Food and Crafts for All Occasions

Homemade Lox or Salt-n-Sugar Cured Salmon

Homemade lox is Ilya’s favorite snack. A piece of dark bread and several slices of the salmon and he is happy as a clam. For a weekend lunch, I cut croissants in half, spread some light whipped cream cheese on them (chèvre works great too!), top with thin avocado slices, some capers and, finally, with the lox. You  can eat the sandwich as is, open faced, or bring the halves together to form a tall closed one.

For a party, the cured salmon goes well with small rye toasts and sides of horseradish and sour cream or crème fraiche.

The good news about homemade lox is that it's surprisingly easy to make. It takes less than two days to cure it and almost zero effort. You can take any kind of wild salmon: king, sockeye, silver, whichever is available in a store.

In Loving Memory of the Summer Gone Too Fast: A Salad with Avocadoes, Tomatoes, Palm Hearts and Bell Peppers with Cilantro Dressing

Summer is suddenly gone and just like most Seattleites I am not ready to let it go. I’m currently in the denial stage of grief, especially because of the sun peeking out from behind the clouds more and more often and a patch of blue sky here and there becoming larger and larger. A perfect setting for me to pretend that it is as warm and vibrant outside as it was just a month ago.

Simple Salad with Tomatoes, Avocado, Olive Tapenade and Fresh Basil

Continuing the salad theme, here’s one I make often for myself for a snack. It takes mere minutes to make and is quite filling, so you can spend next half an hour  without thinking about food. ;)