Delicious Smoked Salmon Recipe

Delicious Smoked Salmon Recipe

My husband and I’s nephew had been out salmon fishing a lot lately, so he offered to give us a whole salmon since he had about 20lbs stored in the freezer. I absolutely love salmon, especially when it’s done right. Recently we bought the Texas traeger grill at Costco for $870, so we’ve been doing a lot of different things on it since summer, I mean we have to get our moneys worth right?

Anyways, we decided to try one of the traeger recipes, and I must say it was pretty damn tasty. I paired it with chipotle bacon mashed potatoes and a spinach salad with mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, carrots, and cucumbers. YUM!!

Delicious Smoked Salmon Recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 1 Cup Brown Sugar
  • 1 TBSP Black Pepper
  • 1/2 Cup Coarse Salt
  • 1 Cup Vodka
  • 1-1/2 to 2 Lbs. Salmon (Preferably Wild Caught)

Preparation:

Place the Salmon in a large resealable bag. Pour vodka into bag and massage the bag until the salmon is immersed. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours. Mix dry ingredients and apply to salmon. Refrigerate for 2-4 hours. Rinse the cure and dry with paper towels. Set Traeger/other to smoke with lid open until fire is established. Smoke salmon for 30 minutes (Skin-Side down). Increase to 225°F-230°F. Cook salmon for 45 min-1 hour. Refrigerate until serving time.

Review:

It was a little bit salty, so I think it could have probably used a little less salt, maybe 1/3 cup instead of 1/2 a cup. Other than that, it was perfect. It had that smokey flavor you want, with a hint of sweetness from the brown sugar. The vodka will pretty much evaporate, but I think it’s there to help lessen the profound taste of fish you get from salmon. We’ll do this again, but as I mentioned above, less salt.


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MyVegas Review: The Bar at Times Square in Las Vegas Redemption

MyVegas Review: The Bar at Times Square in Las Vegas Redemption

Right now, the Bar at Times Square MyVegas reward is 50,000 loyalty points for a $75 beverage credit in the NY NY Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. This is one of those piano bars where the seats get reserved for those willing to pay the $15 fee to sit down and the separate cover charge to get in. Plus, the piano people won’t play unless they’re getting tips. I decided to avoid this time frame and go before they started charging for every little thing, which was around 8 p.m. We went around 4:30 p.m. because we had the KA show at MGM to go to at 7 p.m and we didn’t want to hurry up and rush through our drinks.

The redemption process at the M Life booth was as simple as ever. Hand over your M Life card and confirmation # for the reward and they’ll give you a receipt to give the waiter in less than 5 minutes. The guy told us that we needed to use all the credit before midnight that night, otherwise it would expire. We had planned on using the whole thing in one sitting, so that didn’t apply to us.

When we arrived here, it was happy hour (3-7 p.m.) so we got our drinks for a little less than they normally run at an establishment like this. It was about $5 for a lemon drop shot and $10-$11 for specialty and classic cocktails which were served in small plastic cups. I had about 3 drinks, bloody Mary, lemon drop martini, and a Manhattan. My husband had about 3 drinks + a lemon drop shot. We also ordered the Irish nachos which were pretty good, but that might have been because I had a good buzz going on and was hungry. My husband said they were alright, but they ended up adding them onto our drink only tab, so we essentially didn’t pay for it. Our waiter got switched 3 times while being there. The first lady was nice, but not very attentive and there was hardly any one in there at this time. She would just wander off to one end of the bar and go down to the opposite end without asking if we wanted another drink when our cups were sitting empty. Her shift was ending so the other guy that had been twiddling his thumbs at the bar was now our waiter. He spoke broken English and couldn’t understand half of what we were asking him when we ordered our steak Irish nachos. But eventually he got it right and input it into the computer and onto our drink tab. I think that’s the only reason why we got away with not paying for them. He would just stand at the bar though with his arms folded and not check to see if we needed or wanted another drink. We tried to get his attention at least 3 times and each time he acted like he didn’t see us. Then, another girl showed up and started taking our orders in a timely fashion. She was the most attentive of all, but we weren’t going to be there much longer. Thank you to her for actually doing her job correctly. So we left her a decent tip. Unfortunately, the tips probably all get dispersed among them all. I definitely would not have tipped the 2nd guy.

Also, make sure that your drink orders add up to $75. Let’s say you have about $70 left, but you want something that costs $10. They told us they couldn’t add it to our tab and we would have to pay for it separately because it was more than what was left. I don’t get why they couldn’t just add the $5 to it and then we pay the other $5. I said whatever, that’s fine and ordered what I originally did, instead I should have just ordered another shot, since they were still $5, but we were full and had enough at that point. Plus it was time to walk the million miles back to MGM so we left with $5 still left on our credit. Not too big of a deal, but money’s money and every little bit helps while in Vegas.

Helpful hint:

This reward is sold out within seconds of being live. Check back at 7 a.m – 7:20 am Pacific time to get this reward as this is when MyVegas puts new rewards up.

Pepper Chicken Stir Fry Recipe

Pepper Chicken Stir Fry Recipe

My absolute favorite type of food is Chinese, but since I cannot have Chinese as much as I’d like to because of dieting reasons, I have to settle for 2nd best, which is Pepper Chicken Stir Fry.

pepper chicken stir fry

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb of Chicken (or whatever meat you prefer)
1 tbsp Paprika
2 cloves Garlic (crushed)
2 Tbsp Butter
1 Cup Green Onions (scallions)
2 Bell Peppers
2 Large Tomatoes
1 Cup Chicken Broth
1/4 cup Water
2 Tbsp Cornstarch
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 cup Rice (or quinoa)

and since I like altering recipes to suit my mood; I add a couple of Tbsp of Teriyaki sauce and chop up some broccoli along with some cremini mushrooms. I guess it’s all a matter of preference in vegetables. =)

Instructions:

  • Cut up chicken and sprinkle with paprika and let stand while prepping vegetables.
  • Cook chicken and garlic in butter, soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce til brown.
  • Add onions, green peppers, zucchini and continue cooking until veggies welt.
  • Start boiling water for your rice or quinoa.
  • Once veggies have welted, add tomatoes and broth, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
  • Cook rice or quinoa according to directions.
  • Blend water w/ cornstarch and stir into steak and cook until sauce thickens and serve.

Occasionally, I will get the Iron Chef General Tso’s Sauce to top it off with since it’s natural, contains no MSG or preservatives, and gives it that overall Chinese flavor that I crave when I can’t have yummy deep fried crab puffs, shrimp, or sweet and sour chicken.

Let me know how it turned out for you.

 

It’s Blue Friday!! #tgibf #gohawks

Representing DangeRuss Wilson!! 
4-0 baby!!
You guys can do it this Sunday against the Colts! 
I just hope my Southwest Flight has your game available so we can cheer you on while in route to Vegas!

Internship at Entrada is Over

I have completed my internship at Entrada Health, but never actually got hired on. I’m a little irritated about it since I heard that they hire pretty much anyone, but I ended up waking to a generic email about how they don’t have any available spots. Oh well, I was pretty much having to retype everything from beginning to end because their software is not up to par like Nuance’s was. It was ridiculous! So, if I did get hired on, I would be getting paid at an editor rate for full on transcription. That’s a lose/lose to me.

I am not as upset as I was the day I woke up to that, because I know my time is worth more than what they were offering. I can at least use this experience on my resume if I decide to try to go down this dying route of editing medical reports again. But right now, it’s like beating a dead horse.