A Weekend at the Country Estate

Seriously.



This is my parents house. My brother and I joke about how they have given up suburban life to retire on their country estate. Did you know it has a hot tub room? I've never known my folks to be hot tub people...or so I thought. It's like a don't even know them anymore. Pretty soon my Dad's going to say how much he wants to go on a cruise...with other people near him...people that he doesn't know. My entire understanding of the universe shifted after my weekend in Kirtland.

After finally soaking in the sheer awesome-ness of their new home, I was able to get to more important matters - like the food.

The food was delicious! My Dad and I love to cook together. We go to the store and buy obscure cheeses and weird cuts of meats and odd smelling condiments and concoct these dishes using just about every pot and pan and utensil in the house. It drives my mom crazy, but in a half smiling, "you kids!", exasperated sort of way. (Most of the time - there was is one time, we made curry...there wasn't much of a half smile that time. It smelled like red and yellow curry for about 3 days)

We arrived on Friday afternoon right around lunch time. My Dad was still at work, but coming home soon. He had bought an amazing piece of salmon and had seen a recipe on a cooking show we sometimes watch that he wanted to try. It involved pepper jelly (a family favorite), cilantro, butter, salt and pepper. It was great. We sort of had to improvise because we were all out of the yummy jalapeno jelly I had given him for Christmas - and to be honest, I think I'll start making my own just so I can up-tic the heat a little.



We mixed the cilantro, raspberry-jalapeno jelly that we did have in the pantry, and butter. We didn't put in quite enough salt to balance the sweet of the raspberry, but that was fixed after plating.



We grilled the salmon in a tin foil boat and let me tell you - I LOVE cooking fish this way. You still get the grill marks, but your filets stay intact and you don't have to deep clean the inside of the grill after cooking. Two great things.

Anyway, here is the finished product. *Please remember that I suck at taking photos and I was just so excited to eat this, that i didn't bother plating it well. That's why it's blurry and a bit of a mess*



We cooked pretty much all weekend, but you'll have to wait for my other posts to hear about the rest of this culinary wonderment.