Grilled Catfish with Veggie Sauce

I saw the original version of this recipe on Giada's show (she used halibut), and of course, I had to tinker with it. The onion in my pantry had gone bad, so I had to make a substitution, and there was some fresh baby zucchini in the fridge, so this is what developed…

Grilled Catfish with Veggie Sauce

Sauce:
1 T. olive oil
1 T. minced garlic
1 T. dried minced onion
2 small zucchini, diced
1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes
1 jar/can (12 oz.) artichoke hearts, diced
1 can (14.5 oz.) chicken broth
1/2 t. Italian seasoning



1. Start the sauce by sautéing the garlic and onion in olive oil.
(NOTE: Don't use butter because it can burn and lend a bitter taste to the garlic. And, if you have fresh onion you can use that; the reason I didn't was because it was bad when I sliced into the one I had, so I just substituted the dried minced onion instead.)
2. Add the zucchini and allow it to cook and brown lightly.
3. Pour in the diced tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and chicken broth. Add seasoning.
4. Allow this to cook and reduce so the tomatoes cook down, the zucchini gets done, and some of the liquid boils off. When it looks about done, start your fish.



fish:
2 (6 oz.) catfish filets
dash of salt and pepper to taste

I made the fish on our George Foreman grill, but you can sauté, broil or bake it, as you desire. Do this step LAST, since it will only take a few minutes for the fish to cook, and you want to serve it right as it is done cooking.


To serve, use a shallow bowl, like a pasta bowl, and ladel in a scoop or two of the veggie sauce. Place a fish filet on top, in each bowl.


NOTE: My recipe was made with two portions of fish, but there will be enough sauce for 4 filets.



LINKS:
Giada's Halibut in Artichoke and Tomato Broth

Chocolate-Raspberry Fudge

I made this batch of fudge for my good friend (and neighbor) Stuart. He's a great kid, and his favorite thing is chocolate-raspberry anything. When it is this easy to make someone so happy, you just gotta do it!

Chocolate-Raspberry Fudge for Stu

First, melt a package of chocolate chips in the microwave; stir well:


Then stir in a tablespoon or two of raspberry jam:


Mix in a can of cream cheese frosting & stir well:

At first, the frosting will be a little lumpy when you try to mix it with the chocolate...let it rest for a minute, then try to stir it again, and it should loosen up.

Blend well, and turn out into an 8 x 8 pan lined with greased foil. Refrigerate for at least an hour, then cut into bite-sized pieces.

This is a very easy recipe, and I'm sorry I didn't get more photos of the process, but I was in a real time crunch to get stuff done before we left to spend Christmas with relatives out-of-state.

Upon our return, Stu reported that the fudge was delicious.

Gripe Of The Day

"Don't Stand So Close To Me"

Not just a song by The Police! I mean it. Get away from me. Stop invading my personal space. You're crowding me, and you smell like stale cigarette smoke and dirty feet. Get away!

Tuesday afternoon I had to stop at the post office in town to mail a package that I had promised to send a while ago.

That's when the trouble began.

After getting my hair cut and stopping by to drop something off at my parents' house, I came through town, rather than taking the back roads, so that I could make what I thought would be a quick stop at the post office.

So, first of all, there's someone getting a passport and taking up the time of one of the two clerks, and the other clerk is dealing with a guy who was sending four or five little bitty boxes, and apparently HAD TO pay for them each individually, or some other such nonsense.

There's a woman in front of me with a blue and yellow jacket on, and from the looks of her she could (and maybe should) be playing as a defensive end for the Bears. I step into line behind her, and another woman walks up to where I'm standing. There are no other people in the lobby yet.

For some inexplicable reason, the woman behind me feels it is necessary to stand directly behind me.

Seriously. She was a few inches away. Had I swung my elbow back, I'd have knocked the wind out of her quite handily. (No, of course I wouldn't actually DO that. Did it cross my mind? Yes.)

What's the point? No, really. What exactly is the point? Is it like the "red light principle" where if you crowd the bumper of the car in front of you, the light will magically change and traffic will cease to exist? [sarcasm]

So, now the line is getting longer, and I guess the woman behind me had somewhere to be, because she crept a little bit closer to me.

The clerks are still dealing with passport-girl and bitty-box-man. There are two other post office employees, but they are milling about like members of an ant farm, moving boxes to and fro, with no obvious purpose. Neither acknowledges the growing line in the lobby.

More people enter the post office lobby.

The creeper-woman creeps closer.

I feel like I'm in some kind of weird slow motion horror movie, and a clown with a machette may pop out of a mailbox at any moment and start hacking everyone to bits. (if one does, I'm going to duck and let him slash the creeper-woman behind me...although, in another moment, she might actually be in front of me.)

I stand with my weight on one foot, leaning away from the creeper-woman, but the stale cigarette reek is still obvious. Ew.

More people come into the post office lobby. Someone says, "wow, there is just NO sense of urgency here, is there?"

Bitty-box-man is done and linebacker-woman moves up to the clerk. I step in front of the lobby supply counter and lean back against it, so that creeper-woman cannot crowd any closer to me.

Then it's finally my turn. I'm done and out the door in less than 30 seconds. I never look back at creeper-woman. Glad she's gone. Ew.

p.s.
I hope the clown got her.

Seafood Breakfast Roll-up

This is another one of my spur-of-the-moment innovations. I used the same crust as in the "Savory Meat Strudel" and stuffed it with some of my favorite breakfast ingredients (eggs, cheese, and lobster). It turned out very yummy, especially with a dash of cocktail sauce (not pictured).

Seafood Breakfast Roll-up

dough:
1/4 c. warm water
1 pkt. yeast
3/4 c. sour cream
3 c. flour
1 t. salt
1 egg

filling:
1 pkg. faux lobster meat (or you can use real lobster if you have it on hand)
1 T. butter
4 eggs
salt and pepper, to taste
1 1/2 c. (12 oz.) cheese, sliced (I used Monterrey-Jack)

1. Make dough by mixing yeast packet with warm water; stir well. Mix in other dough ingredients; set aside for 20-30 minutes.


2. Knead dough for a minute or two, then roll out into a rectangle.



3. Prepare your filling ingredients while dough is resting. Melt butter in pan, and stir in lobster meat; stir to coat.


4. Drop in eggs, and stir them around to scramble them a little. Season as desired.



5. Scatter egg-lobster onto rolled out dough, and top with cheese.


6. Roll up dough like you would a coffee cake, rolling dough over filling to enclose it. Seal seams with water, and tuck ends under. Place on well-buttered cookie sheet; allow to rise, covered, for 30 minutes.


7. Bake at 350˚ for 30 minutes. Slice and serve immediately. Top with cocktail sauce, if you want.

Oatmeal Cherry Cookies for Tom

Our good friend Tom came out for a business meeting, and he'd already had a hard day dealing with a lost package at the post office. So, I decided it would be a great time to surprise him with some cookies. He said they are the best cookies he has ever eaten!!!

Oatmeal Cherry Cookies

2 1/4 c. flour
1 c. oatmeal
1 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 c. light brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. sugar
2 sticks butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. dried cherries
1 t. vanilla extract
1 t. almond extract


Heat oven to 300˚.

Combine dry ingredients—flour, baking soda, salt, and oatmeal—in a small mixing bowl. Set aside.


In a larger, deep mixing bowl, combine butter and sugars; beat with electric mixer until pasty.


Add eggs and extracts; mix well.


Add about half the flour and beat it as best you can with the mixer.


Then stir the rest of the flour in by hand; then mix in the cherries.


Measure out dough by heaping tablespoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet.


Bake at 300˚ for 18-20 minutes, or until lightly browned.
Do not overbake—these are supposed to be chewy cookies.

These are the cherries; I get them for a good price at Aldi's.



And this is Tom's new car....isn't it COOL?!

Peppermint Bark!

I made this for my friend Brenda. Just for her. We had a conversation this past summer about food (I know, go figure! LOL!) and she had said how much she liked the Fannie May "little pink crunchy candies." So, you see, I had to do this... :)

Peppermint Bark

1/2 package (10 oz.) Fisher Vanilla Flavored Almond Bark Squares
2 medium-sized candy canes, crushed
1 drop peppermint extract
2 to 3 drops red food coloring (optional)


Melt the almond bark squares in the microwave (or use 1 1/4 c. white chocolate chips) and stir until smooth.

Mix in the peppermint extract; stir well.

Add two drops of food coloring, and mix it in, to see if it is the color you'd like it to be. You can also omit the food coloring, if you choose.


Stir in the crushed peppermint.


(NOTE: you can place 2 medium candy canes in a heavy-duty ziplock bag, fold it over, and smash the candy with the flat side of a meat hammer. It is okay to leave some chunks—that will just add to the texture of the peppermint bark.)


Once everything is blended well, pour it out onto a waxed paper lined cookie sheet. Spread flat with a spatula, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.


Once it has cooled and solidified, you can just break it with your hands into various sized pieces to serve. This makes a nice addition to a holiday cookie plate gift!

Tiramisu Blondies

This recipe was a sort of challenge I made to fellow cooking blogger Bob of Cooking Stuff. I proposed a "tiramisu brownie" concept and wanted to know what his thoughts were, and how he would create a cookie bar which would fall into this general description, but I did not outline any actual requirements. This is what I came up with...and please visit icookstuff.blogspot.com to see Bob's version of a "tiramisu brownie".

Tiramisu Blondies

dough:
2 1/4 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 c. (2 sticks) butter
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 t. vanilla
2 eggs

chocolate:
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 T. fine ground espresso coffee (no substitutes)
10 - 12 plain butter cookies, broken into pieces

Melt chocolate in microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring well in between.


Mix in espresso; blend well!


Stir in butter cookie pieces. (NOTE: I made the mistake of leaving the cookies whole and just pressing them into the chocolate. This ended up making the chocolate harder to chop up. I'm writing this recipe out the way I should have done it!)


Pour chocolate mixture onto waxed paper covered dish or pan. Smooth out to about 1/4-inch thickness; remember, you're going to have to be able to cut through this with a knife. Place in fridge to harden. (Give it an hour or so, and then check it.)


Remove chocolate from fridge; chop into chunks. Set aside.


Heat oven to 375˚. Grease 9 x 13 baking pan.
In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.


In large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar and brown sugar until creamy.
Add vanilla and eggs; beat well. Gradually add in flour mixture; mix well.


Stir in chocolate pieces by hand.


Spread into prepared baking pan.


Bake at 375˚ for 30 minutes, until golden brown.



Here's a better look at how the chocolate with the whole cookies in it came out:

Again, I should have broken the cookies up and spread the chocolate thinner.


The 12th was our anniversary, and we had a few people over; this is all that was left of the cookies by the end of the party: