Vanilla salmon with coconut-vanilla-cardamom rice

I have a good pal with whom I went to high school and reconnected last year via Facebook. MB is a professional chef and such a nice guy. Last night after dinner, which by the way we enjoyed quite a bit, I heard from M and he said the flavors I'd meshed would definitely work and be delicious- chef and scientific evidence for my random brainstorm was so exciting! I'll post this recipe for you but here are some pics...I cooked the salmon in a vanilla-infused coconut milk baste and topped with the scraped vanilla bean quarters. Meanwhile, I cooked some brown rice in a mix of coconut milk, water, salt, cardamom pods, and scraped vanilla beans. When it was done, I stirred in some toasted and chopped pistachios.

...I.F.??

I remember when TGIF really used to mean what it stands for (read: pre-kids). And mostly I mean that in an only factual way. However, kids do change that acronym just slightly to WCTIF or Who Cares That It's Friday because really, in some ways the weekends are much harder than any weekday unless you get slammed with a snow-day, sick child or other unwelcome surprise. When your house becomes a no-nap zone, a day can seem exceedingly, unbelievably, are-you-kidding? long. And that can be tough. It's no surprise to me that the "It's 5:00 somewhere" quote went viral; surely that was first uttered by a weary parent who didn't give one hoo-ha what time it was and thusly turned to some form of liquid courage to face the remaining hours of a Saturday. Today was a busy but overall quite productive one. Three batches of scones made, lemon curd crafted, mis en place to the 9s over here, exercise, a large haul of no-longer-needed children's gear donated, dry cleaning, grocery shopping, pick-ups, tears, hugs, laughs............................. The usual. And, I voted (Obama). I love voting (Obama). It's so civic, so engaged, so communal. Cheers to all DCers who stood in line so politely and amicably today to cast their votes (Obama). Readers, I'm sure you don't mind my subliminal message there as really, by now you should know my politics.

Speaking of politics, did you see what the Washington Post said about Romney today? And I quote, "THROUGH ALL THE flip-flops, there has been one consistency in the campaign of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney: a contempt for the electorate."

GObama.

Presently, I'm loving me some Sancerre and cooking up an inspired (I think; TBD) dinner of vanilla-coconut-cardamom-pistachio rice with oven-roasted vanilla salmon. I will let you know if the result is as promising as my idea felt.

Brussels sprouts slaw

I've spent the morning happily prepping for a dinner I'm catering tomorrow night. The menu is wonderful: rosemary-rubbed side of salmon with potatoes, parsnips and mushrooms; kale- and fontina-stuffed chicken; cinnamon- and garlic-roasted sweet potatoes; kale and quinoa pilaf; and this marvelous brussels sprouts slaw with mustard vinaigrette and candied pecans. It's one of my all-time fave dishes- have you tried it yet? Anyway, here are the sprouts which I cooked in boiling water for just a few minutes and here are drying before heading into the food processor to be slivered. So pretty!