Cedar Plank Grilled Salmon With Tarragon Herbs

One of the biggest perks of working for a public high school is having one month of summer vacation.  I can turn off my alarm clock, spend a little bit of time with some neglected areas of our home.  I look forward to swimming every day, going to movies and meeting girlfriend for lunch, and doing whatever I pleased. I eagerly counted down the days until my summer vacation would begin...

What was I thinking?   I finally convinced my husband that our living area carpets had seen better days, and that it was time to upgrade our home with fresh paint and new flooring.   My husband decided to take on the challenge job of  installing laminate flooring in our house all by himself.  What we both thought would take "a couple of days work, turned out to be a couple of weeks.   Swimming, cooking and baking flew out the window, as I did my best to deal with the chaos of furniture being moved into our backyard, and packing up breakables.  Whew!

Slowly, but surely, our living area is almost back to normal-- and I am thrilled with how fresh and new our home looks. Yay!

Before I knew it, my summer vacation was over, and coincidentally, my last day of vacation was on my birthday.   I usually like to invite friends and family over for a birthday BBQ.  I couldn't muster the energy for it.

I did, however, find the energy to bake my own birthday cake.  Trust me, this is the perfect excuse for me to bake a new cake recipe-- and this one has been on my mind for months.  (I'll share this recipe on my next post.) 

On a whim, I invited two of my dearest friends, who were anxious to see how the new floors and paint turned out. I bought a beautiful piece of salmon, and I had a cedar plank that I had forgotten about.     While chatting with my friends,I "winged" preparing the salmon to be grilled on a wooden plank. I didn't even think of blogging this dinner, so I didn't photograph my usual step-by-step photos.  The salmon turned out so delicious, that I wanted to share it with you.

You can find food-safe planks at most any kitchen store, and I've even seen them in the grilling displays at grocery stores, at Target or Costco.  They average about $5.00 each.  It's important to buy planks that haven't been treated with chemicals, so I don't recommend buying them from Home Depot!  Soak the plank in a dish of water, weighted down with something heavy, for at least four hours.

This makes a beautiful presentation, without a lot of hard work.  I'm going to buy a few more planks because this was a fun way to prepare fresh fish on the grill.

A recipe card is at the end of this post.

I'm back at work, and it's one of the most hectic times of the school year-- registration!  I have so many recipes I'm anxious to share with you, but it'll have to wait for the weekend.