Are you under the assumption that preparing a dinner consisting of actual cooking and non-packaged food is a concept you only read about or see on TV? Let this "ten minute farmer's market meal" courtesy of the Muddy Dog Roasting Company convince you otherwise. Sure the salmon cakes initially took 40 minutes, but if you make enough for additional meals, consider it a wise investment of your time - especially when you create a meal with the leftovers that only takes you 10 minutes! Not only is this a meal a great idea to keep extra food out of a landfill, there are also tips included so you won't be wasting any of the food scraps during the preparation (hint: compost, compost, compost).

I hear three complaints about real food that drive me nuts:

1. It’s not affordable

2. It takes too long to prepare

3. You need to be a good cook to make it appealing

So while pulling together dinner tonight, a regular Monday night with work and kid activities, it occurred to me that the meal we wound up with defied all the myths above, so I thought I would share what we did in hopes that you are inspired to visit your local farmers’ market this weekend.

Admittedly we had a start-ahead advantage tonight, but it’s one that you could have, too. On Saturday I made salmon cakes, and that took about 40 minutes, but I made enough for leftovers. Here’s how we did those:

Pan sear a salmon fillet (call it a pound, or two medium sized fillets) till it’s medium, not cooked quite all the way through. I actually used steelhead trout. Peel the skin after cooking and chop it up for the dogs. if you don’t have dogs, give it to somebody who does, don’t waste it. Worst case, bury it under a couple inches of soil in the garden. Crumble the cooked fish into a bowl. To the fish, add an egg and something to bind it - I used wheat germ because I happened to have it around, but bread crumbs would work fine. Use about the same volume as the fish. Add a big pinch of fresh minced herbs, whatever you have and like, I used parsley and chives. Feed any substandard parsley to the guinea pigs, or compost it. Squeeze a little lemon juice into it, and maybe a tablespoon of dijon mustard if you have it around. You could spice it if desired with Old Bay, or cayenne pepper. Mix well by hand, form into patties like a hamburger, and pan fry in a little oil and butter till crisp on outside and cooked through. So that takes all of thirty or forty minutes and you can make enough for about three four-person meals easily. They will refrigerate for a few days, or freeze for weeks.

Want to know how the meal turns out? Hint: the photo of the 10-minute meal is above, but you'll have to visit the jump and visit the Muddy Dog blog to find out how to actually achieve it. You'll also find more great articles, many of them about coffee (a favorite topic around the Ecollo office)!

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