Saturday, October 23, 2010

Fish Tacos

From what I understand there are two schools when it comes to fish tacos.  Some fish taco recipes call for lightly breaded cubes of fish fried in oil.  The other recipes call for grilled or sauteed fish that is flaked after cooking.  I've never been a fan of fried food and I hate what cooking with hot grease does to the inside of your home. 

I marinated a couple pieces of mahi mahi with lime juice, fresh ground pepper, salt, cumin, and shot it with cooking spray.  It's very important to put oil on your fish if you are cooking it on the grill. It keeps it from sticking and falling apart when you turn it. 


Baja fish tacos are commonly served with a cabbage slaw.  I shredded about a cup of cabbage. To that I added a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, juice of half a lime, teaspoon of Penzey's red chipotle powder and a few leaves of cilantro.  A little less lime juice would have done since the sour cream has some acid in it.



I grilled the two pieces of fish on my medium sized Weber grill, but I only started enough charcoal for the small grill.  With the fish in the middle of the grill, I could warm my tortillas around the fish.  When the fish was done I flaked it.



When you eat at a restaurant in Mexico they always bring condiments like diced onions, salsas and lime wedges  to the table. I chopped a few ingredients to embellish our tacos.  Cilantro, tomato, avocado and lime wedges.



And finally the finished product. The tortillas were a little tough due to cooking them on the grill.  I'd probably be better off just steaming them in the microwave.  It was still delicious.



Tuesday, October 19, 2010

What's Cooking?

There are many reasons I love to cook.  First of all I love to eat.  But I want to eat foods with flavor and variety.  There is no room on my palate for bland food.   

Those of you that I've cooked for know my saying, "I'm glad you enjoyed what I made for myself."  The truth is I get great pleasure from watching and listening to you enjoy my creations.

For me cooking is great therapy.  I find that it's a great way for me to leave my thoughts behind.  I can spend time by myself in the kitchen, listening to some good music and slicing and dicing to my hearts content.

I cook by feel.  I try to avoid measuring devices as much as possible.  A little of this and a little of that serves me well.  If I am intrigued by a dish that I read about or see on a cooking show, I'll search out some recipes on the internet.  But I rarely cook specifically to any recipe.  I'll look at a few and make my own interpretation.

I try to be conscious about what ingredients are in the refrigerator and plan meals accordingly. Wednesday evenings I am usually home alone and I make supper from whatever I can find in the house. 


This was a Wednesday supper.  It started with a leftover flank steak salad.  I boiled about 5 oz of linguine. While the noodles were boiling I made a dressing of soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, honey, and chili paste.  I tossed the salad with the dressing and then I tossed in the hot cooked noodles.  The heat from the noodles warmed up the salad and wilted the lettuce just a bit.  It was really yummy.

Monday, October 11, 2010

What's Next?

Lyme disease has been the focus of our lives for the past couple of years.  It is still with us, but has less of an impact on our daily lives than in the past.  Lynette's recovery has progressed to the point that she is able to live a normal life.  She is definitely not back to where she was before she got sick, but there aren't many tasks that she can't undertake.

The rest of Lynette's recovery is going to depend on her body's ability to repair itself.  The nerve damage caused by her immune system's reaction to this infection will be long to heal.  She would love to be able to run again.  I would love to face her across the net on the tennis court.

Since I've not had much to report about, I will be changing the focus of my blog.  I have much to say about many other subjects and I love to write about them.  I look forward to using this space to share my pleasures, annoyances and anything else that flows from my finger tips. 

I love to cook and I love share pictures and tactics of my cooking methods with anybody who's interested.  I will be sharing my passion for cooking on this blog.  But I will also be talking about life and Lyme disease and whatever else is on my mind.

I guess I need a new name for my blog.  Any suggestions?