Dinner @ 226 - Baked Fish Fillets

Hi pretty faces. We have a tremendous amount of catching up to do. But, before the tired excuses and lame complaints and dramatic professions about the overwhelming-ness of life, I feel I owe you a recipe. I feel I owe you a fantastic recipe. I feel I owe you the kind of recipe that your husband will be thankful he didn't end up going to a restaurant for dinner. The sort of meal that might be begged for more than once a week, by the small, medium, and large people living in your house.



Do you cook fish a lot? It's the only animal protein I eat so I use it a lot. We probably have it once, maybe twice a week. The only thing that keeps me from cooking it even more is the very sad fact that this here family lives in a completely land locked state. Good fish is hard to procure. Inexpensive, good fish, well that's nearly impossible. For these reasons, I buy frozen fish. I know it sort of goes against most of my natural cooking instincts but it's the only way we can afford to have it. And, at Trader Joe's, the frozen fish doesn't leave you with a whole lot to complain about. I usually keep a few pounds of some variety of white fish in my freezer at all times.



Okay, enough about the not very fresh but good enough fish. You'll need 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 pounds of whatever fish you can get, if you're feeding four people. This meal is for a night when you don't feel like getting crazy with curries or messy with marinaras. You want flavors that don't frighten or surprise your taste buds, but instead nuzzle in and give them a gentle hug. Yes, taste buds have feelings. And they like hugs. Fact.



Baked Fish Fillets from this book

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup bread crumbs (homemade are best)
2 small eggs
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
salt
1 1/4 pounds fish fillets cut into strips or chunks
4 to 5 tablespoons olive oil
lemon wedges

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spread the flour on a flattish plate and the bread crumbs on another one.

Whisk the eggs and parsley together in a shallow bowl and add some salt. Sprinkle the fish with some salt too.

Pat the fish chunks in the flour first, then in the egg, and finally in the bread crumbs, turning to coat them thoroughly each time. Put the fish in a baking pan and drizzle with a little of the olive oil. Turn the fish over and drizzle a little more oil over the top.

Bake the fish in the oven for 10 minutes, then turn the pieces over and bake for another 5 minutes or so until they are golden and crisp. Serve with an extra scattering of salt and some lemon juice squeezed over the top.

Serves 4

I totes forgot to drizzle one side with olive oil and i never turned them while they were in the oven. Still fantastic. Jason made some simple tarter sauce to go with the fish. Mostly because he likes to eat it. Spoon style.


Awesome Peas
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 large yellow onion, sliced thin
1 pinch brown sugar
1 garlic clove peeled and chopped
1 bag frozen peas
salt + pepper

Warm olive oil and butter over medium high heat. Add onion and sugar, stir and lower heat to medium and cover. Allow onion to caramelize, about 15 minutes, checking every few minutes and adding water if the onion is sticking. Add garlic, toss around in the pan for a few seconds. Add peas. Cover and cook until peas are warmed through and bright green, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Yummy Salad with My Favorite Vinaigrette
For Vinaigrette:
2 (large) tablespoons red wine vinegar (we like tangy dressing. if you don't, reduce the vinegar)
salt
pepper
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
a drizzle of honey
about 1/4 cup olive oil

Make your dressing in the bottom of your salad bowl. This way you can make your salad on top of it and toss it all at the last minute, with fewer dishes to wash up when you're finished! Mix first 5 ingredients with a whisk. Whisk vigorously, so you get a uniform consistency. Stream in olive oil while whisking. Taste.

For Salad:
baby spinach
thinly sliced red onion
2 or 3 fresh garden tomatoes chopped (important to use farmer's market or homegrown tomatoes in this salad, the hothouse SuperMarket variety just won't do)
a knob of tangy blue cheese, crumbled

Drop the onion in the vinaigrette. Putting raw onion into the dressing quick-pickles it a bit, and takes a bit of the bite away. Pile up the rest of the ingredients in your salad bowl and toss it all together at the table.

If you're lucky, you'll get to finish your dinner with a table-side saxophone serenade. Ahhhh, sweet sweet music.



Or, a milkshake. With a cute straw. You choose.

Sorry for the pause in programming.
We have some changes going on here at 226.
Hope to be back soon!

{{right now}}

Baking yumminess for cocktail parties and wedding showers, hoping that they made the guest smile.
Exciting in the fact that there was leftover salted caramel sauce for drizzling over ice cream and stuff.
Realizing that the laundry increases two fold in the summer months, but loving the outdoor play, for real.
Watching the intrigue my boy has for maple tree seeds or "helicopters." Did you know they can be anything? He even served them to me for lunch last week, on a small paper plate.
Loving taking photos of mouths. Weird? Probably.
Having salads for dinner so I can avoid steaming up my already steamy kitchen. This one was raw shaved brussel sprouts + thinly sliced apples + salt + pepper + lots of lemon juice and just enough olive oil + a generous topping of shaved Parmigiano Reggiano. It made bellies smile.
Planting tiny pots with strawberry seeds that these two check on every morning.

Have a lovely second half of the week.

Lunch @ 226 - Cashew Snack Wraps

Do you have a standard variety of produce in your refrigerator? We do. It involves mushrooms, salad greens, green onions, carrots, broccoli and celery. These are our staples and they are always purchased at the store, regardless of if they are needed in a recipe. It makes me feel safe to have these (sort of on the boring side) vegetables in my crisper. I know I can make dinner, even if these few things are all I have.


A few months ago, I peered into the hydrator as I started to plan lunch. I didn't see much. But, there were carrots, a half eaten cucumber, a few pea shoots and some green tortilla shells, which Reed refers to as Mermaid Food. That's anything green, actually. I had a vision that involved all of these Forgotten Ingredients and I pulled my knife off its magnet, like some sort of armed culinary superhero.



I pulled out the spinach flour tortillas and thinly sliced a seedless cucumber. Then I coarsely shredded some carrots and added some pea shoots. Sometimes I add thinly sliced mushrooms, avocado, green onions, cooked edamame, cold cubes of tofu, finely chopped or shredded broccoli. You get the idea...it's a "whatever wrap." Just think about what you're adding. I try to keep it all in the Asian flavors group, because they are sort of dumbed down Asian snacks. So, you know, no tomatoes. That'd be icky.



After you've added your vegetables, chop a few cashews...like, 1/2 a cup for two wraps. It tastes best with roasted and salted cashews but we're trying to eat more raw nuts so we're slowly training our taste buds to enjoy the buttery texture and flavor of raw cashews wrapped up in these. You use whatever you have. Dump the nuts on top of your piles of vegetables.



A caterer/chef I occasionally work for often proclaims, "the sauce is boss." She's right, really. If you have an average crab cake, people will still rave about it if it is paired with the perfect aioli. So, that's the key for these. Run out to your neighborhood *Trader Joe's and pick up a bottle of Spicy Peanut Vinaigrette dressing. It's indescribably yummy. I will tell you though, if spooning it into my mouth as a soup were socially acceptable, I would do that. Everyday. Drizzle that on top of the contents of your wrap, roll up, toothpick to keep closed and to feel fancy, slice on the diagonal, and serve.



With the same vegetable assortment, I usually make a salad while they're eating their wraps. This one had crunchy romaine, shredded green cabbage, a little red onion, 1/2 an avocado, thinly sliced cucumber, shredded carrot, some leftover edamame, cashews and of course the soup, I mean, salad dressing. It was awesomely filling and so very tasty.

*If you don't have a Trader Joe's, just google something like "Spicy Peanut Vinaigrette recipe" and there are plenty of results. I like to take shortcuts at lunchtime to make my afternoon run a little more smoothly. But, feel free to take the time to make your own sauce. I'm sure it would be tremendous.


"Yo Moms, where'd you get this shit? It's DANK!"

This is Beckett, eating his Mermaid Food, aka Roasted Seaweed Snacks which we both love. But, I've always thought this photo looked like he just received a heaping portion of the Best. Drugs. Ever. Oh, my little stoner.

Face it.

Did I tell you guys that when my kids left for Florida to stay with my parents for a week, my twenty-eight year old-not sure why I still have it-very post pubescent and annoying acne left with them. Don't tell them, but I think there's a connection there. Oh, the kids came back, and so did the zits. But, I took these pictures to remember my beautiful acne-free, stress-free self by. You know, for posterity and whatnot. And just in case it never happens again.




As you can see, I was puzzled that it all just disappeared in a matter of hours after dropping them off at the airport. Well, at least I have PROOF of the six lovely, complexion-issue-free days. It was fun while it lasted.

More Than a Greenhouse.

Jason's plants were getting too big for the small room set aside for his obsession. So, in his typical fashion, he imagined a solution: and built it.









I left for work in the afternoon as he put a few nails in the sides of our raised bed. I came home in the evening and we had a greenhouse. A greenhouse! I mean, he had help. Love.

Lunch @ 226 - Almond Butter, Banana, and Jam Sandwich

Lunch for kids can be tough for healthy eaters. Can I get a Hell Yeah? Time is limited midday, between activities. The typical options are so void of any real ingredients or nutrients I try to steer clear of them entirely. I don't make turkey sandwiches with gobs of condiments and no vegetables, or noodles and orange powder that come from a thin cardboard box, or hot dogs, or little noodle o's swimming in a sea of sugar and red sauce that doesn't deserve to be called tomato. It's not that I didn't eat these things when I was young, it's just that I'm becoming super difficult in my ripe old age. But, I'm sure you know that by now.



I think these things are so heavily relied upon because they take less than five minutes to prepare. Little Susie Loo Who can go read a book and when she flips the last page and starts to complain that she's bored, lunch has already made it to the table. I can appreciate that, and I'm sure you can too.



But, I'm obsessed you see. Totally obsessed with stuffing as much nutrition into my kids as humanly possible. It's kind of a sickness, but it's not going to be cured soon. I told you I was difficult.



I have been collecting my lunch ideas for the past few months, and I can't wait to share them with you. Seriously, my inspiration must come to me midday because some of these ideas kick some serious Chef Boyardee ass. But, I'm going to start this series with a traditional standby. Make it in five minutes, always have the ingredients, I guarantee it going into heavy rotation at your house. The idea comes from the kids' menu at a now (sadly) defunct Vegan eatery at our local farmer's market. We got it for the kids once, and have been making it ever since. Everyone eats it at least once a week and there is never even a crust left on the plate. Oh, and don't think you won't make it for yourself when you need a need snack. I do, ALL the time.




Almond Butter, Apricot and Banana Sandwiches
Get two pieces of your favorite whole wheat or multigrain bread, we're into the sprouted variety. Toast them lightly, my kids hate it when their toast gets too crunchy. Schmear a decent amount of almond butter on one half and another decent schmear of apricot jam goes on the other half. Lastly, thinly slice the banana. the resaurant did it fancy and lengthwise and i thought it was cute, but never do it here. You do whatever time will allow. Place banana slices on peanut butter half and close up the sandwich, give it a gentle smush so it all sticks together. Serve with whatever fruit you have in the house. And try to not eat your kids' lunch. Seriously, they're hungry.