A Long Needed Camping Trip Intermingled with Fishing Recipes

After nearly 4 years without more than one or two days in a row off work mingled between sometimes ninety hour weeks, I got hired by a company that actually believes that employees deserve to be human. I'm so blessed.  So, the first part of July, I spent ten days in the mountains away from society...with this guy. The Pansy Man. Sweetest dad on earth, and it was heaven.

Still trying to be glamorous, of course...

My family has been fishing at this dam in Logan, Utah for my entire life.  I haven't been here to fish since...forever. It was so peaceful and so perfect that I didn't want to ever leave.  Plus, my mom and all my siblings got to be there. It was precious. 

Between fishing and lounging around a camp fire, I found the peace to continue with a usually hectic life back home.

Plus, I got to spend those days with my sister, Auntie Em. Let's admit it...Em is really awesome!

The Professor showed up to the festivities and I got to meet my baby niece, who was already two years old and I hadn't been able to visit until now! She's perfect. She's named Em too. I call her Emmie Part 2.

During that visit, we had some pretty daggum awesome food...as any foodie family would.  One of my favorite was this quinoa Tabbouleh made by my rock-star sister in law, Queen Char. I love this lady. She definitely rocked this salad!

Quinoa and Feta Tabbouleh

• ¾ cup organic sprouted quinoa
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
• 1/4 cup good olive oil
• 1 Tbsp.  kosher salt
• 1 cup minced scallions, white and green parts (1 bunch)
• 1 cup feta cheese
• 1 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley (1 bunch)
• 1 hothouse cucumber, unpeeled, seeded, and medium-diced
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

In a rice cooker, combine the sprouted quinoa and boiling water. Cook 20 minutes until tender.  Cool for at least 20 minutes. Add all remaining ingredients.  Chill. Serve.

We'd fish for a full day, return to camp and have them for dinner, and then return and repeat the following day. I know that wouldn't be appealing to a lot of people, but it was time by the river with clear water, fresh air, and the quiet patience of a very good man. It was my favorite vacation ever...in the history of ever. 

On my last night there, we had a big family barbecue. We had 15 trout and a few catfish...ready to feast.  

The easiest way to cook the trout and catfish on the grill, was to wrap them in  well oiled aluminum foil after highly seasoning the outsides of the fish with dill, garlic, and some onion. Inside the cavity we added some fresh lemon, salt and pepper. 

The catfish got Cajun seasoning...and smoked paprika.  

Dad got the grill going in his garden. I love that they don't have a regular lawn and yard, it's 97% garden. 

Zucchini is totally killer delicious during the summer, so we glazed them with a white balsamic citrus and pepper glaze. It was just the perfect combination of tart citrus, heat and buttery avocado oil. 

Summer Squash White Balsamic Citrus and Pepper Glaze

1 cup avocado oil
1/4 cup white balsamic
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup Worcestershire  sauce
2 Tbsp black pepper
2 Tbsp lemon zest
2 Tbsp lime zest
3 Tbsp minced garlic

Combine well, and glaze 2-3 lbs fresh zucchini and allow to marinate for 1-2 hours. Retain remaining glaze after marinating the zucchini.  Grill as desired. 

Grill the fish packets for 3-4 minutes on each side. 

Grill the zucchini 4-5 minutes. 

Remove from the grill and toss in the retained glaze. Add minced parsley or cilantro if desired. 

For dessert, mom made grilled pound cake. The recipe is Here

The fresh blueberries with a light lime syrup were perfect over the grille pound cake. 

Fresh Blueberries with Lime Syrup

2 lb fresh blueberries
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup lime juice
1 Tbsp lime zest
2 Tbsp. corn starch
1 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a half gallon pot and bring to a boil. Cook 3-5 minutes until slightly thickened. Remove from the heat.  Scoop over grilled pound cake and top with ice cream if desired. 

There you go darlings. Delicious summer vacation food made simple for more time with those you love most.

Always My Very Best, 
Your Friend Chef Tess

Cheese and Almond Crusted Tilapia

I shared this recipe on Good Morning Arizona yesterday. 

The crust is perfect. The fish is tender. The balance of the lemon and the pepper will make you so happy!

Chef Tess' Cheese and Almond Crusted Tilapia

Ingeredients:

1 eggs

2 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp fresh black pepper

1 tsp minced garlic

½ cup almond flour

½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

4 (6 ounce) tilapia fillets

2T cup all-purpose flour (or Gluten-free alternative) for dusting

6 tablespoons butter

½ cup freshly grated Asiago cheese

¼ cup choped fresh parsley

lemon wedges

Directions:

• Beat the eggs with the lemon zest, pepper, and garlic and garlic until blended; set aside.

•  Stir together ground almonds with ½ cup of Parmesan cheese in a shallow dish until combined; set aside. Dust the tilapia fillets with flour, and shake off excess. Dip the tilapia in egg, then press into the almond mixture.

• Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook tilapia in melted butter until golden brown on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Reduce heat to medium, and season fillets with salt if desired. Sprinkle the tilapia with the Asiago cheese, cover, and continue cooking until the cheese has melted, about 5 minutes.

• Transfer the tilapia to a serving dish, and garnish with parsley and lemon wedges to serve.

There you go. Awesome Tilapia!

Always My Very Best,

Your Friend Chef Tess

Salmon Wellington and Good Morning Arizona Fish Recipes

 Lent is here. We don't eat fish often at my house. Ace just can't stand the smell of fish (or the taste) and I just can't stand the look on his face when the house is stinky. Without fail, whenever we go somewhere with salmon on the menu, I order it. I love it. When I go to Utah, I go fishing.  Ace would rather die than go fishing. How can we be so opposite and be so perfect for each other? I don't know.  The picky eaters in my house are not my kids. Ironic.



When the producer at 3TV asked me to do a fish segment this week to help folks with fish recipes for Lent, I had to bring in some of my best work.  Mind you, we don't eat a lot of fish. These are fish recipes I used as a chef cooking for other people.  Ace came home from work to a kitchen full of fish. He got a plate. He devoured this stuff...and he said, "I ate fish. I'd eat it like that ever single day!" So...we have a winner! This salmon is topped with a savory Dijon dill sauce, feta, and spinach then wrapped in a flaky layer of puff pastry. It looks amazing and it tastes even better! Yes. I'll be making this again. It is perfect for a fancy dinner or a simple night at home when you want  to make something special for your family.

 Tess' Savory Salmon Wellington

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 1/2 pounds salmon fillets

2 tsp dried dill seasoning

1/2 cup Dijon mustard

1 1/2 cups mayonnaise

1 cup crumbled feta cheese (or Goat Cheese)

1 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed

and drained

1 (17.5 ounce) package frozen puff

pastry, thawed

1 egg white, beaten

Directions:

• Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• Sprinkle salt on both sides of the salmon. Mix dill, mustard, and mayonnaise in a small bowl and spread over the salmon, then sprinkle the feta cheese on top. Layer the spinach over the feta cheese.

• Roll the pastry out wide enough and long enough to wrap around the salmon, about 1/4 inch thickness. Place the salmon in the center of the pastry and fold the pastry over the salmon. Place the roll seam-side down on a baking sheet. Cut several small slits in the pastry to allow steam to escape. Brush the egg white onto the pastry.

• Bake in the preheated oven until the pastry is golden brown and the salmon flakes easily with a fork, about 45 minutes.

There you go! Enjoy!

Always My Very Best,

Your Friend Chef Tess

Tess Copycat Long John Silver Battered Fish

 Cussing Granny loves Long John's battered fish.  On any given day of the week, I can call and ask if she wants me to pick up a few pieces for her, and she'll always say, "Did you even have to ask?"   

At any rate, I know it is simple to make her favorite fish, and this week, with the advent of Lent and the increase in the consumption of fish worldwide, I decided to add my own two cents to the mix.   I don't even observe Lent personally, but I have many friends who do.  It only seems right to help them out with recipes.  As for this recipe, I like the homemade version so much better than the drive-up. It is simple to make, and we can have it at home with just a few ingredients. Plus, when I make it, I know what is in it.  When I made this for Granny, she was in heaven! So, we're totally making it again. Winner for dinner!

Tess' Copycat Long John Silver*  Battered Fish

Ingredients:

3 Cups frying oil

2 Pounds of Fresh cod fillets

1 Cup Self−rising flour

3T Dry Mustard

1 Cup Water

1 Egg

2 tsp Granulated sugar

2 tsp Chef Tess All Purpose Seasoning or season salt of your choice

Directions:

Sift together mustard and flour.
Heat oil to 400.
Cut the fish into approximately 7x2" wedges.
With a mixer, blend the flour mixture, water, egg, sugar, and seasoning.
Dip each fillet into the batter coating generously and quickly drop in the oil.
Fry each fillet until dark golden brown, about 5 minutes.
Remove and drain.  I put mine on a paper towel-lined plate.  Serve warm.

My husband Ace never eats fish. This he devoured. Just saying. Try the fish.

Always My Very Best,

Your Friend Chef Tess

*This is not the original recipe from the restaurant chain and I am not connected to them in any way. FYI. The use of the name is not in any way meant for anyone to assume otherwise.

Float Fishing. Did You Love Me?

Sunday is a day I share a little of my soul. Enjoy.

 I, Chef Tess, went float-fishing with my glorious and fearless sister Auntie Em on my last trip to Utah. If you've never been, it is probably one of the coolest things I've ever done...with a fishing pole. It involves  a float able personal chair-type raft, strapping flippers on your feet, and wearing wader plastic pants.  Yes. I wore plastic pants.

Fashion-wise, it isn't glamorous. Relaxation wise, it is the best thing ever!  Early in the morning before the sun ever peeks over the horizon, Em was up. Quietly we drove to a nearby lake and unpacked the floaters from our cars. I had been non-stop for 5 days and it was a much needed and welcomed adventure with my dear sister.

 I call her my fearless sister for a reason. Worms fear her.  She's got a hook-baiting gift.

 She also floats with two fishing poles. I'm lucky to keep track of a one.

  We floated on a quiet and peaceful lake in the early morning for just over 2 hours. Fish were jumping and dancing all around us and it was remarkable to be in that serenity...and never catch a single fish. Nope. Not one. Mind you, it was amazingly relaxing to float. I loved every minute. I didn't love that my sister, who loves fishing more than any woman I have ever met...wasn't catching fish.   Even as we watched on the lake as other dear souls around us were pulling large and delicious fish out of the water, Em cheered for them. Em asked what kind of bait they were using. We kept fishing. Even when we were at the end of our adventure and I was unstrapping flippers from my feet...Em had her poles still in the water. Not a single fish. No. Not one! 

I know it was just "one of those fishing trips" that ends up without a catch. Even with the best intentions and bait, you sometimes don't bring home dinner. However, when I listened to a sermon about the ancient Apostles-gone-Fishermen on the subject of  Love given by Jeffrey R. Holland called The First Great Commandment. it all became very personal. Any fisherman who's ever caught a fish, can relate to it. Any Christian who's ever lived can relate to the deep and abiding question, "Lovest thou me more than these?"

 

"My beloved brothers and sisters, I am not certain just what our experience will be on Judgment Day, but I will be very surprised if at some point in that conversation, God does not ask us exactly what Christ asked Peter: “Did you love me?” I think He will want to know if in our very mortal, very inadequate, and sometimes childish grasp of things, did we at least understand one commandment, the first and greatest commandment of them all—“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.”¹³ And if at such a moment we can stammer out, “Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee,” then He may remind us that the crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty.

“If ye love me, keep my commandments,”¹⁴ Jesus said. So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do. In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can’t quit and we can’t go back. After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before. The Crucifixion, Atonement, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ mark the beginning of a Christian life, not the end of it. It was this truth, this reality, that allowed a handful of Galilean fishermen-turned-again-Apostles without “a single synagogue or sword”¹⁵ to leave those nets a second time and go on to shape the history of the world in which we now live."

 

I'm thankful for each new day...and more importantly, for the love of God that passes all my limited understanding. It allows me to move onward, look upward and do all that I can to serve my God. It is my trust in abiding Grace that helps me want to live a good Christian life and follow my Savior.

 

There it is. Have a wonderful new week.

 

Always My Very Best,

Your Friend in Christ, Chef Tess.

 

 

Caramelized Lemon Creamy Clam Sauce with Fresh Tuna and herbed egg noodles.

I bet that my freezer bags where not the first thing anyone thought of when they read the title of today's entry...

Those bags have been my focus for the main part of this week.

Here's another freezer meal to knock you socks off! If you love me for my bread, not my brains, come back next week. For the residuals of humanity who love me for my sweet, loving, soul nurturing homemade food...

I dare you to click on this first picture:

Wasn't that fun?! You can almost taste the love right now huh?! Caramelized Lemon Cream Clam Sauce with Fresh Tuna is a long way of saying, "goodbye forever regular tuna casserole." In my humble, yet accurate, opinion...most tuna casserole is just nasty. It is painstakingly difficult to imagine what the obsession is with some women and tuna casserole. They serve it at least once a week. It hardly gets touched, or if the family does eat it, they choke it down with a bunch of milk. My mom didn't make tuna casserole very often. I remember. When she did, she didn't use fresh tuna. It was always canned. For the most part, it was my grandma who make tuna casserole...and it was also at every church potluck...in giant bubbly pans of slime and crumbs. Today's freezer meal will be different. I promise with all the vim and vigor in my sweet little left toe.

I start with fresh tuna. 8 oz steaks. 1 lemon, zested and cut in half. 1/4 cup sliced shallots. I put the tuna in a non-stick skillet along with the lemon, cut side down...after about 5 minutes I add the shallots.

In the meantime, I start a big pot of water boiling. If you use this recipe for freezer meals, omit this step until you are ready to serve. I freeze the sauce in quart size freezer bags...lay down flat so they maximize the space. Without the noodles, there is more space for toppers and thus more dinners are in my freezer. For my small family of 4, this recipe makes enough "pasta topping sauce" for 2 meals. Back to the noodles. I love egg noodles. What is is about these ribbons that provoke such feelings in me? I don't know, but putting some Penzey's Spices on them didn't hurt. Shallot pepper and tarragon plus some good fresh olive oil...about one tablespoon. Seasoning up pasta before putting sauce on it just adds an amazing level of flavor to a dish. If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend it.

Back to the sauce. To the pan I add 1 tsp baking soda to neutralize the acid in the lemon juice that would make the white sauce curdle. Then ...

4 cups prepared white sauce (of your choice, I use homemade but I won't yell at anyone for using a premade Alfredo...sorry food snobs... I am also real and sometimes folks just don't have the real homemade stuff). Random thought...I make this mix I use in place of condensed soup that is quite fast and easy. I'll be blogging that in the near future.

So...4 cups white sauce, 1 can drained clams (15 ounce size). If by chance you happen to live by the ocean or have it in your budget to purchase real clams...you do that. It's much fresher. I had a can. Sue me.

Just before the lemon was about to drown in the sauce, I rescued it and put it to death in a very graphic way...as if slicing it in half wasn't ruthless enough. Squeeze the juice and all into the pan...watch for seeds. Incidentally, caramelizing the lemon like that adds a smoky depth to the dish, as well as allowing the lemon to give up more juice.

My hand looks so tender and merciful right there...but it was all a trick. Poor gullible lemon.

Remove the skin and bones from the tuna. Add 1/4 cup chopped yellow bell pepper and 1/4 cup chopped pimentos (those are the red ones in a jar pickled).

See, that chicken...I mean tuna? Isn't that awesome how it's big and chunky like that?! Ahhh Yes!! I love it!

Now, three options present themselves:

1, serve half tonight and bag the other half in a quart size freezer bag labeled clearly. This will add one meal to you freezer.

2. Divide the sauce between 2 quart size freezer bags for 2 freezer meals. This step leaves you licking the pan out of sheer desperate need for a nibblet.

3. Sit down with that whole pan of sauce and drink it like a bad movie. I'm not responsible for juicy clams randomly rolling down your chin...or your dog sucking them off your face.

If feeling particularly artsy...pile some grapes and fresh thyme around the plates and garnish with lemon zest.

Incidentally, we don't normally eat like this. I did it for the picture and then put the rest on regular plates...right next to the plastic cups. Ahh feel that? It's the pressure to be perfect leaving your shoulders. Welcome to my world my friend. No pressure. No Martha Stewart here. However, that being said, I can put out a pretty breathtaking spread when given the opportunity. Regular life isn't always like that. Maybe it should be...

There you go.