Maple-Glazed Salmon

Andy's brother, Ryan, went on a fishing trip to Alaska a couple of months ago and brought back lots of fresh fish including the salmon we made tonight. My friend, Laura, has a large garden at her house and is even working to start her own business selling her canned goods, and she had given me several jars of fresh vegetables for my birthday in July. Tonight, Andy and I cooked the salmon and made some of her green beans. It was exciting to have such fresh food - I felt so healthy! The recipe for the salmon was particularly good. Here it is:

Ingredients:

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp ground ancho chile powder (I didn't have this, so I left it out)

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp kosher salt

4 (6 oz) Alaskan salmon fillets

2 tablespoons maple syrup (I just used the pancake kind)

Directions:

1. Preheat broiler.

2. Combine seasoning and rub spice mixture evenly over flesh side of fillets. Place fish on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Broil 6 minutes or until desired degree of doneness. Brush fillets evenly with syrup; broil 1 minute.

Snickerdoodles

While I was out of town a few weeks ago, my next door neighbor mowed my grass. It was so sweet of him because I hate doing yard work. I think his wife could tell how much I hate mowing based on my Facebook posts, and she encouraged her husband to mow my grass while he was mowing his. To thank them, I wanted to make some cookies to take to their house for them to share with their two young boys. I wanted to make chocolate chip, but I was out of chocolate chips, so I had to search out a recipe that didn't call for chocolate chips. I found the following snickerdoodle recipe. I don't even like snickerdoodles, and these cookies were soooo good. They are terrific with coffee especially! By the way, I didn't have cream of tarter, either, so I left it out.

Ingredients

· 1 1/2 cups white sugar

· 1/2 cup butter, softened

· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

· 2 eggs

· 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

· 1 teaspoon cream of tartar

· 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

· 1/4 teaspoon salt

· 2 tablespoons white sugar

· 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).

2. Combine 1 1/2 cups white sugar, butter or margarine, vanilla and eggs. Mix well.

3. Stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Blend well. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Combine 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon. Roll dough in sugar/cinnamon mixture and place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Immediately remove from cookie sheets.