I woke up at 7:00 AM and heated a cup off coffee in the microwave. I turned on the radio (Sunday Morning, Over Easy) and went in to recount yesterday's adventures for the Blog.
I wanted some breakfast, but didn't want to thaw out bacon and had no pork sausage on hand. However, I did have a bagful of those little "smokies" I'd bought as an appetizer a while back, in the freezer. So, I thawed out a handful of them. When they were ready, I put some bacon grease in a skillet and warmed them up in that. Then I made two eggs, over-easy and two pieces of rye toast. Thus fortified, I began the day.
Having cleaned the oven the other day, I now cleaned the stove top, drip pans, and grates and so on. I finished that and immediately moved on to cleaning Newt's tank, replacing the filter element and I put in two new plastic plants (just to give him a change of scenery). I finished up and had him back in his home by 1:30 PM.
Switching gears, I started cleaning the house, first vacuuming the living room rug and the walk-off rugs, then changing to the electric sweeper for the wood and kitchen floors. I dry mopped all the wood floors (with the mop sprayed with Endust and shaken, frequently) and then wet mopped the back room, downstairs bath and the kitchen with Pine-Sol and hot water. I finished up just before 4:00 PM and decided to take a break and call my Mom.
She and Cora had Easter dinner with my brother Joe and his wife, Kathy. She said dinner was great, although not as many people as usual. My brother Carl and Cal came over on Saturday to install another grab bar in the bathroom. The big news from that part of the family is that Carl's second oldest son, Chris, and his wife, Sheri, will be having a baby this summer (their first).
Then, I set the alarm for 6:00 PM and took a nap. Both my back and knees were hurting when I awoke.
Dinner was supposed to be fish and chips, but when I checked my "root cellar", I only had only one Russet potato left. Since I'd already thawed out four tilapia filets, it's gotta be fish and "something," though! So I made oven roasted baby redskin potatoes, instead. I had about 12 left, so I scrubbed them and cut them in half. I put them in a big bowl along with 1 tablespoon chopped fresh Rosemary, four cloves of garlic, minced, 1/4 cup of olive oil and mixed them together to coat the potatoes. I put them on a tinfoil-lined baking sheet. They went into a preheated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes (or fork tender).
I used the America's Test Kitchen recipe for the fish (Jake and Carla swear by it). I whisked together 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup cornstarch, 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of paprika, 1/8 teaspoon of pepper, and 2 teaspoons salt in large mixing bowl; I transferred 3/4 cup of the dry mixture to a cookie sheet. I added one teaspoon baking powder to the original bowl and whisked it to combine.
Meanwhile, I thoroughly dried the fish with paper towels and dredged each piece in the flour mixture on the cooking sheet and then transferred the pieces to a wire rack, shaking off the excess flour.
I added 1 1/4 cups of cold beer to the flour mixture in the mixing bowl and stirred until the mixture was just combined (batter will be a bit lumpy). I added the remaining beer as needed, one tablespoon at a time, whisking after each addition, until batter fell from the whisk in a thin, steady stream and left a faint trail across surface of batter.
Using tongs, I dipped a piece of fish in the batter and let the excess run off, shaking gently. I put the battered fish back onto the cookie sheet with the flour mixture and turned to coat both sides. I repeated the procedure with all the remaining fish, keeping the pieces in a single layer on another cookie sheet.
I put canola oil about halfway up in my Dutch oven. When the oil reached 375 degrees, I added the battered fish to oil with tongs, gently shaking off excess flour. I did three pieces at a time, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, (7 to 8 minutes).
Had dinner plated by 7:50. Fish was excellent, BTW. Would have been better (or at least more authentic) if I'd used cod, I suppose, but tilapia was all I had. Best part about this recipe (certainly NOT the cleanup, lol!) was how tightly the breading stuck to the fish. Perfect! I watched my usual shows until 10:30 PM, and then switched to my book. I turned off the light at 11:30.