Cookin' with Joe

Your dinner tonight will consist of:

Red pepper Chevre cheese
Pecan-encrusted, fresh Atlantic Salmon
Zuccini, squash and corn sauté
A nice, super dry Asahi

Recipe to follow on the saute. It was tremendous at Central Market.

My blogging has been lax lately – lots of visitors, and more to come as Kurt (and later Nadine) comes down for SXSW. Speaking of, I’ll be writing more about our adventures over at the SweetSpot, our Stalelife blog. Video entries, to boot.

But for now, some random thoughts and ideas.

• If you’re in Texas and a Democrat, vote and caucus. We’re gonna, right before we go to see this guy at the rodeo (their tagline is “Because it’s fun to yell yeeeeeee haw!” – well, duh.)

• My tasty meal entries have died. I have two in the queue, but it’s too much of a time suck. Every once in a while I’ll put up a winner.

• Mike Cacciabondo did beat me by five minutes. But barely (5:02). Had I known, I woulda pushed it.

• Took Mike on an Underbelly Ride and stopped off for some Kite Fest fun.

• Later that night we finished off his visit with Built to Spill at Stubbs. Good show, but the encore was a political rant that left us wanting that 10 minutes back.

• Last, Grandma Jean was just in town and that means a whole slew of new family photos. Check out the Flickr site for the twins at 9mos.

Stacey and I ventured out to one of our favorite restaurants, Chez Nous, a couple weeks back. It’s always good, and we like to relive our adventures in France through good wine and food.

Our dinner got me thinking – can I eat the snails that I find in my yard?

Heaven knows there’s enough of them. Each summer I kill hundreds so they don’t eat all my plants. I once considered them a nuisance, but after reading this, now I’m not sure.

Would you eat ‘em? Keep an open mind next time you’re over and I pull out some escargot.

I don’t think I could ever do it…

Yeah, keepin’ it real in the 512 with a healthy fish recipe that doesn’t taste that way.

This one comes from Cooking Light. About three years ago the wifey subscribed. She tore out recipes each month, keeping them for days like today. They regularly repeated dishes, so she got what she could and boogied.

Impressions:
Follow the writer’s instructions (as far as hot sauce) and it’s not too spicy at all. I like it en fuego, Stacey does not. This was right in the middle. The baked fish in corn flakes gives an almost fried taste, without the artery clogging grease or calories.

What I added:
Tilapia for the fish instead of catfish. I’m a big fan of the bottom dweller, but this looked better at the HEB. We didn’t have onion powder. Oh, and as a side I made zucchini and onion stir fry. Baked it for 14 mins total to make it real crisp.

Nutrition:
183 calories. 6.2g of fat. 12.5g of protein and 19.2g of carbohydrates.

Status:
It’s a goodie – three stars (outta 4). Though I doubt it will be a strong front runner for a repeat.