate' comes from combining the words 'blow-hard' and 'deviation.'

Although 'bloviate' is listed in slang dictionaries as far back as the 19th century, the term was popularized by United States President Warren G. Harding in the 1920s. Famed for his poor English usage, Harding often used the word to describe his own speaking style. The term dropped from popular usage following his presidency but was resurrected in the 1960s when it was sometimes used in reference to Harding.

It became widely spoken again in the 1990s. Today, it appears regularly in The New York Times, The New Yorker and The Washington Post.

The term is used frequently by Fox News commentator, Bill O'Reilly whose show, The O'Reilly Factor, concludes with requests for email. The request for feedback sometimes includes: "And please when writing to us no bloviating, [that's] my job."

'Bloviating' has taken on new life in the blogosphere, used derisively to identify and otherwise chide the most pompous of contributors to message boards and forums."

Oh my - is that what I have been doing?? Bloviating on my blog? Does that make me a blogviator? Yes, my beloved assured me - although not as much as some. He said he was just giving it to me straight, "talking turkey". Which reminded me of the following recipe: 

Teriyaki Turkey Tenderloin (that's an alliteration by the way, which by telling you this makes me a bloviator or is it blogviator?...)

Two (2) Turkey breast tenderloins (about 1 1/2 pounds)

1/2 cup teriyaki sauce

1 teaspoon ground ginger (or a nub of fresh, sliced thin)

2 garlic cloves smashed

1/4 cup pineapple juice

Cut your tenderloins into 1 inch cubes. Toss with all above ingredients. Place in ziplock bag and marinade in refrigerator for at least 45 minutes and up to 4 hours. 

Preheat grill to high. Skewer turkey tenderloin cubes. Grill until done, about 12-15 minutes, giving quarter turns every 4 minutes and basting first 3 turns. Discard any unused marinade. 

I like to serve this with grilled pineapple rings (brush with butter and melted brown sugar) grill lightly) and simple steamed white rice. 

Enjoy and try not to bloviate with your mouth full.