So rather than the standard Thanksgiving fare of candied yams, I needed to come up with something else we could candy to at least approximate that signature dish. While our version doesn't use marshmallows, and it does take a little work to get it in the oven, it is well worth the effort and I'd say this was almost as good as candied sweet potatoes and a lot healthier.

Candied Acorn Squash

• 2 medium size acorn squash
• 4-5 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1-2 Tbsp butter
• Cinnamon (optional)

Start by cutting off each end of the acorn squash about half an inch to an inch from the tip.

Slice the squash into rings, about 1-2 inches thick.

Grease up a baking sheet or baking dish and preheat the oven to 350.

Bake the squash for 30-40 minutes, depending on the thickness of the slices.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt 1-2 Tbsp of butter and stir in 4-5 Tbsp of brown sugar. You can also add just a bit of cinnamon.

When the squash is just about done, turn the heat up on the stove and stir the glaze constantly.

Remove the squash from the oven and baste it with the glaze.

Return the squash to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes.

Serve and enjoy.

Patricia's Notes: This was quite tasty. You don't peel the acorn squash before you serve it, so the presentation is quite dramatic with the yellow flesh and green rind. You can actually eat the rind, though I prefer not to. The flavor was actually very similar to candied sweet potatoes, though the texture was a bit different (expectedly). I will definitely make this again.

You can eat celery root raw, or you can puree it, mash it, roast it, or saute it. For today's recipe, I peeled it, cut it into chunks, and boiled it.

Olsen Farms has a wide variety of potatoes, including some vibrant purple ones called Purple Vikings. These potatoes are bright purple/blue on the outside and snow white inside. They make a gorgeous mashed potato, especially when you leave the skins on for some great contrast. 

Potato Celeriac Mashup

• 4-5 Purple Viking potatoes
• 1 large celeriac
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/4-1/2 cup of milk

Peel the celeriac and cut into chunks.

Cut the potatoes into chunks (but don't peel them).

Boil the vegetables until tender.

Use either a potato masher, a mixer, or a food mill to mash the vegetables with the butter and milk.

Serve.

Patricia's Notes: I really enjoyed this. I only used one celeriac, so the mash did taste almost completely like mashed potatoes. But there was a subtle celery flavor underneath it all. Next time, I'll double the celeriac and keep the potatoes the same. The texture was about 90% smooth with just a few chunks. I didn't use very much butter or milk, but this was very smooth. Since I didn't actually make these with a turkey, I didn't have gravy. So I tried to add a few things to bowls of the mash to enhance the flavor. It turns out that Bacon Salt was the perfect addition to this dish.

Rickman Gulch, at the Ballard and West Seattle farmers markets, sells chickens, including the one I'm using for dinner tonight. They are also selling Thanksgiving turkeys. Give them a call this week to reserve your turkey.

But what's a turkey without stuffing? I love stuffing. I only have it twice a year, so that makes it all the more special. This stuffing is not only tasty, it's actually low carb, relatively low fat, and almost completely local. Cook it in or out of the bird and serve it with some rich gravy. Since Thanksgiving can be a hectic day for the cook, I recommend making the 'cornbread' and Emmer a day ahead of time.

Bluebird Grain Farms 'Corn Bread' Sausage Stuffing

First, make the corn bread.

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup Bluebird Emmer flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup Bluebird Cracked Emmer
• 3/4 cup buttermilk (available from Seabreeze Farms)
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 2 large eggs

Preheat your oven to 400. In a cast iron skillet, melt the butter.

In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients together.

In a smaller bowl, mix the wet ingredients.

Combine, stirring just to mix. Don't over mix.

Pour the batter in the cast iron pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.

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Next, cook up the Emmer Farro. That's exceedingly simple. Just combine 1 cup of Emmer with 4-5 cups of water and a little bit of salt. Boil for 50 minutes. If you've got water leftover, drain.

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Now comes the stuffing assembly. These next steps will make your kitchen smell amazing! Be prepared for drooling family members hovering around the oven.

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 medium onions
• 1 large shallot
• Fresh rosemary
• 1/4 cup dry Sherry
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1/4 cup butter
• Lemon zest
• 1 large carrot
• 3 stalks of celery
• 2 eggs
• 9 oz Andouille or Hot Italian sausage (precooked)

Halve the onions and then slice the halves. Place the olive oil in a large skillet and turn up to medium high. Add the onion slices and some salt. Stir for 2 minutes, then turn the heat to medium low and caramelize the onions (about 25 minutes). You'll need to stir them here and there, but they are mostly hands off so you can go onto the other prep work.

Dice the carrot and celery. Mince the garlic, shallot, and rosemary. Dice the sausage.

Put another saute pan on the stove and melt the butter over medium heat. Add the celery, carrot, shallot, sausage, and rosemary. Cook for a couple of minutes while you mince the garlic.

Add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.

Add the chicken broth and heat through.

The onions should be done now, so add the 1/4 cup of sherry to the pan and deglaze for a couple of minutes. Turn off the heat and let the onions sit.

Crumble the corn bread into a very large bowl. Make sure you've got some good sized chunks. Mix in the Farro.

Pour the sausage mixture over the corn bread crumbs and stir. Add the onions and stir again.

Lastly, pour two beaten eggs over the whole thing and give it one more short mix.

Stuffing can be baked at 375 or stuffed in a bird. If you're cooking the stuffing in a baking dish, cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Then uncover and bake for another 20 minutes, or until the top is crispy.

Serve and enjoy!

Patricia's Notes: I was a little leery of using all of the Emmer products for stuffing. I love Emmer Farro, and even use the Emmer flour quite often, but Emmer breads always have a distinctly 'healthy' flavor. The stuffing, though, was amazing. High fiber, low fat, high protein, and it tasted and smelled just like Thanksgiving should. I might add a little more sausage though. We used 2 links and I think 3 would have been better. I'd also only crumble about 3/4 of the cornbread. There was a lot of bulk to this stuffing and it was easily enough to serve 8-10 people if not a few more.

When you try to separate out pumpkin seeds from the rest of the innards, your hands get messy. Just embrace the messiness and start pulling out the seeds. You don't need to remove all traces of pumpkin, because you'll wash the seeds a couple of times before you bake them. Just do your best and remove the large bits of guts.

It took me about 20 minutes to get a nice bowl of seeds from the two pie pumpkins.

Once you have that bowl of seeds, wash them carefully in water a couple of times. You can put the seeds in a colander and wash them or use a bowl with a lid on it.

Preheat the oven to 250.

In the bowl, add some olive oil and some seasoned salt. We used Zane and Zack's Alder Smoked Rub.

Spread the seeds on a foil lined baking sheet.

Bake for 60 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

Cool and enjoy!

And really, what's more local than your own backyard?  We've not been awesome at growing our own food yet, kind of black thumbed, but, we want to be better, and maybe a worm bin is the right step.

If you think you're not going to be good at making it, they also provide a helpful hint:  You can buy one directly from Seattle Tilth for about $95.

Actually, there was one problem with Daily Candy's plans. 

They left out 'worms' in the list of things you need.

The feel of pumpkin innards isn't all that pleasant either. Unlike a lot of other squash, pumpkins have this amazing combination of stringy, spongy, slimy, and springy. You need a rather sharp spoon or a very strong hand to adequately carve out the insides.

So now I understand exactly why my mother hated carving pumpkins. Mom, listen up... "You were right."

Now that I've made my mother happy for the day, we'll move on to today's recipe - Stuffed Pumpkins!

Yes, we're not only going to partially carve a pumpkin, we're going to stuff it full of all sorts of goodness and bake it in the oven. We got a couple of pie pumpkins from our CSA, Growing Washington.

Ingredients

• 2 small pie pumpkins
• 2 links of hot Italian Sausage (ours was from Skagit River Ranch)
• 2 cups Emmer from Bluebird Grain Farms (or white or brown rice)
• 1 large onion
• Any of the following:
• Fresh hot peppers
• Parmesan cheese
• Chopped kale or spinach
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Garlic

Start by cutting the top off your pumpkin. You want to make the opening at least big enough to fit your hand. Trust me on this.

Scrape out the innards. Save them though! Afterwards we're going to separate out the seeds.

Start cooking the emmer or the rice.

When the pumpkin is nice and clean inside (which could take you up to 15 minutes), rub a little olive oil inside and bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until the inside of the pumpkin is starting to soften. The outside should still be rigid.

While the pumpkin is cooking, take the sausage out of its casing and saute until most of the pink is gone.

Dice the onion, and any of the other vegetables you want to throw in. Cook them in with the pork for 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine the emmer or rice, and the sausage mixture. Add some Parmesan cheese and any spices you want. Suggestions include smoked paprika, sea salt and pepper, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, nutmeg, or thyme.

Stuff the pumpkin with the mixture and return to the oven for an additional 20-30 minutes, or until the pumpkin has softened to be nearly fork tender from the outside.

Serve, being very careful eating as the inside of the pumpkin is very hot.

Patricia's Notes:  This was quite tasty. I didn't cook my pumpkins long enough, so I didn't eat quite as much squash as I would have preferred. I used a mixture of smoked paprika and nutmeg for the spices and the dish had a spicy sweetness to it. I would definitely make these again, especially if someone gave me a pre-scooped pumpkin. I spent about 20 minutes separating out the pumpkin seeds afterwards, and tomorrow we'll roast them up for a tasty snack.

One of the suggestions I took away from the evening with Michael Pollan the other week was that we should try to have one meatless meal a week (I'd go as far as a meatless day for me, though the husband still needs some sort of meat or fish with at least one meal).

So when we found a recipe for baked beans that used (of all things) BEER, we decided to give it a try. I was skeptical all the way up to the first bite. After that, I was hooked. I will never make baked beans from a can ever again. We picked up some great cranberry beans from our friends at Alm Hill Gardens/Growing Washington.

Ingredients

• 2 cups cranberry beans (or pinto beans)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium red onion
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 Tbsp Chardonnay Mustard from Sea Breeze Farms
• 2 dried hot peppers
• 3 cups beer*
• 1/2 cup chopped dried fruit*
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• Smoked paprika
• Salt

Soak your beans overnight in water. (I've heard anecdotal reports that changing the water frequently will help reduce gas after eating, but your mileage may vary.)

Dice the onion and saute in a Dutch oven with the olive oil for 2-3 minutes.

Add the honey (or molasses or agave nectar), the mustard, dried peppers, the beer, the dried fruit, and the broth. Bring to a simmer on the stove and then cover and bake at 350 for anywhere from 1.5-2.5 hours. Start checking the beans for doneness after about an hour and a half. If the beans are done before the liquid has reduced sufficiently, move the Dutch oven to the stovetop and bring to a boil uncovered, stirring regularly, until the liquid has the right consistency.

Season with some smoked paprika and maybe some salt. Serve with some crusty bread.

Patricia's Notes: When choosing your beer, go with some sort of berry or fruit beer. We used an Elderberry beer and dried peaches. However the original recipe suggested making sure your beer and your dried fruit "went together". So dried raspberries with raspberry beer. Dried peaches with a peach beer, etc. This isn't a requirement as we found out, but next time we might try to follow this suggestion. We did end up using chicken broth, so our version wasn't completely vegetarian, but that's just because I had fresh chicken broth in the fridge and decided to use it up. The original recipe called for molasses, but we used honey to keep it more local. 

When the beans were cooking, they smelled WONDERFUL. I used to make baked beans with half a pound of bacon and these beans smelled almost exactly the same. They were rich, thick, and almost pasty (I cooked mine just a tiny bit too long). They reheated very well for lunches for the rest of the week as well.

1. Sea Breeze Farms: At the Ballard Farmers Market today, Sea Breeze had a sign up stating that they still had a limited number of turkeys available. Give them a call or visit the farm store as soon as possible to reserve yours.

2. Thundering Hooves: We got our turkey from Thundering Hooves two years ago and it was fantastic. They sold out of their initial allotment, but they had a very good year in terms of turkeys surviving until November, and they will be releasing a limited number of turkeys for order on their website tomorrow morning at 8am.

A true Italian soup, it deserves to be made in a truly Italian way: from scratch and with minimal measuring. Here's a rough guide for a tasty soup that takes under an hour to prepare.

Ingredients

• Beef broth (at least 4 cups)
• 3 cups chopped tomatoes
• 2 cups chopped carrots
• 2 stalks celery
• 1 onion
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 2 small dried hot peppers
• 1 cup red wine (optional)
• Fresh herbs (a mix)
• Salt and pepper
• 2 links Andouille sausage
• 1 cup dried pasta (optional)
• Grated Parmesan cheese

Chop the onion and garlic. Rough chopping is fine here, as it all cooks down pretty well.

In a large soup pot, heat some olive oil over medium heat.

Saute the onion and garlic until fragrant and translucent. Season with a bit of salt and pepper.

Add the carrots and celery and saute another few minutes.

Pour in the beef broth, the red wine, and the tomatoes and season with whatever fresh herbs you have around (good ones would be rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, and basil). Add the dried hot peppers as well. You can even leave them whole.

Turn the heat up just a bit and simmer the soup for about 15 minutes.

Slice the Andouille sausage and add to the simmering pot. Note: If your sausage isn't fully cooked, you'll need to cook it in a fry pan or on the grill first.

Simmer for another 5-10 minutes. At this point, taste the soup. You might want to consider adding hot pepper flakes, salt and pepper, or even some water if the soup is too strong.

If you want to add pasta, throw it right in the soup and cook until the pasta is done.

Serve topped with some grated Parmesan cheese and crusty bread.

Patricia's Notes: You can add just about any vegetable to this dish. Kale and spinach should be added in the last 5 minutes of cooking. Peppers can be added at the same time as the carrots. Turnips or parsnips would even work here. I like my Minestrone spicy, so I used some pretty hot peppers, but you can easily omit them for a mild flavor.

Well, I've finally read it and... wow. I cannot even begin to imagine the changes that would come to our food system if everyone in America read this book.

When Michael Pollan is talking about one of the meals he cooked as part of the research for this book, he mentions oven roasting kale. Well, here in the Pacific Northwest, the winter is dominated by fresh kale. Kale, kale, kale. It's all kale. Kale is very good for you. A member of the cabbage family, kale has high levels of vitamins A and C, folic acid, calcium, and iron. We've posted about kale before, and that's been our standard recipe for a year. But now I have a new recipe, all thanks to Michael Pollan!

This recipe can't be easier.

  Take one bunch of kale and chop off the bottom of each stalk. The center of a kale stalk is pretty tough, which is why most kale recipes tell you to separate the leaves from the stalk. For this recipe, cut off the bottom third of each stalk and discard.

Brush both sides of each leaf with a bit of olive oil and place in a single layer on a cookie sheet.

Bake between 375 and 400 for 10-15 minutes, or until slightly crispy.

Season with salt and pepper or some smoked paprika and serve.

In a recent interview, Obama talks about reading Pollan's Letter to the Next President and some of the concerns he (Pollan) raises.

Link courtesy of TreeHugger.

I didn't get a lot of time with Michael Pollan, but I did get a chance to tell him about Cook Local and give him a business card, so hopefully he'll check out the site soon. On Cook Local's hero list, I'd definitely put Michael Pollan and George and Eiko.

The event was part of Bastyr University's Founders' Day Weekend celebration. Michael Pollan spoke for about two hours on stage with Warren Etheredge. The evening had a very honest and 'off the cuff' feel to it. I took at least five pages of notes and while we twittered a large portion of the event, here are some of the key points I took away from the evening. NOTE: Most of these points can be found in Michael Pollan's books. I know the The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is a really huge book, but it really is worth a read.

On politics

• The big problematic issues we face in this country all have roots in the food system and the problems with that system. Our current food system contributes 1/3 of the total greenhouse gases we produce and consumes 20% of the fossil fuels we use. 30%-40% of the increase in the cost of food we've seen over the past few years is due to the conversion of farmland from producing REAL food to producing ethanol. The foods we're eating (speaking generally here) are not "REAL" foods and not healthy. So we've tied food back to Climate Change, Health Care, and the Energy Crisis.
• The corn and soy that is subsidized now isn't actually food. It is used for feed, for ethanol, and for additives like high fructose corn syrup. His answer isn't to stop the subsidies, it's to subsidize farmers for growing REAL FOOD that people can actually eat.
• One of his ideas (that he talked about on NPR's Fresh Air and in his Open Letter to the Next President), was that we need a Victory Garden at the White House. How great would it be if the next president had not only a head gardener, but a head farmer. Just turn 5 acres of the White House lawn into a garden. The White House could give the food away to local food banks, who would have fresh, locally grown food.
• We need to revamp the system for food stamps. $1 in food stamps can buy 1250 calories worth of junk food or 250 calories of broccoli. So the system is predisposed to steer recipients towards unhealthy choices. What if we gave people a credit for fresh fruits and vegetables? $1 in food stamps could buy $2 worth of vegetables.
• Card readers at local markets would also help public assistance recipients eat locally. 

On eating locally

• Michael Pollan does practice what he preaches. He shops at farmers markets, eats seasonally, and has reduced his consumption of meat (more on that in a bit). He raised chickens for a while. He wanted to know whether or not he could actually raise, care for, and then slaughter a chicken. He built a movable pen, much like Joel Salatin from The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. He soon realized that yes, he could slaughter the chicken and isn't convinced that everyone shouldn't have that experience at least once.
• We are very lucky here in Seattle. We've got farmers markets all around the city. Many inner cities simply don't have any. We need to create incentives that get the farmers markets into the cities.

On organic

• He both praised and slammed the label of organic. For example, a package of chicken breasts in the supermarket is labeled organic. That label says nothing about the health and welfare of the chickens. Do the chickens have access to the outside? Do they actually use that access? Are they treated humanely? The label Natural Meat means nothing. You can still use pesticides on an organic farm, they just need to be organic pesticides.
• One of the problems with organic (and particularly big organic) is that people are now conditioned to ask vendors "Are you organic?" If the vendor answers no, that's the end of the conversation and some people will just walk away. Organic certification is expensive (just for the paperwork). So while a farm might actually be organic, or even better than organic, they might not have paid for the certification.
• Even if a local farm isn't organic, they might be wonderful stewards of the land. Most locally grown food isn't doused with pesticides.
• Organic (especially big organic) can be thought of as a gateway drug though. First you start shopping at Safeway and buying their organic produce. You might not look at labels or where the food came from, but you start buying organic. Then you start thinking about where you food came from a bit more. Maybe you decide to read one of Michael Pollan's books. So then you start going to the farmers market once in a while. Then more often. Then, all of a sudden, you're eating locally. Asking people to make huge changes right away is a recipe for failure.

On changing behaviors

• The average American eats 9 oz of meat per day. If everyone set aside one day a week without meat, we could save the equivalent greenhouse gases of taking 20 million cars off the the road.
• Grass fed meat can actually give back to the environment. Sure, the cows produce methane, but they also take care of the soil and help it absorb carbon dioxide.
• It takes 10 pounds of corn to produce 1 pound of feedlot beef.
• Use meat as a flavoring agent, not a main dish.
• How food is produced and packaged makes a big difference in the amount of meat we eat. If you buy a whole chicken, you're much more likely to use all of it. But boneless, skinless chicken breasts are all the rage these days. Whatever happened to bone-in breasts?
• Farmers markets are great opportunities for social interaction and engagement. Get to know the farmers. Find out where your food comes from. Don't recognize a particular vegetable? Ask a farmer how to cook it.

 
If you've never had fresh ricotta, you don't know what you're missing. Being Italian, I am very familiar with ricotta. Being third-generation Italian, and having lived in a farmers market and Italian deli-free zone for years, I never tasted truly fresh ricotta until last summer. It is a taste to be savored. Fresh ricotta is firm, creamy, and just a bit sweet. It's not at all watery, not gritty, and above all, not completely tasteless like that "stuff" you find in most grocery stores.

If you find yourself with some fresh ricotta, do yourself a favor and make these tasty fritters. Celery salad might not sound all that appetizing, but this salad was surprisingly refreshing.

Note: If you can't find fresh ricotta, you can make this with the supermarket ricotta. Just take the ricotta out of the fridge in the morning and place it in a paper-towel lined strainer over a bowl. Put the entire assemblage back in the fridge and let it sit all day. This will drain the ricotta and make it a lot less watery.

Celery Salad with Fresh Ricotta Fritters adapted from Tasty
Serves 6

• 1 pound fresh ricotta cheese (from Sea Breeze Farms)
• 2 Tbsp fresh goat cheese (from Port Madison Farms)
• 1/2 cup grated Pecorino cheese
• 1 large egg (from Skagit River Ranch)
• 1/4 cup Emmer or other flour (from Bluebird Grain Farms)
• Salt and Pepper
• Olive Oil (or other oil of your choice)
• 1 1/2 cups bread crumbs (you can even make your own if you have leftover bread)
• 1 small head of celery
• 3 Tbsp oil of choice

1. For the fritters, mix the ricotta, goat cheese, and the Pecorino in a bowl. Add the egg, flour, some salt and pepper and mix well.
2. Slice the celery stalks thinly. Chop the inner leaves and mix in a bowl with some olive oil. I've recommended 3 Tbsp, but that's probably a little more than you need. I used an orange flavored olive oil I got on a trip to California, but Hazelnut oil from Holmquist Hazelnuts would also work well.
3. Season the salad with a bit of sea salt.
4. In a skillet, add a thin layer of olive oil over medium to medium high heat.
5. Pour the breadcrumbs on a plate.
6. Form the cheese mixture into fritters and dredge in the breadcrumbs.
7. Cook until each side is golden brown.
8. Place two fritters on each plate and serve with salad.

We buy almost all of our salmon from Wilson Fish. During the summer months, they sell salmon that's so fresh, they don't even want you to tell it that it's dead. Some days we are lucky enough to get fish that has been out of the water less than 36 hours.

While they were fishing this summer, and selling lots of fresh fish, they were also flash freezing King Salmon, Coho Salmon, and Halibut. You can still find them at the Ballard Farmers Market every Sunday, selling their frozen fish. We picked up a nice 3/4 pound Coho fillet the other day and our CSA box from Growing Washington contained a colorful bunch of Swiss Chard this week.

So last night, after a long day at work, we set about to make this recipe. 20 minutes later we were sitting down to a delicious, nutritious, and local dinner. The original recipe called for a salmon steak, but I often have trouble finding those at the market. Most of the fish we buy from Wilson's has the skin on. So I've included two sets of instructions. Use the bold version for a fillet and the italicized version for a steak.

Sauteed Swiss Chard and Salmon (adapted from Whole Foods)

Serves 2

• 3/4 to 1 lb salmon fillet or steak
• 1 bunch Swiss Chard
• 1-2 Tbsp sesame oil
• 1-2 Tbsp soy sauce (preferably low sodium)
• 1/2 an onion
• Splash of lemon juice (optional)

1. In a casserole dish or bowl large enough to hold the salmon, combine 1 Tbsp of the sesame oil and 1 Tbsp of the soy sauce.
2. If you've got a fillet, lay it skin side up in the dish and marinate for 10 minutes. If you've got a steak with no skin, cut it into 1 inch cubes and marinate for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, separate the Swiss Chard leaves from the stems. The easiest way to do this is to fold the leaf in half lengthwise and pull the leaves off. Roughly chop the leaves and dice the stems into 1/2 inch pieces.
4. Dice or slice half an onion.
5. If you've got a salmon fillet, now is the time to throw it on the grill.
6. In a stir fry pan or wok, heat 1 Tbsp of the sesame oil over medium heat.
7. Cook the onions for 2 minutes.
8. Add the chard stems and cook for another 3 minutes.
9. Add the leaves and cook for another 2 minutes, until the leaves are moderately wilted.
10. If you've got cubes of salmon steak, remove the chard and onions from the pan, keep warm, and throw the salmon cubes and the marinating liquid into the pan. Cook for 3-5 minutes, or until the salmon is cooked through.
11. Serve the chard alongside the salmon and drizzle a small amount of lemon juice over the top. If you have extra cooking juices from either salmon or chard, you can drizzle those over the top as well.

Patricia's Notes: The strong flavor of the soy sauce helps cut any fishy flavor from frozen salmon. You can cook the chard for as long or as short as you want. I prefer my chard a little on the raw side, as fully wilted chard often tastes a bit bitter to me. The lemon juice just brightens up the flavors a bit, but you certainly don't need it. A bit of minced ginger would also go well in this dish. For a more dramatic presentation, sprinkle some sesame seeds over the top.