So, yesterday, was a snow day. (YAY March snow!!) Kandi took a snow day too and apparently she did not get the memo that snow days are lazy-lay-around-the-house days. She made me go to the gym, which was really better than what I had planned for the day. I went 1.5 miles on the treadmill (I'm not going to count eliptical and bike miles) and that begins my March count. (Too bad I can't count the 5 mi. hike around Sugarloaf from Saturday). Anyway, I don't really have a goal, just thought I'd keep track. My only goal is to run, walk, or hike 10 times during the month of March for a minimum of 20 minutes or a mile, whichever comes first.
Now, to the heart of the matter. I had a mad cooking day. The first thing I made was Maryland Crab Soup with my homemade shrimp stock.
- Crab Meat (Special), about 4-6 oz.
- Shrimp Stock
- Water
- 1 can of green beans
- 1 can of corn
- 1 can of fire roasted tomatoes
- Old Bay
- frozen pearl onions
- 1 carrot & approx. 10 baby carrots
- 2 cloves of garlic
As you can see, my ingredient list was a hodgepodge assortment. A few items I threw in the soup simply to get them out of the house (onions & carrots). I used a ratio of about 1:3 with the shrimp stock to the water but the shrimp stock was still WAY too strong and really hid the crabiness of the soup. The soup is okay, not great. The stock turned out too hot and too salty so the soup primarily tastes like hot salt. Oh well, I think maybe homemade shrimp stock is not for me! Although it turned out okay in my jambalaya I made earlier this week. Oh what the heck, I'll throw that in here too...
- 1 lb. shrimp
- Crab Meat, Special, about 2-4 oz.
- 1 red pepper
- 1 can diced tomatoes w/ jalapenos
- rice
- shrimp stock
- Jambalya Seasoning (paprika, cayenne, onion powder, garlic powder, sugar, celery seed, salt & pepper)
Usually I make it with some sort of pork product as well but I didn't have any thing and I wanted to make it healthy. I did this one a little different than in the past, I cooked the rice directly in the pan with all the stuff and it cooked up the shrimp stock a lot. Still salty, still hot (but hey, its jambalaya!), but not as overwhelming shrimp-stocky as the crab soup. I'm having the leftovers today for lunch :)
Okay, back to yesterday, I also made fish that turned out rather heavenly, if I do say so myself. I take credit for this recipe so much so that I even named it
- A's Buttery Parmeasan Crusted Orange Roughy
- orange roughy fillet(s)
- butter (actually I used really cheap margarine)
- lemon juice (I would have prefered a fresh lemon but juice was all I had)
- toasted pine nuts
- parmeasean cheese
- breadcrumbs
- salt, pepper, lemon pepper
Melt the butter on the stove top. Add some lemon. Taste it to make sure the lemon doesn't get out of control. Meanwhile salt & pepper the fish in a small baking dish and set the oven to broil. Pour the lemon butter over the fish and make sure both sides are coated. Broil about 6 minutes. Remove from oven and coat fish (both sides) in a ground up mixture of pine nuts, parmeasan, lemon pepper, and breadcrumbs (go easy on the parm it can easily overwhelm the yumminess of the fish). Last night was the first time I used pine nuts on the fish, previously I only used breadcrumbs and parm. I used to broil the fish another 1-2 minutes after breading it but last night the pine nuts burned. (My new smoke detector works, yay!) So next time I'll probably lower the oven rack and keep a closer eye on the pine nuts. Even with the burnt pine nuts, it was extraordinary!!
Stayed tuned later this week for walnut crusted chicken and granola stuffed peaches. Also, I might do seafood pizza and/or hamburger experimentations. Maybe next time I'll even take pictures :)
The Orange Roughy sounds delicious!!
ReplyDeleteI'll have to try it!