Giada's Final Lap

Giada at Home has the finish line in its sights, so I'm trying to plow through as many of the remaining recipes as I can.

I cooked up Pancetta and Cinnamon Waffles (pg 228) for breakfast yesterday. They're pretty self-explanatory. Add diced, browned pancetta and cinnamon to a boxed waffle mix, and top it with toasted walnuts (I used almonds) and maple syrup. I enjoyed this, but prefer normal, homemade waffles with a little vanilla extract in the batter. The nuts bothered Matt. I liked them. These won't be replacing plain old waffles, but they're nice for a change once in a while.

Yep. That is, in fact, a waffle.

Conclusion: Liked it. Nothing mind-blowing.  It's exactly what you expect it to be from the title.

Dinner was Grilled Salmon with Citrus Salsa Verde (pg 132). While I know that parsley and mint are green, in my unprofessional opinion, I don't feel that their presence defines something as a salsa verde. To me, salsa verde=tomatillos and cilantro. The word salsa is altogether misleading here, compared to the end product. What do I know?

Where's the "verde" in my citrus salsa verde?

 If this were simply called Citrus Grilled Salmon, I would have nothing to complain about. It's light and refreshing and delicious.

Brushing maple syrup or amber agave nectar on the salmon before grilling helps it brown with beautiful crusty grill-marks, without making it taste of maple. 

The "salsa verde" has oranges, lemon juice and zest, oil, scallions, capers, crushed red pepper flakes, parsley, and mint. The pepper flakes gave the salsa the slightest bit of spice, but it was mostly sweet.

Conclusion: Liked it. The oranges I had were okay, but not the greatest ever. The better the orange, the better this dish.