Fish Baked in Foil p. 571

I made this dish our first night at the beach. Bryan and I went down to the fish market which is right at the docks. You can literally watch as the fisherman pull up and bring the freshly caught fish in.

For this dish I purchased some fresh grouper, a locally caught fish.

I laid out tin foil and put a filet on each piece. After rubbing olive oil over the fish, I sprinkled fresh parsley, salt, pepper, and chopped garlic.



Wrap up the packets and cook. The book suggests 15 minutes for cooking, but these filets took twice as long. Once its done, squeeze some lemon juice and serve.



We served with fresh spinach and corn on the cob. It was a fresh, simply cooked meal.

Back to Work

Good news! I got a new laptop and I've gotten back to work! New posts coming soon!

bad blogger

I'm sorry I've been away for so long without an excuse. Vacation was wonderful and I cooked some wonderfully fresh seafood. I even took pictures and notes for you... but its a bit difficult to post when you don't have access to a computer in which you can load your own photos and thoughts. So for now, I'm taking a break from posting until I replace my beloved computer. But that doesn't mean I've stopped cooking... stay tuned for my first successful attempt at frying, fresh fish and shrimp, and more!

Break Time

Hey Friends,

The husband and I leave for vacation today and will not be posting for a few days.

Actually, my laptop crashed last night... no it literally crashed on the ground... so posting might be sparse until I get a new one, hopefully soon though.

Prepare yourselves for some fresh fish and shrimp recipes in the future.

Peas with Bacon and Mint p. 329

In the south we have an amazing treat in the summer: Lady peas. Actually, I’m not sure if it’s Southern thing or everywhere thing. But I think it’s Southern. Normally we boil these in some chicken broth and they are delicious. But since taking on this project, I wanted to see what How to Cook Everything said.

I found this recipe, which isn’t necessarily for these types of peas, but I thought it would be delicious nonetheless.

Make your bacon first and put to the side. Then cook your peas. This took longer than the book said, a good 20-30 minutes. I had to add about a cup of water throughout this cooking process.

Add your bacon back in at the end and garnish with fresh mint leaves. I was skeptical about the mint, but our plant in the back has gotten out of hand, so picking was in order. It added a freshness and zip that really complimented the bacon and peas. Now I’m going to add it to everything.

Bacon Compound Butter p. 32-33

I had never thought of compound butter or doing it at home until this cookbook. It’s something that you get at fancy restaurants. But as I was reading and preparing for a steak meal the other night, Mark Bittman suggested a compound butter to top the steak. So I turned to the page and went through the many various things you can use to make a compound butter.

Another dish I was preparing for this meal called for bacon and I decided it would make a lovely addition to butter and my steak. Especially since I prefer a filet mignon wrapped in bacon.

To make compound butter is probably the simplest thing to do in a kitchen and yields amazing results. This is what you do. Take butter, at room temperature, and mix it with something, in this case crumbled butter. (I also threw in a bit of bacon fat... why not?!)


Then freezer or refrigerate. That’s it.



Make it today and impress your guests.

Pan Grilled/Oven Roasted Steak p. 718

At the beginning of this recipe, Mark Bittman says that a gas grill will not do for grilled steak. This is unfortunate for us since that is all we have at this time. So I began to look at the other 4 ways to prepare a steak.

For this recipe its very simple. Heat an oven proof skillet over the stove for several minutes so that the pan is hot. Then put some course salt on the bottom of the pan, put on your steaks, and immediately put in a very hot oven.



I cooked my steaks, which were a bit less than 1” thick as the recipe called for, 3 minutes on one side and 4 on the other. They were done medium, they way Bryan likes it.


They were delicious, especially topped with Bacon Compound Butter.