Quick and Easy Broiled Marinated Salmon

I will start this off by saying I am NOT a fish girl. I am very very picky about how my fish is prepared and what type of fish I will eat. Basically, it's either going to be in a sushi roll or fried. Real healthy, right?
That being said, I have been doing dinner almost every night lately, which means there have been a serious lack of fish based meals. I decided to finally man up and try my hand and making fish for the first time ever! It turned out delicious, and I wanted to spread the word so that fish haters can give this a shot and see if it changes your mind! (Plus, it was super quick and simple, so anyone can make it.)

Quick and Easy Broiled Marinated Salmon

Ingredients:

• 1 large thawed salmon fillet, cut into 6-8 pieces
• 1 tbsp. packed brown sugar
• 2 tbsp. butter, melted
• 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp. honey
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 packet Lipton Onion Soup Mix
• 2 medium or 1 large clove of garlic, minced or pressed

Begin by putting your salmon in a glass dish

Mix all other ingredients together in a medium sized bowl with a small whisk or fork

This mixture will be somewhat thick in consistency and look more like a glaze, so don't worry if that's how yours turns out! Cover the salmon like so:

Now stick in the fridge for at least 30 mins, up to several hours. I marinated mine for about 2 hours.

When you're ready to cook it, set your oven to broil, move salmon to a covered cookie sheet (with raised edges! This marinade will run when heated!) 

Pour the excess marinade over the top of the salmon and broil for at least 5 minutes. 

After the 5 minutes, check it after each additional minute until it flakes easily with a fork.

That's all! Now sit and enjoy your delicious dinner. 

Here's what ours looked like: 

Birchbox October '13

HEY!
I received my first Birchbox this week, and I'm pretty excited!
I love the idea of Birchbox, because I don't wear makeup everyday, but I do want to use quality products. It's nice to be able to try things out in small sizes before you decide whether the full-size is worth the money. I also like it because sample sizes always last a long time with me because I only wear makeup about twice a week.

[SMALL TANGENT ALERT]

The Sephora Favorites set from a couple years ago completely ruined me once I realized what I had been missing out on all these years. I was introduced to moisturizers and primers and all sorts of wonderful things I hadn't even really considered necessary like I do now.
I began moisturizing twice daily...cleansing and moisturizing your face is especially important before putting on makeup, in my opinion. I really love the Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer, and I believe that was the one in my SF set. It is not cheap, but it works amazingly, it's light and you can feel the transformation of your skin immediately. For a cheaper moisturizer, I use St. Ives Timeless Skin Moisturizer. This is less than $5 and comes in a 10 oz container which lasts FOR-EV-ER. I currently have two nearly full ones because they were on sale and I probably won't need to buy moisturizer again for at least a year. This moisturizer does work well in that it soaks in quickly and there is a visible and tactical difference, it's also very light and doesn't feel greasy or heavy when applied. But still, nothing compares to the quality of Laura Mercier.
Anywho, once I began using higher quality makeup and skincare products, I started to see my complexion improve and my makeup stayed put so much longer. Now, this is not to say that every expensive makeup item is going to be good, or that all the cheapy ones are bad (because I have definitely found some very inexpensive favorites that I can do a post on another time if anyone is interested..) but that's why Birchbox is great. You can try out those expensive products and decide whether or not they're right for you.

[TANGENT OVER]

Ok, back to Birchbox. Here's what I received this month! (Apologies in advance for the horrible lighting of these photos. I was in a rush when I took these. Promise they will be better next month!)

Lovely, simple packaging

A "Beauty Buzz" card explaining some of the products

Peeling away the tissue paper...

The first thing I picked up was the Benefit Fake Up Concealer. 

Cute packaging! 

A look at the uncapped concealer stick.
I've never used a stick before, always a cream, so I'm excited to try this out!
I have yet to find a concealer that I like, so I hope this works out!

Inside the orange envelope were these two items. Evologie Stay Clear cream and Ruffian Nail Lacquer in "Hedge Fund".
I'll start out with the good... I LOVE LOVE LOVE the color of this nail polish. It is perfect for fall, and being someone who LOVES green nail polish, this is a shade I've never seen before and it is absolutely perfect. It's sort of a metallic olive green with hints of gold, and one coat of it is all you need.
It also looks beautiful on the nail. (I will post pictures with my hands fully painted once I make it to the drugstore to pick up more polish remover!)
And the not-so-good... I was really excited about this Stay Clear cream, because I have been breaking out lately after *STUPIDLY* trying a new facial cleanser that did not make my skin happy. I applied this as directed, and once it soaked in, I happened to rub my fingers just under my chin and there was this weird glue-like residue that rolled off in my fingers. I really do not like that, it makes me feel as though I'm slapping Elmer's on my face. and no one should pay ($62!!!!!) for that feeling. I may try it one more time on the off chance that I applied too much (which I doubt) and see if I change my mind. On the bright side, I did notice one of my more prominent chin blemishes was nearly gone the following day, so in that regard, it is functional. But, to me, it has to look good AND feel good to justify that price. What are they making this with, babies? Anyway...

This is Pop Beauty Aqua Lacquer in Flowering Fuscia gets a mixed review from me as well. I will preface this by saying that I would never normally wear gloss of any kind. It's either lipstick or stain and balm. I have small lips, and making them shiny draws attention, and makes them look even smaller in my opinion.
When I received this, I figured I might as well give it a try and see if it could turn me into a gloss lover. I don't hate it, but I noticed on the Birchbox product description of this, it praises it's non-stickiness. Most of the customer reviews also say it's not sticky. Maybe it's just me, but it defintely feels sticky. It may be that since I normally wouldn't wear it, gloss of any kind feels sticky, but I don't love that feeling. That being said, I do think it looks good. It doesn't have much pigment, so your lips won't be bright pink or anything, this looks surprisingly nude with just a hint of pink on my lips. It also doesn't smell like much of anything, which is kind of nice, because that's what I have perfume for. I also hate when gloss has that fake plasticky kid makeup smell. Big turn-off. This does not smell like that at all. One last thing, the applicator was another turn off for me. It is a small, narrow plastic paddle, and just looked and felt kind of cheap. That's all.

They also threw in this "hydration lock" Chap-Stick, which I actually thought was kind of nice because I keep forgetting to pick up lip balm, and WINTER IS COMING, so I needz dem. We all know what Chap-Stick is like, right? It was like that. Moving on...

So that's it for the first month! I'm so happy with the nail color, which redeems the entire box, and I still have hope for the concealer, which I haven't tried yet, aside from a skin swatch that looked promising. I will get back to you on that soon! I will try the Evologie one more time as promised, and I will probably continue using the gloss whenever I get that rare glossy feeling, and of course will be using the Chap-Stick daily.

Thanks for reading this far, hope this helps you decide if Birchbox or any of these products are right for you! If you have any questions, comment here or email me at Quirkabillity@gmail.com.

I look forward to doing more makeup reviews in the future! Hopefully I can wrangle one of my Make-up artist buddies to do a guest post or Q & A here soon! It would certainly be nice to learn a few tricks of the trade! 

Adios!

-Meagan

Crab Cakes w/ Mayo-Horseradish Sauce

Crab Cakes w/ Mayo Horseradish Sauce

Ingredients (Crab Cakes):

• 1 lb crabmeat, finely chopped (we used imitation crabmeat and stuck it in the food processor)
• 1/3 c. breadcrumbs
• 3 green onions, finely chopped
• 1/3 c. mayo
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp dry ground mustard
• 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• dash of cayenne
• dash of paprika
• 1 tsp salt
• dash of oregano

• flour or breading mix for dusting (we used a breading mixture meant for bloomin' onions, feel free to use whatever flour based breading mixture you want, get creative and just mix some of your favorite seasonings into some flour and create your own!)
• peanut or vegetable oil

Ingredients (Sauce):

• 1 c. mayo
• 2 tbsp. horseradish
• 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• dash of salt and black pepper

For the crab cakes, get a large bowl, and mix together all ingredients except for the flour and the peanut oil

Shane begged me to stick the crab in the processor so he didn't have to chop it all, and it was way easier.

Here's the crab cake mixture, all combined together:

Form the crab mixture into patties

coat the patties in your breading mixture or flour

For the sauce, add all ingredients above, and mix well.

warm up your peanut or vegetable oil in your skillet, and fry the crab cakes about 3-5 mins on each side, turning ONCE, or until golden brown and crispy

When removing the crab cakes from the skillet, transfer them to a plate with a paper towel to absorb the excess oil

Here is our finished meal! Aside from the crab cakes, I made marinated salmon (which I will be posting about ASAP!), teriyaki rice, and some broccoli & carrots.

ENJOY! 

Fresh Horseradish

Last week, Shane's dad pulled some horseradish from the backyard garden, and hinted at me to do something with it. I had no idea horseradish was even a plant, let alone that it grew in our backyard, so of course I had to try making some horseradish on my own! It's a lot easier than I thought it would be, so I wanted to pass it along to all of you!

The root of the horseradish plant is what you'll need for this, so make sure you keep it. 

Chop off the leaves, dispose of them, and rinse the root tubes.

They should look something like this: 

Now, take a vegetable peeler, and peel the outer layer off the root tubes. 

They should now look like this:

Now, use a knife and cube the tubes. (I'm starting to think I should turn this into a song...)

Add the chopped up tubes along with 2 tbsp. of water into a blender and pulse until combined and at the desired consistency.

Make sure there aren't any large lumps or that it isn't too stringy.

Add 1 tbsp of white vinegar, and pulse a little bit more in the blender to combine.

Empty all the contents of the blender into a small airtight container. Make sure to use a rubber spatula to scrape out everything, it will get stuck to the sides and under the blender blade. 

Mine had a little extra water, so i held a spoon against it and tipped the container to drain the excess water. 

And now you have your finished horseradish! 

I made this fresh horseradish to use in a crab cake sauce recipe, (1 c. mayo, 1 tbsp lemon juice, pinch of salt and pepper, and 2 tbsp horseradish) and turned a horseradish hater into a lover! 

Have fun!! 

WALL WIT!

Hi everyone!
Sorry it's been so long, things have been picking up with the shop, so I haven't had any time to update this blog! Trust me, I'm working on it. I will post whenever I'm able to, and I do have some DIY projects up my sleeve to share soon, so stay tuned!
In the meantime, I thought I'd share some new things going on at the shop and with my life. Heeeerrreeee we go!


Shop-wise, you may have noticed I've been branching out from just making jewelry into some home decor items. I began making coasters, and I have now moved on to wall decor! I'm unbelievably excited about this new venture, and it has turned out wonderfully, in my opinion! Here are some of the first batch of what I'm calling "Wall Wit". These are brand new to the shop as of today, 09/06/13.

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Now, if you've been paying attention, you'll notice how much crisper and clearer the photos are now... that's because I recently acquired a brand new Canon Rebel DSLR! I can't wait to share more photos here, and I hope you are all as excited as I am! 

I will be sharing more photos here soon, so be on the lookout! Shane and I are going to be doing some exploring for photogenic spots this weekend! If you know of any great scenic areas in northern Illinois, please share! Comment, email or write on the Questionable Logic FB wall! I love to hear from all of you!! 

Toodles,

Meagan