Easter Sunday

I had a very rough week before Easter. My son was sick with a respiratory infection that kept my husband and I busy 24 hours a day. He finally started to get better on Friday but I had a ton of work to catch up to. The last thing in my mind was cooking. I even considered ordering something for Easter. Then my memories of Easter Feasts in Brazil changed my mind -comprised of traditional Portuguese dishes, desserts, and chocolate. I sure wouldn't have the time and energy to make anything time consuming. I decided on Salmon because it's easy and doesn't usually require marinates and such. The chosen recipe was "Salmon with Brown Sugar and Black Peppercorn". Brown sugar added a nice color and flavor to the dish without making it sweet. I served with a side of Roasted Asparagus.

Later that evening I couldn't help myself. I bought some Linzer cookie cutters for Easter and really wanted to bake something. As exhausted as I as, I was able to make one batch, staying up late and asking myself why I baked the cookies instead of going to bed early. Tiring but fun nonetheless.

Almond Linzer Cookies

1/2 cup almond, toasted and unsalted
1 cups flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter, unsalted
1 egg
2 tsp almond extract
Raspberry or Apricot preserves
Powdered sugar

Use a food processor or blender to process almond until it's the consistency of a fine meal.
Cream butter and sugar. Beat until sugar dissolves and blends into the butter. Add egg and almond extract, beat until light and fluffy. Combine dry ingredients and add to batter, stirring to blend. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Roll the dough between parchment paper. Cut rounds with a plain or fluted cutter. With 1/2 of the rounds, cut out in the middle of each one using a smaller cookie cutter or Linzer cookie cutters.
Bake on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper at 400 F for 5-8 minutes or until the edges begin to brown. Remove the cookies from the oven. Let cool completely.
Spread raspberry or apricot preserves on the flat side of each solid cookie. Dust the top of the cut-out cookies with confectioners' sugar and press the flat sides together, with the preserves in the middle and the confectioners' sugar on the top.

Salmon with Brown Sugar and Black Peppercorn

3 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
1/2 tablespoon whole black peppercorns, lightly crushed
Olive Oil
Salt
8 salmon fillets, 6 ounces each

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Melt the brown sugar and butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Remove from the heat and whisk in the mustard, soy sauce, half the peppercorns, and ginger. Let cool. Place salmon (skin down) on large glass baking dish lined with parchment paper. Brush fillets with olive oil and sprinkle salt. Coat fillets with brown sugar mixture and sprinkle remaining black peppercorns. Place in the oven for 15 minutes or until fillets are cooked through.