It's mmmmm...Monday "Elegant Salmon Mignons"

Elegant Salmon Mignons

Prep Time: 15 minutes, Cook Time: 15 minutes, Serves 2-3

Salmon is a favorite in our house. We love to test out new recipes to enhance the fresh salmon flavor. The uniform thickness of these pinwheels makes  broiling super easy and the pinwheel allows the seasoning to saturate the fish. Good balsamic (Bariani's Balsamic Vinegar is my local favorite) makes all the difference.


Ingredients

• Generous sprinkling (4-5 Tablespoons) good balsamic vinegar
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound skinless salmon fillet, cut into six ¾-inch strips
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Lemon slices
• Olive oil

Cooking Instructions

1. Preheat the oven's broiler to 500 degrees; set the oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source. 
2. Combine the balsamic vinegar and the garlic in a small bowl; reserve. 
3. Sprinkle the salmon with kosher salt. Roll the salmon strips, beginning on the thickest side, into 6 pinwheels. Secure with wooden skewers.
4. Coat the pan in olive oil and drizzle oil over the fish and let it saturate. Drizzle the balsamic and garlic mixture generously over each pinwheel. Place fresh lemon slice on top of each pinwheel.
5. Place salmon under hot broiler and cook for 7 minutes. Turn pinwheels over and replace lemon slices; cook until edges are brown and fish is easily flaked with a fork, about an additional 7 minutes. 
6. Sprinkle with pepper before serving and enjoy! Reviews in our house? It was pronounced "delightful!"

Round out the meal: Serve with your choice of green vegetable steamed or stir fried. Zucchini pairs well with the salmon.


Wine recommendation: Serve with chilled white wine (Pinot Grigio makes an excellent pairing).


It's mmmmm...Monday is a new Nosy Parker Blog weekly feature where I'll share with you a favorite recipe or a new kitchen experiment!


Adapted from Broiled Salmon Mignon recipe by ZELDA3333 on allRecipes.com

We're Back!

After some technical difficulties, www.gabrianamarks.com is back!

Please accept my apologies if you've been looking for my site in the last weeks. It's back and I'll continue to update it with my portfolio, bucket list and more.

An Unsteady Upwardish Path

Perhaps you've wondered what happened to me. I know some of my friends have. I've been busy surviving.

I had a lot of plans. As did my mom. But in the first days of June, we got a shock. Doctors found a mass in her brain.

First there was the brain tumor and the surgery to remove it. Then the diagnosis: Anaplastic Hemangiopericytoma, an extremely rare brain cancer about which little is published. Recovery from the 7-hour brain surgery was not yet complete before six weeks of daily radiation therapy treatments began. It's been a rough 2011 in our house.

We have a great community of family friends and we use a LotsaHelpingHands site to communicate. Family is far,  the relationship complicated and the support minimal. A single mom and an only child, we've always made a great team. Mostly I miss my own friends, many of whom live in SF (~90 miles away) or LA (~350 miles). Few friends have made the trek to visit; communications are stalled. In truth, I've avoided the minefield. I don't really want to talk about the brain cancer battle rocking our house or my job outside of my passion. After all, if you don't have anything good to say, you should say nothing at all, right? I can't stand to hear any more advice on how I should be better taking care of myself, my mother, her house, my dog... you get the point. People mean well, I know, but we've got things under control in our own way.

My mom is focusing on her goal of moving to Venice, Italy (and establishing a Gertrude Stein-like salon for local and traveling reform Jews and artists) — a goal which keeps her motivated but stirs restless impatience. Though moving to Italy (ideally as a destination wedding planner or a writer) is a dream of mine as well, I'm focusing on the shorter term for now, sticking with my trice annual assessments and goals. Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year in September). New Year's Eve. And My Birthday.

Make plans, G-d laughs. Too true. Well I've made fewer plans this year, just taking each day one at a time (a phrase that's always bugged me... as if I could possibly take more than one at once). Perhaps the trick is to somehow worry less about the next one. In any case, life has been difficult enough without adding more responsibility. More days than not have been a struggle. Yet, I could not let the Jewish New Year go by without consideration.

Driven by a recognition that I needed to take better care of myself, I began a new exercise routine around Rosh Hashana. It's only 25 minutes long, but it's an intense workout. I can't say I quite enjoy exercise, but my body is finally craving it. The scale and I haven't been friends for a while so I can't tell you exactly how much I've lost, but I can tell you that none of the pants I'd been wearing fit anymore. I finally broke down and made the dreaded trip to buy new jeans. Armed with the knowledge of exactly what flatters my figure and the help of a savvy and fashionable store clerk, I found jeans I love that fit me perfectly — and they're 3 sizes smaller than my old ones! There's more to go, but I already feel stronger, leaner and more fit. I'm determined to make exercise a solid habit before turning 30 next April, in the hopes that it'll stick for life.

Sometimes taking care of oneself is in the little things... a playlist to pick you up in the mornings, a walk with the dog, a lovely relaxing bubble bath, a good laugh with a friend. It's funny how easy it is to forget to take care of yourself when you're busy being a caretaker (I'm sure this is a 'duh' for most moms, but I'm not a mom yet... rather a 20-something solo caretaker for a parent).

Fortunately my mom's latest scans showed the radiation significantly shrunk the remaining brain cancer cells and it has not regrown or spread yet. This, of course, is great news with a pause on the yet. The trick is to focus on the great news — not the yet.

As the New Year approaches and I strive to focus on the great in each day, I'm once again thinking of my goals. How shall I improve my 2012? I've missed writing (editing, too). It used to be a big part of my everyday work and since then... well, since then, life has been a minefield. I'm considering making daily writing my new goal, but it may prove too much to maintain. Ultimately, my new goal is to think happy and be happy, not be afraid. Once again seize life's opportunities and seek out happiness. This too is a solid habit I hope will stick for life.

I'm pleased to report that seeking out happiness is exactly what we did this weekend on a wonderful, impromptu trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea.

Far From OK

So you might be wondering what happened to me... why my blog has been on hold. The thing is... I don’t know what to say. And frankly, this doesn’t happen to me often.

People keep asking (as the well-meaning tend to do in difficult times), 'How're you doing?' But do they really want to know? Or do they just want me to put a smile on it (I'm not a big fan of the inauthentic though sometimes effective 'fake it till you feel it' method)?

Because, the truth is (at the moment), I'm far from ok. I don't mean in a logistical way. That I've got covered. So ingrained and woven into my upbringing were lists, flow charts and other organizational tools that I think I could actually beautifully coordinate the implosion of my world.

But really, I'd have to say I'm feeling pretty far from ok.

I don’t know how to talk about what’s going on in my life without divulging too much or veering toward complaining.

Five weeks ago, my mother – my cute little Jewish mother with a passion for life and Venice, Italy – was diagnosed with a brain tumor. This was a huge shock to us since we thought she just had vertigo. We’re now about two weeks into recovery from a 7-hour craniotomy surgery.

Though it’s hard for her to see it, my mom is making huge progress. Some days are more difficult than others. The day we began to understand the pathology results was one of those days. We had been hoping benign results would buoy our spirits in these rough days. Instead of being a meningioma (90-95% of which are benign), it's an anaplastic hemingiopericytoma (an aggressive, rare tumor that falls between benign and malignant).

I know we will get through this as we’ve had incredible practice overcoming challenges already. My mom chose to be a single working mother long before it was popularized or even accepted. My mom was superwoman in heels with a list or chart for absolutely everything. She made sure I was never short on love from having only one parent (and so I celebrate her both on Mother’s and Father’s Day).

No matter the difficulty, we always bounced back. Even in high school, when every sh*t storm seemed to collide upon us… we were living in a motel room because our house was sliding off of a cliff due to the El Niño rains (ridiculously not covered by Fema) and my mom lost her job and I had an abusive boyfriend (my first and last, I’m proud to say)… we survived all that and more. Like our dear friend Joe M. says, we always land on our feet. Even then, I still managed to graduate high school near the top of my class and with a resume full of extra-curricular activities (something I thought would guarantee my path to a good career, which took some unexpected turns and bumps when media converged and the economy crashed).

Now it is time to focus on the joy in life, on gratitude and prayer. This seems easier said than done as I struggle to talk even to friends, a zombie masquerading as human. I resolve to focus on today, take time to express myself, find enjoyment in life and dream of Italian adventures to come.

DIY Easy & Inexpensive Cupcake Stand

Cupcakes have expanded beyond children’s parties and been gaining in popularity.

Part of the fun in these bite-sized treats is in the presentation. There’s no need to shell out a huge chunk of change for a fancy cupcake stand, just DIY!

This cupcake stand is for a Teacher Appreciation Celebration to mark the end of the school year. The cupcakes, which will look like red apples in a nod to teachers, will be nestled in a 6-tier cupcake stand designed to evoke the feeling of an apple tree.
(Here's a collection of gorgeous DIY Cupcake Stands I found online and used for inspiration!)

Here’s how to make the stand:

1. Purchase cake rounds for the number of tiers you want. I got 2 for each level (and 3 for the bottom) and hot-glued them together to increase stability. Make sure they're evenly lined up!
2. Next, I traced the rounds on green wrapping paper (2 for each size cake round). Cut these out and use rubber cement to glue them to the tops and bottoms of the rounds. (Using rubber cement will prevent the wrapping paper from wrinkling.)

   

   Step 2

3. I purchased green satin bulk ribbon (it’s way cheaper) and then hot-glued it around the circumference of the cake rounds to cover the ugly corrugated cardboard edges (see photo below of Cupcake Tree in Progress).
4. Cupcake tiers should be separated by a solid lift stable enough to hold up the ascending tiers and should be tall enough for a cupcake with frosting and décor to sit on each level (about 4"). I was searching everywhere for the perfect cylindrical tier lifts when a teacher who’ll be at the party offered for her shop class to take on the lifts as a project!

5. Next, I'll wrap the lifts in brown satin ribbon to look like a tree trunk and hot glue them between the tiered cake rounds.

6. Make sure all the glue has dried before you let any cupcakes near your stand!

I've included some photos of the project in progress. Please check back later this week for photos of the final steps and finished project!

Cupcake Tree in Progress  (Cups are placeholders)

Test Batch of Apple Cupcakes

The big End of Year Celebration where these cupcakes and stand will debut is this Friday. I'll be hosting a little Cupcake Camp to mass-produce the cupcakes the night before and I picked up a couple tips to make the process easier during my test batch:

1. I'll be using pretzel sticks instead of tootsie rolls for the apple stems. Tootsie rolls didn't hold up well and required additional work. Plus, the pretzel sticks will hold the box top off of the finished cupcakes to protect them from getting messed up.
2. I'll be dying the fondant green BEFORE making them into leaves. Painting individual leaves was nuts! I'll also use a leaf-shaped cookie cutter instead of the ridiculous mold I used that required leaves to be individually plucked out with a toothpick.
3. Plus, I got red foil cupcake liners so I can bake more than 12 or even 24 at a time and they'll look more apple-like!