Cedar Planked Salmon and Garlic Mashed Potatoes

When I was in high school, I went on a rather memorable date to see Tom Petty in concert.  On the way to dinner, my date's car broke down and his parents had to pick us up and trade cars. :)  While the Tom Petty concert and the broken down car were very memorable, I just as vividly remember the meal we had at City Creek Grill, which is no longer in business.  Yes, leave it to me to remember a meal I had  almost 15 years ago!  I ordered Cedar Grilled Salmon with Garlic Mashed Potatoes.  It was so divine!  It is one of my favorite, simple meals to make.

Cedar Planked Salmon:

1 cedar plank

2 pieces of salmon brought to room temperature - I've found this makes the meat more juicy!

salt 

pepper

Soak cedar plank for at least an hour or longer if you can.

Preheat grill to medium heat.  You can use either gas or charcoal.

Salt and pepper the salmon to taste and place in the center of the cedar plank.  Cook on grill for approximately 10-12 minutes or until cooked through.  Be careful not to over cook as it will make the salmon chewy...I've done this plenty of times, so don't feel bad if you do too. In fact, I actually won't grill outdoors, that is something I have always left up to Alex. :)

Garlic Mashed Potatoes:

5 golden yukon potatoes, diced into 1 inch pieces - I left the skins on, but you can certainly peel them

4 tablespoons margarine or butter

1/2 cup milk

2 cloves garlic

Boil potatoes until soft, approximately 8-10 minutes.  Cut garlic into medium sized pieces so you have some good surface area, you want to steep the garlic to infuse the butter.  When the butter is melted, add the milk and keep warm until the potatoes are cooked through.  

Drain potatoes and mash.  Add the butter, milk and garlic mixture.  You can strain out the garlic if you want, but cooking it in the butter makes it nice and soft, but not too strong like roasted garlic.  Serve immediately.

Sorry, there are no pictures of the garlic mashed potatoes...the moment the food hit our plates all pictures were forgotten.  I'm serious.  We finished this meal in five minutes or less!  I'm pretty sure that is how quickly I finished this same meal before the Tom Petty concert....but that might have been because we didn't have a lot of time, due to the car breaking down.