I’m not sure if everyone’s been watching the news lately, but we’ve been having some crazy weather here in Oklahoma this week. Monday night we had bad thunder storms and hail the size of marbles. Apparently this is “small” hail for Oklahoma, but it’s the biggest I’ve ever seen!

Last night, we were under a tornado warning so I was expecting dinner to be popcorn and granola bars while sitting in the bathtub. There were some pretty bad tornadoes in counties around us, but luckily where we are we just got a quick shower. Suddenly, Nick was asking what was for dinner. I had no idea. Time to resort to the freezer!

Our freezer is full of steaks, but with everything sopping wet outside, I vetoed the grill. I dug a little further and found some salmon I had forgotten about. Though we bought the salmon for grilling, it could easily go in the oven, too.

Now I had to think of a sauce. We haven’t been grocery shopping in a while, and the fridge was pretty bare. The produce drawer yielded 2 apples, a few shriveled scallions and one lonely lime. I often buy lemons and limes with the intention of squeezing them in water, and forget all about them. In this case, that was a good thing. Fish + citrus = good. What’s next? Well, limes go with tequila, right? And cilantro is Mexican, too? One thing led to another and…

Tequila Lime Salmon

• 2 salmon filets
• 3 oz tequila
• juice and zest of 1 lime
• 1 cilantro cube (or 2 tbsp chopped cilantro + 1/2 tsp salt)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp fresh ground black pepper

Mix all marinade ingredients. I got to use my new microplane for the first time!

Put the salmon in a ziplock bag and pour in marinade. Squeeze all the air out of the bag. (Thanks, Aunt Diane!) Marinate about 2 hours.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Put the salmon on a baking sheet and bake about 12 minutes, until just cooked through.

The salmon tasted like a margarita, and that was definitely not a bad thing! Considering all the ingredients for this were scrounged up from what I had in the house, I was pretty impressed. The fresh lime flavor was awesome and the tequila gave it a nice kick! The only thing that was missing was a nice cold Corona. 🙂