Salmon and Veggie Croquettes

Growing up I loved when we would have salmon croquettes for dinner, except because my family is so fancy we call them salmon patties.  :)  Either way, they're delicious. I tried a number of recipes until I finally just made one up, and we love it. Typically I serve these as the main dish with a salad, however, you can easily make them smaller and have them as a side.

Salmon and Veggie Croquettes
Serving Size: 2
Makes 4 croquettes

5 oz canned salmon (skinless and boneless if desired)
1 egg (or 1/4 cup egg whites)
15 saltine crackers, crushed
1 carrot, grated
1 shallot, diced
canola oil, for frying

1. Heat oil over medium high heat.
2. Mix first five ingredients together.
3. Form into four patties, squeezing extra liquid out if necessary.
4. Place each patty into the heated oil and fry 3-4 minutes on each side.
5. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Mustard and Boots

I'm itching to change up my wardrobe, and I think this mustard jacket and these cognac boots would be fabulous (and budget friendly!) additions to my closet.

Mustard and Boots by awmc56 featuring agate earrings

A Winter's Light Table

Things have been a bit crazy around here with interviewing for medical school, and I've finally come to a bit of time where I can take a breather. My brother-in-law got engaged a while back, and my MIL has enlisted my help with the rehearsal dinner. Little does she know that I would love to take it completely over and go a bit crazy with it - I'm having to refrain from going into full on boss-mode. I claim that I was born bossy, so it's really not my fault. : )  We're getting together this weekend to talk about ideas and such, and since they're getting married in January I'm loving (what I call) a winter's light theme. Basically, I'm thinking white and silver and sparkle.

The last picture is more wedding reception than rehearsal dinner, but isn't it breathtaking? Armed with inspiration, we'll see what we come up with this weekend, and I'll do my best not to take over.  : )

Halloween Cake Pops

I was in charge of bringing a dessert to a party tonight, and since it's almost halloween I had the idea of making eyeball cake pops. I used a Pioneer Women recipe found here as my original inspiration, and when I told Lars about it he found this blog with other really cute halloween inspired ideas. I'm not sure about you, but I have this problem that I have super cute ideas in my head and my hands never get the memo - most of my creations don't turn out quite as I had hoped. My cake pops definitely aren't as professional looking as those that served as my inspiration, but I think it was a valiant first cake pop effort. No matter how they looked they were delicious and got rave reviews!

The Frankensteins were my favorite design. Oddly enough, the eyeballs were the ones eaten first at the party.

This was the best Dracula I made. I had trouble getting the "fangs" to actually look like fangs and not blood drool.

I used the cake pop stick to make deep indentions in the cold cake ball before dipping into the candy coating so it looked more like a pumpkin. The stem is one fourth of a tootsie roll, and I drew on a vine with colored royal icing. The cake pops look slightly condensation-y because they are just a touch. I had to keep the pops in the fridge because I chose to use buttercream icing rather than plain vanilla that doesn't need refrigeration. To me, the buttercream is totally worth it. These took forever to make and decorate, but I had so much fun! I definitely think I will be making these for other shindigs in the future. Who knows, maybe with more practice they'll actually start looking more like the pictures in my head.  : )