We tried a blackberry salmon recipe out of the Clean Eating magazine a few nights ago and it was a big hit. The only alteration I made was to cook the fish in the sauce and serve it hot. The magazine has you cook the fish separate with just salt and pepper and then serve it cold over arugala with the sauce poured over it. Since Jon's not a fan of fish or cold foods I thought it might be asking a bit much to do both at once. He really liked it done this way though and even went back for seconds. It was good and super simple.

I'm also posting a delish little dish I discovered on the side of a cookie box yesterday. It's a lemon-ginger dessert and it's loaded with all kinds of unhealthyness, but it's fast, delicious, and cheap which was exactly what I was looking for to feed the 40+ people at The Gathering Place meeting today. It is good and I say it doesn't hurt to have junk food once in a while.

Speaking of The Gathering Place....we had an Elvis impersonator there today and he was great! Everyone LOVED him. We have a load of pictures, but I'll only post a couple of them. I'm also posting some pictures from last weekend when we went to the Moody Gardens Aquarium Pyramid and a sandcastle competition out in Galveston. The aquarium is cool. There's a tunnel you can walk through with the fish & sharks and turtles swimming all around you. We had a lot of fun that day. There were so many cool sandcastles! I think I posted all the pictures on facebook, but here are a few of my favorites. (The one with the golden bucket in front of it won the competition.)

For the recipes and pictures.....


Salmon with Blackberry Glaze serves 6
12 oz salmon
2 c blackberries
2 T honey
1/4 c soy sauce
2 T sesame oil (I know it's a lot but go with me here)
3/4 c fresh orange juice

Preheat oven to 400. Spray a foil-lined pan with olive oil and put your salmon in it. In a bowl mash the blackberries with a potato masher or fork. Mix in everything else and pour 2/3 of the mixture over the fish reserving the rest to use at the table when serving. Bake about 18 min (salmon will flake but stay together when done) and then remove. Lightly sprinkle with kosher salt and serve with remaining sauce and a nice salad.

Lemon-Ginger Log serves 6
1 4 serving size lemon instant pudding
1 c milk
1 8 oz tub cool whip
30 or so gingersnaps

Mix pudding mix and 1 cup milk until well blended. Fold in 1/2 of the cool whip tub. Put a spoonful of the mixture on a cookie and sandwich another cookie on top. Set those two standing on end on a serving plate. Take another cookie and put a spoonful of the mixture onto it and press it into one side of your 'log'. Keep going until you've used up your 30 gingersnaps then use the remaining mixture to cover the top and sides of the log. Let sit 8-12 hours (it could probably go longer and be just fine, I haven't tested that theory yet though) and serve. You can top with the remaining whipped cream and garnish with pistachios if you're looking for something pretty. It really tastes and looks like you went to a lot of trouble but it's so easy. The perfect dessert in my book.

Now for the pictures