Barbecue Salmon with Pineapple Salsa

Believe it or not, I wasn't always this much of a foodie. 

I would actually have considered myself to be quite a picky eater.

 

I think it comes from the years I spent making my own dinners as a kid. 

My mom is a single parent, and she ended up working a second shift job. 

Once I was old enough to stay home alone, well, that's what I did. 

I wasn't allowed to use our gas stove unsupervised, so I improvised. 

Campbell's Condensed Chicken Noodle is just as good out of the microwave, and my older and wiser cousin taught me how to make a passable grilled cheese using the toaster and microwave. 

 

I was never very adventurous.  I knew what I liked, and come hell or high water, that's what I wanted.

 

I'm also an only child.

 

Years later, I would work at one of the fine dining-est restaurants that has yet come to this little town.  Suddenly, a whole culinary world was opened up to me.  The better I knew the menu, and the ingredients, the better tips I would make, and I got an employee discount. 

Eating there was a win/win/win. 

One of my favorite dishes was barbecue salmon and, because the place has since closed,

here is my attempt to recreate it.

Blueberry Chipotle Barbecue Sauce

I'm still on blueberries. 

 

I know you're all thinking, "How many blueberries can this girl possibly have?" 

And I'm here to tell you it's something close to five pounds. 

So, a cup here and a cup there, believe it or not, I've barely made a dent. 

Today, I'm branching out and exploring some savory blueberry options.

 

Last weekend, I realized that it had just been too long since we'd

been to a cookout and decided to throw something small together. 

Now, if we're being really strict on the definition of a cookout, this event won't fit the bill.

 

I cooked everything in the house because, for reasons my husband has not fully explained to me, our grill is not yet operational this summer.  But we did eat outside so that has to count for something.

 

On the menu for our impromptu, prepared inside, enjoyed outside meal were baby back ribs with this BBQ sauce, potato salad, pasta salad, baked beans and roasted zucchini and onions.  Yum!

Have a good laugh imagining me trying to stage artistic barbecue sauce photos.

We used this sauce to glaze ribs, but I think it could be used in place of

traditional barbecue sauce in pretty much any dish. 

Sweet, smoky, just the right amount of heat, this sauce has plenty of applications,

I'm thinking I'll try it on chicken wings next.

Blueberry Lemon Pinwheels

So, are you noticing a blueberry & lemon theme lately?  Yeah, me too. 

It wasn't intentional, I just really need to use up these blueberries

and, honestly, I can't think of a better pairing than lemon. 

 

I want to eat cookies, but it's summertime, and I'm doing that Couch to 5k program,

so I want to make them with fruit and pretend that they're good for me. 

Blueberries are FULL of antioxidants, you guys.

These are basically a sugar cookie flavored with lemon

but you could easily change things up to suit your taste.  

 

Use another flavor combo... maybe lime cookies with a cherry filling,

pistachios instead of almonds if you wanted to keep things green.

(Yes.) 

Oooh!  Or key lime cookies, with some kind of graham cracker, cream cheese type filling! 

(Totally doing that.)

 

You could even just bake lemon sugar cookies, which sounds like an excellent idea to me. 

Blueberry Lemonade

The dog days of summer are here and the mercury is rising. In an effort to keep cool, celebrate the 4th of July, and make good use of all my blueberries, I whipped up a refreshing batch of blueberry lemonade.  Just the right amount of sweet AND tart, you really can't go wrong with this beverage.