Simple Salmon

This is a simple recipe I found in my files. I am not sure where it came from, so if it is yours let me know. The original recipe only has 3 ingredients, I added a fourth to give it a little kick. If not try it, it's so simple and delicious. The sugar will met and create a glaze.
You could switch out the mustard for another "sticky" substance and add herbs and spices to the sugar for different flavors.

Glazed Salmon

1 salmon filet
Dijon Mustard
Brown Sugar
Cayenne Pepper

Preheat your grill to high.
Spread just enough mustard on the salmon to cover with a thin coat. Next put enough brown sugar to cover the filet on a plate. Mix the cayenne pepper with the figure. Put the salmon, mustard side down into the sugar. Make sure the sugar evenly coats the whole filet. Put the filet on the grill and cook until it reaches the desired doneness. Serve immediately. In the picture I served over sautéed spinach with mushrooms and bacon crumbled over it.

Steak with Southern Comfort Sauce

Each year for Father's Day I have my Lobster Boil. I won the Cook's Illustrated Online Clam Bake Challenge with this recipe. I change the ingredients almost every time I make it. Adding things like crab, beer, clams or mussels. This year I decided to come up with a new recipe for Father's Day. I made a steak with Southern Comfort honey mustard sauce.

By the way I didn't eat the whole steak in the picture I split it with my wife. I did drink the Guinness. The recipe for the grilled vegetables can be found here, obviously without the pasta.

Steak with Southern Comfort Sauce
1 steak, any kind, I used sirloin
1 1/2 tbs Southern Comfort
2 tbs honey
1 1/2 tbs Dijon mustard

Preheat grill to medium high.

Mix Southern Comfort, honey and mustard together. Taste and adjust as you see fit. I usually make honey mustard at a 1 part honey to 1 part mustard, but when I added the Southern Comfort the mustard seemed to get very strong.
Cook the steak until it is about 2 minutes from being done. Spread the sauce over the top and let it finish cooking. There will be some extra sauce if you want more.

Back center is my dad, that is me on the right just before my 17th birthday. 

Manchego and Asparagus Stuffed Chicken Breast

Did you ever have a craving for some food or type of food so you plan the whole meal around that item? This weekend my craving was for southwestern food. I found a recipe and thought I could add some southwestern seasoning to that and it would be really good. Since it was a new dish I followed the recipe closely, a little to closely. After I was done and had the dish in the oven I turned around and saw my southwestern seasoning sitting on the cupboard behind me and realized I never added it to the dish. Now to come up with another recipe for the chicken. Well here is the recipe I came up with.
Note I used Manchego cheese in this recipe if you can't find it you could use parmesan. Manchego is available in grocery stores around here so I assume it is readily available elsewhere. If you have not heard of Manchego it is a semi-hard cheese, that comes from the La Mancha area of Spain. It is made from the milk of the Manchega sheep. The cheese is rich with a buttery and slightly spicy flavor. Manchego quickly became a family favorite when we tried it a couple of months ago. I think it is worth looking for if you haven't tried it before.

Manchego & Asparagus Stuffed Chicken Breast

This recipe is for 1 breast, just multiply by the number of breasts you need. You won't have to double the olive oil just use enough so the breasts are sitting in the oil.
2 tsp olive oil
1 chicken breast butterflied, cut in half so that it opens like a book
dijon mustard, enough to coat the inside of the chicken book
3 thin asparagus stalks, hard ends removed
1 thin slice manchego cheese, about as long as the breast
1 thinly sliced piece of ham

Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium high heat. While the oil is heating spread the chicken breast out like a book and cover the inside with dijon mustard. Lay the 3 stalks of asparagus on the bottom half of the breast, then the cheese and the ham. Fold the top slice of the chicken breast over the stuffing. It should now look like a regular chicken breast with stuffing.

Place the breast in the pan carefully, so it does not fall apart. cook until bottom is golden brown. Flip the breast over and cook the other side until browned.