Sunset magazine is for cool people

It's a little known fact that I'm an avid subscriber to Sunset magazine. I know, I might as well get six cats and hang out in a blue fleece robe all day eating cheese crunchies from TJ's and crafting my own Valentines. WHOA. Minus the cats, the rest is scarily true.

Anyway,  I recently noticed that my favorite little recipe section is actually a reader-submitted recipe column and the submitter gets 100 smackers. New mission for me: create a recipe to submit!!

Last week, after a whirlwind adventure together in Las Vegas, Dan traveled from Timbuktu and back for just a few short hours before hopping on yet another plane for a bachelor party. A homemade dinner was definitely in order. So, Thursday night I made a Sunset magazine reader-submitted recipe for Spinach salad with Quinoa (Dan's new favorite grain) and serve it with my very own creation of Panko-parmesan encrusted halibut recipe. It was tasty!!! But, I'm not sure it was 100 doll hairs tasty, so try it out and let me know.

Citrus, Quinoa and Spinach Salad

½ cup Quinoa

Zest and juice of ½ lemon

1 ½ tbsp. olive oil

½ tsp red chile flakes

¼ tsp kosher salt

Pinch of pepper

6 oz baby spinach

¼ cup sliced green onions

¼ cup feta, crumbled

Cook quinoa according to package directions. Meanwhile, wisk together zest, juice, oil, chile flakes, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add spinach and onions. Mix in warm quinoa and sprinkle top of salad with feta.

Panko-Parmesan Halibut

2 – 6 oz pieces of halibut

1 cup of milk

1 cup of panko bread crumbs

4 tbs shredded parmesan

Lemon pepper and salt to taste

Combine the panko, parmesan (as much as you want) and lemon pepper and salt to taste (remember parmesan is salty, so don’t add too much). Dip the fish pieces in a bowl of milk and then dredge through the Panko mixture until well coated. The panko will seem like it’s all falling off, but once it is pan-fried in olive oil it will stick nicely. Add about 2 tbs of olive oil to a warm pan and fry on medium heat for about 3-4 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Repeat for each piece of fish. Enjoy!

 We forgot to take a picture before we started eating - it was THAT good!