Nothing's fishy in here

I've started eating healthier during work night evenings, but have yet to see the results. One of my go-to items has been seared salmon and a salad. I had been in my Safeway the other week when the fish man was hollering at me to be sure to eat seafood at least twice a week. I heeded his message and have been doing so for a few of weeks now.

I used to avoid cooking fish in the past because of the overwhelming stank that would soon permeate every fiber of my apartment when the cooking process had finished. Later in the fall, I tried a series of fans, open doors and closed doors to minimize the fish order with better luck, but it still wasn't good enough. A faint smell would last at least a couple of days. But, now, I have perfected the art of eliminating odor!

I sear the fish on both sides at a very high heat in a skillet for about 2 minutes each side, then I spread a light glaze of chutney on top before popping it into my toaster oven pre-heated at 350 degrees. Cook that for 5-8 minutes and voila! Perfectly tender salmon, no fans, no open doors and zero odor.

The salad above has also become a favorite of mine. Pear, walnut, spinach/arugula, Gorgonzola crumbles and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. When I shared my cooking successes with my mom over the weekend showing her this picture, she was shocked at my portion size. I usually buy a 3/4 lb piece of salmon at the store and eat the entire thing for dinner. I feel content afterwards, not stuffed. But, apparently, I am eating for two! I didn't realize that 4oz of fish was considered one helping. Gah. Oh well.

Another "skinny" recipe "huskified"

I remember back in my earlier years accompanying my mother and brothers to nearby department store Woodies, which soon became a Macy's before being replaced by Bloomingdales. I remember the pants section of the store and distinctly recall the range of sizes and fits categorized with humorous labels such as "husky" or "loose and tall." The women's department wouldn't dare categorize the women's clothes as such. But, maybe it would've been a better way to direct me to the right rack of clothes and proper pant sizes.

In order to stop increasing my pant size, I've slowly made more of an effort to find and cook healthier recipes. But, so far, I haven't seen the results. I think it's because I continue to find myself inflating the ingredient amounts. If a recipe calls for 1 cup of cheese, I use the entire bag since the smallest size bag they sell is usually 2 cups. One cup of cheese does not go a long way!

Well on Sunday night, I decided to give a recipe from blog Skinnyms.com a try: Skinny lasagna rolls. I have never been a huge fan of lasagna because it usually tastes dry and bland to me. I find that the ricotta filling, even with lots of garlic added, just doesn't excite my taste buds whatsoever. I assumed that this recipe, which called for freshly chopped then sauteed spinach with garlic, might change my mind. Oh and I decided to add a flavorful meat sauce on top of it instead of plain marinara would seal the deal. The recipe was fun to make...and visually appealing with the bits of bright green spinach peeking out through each lasagna noodle rolled in a hay-bale-esque fashion.

Well, it wasn't as zippy as I had hoped and dreamed it would be. And no way near as healthy as it should have been. A pound and a quarter of ground beef, an extra cup of cheese, plus whole-milk ricotta must've upped the per-serving calorie count by a couple hundred. It was good, but still, it lacked zing. I think I need to mix the filling with very sharp cheese next time...maybe Pecorino Romano. Or maybe it's time to give up on any recipe related to lasagna or ricotta filling. I do recall loving a sausage and spinach (I think) lasagna that friend Julie made once during a ski trip. Maybe sausage is the key. I don't know. All that's left now is a baleful of questions and no answers. And me...husky and bothered.

Fiesta!

On Friday evening, to counteract the frigid temps and light snowfall, I decided to prepare a tex-mex feast reminiscent of summer for James and I. The other weekend we had indulged in some margaritas which made us long for the warm months yet to come filled with grilling out, summer drinks and relaxation.

This time, I took a slight departure from our regular margarita concoction (equal parts frozen limeade, corona, silver tequila and sprite) and bought some grapefruit soda to replace the sprite and limeade. For apps, I modified a refritos recipe from Emeril to make a heavenly spicy, refried bean dip. I also prepared some fresh salsa (gotta have something healthy in there!). Then for the main course, I adapted a Cooking Light recipe for Tortilla Chip Casserole. And by adapted I mean adding more cheese, more chicken and more cream sauce. Cooking Heavy. Yes.

Sadly, I wasn't as excited with the results. I thought the recipe lacked zing. It came off too blandly. I think what could help it satisfy my palate next time would be to add a spicy and spunky red salsa to the top layer before the cheese. The recipe had called for green enchilada sauce, but the one I had lacked depth of flavor. At least the grapefruit margaritas made me forget I hated it in the first place. Win.

The treachery of peanut butter

Earlier this week, friend Nick ribbed me for never updating my blog. He expressed his concern for my eating habits and worried that maybe I wasn't. Well, have you seen me lately?! Even so, he felt compelled to start a blog that begs the question, has Hilary eaten today? While I doubt DidHilaryEat.blogspot.com will gain much traction, stranger things have happened.

As it were, I am forging ahead in my lifetime battle against gluttony. My eating disorder has intensified with recent stresses at work, which always leads me down that dangerous path to the peanut butter jar.

As I am now a coupon-clipping queen in an effort to cut back on reckless spending, I recently came into the fortune of Jif Extra Crunchy Peanut Butter. I have long been an ally of Skippy and still believe it is a better product than Jif, but that particular week, no coupon was to be found for the Skippy. I restrained myself and only purchased two. Upon getting home, I opened it and gave it a taste. Wow, it was very extra crunchy! So very crunchy in fact. And so very delicious when paired with some left over dark chocolate Hershey kisses. I had a moment there in the solitude of my kitchen where I knew I should stop, but didn't know if I could.

My new-found dessert. The process of letting the dark chocolate kiss melt in my mouth for a quick bit before introducing it to a spoonful of extra crunchy peanut butter was euphoric. I eventually stopped and then brought the jar to work as a snack item. It has since been decimated, even eaten with a fork in more desperate times when spoons were not to be found. One very busy day, I considered using my fingers rather than walk the 10 steps to the office kitchen to retrieve the proper utensil. Semi-neanderthal of me, but my pride disappeared years ago.

Thus, I am on board with Jif. I understand why choosy Moms choose Jif. Forget wasting money on toys and babysitters, all you gotta do is give your kid a jar of the stuff and they'll be occupied for a lifetime. Or in my case, two business days.

Gingerbread

I haven't blogged in a few months now, which is mainly due to the fact that I don't have internet at home. I thought about getting it in 2013, but as we all know, the world ends on Friday, so, no point. But I figured I should post one last time.

Last night I wandered my way back into baking from scratch. I love everything about cooking, especially the eating part. But baking? It's been more of a miss than a hit for me over the years. Box mixes tend to be my best friend. I don't have a fancy stand mixer and always find myself over mixing something resulting in dense, cardboard-esque baked goods. I do tend to be OK with pies and cobblers, though. And, ovens usually treat me well otherwise when it comes to savory items.

So, despite my failures in that arena, I took a gamble this year. I decided that I wanted to bake a variety of cookies for my coworkers for the holiday season. As the last week of the work year (and world) fast approached, my interest started to wane. I scanned hundreds of cookie recipes on the interwebs, but nothing stood out enough. Then the thought of making dough, chilling it and then dealing with the mess of rolling out, shaping, baking, cooling, icing and packaging tipped the scale to "forget this." Lazy, yes. But these cookies might not even turn out well, so why go to all that trouble. Instead, I decided to bake something that would take far less time and effort: Gingerbread blondies.

I love gingerbread. It's my favorite holiday season cookie, aroma and flavor. I stumbled across many a recipe on pinterest and elsewhere for gingerbread bars. I judged all of the recipes based on the pictures. Some had cream cheese frosting, some had orange frosting, some just powered sugar. But, many of them were flat or very cake-like. I wanted gooey. Ooey gooey. And thus I chose a recipe from a British blogger, who was kind enough to note the gram/cup conversions in her ingredients list.

The recipe was pretty straight forward, but I stumbled a few times along the way. I doubled it, so had to remeasure the flower at one point since I had lost track of how much had been added. Then, I decided 45-55 minutes was far too long of a cooking time. Brownies usually bake in 30ish minutes, so I figured these would as well. And my overriding fear of producing a dry, cake-like blondie prompted me to put 30 minutes on the kitchen timer.

Fifteen minutes in, they looked almost done. They had risen substantially and were a great gingerbready-brown color. At 20 minutes, I took them out of the oven and did the toothpick test. Clean! All done. Except for that 10 minutes later, they had deflated and were noticeably raw inside. Bugger. How did the toothpick fool me? Don't they look done in the photo? I turned the oven back on and threw them in. Another 10 minutes went by and I checked, thought they were done and was fooled AGAIN. Bloody hell. Three times is the charm, right?

Crikey Moses, they were done. I cooled them, dusted them and my knickers with powdered sugar and then packaged them up for work. Some were cakey, some were gooey, so not bad overall. 

Lessons learned from this baking experience? Don't bake again.

Key Lime Sigh

I love Key Lime Pie. It has all the elements of a fantastic dessert:  Sweet, tangy and tart; creamy and velvety; crunchy and buttery. And now, and even more fantastic iteration of this dessert is back on the market. Ben & Jerry's has re-released it's Limited Edition Key Lime Pie ice cream. Friend Christine introduced me to my latest temptress in the world of food and I licked the carton clean last night after a rigorous boxing workout. Way to negate my calorie-burn. But, I went to bed with a Key-Lime-Pie-eating grin on my face last night :-D

Fare Thee Well

My all-time favorite meatball creator will soon be gone. Yes, Potenza is closing on August 18. I work nearby, so am used to frequenting their bakery for lunch and indulging in either their spectacular eggplant parmesan or their meatballs. Oh, the meatballs. I've never tasted something so good: crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, full of herbs, cheese, garlic and love. The handcut spaghetti and succulent homemade sauce are the perfect duo to make this dish my heartthrob.

Since learning of the Potenza owner's intent to shutter for good when it was announced in July, I have eaten there four times. Twice in the bakery (meatball sub, eggplant parm special) and twice in the restaurant. During my most recent visit (last night), I asked our waiter whether he'd be amenable to giving me the meatball recipe, since they will never be made ever again. He said he would look into it. And at the end of the meal said he had taken a picture of it on his phone and would email it to me. The dream. Said email still hasn't arrived, but I will wait patiently. If it doesn't arrive in the next week, I'll just have to go back one more time, or go to therapy to deal with my separation anxiety.