Royal Wedding, Magic, Smuggling?

On Saturday Prince Albert of Monaco was wed to Princess Charlene in both a civil and Roman Catholic ceremony. The description of her dress is somewhat breathtaking, there were 40,000 crystals sewn onto it not to mention pearls and gold http://tinyurl.com/3m83pmu you can read the description here. Princess Charlene is an Olympic swimmer from South Africa. It has been quite a year for Royal weddings.

Over the weekend I was reading When Darkness Falls, part 3 of the Obsidian Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory and I got to thinking about concepts of magic. In the Wheel of Time books people are chucking up gateways or portals all over the place at the drop of a hat, whether to move armies or just a couple of people. In the book I was reading, a Knight Mage opens one portal only and risks death, doesn’t happen, but he and his bonded dragon lose magic for ever more. So many fantasy authors have such different concepts of what magic is or what their particular protagonists will do with magic. I like Glenda Larke’s recent ‘water magic’ in her latest trilogy and am waiting to see how it all ends some time next month in Stormlord’s Exile.

I have mentioned before about living on a boat as a youngster. We spent a lot of time travelling to various ports on the coasts of Europe, my father never worried about whether I was supposed to be in school or not, if he wanted to go, he went, and because my home was being moved, obviously I went too. What I have been thinking about was the time we came back to England and were stopped by customs and thoroughly searched – someone had contacted them and said we were smuggling – that was before drugs were a big thing, they searched all over the boat and each of us too, no idea what they were searching for, but there was a large can of grease in the engine room and they were poking around in it not to mention searching the sanitary pad I was wearing together with requesting my mother and I to take down our hair. Very odd experience. I suppose they weren’t convinced it was real because they could have wrecked the insides of the boat and not been liable to replace it unless they found nothing. They didn’t even try.

Last night we tried a recipe I posted on June 4. Roasted Cauliflower with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette. It was delicious. It will certainly become a keeper in our repertoire.

Mushrooms Canada came up with this recipe recently, I am not sure I would enjoy mushrooms with salmon, but it would be worth trying.

Baja Salmon with Mushrooms

Serves 4

1 tbsp olive oil, divided

6 oz white button mushrooms, quartered or halved

1 packet dry citrus marinade

3/4 cup frozen white sweet corn kernels, thawed

1/2 cup red onion, diced, run under cold water

1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced

1/4 cup cilantro leaves, minced

2 tbsp lime juice, freshly squeezed

1/2 tsp kosher salt

4 salmon filets (about 5 ounces each)

1/4 cup water

Heat a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Add 2 teaspoons oil and swirl to coat bottom of pan. Add mushrooms and sauté 2 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon of dry citrus marinade mix to the mushrooms and continue cooking another 3 minutes.

Remove mushrooms from the pan and place in a large mixing bowl. Add the corn, onion, red pepper, cilantro, lime juice and salt to the cooked mushrooms and toss to combine. In same sauté pan, add remaining teaspoon of oil and swirl to coat pan.

Sprinkle the top of each salmon filet with 1 teaspoon dry citrus marinade mix. Add salmon, seasoned side down, to hot pan and sear 1 minute. Flip over and add water to the pan. Cover and cook another 2 minutes, or until done to taste preferences. Remove from the heat and uncover.

Place a spoonful of the mushroom salsa on each serving plate, top with a salmon filet. Garnish with a sprig of cilantro and a lime wedge.

Have a great day