Fish Tacos

From Allrecipes
Ingredients:

•       Marinade
•       1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
•       2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
•       2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
•       2 teaspoons lime zest
•       1 1/2 teaspoons honey
•       2 cloves garlic, minced
•       1/2 teaspoon cumin
•       1/2 teaspoon chili powder
•       1 teaspoon seafood seasoning, such as Old Bay™
•       1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
•       1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, or to taste (I left this out)
•       1 pound tilapia fillets, cut into chunks
•  
•       Dressing
•       1 (8 ounce) container light sour cream
•       1/2 cup adobo sauce from chipotle peppers (I used about 1/4 cup--and it was still hot!  Optional.)
•       2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
•       2 teaspoons lime zest
•       1/4 teaspoon cumin
•       1/4 teaspoon chili powder
•       1/2 teaspoon seafood seasoning, such as Old Bay™
•       salt and pepper to taste
•  
•       Toppings
•       1 (10 ounce) package tortillas
•       3 ripe tomatoes, seeded and diced
•       1 bunch cilantro, chopped
•       1 small head cabbage, cored and shredded
•       2 limes, cut in wedges

Directions:
1.  To make the marinade, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, lime juice, lime zest, honey, garlic, cumin, chili powder, seafood seasoning, black pepper, and hot sauce in a bowl until blended.  Place the tilapia in a shallow dish, and pour the marinade over the fish. Cover, and refrigerate 6 to 8 hours.
2.  To make the dressing, combine the sour cream and adobo sauce in a bowl. Stir in the lime juice, lime zest, cumin, chili powder, seafood seasoning. Add salt, and pepper in desired amounts. Cover, and refrigerate until needed.
3.  Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat and lightly oil grate. Set grate 4 inches from the heat.
4.  Remove fish from marinade, drain off any excess and discard marinade. Grill fish pieces until easily flaked with a fork, turning once, about 9 minutes.  (Since I don't have a grill, I baked it at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes in the marinade, stirring once during bake time.  Perfect).
5.  Assemble tacos by placing fish pieces in the center of tortillas with desired amounts of tomatoes, cilantro, and cabbage; drizzle with dressing. To serve, roll up tortillas around fillings, and garnish with lime wedges.


Jeff and I were talking about a trip we took to Mexico earlier this year and I got the craving for fish tacos.  We enjoyed them (however, I had to really encourage my children to eat them--the more difficult a recipe combined with the difficulty of getting 4 year olds to eat equals a lower overall satisfaction for the meal); however, even saying that, I liked them.  They are spicy, next time I  won't got out of my way to add the adobe sauce.  We topped them with fresh salsa, shredded cabbage, avocados, and squeezed lime juice.  Yum!  By the way, if you don't have Old Bay Seasoning, it just seems to be a combination of celery salt, paprika, and red & black pepper.

Pine Cone Sandwiches

Ingredients:

Rolls

Ham, deli sliced

Swiss cheese, sliced

Butter/margarine

Directions:

Slice rolls in half, place ham and swiss cheese on bottom half of roll.  Butter top half of roll.  Broil the bottoms about 4 minutes, the top for 2 minutes.

Serve with Miracle Whip/mayo, tomatoes, or whatever you like.

When Jeff and I were first married, we had these frequently--they are a Davis family regular (my husband's family).  I had forgotten about them until last night I was looking through the fridge trying to decide what we could have for dinner in a hurry.  Jeff said, "How about pine cone sandwiches?"  Quick, simple, and tasty.

Try them on everything bagels.

Blueberry Scones

Adapted from Allrecipes

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 t baking powder

1/4 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

8 T unsalted butter, frozen

1/2 cup blueberries

1/2 cup sour cream

1 large egg

Directions:

1.  Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat to 400 degrees.

2.  In a medium bowl, mix flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Use food processor to work in butter to flour mixture (mixture should resemble coarse meal).

3.  In a small bowl, whisk sour cream and egg until smooth.

4.  Using a fork, stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture until large dough clumps form.  Add blueberries.  Use your hands to press dough against the bowl into a ball.

5.  Place on floured surface and pat into a 7 to 8-inch circle about 3/4-inch thick.  Sprinkle with 1 tsp of sugar.  Cut into 8 triangles; place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper about 1 inch apart.  Bake until golden, about 15 to 17 minutes.  Cool for 5 minutes and serve warm or at room temperature.

The is more of a biscuit recipe than scone, but it was still a good treat.  Loved the blueberries.

Gotta Have It Brownie

Mix together:
1 cup soft butter
2 cups white sugar
1/3 cup cocoa

Stir in:
4 eggs
1 ½ c. flour
2 tsp. vanilla
¼ tsp. salt
1 ½ cup chopped nuts

Stir; pour into greased, 1-inch deep baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until done. Cover with 1 lb mini marshmallows. Bake for 3 minutes. Add frosting.

Frosting:
1 2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup cocoa
1/3 cup canned evaporated milk.

I used a 9x13 inch baking pan to cook these in.  Very tasty and sweet--I'm glad that my kids were asleep within the hour after eating these (I was afraid they might have been wired).  I only had about 1/3 package of regular sized marshmallows so I cut them up and only put them on 1/2 the brownies.  We liked them with or without the marshmallows.  The frosting is glaze-like (as you can see in the photo) and spreads very easily.  I had to cook the brownies for about 25 minutes--then cooked a few minutes more with the marshmallows on top.

Hawaiian Chicken

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts, halved
15.5 oz can pineapple chunks (I always use the 20 oz can)
1/2 c honey
2 T corn starch
1 green pepper, cut in strips
3/4 c cider vinegar
1 T soy sauce
1/4 t ginger
1 chicken bouillon
flour
salt

Directions:
1.  Roll chicken in flour & sprinkle with salt.  Brown in small amount of oil in sauce pan.  Move into 9x11 baking dish.
2.  Drain pineapple, reserve chunks, add water to pineapple liquid to make 1 1/2 cups.  Add honey, cornstarch, vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, bouillon cube and bring to boil.
3.  Boil 2 min, stirring constantly.  Pour over chicken in second baking dish.
4.  Bake at 350 degrees F uncovered 30 min.  Add pineapple and green pepper.  Bake 30 min longer or until chicken is tender.  Serve with rice.

Makes 4-6 servings.

I got this recipe from my sister more than a decade ago.  It's just one of those good recipes that I can fall back on.  The ingredients are simple, the chicken is tender, the flavors sweet and sour.  We also like to eat it with choy mein noodles.  By the way, my sister got this from her husband's ex-girlfriend.  Those ex-girlfriends are good for so many things...they make us look good in comparison and we get their top recipes.

Super great Apple Crisp

Filling:
Apples and blueberries (I used 7 apples, red and green, and about 2 cups frozen blueberries)
¼ t. salt
½ cup sugar
1 t. lemon juice
2 T flour

Topping:
2 ¼ cups flour
2 sticks butter
½ t. cinnamon
¾ brown sugar
¼ t. nutmeg
1/3 cup sugar
¼ t. salt
½ cup oats

~Enough for a 9x18 pan. Half the recipe for a pie pan. Mix topping and place on top of the filling. Place in 375 degree oven for 50 minutes.

Blueberries are a great idea in apple crisp!  We loved this, though I have to be honest that I didn't really measure any of the ingredients and added the topping to some crumb mixture I had used earlier in the week.  I baked it in a 9x11 pan--it was plenty of topping.  Thanks, Kate!