Fishing for Tilapia

One Utah lake off I-80 near the Utah and Nevada border contains Tilapia. The lake is Blue Lake and it contains some natural warm water springs that keep the water warm enough for the Tilapia to thrive even in the cold Utah winters. You can view the official information here.

Levi and I often purchase this mild fish. It's very delicious covered with a sauce that contains equal parts of mayo and sour cream, some dill weed, small amount of lemon juice and Parmesan cheese. Cook this under the broiler. YUM!

Now it appears that I can start catching my own tilapia.

Levi's Delicious Baked Potato Recipe

Due to popular demand (from MissGlimpse), I've decided to give the world a great recipe. Levi introduced me to a delicious way of making the perfect baked potato. By coating the outside with oil and seasons, then cooking directly on the rack, it creates a delicious crispy outside and moist, fluffy inside.

Here is the recipe:

Levi’s Perfect Baked Potato

2 large potatoes
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning

Wash potatoes and perforate skins with a fork. Dry. Rub with olive oil then cover with salt and herbs. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place potatoes directly on the rack. Place foil on the rack directly below to catch any debris. Cook for 90 minutes or until done.

The Magic of Brining

My dear friend Missy recently passed on a recipe of Tender Apricot Chicken. I was a little hesitant to put apricot on my chicken, but I figure one of these days I'll be brave and give it a try. Until then, I do need to share with the world my favorite cooking method. I hope it brings smiles to your face once some of this delicious food is introduced to your taste buds.

Several months ago my Husband Levi talked on and on about the delicious benefits of brining chicken before it's cooked. Our conversations often went something like this. When asked, "What's for dinner tonight", and my response had anything to do with boneless chicken breasts, his smile would become fixed, his eyes would become a little heavy and he would slowly make his way out of the kitchen and pray for it be edible. After a few meals like this, he started to talk about brining and how it would be fun to try. Brining? I didn't know what that was. Best to stick with a tried and true (although not a lip smacking and satisfying) method.

As many people know, boneless chicken breasts are very easy to dry out. Even the cook with very little experience can dry out a full pan in only minutes. It doesn't take a genius to transform a perfectly juicy, plump chicken breast into a dry, hard, flavorless, tough piece of meat. Few people can claim to creators of juicy and deliciously flavored chicken perfection. I my friends, are one of them. It's a magic skill called ~ohhh~ Brining.

Raised in a house where salt was used very little, the concept of brining was very foreign. I first became aware of this cooking method by Levi's good friend, best man at our wedding, and current boss Jason. He invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner two years ago and served a brined turkey. I had no idea what that meant, but seeing that Jason is a professional chef, I knew it must be good. After one bite of the brined turkey, I became instantly aware that there is a whole wonderful world of brining out there for me to discover.

With this new found knowledge and practiced skill, I worked my brining magic on some chicken breasts served at our 4th of July BBQ held this year. It was a hit. And now I pass my magic card to all of you in hopes that you now become part of the minority, and no longer produce dry, tasteless chicken for your friends and family to consume.

Happy cooking!

Brine solution: 4 cups water to 6 tablespoons Kosher salt.
Add herbs of choice. I used around 1 1/2 tablespoons Italian seasoning and 1 bay leaf.

Preparing Chicken: Place chicken in large ziplock bag and tenderize it using flat side of mallet to 1/2" thick. Place chicken in brine solution and rest for at least 2 hours. Once complete, remove chicken and rinse with fresh water.
*Optional- Season with a very small amount of additional seasoning (I like McCormick's Montreal Chicken seasoning).

Cooking: Grill on medium heat about 3-4 minutes each side or until inside isn't pink.

**Warning**
It's hard to go back to the old style once you try brining.

Mel's Taco Soup

Last night I purchased our first dutch oven. It's a Camp Chef 6 qt. pan. It came preseasoned and ready to use. Those words are like music to my ears. Last night I made my dutch oven meal Taco Soup. It was easy and clean-up was simple.

Anyone interested in the recipe, here it is.
1 pound ground beef
1 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic
(Combine and brown beef)

1 28oz can diced tomatoes
1 can corn
1 can kidney beans
1 can pinto beans (optional)
1 sm. can tomato sauce + 1 can water
1 taco seasoning packet
(add cans with their juices to th beef)

Cover and cook for 20 minutes.
Serve with sour cream, cheddar cheese and corn chips
Serves 4 famished people or 6-8 moderately hungry people.

Expiration Dates

I'm a curious one when it comes to expiration dates on food. I wonder why some foods have the dates stamped nice and easy to read, and others have this annoying code that is mind aching to solve. 3 days ago my dad sent me the answer key to those impossible codes, such as E219W1. It's from this article from MSNBC. The quoted part is in italics.
LOOK FOR EXPIRATION DATES.

Canned foods will last up to two years from their date of manufacture — not the date you purchased them. Many cans still carry a manufacturing code (instead of a “use by” date). While there is no standard, most canned goods follow this system:

For example, let’s assume the code reads as E219W1. What does that mean?

E = The month the food was manufactured. Since the manufacturing year typically starts in June with “A” for June, in this case “E” stands for “October.”

2 = The last number of the year in which it was manufactured — 2002

19 = The day of the month the can was manufactured

W = The plant name or location

1 = The shift on which the product was manufactured — in this case, the first shift of the day.

If you don’t want to take the trouble to decipher all of this, just call the 800# on the package and the customer service representative will be happy to tell you when it was made.

Eggs

When at a restaurant and asked, "how would you like your egg?" The pressure is now on and I must rack my brain to think of the different names associated with the cooked egg I crave at the moment. The words overeasy, poached, fried, or coddled never come to mind, only the description. How humiliating it would be to reply with "cooked on both sides with some butter, yolk not broken" or, "the broken and cooked in water type". No, they expect you to be eloquent enough to produce the words "fried" or "poached".

Due to this, I often end up repeating the same egg type that everyone else orders, "scrambled". Often times, the scrambled egg is nothing more than an egg substitute, so not only do I loose out on the egg of choice, I loose out on the egg experience completely. This is not a good way to start the day.

While doing an online search to learn and memorize egg definitions, I was reminded of my childhood. We had chickens all over our yard and everyday we would do an egg hunt. It was rather like Easter, except instead of finding pink, green and yellow eggs with pretty designs, we found brown eggs. Usually in the same places each day. When cooked, the color seemed more brilliant and had a richer flavor.

Ah, the bliss found in memories.

Death by a low sodium diet

About a month ago I started a low sodium diet. I suppose this wouldn't have been such a difficult thing had I not the ability to down an entire jar of pickles in one sitting. But as things are, I'm forced to change my eating practices.

After several failed attempts to keep this diet, I decided to turn to the web for help in my endeavor. It was interesting to learn that the body only really needs 500 mg/day, though many tend to eat as much as 4-6 grams/day (or 16-18 grams/day depending on which website you believe). Regardless, universally it's recommended that a low sodium diet is about 2,400/day (this is about the same as eating 2 McDonald kids meals).

Although I have tried to find some good low sodium recipes, today I came across a site that appears to have mastered the low sodium recipe- taste good competition.

Tonight I'll be eating Cjoclem Caccoatpre

Recipe Search

Today I came across a recipe site that I really enjoyed. It's cooks.com and if the words red snapper, garlic mashed potatoes, apple crisp and baked ribs don't cause your mouth to water, I suggest you go see the doctor, because something must be wrong with you.

The Food Chain

According to Iowa State University there is high nutritional value in food that many people never consider eating. It’s a shame more people aren’t eating June Beetles as you can get 13.4 g of protein, 22.6 mg of calcium and 6 mg of Iron. Lets see you try and get that kind of nutrition from your bowl of cherrios.

I can’t help but wonder how one would extract the beetle from the shell.

For all those anxious to learn a few bug recipes:
chocolate covered grasshoppers
Mealworm Fried Rice
Chocolate Chirpie Chip Cookies
Banana Worm Bread

Bon Appetit

Cook Wise

I'm so happy I could fly. This last weekend I found a book that is more precious than Atticus. It's sometimes refered to as the bible of cooking. Even the pro chefs call Shirly Corriher to answer their cooking questions and problems. In case you haven't guessed, the book is called CookWise, The Hows & Whys of Successful Cooking.

Today I learned about the changes natural proteins go through when cooked, and how to cook the perfect eggs, chicken and fish.

For the last 8 months I've been trying to steal my fathers copy of the book. He keeps it under his shirt when I visit. This last weekend we found a copy that I could finally afford. Heaven must be smiling upon me.

Last week I was trying to create a strawberry desert dish that called for Arrowroot powder (a thickner). Being rather poor and not wanting to spend $$ on this rather expensive thickner, I turned to one of the best food websites around food subs.

This site gives detailed information on foods and what can be the best substitutes. If you are a poor cook I highly recomend checking out this site.