Cedar Plank Salmon and Hot Fudge Monday

Our fish was a little further along in the process than the one in the picture but all of the pictures of cedar plank salmon were boring. So I've never tried this method of cooking fish before and I bought the Tyee Fish Rub without tasting it first. I mixed some into about a 1/4 cup of olive oil until it was sort of somewhere in between sauce and paste. I soaked the planks in a big bowl in my bathtub for about 6 hours then I rubbed a little oil over them, put the salmon down and covered them with paste (and doesn't that sound appetizing?) Threw them into the oven at 325 F (found that number on the net, I didn't know if it was supposed to be a really hot over or not) for about 25 minutes.

After about 10 minutes, Meag came out and predicted that we would soon be hearing from the smoke detector. I didn't know that cedar planks, as they dry in the over, warp upwards into an arch (as opposed to warping downward into a bowl). This meant that, as the fish cooked and released some of the juices with the olive oil mixed in (it's not always attractive but it's really tasty), they were sliding down the arch and dropping to the superhot oven floor. So, note to self: next time you're cooking cedar plank salmon, put a cookie sheet on the rack below.

We never did hear from the smoke detector and if someone can explain to me why I can fill the entire room with acrid woodsmoke it doesn't do a damn thing yet when Meag is boiling water for pasta, we're having to fan it with towels every five minutes, I will bake them their own Triple Ginger Pound Cake.

To console myself over all of the smoke (and because I was having a chocolate jones) I made Hot Fudge Monday. You know those Dr. Oetker Cake & Sauce packages, they come in chocolate, apple, lemon, caramel, etc? It's just like that only you know what's going into it (not that I don't trust Dr. Oetker, he invented baking powder, you know)

Hot Fudge Monday (6 servings)

Cake: 1 cup flour
3/4 cup unpacked brown sugar
1 1/2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
2 t baking powder (thank you Dr. Oetker!)
1/4 t salt
1/2 cup skim milk
2 T vegetable oil

Sauce: 1 cup unpacked brown sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 3/4 cups boiling water

Prepare the cake batter, the original recipe does the separate dry and wet mixing but I just threw them all in a bowl and it worked out just fine. Spread batter evenly in an ungreased 8"x8" baking pan (I've only tried it in pyrex).

Mix the brown sugar and cocoa for the sauce together and sprinkle them evenly over the top of the cake batter. Pour the boiling water gently over the top but don't stir it in (very important!). Bake @ 350 F for 40-45 minutes and then let it stand for about 5 minutes before serving warm. Spoon the sauce from the bottom of the pan over the individual servings of cake. (Only 17% fat)

Oh, yeah. The salmon was f---ing amazing. I ate my first piece of it while standing and dishing the food out onto the plates. It was that good.