I’d like to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Brian Baisch and my husband and I have lived in Edmonds with our two dogs and chickens for a year and a half. For the past couple of years I’ve been blogging about my daily life as a housewife. My love for The Real Housewives franchise is where I drew my name from, but unlike those housewives I spend my days elbow deep in yard work and cooking. Through my blog I’ve been able to share my day to day life as well as my passion for cooking and that turned into creating YouTube videos on how to make meals. When it comes to cooking I want to show you that you don’t have to be a trained chef or Food Network star to make these meals, and that what can be a somewhat scary endeavor can really be fun and rewarding. Welcome to my life!

If you know me, you know that seafood is not something that excites me. As a matter of fact, since I’m being honest, it disgusts me. The smell can be overwhelming and for me…gag inducing. Too much honesty? I think I’m suppose to say, “Ooooo baby! Seafood is my absolute favorite!!!” 😉

Last night I decided to put Michael first when it came to meal planning. Even though I don’t eat seafood myself, I do try to make him any fish dish that he wants. But being that I don’t eat seafood, it’s not that easy of an endeavor because I am breaking the cardinal rule of cooking…TASTE AS YOU GO! But I have to say, even if I’m not tasting it, most dishes turn out pretty well…or so Michael says! (Truth be told, he’s not too picky of an eater and can usually find *something* good about it!)

Last night I settled on a recipe that I’ve made several times, and even gave a cooking lesson to a friend on how to make this dish — Ina Garten’s Roasted Salmon with Green Herbs. This recipe has never failed to please anyone who eats it! And I’ve made it so many times that I’ve actually become quite comfortable with it. Now Ina’s recipe calls for 2 to 2 1/2 pounds of salmon, but I halved the recipe since I was making it for Mike. (1/2 for dinner and 1/2 for lunch today!) So the instructions here are to make a 1 pound piece of salmon. So with that in mind…walk with me through the world of making salmon!

— By Brian Baisch

The recipe:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. If you are having rice with this dish, get that started. I use a rice cooker and allow about 1/2 hour for it to cook. (Also, I use homemade chicken stock instead of water to cook the rice)