Shark Week 2013- Halibut with bacon corn slaw

 

In honor of the ever popular shark week, I decided to temporary tattoo my hand to make it look like  a shark is eating everything I hold.  Just a bit of goofy food adventuring as I sip on a Fat Heads Bumble Berry beer.

Now since it is shark week, I thought I would post a recipe that is a part of a shark’s diet.  I made a recipe from Cooking Light’s most recent issue full of fresh ingredients from our garden, corn from the famous Szalay’s Farm in Akron, and Halibut from the Westside Market in Cleveland.

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/halibut-bacony-corn-saute-50400000129493/

Since I took the recipe straight from the magazine there is no reason to hide the fact that I did not make up the recipe, but I did find that the flavor of only a half a strip of bacon (since I halved the recipe) with the corn gave such a big flavor boost. 

Ingredients

(halved for those who struggled in math class)

• 1/2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 (6-ounce) skinless halibut fillets
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 
• 1/2 center-cut applewood-smoked bacon slice
• 2 ears worth of fresh corn kernels
• 1/4 cup (1-inch) sliced green onions (I used 2)
• 2 lime wedges

Here is how mine turned out!  I put the skillet in the oven to cook the fish all the way through since ours were so thick. The corn sautés raw and comes out slightly browned and charred.I think they hit this one right on the money.  Good Job Cooking Light and happy shark week to all!

Trash Becomes Banana Bread Treasure

Today is another sweet treat sort of day by default.  I am a big opponent of throwing out food that is about to go to waste because most of the time it can be easily frozen or used up in a recipe.  The most basic example is banana bread because bananas go brown so fast and people get grossed out by that very easily.  I had a friend Andy who knew this quirk about me and said he was going to toss three bananas unless I took them.  It was a busy day so I threw them in the freezer and figured I would come up with a recipe in a few days. I also started to run low on flour, but I had Bisquck (or pancake mix) left over from the pancake dippers I made and figured it would make it even tastier.  Well sure enough Bisquick has a recipe using their pancake mix for banana bread.

Pancake Mix Banana Chip Bread

• 3 mashed bananas
• 2/3 c sugar
• 1/4 c milk ( I used almond because that is all I had)
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 2/3 C pancake mix

 

Yep this one is pretty simple thanks to the help of Betty Crocker.  I decided to go with the most basic recipe as breads can easily become heavy, gummy, and if under baked just awful.  Basically I followed the recipe online and was happy with the results and next time  may make some add ins of cinnamon and nuts.  My goal was for it to rise and create one crack in the top. Look for yourself

 

After 50 minutes in a 350 degree oven, it was perfectly golden rose beautifully and made one crack on top.  I put a sheet of parchment along the bottom edge and only two sides to allow the bread to still rise and it easily slid out of the loaf pan after letting it sit for about 15 minutes.  Then we had another birthday here to celebrate so i brought it over to Amanda’s party and everyone seemed to enjoy! I didn’t want to add too many chocolate chips because I didm;t want to completely cover the delicious banana flavor, but I realize I could have added a bit more.

 

 

Dip Contest 2013

Second Annual Food Contest

Yesterday could have been one of the worst days.  Cold and rainy for our day off and nothing to do.  As mentioned on Friday, last year was the mac-n-cheese bake off.  It was great but by the end of the day I was ready to die from a mac attack.  This year a DIP OFF was the way to go.  Everyone likes small bites and can grab as much or as little as possible, and it is something that can be easily modified and hard to ruin by over or undercooking.  It was such a success with 16 dips in the contest. 

It was broken into three categories.

• Best Savory Dip
• Best Sweet Dip
• Most Creative Dip

Here are most of the dips with their names attached.  There were plenty of varieties and not one that was alike.

Savory Dips included

• Skyline Chili Dip
• Jalapeno Popper Dip (my personal favorite)- MOST CREATIVE WINNER
• Cranberry Salsa
• Crack Dip (cream cheese, rotel, and sausage-another favorite)
• “Dirty Girl Dip” (blended black beans, onions, tomato, cilantro, and cheese- least favorite)
• Sriracha Chicken Dip- SAVORY WINNER
• Sweet potato fry dip
• “Hot Girl Dip” (cream cheese, some sort of salsa and melted cheese in a frying pan)
• Cold layered dip (refried beans, secret recipe layer, cheese and tomatoes)

Sweet Dips included

• Ambrosia salad
• Nilla wafer stacks with bourbon chocolate
• Brownie batter dip- with a variety of dippers
• “Dunkfetti Dip”- MY DIP!!!
• Pumpkin spice dip
• “This Shit is BANANAS” dip with angry birds dippers
• “Flirty Girl Dip” (Marshmallow fluff, toffee topped )- SWEET WINNER

We started the party with a presentation of the dips explaining what they consist of and their names (shown below).

Then we voted and dressed the winners with their prizes.  Although my dip did not win and it is a fairly common recipe it is a skinny and delicious dip I will share for all tomorrow!

Look at the happy winners after a successful day off… hope everyone else is enjoying theirs!

So if anyone is ever in need of a great easy party idea…this is it.