That Time I Made a Simple Summertime Supper...

It's time for another 20SB Cooking Challenge! This week's assignment:

Simple Summertime Supper

I've chosen to participate in even though I exclusively use the word "dinner."

The rules:

1. Meal must include a protein and a vegetable.
2. No Pasta Dishes. No Sandwiches. *womp womp*
4. Use of the oven is not allowed! Any other kitchen appliance -Foreman grill, toaster oven, etc- is fair game.
3. Limit active time in the kitchen to 30 minutes. “Active time” means any time you are chopping, stirring, or otherwise handling food; this leaves wiggle room for simmering and poaching: ie you can leave for 20 minutes and cool off in front of the fan while a sauce cooks down and it doesn’t count towards the half hour.
4. Post your recipe & pictures by Thursday, July 31. 

So even though I have a toaster oven that I love using in place of my oven because it's faster to pre-heat and more energy efficient than using a full-size oven when just cooking for one or two people, I wanted to do this challenge on the grill to keep most of the heating outside. So I took a recipe for salmon that prescribes being baked and tried adjusting the process to achieve the same outcome on the grill. Result: came out perfect!

Balsamic-Glazed Salmon with Corn on the Cob

(Full recipe)

You will need one 5-oz salmon fillet and one ear of corn per serving and one piece of foil for each of those.

Preheat outdoor grill for high heat and spray grate with cooking spray.

Corn:

Peel back corn husks and remove silk. 

Place or spread one Tbsp butter, salt and pepper on each piece, close husks.

Wrap each tightly with aluminum foil and set on grill. 

Glaze:

Combine 1/2 c balsamic vinegar, 1 Tbsp maple syrup, 1/2 Tbsp Dijon mustard, and a minced 1/2 garlic clove in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer until thick, about 12 minutes.

Salmon:

While glaze is reducing, spray one piece of foil for each piece of salmon with cooking spray, set salmon in center of the foil, brush both sides of salmon with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Wrap foil tightly around salmon, place on grill, and also turn the corn.

Remove salmon and corn after 10 minutes. Unwrap after glaze has had 5 minutes to cool.

Place corn and salmon on a plate and drizzle glaze on salmon.

 Rinse and recycle the foil, and enjoy!

That Time I Made Sour Cream...

What's on your mind right now?
Plastic Free July of course! And today it's sour cream. I believe I already posted that I was going to try making sour cream from coconut milk. Well I think it's my fault, but it was a big fail, and due to how pricy it is I decided to move on rather than try again.

So I did, and instead made regular sour cream! And much more success. The hardest thing is first waiting 24 hours for it to do its thing and then to wait for it to chill in the fridge to further do its thing before using it.

Other than that, it is very easy and very plastic free (if you don't buy the milk for it in a plastic carton and buy vinegar in a glass jar)! It is more expensive than store bought, but I don't use sour cream lot so it's worth it to be plastic free, and also it's less processed.

Also, from other recipes I've found, you can use the last tablespoon or so of your last batch to make the next one. This means you don't have to worry about getting milk and vinegar in paper and glass containers after the first batch and you could alternatively start your first batch with store bought sour cream.

That leaves me with just a couple of things on my plastic-free to do list which are ketchup, pita bread, and graham crackers. I may also try to find a way to make marshmallows without corn syrup (because it comes in a plastic bottle) so that I can make s'mores! Stay tuned, just one week left!

 #blogeverydayinjuly link-up

That Time The Doctor Did The Drunk Giraffe...

Today's prompt is "What's the last thing that made you cry?" And I don't cry much. And the last thing that made me cry is a bit too personal for me to blog about here. So instead:

That Time I Had 10 Favorite Instagram Feeds...

Today's Blog Everyday in July prompt:
Ten Instagrams you stalk or your ten favorite Instagram feeds.
Let's go to the app!

I chose 9 because 10 would make for not as nice formatting. And I didn't want to choose anyone I know from real life because of reasons. So as you can tell I'm really nerdy. Yes I follow Diet Coke. Yes, I follow Starbucks. It's Instagram. I don't use Instagram that much so my choices were actually pretty limited but I am nonetheless happy with all of them. Greg Behrendt, Kathy Griffin, Grace Helbig, Mary Lynn Rajskub (aka Chloe on 24), Rhett & Link, Felicia Day (aka Penny from Dr. Horrible), and Team Coco.
 #blogeverydayinjuly link-up

That Time I Had to Be Plastic Free in a Restaurant...

How to be plastic free in a restaurant:

After carefully insisting on no straw in my water and to have my salad dressing come on the salad instead of in the little plastic cup, I didn't think anything of using the little half & half thingies for my coffee. At first. I was about to open a second one for my refill and realized what I was doing! I asked if I could get creamer in another container and I was successfully brought some in a small glass. However, I'm not sure how well all of this would go if the restaurant was busy and I wasn't friends with my server.