I got home last night and didn’t feel like cooking much.  However, I new I had a hunk of wild-caught salmon in the meat drawer that needed to be cooked, so I sucked it up and grilled the fish, along with a few chicken sausages that I wanted for lunches this week.

I had some mesclun salad, too, so we had salmon salads.  Well, I did; my wife doesn’t like food together like that, so she had a salad and some salmon.

The tastes were simple but very good, and there are some good ways to kind of ‘dress up’ a meal like this very easily.

The first thing I did was to grab a microplane and grate a bit of good Parmesan Reggiano onto the salad.  Just a nice, salty kind of hit that i like a lot.  it’s simple to do, but adds a nice bit of flavor.  Now, I have to admit something here… I actually LIKE the stuff that comes in the green can… But only in some ways on some things, usually store bought pasta sauce and hometown pizza.  I think it’s a taste I acquired as a kid, so I still like it.  Is freshly grated better?  Of course!  But I’m not going to crucify someone for reaching for the can now and then.

In part of my kick to eat better, get healthier, lose weight, etc, I am staying away from blue cheese dressing as well as other creamy dressings.  The fat free stuff usually just tastes BAD (though I do like Ken’s Steakhouse Sundried Tomato that’s fat free).  Since I was doing salmon on top of the salad, though, I used something a bit different.  I put some balsamic glaze on the whole thing.  I have to say, this stuff is GREAT!  I’m going to try making my own per the recipe below, but I’m going to keep the bottle that I have now because of how well it’s designed.  The glaze is thicker than plain vinegar (what isn’t?), and the bottle makes it easy to decorate with the glaze.  You can do the fancy chef stuff by drizzling on the plate before putting food on it in whatever design you want.  I also love this stuff as a smoked pizza sauce instead of a tomato based sauce.  If you’re not using some form of balsamic vinegar, get some and start! 


Here’s a simple recipe for making your own balsamic glaze (but get the bottle to use first!):

Put 3 parts balsamic vinegar and 4 parts water in a sauce pan and bring to a slow boil.  Mix together 3 Tbsp. of cornstarch with 1/2 cup water.  While the vinegar/water in the pan is boiling, slowly drizzle in the cornstarch, stirring while you do, until you get the thickness you want (you want this kind of thick, but try it different ways to see how you like it best).

To this balsamic vinegar base, you need to add some more "something".  This can vary according to what you’re having, but I like a sweet glaze.  One way to do this is to drizzle in some syrup (the same amount as the vinegar you started with).  A simple syrup made out of 3 parts muscovado sugar, 1 part water would give a great sweetness to it, adding it in about the same measure as maple syrup.  I think adding small amounts of artisanal honeys would make incredible taste combinations.  And for some meats, like chicken, kicking in some heat on top of the sweet… You won’t believe how this will change your ordinary dishes into special meals. 

And if you’re turning your nose up at this now, do yourself a favor… Try it.  Stretch yourself and do something new.  By pushing yourself a bit here and there, being willing to try something you don’t like to find something you didn’t know you liked, you’ll begin to turn every day meals into meals that compare to any you get when you eat out.