Baked Cod and Tater Rounds

     My sister-in-law is a wonderful cook.  She has gotten me to eat fish more willingly than I ever have before.  Last time I visited her, she did a deep-fried dinner of cod filets and home fries.  It was delicious, but while I freely admit I will never be thin again, there’s no need to add cholesterol and heart problems to my list of problems.  So, I figured I’d try baking it.  This turned out to be quite tasty, and since both the potatoes and the fish cook at the same temperature, the majority of the meal is hands-off and frees you up for other things, like tickle wars with little boys!

Baked Cod and Tater Rounds

For the fish:

* Fillets of fish - I used cod tonight, but any fillet will work. 

* Butter, olive oil, or whatever floats your boat

* Seasonings - I love tarragon, dill, and garlic on fish, but simple salt and pepper are just as yummy.  Play around and mix-and-match.  Try cumin, chili, and lime zest. 

* Bread or cracker crumbs, or panko - optional

* If using the above, a couple of beaten eggs for an egg wash, also optional.

For the taters:

* Potatoes

* Seasonings - salt and pepper, a blend, ranch or Italian seasoning packet, play with it. 

* Butter, olive oil, or whatever floats your boat.

* Shredded cheese for the second half, if you like. 

     I was going to use a cookie sheet, but all the butter drained over to the sides, and that just wasn’t going to cut it, so I used a 9x13 cake pan for the potatoes and an 8x8 cake pan for my fish.  The two pans were able to fit side-by-side on the oven rack without crowding.  You’ll have to adjust your own baking dish sizes based on how much food you need to cook.  Since I am only cooking for three, I have some flexibility.  You can use two racks in the oven, just move your potatoes down for their second half of cooking and keep a nose out for scorching. 

     So first, start the oven preheating to 425.  Peel and slice your potatoes about ½ inch thick and rinse them.  Put some butter in the baking dish you’re using for them, and put it in the oven to melt.  You won’t need a whole lot, just a couple tablespoons for a 9x13 dish was plenty.  While that’s melting, pat your potatoes dry.  Normally I don’t bother with the pat dry step, but the water droplets in hot butter are not fun.  Trust me. 

     Season your butter.  That’s right, not the potatoes, the butter.  Just sprinkle all over the surface of the melted butter so that there’s a nice even coating of yum on top. 

     Put your potatoes in and shimmy them around a bit, or if you’re a bit compulsive like I am and need every potato evenly coated with butter, flip them all over once to get them coated.  It’s really not necessary, though.  You’ll be turning them half way through. 

     Put the potatoes in the oven and set the time for 20 minutes. 

     Sometime before that 20 minutes runs out, get out your fish.  Season it really well on both sides: garlic, salt, pepper, dill, lemon juice or zest if you like.  The seasonings are up to your imagination.  What sounds good tonight?  Just make sure you dust both sides well, particularly if you’re cooking a thick fillet, so they’ll have good flavor when they’re done.

     If you’re using breading, this is where you want to dredge your fish in the egg then roll them in your crumbs until they’re well coated.  I sprinkled mine with parsley after I coated them with crumbs because I think it’s pretty.  Unfortunately, I also used a bit too much, but it's still pretty, and yummy.  Put your fish in a lightly buttered pan.

     When your timer goes off, flip the potatoes and pop the fish in the oven.  Bake for another 15 minutes.  

     Half your meal is easily done all at the same time, and your stove-top is clear for cooking your veggies or other sides, but to me, the best part of it all was that my three-year-old actually ate it.  Even the potatoes.  He won’t touch a potato unless it’s a McDonald’s French fry.  Not Sonic, not home fries, not KFC, only McDonald’s.  I really do wonder if they put something in their food.  He won’t eat nuggets from anywhere else either, not even homemade ones with a Parmesan cheese crust.  *sigh*  

Monster!!! (jeans)

Hey, y'all! 

     Keeping it short and sweet again.  If you don’t keep up with us regularly, the court reporter I type for got a promotion, which means I vicariously got one as well.  It doesn’t mean more pay, but it means more work, which works out to more pay, so YAY!  Unfortunately, it also leaves me much less time to blog than I used to have.  Most of the down time I have from typing is usually spent either catching up on chores I’ve neglected while I’ve been swamped with work or with spending time with my two guys, who I see only for mealtimes when I have a heavy workload. 

     Anyway, this is a project I squeezed in a while back and haven’t managed to get around to sharing on the blog yet.  We are fortunate enough to get some hand-me-downs from Pa’s sister.  She has three boys, and her youngest is just a few years older than Druid.  They’re also pretty close in size.  I gave birth to the jolly blonde giant.  Boys use their clothes hard, and sometimes Sis will be like, “Sorry they’re stained,” or “Sorry, they might have a hole here or there.” 

     I’m like, what?  Are you kidding?  My child rolls in the mud and managed to find the one remaining cow pie leftover from last summer’s cows to sit in when he decided he had to get a closer look at whatever was on the ground.  I am thrilled to receive whatever she offers.  He’s three.  It’s not like I’m sending him off to a job interview in torn jeans and grass-stained sweatshirts. 

     Anyway, occasionally worn-thin becomes worn-through.  And then they can become AWESOME! 

A little felt, a little imagination, and ta-da!

     Make sure you cut the main patch a good bit larger than the hole it’s covering.  You want enough to be able to sew around the hole without missing the patch, even though you won’t really be able to see what you’re doing 50% of the time, unless you intend to turn the leg inside and right side out for every single stitch, which I didn’t.  I went round the mouth with large cross-stitches and twice on the eye knee for a bit extra reinforcement, because even though that hole was smaller, the entire knee is tissue thin, then trimmed the excess material off. 

     Before you commit and sew it, line up your teeth, if you’re giving your monster teeth, and pin everything really well so you can see how it will lay.  I used that heat bond interfacing stuff that you iron on for the teeth.  I cut it out in a random, jagged shape, pinned it in place, sewed around the patch, and then ironed over the interfacing to stick the teeth down.  It was much faster than trying to sew each individual tooth down, and I already had some laying around from a nursery upholstery project I did before Little was born.  Use whatever you have lying around, because scraps are all you need to make this work.  For the other knee, since it was so much smaller, I cut out a main patch and sewed it on, then I very sloppily appliqued a pupil and iris.  

     

     I was kind of going for Frankenpants, so the sloppiness of all the stitching was intentional.  After I got both patches on, I went back and put some eyes over the monster mouth, just for the heck of it. 

     Little loves them.  We’ve gotten nice comments about them while out, too.  I’ve even been asked where I bought them.  Pa says he wants a pair just like them when his jeans wear through the knees, too.  So I think they’re a resounding success.  Depending on how well the patches hold, they might even make it to another little boy once mine outgrows them. 

Kristoff Carrots and Perfect Rice

     Today I thought I would share two recipes.  One is so basic that it didn’t seem right to dedicate an entire blog post to it, and the other is rice. 

     Wait, what?  Rice isn’t basic, you ask?  Nope, it ain’t.  I have been cooking for 32 years, and I just finally managed the perfect pot of rice.  I even did it on an electric stove top.  I didn’t think it was possible to get a perfect pot of rice on an electric stove top because it takes so long for the temperature to actually change after you’ve adjusted it, but you CAN get a perfect pot of rice on an electric burner, without having to use two burners. 

     I used to think, if you had an electric cook top, you had to use two burners, one on high to bring the water or broth to a boil, and one preheated on low to transfer the pot to when it reached the boil so it wouldn’t boil too long.  This only marginally helped my poor, mushy, sad, sorry rice, though.  I thought the best I could really hope for was not having a layer burnt to the bottom of the pan. 

     Gas stoves are much easier to cook on, because they respond immediately when the flow of gas is altered.  Electric elements take so danged long to heat up and cool down, even with new stoves, that it affects cook time and results for a lot of my food.  I’ve been using an electric stove for a little over a year now, and I still mess up dinner.  I feel like a newbie all over again. 

     Turns out there are two secrets to spectacular rice with actual individual grains that does not cook down to mush and does not burn to the bottom of the pan. 

1)  Wash it.  Wash the rice really well to remove the powdered rice that is in it from friction and the (possible) talc powder or cornstarch from processing.  All that extra starch contributes to sticking, burning, and mushiness. 

2)  Ignore the directions on the box/bag of plain white rice and follow the directions below instead.

     These two things will help you attain rice perfection! 

     Look at those individual grains!  No mush!  SO HAPPY!!

     I never use the parboiled stuff.  I buy bulk bags of plain white rice.  The directions say to put 1c of rice in 2c of boiling water, cover, and simmer 20 minutes, then fluff with a fork.  

     It doesn’t say anything about washing, first of all, and second of all, I have since learned that 2:1 ratio of water to rice is almost double the water actually needed. 

For absolutely perfect rice:

*Wash the rice well polishing it gently with your fingers until the water drains clear.  I fill my dish pan with cold water and put my rice in a berry sieve (one of those with the screen instead of a colander).  I put the berry sieve of rice into the dish pan and swirl the rice gently until the water looks almost like 1% milk.  I dump the water, refill it, and repeat the rinsing process for at least 3 rinses.  By then there is usually very little powder coming off the rice. 

*Drain well before cooking.  Leave the berry sieve sitting in the empty dish pan or in the sink for a while.  It will look almost dry again after about 10-15 minutes, give or take, depending on your humidity. I never time it.  I just get some other stuff ready while I let it drain. Just don't immediately dump it in with your water, or you'll still have too much water and mushy rice.

*Use 1c and 2 Tbsp water to each cup of rice 

     Bring the water and rice to a boil in the pot together, turn down to low, cover, and cook 20 minutes, then remove from heat and leave the lid on for another 10 minutes to finish steaming.

     I Googled around looking for recipes for the perfect rice, and all of the blog posts I found were in agreement:  Don’t use so much water.  So I didn’t.  And it was glorious!  You should definitely try it.  It’s amazing what a good basic pot of rice can do for an entire dish.  Everything I make that uses rice as the base is now 100% better!  My fried rice will never be the same!  Even rice as a side is amazingly improved.  I actually like plain steamed white rice.  Who knew?  Not me.  Not until I finally got it right.  

     And that second recipe I promised?  

     Kristoff Carrots.  If you’ve never seen Disney’s Frozen, you probably have no idea why I would name my carrots Kristoff.  Kristoff is one of the main male figures in the movie, and his best friend is a reindeer named Sven.  They share carrots.  My Little loves Frozen, and he loves Kristoff and Sven, and because of them, he will eat carrots, sometimes, if I fix them this way. So these are Kristoff Carrots.  Little named them LOL. 

Kristoff Carrots:

*1 lb carrots - baby, sliced, diced, chunked - just bite-sized.

*1-2 tsp vanilla extract or the seeds and pod from one vanilla bean

*some water

*some butter

*some salt and pepper

*some honey or real maple syrup - pancake syrup works just fine, and I’m sure you could use plain corn syrup, but I’d opt for dark rather than light.  You could even try molasses if that’s your thing.  I don’t much care for molasses myself. 

     The length of time this takes to cook depends entirely on how big your pieces of carrot are.  Usually it takes me about 20-30 minutes to get them as tender as Little likes them when they’re sliced, 10-15 minutes more if they’re baby carrots.  In the end, it’s personal preference, because you might like yours crunchier or softer than we do. 

     Put your carrots in a pot, and add enough water to come up to the top of the carrots.  Turn heat to high until it boils, then turn it down to a nice simmer until they’re as tender as you want them.  Drain.  I save the water for soups later, because it’s got carroty flavor and some of the water soluble vitamins from the carrots.  If you're using a whole vanilla bean, you would add it while the carrots are cooking to extract the flavor. 

     Add a pat of butter and enough of the sweet syrupy substance of your choice to glaze the carrots (a Tbsp or two is usually enough for us), add the vanilla, sprinkle with just a little salt and pepper (1/2t and 1/4t usually are plenty for us) to taste. 

    These are an all-around family favorite for us and I usually have to make two pounds of carrots at a time, because the Little will eat two or three helpings of them sometimes.  When he decides carrots aren’t the devil.  

**This recipe was modified from a Martha Stewart recipe for maple-vanilla glazed carrots, so it's not my original idea.  I just changed it around a bit.