GIADA'S TILAPIA FISH TACOS, AND PATIENCE, MY DEAR!...........

(Do you rip out recipies from magazines as carefully as I do? Pitiful, I must say...)

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It's March. In upstate New York. Normally the coldest place on the planet. It's 80 degrees in the shade, with nary a leaf on a tree. Super freaky...but nice! Spent yesterday cleaning up my flower beds...this is what they look like, 'bout now.........(see if you can find the little kitty, jumping off a rock in this photo).....



BEEYOUTEEFUL, right? Ugh...this is what is usually left under all the snow.....and so hard to believe it will all end up looking like this, in a few months time.....BRING IT!.....



That's the thing about gardening...you can't rush it. Which is so hard for an impatient person like myself....I want my eye candy, and I want it, NOW!!!

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In anticipation of our daughter's return home for summer break, I've been trying out new Vegetarian/Pescatarian recipes again, just so I don't have to hear the kid whine about having nothing to eat! And it's official--she IS NOT eating meat again...just spoke with her (phone reception, even via Skype, SUCKS from France, just so you know) a few minutes ago, and she seemed excited to try out the recipe I made for dinner, just last night. From Ladies' Home Journal mag, doncha know....Giada's delicous Tilapia Fish Tacos with Arugula.

I totally forgot to take any photos until I was actually putting the tacos together, so this is all I have for you...you'll have to take my word for it: these tacos are FANTASTIQUE! I think I love the mango/avocado/arugula salad on the tacos most of all......and also the Wasabi cream sauce.  I do wish somebody would tell me WHY my photos are so blurry lately--so sorry!.........

You can tell that Wink didn't like his, not one little bit............



Here's the recipe, if you'd like to try them for yourself (and I do hereby promise to get with it, once again, regarding my photography!)......

TILAPIA FISH TACOS WITH ARUGULA

Serves 4

6 tblsp. olive oil

6 tilapia fillets (about 1 lb), cut into 3/4 inch pieces (I do believe haddock would be good in these, also)

1 tblsp. plus 3/4 tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. ground pepper

1 ripe avocado, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 mango, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

2 tblsp. chopped cilantro

3 scallions, white and pale green parts, finely chopped

2 cups packed baby arugula, coarsely chopped

1 tblsp. fresh lime juice

1 cup creme fraiche or sour cream

2 tblsp. wasabi powder (found in the Japanese foods section)

8 6-inch corn tortillas

In a large, nonstick skillet heat 3 tblsp. olive oil over medium-high heat. Drizzle tilapia fillets with 1 tblsp. olive oil and season both sides with 1 tblsp. salt and the pepper. Arrange half the fish in a single layer in the pan and cook until the flesh is flaky and cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Repeat with remaining fish. Set aside to cool slightly. In a medium bowl, combine avocado, mango, cilantro, scallions and arugula. In a separate bowl, whisk together remaining 2 tblsp. olive oil, lime juice and 1/4 tsp. salt. Drizzle over avocado mixture and toss to coat. In a bowl, mix creme fraiche, wasabi powder and 1/2 tsp. salt until smooth. Warm tortillas by heating in batches in a dry skillet, turning occasionally until warm. Divide the mango-avocado salad among tortillas. Top with fish and some wasabi creme fraiche.

TODAY I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR....

***The trip I'm planning to California this August, to help celebrate my parent's 50th wedding anniversary--God bless 'em! I also plan on helping my daughter settle into her senior-year living situation, and hopefully spend lots of quality time with relatives and friends.

***The opportunity to exercise around here almost every single day again...3 days at the gym, the rest of the time walking fast with friends outside in the fresh spring air!

***The hour long conversation I just had with my beautiful, hilarious daughter--chatting with her always makes me so happy!

MOM'S FISH TACOS, THE BLUES, AND COUNTING MY BLESSINGS, BIG TIME!

I was just having one of those days, yesterday; you know, kinda blue. Blue for a few reasons, starting with..............

***Pudding cups. The kind that Jello makes that are in all the stores, and are prominently displayed right now on the grocery store's end-caps, because it's back to school time, and pudding cups are popular in kid's lunch boxes. Lunch boxes...hmmm, don't hafta pack those anymore....which made me sad the other day, and is making me tear up, writing this. Maybe this is what happens to moms - of - only - children......the kids just grow up too fast, and them WHAM, they're gone, and we're left with nobody else to mother but the family dawwggg. Sigh. I know this happens to all moms (well, if we've done our jobs correctly and set our children free to explore this wonderful world we live in, anyways), but it's all just happened so FAST. And that's all I'm sayin' on this subject, for now anyways.

***Methotrexate. Or, more specifically, how Methotrexate is failing me, which led to my rheumatologist just looking at me and shaking her head, pitifully. Because it seems we've tried everything else, and everything else just hurts my liver too much to take it anymore. And Methotrexate is just making me MORE sick--sheesh, like I NEED that! So I'm running out of options, except to go back to that horrible / wonderful Prednisone, which I hate / love.

***The state of the economy, and how it's affecting us all. Because even though Big Daddy is so blessed with his wonderful job, we've lost soooo much money, like everyone else, in our retirement account, which just makes me sick to my stomach. Not to mention our real estate--it's no secret our house is on the market, again (which TOTALLY exhausts me), and we're probably "under water" at this point, because we built when prices were at their absolute highest (2004, before the "crash"), and now it seems that we'll just have to give our wonderful home away. I'm just getting too old for this! Hey, anybody wanna buy a house?.................

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Enough of that blues nonsense. Despite it all, I really do try to always look on the sunny side. Because that's just how I roll! My one little pity-party day was Friday, and well, by Friday night I was over the MOON with happiness and gratefulness, because.......

***This movie opened...................

Am I the only one who has been counting the DAYS until opening night? Big Daddy and I got to our beloved STRAND THEATRE bright and early, for fear of the flick being sold out, and let me tell you that this was one of the best movies we've seen in a long, long time; it's not everyday that you laugh, you cry, AND the entire audience applauds at the ending. The bestselling book was awesome, and the movie did it justice--another rarity, I know!

***This came in the mail, just for me..................

A delightful little chicken pitcher, to add to my chicken pitcher collection (doesn't everyone have that collection, I ask?)...sent by my dear friend Marianne, who owns this shop.............

If you've been reading this blog for long, you know this is my favorite shop in the whole wide universe, Old and Everlasting, in Cazenovia, New York. You should check out Marianne's website and blog.....I will be making another pilgrimage to her shop very soon for her Fall Open House. Nirvana, absolute Nirvana!!! Thank you Marianne--your thoughtfulness and great timing are so heartfelt to me!

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As you may remember from my last post, Abbie requested Fish Tacos for her "last supper" (doesn't that sound so dramatic and final?). So of course I made them....they're my mom Carol's recipe, and we LOVE LOVE LOVE them to death! Best thing about her fish tacos? They come together lickity split--you can actually use frozen and breaded fish filets, straight from those cute little Gorton's Fishermen! How great is that?

To start, you'll need to assemble your cabbage mixture. Combine shredded cabbage (if you want to get really fancy, use red AND green!), cilantro, chopped red onion, lime juice and salt.............just look at this COLOR!!.............

Refrigerate cabbage mixture until ready to use. For the avocado topping, mix together 1 very ripe mashed avocado, salt and sour cream..............

Also refrigerate this mixture until ready to use. Bake your fish filets until crispy (Mom says if you don't want to use the frozen fish filets for dietary reasons, you could use several pieces of any mild white fish, sprinkled with lemon and pepper seasoning and baked until done). Cut filets into chunks............

To assemble tacos, place several chunks of fish filets into each tortilla. Top with avocado mixture, cabbage mixture, Jack cheese and maybe some hot sauce, if desired. Absolutely delicious....thanks, Mom!

Here's the recipe.............

MOM'S FISH TACOS

1 package of 6 Gorton's Breaded Fish Filets, frozen

6 or 8 flour tortillas

Salad topping:

Shredded green cabbage and / or

Shredded red cabbage (about 2 cups shredded cabbage, total)

1 / 2 bunch cilantro, chopped

1 / 2 small red onion, chopped

1 / 2 lime, squeezed

1 / 2 tsp. salt

Avocado mixture:

1 very ripe avocado, mashed

lime juice

salt

1/ 4 cup sour cream

Jack cheese

Hot sauce, optional

Combine all salad topping ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to use. Combine all avocado mixture ingredients. Refrigerate until ready to use. Bake fish filets per package instructions. Cut into chunks. Heat tortillas and place several chunks of fish filets into each tortilla. Top with avocado mixture, cabbage mixture, Jack cheese and hot sauce, if desired.

YUMMY-LICIOUS CROCK POT TORTILLA SOUP!

Here's another glare-ey slightly blurry old photo; this one is my dad, in his baby carriage, in 1932. His smile here just cracks me up, because he still smiles (and GIGGLES, really!) just like this:

And really, this old picture has NOTHING to do with Tortilla Soup, but it's my blog and I can do what I want to!

Do you remember a few posts ago, when I cooked the crock pot Pork Carnitas Tacos? Well, we alwayyyyzzzzz have lots of leftover pork from that (seeing that it's only the two of us at home anymore), so I freeze it to use in this soup recipe. You could also use the leftover shredded pork in burritos, but that's a whole 'nuther post. I love this recipe because it's so stinkin' easy--just get out your crock pot, dump everything in and off you go! If you are using uncooked meat, like chicken, you'll put it in at the beginning of cooking, but if you're using pre-cooked meat, you can just add it a few hours before the end of cooking time.

Here's what the soup looks like, cooked:

Now, because this is TORTILLA Soup, you're probably going to want some tortillas! I like to cut my corn tortillas into strips, cook them in olive oil, salt and pepper until golden brown. You can also cook them in the oven, like my friend Lisa does, for a lower fat version. I always make lots extra, just to nibble on:

Ladle your soup into bowls, and top with grated Monterey Jack cheese, fresh parsley and these tortilla strips, and you've got dinner! Enjoy:

CROCK POT TORTILLA SOUP

Serves 4-6
                                                                                      
2 chicken breast halves, skinned and cubed (or you can use pre-cooked chicken or pork in this)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 tblsp. chili powder
1 small can chopped green chilis
2 tblsp. vegetable oil
4-6 corn tortillas, cut into 1/2 inch strips
salt  to taste
shredded Monterey Jack cheese
Fresh chopped parsley or Cilantro

Combine first 9 ingredients in slow cooker (or, if using pre-cooked meats, do not add meat until 2 hours before end of cooking time). Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours. Heat oil in large skillet and add tortilla strips. Cook, stirring, over medium heat until crisp and browned, adding salt about half-way through cooking time. Drain on paper towels. Ladle soup into bowls; top with shredded Jack cheese, fresh cilantro or parsley and tortilla chips.

TOP 3 THINGS I'M GRATEFUL FOR TODAY:

1. I'm grateful for my nice, warm home; it was negative 11 out this morning!
2. I'm grateful for the sun shining in my windows, telling me it's time to dust!
3. I'm gratful that I have leftover split pea soup in the freezer for tonite's dinner; I really don't feel like cooking!

PORK CARNITAS AND A LIL' SUMPIN' SUMPIN'!!!

Okay, I think I had the best Valentine's Day, EVER, this year! I made a wonderful pot of Wild Rice and Kielbasa soup for dinner, a fantastic and from scratch Lemon Cake with Glaze for dessert, and sent Big Daddy a pretty plant for his office, where all living things go to die.  In turn, Big Daddy came home from his day bearing gifts, and since there's nobody else living in this house except me and the dog and cats and the spiders, I suspected they were all for ME ME ME, and boy was I right! Big Daddy did a little shopping, it seems, while he was away on business last weekend--he gave me a bottle of my favorite perfume (Donna Karan's "Delicious"--the bottle is shaped like a darling little apple!), and the biggest surprise of my life. A camera. A "real" camera--a Nikon L110:

I'm over the moon, because he knows how much this little blog means to me, and how frustrated I was with my piece of #*@T digital camera. So now, after I've kissed his face about a gazillion times,  I really have my work cut out for me--hopefully by next week I'll be up and running with more professional looking photos. It's gonna take me that long, because the user's manual is about 45,823 pages long, and kinda technical looking. But I"m a smart girl, and a motivated girl, so you should be expecting something great!

SPEAKING of something great--I made one of my favorite and easy crock pot recipes last week, my Pork Carnitas Tacos. You simply cannot find an easier recipe, and all you have to do before you eat them is shred the meat with a fork, and maybe throw together a side dish (I served mine with refried beans) and some "fixins". Big Daddy LOVES this recipe, Card-Carrying-Mexican-Food-Loving-California-Boy that he is:

See that--he's shoving his face full, then licking his fingers! If you want to lick your fingers, too, then make these Carnitas for supper. Here are the ingredients you'll need:

Just throw all the ingredients in your crock pot (well, gently place them in, actually, and NOT the tortillas!), first thing in the morning--it'll look something like this, before cooking:

Cook on "low" for 10 hours, then shred the pork with two forks:

The flavor of this pork is INSANE, and so very tender! I serve mine with shredded lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, tomatoes and cheese, and let everyone put their own tacos together at the table:

Like I mentioned, I served mine that night with refried beans, but some Spanish rice would be good, too. And before I forget, this recipe makes a lot of cooked pork, so I usually freeze what we don't use and use it later in Tortilla Soup. I'll be sure to share that recipe with you, soon. Here's the Pork Carnitas Taco recipe:

PORK CARNITAS TACOS

Serves 6-8

2 lb. pork tenderloin (or, you can use a less expensive 2 lb. boneless pork roast)

1 10oz. can Rotel tomatoes, drained

1 4.5 oz. can chopped green chilis

1 16oz. jar green salsa

1/2 tsp. cumin

1 tblsp. chili powder

flour tortillas

Serve with: shredded cheese, cilantro, avocado or guacamole, tomatoes, shredded lettuce and sour cream, if desired

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cook on "low" for 10 hours, or until pork shreds easily with two forks. Serve using a slotted spoon in flour tortillas. Serve with desired "fixins".

TOP 3 THINGS I'M GRATEFUL FOR TODAY:

1. I'm grateful that my wonderful husband of 23 years encourages my creativity.

2. I'm grateful that our daughter received her Valentine's Day care package ON Valentine's Day (instead of after!), and that NONE of the delicate cookies broke.

3. I'm grateful that our "handyman" Marc, who will be spending the next week or so in our house for some necessary construction, is so easy to be around, and so neat! He even asks to mop up his snowy footprints!

BECKY'S ENCHILADAS SUIZAS

I prepared Becky Wendler's FANTASTIC Enchiladas Suizas for dinner last night. As time goes on, you will probably notice that I LOVE LOVE LOVE good Mexican food, being a California native girl. So does MY little California native girl; just look at how happy she looks, digging in:

Don't be intimidated by the huge amount of ingredients--they are very easy to find, and the dish comes together, lickity split. Here's pretty much what you'll need:

As always, the recipe will be at the end of this post. First thing you want to do is simmer your chicken breasts for about 15-20 minutes:

While these are cooking, you can be chopping up your onion and bell peppers, and then saute them in some butter:

(Check out my newest gadget, a chef's scoop--makes it soooo much easier to get your ingredients into the pan, without spilling anything on the floor!)

I just LOVE my Calphalon pans--nothing sticks, and you can use less oil, which equals fewer calories!

Next you're going to chop up your chipotle chiles--don't skip these, as they add a very nice smoky heat to the enchiladas. You can find them, packed in adobo sauce, in most Mexican food sections:

You will also want to chop up about a 1/2 cup of Cilantro, unless you loathe it, as I used to. I can take it in small amounts now, and my fambly loves it!:

After you shred your chilled cooked chicken, you're going to mix a lot of stuff together in a big bowl, then fill your tortillas, like so:

Place the filled tortillas, seam side down, in a greased baking dish. Sprinkle some Monterey Jack over enchiladas, then pour over the cream and chicken broth:

(Big Daddy had to do this for me, as I'm uncoordinated and can't take a photo AND pour at the same time..)

Bake as directed, then serve, maybe with a nice salad, to some very appreciative people:

YUMMMMMMMM!!! Thanks, Becky, for the "keeper" recipe!

BECKY'S CHICKEN ENCHILADAS SUIZAS

Serves 8

6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 1/2 lb., total)

1 tblsp. butter

1 cup chopped onion

1 green and 1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped

8 oz. grated cheddar cheese

1 4oz. can diced green chiles

1 cup purchased fresh cilantro

4 tsp. ground cumin

2-3 canned Chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (optional)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

12 to 15 7inch flour tortillas

10 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, grated

1 cup whipping cream

1/2 cup chicken broth

Garnish:

chopped avocada

chopped tomato

chopped fresh cilantro

(we garnished with sour cream)

Place chicken in pan of rapidly boiling water to cover, and simmer 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat, drain, cool and shred chicken. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In medium skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Cook onion and bell peppers until just soft, about 5-8 minutes. Transfer to large bowl. Add chicken, cheddar cheese, green chiles, salsa, cilantro, cumin, and chipotle chiles, if desired. Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix well.

Greast 10x15x2 inch baking pan or two smaller pans. Place 1 flour tortilla on flat surface and place about 1/3 cup chicken mixture along 1 edge. Roll up from filling side, and place, seam side down, in prepared pan. Repeat process with remaining chicken mixture. Sprinkle Monterey Jack over enchiladas. (May be prepared to this point up to 1 day in advance. Cover and chill)

Combine cream and chicken broth and pour over enchiladas. Cover pan with foil and bake 30 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Place 1 or 2 enchiladas on individual serving plates and garnish with avocado, tomato and additonal cilantro, if desired.