Bread Pudding….for dinner!

When I first stumbled over this recipe, my brain was twittering about the mention of sausage like the dogs over bacon in the Beggin’Strips commercials.

Which happens to be one of my favorite commercials.

You can probably see why.

But we’re not making bacon…we’re making sausage!! And putting it in bread pudding!!

Are you pumped? Because I am.

Overall, a very simple recipe, brought to us by the fabulous people over at Cooking Light – you can find an easy-to-print version of the recipe here.

In truth, I’m not sure what made me try this recipe as I have a distinct aversion to quiches and anything with that sponge-y, quiche-like texture…which bread pudding usually has. Maybe it was the sausage or the caramelized onions saying…COME TO MOMMA! Or maybe it was because I actually had every single ingredient I needed for this recipe in my house, including day-old French bread. We’ll go with the second reason.

Sausage and Caramelized Onion Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cups low-fat milk
• 1/ tsp dry mustard
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 large egg white
• 8 (1-oz) slice day-old French bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
• cooking spray
• 2 cups chopped yellow onion
• 1/4 cup apple juice
• 4 ounces turkey Italian sausage
• 3/4 cup (3 oz) shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:

Combine the first five ingredients (milk, mustard, salt, eggs, & egg white) in a large bowl; stir well with a whisk. This part may make you feel like you’re making french toast. Well, minus the mustard.

Add bread; toss gently to coat. Let bread mixture stand 20 minutes.

While they’re soaking up the eggy-goodness, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Heat up a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion to pan; cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add juice; cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

And yes, I’m cooking in sweatpants. Because maybe I shouldn’t get so excited about bacon and sausage.

MOVING ON.

Remove the casings from the sausage. Crumble the sausage into the pan, cooking 5 minutes or until browned, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and let it stand for 5 minutes.

Add the sausage mixture and the cheese to the bread mixture, stirring well to combine. Spoon into an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake for 40 minutes or until lightly browned.

And then the hard part. Let it stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Don’t you hate recipes like that? You’ve been waiting for it in the oven forever, you pull it out smelling all delicious and your stomach starts to slowly gnaw on your other internal organs, and then wait, wait, no. You have to wait 10 minutes. It’s like the Thanksgiving Turkey all over again.

But patience is a virtue my friends, because then you get to partake of this delicious thing.

I think Pioneer Woman would be proud.

The recipe says it serves four, but I’m pretty dubious about that. Scott and I together only made it through about a third  and the rest went towards leftovers. Because come on…a meal that is bread and sausage? Whew.

I’m also fairly convinced you could have this as a breakfast casserole, although Scott wasn’t so convinced. To each his own, I suppose.

Overall, absolutely fantastic, and perfect for a night where you want something cozy like breakfast for dinner but don’t feel like pulling out the griddle to make pancakes or french toast.

Yum.

Happy Thursday!

As Emeril would say…Gahlic.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’ve been on a fish kick lately. It keeps my stomach happy and I’m loving how light and flavorful it can be.

This recipe discovery comes from Real Simple magazine, and is absolutely one of the simplest recipes in existence, yet so very very delicious.

So without further ado…

Garlicky Broiled Salmon and Tomatoes

Ingredients:

• 4 6-ounce pieces skinless salmon fillet
• 4 medium tomatoes, cut in half
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• kosher salt and pepper
• 8 springs fresh thyme
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced

Directions:

Heat broiler. Place the salmon and tomatoes, cut-side up, in a broilerproof roasting pan or on a rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle the salmon with the paprika.

Drizzle the salmon and tomatoes with the oil and season with 3/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Scatter the thyme and garlic over the top.

Broil until the salmon is opaque throughout and the tomatoes are tender, 8 to 10 minutes.

Isn’t it lovely? Well, in hindsight it would probably be better to garnish it with more fresh thyme since the thyme gets pretty crispy, but I still think it’s very lovely.

Tricks of the Trade:

• Fish doesn’t reheat well, so if there are just two of you, definitely half the recipe.
• I used a large fillet instead of several small, which is fine, but you need to at least double the cooking time. Better to use the small fillets as recommended.
• It’s okay to use salmon with skin on it – once it’s cooked the fish will just slip right off.
• I used minced garlic because my whole cloves had gone bad and it was just as delicious.
• Serves 4. Goes wonderfully with a crusty bread or rice.

And, here’s the printable recipe! Garlicky Broiled Salmon & Tomatoes

Happy Monday!

Let them eat cake!

In case you haven’t noticed….I’m back!

Despite recent sad circumstances, I’m happy to report that my head cold is long gone, and my chiropractor has given me the green light to resume normal activity, and to especially do things that relax me, since stress was a major factor of my sprain. Let me tell you my friends….when your body says slow down…you should listen!

So…when I think about relaxing…and needing to celebrate a return to good health…

…are you following me…?

Let’s say it all together.

CAKE!!

Not just any cake…but a delicious, succulent, and deceptively rich but light banana cake.

Oh yeah.

Just look at this baby. I think you’ll agree.

This isn’t exactly a Thursday dinner feature, but I think you’ll forgive me. And hey…cake for dinner?!

Since I used two different recipes for this cake – one for the frosting and one for the cake itself, I’m going to just let you follow the PDF links to get the actual recipe, and I’ll just give a general run-down on how to make it.

This cake was pretty much made just like any other cake. Add a little flour, add a little sugar. The only thing different is this:

YUM. Doesn’t that make you want to eat bananas?!?

I promise I don’t let these things rot in my house. Bananas are one of the few things I tend to buy way more than I need of. Because when they start to reach that spotty, over-ripe phase where neither Scott or I will touch them, I just stick them straight into the freezer.

When I’m ready to make my usual banana bread (and now, this incredible cake), I pull out as many as I need and let them thaw out completely. The result is the perfect, mushy, ripe banana, ready to be baked with. Even if it is pretty gross to look at and touch. Hmm.

To get your mind off those icky bananas, watch this. I promise it will help. Would I ever lead you astray?

Sorry for the poor video quality. It was the only full version I could find on YouTube.

Now that we’ve gone down that bunny trail…here’s a few more pretty pictures of the cake.

That beautiful frosting was different than most to make. I had been searching for something that wasn’t your typical heavy buttercream, because for some reason, it just seemed to me that banana cake shouldn’t have a dense frosting.

And that was when I stumbled upon Seven-Minute Frosting in my America’s Test Kitchen cookbook. And let me tell you…my world has been changed forever. I was a little intimidated at first by its lack of butter, and the fact that I had to make a meringue-y substance over heat. But I decided to be bold and try it out.

The process was impressively and surprisingly easy – it just took some patience. Sadly, I have no photos of the process because Scott wasn’t home at the time and this definitely required both of my hands – no juggling allowed. You create a double-boiler-like situation, but with a large saucepan and a large glass bowl. A standard double-boiler just isn’t large enough for when this begins to double…triple…quadruple in volume.

The only glass bowl I had in my house has a large handle on the side, so I had to stand there and hold it upright (wearing an oven mitt, of course), throughout the entire process. Thus the juggling. When I finally invest in a large bowl (Pyrex would do beautifully), this could easily be a one-handed adventure and I’ll snap photos of the entire thing. But I digress.

So you add water to your bottom pan, get it simmering, put your egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, and corn syrup  into your glass bowl and set it over the water.

And here’s where your patience comes in. Grab your hand mixer, and whip that mixture to death for 7 minutes. Then remove it from the heat, and whip it to death for 2 more minutes. Or in the words of one of my favorite authors…”whip it into submission.” (Name that book/movie.)

Whipping something with an electric hand mixer seems like eternity to the girl who can barely make it through the 2 minutes it takes to whip up a cake mix, but with a good TV sitcom on in the background (and the intense desire not to drop your glass bowl that you’re balancing precariously onto your foot and get third degree burns)….it really all just flies by. And that is the extent of the difficulty of this recipe. If you can stand in one place for seven minutes with an electric hand mixer, you can make this recipe.

And the result is FANTASTIC. It can be used immediately, and it makes an absolute ton of frosting – so if you’re on a baking marathon for your kid’s latest bake sale…this recipe goes a long, long way. I frosted a double-layer cake very liberally and still had about 2 cups leftover. And that’s with licking my fingers at every turn. Yum.

As you can see, it also accommodates a cinnamon-sugar sprinkle on top quite nicely.

This was a huge hit with my volunteer cake-eaters, so hurry! Check out the recipes now. And bake this up for your weekend. You won’t regret it. I promise.

Seven-Minute Frosting

Banana Cake

Happy Thursday!

Early Harvest

Since we live in the city, I tend to live vicariously through my in-law’s garden. Courtesy of a rainy spring and some nice bursts of heat, their garden is coming along nicely, and I got to benefit from some of the early harvest. Peas, broccoli, beets, all varieties of lettuce, and scallions. Yummm.

Although I’ll go ahead and admit – my only experience with beets in life have been the kind that resemble jello-beets-in-a-can and that has not been a positive one. But I will experiment with anything at least once!

I haven’t cooked anything up yet, but I can definitely assure you that we are eating a LOT of salad this week. Which is going to lead towards something wonderful…something tasty…something fresh…perhaps maybe a salad week!?

I’m probably more excited about that than I should be, but I love salad.

Can you blame me?

Anyways…

Thought you might enjoy a few photos of this lovely harvest. And of a cute little bunny that was enjoying a meal of his own.

Happy Tuesday!

Crock-pot Mac-n-Cheese

Need a super simple and delicious dish for a summer cookout or potluck meal? Try out this incredibly easy Crock-pot Mac-n-Cheese recipe for a side dish that is quick, simple, and guaranteed to please just about everyone. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 16 oz. macaroni, cooked
• 2 sticks of butter
• 2 large cans evaporated milk
• 4 eggs, beaten
• Salt, pepper, seasonings to taste
• 4+ cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 cup grated cheese for top

Directions

Combine first 6 ingredients in a Crockpot. Cook on low for 2-3 hours,
stirring occasionally. Top with remaining cheese half way through.
Serve straight from your Crockpot. Enjoy!

Tips & Alterations

Nothing really gigantic to alter about this one. Other than changing up the types of cheese and spices, this one is as simple as it gets.

• I probably added about 1 1/2 tsp. each of salt and pepper, a few shakes of paprika, and a few shakes of krazy salt (It’s a VA seasoning… Mrs. Dash Seasoning would work too).
• I used 5 types of cheese in my most recent making of this recipe – sharp cheddar, extra sharp cheddar, gouda, fontina, and a little parmesan. So, about 1 c. each of the first 4 and then just a few shakes of parmesan.
• You can use as much or as little cheese as you want. I am a cheese-o-holic. So, I always opt for more cheese. But you can definitely use less if you have a touchy tummy.

And now for a few photos…

The ingredients for success.

My current favorite pasta for ANY version of mac-n-cheese. It just holds the cheesy sauce so well. Perfecto!

Cook the pasta till al dente.

Drain the pasta... isn't it just such a fun shaped pasta?!

Put all the liquid ingredients and seasonings in the crock-pot.

Dump the pasta into the crock-pot.

Next... the cheese! These are the four cheeses I used - sharp cheddar (yellow), extra sharp cheddar (white), gouda (semi-circle), and fontina (wedge). Perfect flavor combination!

I used my handy-dandy salad shooter to make quick work of grating all that cheese. LOVE this device!

Add the cheese to the crock-pot.

Mix well. Add additional seasonings if needed.

Cook until done. And yes, my crock-pot is red. 🙂

The final product. Delicious!

Bon appetit!

-GG

Hellooo Summer.

Apparently I missed the memo where we would be diving straight into summer, but unfortunately that seems to be the case as I’ve been having to walk home in 90-degree weather, and it’s not even June yet.

So, what better way to deal with it than to go ahead and start cooking more light summery meals?

I’ve been trying to introduce more fish into our diet, although neither of us are particularly fond of it unless fried or thoroughly breaded. I recently discovered a recipe though that was absolutely fantastic, and wasn’t breaded or fried at all.

This delicious recipe comes from my new favorite cookbook – the America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. I highly recommend that you all go out and buy it – it’s a fantastic investment.

Summery Fish and Vegetable Packets

Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest
• 1 pound zucchini and/or summer squash (2 medium), sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 3 tomatoes (1 pound), cored and sliced thin
• 1/2 cup minced fresh basil
• salt and pepper
• 4 skinless haddock fillets (6 ounces each), 1 to 1 1/4 inches thick
• 1/4 cup dry white wine or vermouth
• lemon wedges (for serving)

Directions:

Adjust an oven rack to the lowest position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Mix the butter, garlic, lemon juice, and lemon zest together.

Cut eight 12-inch sheets of foil and spread four of them flat on the counter. Shingle equal portions of zucchini and tomato pieces in the center of each piece. Sprinkle with half of the basil and season with salt and pepper.

Pat the haddock dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. Drape the haddock over the vegetables, then dot with the butter mixture and sprinkle with the remaining basil. Drizzle the wine over the fish. Lay a second 12-inch sheet of foil over the top of each stack and crimp the edges together to seal.

Lay the packets on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until the fish flakes apart when gently prodded with a paring knife, about 20 minutes.

Lay the sealed packets on individual plates and serve with the lemon wedges.

Click here for an easy to print recipe!: Summery Fish & Vegetable Packets

This recipe is fantastically simple to put together – far easier than any stir fry or other dish I usually do.

The whole thing took me less than 15 minutes to prep and get in the oven – definitely an ideal summer meal!

Stir up the butter mixture…

Shingle out your veggie pieces, sprinkling them with fresh basil, salt and pepper.

Spread your fish overtop (I used cod instead of haddock).

Slather it up with that butter mixture.

Can I have another view of that please?

Thank you.

Ohhh yeah.  Pour some wine over it, and wrap it up in foil.

Hmm… so how do you tell if it’s ready?!

In my past experiences with fish…I’ve found that trusting the cooking time given by the recipe is dead on. I pulled it out at twenty minutes on the dot, and it was tender and falling apart, just like it should be.

Can you smell how delicious this is?

You’ll notice it’s plated just like it was on the foil. This is a great one for impressing guests, because it slides right off the foil and onto the plate, looking pretty as can be, and smelling like buttery-WONDERFULness.

Whew.

In case you couldn’t tell, I absolutely adore this recipe. It was so very different from fish that I usually eat, and it was infused with that tomato-basil-buttery flavor that just melts in your mouth. Even Scott, who has a very low tolerance for fish, pronounced that it had an excellent flavor.

Some tips: 

• Since fish tends to not reheat well, and these vegetables probably would not either, I halved the recipe to make two servings for Scott and I and it worked out just fine.
• Even halved, the butter mixture was a little overkill. You can see in the photo how much I put on the fish, and I only used about half of the already-half-size portion I made.
• Cod, salmon, catfish, bluefish, sea bass, snapper, or Artic char fillets can be substituted for the haddock, according to the ATK cookbook. I used cod and it turned out just fine.
• The cookbook also recommends serving this dish with a crusty bread or rice to soak up the rest of that delicious sauce, and I agree! A big slice of crusty bread is the perfect complement.

So there you go! Another lovely summer recipe. I’ll go ahead and apologize for this getting posted so late in the evening. I mayyyy or may not have been slightly distracted by watching the season premiere of So You Think You Can Dance, Season 8. Whew.

Happy Thursday, and enjoy!

Fish Sauce?

This is Thursday dinner feature is definitely a little bit out of the ordinary. I am by no means a connoisseur of Thai food – in fact, I’m pretty sure it’s my first experience with it. Although not being an expert, I’m not sure if these are all the ingredients that make a dish qualified to be of Thai origin.

But nonetheless, the stir fry recipe I chose to follow for dinner had one ingredient in it that I had never experienced before.

Fish sauce.

I’m pretty sure you agree with me, it sounds disgusting. My America’s Test Kitchen cookbook describes Fish Sauce as “a salty, amber-colored liquid made from fermented fish. It is used as an ingredient and condiment in certain Asian cuisines, most commonly in the foods of Southeast Asia. In very small amounts, it adds a well-rounded, salty flavor to sauces, soups, and marinades. Fish sauce will keep indefinitely without refrigeration.”

This recipe ALMOST lost me when I read “fermented fish”. Because frankly, FRESH fish doesn’t exactly appeal to me most days.

However, I decided to give it a whirl, since fish sauce isn’t at all expensive to buy and if I don’t like it…it’s just a meal. Gotta squeeze the adventure into a mundane life somehow!

Otherwise, this recipe has all the makings of your average stir fry. Here’s how it goes.

(recipe courtesy of Real Simple magazine)

Thai Chicken Stir-Fry

Ingredients:

• 1 cup long-grain white rice
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 carrot, peeled, cut into thin strips
• 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 cup snow peas
• 1 cup sliced shiitake or button mushrooms
• 1 small red chili, minced
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 2- to 2 1/2-pound rotisserie chicken, meat sliced
• 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 scallions, sliced
• 1/2 cup cilantro leaves
• 1 lime, quartered

Directions:

Cook the rice according to the package directions.

Heat the oil in a wok or a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add the carrot, bell pepper, onion, snow peas, mushrooms, chili, and garlic.

Cook, tossing, until the vegetables are just tender, 4 to 7 minutes.

Add the chicken, soy sauce, lime juice, fish sauce, and scallions and cook, tossing, until heated through. Serve with the rice, cilantro, and lime wedges.

(Click here for an easy-to-print version!)

Simple, yes? Since stir-fry’s are all basically the same, I figured I wouldn’t show you 800 photos of chopping veggies. Instead, here’s a photo of almost all the ingredients, nice and prepped. (Where’s my sous-chef when I need one?)

Lovely little ingredients in my stir-fry pan, cooking. Yum yum.

Serve over rice, and you’ve got a gorgeous, multi-colored meal.

So it looks beautiful, we can all agree on that. But does it taste good? I mean…it has fish sauce in it.

Our verdict was that it’s definitely an uncommon flavor. Since we’re not used to it, it was one of those, “I think this could grow on me” flavors, but it doesn’t have the same comforting and typical flavor of a soy-sauce or teriyaki-sauce only stir-fry. And honestly, I think it was actually moreso because of the lime juice, than the fish sauce.

I loved how refreshingly different it was though. I’m not sure I’d be brave enough to just throw fish sauce into a recipe like I do with soy sauce. But in a pre-tested recipe, I definitely trust it and am no longer intimidated.  Yay!

Some tips:

• As always, I used brown rice. It’s one of those things where my taste buds have gotten so used to brown rice that I highly prefer it over white rice. Plus it’s so much better for you, so it’s win-win as far as I’m concerned.
• We are not a spicy-food household, so we completely omitted the red chili pepper and didn’t miss it, although I could see how the spice would make it a lot jazzier of a recipe.
• I didn’t feel like picking at a chicken, so I just cooked up 2 pounds of chicken breasts and chopped them. Worked just fine, and probably lower fat and less expensive.

And that’s that! Moral of the story….don’t let fish sauce intimidate you or you’ll miss out on a great new kind of stir-fry. Yum.

Happy Thursday my friends!

Simple Garlic Bread

Italian is one of my favorite types of food to eat. And what is Italian food without some good garlic bread? It’s a staple of Italian food! But I am terrible at making garlic bread. Not only does my bread usually taste nothing like restaurant garlic bread, but I also almost always over crisp it. And by over crisp, I mean blacken… char… set off the fire alarms from smoke because it is so “crisp”. My husband says it has something to do with me being unable to focus on only one thing at a time. And thus we’ve had a lot of garlic flavored charcoal made in my house. Yeah. Gross.

However, I have recently succeeded in making good garlic bread… good homemade garlic bread. Garlic bread that I did not burn. And it tasted great. It’s a miracle! So, if you want to make some simple, homemade garlic bread, here’s a recipe to try out.

Ingredients

• 1 loaf crusty French or Italian bread
• 3/4 stick of butter, softened
• 1-2 teaspoons minced or mashed fresh garlic
• 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 2-3 teaspoons sun-dried tomato oil
• 1 teaspoon paprika

Directions

Slice the loaf of bread in half lengthwise, but not cutting all the way through. Open the loaf to reveal the inside of the loaf.

Mix the softened butter, garlic, parmesan, and oregano in a small bowl until thoroughly combined.

Spread butter mixture on to both sides of the bread. Drizzle with sun-dried tomato oil and then sprinkle with paprika.

Place open bread loaf on a baking sheet with the buttered side up.

Bake at 350° for about 7-9 minutes. Broil for an additional minute or two until golden brown. (But watch it carefully!)

Slice bread on a diagonal and serve warm with your favorite Italian recipe. Yum!

Tips & Alterations

• If you are wondering where you get sun-dried tomato oil, you get it from a jar of sun-dried tomatoes. I frequently have these around my house. I just drizzle a little of the oil out of the jar, but not so much as to dried out the tomatoes.
• The parmesan cheese really makes this recipe pop. Don’t skip it!
• Watch the bread carefully when broiling. Getting distracted at this step will equal garlic charcoal. If you have trouble focusing, like I do, and you have someone else in the house with you… ask them to help you focus or watch it for you. (Queue husbandly duties. *Smiles*)

Other than that, it’s a pretty simple recipe. You could use this same recipe and top with cheese, tomatoes, etc. to make garlic pizza loaves or bruschetta. All roads lead to a delicious Italian delight.

Here are a few photos to help inspire your garlic bread cravings…

Start with a loaf of crusty bread. Yum!

Slice it open, but not all the way.

Mash up the butter, garlic, parmesan, and oregano.

Put it on the bread...

Spread, spread, spread.

Drizzle with the sun-dried tomato oil.

Sprinkle with paprika.

Place open side up on a baking sheet.

Golden brown deliciousness.

Sliced and served up with some homemade baked spaghetti. Yum!

Bon appetit!

– GG

Heeeere fishie fishie…

I have recently discovered a new grocery store which has blown all expectations for any grocery store I might go to in the future. I’m pretty sure it’s a fairly standard chain for the Maryland area, very affordable, and I’ve never been to another one, but this Wegman’s is….wow.

I’ll spare you the boredom of having to listen to me rave about how there is NOTHING you can’t find at this grocery store, including truffles (the mushroom, not the chocolate), sold for $399.99 a POUND. I think I just got another gray hair.

Here’s a picture, in case you don’t believe me. I may or may not be guilty of saying that they resemble chihuahua poo. You be the judge.

But on top of all that, they sell fresh fish.

And when I say fresh fish, I don’t mean filets. I mean…the FISH itself. Some of these puppies were at least 4 feet long.

And we all know me – I’m intrigued by any food that seems different and adventurous, and I’m really not shy about raw meat, with the exception of ground beef, so naturally I saw this beautiful little rainbow trout and decided he was the friend for me.

Be warned. If you’re squeamish, you might as well just skip reading this post altogether. For the non-squeamish, I just wanted to share my odd little adventure with you! I grew up with grandparents that would catch trout in local ponds and cook them up like it was nobody’s business, but it’s something I’ve never attempted before.

And thus…behold. My first attempt.

Meet Mister Fishie.

3rd cousin twice removed to Mister Bird.

Since Mr. Fishie came pre-gutted courtesy of the grocery store, the only task left was to de-scale him. I delegated this task to Scott, since I wanted to take pictures, and since I figure he’s significantly better at handling fish than I am. Yes, I’m that girl that likes to fish but won’t bait her own hook and won’t take the fish off the line once I’ve caught it.

Scott handled Mr. Fishie like a pro, and when all was said and done, Mr. Fishie was nice and smooth and ready to season.

Between talking to my parents and looking online at recipes, we decided to prep Mr. Fishie with some butter, garlic powder, salt & pepper, and lemon juice. Then he got wrapped up in foil and baked in the oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. You can remove the head before or after cooking – your choice.

And now enter the part that I have ZERO training in, and only dream of being able to do as beautifully as the scene in Julie & Julia where they’re de-boning a fish in one smooth motion.

I had no clue to go about it, so being the hungry person I was, I opted to just dig in with a knife and attempt to divide Mr. Fishie into equal size portions. Once cooked, the meat will slide easily off the skin, so my main focus was getting out as many bones as possible.

And voila – we had a decent meal!

Not the most beautiful in the world, but tasted better than I thought it would! (And don’t worry Mom Collins – we had a green vegetable, it’s just not pictured!)

Some tips we picked up while researching how to prepare Mr. Fishie:

• Per my parents and grandparents, if you’re buying your fish from the grocery store it’s an absolute must that it is already pre-gutted. Really the only time you should be gutting your own fish is if it’s coming home with you after a fishing trip, and even then it should be done right away.
• When de-scaling, make sure you have a cutting board that will sit nicely in your sink, and use the back-side of a short-bladed knife, preferably one with a wide back.
• Hold your very own Mr. Fishie by his tail, and scrape the knife against the “grain” of the scales until smooth.
• Rinse him off and pat him dry once he’s done.

Overall, it was fun and different to prepare. I think the final verdict was that unless it’s a fish I pulled out of the lake myself, it’s not really worth the effort of scaling and deboning. Maybe I’m lazy, and maybe I just prefer the pre-cut filets. 

Hope you haven’t gotten too grossed out, and I still highly encourage trying this at home, just for the experience!  Happy Sunday!

(Oh, and just in case you were worried, Mr. Fishie’s remains have been properly dealt with and buried…in the trash can. Which will be taken out tonight.)

Even Zorro eats it.

That may be an exaggeration, but this dish is so yummy and hearty that I’m confident Zorro would have no problem putting down his sword for a few minutes to finish off a bowl of this meal with Spanish origins.

This particular April has been of the perpetually cold and rainy variety, so I was searching for something that would warm my bones but wasn’t so reminiscent of all those heavy dishes we ate during the winter.

And fortunately, Real Simple magazine came to the rescue with this delicious recipe for Spanish Chicken & Rice.  And had we been in the same room, my stomach would have gotten up and tried to shake hands with the creator of this dish.

Since my energy levels have been a bit low recently, please forgive me for my lack of detailed photographs. Also, since getting my Canon, I have this nasty habit of forgetting to adjust for the light level. I’ve been practicing not using automatic settings as a way of forcing myself to learn, so, my yellow-y photos are clear proof that I’m still learning. And still forgetting.

Ahem. Moving on.

Spanish Chicken & Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2 1/2-inch pieces
• kosher salt and pepper
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 cup dry white wine (such as Sauvignon Blanc)
• 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, including liquid
• 1 cup long-grain white rice
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup pimiento-stuffed Spanish olives, chopped (optional)

Directions:

In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Season with 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp pepper and cook until golden brown, 2 minutes per side.

Add the onion and bell pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the wine, tomatoes and their liquid, rice, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.

Stir in the peas and cook, covered, until heated through, about 2 minutes. Spoon the chicken and rice onto individual plates and sprinkle with the parsley. Serve with the olives, if desired.

Some things of note…

You may notice in these photographs a complete lack of peas. This is not because of any dislike of peas on my part. I actually love the little suckers and am guilty of using them a little too frequently. It’s moreso an indicator of just how scatterbrained I am lately…because I forgot to put them in. We can say that I did it on purpose though, in case Zorro doesn’t like peas, and we wouldn’t want him to skip a meal. It’d be like Popeye without his spinach.

But…good news! It was delicious without them! I also omitted the parsley and the olives. No parsley because I was feeling lazy, and no olives because I am unashamedly an olive-hater. No offense to you olives. You’re just…gross.

I also think I would use significantly less salt and pepper next time around. It was good, but by the time you were finishing up, I felt a little bit pruny – like I had eaten too much movie-theatre popcorn.

And one last thing: make sure your heat is turned up high enough, or you’ll have trouble getting your rice to cook through. My peppers weren’t quite as fresh as I usually like them to be because I had to cook the whole dish a bit longer.

AND WAIT! I lied. One more thing. I’m trying something new, since I’ve heard many comments about not having an easy way to print these recipes. So…

Click below for a printable version of this delicious recipe!

Spanish Chicken & Rice

Hope you enjoy! Happy Thursday!