Cornmeal Crusted Dover Sole

 

This recipe was another creation by Lance to use whatever we had in our fridge/pantry to create an awesome meal.  I’d never had the fish dover sole before, but we had bought some frozen filets at Trader Joe’s a little while back to try them out. 

Lance crusted the fish in corn muffin mix and spices (he’s had that box of Jiffy in the cabinet since before I knew him…finally found a good use for it).  It turned out fantastic – crispy crust on the outside and flaky white fish on the inside.  I would definitely make this again.  Here’s the basic recipe (I don’t really have exact measurements on this one since I wasn’t the one cooking this meal…)

Cornmeal Crusted Dover Sole

Ingredients:

·        Dover sole filets (ours were frozen from Trader Joe’s)

·        3 eggs

·        Splash of milk

·        Lemon juice

·        Butter

·        Peanut oil

·        Jiffy corn muffin mix

·        Williams Sonoma Potlatch seasoning

·        Williams Sonoma Sriracha Kaffir Lime Rub

 

Directions:

1.  If using frozen fish, thaw it out.    

2. Mix the eggs, milk, and a squirt of lemon juice together in a shallow dish.  In a separate bowl, combine the corn muffin mix with a bit of the Potlatch and Sriracha seasonings.    

3. Heat up a mix of butter and peanut oil in a large skillet (the peanut oil has a higher smoke point, so it will keep the butter from burning).    

 

4. Dip the fish into the egg mixture, then into the corn mix and gently place in the skillet.  Our filets were pretty thin, so they cooked quickly.  Flip them to the other side and keep an eye on them so they don’t burn. 

5. Place on paper towels to soak up the excess oil, then they’re ready to serve!  We had ours with a simple salad.  

 

Picnic at Honeymoon Island & Barley Mow Brewing

 

Lance’s sister & brother in law, Brandi & Jeremy, got us an awesome grill for Christmas, and we’ve been so busy we haven’t had the chance to use it until we brought it to Honeymoon Island the other day!  Before, we only had our little George Foreman, but this one is great because it’s compact enough for our small porch and it’s portable.

Last time we went to Honeymoon Island was back in 2011 – we had only been dating a month, and we took the ferry from there to Caladesi Island.  That was in the summer, so it was beautiful weather, but we didn’t plan for how cold it would be this time!  The highs were in the 50’s, but with the wind it felt more like the 40’s.  Luckily I brought a jacket, but it wasn’t really beach weather.  The ferry to Caladesi was closed due to the high wind. 

Originally we thought we’d set up by the water, but we moved to a picnic shelter to keep warm and make sure the grill stayed lit.    

 

Like most of our picnics, we made a run to Trader Joe’s first to pick up some food.  We bought their Spicy Italian Vino & Formaggio Chicken Sausages, baked beans, corn, peppers, and onions to grill.  We were going to just get some normal hot dog buns, but we saw that TJ’s had soft pretzel sticks, which was so much more exciting!  We topped the sausages with the veggies and Double Cream Gouda cheese (I also love the smoked gouda cheese at TJ’s!) 

We grilled the corn with Sriracha Kaffir Lime Rub from Williams Sonoma (a gift from my cousin Chris and his wife Marty). 

As an impulse buy, we bought some nuts to snack on – Thai Lime & Chili Cashews and Sesame Honey Almonds.  WOW they are both delicious.  The cashews at first bite didn’t seem all that spicy, but the chili hits you after a few seconds – make sure you have something to drink with these.  And the sesame almonds were really filling – they’d be a good snack to hold you over between meals. 

 

We had planned to grill pineapple as well, but we had way too much food already.  We walked it off on the Osprey Trail, which was a really nice little hike.  We saw an eagle in its nest – then another one joined carrying a fish!  There were also a bunch of armadillos along the trail. 

 

 

Lance’s niece, Lila, sent us a “Flat Stanley” a few weeks ago.  We had to bring him on adventures and document his experiences in a journal, then mail him back to her class in Pittsburgh so she could talk about his trip.  One of the pages asked what the landscape looked like in our area compared to Pennsylvania, so we brought him to the beach with us. 

 

Afterwards we checked another brewery off our map by visiting Barley Mow Brewing Company in Largo.  We kept hearing great things about their beer, and we weren’t disappointed.  The people were very friendly, and it was clear a lot of the patrons there were regulars. 

A photographer from Visit St. Pete Clearwater was there taking pictures of their Quackalope IPA, so Lance got a free beer for letting them take shots of him drinking one (I don’t think they’re online yet, but I did find a really great video they posted last month about the Craft Beer Trail!)

I especially liked the Son of a Seabiscuit – which is a sweet amber beer brewed with Serrano peppers.  I probably couldn’t drink more than one, but the small taste in the flight was the perfect way to warm up from the chilly weather. 

 

 

Honeymoon Island is located at 1 Causeway Blvd, Dunedin, FL 34698.

Barley Mow is located at 518 W Bay Dr, Largo, FL 33770 and is open 3pm – 2am Monday – Friday and 12pm – 2am Saturday – Sunday. 

DIY Lemon Rosemary Room Scent

We had a bit of a kitchen catastrophe the other morning – we were heating up vegetable oil to make crispy breakfast potatoes, and the oil caught fire.  We put it out immediately and aired the kitchen out, but the entire house has had a terrible burnt oil smell since then. 

To fix this, I’ve been simmering a DIY room scent on the stove since I got home from work earlier tonight.  It’s super simple and the smell is incredible.  The recipe is apparently the one that Williams Sonoma uses to make their stores smell so homey. 

DIY Lemon Rosemary Room Scent

Ingredients:

·        1 lemon

·        2 sprigs rosemary

·        2 T vanilla (mine was homemade in a mason jar with fresh vanilla beans & vodka...which is why it looks lighter than normal vanilla extract in the photos)

·        water

Directions:

1. Slice the lemon.  Add all ingredients to a saucepan half-full of water. 

2. Simmer on low for as long as you’d like, adding water as needed.  That’s it! 

You can create your own combinations of scents by mixing up the ingredients. Here are a few other ideas:

·        Citrus spice – oranges, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, anise

·        Christmas scent – twigs from your Christmas tree (pine, cedar, etc), bay leaves, cranberries, nutmeg

·        Summer scent – lime, thyme, mint, and vanilla extract

And it’s all natural ingredients, so feel free to breathe deeply and know you don’t have gross chemicals like you would in normal air fresheners!  Yay!