Recipe on a weekday: Pickled rice, salmon and summer veggies

 I had a craving for pickles after eating at Burger Up in Nashville, TN for this summer's vacation and decided to make Refrigerator Pickles-cuz I'm scared of the bacteria and not ready to get the equipment for boiling- after getting lots of cucumbers in the box. I hate throwing things away, so time to come up with something to do with pickle juice.

For one serving:
3/4 cup cooked rice
1-2 tbsp leftover pickle juice
1/2 cup lemon-juice steamed summer squash, half circles
1/4 cup chopped sashimi grade salmon and/or broiled salmon skin (I broiled about 10 minutes until the skin was crispy)
1/2 cup halved cherry tomatoes

1. Start the rice if you don't have any made already. I use a rice cooker but you can make it on the stove too.

2. Bring 1/2" of water to boil in a small pot and squeeze half a lemon in.  While waiting for the boiling (it won't take long), cut your summer squash in half lengthwise and then into 1/4" slices so you have half circles.

3. Cut up or broil your salmon. 

4. Slice your cherry tomatoes in half.

5.  For each serving of rice, spoon the leftover pickle juice over the hot rice and mix in.

6. Top with the summer squash, salmon/skin, and tomato. If you plan to take it as a leftover, leave the salmon and cherry tomato separate so those don't get over-cooked in the microwave.

Getting Started (finally)

I've been promising myself to start a blog of some sort for over a year. The main excuse has always been that my work requires 90% of my time hunched over a computer screen and so I hadn't wanted to spent my free time with a glowing monitor either. But then I realized how much time I spent bouncing around on Facebook and this month on my annual meet-up in foodie-loving Portland, got inspired by my friend Yanny to just dive right in and go for a food blog (health and craft one could come later). 

Since I don't see myself making a change in jobs within the year, I won't worry if the themes/tabs/text are perfect. I just want to share both my own food experiments and testing others' recipes in aiming for wellness for the body and environment through what I eat. For now the goal is a monthly update. I participate in a CSA (community-supported agriculture) called Suzie's Farm so I can get creative working within the parameters my detox diet and with grower-selected veggies that are seasonal, fresh and local.

This week I got tomatillos for the first time. A few years back I tried a friend's party-on-your-tongue roasted tomatillo salsa. Wondering what other good recipes you've tried. Open to ideas and I'll post the results.

Thanks for the push, Yanny!  Now help keep me accountable!