Salmon Gyros (My way)

Salmon probably is one of the best fishes for your health. So "they" say today. As we all run and gobble up what ever we think will make us younger, prettier or healthier, until "they" find that they were wrong and what was the "it" food now becomes the "not it" food. But I just like salmon. Damn it! Salmon is versatile, non fishy flavored hearty textured piece of flesh. Oh and did I mention it is not bony? I can not handle bones, no sirree. A fish bone will stop me dead in my eating tracks. A fish bone has ruined more than one meal and I guess it will ruin many more. I always choose my fish based on the possibility of finding a bone, yes Mr. Whitting Fish I will NEVER eat you, again. Enough about my fishboneaphobia, on to the sandwich of great desire.

As I travel past the fish counter at the local grocery store I spied a Salmon, Feta and Spinach Burger on display. Thinking that this might make a great gyro I proceeded to gather my ingredients. The pita bread to me is very important, being from Cleveland I am reather spoiled by the amount of different ethnic food products that are available. One thing for sure we have good pita! Right now my favorite is Assad's Pita from off of Lorain Ave. I took that pita and softened it in the microwave for about 10 seconds. This technique really changes up the flavor of the pita bread. The salmon burger was pan-fried in some olive oil until it had a crunchy exterior. I put that bad boy on the warm pita and a hand full of baby salad greens. The grand finale is the roasted garlic, lemon and dill aioli that I slathered on very generously. What a great sandwich!

Blogging?

Well fellow bloggers, I am gonna give this blogging thing a try. I can see that chronicling ones life has become more like therapy to most of you than it is a hobby. I wonder where blogging will take me and what adventures I may have doing so?

First of all some of you may be wondering ( or maybe not) why I chose the blog name of "The Croatian"? I chose this moniker because; first I am a Croatian American, second this is the name of my under construction website and third this will be the name of the restaurant/bakery I am planning on opening in the next year or two. Presently I am attending a local community college to obtain certifications in Professional Baking, Personal Chef and Culinarian/Cook. I am maintaining a 4.0 GPA so far and only have one class left for both the Baking and the Personal Chef cert. I have two more classes to finish for the Culinarian.

This is a new path in my life. After retiring at age 51 from the police department with 28 years of service, I realized it was now my time to go back to school and hone my skills. I have always been a great cook and a better than average baker. I have a vision of bringing delicacies from that region of the world (Croatia) to this area. Seeing how Ohio has one of the third largest Croatian populations in the U.S., first is Illinois and then following by Pennsylvania. The Cleveland area has a large population of people from Croatia, but only a handful of truly Croatian Restaurants and Bakeries.

Time to go...Mary Ann