The end of May. What we've been up to lately.

May is basically over  - can you believe it? This entire year seems to have gone by so fast.  Now here we are jumping right into sweltering summer temperatures...even though it's not officially summer. But North Florida is like that - sticky and humid.

 The memorial day weekend was spent indoors as we had a tropical storm moving in. Fortunately no damages for us but I felt sorry for the people at St George Island. Mandatory evacuation on one of the most popular beach holidays. Ugh.



We've watched a few movies:  I can highly recommend 12 Strong with Chris Hemsworth.  It's a true story about the first Special Forces team to be deployed to Afghanistan.  Excellent.

Den of Thieves starring Gerard Butler is an action movie about a heist on the Federal Reserve.  We are big fans of action movies but this one was just so-so.  Lots action, gun fights and of course you have the dishy Gerard Butler in the lead role.......but it was hard to find anyone to like and support.

   


Shackelton, another true story, we found to be mostly interesting.  The parts about the fundraising could have been cut shorter but that trip to Antarctica was amazing.  Recently learned Tom Hardy is going to play Shackleton and wish we had seen that version.  We loved him in Taboo.

Game Night started off a bit too silly for us but then delivered big time with comedy.  Depends on your sense of humor for sure but there is a scene with McAdams and Bateman trying to remove a bullet that had us howling.  It's a movie for pizza night.

   

Reading:    I have been trying to finish up the Frieda Klein series and have made it through the Thursday book.  When we get to the library this weekend I am going to grab the Friday and Saturday books because - drumroll - I won a copy of the last book in the series!  So. excited!

Some other books I have enjoyed recently are The Tuscan Child by Rhys Bowen, The Lost Family by Jenna Blum and The Secret of the Irish Castle by Santa Montefiore.  The Irish book is the last in a trilogy so I have officially caught up with the Deverill, Doyle and O'Leary family sagas.  Great ending.
Looking forward to some time with the Kindle coming up instead of print books.

        


June Plans:  Also I am looking forward to June as I will celebrate a birthday and we will also celebrate our 34th wedding anniversary. Doug has a reservation for a convertible for the long anniversary weekend, I hope we get a Mustang.  I'm thinking we'll have a few trips to the shore and maybe to Eufaula Alabama for a long ride.  Weather permitting, of course. Lots of photos!

Creating/ Very slowly I am making another baby blanket.  Just acquired nice soft yarn that is so fat it requires a N size hook.  Huge.  But I think it will assist in making this blanket faster as the stitching is so large..

Listening & Sipping/  Enjoying a gin and tonic or martini in the evening and listening to Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Etta James, various blues artists and occasionally some Tom Petty.



That's it for now.  End of May, over and out!

Crispy Panko Baked Cod

Last February I read a review of Cooking that Counts on Beth fish Reads and thought, I need to check that book out of the library.  The post at Beth Fish's Weekend Cooking series may be found HERE.  Then I saw this cookbook highlighted again at Vicki's blog I'd Rather be at the Beach.

Finally I am getting around to posting a meal from that book.  There are loads of great recipes but if you are into a mostly plant based diet, you ought to check this out of the library. All of the recipes are low calorie and look delicious.  We decided to try the oven baked cod first.

The first evening we had a mixture of potatoes and cauliflower.  The second evening we had asparagus and baked sweet potatoes.  Love the sweet potatoes, I could eat those several times a week and they are so good for you.




Cauliflower and potatoes here.......




The homemade dill and lemons were an a nice accompaniment.



There are quite a few other recipes I would like to try and it's a bit funny I settled on this one first.  When I saw the photo I thought, I don't need fried food and skipped past this one.  Even though I love fish and can occasionally enjoy it fried, that wasn't the way I wanted to go.

On second look, I saw it was "oven fried" using Panko.  It was great!

Crispy Fish with Lemon-Dill Sauce

Hands on is 25 minutes, serves 4

2 large egg whites, lightly beaten

1 cup Panko

1/2 teaspoon paprika

3/4 teaspoon each of onion power and garlic powder 

4 (6 ounce) skinless cod fillets

1 teaspoon ground pepper

a little bit of salt

cooking spray

1/4 cup canola mayonnaise (such as Hellmanns)

2 tablespoons finely chopped dill pickle

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon fresh chopped dill

4 lemon wedges

Preheat broiler to high.

Place egg whites in shallow dish.  In a separate dish place Panko, paprika, onion powder and garlic powder.  Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper.  Dip each fillet in the egg whites then dredge in Panko mixture; place on broiler pan coated with cooking spray.  

Broil 4 minutes on each side or until done.

Combine mayonnaise, pickles, lemon and dill.  Serve with the fish along with lemon wedges.

It's very good!

This won't be the last recipe I share from this book.  Lots of goodies in there, healthy too.

I am sharing this with Beth Fish's Weekend Cooking Series

Creamy Mushroom Soup for Souper Sunday

It's May and it's hot around these parts but that doesn't usually deter me from making soup.  This particular soup has been on my radar for a while but I kept putting it off.  After reading a Nicci French book (Frieda Klein series) I started thinking about a mushroom garlic soup again.  It was one of the culinary items mentioned in that book and I actually planned to make it the representative dish.

But I get sidetracked easily.

You could use all sorts of mushrooms such as shiitake, portabello or white button - any sort you like. I used the white button mushrooms, not very adventurous this time but was good.




This would be a good starter with the Tortellini dinner we had. I also made fresh Italian bread!  While all that was a good meal I could do with not seeing a Tortellini for a long, long time. Two dinners and a lunch.



Here is the simple recipe if you want to try it, tweaking the recipe to your own taste.  I would recommend this as a dinner starter or to be served with something else hearty for a lunch.

Mushroom Soup

1 pound of mushrooms

2 tablespoons butter

5 chopped garlic cloves

1 chopped onion

a few tablespoons AP flour

1 cup broth (I used vegetable)

1 cup milk (adjust that as you like for thickness of soup)

sprinkle of ground thyme

salt and pepper

In Dutch oven saute onions, mushrooms and garlic. Add butter and when it melts, sprinkle in some flour.  Now slowly add milk and broth to your taste.

I'm linking up with Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for her Souper Sunday series.  Click HERE to see Deb's Red Pepper, Chickpea and Couscous soup.



 

Conch Chowder for a light meal

It's getting very hot here in north Florida and so what do we have for dinner?  Hot chowder!  Why not.  It's a nice light meal after a hearty lunch so we were satisfied.  This chowder was prepared in Marathon Florida.

We were at Southern Seafood purchasiing some red fish for the grill and I happened to notice they had soups and chowders.  Our freezer has a bit of Mangrove Snapper and Cod awaiting their turn to become a milk based chowder but this tomato based conch caught my eye.



Check out the large pieces of conch - this was hearty enough yet light enough for a dinner.  We had a fresh loaf of French bread I had made eralier in the day.  Also enjoyed some cheese and Chardonnay.



While I can't take credit for making this chowder I think I would be willing to do so in the future.  It's packed with fresh conch, roma tomatoes, celery, potatoes, carrots, bell pepper, broth, sherry, turmeric  and a healthy dose of red pepper.  Gives it the kick that Chardonnay soothes after a few spoonfuls.

I found a recipe online that I will try next time, you can view that here is you are inspired to make some for yourself.

I'm linking up with Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for her Souper Sunday series.  Click HERE to see Deb's Rosemary and White Bean soup.  Definitely a keeper.



 

Veggie burgers with an unconventional topping

Veggie burgers with unconventional topping - cheese grits. 

So I mentioned before that when Doug was out of town I used to eat eggplant, something he didn't care for.  Now he likes it so I have veggie burgers.  I love these things!

Trouble was, I forgot we were out of conventional bread so I adapted by using a French loaf I'd baked earlier in the week.  I just toasted the bread and that came out well.  Then I discovered I was out of cheese.  Hmmmmmm.........obviously I did not plan well.

As luck would have it there was a container with leftover cheese grits.  Why not.



Just layer up the toppings I like, loads of tomato.  Oh yeah, we didn't have lettuce either.  We need to go grocery shopping!  the plus side is, it was economical and I cleaned out the fridge.



It's not often I am out of so many key ingredients for a dish but I have to say, once I am home, I don't like running back out unless it's absolutely necessary!  I missed linking up with Deb last Sunday but I wanted to be sure to join in for this week.  Hoping to have a more elegant offering next week :-)

I'm linking up my weird dinner with Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for her Souper Sunday series.  Click HERE to see Deb's Asparagus Soup with Herbed Goat Cheese.  Definitely a classier headliner :-)



 

When your son moves away..........

It's a bittersweet time here as our son Tristan and family has moved away to settle in the Midwest. When he was in the Army it was a little different as he was stationed at Ft. Stewart in Georgia.  We could visit a bit then.  Now he's moved across the country and while we will miss him, we are excited about his "escape" from this part of Florida.

Doug and I have wanted to move and talked about it many, many times over the 35 years we have been together. In our 30's we wanted colder weather and looked toward Maine, Minnesota and...we even had fingerprint cards sent from Alaska as we thought we would teach there.  Obviously years passed and we stayed put.  My Pennsylvanian roots have beckoned more than once and that state had also been considered.

But - the big news is - the kids made the big jump and are now relocated.  I'm envious and happy for them.  They will be missed but what a great chance to start over.

While my daughter-in-law went ahead to get settled, we had our son over for visits and dinner many times these past two months.  One memorable (and particularly tasty) dinner featured crab cakes.
As usual we paired it with cheddar cheese grits, fresh bread and openned a Chardonnay. It was so filling we could only eat two of the crab cakes but this worked out for a second meal.

I packed Tristan a to-go container with leftovers and Doug and I took the same to work the next day.  Now that's a way relieve the Monday blues - an excellent lunch!

.

Another good meal was Spinach Chicken Lasagna. I will post that recipe coming up soon but wanted to share the photo. This is a hearty meal leaving enough leftovers so I could send some home with Tristan.



We are all seafood lovers here so fish and shrimp make the appearance frequently.  A few weeks ago Doug grilled fish and we all sat on the patio looking out for foxes and sipping wine.

Sunday, our last evening together, we had Greek Scampi.



We've had some great vacations together, fun motorcycle rides, played hours of board games and have been a close family.  We'll miss you but we are also happy for you too!

I am sharing this with Beth Fish's Weekend Cooking Series