Resolution to Recipe - Baked Cod

  So, here I am tackling a resolution! Wooheee! 

I like to eat fish... When I go out to eat at a nice restaurant, I tend to order fish.  There is just something about a fresh, perfectly cooked fish dish that gets me excited.  It is light and delicious, flakey, buttery, crispy, mmmm, mmmm, mmmmm PLUS it has omega-3s.... but now to get back on track - I recently have been buying these frozen cod fillets from Trader Joes and have been making this baked cod dish fairly frequently.  It is an easy recipe to follow, does not take long to prepare, and comes out super yummy.  My 16 month old enjoys it.
(adapted from here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/228319/perfect-ten-baked-cod/)








INGREDIENTS:

3 Tablespoons Butter
1/4 cup crackers, crushed
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 Tablespoon Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 pound cod fillets
1 Lemon, juiced
1/4 cup white wine
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 Tablespoon chopped chives



1. Preheat oven to 400 Degrees F


 

2. Rinse your fish with cool water and blot with a paper towel.

3. If you wish, cut your fillets into smaller pieces.  I typically cut mine in half. 

   4. Squeeze half of your lemon over the fish fillets and put to the side.

5. Melt 2 Tablespoons of Butter

6. Crush your crackers, sometimes I put them in a ziplock and crush, but sometimes I use my (clean) bare hands (as pictured). 

My daughter loves these crackers.

 

7. Add in breadcrumbs.

8. Now the Parmesan.

9. Next stir in the melted butter.

10. The remaining 1 tablespoon of butter goes in a baking dish and into the preheated over for 3 minutes to melt.

11. Chop your parsley in the meantime.
12. Then coat both sides of your fish in the melted butter in the baking dish and add half of your parsley.

13. Bake your cod in the preheated oven for ten minutes and remove.

14.Top with lemon juice, wine, and cracker mixture.

15. And return to the oven to bake until fish is opaque and flakes easily with a fork, about 10 more minutes.

16. Squeeze the remaining lemon over and garnish with chopped chives and remaining parsley.

Enjoy!

The Holidays

Happy New Year to you all! I can honestly say that I am looking forward to what  2016 has in store for me.  I am happy to be done with 2015 and to be moving forward.  It's been a while since I have really truly felt that way....I hope that everyone can look forward to the year ahead and feel hopeful that it will be better than the year before. 

I am always slow to warm to the holiday season.  It's such an emotional time, you experience joy and laughter, tears of happiness and of sadness, melancholy, anxiety, road rage, depression, love and warmth, gratefulness, merriness, anger, peace, and chaos. You miss those far, and enjoy those near. It's the bi-polar time of year.  You work hard to play hard. But once I let the holidays in, I find it very difficult to let them go.  

 

 

 

 

 

This year, I started to take down Christmas right after New Years.  This is quick for me.  I usually hold on for as long as I can.  I kind of love the decorations around the house and of course the Christmas Tree.  Our Christmas tree this year was actually my favorite yet, but regardless of that I still was very ready for the "fresh start".  Ready to say goodbye to the Holiday Season and move forward with 2016 as I said at the beginning of this post. 

 

Don't get me wrong, the holidays were great, and having a little babe really just makes you get into the holiday spirit and want to embrace every aspect.  I took quite a few photos of us enjoying things holiday and we had lots of quality family time. It was great. A nice break from the usual grind. I love being a mom, I love my home, I love our family. It was so nice to be able to spend time and enjoy them all.  We did a lot of things as a family, because that is what we are now...

 

 

 

 

 

 

As 2016 opened, I definitely felt a little post holiday blues and  have been thinking about resolutions a lot, another thing I don't typically embrace, but since I am really looking forward to 2016 being an even better year, I think it is always best to look inward when seeking improvement.   We are kind of the controllers of our own destinies, right?  So below is a list of "resolutions" for 2016-- things I would like to be mindful of and focus on:

 

Be Happier

Be Softer

Communicate Better

Focus on health and fitness and my physical self

Reconnect with friends

Be less of a "phone-head"

Take more photos

 

and specifically for my blog, I would like to post more, broaden my horizons - perhaps share a recipe with photos. 

 

Have you been thinking about resolutions?  It's always a good thing to seek self improvement, to look inward, reflect.  Are you portraying the person you want to?  I think about how others view me a lot.  It's so weird to me how you can never see yourself through the eyes of someone else.  Isn't it?  I am going to end this on that mystical note.  Happy New Year to you all! I send you all the warmest wishes for 2016! Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me and My Girl

My lovely little lady and myself having some fun at the park.  I took these on October 30th, she was exactly 14 months old. I've been a little absent here lately, but that's only because I have been very busy working mostly. It's hard to make time for the computer when you're already in front of it too much.

 

I have been dying to share some of these. I stepped outside of my comfort zone here: I don't usually enjoy getting in front of the camera.  I am much more comfortable behind it. 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Bits & Pieces of Me

Again, I will be honest, I am forcing myself to sit here and type away.  I get these little inklings to write time to time, but then the moment seems to pass fairly quickly.  I feel like I have been super busy lately too.  I am still in this transition period, with my new work/life situation.  I don't feel completely settled into my new life yet, I haven't found my groove.  I am just beginning to feel myself settling into what is now life -- but it's still going to take a bit of time.  I have been working out much more consistently, spending more time outdoors, and being relieved of some added stresses.  It feels good, it helps me to relax and breathe and let go a bit.  When I am stressed, I am tense, on edge, consumed -- it is hard for me to relax - more than I already seem to struggle with this pleasure.  I sometimes feel like I need to really focus on relaxing to actually relax.  How ass-backward does that sound?  It might be slightly nutty.  It's just sometimes hard to turn off my brain, sometimes I feel like I always have some sort of dialogue running up there.  Sometimes its very elaborate, other times quite simple, it can also be effed up, or completely childish-- it's broad spectrum.  It can be exhausting, and sometimes makes it hard for me to focus on things I am not really interested in... I guess this is why I like writing, or actually get the urge to write, because it's a way to get my thoughts out of my head and onto paper, or in this case screen, right?  It's good to see thoughts written out.  Although, I have to say that I think some of my best work has never been written down :)  -- there really could be some truth to that though.  I often start a post in my head, get super excited about it, and then once I start to post, it just totally deflates.....:p

I am currently re-watching Californication on Netflix.  I really like the characters on this show.  Hank Moody and Karen, Runkel and Marci.  They are all so great in their own unique ways.  Prior to this, I was rewatching Weeds for the third time.  I am really sounding cool over here, huh?  I thoroughly enjoy that show, and Nancy Botwin is my girl.  I do this thing now, where I say to myself, "how can I Nancy Botwin the situation", essentially, "what would Nancy Botwin do?"  -- it entertains me, makes me feel a tad bad-ass, and like I can conquer all.

I am not even sure what I am sharing here, I guess it's a little insight into who I am.  How my mind works.  I hope you find it interesting, as we are all different, and we are all a bit similar too.  Celebrate your differences with others, let differences teach you something, expand your horizons, open your mind, learn to understand.  I think too many times, people want to find conflict in differences, and while this is ok, sometimes it's just unnecessary.  And it's good to remind yourself, to reflect, and to accept people for who they are.  I am starting to sound preachy, and it's really getting late.  My husband and I would say "I am staying up for no reason."  So goodnight from me to you! xo

Ode to Autumn

Tonight I am forcing myself to sit down in front of the computer at the end of the day with a glass of wine and write here. I have been telling myself for a while now, that I would do this, but never actually follow through......now that I spent about 20 minutes straightening up my studio/office/guestroom, I might be ready to write something worth publishing here.  -- It's a Friday night, and I've spent it drinking red wine, baking pumpkin breads - yes plural- one plain, one with chocolate chunks and cashews, folding Zoey's laundry,while watching Bill Maher (kind of a big fan of his), puttering around the house and now that brings me here to the computer typing away nonsense.

Every year, I think that I convince myself that Summer is my favorite season.  I love the long days, cooking outside, swimming, tan skin, the sun, the beach, the flowers, the fruit, the clothes, nights on the deck, etc. -- even though I am grown  up, summer still feels like a bit of a break from reality.  I tend to indulge more in the summer.  And then September comes, and being a resident at the jersey shore has me all like, "locals summer", let's drag this thing out as long as we can! But once the fall eases in, I remember, that Fall/autumn (I'm not sure which I like better) is my  ACTUAL favorite.  It makes me feel alive, the colors, the temperatures, the air seems fresher, nature does amazing things - It is like the Sunday of the seasons -- winding down the year, making you feel comfy and cozy.  My phone and camera are already filled with so many photos of things fall.  My husband's brother recently moved to PA, and we took a ride up there last weekend to go to a Fall Festival at Elk Mountain.  The scenery along the way had me snapping so many photos, I was beginning to annoy myself.  I love driving through the mountains this time of year.  Have I mentioned I love the fall? Anyway, this year I am really embracing it.  I decorated the house the way I've always wanted to with corn stalks, and hay stacks, and scarecrows, and mums.... of course pumpkins too. We went to a fall festival, Zoey and I have been spending lots of time outside on trails, at the park, in the yard.  I have been cooking some seasonal favorites. And I am looking forward to future enjoyable fall days,

FALL in love with Autumn :P

Taking Pen to Paper