Do Groundhogs Like Salmon?-2/2/10

I wish there was a little more to Groundhog Day than hearing a weather prognostication. How about a traditional dish? Some silly ritual you can perform at home? Anything? Sadly, there are none of these things for Groundhog Day so I made dinner from Bon Appetit magazine and enjoyed a relaxing cup of tea with some delicious Madeleines. I think that works as a new and fitting Groundhog Day tradition.
Dinner was fast and easy, it should be, it came from the Fast Easy Fresh section of Bon Appetit. One thing I've learned while cooking from cooking magazines is the structure of the magazine always includes a section with quick easy recipes that appeal to the busy cook. I've never done an official survey but I bet the largest percentage of recipes made from a cooking magazine come from this section. Most people don't have hours to put a meal together and these recipes come together quickly and still taste great.
The Balsamic-Glazed Salmon with Spinach, Olives, and Golden Raisins was a good mix of the taste spectrum. Raisins were sweetness, olives for saltiness, vinegar as sourness, and spinach for a bitter edge. The salmon itself supplied the savoriness or umami. On an interesting side note, umami translates from the Japanese to "meatiness" and in most evidenced by the presence of certain amino acids in food. One of the most common examples of this flavor is MSG, the much maligned component of many foods, most notably Asian ones. I really liked the dish but pouring the glaze on at the end didn't look particularly pretty. The balsamic vinegar looks really dark and didn't cover the whole fish well. Oh well, it tasted good.
Today I also made a recipe from the reader's requests. A reader raved about the Madeleines with Lavender Honey they had at the Hotel D'Europe in Provence. Sadly, I couldn't find lavender honey on short notice but I did find some orange blossom honey at Whole Foods that worked really well. These were some of the lightest cookies I've ever made. They are almost like mini-cakes. Eyrleigh loves them and Richard and I have been using them as post-workout food.

Balsamic Glazed Salmon with Spinach, Olives, and Golden Raisins-B
Madeleines with Lavender Honey-A

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