Our favorite fish around here is catfish but unfortunately nobody makes catfish like my grama Lissie did! Nobody.

Our next favorite is tilapia. It cooks great and you can do so much with it. It is particularly good with a bit of Emeril's Essence thrown on it! Mmmm, good!

We used to eat all sorts of fish -- cooked, sushi, and sashimi -- when we lived in Okinawa but after being in the desert for more than 6 years we transitioned more to spicy Mexican food and seemed to forgot all about fish (for the most part...but fish tacos were yummy). So, in an effort to expand our fish palate, we have been trying to eat more different types of fish lately.

Salmon is NOT one of my favorite dishes. The only way I ever ate salmon as a kid was salmon patties made out of canned salmon. It's okay. But not great... and everytime I've tried to make it like my mom used to it has been an epic failure. Really. Seriously. Do you truly understand how bad it turned out? OK... just making sure.

One of my favorite motto's is "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again" so with that in mind I decided to try a new recipe for salmon. I had purchased some crusting blends from McCormick a while ago and found a recipe using them with salmon at their website. It is a very simple recipe and everyone actually liked the finished dish so I wanted to share with you here. Oh, and no, McCormick isn't paying me to say any of this. They didn't even give me anything for free :-)

The recipe uses three (3) simple ingredients: Salmon (uhm, of course), Olive Oil, and Garlic Lemon Rosemary Crusting Blend

Thaw the salmon fillets out. The recipe doesn't say this and I wasn't sure if they used fresh or not so I thawed them out. It just made sense to me.

Rub them up real good with olive oil on both sides. The recipe says use a brush. Fooey on that... get your hands messy. Didn't you know that EVOO is good for your skin?!

Now, sprinkle a good helping of the crusting blend on both sides of the fish. I just poured a good handful into my hand and then poured it onto the fish. It works.

Lay the fish out on a foil wrapped pan (though I think next time I'm gonna try my pizza stone bar pan or my iron skillet). Put in a preheated 425 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. I did 15 minutes this time. Next time I'm gonna try less because our oven heats up...and stays heated up... pretty well. The fish was good.. I just think 10 or 12 minutes might be better than a full 15.

We served our finished salmon up with a nice large salad and a chunk of bread! Dinner turned out to be sooooo gooooood! It was healthy, too, so that makes it even better :-)

Now, off the subject of salmon, but on the subject of the McCormick crusting blends: I have been pleasantly surprised with these! We can not find panko bread crumbs ANYWHERE here local but I've found several recipes that call for them. When I saw these blends have the panko crumbs and spices already mixed, I figured I'd give them a shot. We have used the Garlic, Lemon, and Rosemary blend as well as the Italian Herb and Cheese blend on fish, chicken, and pork and I haven't had a problem with them yet. Next up to try is the French Onion, Pepper, and Herb blend and the Crunchy Honey Mustard blend. I bet that honey mustard one makes some really tasty chicken nuggets!

Have you tried any new recipes lately? Like 'em enough to blog about it? Feel free to share a link in the comments. It might help me find a new favorite dish for the family :-)

In Christ,

Sallie