Apparently I won't ever be hired as a FOOD photographer

The Works for Me Wednesday challenge for today over at Rocks In My Dryer was to share a recipe with five or fewer ingredients.

I thought, well, heck. I can do that.

My favorite cook book - strike that - the ONLY cook book I reference on a regular basis is the Four Ingredient Cook Book by Linda Coffee and Emily Cale. (Heh - you can buy it at my Amazon store here.) This book includes nearly 700 recipes, each of which has only four ingredients in it.

Most nights I don't even pull out the ol' cook book. I'm not all that creative when it comes to cooking. I make a meat, a veggie and a starch. They usually turn out pretty good; they're just not gourmet.

So what right do I have to respond to a cooking challenge? Well, despite my lack of creativity as a chef, I can do one thing well that many people avoid.

Cook fish.

As you know if you've been reading my blog for some time, I am a fisherwoman. Despite the fact that most people know how that fish is good for you, I know many that won't attempt to cook it. In reality its very easy. (Or I wouldn't do it either.)

On Monday night, I made the last of the salmon we had in the freezer. My cooking is so simple, you're getting a bonus. The entire meal in five ingredients or less.

Step 1: First, I sliced up some (1) red potatoes with my mandolin slicer and made a big foil pack. I seasoned them with (2) Rupena's Fish & Poultry seasoning and butter. (I'm not counting the butter as an ingredient cuz it wasn't real butter anyway. Sue me.)

Step 2: I let that cook for 10 or 15 minutes (I had set a timer for 10 but if I remember correctly there was an emergency involving a little brother trying to color on an older brother's sheet of paper.) Then I went to prepare the (3) fish.

Usually, when you catch fish and clean it, you leave skin on one side. (Don't go "eeew gross" like that - it makes you sound like a girl.) This way, if you get stopped on your way home from making your catch, the DNR can look at it and know what kind of fish it is and whether you and your fishing party are complying with rules as far as how many of each kind you can keep.

I mention this for a reason...stay with me here.

I cut the fillet into smaller pieces, then placed them skin-side-down on foil and seasoned the fish with (4) lemon juice and the Rupena's seasoning. If you have real lemons, one or two thin slices will do the trick. Make sure you close up the foil packs real good. The fish foil packs went into the oven next to the potatoes and baked for about 15 minutes. No need to turn them. Stir the potatoes, though, so that they heat through evenly.

Step 3: I took some (5) corn out of the freezer and put it in a microwave-safe bowl with a cover and nuked it.

Step 4: Then I dished it up. You'll notice when you go to scoop the fish out of its foil that the skin sticks and the meat lifts off of it beautifully.

Now here's where the failure as a food photographer comes in.

If I were a food photographing professional, I would have noticed before I plated it up that all the food was yellow-ish in hue. But I'm not. I mean, I could have made green beans for heaven's sake.

Yellow or not, that's it. If *I* can do it, you can do it, too. Trust me - it was good, and very healthy, too!

*I normally cook this sort of thing on the grill, but after getting the food prep done I realized it was raining. Phooey.

**A real "green" person would wash off the tin foil and recycle it. But I don't. Sorry Earth.