Homemade chili sauce

The cocktail meatballs recipe called for chili sauce but I didn't want to stop by the store just to pick up a bottle that we'd only use half of, so I researched on allrecipes and found a way to make it using what we have at home.

It wa really simple - tomato sauce, vinegar and brown sugar and allspice. That's right - no chili nor pepper goes into that chili sauce recipe.  The first time we made it it turned out bland and meh.  And there was leftover tomato sauce since there was more than a cup in a can.

The second time around I scaled up everything else to use up the whole can of tomato sauce and according to the suggestions/reviews added more oomph to it with garlic, onion and chili powder.  Except that I also don't keep allspice nor chili powder at home.  So the final version of my chili sauce recipe went from 4 ingredients to a dozen:

 

Seems like quite the list but everything is in my little spice caddy so it takes no time at all to throw together.  And this we usually use up because we often double or triple the amount of meatballs.

Cilantro Lime Salmon with Quinoa Salad

Cilantro sautéed in lime juice over salmon glazed with honey and soy sauce alongside curried quinoa salad with apple and walnut made for a nice easy dinner

Pickled radish and carrots

So easy and so yum!!
It's one of my first recipes posted on allrecipes.com - and these are so good with rice noodles or in bahn mi sandwiches or in fresh spring rolls

Lemon Pesto Salmon

This yummy dinner was so easy to make - just mix 2 tablespoon of pesto with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and rub it all over 3 pieces of salmon each cut into half.  Drizzle some olive oil in baking dish (or foil-lined baking pan in my case) and line with a medium onion cut into thin slices. Place salmon on top of onion and bake at 350F for 20 minutes and voilà!

Packed lunch

Homemade spaghetti with meat sauce makes for a comforting lunch on a wintry afternoon

brrrr it's freezing out there and just one of those mornings that makes me wonder why i had bothered to get out of bed at all... and i'm seriously starting to feel burned out in this position - thank goodness this temporary assignment is coming to an end soon even though i don't really want to go back.  I had convinced myself that it was a fair trade - the title to put on my resume and the opportunity to gain the knowledge and experience at the next level up for sucking it up for a year - but it's become so difficult once I realized that I'm being asked to perform at a higher capacity compared to my peer while getting paid way below the pay grade for this position.  I'm usually pretty good at keeping the bitterness and the feeling of being taken advantage of at bay - and most days I can put up with the constant nitpicking for the sake of improvement - but not today.  not today.  Today i'll take a stand.