Last night’s “make-it-up-as-you-go” adventure was a resounding success.

Baked wild salmon with roasted red peppers and brie, served with caramelized onions and mushrooms, steamed peas, garlic spaghetti squash, and oven-roasted asparagus.

I am someone who very much is in love with food. I enjoy eating… and I enjoy it even more when I have many different foods on my plate. Bare minimum is three – usually meat, starch (or in our case, squash), and a veggie. More is better. Adding a side salad is awesome. The “less is more” rule does not apply here. Variety = good. Got it? (Are you hearing me, husband? He doesn’t do it as much anymore, but he is notorious for “forgetting” to throw a veggie on the stove when he’s in charge of supper. Even frozen peas would do…)

Well, without further rambling, here is the recipe:

Baked Salmon with Roasted Red Peppers and Brie

4-6 wild salmon fillets (I buy ‘em already deboned and skinned)
the juice of one whole lemon
1/3 c. olive oil
1/4 t. each of basil, oregano, salt
freshly ground black pepper
5-6 cloves of garlic
sliced brie (as much or as little as you want)

Step One: Juice the lemons. A tip: before you slice them, roll them around on the counter while squishing them down. This allows the juice to be squeezed out a lot easier. Squeeze the juice into a small mixing bowl.

Step Two: Add the oil, oregano, basil, and salt. Add a few turns of freshly ground black pepper. Stir.

Step Three: Lay out salmon in a glass baking dish (preferably one that fits all the salmon snugly, but without overlapping or being too squishy, like mine).

Step Four: Pour lemon mixture over the salmon, lifting each piece slightly with a fork to make sure each piece is coated. Let it marinate for 20-30 minutes (technically it should be in the fridge for food safety, but I left mine on my counter).

Step Five: Add slices of brie cheese on top of the salmon. Also, add sliced red pepper, coated in olive oil (As you can see above, I did my red pepper separately – roasted in the oven – but I think it would be better baked on top of the salmon, with the cheese, so that’s what I’m going to do next time!).

Step Six: Bake at 400 degrees fahrenheit for approximately 30-45 minutes (I find ovens really vary, so check it after 30 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when it flakes easily with a fork, and is light pink in colour).

In the meantime, throw some asparagus on a pan, coat with olive oil, salt and pepper, and top it with a little grated cheese that your toddler asked for then refused to eat earlier in the day.

Bake for 10 minutes. Watch out – asparagus is easily overcooked, and it’s practically unchewable when that happens. Not that I know from experience or anything…

Then throw some leftover spaghetti squash into a small casserole dish, toss a liberal amount of butter on top, some S&P, some crushed garlic, then put a lid on it, and throw it into the oven to heat. Or, cook it from the beginning (they take about an hour to bake, face down, with a little water, cut in half), if you haven’t got any leftover “noodles” from last night’s spaghetti dinner.

Oh, and I didn’t take any photos of the onions cooking – but it’s really easy – just cut up an onion in large pieces, throw it into a pan with melted butter (LOTS of butter), and fry it slowly on low heat (allow about 20 minutes for this). Throw in some mushrooms if you want. (I want). The slow cooking of the onion makes it all brown and soft and yummy – this is called caramelizing because the sugars in the onion are reacting with the heat. I love these served on top of my roast beef too.

That was our supper last night.

Tonight: Adventures in Nutrient-Dense Superfoods: The Liver Edition.

I’m not kidding. I’ll let you know how it goes