Tag: blog

How to Cookbook Cook on a Budget

Posted on by Samantha Dedea

Personally, I don’t follow recipes to the T because, well for one thing, it usually costs so much money and I’d rather utilize what’s in my kitchen. But, I love cookbooks. And when I say I love cookbooks, I mean I LOVE cookbooks. They’re incredibly inspiring and give me the foundation to make some great recipes of my own. I am currently flipping between Ina Garten’s “Cooking for Jeffery” and my grandmothers 50 year old Jewish cookbook. So here are a few tips to stay on budget while cookbook cooking:

  • Whenever a recipe calls for a type of mushroom, JUST GET WHAT’S ON SALE (don’t waste money on cremini mushrooms when button mushrooms are BOGO)
  • Find recipes that incorporate the ingredients you currently have in your fridge and pantry
  • If the recipe requires a pan/pot that you don’t have, TURN THE PAGE because there’s nothing worse than committing to a recipe only to find out that you need a dutch oven and do not in fact own a dutch oven

Cookbooking can be so fun and you can learn a lot about culinary arts just by having cookbooks from a wide variety of chef’s and I encourage everyone to have at least 3 different types of cookbooks. But following a recipe doesn’t mean you have to break the bank. What are some of your favorite cookbooks? Let me know in the comment section below!

Seafood Series: 1

Posted on by Samantha Dedea

If you’re wondering how to fillet a fish, I have no idea, I just have the guy at Publix do everything for me. But, I love seafood. Even though I am picky about the fish I enjoy eating, I could probably eat seafood every single day. Off the top of my head, I know I like trout, salmon, tuna, and sea bass. That’s pretty much it and it’s not a whole lot of variety. But up until recently, I only really liked sushi and not cooked fish at all. The photo I attached is of some salmon fillets I made last night. I don’t really use recipes or write them down, but here is my best guess as to what I used:

Wild Sockeye Salmon FIllets:

  • 1lb of salmon skinned and cut into 4 fillets
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 shallot
  • 1 bunch of fresh thyme
  • 1 bunch of fresh basil
  • 1 bunch fresh cilantro
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • juice of 2 limes
  • A dash of Pinot Grigio

So here’s the thing… I didn’t really have the ingredients I wanted to make the salmon dish I had in mind, but you make do with what you have because #ballinonabudget. The salmon was actually pretty thin, so I didn’t have time to cook the sauce with the fillets still in the pan. Instead, what I did was season the fillets with salt and pepper on both sides, cook them until they were nearly done, and then took them off the pan just slightly undercooked so that they could finish cooking in the sauce. I then added the chopped shallot, garlic, cilantro, basil, and thyme to the pan and let it cook for a couple of minutes. I added a little more salt and pepper just to enhance the herbs natural flavors. After about 2 minutes, I added the juice of 2 limes and a little white wine and let it cook for about 5 minutes. I then added the salmon fillets back into the pan letting it finish cook while absorbing all of the flavors in the pan.

It was a way of cooking salmon I have never tried before, but it actually turned out really good. I hear a lot of people don’t like cilantro but I think it tastes much better after it’s cooked. What are some of your favorite recipes? Leave a comment down below with some of your favorite seafood dishes and I’ll try to make it!