Wild Salmon w/ Peppered Dijon Cream Sauce

Today was an unseasonably pleasant day here for a change. It was in the 60s this morning and it felt like a cool fall morning. It was absolutely gorgeous.

Yesterday, we had someone come and remove a big hornets nest we stumbled upon over the weekend in our backyard. I am so relieved to have that out of our yard. After hubby got home from work last night, we ran all over the Atlanta area trying to find and purchase our backsplash tile for the kitchen after our installer called and said he would be here Sunday to begin installation and they hoped to finish it on Monday. He told us to go ahead and purchase the tile. Instead of waiting until Saturday to go pick it up, we decided to go after work last night. When we got there, the store that had it in stock a week ago no longer had any...so we rushed far across town to another location to try and get there before they closed at 9:00. We found part of the tile, but they didn't have my mosaic border...yikes! We didn't get home until after 10:30 last night and hadn't even had dinner yet. Needless to say, we were not only disappointed but exhausted. We planned to go to another a third far away location this evening...but I just needed a break, so we stayed home. If it's meant to be...we will find it in time.

For dinner this evening, I prepared the large 2-pound wild sockeye salmon fillet I picked up at Costco over the weekend. I brushed it with olive oil and seasoned it with a little salt and pepper and then placed it on a medium hot grill (skin side down) and roasted it for about 10-12 minutes until done (cooking it outside kept my kitchen cool). I wrapped it in foil to keep warm while I prepared the quick and easy Peppered Dijon Cream Sauce. Normally, I am not a big sauce fan...but I must admit, this one was delicious. I didn't want a runny sauce...I wanted it to be thick and creamy and a bit creamier than tartar sauce. I used cream cheese to add the thick creaminess to my sauce, along with butter and cream. It was so very simple and I just made it up as I went along until it had the taste and consistency I liked. We enjoyed the rest of the Yellow Cheddar Squash Casserole along with our salmon. It was a quick and easy dinner to put together. I snapped a few photos below as well as included the easy peasy recipe for the sauce. Enjoy!

Wild Salmon w/ Peppered Dijon Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

3 6-ounce wild salmon fillets, cooked (roasted, grilled or poached, as desired)
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon cream cheese
1/4 cup heavy cream (plus 1 to 2 tablespoons extra to thin sauce as necessary)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (I used coarsely ground)
Pinch of sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Few dashes dry mustard powder, or to taste

Directions:

Melt butter over low heat in a small saucepan. Add cream cheese and whisk until melted. Stir in cream, Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper and whisk until blended. Heat just until sauce begins to simmer (careful not to boil). Whisk in dry mustard, to taste. Add additional tablespoon or 2 heavy cream to thin sauce to desired consistency. Spoon over top of salmon fillets.