Recipe; spicy apricot salmon and salad

 Hello lovelies!  I have landed safely and am now in Bloomington, IN.  It is home to Indiana University, Dalai Lama's brother, and the Bloomington Playwrights Project.  Southern Indiana is beautifully lush and green this time of year.  It also is hilly and a prime place for camping, hiking, and wine tasting at the Oliver Winery.  I would say it is the hipster capital of the Midwest (I say that with both admiration and regret as not every hipster is as cool as they want to be).  There is great food, a broad range of arts, and two farmers markets a week (that's right two). 

Because yesterday was a long day of traveling and it has rained all day today, I have only gotten to relax for the most part.  The house I am staying in has a hammock in the screened porch, so I got to lounge in my denim leggings (can't bring myself to say jeggings!) and giant alpaca  wool socks.  This is my view from the hammock.

{I got these wool socks from a fair trade stand.  I also got some lovely scarves that I will show when it is cold again}

Some of you have asked for the recipe to the meal I posted in Legged.  I did not use a specific recipe, nor did I measure anything, but I will give you a run down because it was delicious and completely simple!

You need:

salmon

apricot jam

crushed red pepper

spinach

celery

orange bell pepper (perfect for the sweet salad)

red bell pepper

mandarin orange slices

dried cranberries

balsamic vinegar

olive oil

orange juice

salt and pepper

lemon juice (optional)

First, preheat your oven to 375 F.  Grease your baking dish (I used just a pinch of butter).  Squeeze a bit of lemon juice on the salmon (optional).  Place your salmon in the oven and bake for 12-20 minutes depending on the size of your fillet.  Half way through the baking time, spread a thin layer of the apricot jam on the salmon and put on as much crushed red pepper as you can stand (I love spicy food so I add a lot!).  Continue until the salmon is fully baked.

While the salmon is baking, cut your veggies and mix with spinach.  In a mixing cup or bowl, put equal parts balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and orange juice.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  You may also add some crushed red pepper if you wish.  Mix well then toss with salad.  Arrange mandarin orange segments and dried cranberries on salad.

Overall, this is a very healthy meal.  You can pretty much interchange any ingredient you would like and add/subtract according to your preferred taste.  I believe in colorful meals in order to get the best nutrition.  I'm sorry for not being able to give you measurements; I didn't keep track.  If you are putting on a multiple course meal, this makes for an excellent first entree, just decrease the portion sizes and use a palette cleanser.  A perfect palette cleanser to follow this meal would be an orange slice topped with a teaspoon of raspberry sorbet.  We can talk palette cleansers another time though.

{I served it with a red because that was what I had available, but I think it could go quite well with a mead}

Thank you for all of your sweet and amazing comments lately!  It has been fun reading all of your blogs and getting to learn through you.

xoxoxo