Baked Dijon Salmon

I simply don't eat enough fish. I like some fish, but others? Not so much. Not a huge catfish fan; in my humble opinion (which is really all that matters, right?), it tastes like dirt. And I ate a fair amount of the stuff growing up (dirt, not catfish, although I had to eat some of that too since my dad was a fan), so I would know. Salmon is one of those fish that can be good or bad, depending on how it's made and who prepares it. Smoked salmon . . . well, can't really go wrong there. I love smoked salmon, but I wish it weren't so darn expensive in these parts.

The other day (ok, a while ago), I found a pretty decent deal on individual portions of salmon filets, 4 oz. each. I thought these would be perfect a.) portion control, and b.) for a night when I'm home alone and don't need to make a lot of food. We decided to pull 2 out of the freezer the other night with absolutely no idea how we were going to prepare them. Buppy suggested baking with a little butter and . . . Old Bay, I think. Eh, too boring for me. I decided to peruse allrecipes.com to see what I could find that was a bit more exciting. What I happened upon turned out fantastic, and I'm so glad I took the time to do my little search. Simple, with easy ingredients, and quick --- what's not to love?

Baked Dijon Salmon

Adapted from allrecipes.com

1/8 c. butter

1 1/2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard

3/4 Tbsp. honey

1/8 c. dry bread crumbs

1/8 c. finely chopped walnuts

2 (4 oz.) salmon filets

Salt & pepper, to taste

Preheat toaster oven to 400F. (Note: we used our toaster oven because we were only doing 2 filets instead of 4 as the original recipe called for. Why not conserve energy, right? But if you don't have a toaster oven, by all means use a regular oven.)

In a small bowl, stir together butter, mustard and honey; set aside. In another bowl, mix together bread crumbs and walnuts. Brush each salmon filet lightly with honey-mustard mixture, and sprinkle the bread crumb-walnut topping over each filet. Bake salmon 12-15 minutes in the preheated toaster oven, or until it flakes easily with a fork. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

As for the side in the picture --- I took 1 large russet potato, washed it, poked some holes in it and microwaved it until tender (note: you could use the oven to bake it if you wanted to instead). Once tender, I sliced it into rounds and laid them on a plate. I sprinkled with garlic bread powder, onion powder and a small amount of Asiago cheese. I then microwaved them another minute or two, just to slightly melt the cheese. They were lacking a little in the salt department, so season to taste. Enjoy!