Panko and Mustard Crusted Salmon

I saw this recipe for spicy panko crusted salmon on Always Order Dessert this week and had to have it immediately. The crunchy topping looked so delicious... and it was!

Ridiculously easy: basically the mustard serves as the glue for some panko bread crumbs that are jazzed up with smoked paprika and cayenne. It's all crisped up quickly in some olive oil and served with something green on the side (in our case, broccoli roasted with olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes). I had a little trouble keeping the topping attached to the salmon when I flipped it, but I bet it would get easier with practice.

Moroccan-style Quinoa with Butternut and Chickpeas

I made a tasty vegetarian quinoa salad with Moroccan spices the other night, very loosely based on on this recipe from Closet Cooking. I liked the idea of his salad, particularly his spice mix, which I made to spec, but I used different ingredients for the salad base, according to what I had on hand.

Here's how my substitutions broke down:

• I used regular quinoa rather than a mix of red and regular
• I substituted butternut squash for the carrots
• I steamed a bunch of spinach towards the end of the quinoa cooking
• I used toasted almonds in place of the pine nuts
• I threw in dried cranberries where raisins were called for

In the end, the spice mix complimented these ingredients very well!

Camarones Enchiladas (Shrimp in a Spicy Tomato Sauce)

I've been craving something cooked in a spicy tomato sauce and served with feta since seeing various recipes bandied around the internet of late... Deb from Smitten Kitchen has been making shakshuka (eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce), Kevin from Closet Cooking is making tomato and feta baked eggs, and Alejandra from Always Order Dessert (who I met once in DC, as she used to be coworkers with Andy), had a spread in Real Simple with her mom's recipe for camarones enchiladas, or shrimp in spicy tomato sauce.

I decided to give Alejandra's recipe a try: definitely worth a try. The second recipe for us this week that uses the awesome smoked paprika as the main star.

Spanish-style Spinach and Chickpeas

A couple weeks ago, both Smitten Kitchen and The Minimalist posted recipes for a Spanish-style spinach and chickpea dish with smoked paprika (which is AWESOME... get some if you don't already have it)... both recipes were seriously drool-inducing, so I put them on my to-do list.

The Smitten Kitchen recipe won out this past Monday night, but only because it didn't involve a trip to the grocery store (which, in my case, usually involves waiting in line for a minimum of 20 minutes while the person in front of me vehemently argues with the cashier about god-knows-what).

Deb's was the meatless version of the two recipes, as Mark Bittman's involved Spanish chorizo. However, you didn't miss the meat in her recipe- somehow her ingredients and method gave the impression that the chickpeas and spinach were cooked in a deliciously meaty sauce. I'm curious to try Mark Bittman's version, too, for comparison. I'm sure his is equally delicious.

Anyway, this recipe was really tasty. You could serve it as an appetizer on little toasts, or, as we did, as a main dish, along with a green salad on the side.

Superbowl Snacks

We were basically snowed in for Superbowl due to the Snowpocalypse here in DC, but we were able to turn out these fun homemade soft pretzel bites with a cheddar cheese dipping sauce.

The pretzel bites are really good- definitely best served warm. The recipe makes a million bites- we made all the dough, but only cooked half of them. We are freezing the other dough (already shaped into the bites), so we'll see how that turns out next time we have a soft pretzel craving.

We upped the ante on the cheese sauce by sprinkling in some smoked paprika- yum. However, I should warn you not to make the cheese sauce until right at the end- it cooks very quickly and doesn't keep its consistency very well. I got a little excited and made the cheese sauce before the pretzel bites were done cooking: bad plan.

Moroccan-spiced Stuffed Squash

Using this recipe as a basis, I stuffed some delicata squashes with a ground beef and bulgur wheat mixture seasoned with fresh parsley, cinnamon, nutmeg, smoked paprika, minced apricots and toasted pine nuts. Pretty good!
I ate the leftover stuffing the following day for lunch with some pita chips- yum.