Thursday, October 14, 2010

I don't know about you, but sometimes my weekly plan takes a nose dive when real life decides to interrupt.  

Last week was one of those weeks.

I did manage to feed my family by sticking to the menu, somewhat.

The good news is, I didn't go back to the grocery store all week, so I made do with what I had and perhaps saved a little money in the long run.

So here is:

Monday's Whole-y Mackerel (sorry, I couldn't resist)
My baby boy and pure fascination!

Mackeral meets grill.

Oh, a little side note here.  I had a blonde moment last week.

I thought I was being clever by cashing in some rewards points from my credit card.

Could have bought a Tiffany bracelet, silver ear rings, a nice watch.

I chose a grill.

A panini grill by Breville.

I have always wanted one, because I love hot, toasty sandwiches.

I felt pretty pleased with myself.

Until it arrived

I started taking it out of the box and realized I had one already.

What was I thinking?

I have a good old faithful George Foreman grill!

So, I frantically searched to see if you can return items bought with rewards points.

It doesn't seem like you can.

So now I have two grills.  Both have their pros and cons.

The cons about panini grill is it's harder to clean.

The grills on the George can be  removed and can go in the dishwasher.

The panini grill relies on elbow grease.

Oh and it takes a lot longer to warm up than George.

The pros of the panini grill are the larger cooking surface,  and you can alter the height of the lid so you don't squash your food flat.

So, I think I will be selling George and keeping my panini grill.

Okay, back to the mackerel

So, as mentioned last week, there are no recipes for this week.  I just had fun!

The mackerel was whole, and so I cleaned it up and made a marinade of olive oil, juice of one lemon, thyme, salt and pepper.   Rub the marinade all over the fish and inside the cavity.

I let the mackerel sit and get happy in the marinade for about an hour.

Make sure to make slits in the skin of the fish on both sides to allow for moisture to escape.   This also prevents the skin from shrinking shriveling in the heat.

Place the mackerel on your grill and cook for about 5-7 minutes.  Do not over cook.

There is nothing worse than over cooked fish of any kind.

I served the mackerel with jasmine rice and roasted asparagus.

For the asparagus, I drizzled it with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted it in the oven at 425 degrees for about 8-10 minutes.

Don't over cook the asparagus.

No one wants dull, wilted asparagus.

It should still have a bit of a bite to it, and the salt will help keep the nice bright green colour!

Here's the finished product.



Oh, and by the way, my kids loved it!  

My youngest is a tad on the picky side and he loved it.  

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