Tilapia with Balsamic Butter Sauce

This is the first time that I have cooked fish... ever! I am definitely not a seafood fan. I don't like shrimp, lobster, crab and almost every fish (except tuna from sushi). I guess I did eat fish sticks when I was younger but all I can remember is hating fish. However, as I am getting older I am becoming more aware of the advantages of eating fish- especially for infant brain growth. No, I am not pregnant nor will be for at least two years (despite the fact that two of my aides at my school thought I was/dreamed I was). I guess that is what happens after you get married. However, I know that you really need to eat fish while your pregnant to help with brain growth, so I am trying to start to eat it now and learn to like it.

I went with the most bland fish I could get, tilapia. I wasn't planning on cooking it that day, but when I typed in recipes I found that I could make it with the extra sugar snap peas that I had (which I used in 3 separate recipes because the bag was from Costco and huge) along with some random potatoes. The sauce was super good. I think you could have put it on anything and it would have been wonderful. I wish I had made more, but I used up all of my balsamic vinegar making it!

Tilapia with Balsamic Butter Sauce With Thyme Mashed Potatoes and Sugar Snap Peas

Adapted from Bon Appetit

Ingredients

3 lbs of potatoes (russet, red, gold, whatever you have available)

3 Tbs butter

1/4 cup milk

1 Tbs dried thyme (or 1 1/2 Tbs fresh)

3 garlic cloves

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

2 garlic cloves (minced)

3 Tbs butter

2 cups of sugar snap peas, trimmed

2 Tbs olive oil

6 tilapia fillets

Turn oven to 375 degrees. Poke holes in potatoes and roast whole until soft (around 45 minutes). Take out and place in food mill. Turn food mill to mash potatoes. Add butter, milk, thyme and sauteed garlic to the potatoes. Mix. Season with salt and pepper. You can make this ahead of time.

Boil a small pot of water. Drop peas in and boil for 1 minute. Drain and put the peas to the side.

Heat 1 Tbs of oil in a large skillet. Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper then saute fish until golden (around 2 min per side)

Simmer vinegar and garlic in a saucepan over medium heat until the vinegar has reduced to a thick syrup (around 5 minutes). Whisk in butter, small pieces at a time, then add salt and pepper to taste.

Place some potatoes, tilapia and peas on a plate and drizzle with sauce.

French Onion and Egg Drop Soups

So I am on my three week holiday break from work. I know it is only teachers who can complain about having three weeks off, everyone else would relish it, I am just having a hard time with our new school year schedule. I need this week off during the summer where it is warm out and I can actually do something rather than now where I am sitting next to my space heater, even with the heat in the house on, because it is 10 degrees outside. The next three weeks are to organize..my house, my National Board stuff, my computer, etc. While I'm blogging I am waiting for movies to load into imovie so I can put together our dvd for this year. We just got a video camera in June to tape our wedding, but already I have enough for 4 different DVDs and have to start putting them together... what else is 3 weeks for? Relaxing? I dont know how!

One of the things that I am organizing, is my recipes. Today I am going through two of my soup recipes from the three weeks where I could only drink liquids and eat soft foods. Both turned out really good for being soup (not one of my favorite things, even though I have 3 huge books of soup recipes). These may not be the most exciting pictures, but keeping track of the recipes on my website allows me to print out them out later (important for this organizing binge Im on!)

French Onion Soup

From The Kitchn

Ingredients

2.5 lbs of onions (sliced into 1/2 moons then sliced in half again)

1/2 stick of butter (1/4 cup)

4 cups of beef broth

Salt

Black Pepper

Parmesan or Asiago Cheese

Put the pot (or saucepan) on medium heat. Cut the butter into small chunks and place in the pot. After the butter has melted and begins to foam, put in the onions. Stir the onions so they are covered in butter and add a teaspoon of salt. Turn heat to medium low and let the onions cook, stirring every once and awhile. Caramelizing the onions typically takes 45 minutes or more at this heat. Let them turn a mahogany color, but dont let them burn. Pour in your broth and turn the heat to high so that it boils. Then turn the heat down and let simmer for 1/2 an hour or more--you want the soup to reduce and look shiny. Season with salt and pepper, pour into bowls and add cheese and any other toppings you like.

Egg Drop Soup

Adapted from Gourmet

Ingredients

5 cups of chicken stock

1 tsp of soy sauce

2 Tbs cooking sherry

1 tsp of ginger powder or 1 two inch piece of fresh ginger

2 garlic cloves smashed

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 green onions, thinly sliced

2 tsp sesame seed oil

Ground black pepper

Bring stock, soy sauce, sherry, ginger, garlic to boil in a pot. Simmer for 4 minutes, then remove garlic and fresh ginger (if added) with a slotted spoon. Stirring soup in a circle, add in eggs slowly. Simmer for around 1 minute until eggs are cooked. Take off of heat and add cut scallions and sesame seed oil along with salt and ground pepper to taste.