A Fishy Recipe with a Horror Story (bones and skin included!)

Salmon Cakes with Dill Sauce

This recipe started out as a crab cake recipe from Jan's Sushi Bar, but since crab is more expensive than salmon we have switched and it is still equally as delicious! Maybe even more so!

I had originally tried this recipe from Whole Family Strong, but accidentally got the salmon with bones and skin included. I am not a fish eater. The flavor is fine. Let's just say that I have an incredibly sensitive gag reflex. I can't handle bones or gristle or any of that fun stuff. So I usually skip fish all together because I'm always afraid of getting a bone and it just basically ruins the eating experience for me if I'm in fear the whole time. I'm a baby. I know, lol.

So, when I got the cans opened and saw what looked like a little spine, I decided that I was not going to be eating salmon cakes for dinner. Hubby tried it and loved it, but I could barely eat what was on my plate while watching him shovel in bones and skin... yuck! Still get shivers just thinking about it.

So when I saw a recipe for crab cakes I was a little hesitant, but I do love crab cakes and so decided to be brave and try it. They were amazing. More than amazing. Maybe even better than chocolate. Almost.

The only problem is that I don't want to pay the price for crab. We tend to make very large batches and salmon is just cheaper. So I checked, double checked, and triple checked the can ... then triple checked inside the can when I got home to make sure that I did not get the kind with bones and skin. And I tried the crab cake recipe, substituting the crab with salmon.

I was not really all that anxious to try it, but decided to just go for it. I'm so happy that I did because I instantly fell in love. With no fear of bones I was able to enjoy the fishy cakes and they instantly became one of my new favorite recipes.

The crab cake recipe did not come with any kind of a sauce, but since I had just made a fresh batch of homemade mayo, I decided to use the dill sauce that came with the salmon cake recipe on the Whole Family Strong website and add it to the top. It is a match made in heaven, let me tell you. Each of them are yummy on their own, but oh-so-good together! : )

So we may or may not be having these crab salmon cakes once a week. I have decided to go back and try the original salmon recipe from WFS again and just make sure to get my boneless/skinless variety of salmon too. I'll let you know how that goes... if I can tear myself away from the tried and true recipe that is!

So if you want some mouth-wateringly delicious fishy cakes, try out the recipe yourself. I'm sure you won't be disappointed:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup celery, finely diced
• 1/4 cup onion, finely diced
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise, preferably homemade
• 2 tablespoons coconut milk
• 6 ounces lump crab meat salmon
  
• 1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
• 2 teaspoons dill pickle, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons coconut flour
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• few grinds black pepper
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil

Instructions:

1. Gently combine all of the ingredients except the coconut oil in a medium mixing bowl. 
2. Carefully shape into three patties; cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Heat the coconut oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Fry the crab cakes until golden brown, about 4 minutes per side.
4. Serve with fresh lemon and tartar or cocktail sauce.

Old Bay Seasoning

Ingredients: (Couldn't remember where I got this recipe, but here's what I have)

• 1/2 tsp celery seed
• 1 Tbsp pepper
• 1 tsp mustard seed
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp nutmet
• 1 tsp salt

Instructions:

 1. Mix all well with pestle & mortar (or Nutribullet). 

Homemade Mayo

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Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 2 cups extra light tasting olive oil
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon yellow mustard
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/3 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Instructions:

1. If you have time, bring your eggs to room 

    temperature by leaving out for a couple of 

    hours.

2. In a blender, add the eggs, vinegar, and 

    mustard and blend together well .

3. Leave the blender running and slowly-slowly-slowly,. drop-by-drop, drizzle in the olive oil. (This 

    will take a while but it is worth the wait and really MUST be done slowly.)

4. Turn the blender off once all the olive oil is in.  Add the salt and cayenne pepper and blend again 

    for another few seconds.

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Dill Sauce

Ingredients:

Juice of half a lemon

1 tbsp lemon zest 

2 tbsp dill

10 spoonfuls of homemade mayo 

Instructions: 

 1. In small bowl combine mayo, lemon juice, lemon zest, and dill. Mix well.


P.S. I forgot to add. You're gonna want to triple this recipe if not quadruple it. It's THAT good! : ) 

Wish I Could Say...

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I wish I could say that I had an update on the home-buying situation, but we still really haven't made much progress. It always seems like two steps forward and one step back. 

I did get a few more papers sent in, but otherwise we are still waiting. Right now, specifically, we are waiting to get a verification of my employment. I don't see why it's been so hard, but apparently they need a special report. They got hubby's report done and out of the way last week. 

We did narrow down our homeowner's insurance choice to one company though and will be calling them tomorrow to finalize all of that stuff. But at least we aren't moving backwards, right? And we're now down to one week and one day until closing... so hopefully there isn't much that can go terribly wrong in one week, right? Right!

Ok, moving on. 

We didn't have much time to sit and twiddle our thumbs while worrying about the house this weekend. We went to visit hubby's mom. It was hot and humid, but we had AC, so it wasn't so bad. Turns out that her dishwasher decided to die right in the middle of our visit. So hubby yanked it out and installed a new one for her. I helped. I read the instructions. Men don't do that, ya know. So someone has to keep him straight! ; ) 

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I do have to say that I have seen salesmanship at its best... or worst... depending on how you look at it. He was cheesy and kept changing his story. I don't even know how many times he told us something different. First he had the one she wanted in the color she wanted, but showed her a more expensive one. When he saw she wasn't interested, he suddenly didn't have the color she wanted in stock. Then she opted for a second color. He had it, but then suddenly that one wasn't in stock either. And then he started showing her a completely different one. 

When the other salesman started showing off the dishwasher that hubby's mom originally had liked, our salesman said that their salesman was not smart and that the other salesman didn't know that the one our salesman was promoting was better. He was slimy. If you followed all of that, I applaud you. It was hard to keep up with it ourselves. And he tried to make it seem like the third option he showed us came with wonderful free installation. Well, she already told him that hubby was putting it in ... so they ALL had free installation. We decided it was time to go. The second store was MUCH better. The guy answered our questions, didn't try to talk us into a different model, got it done in about five minutes. It was great. And it was about a hundred dollars cheaper than the other store too. Double win! : ) 

The installation was not all that easy because it seems the handyman who arranged the kitchen to begin with did not intend for people to take the washing machine out. There was just a clearance of a couple of inches to work with and a dip in the floor at just the wrong spot and let's just say it was an interesting night, lol. 

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And then...

I do have to say that hubby and I followed the rules of our Whole30-ish living very well ... until the last night. We were tired from wrestling with the dishwasher and starving because it took much longer than anticipated, so we went out to eat with hubby's mom and one of his good friends. So we splurged a little bit. It was a mistake, and we paid for it, headaches all around! But we are back to our good foods and speaking of good foods, I made one of our favorites for dinner tonight: salmon cakes with dill sauce and sweet potato fries. I'll post the recipe for that tomorrow! : )

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Oh, and another little bit of awesomeness from this weekend... Hubby's friend is into cameras, and I'm just getting into cameras. I just had the one lens that came with the camera and he had just bought a nice, new, huge, lens ... so he gave me his old lens. Gave it to me. Didn't have to pay at all. He tends to do that with things when he no longer has need of them, lol. I don't mind though! He wouldn't take payment, so I said I'd cook him a nice healthy meal when he comes up to visit next time. He accepted! So now I just have to figure out what to make! He'll be up in a couple of weeks to help us finish moving. 

Hope you all had a fun and safe and enjoyable Labor Day weekend! See ya tomorrow! : )