Feelin' Fishy

When Ryan and I are home in Minnesota .. all we want to do is eat.  We want to eat ethnic food.  We want authentic ethnic food. We want American-ized ethnic food. Baja Sol. Leeann Chin. Big Bowl. Red Ginger. Acapulco's. Taste of Thailand.  That little Korean place 1 block north of where we lived in Shoreview .... the list could go on forever.  South Bend just "didn't" have what we wanted for so long .. that we quit looking!  At least for awhile .. we have found a few decent places in town that I've blogged/bragged about .. but that is beside the point.

We go home and we want good food!  With out cooking it ourselves! Hahah   One of our biggest cravings are fish tacos. Good fish tacos. Baja Sol fish tacos.  Sounds scary, huh?  They aren't. They are fabulous.  Ryan and I agreed tonight - Who doesn't like fish tacos? Someone who has never had GOOD ... fish tacos!

What with it being Lent and all .. we planned our dinner very strategically .. we were going to have fish tacos for dinner.  We picked up the Gordon's fish sticks at the grocery, extra tortillas from when we had enchiladas earlier this week, and conveniently, we forgot the cabbage.  This turned out for the better, though, because I had a diet-turn-of-conscience and asked Ryan to also grab me some non-breaded-and-fried Tilapia fillets for my beautiful fish tacos.  I'm sure weight watchers frowns upon Gordon's fish sticks. =P

What we put together was wonderful ... Ryan's fish-stick-tacos for the cod-flavored, breaded-crispy deliciousness, and my pan-fried-fresh Tilapia for its flaky, spicy, slightly crisp (thank you Panko) texture.

Here is our Method -

Ryan's Fish-Stick Tacos

First we thawed my fish, preheated the oven for Ryan's fish sticks and threw together my fishy marinade - Here is what I used, straight from the Penzey's label -

Splash of Olive Oil  /  Squeeze of 1/2 lime  /  Dash(es) of Penzey's Jerk Spice

We let my fish swim around in this meager marinade for about 15 minutes while we put together our mayonnaise-based sauce.

I found a recipe here .. and it was o.k.  I don't keep plain yogurt in the fridge like I used to, so we went with about 1/3-1/2 c. of mayonnaise and kept the spices about the same, sans jalopeno, though, because we didn't have any fresh (several rings of banana peppers jarred from the fridge, minced, 1/2 lime squeezed (a bit less), 1t. minced capers - rinsed, 1/2 t. each of oregano, dill weed and cumin, 1 t. cayenne - start with 1/2 t. cayenne .. taste it .. and add more if you want!! it will be spicy.).  Once it's all mixed together,

My Tilapia Tacos

Once Ryan's fish was about half-way done baking, we prepped my fish to be pan fried.  We sprinkled a little more Penzey's jerk onto my fish, patted some Panko bread crumbs on top, flipped, repeated, and dropped it into a non-stick pan and about 1t. olive oil for about 5 minutes, flipped, then 3-4 minutes more.

We warmed our corn tortillas in the non-stick pan .. with a pinch of oil .. and assembled our tacos -

Corn tortilla, fish, dollop of sauce, pinch of finely shredded cabbage, squeeze of lime ... some yellow rice (rice + water + chicken stock) ... tortillas if you are still hungry after tacos + rice ... and we had a fabulous fishy feast. ;-) YUMM!



Aside from the fish taco aspect .. My Lenten bible study has been going o.k.  I am the oldest person in attendance ... if not by a few months ... and definitely the only person in attendance with a CHILD. Hahah  It is such a kick-back conversing with the undergraduate students at Notre Dame, and also a fun moment of reflection ... thinking back to when Ryan and I were undergrads.  I've enjoyed digging deeper into the bible as well as engaging in such thoughtful reflection ... I've missed flexing my brain around literature ..!!  The best part, though, is coming home and discussing what we read or discussed in bible study with Ryan.  I've also been enjoying Nouwen's work before bed from time to time.  I'll have to post about one of my favorites so far ... I've been a bit lazy about blog posts lately ;-)  My apologies!

coming to a close

Our visit to Minnesota is coming to a close. It has been an eventful few days, and after nearly 2 weeks away from home, I am a bit eager to get back to "the norm" and into our daily groove again.  I had my typical moody-grump phase yesterday, feeling bummed and forlorn at the thought of leaving our family in Minnesota.  I take comfort in knowing that I've spent almost 5 of the last 10 weeks with family. Saturation, beautiful, cozy, loving, family-centered saturation.  The hard part is being unsure of when we'll be back ... Easter? <sigh> best not to think about that right now. =)

Ryan came down with a sudden case of strep throat ... Poor guy could hardly speak by the time we got him in to the doctor.  He's finally feeling like himself again.  It was pretty scary seeing him sleep and sleep ... with no appetite ... sweats/chills/vomiting/choking/bleary-eyed sickness. Noo thank you!  Following his 24-hours-of-antibiotics-til-no-longer-contagious period I promptly washed all of the bedding he came in contact with, lysol spraying the bed and pillows, and disinfecting all common household surfaces.  The plus to his illness? 2 extra days in Minnesota!

We moved from Mom n Dad's house to the Haws home, making a cozy little pack-n-play nest for Thomas to sleep in, and settling into Ryan's old room.  T slept pretty well last night, waking with gas and then having an adventurous 5 a.m. til 7:45 a.m. with Dad, who graciously let me go back to sleep for an hour before Kathy and I got ready to start our busy morning together.

Kathy, T and I met for coffee this morning at Caribou Coffee.  It was so nice to see my sisters.  Following, Kathy and I went to Treadle and Penzey's on Grand Ave.  There were so many gorgeous fabrics there - if only I had a pattern in mind - I could have blown the bank on fabric! Hahah - I've since been googling some of their licensed kid-prints for quilt ideas ... their Dr. Seuss / Lorax / Goodnight Moon collections were adorable ... as were some of the non-licensed prints - think cute little boy fabric complete with bicycles, folding instructions to make a paper airplane, robots, nature (bears, birds, trees), city prints ... I am going to have to go back with a project in mind next time we are in town!

I'm excited for a few up-coming blog posts with the new year - the first being a post about one of my favorite wintertime recipes - Cardamom bread!  I found white cardamom pods at Penzey's today, which are supposed to be more Scandinavian in flavour than their green (which I've used courtesy of the S. bend farmers' market) or black podded cousins. The second post is hopefully going to be a guest post from Ryan involving beermaking!

Tomorrow Ryan, T and I are going to spend New Years Eve with Ryan J. and Marge in their new little home Mexican Taco style <3 Here are some great NYE/New Years Resolution articles I've come across the last few days that I recommend checking out -

25 Parenting Resolutions for 2012 - There are so many goodies here. Personally I hope to implement many of these in my daily life .. particularly #25 ;-)

30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself - This is an eye opener, and definitely a reminder to 'chill' and live life to it's fullest, instead of going the doom-and-gloom pathway that is so easy (for me) to fall into sometimes.

I'm looking forward to the drive back to Indiana on January 1.  It'll be a great opportunity to reflect on 2011, formulate family resolutions with Ryan, and reflect upon the last two weeks with family. Mm <3  Hopefully it's one of our last trips! Only time will tell.