Fish Tacos

 

 

Because I grew up on the South American Pacific Coast, in Viña del Mar, Chile, I ate freshly caught fish at least once a week. I love fish in most any form, shape, or size. Seafood in general makes me happy. That is one of the reasons I love this dish so much. I also love it because it houses two other of my taste bud, and childhood belly happiness triggers: avocado and cilantro.

 

Oh! the joys of a fresh summer dish!

 

 

 

 

The secret to a great Fish Taco is in the slaw, otherwise all you have is a piece is fish wrapped in a corn tortilla. I'm always searching for the greatest Fish Taco. My favorite restaurant Fish Taco is at a local joint here in McKinney, where I live. My favorite homemade Fish Tacos are these. Since you probably don't live here, and you are in the mood for a delicious homemade meal (otherwise you wouldn't be here, right?), I suggest that you run to the grocery store, purchase these ingredients, and make yourself and your family some killer yummy slaw.

 

 

 

 

 

Fish Tacos

 

olive oil

tilapia fillets

*Corn tortillas

 

 

Slaw

 

1 bag of slaw

1/3 cup sour cream

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice

1 tbsp. white wine vinegar

1 chipotle pepper (in adobo sauce)

1 tsp. adobo sauce 

pinch of salt

1big handful of cilantro

once your taco is assembled add a touch of lime and some avocado (it's optional, but not really)

Make your slaw in the morning.

The day I took these pictures I made the slaw with slightly more sour cream and mayonnaise. I thought  it turned out too creamy, so I adjusted the amounts in the listed recipe. If it isn't creamy enough for you, you can always add more, but you can never take it out. Remember that when you first make slaw (of any kind) it never looks like there is enough mayonnaise in it. It does, trust me,  just give it a few hours to settle and you will see.

Also, if you want a more "healthy" version, you can substitute fat free plain yogurt for the sour cream, and a low fat mayonnaise. I personally like this version way better, and I would rather eat less of it than more of the "not as yummy" version.

 



I forgot to add cilantro before taking the previous picture. Chop up your cilantro good and add it to the slaw.

I love making this dish in the summer. Because once I have the slaw made, all I have to do in the evening is sauté my fish in olive oil and warm up some tortillas. It is a super fast dish for my family to enjoy after a long day at the water park.

* I failed to photograph them, but I found some great, new tortillas made by Mission. They are called: Artisan Style Tortillas, Corn and Whole Wheat Blend. I like them because they don't tear as soon as you fold them. They have a mild corn taste, and as the package sais, they are "softer and foldable". Try them. Or, you can use regular corn tortillas. Just don't come crying to me when you take your first bite and the whole thing falls apart.

Stay satisfied, my friends!

Beef Stroganoff

When was the last time you went to a Restaurant and ordered Beef Stroganoff?

It's crazy, I know!

What is it about this dish that has made it disappear into the archives of the 70s along with pet rocks, mood rings and the psychedelic hippie vans?

Perhaps it's the fact that it is made with a combination of red meat, condensed beef broth and, gasp, a 1/2 pint of sour cream, all three which are big no-no's in this day in time. However, I'm not so convinced that this is the case. Consider the fact that you can still get the ever so popular Fettuccine Alfredo just about anywhere; a dish made with a combination of the evilest of carbs and the evilest of saturated fats.

I just don't get it, this stuff is to die for!

One of my favorite meals in the world has gone out of style. However, just as the bell bottoms, platform shoes (aka wedges!),  Farrah Fawcett hair, and crochet clothes have made it back into our lives, I am campaigning to bring back this amazing dish.

So folks, it's time to plug in your lava lamps, put on your tie-dye shirts, blow the dust off of your ABBA records (or the Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Village People, whoever rocks your 70s world). Lets make this groovy dish for our families. We will all be dancing the boogie when we're done.

Beef Stroganoff

  

 1 lb. sirloin steak, cut up into thin strips
1 T. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 T.  butter (for browning beef)
4oz. can sliced mushrooms (drained)
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 garlic clove, minced

2 T. butter
3 T. flour
1 can condensed beef broth
1 T. tomato paste
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 C. sour cream

Hot Noodles
 

Coat your beef strips in flour and salt (I throw them all in ziplock bag to coat evenly). In a skillet with  2Tbsp. of butter, brown beef quickly, then add onions, garlic and mushrooms and brown an additional 3-4 minutes. This is what it should look like:

 

 



because I have a teen boy that eats like a horse and a husband that takes leftovers to work,
I put more meat in. don't be fooled by the amount of meat here, which is about 1 and 1/2 pounds. This recipe calls for only 1 lb.)

Now, put the meat on a plate. Add 2 Tbsp. of butter and 3 Tbsp. of flour to your skillet, get all of the crusties scraped off and brown your rue for a couple of minutes.

Turn heat down, add the can of condensed beef broth and stir quickly to dissolve the flour. It will thicken fast. Then add tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce.

Return meat mixture to skillet, and make sure it gets hot again.

Add 8oz. tub of sour cream. Make sure it all gets warm but:

DO NOT BOIL!



Serve over hot noodles.

While you're at it, make sure you wash it down with some TAB. Then go veg out for several hours on your waterbed.

This is wicked ya'll!

 

 

CURRY CHICKEN (the secret to a great marriage)

I'm about to give you my most prized possession. My this meal trumps them all. This is the yardstick meal that gets measured up to every other meal that I ever fix. This is the best I've got, folks. At least that is what my husband Mike thinks.

Whenever I ask for meal ideas I know that this will be the first one out of his mouth. So he's not allowed to request it any more. What I usually do when I'm in a "what the heck can I fix for dinner this week?" slump, I fix Curry Chicken and THEN I ask him: "Hey Mike, I need meal ideas, and we just had Curry Chicken so ask for something else."

This dish has always been Mike's favorite. He has probably had this for every single birthday for the past 21 years, on many other special occasions. I also make it a lot just because. It is actually one of the easiest and fastest meals I make. I'm pretty sure that thanks to Curry Chicken, I can be 100% sure that Mike will never leave me. I've got the secret weapon that keeps him and his belly madly in love with me.

As with Fettuccine Alfredo, you must throw all diet rules out the window, close your eyes and enjoy every single bite refusing to feel guilty about it.

Disclaimer: This is NOT an authentic Curry Chicken.  Just a simple cream based dish seasoned with Curry Powder.

I hope you enjoy it. Think of Mike and me when you are eating, and pray that you should be so blessed to have a marriage as awesome as ours.

Curry Chicken

1 large onion

1 bell pepper

1 and 1/2  lbs. chicken breast or chicken tenders

2 HEAPING tsps. Curry powder
1 tsps. salt

1 pint Whipping Cream

Serve with white or brown rice. Jasmine rice gives it a real nice flavor too.

Thinly slice your onion and bell pepper and brown with as little oil as possible so it won't stick to your pan.

 

 

 

I put them on medium heat. As they slowly brown, begin to cut your chicken into bite-size pieces.

Don't you just love my gloves? You need to know that I have an aversion to raw meat. I hate, hate, hate, hate raw meat. It is disgusting, and it gets in your nails, and it's gross, and did I mention how much I hate it?

 

 

 When the onions and peppers are done, slide them onto a plate, add a little more oil to your pan and brown your seasoned chicken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I like my Curry Powder to get nice and brown and be sticking to the pan without burning. 

 

 

 

Add your onions and peppers to the chicken and blend them all in, browning for another minute. Add cream, scrape all of the crusty stuff on your pan and watch it turn a nice yellow mustardy color.

 

 

 

 

As soon as you pour your cream, start cooking your rice. turn your heat up a little to bring your cream to a boil. Then lower you heat down. Stir every now and then as it reduces and thickens. If you are lucky and time it right, the rice and the Curry Chicken will be done at the same time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry I have such a hard time getting the lighting right.

 

 

I have found through the years that curry powder seems to get milder and milder tasting. what used to be just two teaspoons has turned into two heaping teaspoons, but I find myself wishing it was stronger and more spicy. Don't be afraid to add more curry if you like the taste and you want to add a little more kick.

 

 

Goes well with candied carrots, or a salad, and a good bottle glass of Chardonnay.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Deviled Chicken

I'm not so sure what's devilish about this chicken, but I am making it tonight in memory of the devil himself (this is not an honor) because I was under severe spiritual warfare yesterday. I'm not kidding. I don't take this stuff lightly at all, and I'm not the type that thinks the boogie man is out to get me all of the time, but the more I think about that day, the more I'm convinced that spiritual warfare is what was really taking place. I will spare you the details about it, but, suffice it to say that I ended up flat on my back with the headache from hell. I was practically paralyzed with pain for the better part of the evening. I hate to call these headaches migraines because I really don't want to insult those who have them. I did not see lights, I did not throw up, and I was not sensitive to light or noise. I just couldn't function.

I called Mike on my way to dropping Isaac off at soccer practice (yay, soccer is back, and no, that was not a sarcastic remark) and told him that the thought of having to get back in the car to pick him up from soccer was more than I could take. He graciously served me by leaving work early so that he could do for me the only thing that absolutely HAD to get done that evening. He picked up Isaac and then took him and Elijah to McAllisters for dinner and by the time they got home with a warm bowl of potato soup for me, I felt well enough to make it downstairs and eat my dinner. He also had to wash a load of clothes because he had no clean socks, and Isaac had no clean underwear or jeans. Lord bless this man that works his butt off all day and comes home to serve his wife that feels very inadequate for not having dinner on the table and clean clothes on demand.

Anyway, back to the devil. I had planned on making this last night, but since I was slightly incapacitated, it has been re-scheduled for tonight.

Ironic, don't you think, because of yesterday's events? Deviled Chicken.
In your face, jerk!!! I've got the mightiest warrior fighting for me, so, bring it on... wheasel.

In order to feel redeemed by my husband (not that I should, but it just makes me happy to do so) I will be making this great meal. It's super simple, and very easy. (he likes it too)

Deviled Chicken

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Italian bread crumbs

½ cup (or more, hiccup) of white wine

1 Tbsp. honey mustard

1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

a small jar of whole mushrooms

Coat Chicken with bread crumbs.

Today I used chicken tenders because that is what I have in my fridge begging, to be bagged and frozen before it goes bad, or eaten.

Brown in skillet heated with olive oil for only 3-4 of minutes max per side. Have the oil hot so they will brown quickly.

Add wine, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove chicken and add honey mustard, lemon juice, and mushrooms to pan. (I forgot to get the mushrooms and I'm to lazy to go buy them, hence the conspicuous absence of the mushrooms.)

Stir till heated. Add chicken back into the sauce, and done!
Add salt and pepper to taste.
  

If you want to make the fabulous looking potatoes that are accompanying the chicken, hop on over to Pioneer Woman, and she will tell you how without skipping a beat. I threw in some olive oil coated peas also. They get a little hard and chew-y. But I loved them. 

Rules

There is only one rule

Pray before you eat. And remember that the enemy of our souls is dead set on stopping us from allowing the Spirit of the Living God to work through us to bless this lost and tormented world. 

Spiritual warfare is going on. Now.
Please remember that this is the God that parted the red sea, tore down the walls of Jericho, defeated the Medanites with 300 men and jars of clay. His fire consumed the wood, the stones of the altar, the soil, and licked the water that filled the trench that had surrounded said altar at the showdown in Mt. Carmel.  This is the God who forgave David, blessed Solomon, and sent Isaiah. He calmed the storm, healed the sick, he fed the 5000, transformed lives and raised them from the dead. HE rose from the dead. Remember that in Ephesians 1 He tells us we have that same power through Christ. You do, I do.

That is what I want you to remember as you eat this chicken, and all of the days to come.

Just so you know. I wrote this on Wednesday. The headache from hell was on Fat Tuesday. Oh, if you only knew the irony in that! (and, no, I didn't have a hangover). Someday... I may tell you my story.

Greek(ish) Pork Pita

I got this recipe from one of the most amazing men I know. He is a bachelor (God only knows why!); he is good looking, an adventurous outdoorsman, a dedicated follower of the living Christ, and a fabulous cook to boot. A true catch. If you ever move to Morristown, TN. and you want to meet a real man, you will have to contact me, I will have to interview you, then refer you to his work associate so she can interview you as well, and then we will decide if we are willing to introduce you to him. A true gem. I have a reader or two who knows exactly who I'm talking about.

I have slightly modified this recipe to suit my taste, plus it just doesn't seem right to steal from him. I wish I could give him full credit, but he shall remain anonymous until further notice.


The reason that this is Greek(ish) is because the marinade would not be considered very Greek. Let's just move on and you'll just see.


Oh, well, let's just see first, shall we?

 

Is your mouth watering yet?

Greek(ish) Pork Pita

First you need to make the Greek(ish) yogurt dip

1 cup fat free Greek yogurt
¼ cup good olive oil (so much for the fat free part)
1Tbsp. lemon juice (start with less and add to taste)
½ tsp. salt
1 cup peeled, seeded, and finely chopped cucumber
1 avocado peeled and diced

Mix all and let sit. The longer it hangs out, the better the flavors meld.

*Note: I don't particularly care for regular cucumbers. I splurge and always buy English cucumbers. They are the really long ones that come wrapped in plastic. They are supposedly burpless and seedless. But I just like the flavor and consistency better. I don't bother seeding the seeds that are not even supposed to be there.

Also, the original recipe calls for minced garlic. I don't like raw garlic, (I always feel like I'm tasting it for days). But if you like it, knock yourself out, just add ½ tsp.

If you make this a day ahead, wait till almost serving time to add avocado, although the yogurt and the lemon protect it from browning, it's not that big a deal.

Pork

2 lbs. pork loin

½ cup olive oil

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

¼ cup fresh orange juice

1 tsp. chili powder

2 Tbsp. minced garlic

½ tsp. salt

pepper to taste

Pita Bread, or any other flat(ish) bread

Take the pork loin and slice it into really thin slivers. Put them in a zip-lock bag and pour in the marinade ingredients. If you are making this for dinner, begin marinade in the morning. You could even start it the night before. 

Don't panic. This photo is of what I made today. I only had a little bit of pork left over from the other day and adjusted the amount of my marinade ingredients accordingly.  You will have way more than this.

 

When ready to cook, brown in a pre-heated skillet with olive oil. The original recipe says to grill them. It turns out great that way. I highly recommend you do it. But, I don't have a grill (I know, I know, poor me...)

plus it's a mess. You need to take some wooden skewers and soak them in water for a good while (at least 30-40 minutes), then take each slice of meat and slide through the skewer. You only have to grill 4-5 minutes per side. Here is what mine looked like in my pan, plus it is much faster.

 

Assemble and eat your heart out. This is actually one of my absolute favorite meals. I am going to confess to you that I have been known to eat just the yogurt dip by the spoonfuls.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.....

I just remembered, I have a tomato that must get eaten, pronto.

Now, THAT's what I'm talkin' about baby!

No rules here, but I do give you my permission to eat the yogurt dip with a spoon, if there is any left.

Bistec a lo Super Pobre

In Chile where I grew up, there is a super fancy dish called "Bistec a lo Pobre". This is a steak, preferably a filet that has been grilled to perfection, and served with carmelized onions, french fries, and a fried egg. I know, foreigners eat such strange combinations of foods. But let me tell ya', although strange it is delish!
What is so funny about this dish is that the name literally means "poor man's steak" or "steak the poor man's way". As you can imagine, there is nothing poor about this meal. If you go to a restaurant it will probably be the most expensive dish on the menu. A real treat.

I am unbelievably strange about some of the things I like to eat; probably due to the fact that I grew up eating strange things. One of those strange things, that by the way I never had growing up, is just in a strange category of it's own: cold sweet potatoes. I love cold sweet potatoes. Yesterday I was really craving a cold sweet potato. Whenever I fix them I always throw an extra one in the oven to save for the next day. I don't wrap them up, I just wash, throw on a baking stone and bake for a very long time. I believe that is the secret to a great sweet potato. You need to overcook them, and just like onions, they get sweeter and sweeter the longer you cook them. I check and make sure I don't take them out of the oven till they are super soft and oozing at the ends.

So I went to the store and bought me some long skinny sweet potatoes and baked them. I had to create my dinner around them. I'm calling my dish the "very poor man's steak" because I just made it with a hamburger meat patty.

 

Here is what you do.

Bake sweet potatoes for a minimum of one hour. I baked mine for an hour and a half, and they were skinny ones! If you want them sweet, wait till they ooze. When they begin to cool off the "meat" will have shrunk  considerably and the skin will be real wrinkled. 

If you want an authentic chilean dish, skip the sweet potatoes and fix home made french fries.

Brown your hamburger patty. If you want to splurge, or be authentic still, by all means, have a real steak.

For the onions, cook for at least 20 minutes, it may take longer. Like spinach, you begin with a pan full and end up with a hand full. For Mike and me I cut up one of those ginormous onions. If they would have been a smaller, more medium size, I would have fixed two. No need to add anything other than salt. If they are cooked long enough they will be sweet.



Don't forget the egg! It just adds that special final touch. So good, trust me.

Rules

Rule #1

You must be patient, the onions take a long time to cook. Overcook them as much as you can without burning them.

Rule #2

Make the extra baked sweet potato. Put it in your fridge and have it for lunch the next day.  Because it will have such a sweet buttery flavor there will be no need to add anything to it. Eat it like an apple, skin and all (the sweetest part is stuck to the skin). If you don't like it, warm it up!

Provecho!!

Translation: Bon appatit, enjoy!!

Some Like it Hot: The Ultimate Grilled Pimento Cheese

The week after Christmas the 5 of us Harms ladies decided to go out to lunch at one of those great "girly" places, you know the kind. It's the kind of place your husband (or mine) wouldn't be caught dead eating at. This particular cafe/tea room is called Chocolate Angel. A darling place that serves soups, salads and dainty little sandwiches. Well, almost dainty.

On this beautiful, sunny, warm TEXAS December day I wasn't much in the mood for a grilled pimento cheese sandwich (I got the spinach salad), but my sister-in-law was and she ordered this AMAZING sandwich called "Some Like it Hot". Now as weird as this may seem, I have actually had grilled pimento cheese sandwiches a couple of times in my life, and I actually like them. But let me tell you, THIS is not your run of the mill, ordinary grilled pimento cheese sandwich!

Bless her wonderful, generous heart, Christy (my sister-in-law) was nice enough to give me a taste of hers, and wow! WOW! Oh my word! It was so good! I decided then and there that for sure I was going to have to go back some day and order me one! A few moments later though, I thought to myself: "Hey I can make that!" Because, well, that is just what I do.

So I did, I looked on the description of the sandwich, remembered what was in it and made me one up just  for myself. At the Chocolate Angel they may have some secret ingredient that I don't know about, but it doesn't mater, I had only one bite and I can't remember what it actually tasted like anyway. This sandwich is to die for!

The Ultimate Grilled Pimento Cheese

8 oz. grated sharp cheddar cheese

¼  cup mayonnaise

1 small jar diced pimentos (the smallest)

**1 Tbsp. candied jalapenos (chopped)

2-3 slices bacon

Throw it all in a bowl.



Mix well.

your favorite kind of bread
real butter

strawberry jam

I'm not going to insult your intelligence by telling you how to make a grilled cheese sandwich. Just do it.
Serve it hot and spread the jam on top. I know this is silly, but I like to eat mine with a fork, it can be messy.

** If you are like me you probably didn't even know that there was such a thing as "candied jalapenos". It took me a while to find them. I finally located them at my local hooty tooty grocery store. You know, the kind that is ridiculously overpriced, but looks so pretty and clean and plays beautiful music while you shop. At these stores you get such wonderful customer service that they almost make it worth shopping there.
I'm sure you can find one near you.

 Anyway, they were not in the Hispanic food section. They were on the bottom shelf of the pickled stuff, alongside other peculiar foodie like food such as pickled pimentos and pickled green beans, etc...

So, here are the rules:

(because my food comes with rules)

Rule #1

You MUST grate the cheese yourself. It's yummier, more healthy, and with all of that effort you will work off about ½ of a bite of sandwich. If you buy grated cheese, it's cheating, and just opening the bag will only work off about ½ of a sliver of pimento, so, as you can see, the grating is totally worth the work (even if you break a nail).

Rule #2

You MUST try at least one bite with the jam. When Christy gave me my bite at the Chocolate Angel she put jam on it for me. Had I caught her in time I would have stopped her. I'm so glad I didn't. There is just something about the added taste of the sweet jam combined with the spiciness of the jalapenos. I know it all sounds weird, but trust me on this one. TRY it! And if you really don't like it after giving it a fair try, that's OK, I'll just have to feel sorry for you.

Rule #3

Be hungry and SLOW down! When you are hungry everything tastes better. However, when I ate mine I was too ravenously hungry that when I was done I really wished I would have slowed down more to enjoy the ecstasy.

Go make it now and ask your girlfriends over. They will think you are a godess.
Enjoy!!

Aunt Doris' Famous Doughnuts

When I was in high school my mom and dad wrote a wonderful family cookbook. I wrote about it here and here when I first began blogging if you want to take a peek.

Many of the recipes in this book are ones that my mom got from other missionaries in Chile. This recipe is from my aunt Doris Dyches. And if you ever try them you will know why they are so famous.

Aunt Doris' Famous Doughnuts

1 cup boiling water

¼ cup sugar

1 ½  tsp. salt

3 Tbsp. shortening

4 cups flour

1 ¼ tsp. yeast

¼ cup water

1 tsp. sugar

1 egg

 

Glaze:

1 box powdered sugar (1 lb.)

½ Cup boiling water (I use milk, no need to boil)

1tsp. vanilla

Mix first 4 ingredients. Dissolve yeast in the  ¼ Cup of water and tsp. of sugar, set aside.

You are supposed to let the water cool down to lukewarm. But what I do is I add 2 cups of flour, mix it in. In a small bowl beat the egg slightly and add it to the water/flour mix. By then the mix is cool enough to safely add the yeast. Stir it in and then add the other 2 cups of flour. Mix well and put it in a large bowl to raise overnight.

In the morning it should be about double. Take the dough and turn on slightly floured surface and knead till glossy (and stretchy). Roll to about ½ inch thickness. If you have a donut cutter great, if not,do what I do. Cut out a circle with a glass, then pinch a hole in the middle and stretch out to look like a donut. Make sure your hole is bigger than you think it should be because it will rise a little and then expand when you fry it.

As you can see here, I like to grease aluminum foil to lay mine on to rise. Let rise for 1 hour. Don't worry if they don't rise much, an hour is enough and a soon as they hit the oil they will expand.

 

I like using a fry daddy. They only take a couple of minutes on each side, so be attentive. have your glaze ready. And yes, they are frying, in oil. DO NOT JUDGE ME! They are donuts, you FRY them! OK?

 

As soon as you take them out of the oil, plop then straight into the glaze.

 

Swirl around, drip, drip.

 

And eat, eat.

When you make them make sure you eat the first one because the rest will disappear before you can ask if they were good!

There is only one rule. Don't eat these the same week you have The Best Fettuccine Alfredo Ever. OH CRAP! We are having Lobster and Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo on Christmas eve. Well, it's Christmas, I guess it will be ok. I mean, I only make these like 2-3 times a year....

Oh wait, there is another rule. Eat them while you still have your pj's on, you know... the "stretchy" ones!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!