Grilled Salmon with Lemon Butter Sauce

It's Summertime,YAHOO!  And that means every meal we eat goes on my grill.  Keeping the house cool is the goal, I don't like high power bills they make me sad.  So the easiest way to cut the air conditioner from running is to keep all the heat outside. I cook breakfast, lunch and dinner out there, and it doesn't matter what is on the menu, I adapt all of it to the grill.

This past week I made my Salmon with Lemon Butter Sauce.  Pulled out my grilling basket, placed two nice sized pieces of  salmon for the hubby and I into it, and on to the grill it went.  In a slight 8-10 minutes my whole meal was done, it was easy and delicious.

I purchase a lot of my salmon from either Costco or Trader Joe's.  Costco offers larger pieces that I cut and divide into freezer storage bags, and Trader Joe's offers smaller pieces that are already frozen.  I am picky though, I do not like skin on my salmon, it grosses me out, and I can buy skinless pieces of salmon at both stores. Check it out, this how I made it.

I would not recommend putting salmon on the grate on your grill.  It has to go in a basket like the one I have shown, some kind of grill pan or make foil packets.  In a bowl, I melted 1/2 stick of butter, 1/4 teaspoon of Pink Sea Salt, 1/4 teaspoon of Cracked Black Pepper and juice from 1/2 of a lemon.  Slice the other half of the lemon for lemon slices to garnish the salmon.  Place the the salmon pieces in the basket on top of the grill, close and secure the basket.  Grill on each side 3-4 minutes, depending on the size of your pieces, or until the fish is flaky but moist.

I served my salmon with Roasted Herb Potato packets done on the grill, a small side salad always present in the summer with my dinners, and fresh homemade Raspberry Iced Tea.

DIY - The Bird Feeder

We have a BIG problem with wild animals in our area, and it's funny because we are about 1 block from one of the busiest main arteries for traffic.  All this wild life is crazy! We have deer by the herds, raccoons, foxes, opossum, groundhogs, squirrels, vultures, occasionally wild turkeys, all kinds of birds, have had a blue heron fly into my yard, turtles, frogs and now something new that makes sounds like I have never heard before, don't know what it is, but it's pretty scary.

We both love watching the birds, and used to put a lot of bird feeders out, then we stopped.  The deer, raccoons, squirrels and lord knows what else is lurking out there, would eat all the seed before the birds could get to it.  The animals would knock the bird feeders down or drag them into the woods and eat everything.  So the hubby and I decided to build, hopefully an animal proof, bird feeder.  So far, so good, it's been hanging for about 2 months now and nothing has gotten to it.

We decided it had to be 10 feet or taller, because a deer when it stands on its hind legs is about 10 feet high or taller.

To make the feeder pole, we purchased a 10 ft  4"x 4" treated deck post, a 6 ft 2" x "4 treated piece of wood, a 4" x 3" block of wood, wood screws, 2 pulleys, a dock cleat, a metal eye snap hook to hang bird feeder, 2 cable clamp connectors, vinyl coated cable wire and an in ground easy spike.

How we made it:

Saw the 2 x 4 in half and attach to either side of the deck post at a 45 degree angle (for added height). Secure the smaller 4" x 3" block of wood between the angled pieces of wood.

Attach one pulley to the top of the 10 foot post and the other pulley to the small piece of wood between the angled wood.  Make a loop at the end of the cable wire, and use the clamp connectors to secure and tighten the loop, so it stays in place to hold the hook for the bird feeder.  Thread the cable wire over the pulley on the angled pieces of wood and down and over the pulley on the big post.

Attach the dock cleat on the back of the 10 ft post. Attach the hook for the bird feeder to the cable wire where you made the loop.

Small block of wood between the angled pieces of wood.  This is what clamp connectors are.

                  

In ground easy spike post holder.  Just hammer into the ground, place post inside and secure with nuts and bolts. CAUTION:  This spike is big so make sure there are no underground pipes or cables wherever you put this!

Post is secured in the easy spike post holder secured with nuts and bolts.

Dock cleat hook and vinyl coated cable wire.

Last, attach your filled bird feeder to the hook, pull on the cable wire to the top.  Tightly wind the cable wire around the cleat, and secure in place to hold the feeder up on the top.  You can paint the wood if its dry before you hang your feeder.  My wood was still wet, so I haven't painted it yet. 

ENJOY WATCHING YOUR FEATHERED FRIENDS!