It’s been a long day. It’s 11:31am and it’s been a long day.

I went to Caribou Coffee this morning for a full-on-fat and sugar dark chocolate campfire mocha complete with whipped cream and chocolate chips and marshmallow nibs. It’s a release day ritual only, yesterday was release day and… well, it was spent taking care of some promo and taking DH to the Dr. again.

There are some that have read Arctic Shift already and there have been some amazing comments given and questions asked about more books. That makes me smile and grin and bounce off the walls. As of this writing, Arctic Shift is sitting at #2 on MBaM and that’s awesome! Of course, the book sitting at #1 is Karen Erickson’s menage, Scandalous so…

Next year when my menage comes out… Grins…

I have a lot of writing to do today to make up for none yesterday. So, I’m going to leave y’all with a recipe for Maple Grilled Salmon similar to the one Carson makes for Ruby in the old, line/supply cabin. I haven’t tried it on Salmon yet, but as the intro suggests, I have tried it on pork and it’s pretty damn good.

Maple Grilled Salmon

The sweet-sour marinade is cooked down to a syrupy glaze that’s brushed on the fish as it cooks. The citrus and maple flavors would also be tasty with pork. Garnish fillets with orange slices, if desired.

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets, skinned
Cooking spray
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Combine first 3 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag; add fish. Seal and marinate in refrigerator 3 hours.

2. Preheat grill or grill pan to medium-high heat.

3. Remove fish from bag, reserving the marinade. Pour marinade into a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook until reduced to 2 tablespoons (about 5 minutes).

4. Place fish on grill rack or pan coated with cooking spray; grill 4 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness, basting occasionally with marinade. Remove fish from grill; sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Yield:  4 servings (serving size: 1 fillet)

Maple-Glazed Salmon

1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground ancho chile
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 (6-ounce) Alaskan salmon fillets
cooking spray
2 tablespoons maple syrup

1. Preheat broiler

2. Combine first 6 ingredients; rub spice mixture evenly over flesh side of fillets. Place fish on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray; broil 6 minutes or until desired degree of doneness. Brush fillets evenly with syrup; broil 1 minute.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 fillet)

Both of these recipes from Cooking Light. I’m a sucker for 20-30 minute recipes! They are awesome. If I can’t make it in the crock pot, it needs to only take a max. of 30 minutes. And honestly, a lot of fresh cooking doesn’t take all that long. Neither recipe takes a long time and the food is fresh and good for you. Beats anything out of a box any day of the week. It takes a little effort but…

Carson loves to cook. It’s one of his biggest passions aside from being in the out of doors. He uses fresh ingredients and teaches Ruby the pleasures of real food. I love that. I don’t know how common or not it is for shifters to have these kinds of human traits and needs. He needs to cook. It feeds his family. Perhaps it’s part of the hunter in him. He’s strong, capable. He’s also tender, loving. He wants to care for Ruby, needs to care for her, even down to the very simple thing of feeding her good food prepared from his hands.

I could certainly get used to a Carson.

Y’all have a good day! And no, I haven’t forgotten about giveaways. Just stay tuned. It’ll hit y’all before ya know it! Oh, and in case you didn’t know it yet, Arctic Shift is now available for Amazon Kindle.

~lissa