Creative Every Day 2012!

How is it possible to NOT be creative every day? From rising in the morning till retiring in the evening, one creates his or her days whether by default or by design. This year I design to be more aware, to create a personal world of beauty, responsibility, kindness, health and more. During this first week of the new year, I chose to experiment with photography, to try my hand with the technology that allows us to artistically edit photographs in order to create exciting images and moods. I ventured out at dusk to see what I could capture with a different, artificial light on snow (see above). I used an editing program, Apple’s Aperture,  to change color, and in one photo to increase graininess. The creative efforts were fun, and even failed attempts taught me. And I was reminded of a life-lesson, one that I must revisit time and again, creativity and risk-taking are required elements for living a full, rich, and rewarding life.

Another creative venture took place in the kitchen. We usually have salmon at least once a week, and almost always on the Sabbath. The salmon must be cooked ahead of time though, since we don’t cook on the sabbath. I was tired of preparing this dish the same way every week. In an effort to bring a little creativity to the kitchen, and ultimately to our dining room table, I found a recipe that sounded delicious,  Orange-Ginger Baked Salman!  I prepared it late Friday afternoon and we ate it hot for our Shabbos meal that evening. I prepared enough for two meals so on Saturday we ate cold fish for lunch. It was just as good the second go around! We liked it so much in fact, that I am sharing the recipe with you!

Orange-Ginger Baked Salmon

1/3 cup orange juice

1/3 cup soy sauce (I used Teriyaki)

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp garlic powder

chopped up scallions (I just threw a bunch in.)

4 Salmon steaks

Mix orange juice, soy sauce, honey, ginger, garlic powder and chopped up scallions together. Place salmon steaks and sauce in 1 gallon ziplock bag. Make sure that each salmon steak is completely coated in the mixture, then place the bag with the salmon and sauce in the refrigerator until ready to bake (at least fifteen minutes.) When ready, place salmon steaks in baking dish, pour the remaining sauce over the salmon. Cover. Bake at 350 degrees till done. (I baked for 30 minutes.) Serve hot or cold. Delicious either way.

If you want to grill the salmon, remove from the refrigerator and take the salmon out of the ziplock bag and sauce. Grill for 5 minutes (or so) on each side, until salmon flakes.

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With classes starting, a lot of my creative effort will be poured into my coursework in the coming weeks. But I have learned from experience that to maintain equilibrium, I must also be creative in other areas of life. Come back next week to see where creative endeavors led me.

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