Next to pork, seafood is my favorite source of “animal” protein.  I could eat it all the time!  Well, okay not all the time as I sort of get tired of animal protein.  But I like it a great deal! Let’s go with that instead.

The first time I ever had bivalves to eat (clam chowder from a can doesn’t count!) was with Scott.  We lived in a small town outside of Philly when we graduated college.  There was a little Italian restaurant that we used to frequent  and they served clams in a white wine sauce.  Heaven!  It was the best thing I ever ate and it was amazing.

The first time I ever had mussels, we were living in North Carolina at the time and ordered mussels Rockefeller.  I hated them.  The mussels were chewy and just not something I enjoyed at all.  I left the rest…

Scott and I love seafood.  Like LOVE it, in what probably results in something verging on ridiculous.  I try to make sure that we have seafood at least twice a week since that is our preferred “animal” protein source.  Tuesdays we have fish so that leaves another day free for whatever.

And while I don’t eat a lot of meat, one thing I love is sausage.  My love for it would be just a few levels down from seafood.  Seafood I would eat everyday if you gave it to me, sausage I have to be in the mood for.  I swear I’m not trying to make a joke with that statement.

Sometimes those two wants just happen to collide with each other.

I will tell you that because I love food so much, I am constantly thinking about it.  I would guess this is the way most foodies behave.  Wondering…

This was another idea I came up with while working and thinking about what to make for dinner.  At least I’m a great multitasker!  Scott and I love fish and seafood.  Because it’s such a great protein source along with all the other goodies it contains, I try to make sure we get fish at least twice a week.  We were having salmon one night and I wanted a different way to serve it up.  I usually marinade the salmon in a teriyaki mixture because it takes to that flavor so well.  But this time I wanted something a little different.

Since I’ve been working on my heat tolerance level, I decided to try something new with the salmon by creating a sweet and spicy glaze.  Glazes aren’t something I really work with too much and I thought it was about time I changed that up.  I pulled out some chipotles and put together this really great tasting glaze.

Andrea’s Chipotle Glaze

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My mom used to make salmon patties all the time and admittedly I didn’t really care for them (sorry Mom!).  They were a little too on the fishy tasting side for me.  A little potent.  Once I left and was on my own for meals I forgot about them.

And then I picked them back up again.  I’m not sure how it happened.  If I was watching a cooking show maybe and saw someone make something simliar or what, but my interest was renewed.  I realized I didn’t have to make them the way my mom had, I could make them however I wanted and jazz them up a bit.

Sometimes it is really interesting to see the differences in the types of foods Scott and I each grew up with.  He did not have salmon patties as a staple growing up or even had them before I started making them.  This was something totally new for him.  He loves fish, so…

I grew up in a very small town in Southwestern PA.  Very. Small.  The kind of small town where the “fancy” restaurant is The Red Lobster (always pronounced as The Red Lobster because there can be only one.) that you had to travel 1/2 an hour to get to.  One of my very favorite things to get at The Red Lobster was the scampi.

I always felt a little decadent and grown up eating scampi.  I mean after all it did have wine in it right?  It said so right on the menu!  You have to be mature to handle a dish like that, or so I told myself.  And when the pathetic little dish of scampi arrived with the overcooked super tiny balls of shrimp, I was in heaven.  And you best believe I ate all that sauce too.  “Come ‘ere cheddar biscuits and help a sister out!”

Please, don’t even front and act like you don’t know what I’m talking…

Me: Hey? Do you want tuna sandwiches for lunch?

Scott: Sure.

*chop, chop, mix, assemble and serve*

Scott: What’s this?

Me: Huh? It’s a tuna sandwich.

Scott: Oh.

Me: Why? Doesn’t it look like a tuna sandwich?

Scott: No.

Me: No? What would your tuna sandwich look like?

Scott: Mayo on each slice of bread, scoop out the tuna from the can and stick on the bread. Put the two halves together and eat.

Me: Oh. How about I’ll do the cooking from now on?

And that’s pretty much how our conversation went the first time I made tuna salad sandwiches for Scott and I those many years ago when we moved into our first apartment right out of college. Tuna with some huge globs of mayo slapped on some bread? No thank you. And I’ve been playing with tuna salad ideas ever since.

This recipe came to me because I had a…