Baked Fish & Chips with homemade tartar sauce

 Tonight's post is brought to you by my parents, for delivering my fishy order from my hometown (got's me 1/2 a halibut!!)

These aren't your Highliner fish sticks, no siree!

Here I have mayo, an egg, some Italian seasoning, a bit of parm cheese, rice crispy cereal, halibut (any solid white fish will do, but please don't use haddock. Bleh) dill pickles and some dried dill. Oh, and some new potatoes.

Crank your oven to 375 F ( don't use higher; it dried my fish out -_-;) and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Makes clean up waaaaay easier, and it is bio-degradable.

Start with about a cup of the cereal, and dump in it your trusty food processor. You can also use a Ziploc bag and a rolling pin and give it to kids to bash.

Add about 1/8 cup of parm cheese and a tablespoon of the spice mix, and whiz until it looks like Shake n' Bake.

Grab your egg, and scramble it in a bowl. Yes I used a plastic fork, as SOMEBODY, I don't know who, gave me some a wicked sore throat and thus I touch nothing in order to not pass on the germies.

Grab your slab 'o hali, skin it if it is not already done, and slice it into whatever shape and size pleases you most. I chose long chunks.

Pat them dry with some paper towel, and pray that your cat doesn't notice that you are cutting up fish.

 Start your standard coating station: egg wash and breading to coat.

For poops and giggles, I double coated most of the fillets in egg and breading to get them super duper crispy.

Place on parchment paper with about an inch between the fish sticks.

Take your beautiful new potatoes (washed) and cut them in half. 

 Grab a bowl, toss about 3 tbsp of olive oil, and toss the potatoes in it until they are thoroughly coated.

Drop them in the remaining crumb mix and shake the container to coat.

Place on parchment and bang them in the oven, along with the fish for about 30 mins. If the 'taters aren't quite done, pull the fish out and leave the potatoes in until they are cooked to your liking.

While you are waiting for the oven to work its magic, time to make the tartar sauce.

Here I have three dill pickles (homemade) and chopped them quite fine.

Place the chopped pickles in a bowl, along with 2 tsp of dried dill (fresh is best if it is available) and roughly 1/4 cup of mayo.

Stir to combine. If the sauce seems a bit thick, thin it out with some pickle juice! Trust me on this.

Keep in the fridge until ready to use.

Enjoy with a nice green salad made by Hubby dearest, complete with avocados that my parents forgot to take back with them. You snooze you loose Daddy!

Lasagna!! with Zucchini

Today's post is brought to you by my co-worker's suggestion of what to do with a fridge full of spinach, and a whole bunch of zucchinis that have to be used prior to Sunday when I get our next co-op box!


If you think that this post contains real grain noodles, gluten-free or otherwise, boy are you in the wrong. This is grain-free and SO yummy!

I have here:

• 4 large zucchini
• some garlic (i used about 4 large cloves)
• onion (sadly the last one I had left, otherwise I would have used 2)
• 2 eggs
• 1 large container of cottage cheese/ricotta
• lots of other cheese
• can of diced tomatoes
• Italian pork sausages from the lovely Notta Farms in Cowichan
• salt and pepper
• wine (no picture because Hubby hadn't retrieved the bottle yet)
• Italian herbs (pictured later)

Let's get cooking!

Start by either using a mandolin or sharp knife, slice lengthwise the washed zucchini into 1/4 inch strips or less in thickness.

If using a mandolin, for the love of all that is holy, please be careful! Use the finger/hand guard that it comes with.

Crank your oven to 450 F, and line 2 or more large cookie sheets with parchment. This will make a standard lasagna-sized pan (9 x 13).

Daintily lay the precious zucchini strips on the parchment, and throw them in the oven. You want some of the water to evaporate, so leave them in for 20 minutes or so. Not pictured because I am an airhead.

Next, holler for Hubby to help out.

Get your spinach washed (if not already and don't trust anything that says pre-washed!) and roughly ripped into larger than bite sized pieces........*******.......---------.............`` (the cat decided it was a great time to lie spread eagle on the keyboard and 'help' me type.

Chop the onion and garlic and set aside.

Throw a large pot on the stove over medium-high heat, and toss in a glug of olive oil once it is hot.

Put all the spinach in, along with a small amount of the onion & garlic and cook until the spinach is wilted and there's little water left to evaporate.

Dump it in a bowl, toss a heaping tablespoon of cornstarch on it, and stir, baby stir until cool-ish and set aside. No picture....

In the same pot, place a teensy amount of olive oil, and squeeze the sausage out of the casings into the pot. Crumble the pork while it cooks, and when it is halfway cooked, pour in the remaining onion and garlic.

If you have not forgotten to do so, take out the first batch of zucchini 'noodles' and set aside somewhere to vaguely cool (like a cutting board) and throw the next batch in the on the same parchment.

Grab another bowl, and dump in the whole container of cottage cheese. You can totally use ricotta (I usually do, but I didn't feel like going to another grocery store just to get it), 2 eggs, about 1/4 - 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, and some salt and pepper.

Stir to combine.

Go back to the pot on the stove, and crack open a large can of diced tomatoes and dump it in the pot. While you are at it, toss in about 2-3 good tablespoons of Italian herbs, and let that sucker simmer until there is very little water left.

 

Also ask Hubby to grate some cheese, and grate some more!

Alright. So you have everything you need prepped and ready to go. I think.

Start your pans! Scoop some of the meat sauce in the pan (9 x 13), just enough so that the zuke won't be touching the bare pan.

Place your first layer of zucchini ribbons. Top with a slight layer of the cottage cheese mixture, and add another layer of zucchini. I changed directions each time I laid the ribbons down.

Next layer add dollops of the spinach mixture, more zucchini, and the meat sauce.

Repeat until you are finished everything, and top with mountains of cheese.

bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the cheese is browned to your personal satisfaction

Be careful when taking it out of the oven. I highly recommend placing the dish on a cookie sheet, so if it boils over, it won't get on the oven element.

Please let the lasagna sit for 10 minutes or so to firm up and cool.

Enjoy with a glass of homemade red wine, and inform Hubby that he's on dishes duty!