You.must.try.this...I have always been terrified of cooking fish because I'm afraid that I'll ruin it. I tried it recently however, and now Andrew and I are trying to eat fish at least once a week. My 10 week old son could do this...it's that easy.

Tilapia from Cook's Illustrated

1/8 t. sugar (this caramelizes on the fish to make it look super delicious)
salt
pepper
2 T. olive oil
2 tilapia fillets or any white fish like cod or halibut


Preheat oven to 350. Sprinkle both sides of fish with salt and pepper. Sprinkle only one side with sugar. Heat olive oil in non-stick frying pan over med-hi to hi heat until almost smoking. Lay fish sugared side down in pan and leave until golden brown, about 1-2 minutes. Place on oven safe cooling rack over sheet pan and place in oven, to finish cooking the fish for about 5-7 minutes.

I usually serve this with roasted potatoes and steamed broccoli.

Pollo Fundido. This is the best Mexican food anywhere and you can find it at Pancho's in Central, South Carolina. What is Pollo Fundido? I know Pollo means chicken in Spanish, but I have no idea about the Fundido. This is my attempt to recreate this dish since there are no, and I repeat no, good Mexican restaurants here in Mass.

Pollo Fundido

I use Emeril Lagasse's filling recipe for empanadas

2 T. oil
3 T. white onion (I pulverize my onions in the food processor)
1 1/2 t. minced garlic
1 T + 1/2 t. chili powder
1/4 t. oregano
1/2 t. cumin
1 1/2 lbs. chicken, shredded
1 t. salt
1/2 t. black pepper
1 (4.5 oz) can green chiles, drained and chopped
8 (10") flour tortillas
1 c. grated pepper jack cheese
Cooking spray


Heat oil over medium-hi heat. Saute onions about 2 minutes. Add garlic, chili powder, oregano and cumin. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add shredded chicken and season with salt and pepper. Stir in chiles. Cook about 5 minutes. Set aside and cool slightly. Spread 1/2 c. of mixture on each tortilla and wrap. Place seam side down on baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Spray each tortilla with cooking spray. Sprinkle with 1-2 T. of cheese and bake at 350 until golden brown and crisp, about 5-10 minutes. Broiling also works well too if your chicken is already hot.

Top with queso and salsa and serve. I get queso from Moe's and salsa from Chili's...yes, it may be a lot of places to go but if you don't have time to make your own or just don't want to, it's great.

**Note: This is much better fried, but it still tastes pretty good baked as well. The picture above is baked.

It's been awhile since I blogged, but I did have a baby. Isn't David the cutest thing?

It's hard to pick what to post because I have a lot of pictures of food that I've made (mostly pre-David). Here's a recipe for peanut butter balls that my mom used to make every year at Christmas. I think I may be continuing this tradition because they are so good. I actually made these to give away as gifts, but I ended up keeping quite a few and eating way too many:) These are really easy to make and worth all the calories.

Peanut Butter Balls

2 sticks melted margarine
1 1/3 c. graham cracker crumbs (1 pkg is usually 1 1/3 c.)
1/4" shaved paraffin wax (this makes them shiny)
1 box powdered sugar
1 c. peanut butter
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Mix graham cracker crumbs and powdered sugar. Add peanut butter and then melted margarine. Mix well and form into small balls. Melt paraffin wax and chocolate in double boiler. Dip balls and cover completely with chocolate. I usually use 2 spoons to do this. Let dry on wax paper. Try not to eat all of them.

Yields: 59-60 balls