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Gorton’s Seafood Pesto Salmon Broccoli Pizza!

Don’t miss my giveaway for a free visit to Blo West Hartford, in honor of the last Think Pink Thursday at Cuvee. Giveaway ends tomorrow afternoon and the event takes place tomorrow night!

More quick yet tasty dinners have been taking place in the Croswell house thanks to the year’s supply of Gorton’s Seafood that I wonFrom the moment I found out I was the winner of this fabulous prize from BlogHer ’12, I have been dreaming of making the meal in this post. Pizza is my favorite food, and I especially love it with unique toppings! Clam and shrimp pizzas are pretty common on restaurant menus nowadays, but it’s not too often that I see a pie offered with a healthy helping of SALMON!

These two boxes were on sale at the grocery store – just $9 for both!

Gorton’s Seafood Pesto Salmon Broccoli Pizza

Ingredients/Cooking Tools:

  1. 1 box of Gorton’s Seafood Lemon Butter Grilled Salmon
  2. 1 box of Gorton’s Seafood Classic Grilled Salmon
  3. 1 Boboli 100% Whole Wheat Pizza Crust
  4. 2 cups of chopped broccoli
  5. Garlic salt for broccoli (to taste)
  6. EVOO for broccoli (to taste)
  7. 1 cup of diced tomato
  8. 1/4 cup of Buitoni Reduced-Fat Pesto with Basil
  9. Cedar’s Tzatziki Sauce (optional)
  10. 1 ceramic pizza stone (optional, but it’ll make your crust more crispy!)

Directions:

  1. Add desired amounts of garlic salt and EVOO to chopped broccoli on foil-lined pan. Roast at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.
  2. Place pizza stone in oven on a different rack – getting it hot before putting it in the oven with the pizza will aid in a crispy crust!
  3. Prepare salmon per package instructions. Dice up and place in a bowl.
  4. Mix diced tomato into bowl of salmon, add salt/pepper to taste.
  5. Remove stone from oven, place pizza on top, spread pesto onto pizza.
  6. Spread salmon and roasted broccoli atop pesto (I ended up with some leftover salmon and broc on the side to avoid too-heavy slices since it was a thin crust).
  7. Place stone with pizza back in the oven and cook at 350 degrees for 25 minutes (time can vary depending on your oven and how “done” you like your pizza!)
  8. After removing pizza and letting it cool, drizzle tzatziki sauce on top if you wish!

Couldn’t get in fast enough to take a pic!

The pizza was seriously out of this world delicious and the leftover salmon even stayed fresh in the fridge long enough for me to polish it off as a snack five days later! My mom and I finished almost the entire pie between the two of us and the tzatziki was the perfect compliment to the salmon – reminded me of a lox and cream cheese combo! I only wish I’d had some capers to add…next time! And the best part of pizzas is their easy customization. You could add or take away any of the ingredients on this recipe and simply use it as inspiration for future topping combos!

I also liked using one box of plain salmon and one box of lemon-butter, like I did last time my mom and I cooked with Gorton’s products. I’m all about trying as many different varieties of a food as possible! I don’t think I could really taste a difference between the two kinds, though. I am glad the lemon-butter salmon wasn’t too buttery or lemony, because I wouldn’t want anything to take away from the fishy flavor that I adore so much!

You can try Gorton’s products too, and you know that as Coupon Caitlin, I’m always looking to save money and help others do so. That’s why I’m directing you to this coupon on the Gorton’s Seafood website for $1 off any two items!

Has anyone tried any Gorton’s Seafood products since I last posted about them?

What’s your favorite pizza topping combo?

Have you ever tried a seafood pizza?

P.S. Total fail on my part…I didn’t even realized that this past Friday 9/21 was my one year blogiversary! I want to do a more reflective post to celebrate so I will be doing so when I actually have time to sit down and write something more thought-provoking this week…hopefully that’ll be soon. This has been one crazy work week!

Mohegan Sun WineFest: The Drinks

So glad you guys enjoyed my recap of the food I munched on at the Mohegan Sun WineFest this past Sunday! Some of my favorite bloggers also attended, but on Saturday, so I didn’t have a chance to meet up with them and say hi. Bummer, but I wanted to share their recaps too:

You can also see my recap of the Oyster Open event here!

I also wanted to take a moment to first direct you back to my food recap so that you can read about my experience at the Pete & Gerry’s Organic Eggs booth. Their Events and Promotion Manager, Ken, was kind enough to drop me an email thanking me for sharing my opinions on their booth and custard – he is trying to get the recipe from Mohegan’s pastry and dessert chef, so keep your fingers crossed! Ken also provided me with the same flyers I picked up at the booth, in PDF format, to share with you all!

Even better? He shared COUPONS as well! Click here to access the PDF file (it’s intended to be printed on one sheet of paper, double-sided). Let me know if you try their eggs!

Onto what the Sun WineFest is all about in the end…the beverages! All drinks were included in my Grand Tasting ticket. Like I said Monday, Elliott of Sonoma Wine & Spirits helped me out by starring drinks I should make a priority, and highlighting those I absolutely had to try. It was SO helpful to go in with a plan because no one could EVER try every single offering!

I spy a must-see!

The first product I sampled was located right by the entrance, so I was attracted to the booth immediately since when I first walked in, I was quite hungry and the Connecticut-based company Peel had some amazing-sounding (and tasting, it turns out) liqueur flavors: cremoncello, bananacello, and limoncello.

The bananacello tasted just like dessert, but I actually enjoyed the limoncello way more because it had a lemon flavor that wasn’t so strong that it overpowered the taste of the alcohol. Call me weird but I like a drink that tastes strong, and lets the quality of the alcohol stand out. I hate getting a drink that’s so sweet and muddled with so many other flavors that I can’t even determine what it’s made with or how good the liquor is. The limoncello was really perfect and though it was smooth, it had a bite to it.

My parents are big fans of J. Lohr, it’s served by the restaurant my sister works at, and Elliott had marked several on my list, so I made that my first wine stop. I also picked up a recipe booklet (complete with suggested wine pairings, of course) that has yummy recipes in it like seafood penne with jalapeno pesto – wow! I sampled Falcon’s Perch Pinot Noir (2010) and October Night Chardonnay (2010), both of which were highlighted in pink! (Random comment: it is so cool how detailed winery websites are – I can find out anything I want to know about what I tasted! End comment.)

Thank you, James of J. Lohr, for taking my photo!

  • Falcon’s Perch Pinot Noir: Described online a “food friendly” wine, I really enjoyed this red. I love Pinot Noir and this one was nice and a bit oak-y. I can definitely see myself pairing this with a nice steak!
  • October Nigh Chardonnay: I could definitely taste the orange and lime notes noted on the website, though did not get the vanilla. It’s hard for me to really enjoy a white and this one was just pretty good to me.

I have a thing for pear cocktails, so I immediately selected Grey Goose‘s new flavor, La Poire AKA pear! Another side comment, their website is gorgeous. The vodka was excellent (of course, it’s Grey Goose). So smooth! I would LOVE to just have a simple martini made with their pear vodka. Maybe I’ll indulge sometime, but I’m usually too cheap for that 😛

Jim Beam had their booth set up just like a bar, with Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark cocktails all ready to go! I selected the strongest one, the Makers Mark Manhattan, because like I said, I like to taste the good stuff. So glad that I did! The drink was amazing and would certainly be easy to mix up at home. My dad is a big fan of Maker’s Mark and I bet he would like it! Father and daughter, sharin’ a Manhattan, how cute.

I definitely had the most fun at the above table, courtesy of Sassy Bitch Wines! I’m the one who marked this one on the list of wines – with a name like that, how could I not?! These Chilean wines are super affordable and were actually pretty darn good. I completely adore the packaging as well – I have a little obsession with creative wine labels. I sampled all three of their reds: Cabernet, Pinot Noir, and Merlot. Despite the lower price tag, these wines were all delicious and I can definitely see myself buying a bottle for a fun girl’s night – I’m thinking maybe when Rachel and I have our Grammy’s-watching party!

The reason I had so much fun with Sassy Bitch Wines is featured in the photo above – my fun temporary tattoo that I received from Master Mixologist Dave A. Brogan. We had a great time chatting and bonded over the fact that he has a blog too – take a second to check out his site because the Twitter icon at the bottom of his page is ADORABLE. And appropriate – you’ll see!

Around this time I ran into a co-worker and his friend, and the three of us decided to hang out for the rest of the WineFest and explore the wine and beer Elliott had marked on my list. I was glad to have some WineFest companions!

And some more yummy wines for your viewing…

Beringer Knights Vally Meritage Red not only had a really mysterious, dark, appealing package design that impressed me, but also an impressive flavor. At $35/bottle this was definitely a nice wine that I’m glad I got to try, because I am not usually buying bottles of wine at that price, or glasses of wine like that at restaurants.

Block Nine Pinot Noir was another bottle with an impressive label design and also impressive taste. I love Pinot Noir and Elliott was correct in recommending it to me. Block Nine only makes this variety but I’d be curious to see what other wines they will make in the future.

Longboard Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc was only OK – I’m not a white lover, but this wine was not good enough to make me enjoy whites either. I’d be curious as to how their reds taste, but Elliott did not mark them, and my tolerance can only handle so much – I couldn’t be trying wines that weren’t worth it!

The man working the Rombauer Vineyards table was so nice – we started chatting about balancing working out and eating right, and he said he wanted to give some of my workouts a try! If you are reading…go for it and tell me how it goes! 😉 He also had some yummy wines for us to sip on. the Napa Cabernet Sauvignon and Napa Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Select were really fun to try back-to-back because I could taste the higher quality in the Diamond Select vs. the regular. Lately I have been finding most Cabs to be too sweet compared to other reds, but the Diamond Select was nice and oak-y and I would love to sip on it some other time. I’m not sure how likely that is to happen seeing as it is $60/bottle (guess that’s why they call it Diamond) but it was exciting to be able to try a wine like that. The Zinfandel (a red zin!) was interesting, but I didn’t like it much. I’ve never had much luck with red Zinfandels – and I don’t even touch whites. I noticed on Rombauer’s website that they have a port – I LOVE port (I’m an old man) and would be dying to try that sometime.

I honestly saw Ferrari-Carano Vineyards on the list and assumed it was the car-maker trying to market wines. Jeff Gordon and Ed Hardy were giving out samples at this event – why wouldn’t Ferrari maybe be there too?! I thought twice about it after I saw that Elliott had starred a couple of their offerings for me. Suspicion confirmed – the vineyard is NOT associated with the car maker! Another confirmed fact – Ferrari-Carano wines are tasty! The Tresor (2007, a library wine!) and Siena (2009) were both delicious, and again, I could taste the price difference between the $58 Tresor bottle and the $25 Siena bottle.

Duckhorn Wines, my absolute favorite wine table of the day, had four of the best wines I tried – and one was even a white! I can’t believe I don’t have photos of the bottles – I’m kicking myself – but they honestly weren’t that pretty/unique so I guess that’s why. Doesn’t matter though, these tasted excellent. The Goldeneye Anderson Valley Pinot Noir was highlighted in pink on my list, so I knew it was going to be good. Even with my high expectations, I loved it. Its $55 price point doesn’t even bias that opinion, because I literally just looked it up. Decoy, described on Twitter as “the everyday wine for the well-informed, accomplished an amazing feat – they created a Chardonnay that I liked more than their Pinot Noir. I’m telling you folks, pigs are flying. My co-worker and I were blown away by this white, and its price point is pretty good at $54 for a three-bottle pack! Finally, the Paraduxx Napa Valley Red Blend was really good, but it was also the last wine I tried at Duckhorn and by that point I was going less impressed because I just expected every one of their wines to be amazing. OK, have I said enough about Duckhorn yet?

Though not as good as Ed’s mojitos at Zafra, 10 Cane Rum can make a pretty good mojito. Needed more rum though, less lime! I really enjoyed their display though. I want a glass container filled with mint leaves in my house!

Though it certainly didn’t taste like wine at all, Cocoa di Vine’s Chocolate and Espresso Wines were FANTASTIC. I don’t think I could drink a whole glass without feeling very full, but damn, the Espresso flavor was so good.

We did eventually head up to the beer rooms, but even after sampling some of the kinds Elliott recommended, I still could not find a single beer I enjoyed. I’ll keep trying though! Carbonation hatred is just a very strong thing.

The Heavy Seas Beer Loose Cannon pictured above left was pretty good, but my nose was a-burning after a sip or two.

I was definitely more impressed with this cool duck tap than the Goose Island Honkers Ale and IPA.

After giving up on the beer rooms, we went back downstairs. I parted ways with my co-worker to cover the 8th Annual Oyster Open…that post is coming soon! To be continued…

Which of the beverages I sampled would you most like to try? Which do you know you’d HATE?

What do you think of Pete & Gerry’s? Any plan to use their coupons?