Lost in Shangri-La, eating salmon

Tuesday after a long weekend - I have to admit that the only place I traveled today was to work and back.  That's about 45 miles altogether.  And the only food - leftovers, but that's not a complaint.  That was some good pot roast!  Maybe I should have titled this "2 Leftover-Eating Homebodies"...

That daily drive could get monotonous, but lately time has flown.  My preferred alternative to work-day radio is listening to audio books.  An easy (FREE!) way to try it is to sign up for Audible.com and get your first downloadable book free.  My current listen: Lost in Shangri-La, A True Story of Survival, ­Adventure, and the Most ­Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II, by Mitchell Zuckoff.  Twenty-four soldiers and WACs take off in a cargo plane on Mother's Day in 1945 - bored and looking for adventure.  The NYT review describes it like this:  "Perhaps owing to a lethal combination of foolishness and inexperience, the plane crashes, eventually killing all aboard but a beautiful WAC and two all-American G.I.’s. They are unreachable except by parachute — or plane crash — and surrounded by startled warrior tribes..."  I'd tell you more but I don't want to spoil it for you.

If you're looking for an idea for tomorrow's dinner, here's an idea - one of our favorites.  It's seriously as good as eating out, or so T told me the first time we had it.  Pecan-Crusted Salmon - with thanks to Jodi, as we are both developing a love for salmon.  I remember making salmon maybe one time as the girls were growing up.  Now we have it almost every week!

Pecan-Crusted Salmon 

Place 4 salmon fillets (about 6 ounces each) in a zip-bag and drown them in about 2 cups milk.  Seal the bag and turn it to coat the fillets, and let them rest for at least 10 minutes.  During that time, create a mixture of 1 cup finely chopped pecans, 1/2 cup flour, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 2 teaspoons seasoned salt, and 2 teaspoons pepper.

Remove the fillets from the bag and coat them with the nutty-good mixture.  Press it gently into the fish.  Heat approximately 3 Tablespoons of canola or other healthy oil in a large skillet, and brown the salmon.  You'll need to be careful turning it over - but that's the only tricky part of this recipe.  Once nicely browned, place them in a baking pan coated with cooking spray - what you use doesn't matter so much but be sure to coat it with cooking spray.  Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until it flakes easily.

While it bakes, mix up a nice simple batch of risotto, throw a bag of broccoli in the microwave - and there's a simple, rich, delicious dinner that you might have paid big $$ for if someone else cooked it for you!

Let me know how it turns out.