Jamie Oliver's white fish wrapped in smoked bacon with lemon mayo and asparagus

During our most recent trip to Costco we decided to get a package of tilapia and do some experimenting. We stumbled upon this recipe in our Jamie Oliver cookbook. It took maybe 10 minutes to put together and was so delicious we nearly made it again the next night.

Ingredients:

Serves 4

4 pieces of white fish fillets
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, chopped
Juice from 2 lemons and their zest
ground pepper
16 pieces of thinly sliced bacon
4 tablespoons of mayo
olive oil
2 bunches of asparagus, trimmed

1. Preheat oven to 400 F
2. Rub fillets with lemon zest, pepper, and fresh rosemary
3. Flatten 4 pieces of bacon on a board, slightly overlapping
4. Lay fish on top of bacon and roll the bacon around it tightly
5. In an oven-safe pan, cook the bacon-wrapped fillets for one minute
6. Place pan in oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until bacon is golden-brown.
   

For the lemon mayo:

1. While fish is in the oven, mix the lemon juice with mayo and add pepper.
2. Taste to ensure the lemon is strong enough.
3. Boil the asparagus with slightly salted water
4. Drizzle the lemon mayo onto the asparagus and serve with the fish.

Fiddle Heads Attempt #4

I just found this picture on my camera. Geoff and I made this for dinner a couple weeks ago after having gone out for drinks with his sister and brother-in-law. His brother-in-law ordered a pasta with lots of garlic, some tomatoes and oil. It smelled so good, I thought about it for days. It seemed easy enough so we gave it a shot and added a couple of extras.

Ingredients:
Pasta
Shrimp, peeled and de-veined
Fiddle Heads, ends trimmed and washed
Tomatoes (diced, or cherry tomatoes cut in half)
4 cloves garlic, chopped as much as possible
Olive oil
Butter
4 tsp lemon juice

1. Boil fiddle heads for 5 minutes
2. When fiddle heads are done, begin boiling pasta (should take about 10 minutes for the pasta to be ready)
3. While the pasta is cooking, cook shrimp in a little bit of butter, 2 tsp lemon juice and garlic
4. Fry fiddle heads in a little butter and 2 tsp lemon juice
5. Once pasta is done, drain and put back in the pot, add fiddle heads, shrimp diced tomatoes and garlic. Toss with enough oil to just cover the noodles.
   

Sarah's Nanny's Strawberry Shortcake

This is the best cake ever. My nanny has been making this since my cousin was born (she's now in her mid-twenties). Every summer when the strawberries are ripening she makes cake after cake since they never last more than two days around my family.

Today, my grandfather shared the first cake of the season with Geoff and I, and it was fantastic. My grandpa is always VERY reluctant to share this cake with anyone, so we have to sneak pieces when he's not looking. When he can, he'll eat an entire cake on his own because it is THAT good.

Ingredients:
2c Flour
1/3c Sugar
1/2c shortening, butter or margarine
3/4c milk
2 eggs slightly beaten
1 container Cool Whip
some mashed strawberries with about 2 tsp sugar (my nanny was really vague on this point, she said to mash enough strawberries to put in the middle of the cake and cover the top)

1. Heat oven to 375F. Grease 9 inch round cake pan
2. In a large bowl, combine the first four ingredients. Cut in the shortening using either two butter knives or a pastry blender until it has a consistency of coarse meal.
3. Add milk and eggs, stir just until the dry ingredients are just moistened.
4. Put dough in pan, bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
5. Once the cake has cooled, cut in half so you have two layers. Put half of the mashed strawberries on one side, then place the second half of the cake on top and put the remaining mashed strawberries on top.
   
6. Cover with Cool Whip and decorate with entire strawberries ontop.
   

Father's Day Brunch

For Father's Day, Geoff and I went up to his cottage for the weekend. To be honest, we had no idea what kind of breakfast foods he liked to eat so we gave his mom a list of foods that we like to make. She informed us that crepes would be good, so we just had to decide on what to put on them.

We quickly decided to make them as breakfast-y as possible and decided to add eggs and bacon. They were great. I knew they were going to be good but they turned out great.

We also made the dessert crepes again for a breakfast dessert. A kind of heavy but great meal!

Ingredients:
1 c cold water
1 c cold milk
4 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c flour
4 tbsp melted butter
(add 2 tsp sugar for dessert crepes).

1. Cook a slice of bacon per crepe you plan on eating. Once done, pat with paper towel to remove excess grease then crumble into bits and set aside.
   
2. Mix all the ingredients together in a blender. I don't think it really matters in what order you add everything, since it's all just going to be mixed up together anyway. At this point, you're supposed to refrigerate the batter for two hours to let it settle down, but we never have and they always turn out great.
3. Heat up a frying pan to about medium high and put a little tiny bit of oil on it to stop the crepe from sticking.
   
4. Here's the tricky part, figuring out how much batter to use to make each crepe. Be prepared to screw the first few up. Pour a little in and quickly turn the pan about until the batter is completely covering the bottom of a pan. Let it cook until it looks stable enough, then flip.
5. Crack an egg into the center of the crepe and put some of the bacon bits on top. Fold up the edges to make a rough square. Place onto a baking sheet and then under the broiler for about 1 minute to let the rest of the egg cook.
6. If you are making dessert crepes as well, with the rest of the batter, add 2 tsp sugar, and cook as above. When done, add sliced fruit, some melted Nutella and a bit of whipped cream.
   

New Camera!

Thanks to my wonderful family, I am now the proud proprietor of the Nikon D60. It's so much better than my point-and-shoot 6.1 MP Casio. YAY!