Success.

I don't mean to brag (well, maybe only slightly), but I managed some great culinary success last night, and I wanted to share. I made dinner for the Benjamin, and our meal was so. darn. good. And amazingly simple, too! Please indulge:

For a main course I prepared teriyaki salmon, a dish inspired by my first introduction to the fish, which just happened to be during lunch at Cinderella's castle in Disney World. It was a fabulous place to dine, and the fare was even better. Anyway, I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and decided to give it a try. I also took some time to read the reviews on the dish, and thus tweaked the ingredients as suggested. It turned out perfectly!

Props to the Benjamin for skinning and de-scaling the salmon before it was cooked. I had never bought fresh fish from a counter before, but will next time take advantage of the butcher's kind services. Now for a close up...

To accompany the salmon I served a jasmine-cashew rice (again taking the idea from my Disney deliciousness) and fresh green beans with olive oil (straight from the Benjamin's garden). If you've never had jasmine rice, I highly recommend you try it next time you have Asian. They go so well together! Here's the end result all nicely plated:

And of course I can never forego dessert! This idea came from an episode of Giada's Everday Italian I was watching yesterday after the munchkins went down for their naps. Chocolate-strawberry paninis...yum! They too were super easy. Just slice up some pound cake, spread some nutella (which I had truly missed since using it daily in Greece), and top with sliced strawberries! Then you make a little sandwich and pop it on a panini press...or a George Foreman grill, for those us with less-fancily-equipped kitchens.

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Mouth-watering, yes? It tastes like a cross between strawberry shortcake and chocolate-covered strawberries...I mean how could that go wrong?! I strongly recommend these as a late night snack next time your sweet tooth starts craving something delicious. They will not disappoint!

Well now I'm off to begin my Saturday adventures! Ben and I are going to try and go kayaking over at the Cove. Unfortunately there just happens to be some huge boat/band party on the lake out there, so it could be a failed attempt. We shall see...