fish stew

A few weeks ago, my boss stopped by my office with a top-ten list of reasons why my schools kept closing for not-really-wintry weather. The list includes, and I quote:

1. Melancholy memories of days past
2. Lizards! Lizards! Lizards!
3. Anomalous rainbows

… and so on. My point is, I could explain why I’ve been gone for four months or I could just pick a random reason (like lava or excessive earwax) and be done with it. The good news is that I’m back now, warming my own office chair instead of the seat of a rental car, and itching to eat something that doesn’t come in a take-out container. It’s been snowy and miserable in Kentucky these past few weeks, so I decided to make use of the tilapia filets in the freezer and try my hand at  some fish stew. The recipe I found online started with olive oil, onions, and garlic — and I was sold.

I couldn’t find any clam juice at Kroger, which was just as well since it sounds really disgusting. Instead, I picked up some red clam sauce and dumped it in along with tomato paste and diced tomatoes. It ended up working really well, since the clams are chewy enough that they added some texture and kept the stew from being complete mush. The recipe also called for dry white wine, but as regular readers know, I am the exact opposite of a sommelier. I have no idea which wines are dry, sweet, or whatever. I can’t even reliably tell you what color the wine is, unless it’s in a clear bottle. I was thrilled, then, that the bottle of White Springs Cherry Picker I found covered in dust in the wine rack said “dry white wine” directly on it. (Otherwise, God knows what I would have ended up with.)

Anyway, bada bing bada boom, I ended up with this:

Nemo? Is that you?

And you know … it didn’t suck! I was really surprised. I picked up a baguette (absolutely loooove Kroger),  gave The Husband the rest of the wine, and added just a little dash of sea salt to my bowl. I almost wanted something else in it for a bit more texture, but there was enough fish that it didn’t feel like I was eating a bowl full of tomato sauce. Definitely a keeper recipe — it seems pretty idiotproof, which is always a plus.

Here’s a little something extra for all you patient folks who’ve been waiting so long for an update — snake eyes! I read a book many, many years ago (maybe one of the Hobie Hanson books?) in which the kid goes to camp and his counselors make snake eyes, which are basically eggs fried inside pieces of toast with circles cut out. I’ve been intrigued by this idea for literally two decades, so I finally decided to just see what happened when I tried to make them:

I’m not sure what kind of cheese is on those potatoes, but it looks really gross. Sorry about that.

I mostly hate eggs (except when hungover and/or needing something to dip my toast in), so I had to rely on The Husband’s reaction. It was favorable. The townspeople rejoiced!