Et tu, Steve Jobs

I wanted to write this hours ago, but we had a thunder and lightning storm!!!

All I can say is, thank God Sauteed Zucchini, Peppers and Tomatoes didn't call for onions, or I probably would have cut myself.

SO, it's Tuesday, and I was not in the mood to make something big, as I am going out after work tomorrow, and then again Friday and Saturday. Something easy.. like a side dish!!! I had to go to Costco anyway, to get water (and fine, a book. I had two in the cart. I put one back!), so I grabbed one of their rotisserie chickens, which are $6 and YUMMY!!! I can use it for sandwiches for lunch, too!!



On to Publix. Sigh. Again, the produce police make sure I am not allowed to choose my own zucchini. I only need a pound, so I get the lightest one they have (1.55 pounds). I have my food scale at home and measure out a pound's worth.



My mom was a math teacher. I know 16 ounces is a pound, and the scale says 15.75. I wasn't going to cut a bit off the one other zucchini in the package I had to buy instead of weighing them individually at the store. So fine. Slightly less than a pound of zucchini. Sorry, Martha. Blame the Publix produce Nazis.

Who, apparently, think it's perfectly OK for us to be able to pick out our own cucumbers, scallions, jalapenos, bell peppers... It's baffling to me. Anyway, I needed two yellow peppers. Just my luck, there were exactly two bell peppers left. Are they not the saddest things you've ever seen?



The picture actually does not do their condition justice. They were usable, but if I had gone in tomorrow, and that was all that was left... let's just say the sweet old man that sings might have cried.

And grape tomatoes. YAY!!!



And two garlic cloves, smashed. I love me some garlic. I had to smash them to get the skin off, but then gave them a couple extra whacks for good measure. Yum, good and smashed.



Speaking of smashed (not really! I actually opened that bottle the other day!), I am enjoying this delicious Cupcake Sauvignon Blanc. It's a Marlborough, so full of that citrus bite I love. See, with red wine, I want one I can chew. With white wine, I want one that bites back. This one does that, and for less than $10!



So everything into the pan! It's pretty with all the color, and when that garlic heats up... dee-lish!



You're supposed to just toss in some salt and pepper, but since I have some fresh parsley, I chop some up and toss it in. That's how I roll.... Oh, these are my salt and pepper shakers. Aren't they cute as hell???



Sauteing. Fun!! Takes about 10 minutes. A little note... when you heat up grape tomatoes... sometimes they pop. It burns. I'm just saying. Anyway, here it is. Pretty! And yummy, too!



Here is the playlist. I still think Steve Jobs has a satellite in the sky that zones in and programs your iPod to play songs you don't really want to hear.


How's it Gonna Be Third Eye Blind
How Can you Mend a Broken Heart Al Green
High Enough Damn Yankees
Untitled 1 Keane
Wendy Time The Cure
White Flags of Winter Chimneys Wendy & Lisa
I'm Not OK My Chemical Romance
See the Sun (and hidden track) Dido
Don't Feel Like Cryin' Abra Moore
Last Day on Earth Duran Duran
Rewind Stereophonics
Love is the Seventh Wave Sting
From the Edge of a Deep Green Sea The Cure

The Tale of the Red Cloth (or Happy Father's Day, Dickie!)

I was home for Christmas break my senior year in college, doing laundry. That was when I actually paid attention to breaking up things by colors, whites, towels, etc.... I was folding every one's darks, and there was a piece of red flannel like material. About a foot square, I'd say, maybe a little bigger. You could tell it had been cut from something, but it wasn't mine so I put it in the pile of my dad's stuff, and put the pile on my parents' bed.

(If you know him, you know he just has random bits of stuff everywhere, from the rec room to the rafters of his FOUR garages, so this was not a far-fetched thought.)

He came to me later that day with the cloth in his hands. "What is this?"
"I don't know. I found it in the laundry and figured it was some sort of hunting snot rag or something. It's clean."

"Well it's not mine."

"OK."

"I mean, I had a red shirt that I think was made of this fabric, but where's the rest of it?"

"That's all that was there in the laundry, and I certainly did not cut up one of your shirts."

"Well that is weird."

"Yeah, well... OK." I had grown tired.

I woke up the next morning and opened my bedroom door, and there, rolled up on the floor was the red cloth. I rolled my eyes, and took it to my parents room and put it back on their bed. Nothing was said, but a couple nights later, I crawled into bed to find something under the covers at my feet. The red cloth. Oh, it was ON!!!

For the rest of my break, the red cloth was found in his pajamas that were tucked under his pillow, again under my covers at my feet, in his truck and I think even in the pocket of my jeans in a drawer. I went back to school after tucking it away somewhere I don't even remember. Nothing was said.

I went home for Easter break and back to school with no mention of red cloth. A couple weeks after I was back at school, I was taking pledges back to their dorms one morning after the big/little sis sleepover at the house. It was early. I pulled down the sun visor and into my lap fell the red cloth. I stared at it for half a second before letting loose a string of obscenities and curses that had the pledges even more afraid of me then they already were (Apparently I can be somewhat intimidating). I knew exactly when he had done it. Oh, I thought he was so nice checking my oil and my tires when I was home at Easter. HA!

Ever since then, my father and I have made a game out of "dropping" the red cloth on each other. I thought I had won when I cut it in half and embroidered a little scene on it. I think it was a Father's Day present. But that didn't stop it. The pieces just got smaller and easier to hide. Like the top of his Thermos or in a CD case.

Once I tied his Dick's Sporting Goods gift card to the Christmas tree with a length of it. I opened a box that I thought held jewelry one Christmas, only to find a small red flannel Christmas tree cut with pinking sheers.

I get a little piece in every birthday card. I stuck the heart-shaped piece I had (again, cut with his preferred pinking sheers) onto a printed out IOU for Willie Nelson's new CD that was being released after his birthday this year. Throughout it all, Jan and Jenny just roll their eyes at us.

But the best drop of all so far was mine two years ago. We are talking a Wile E. Coyote SUPER GENIUS drop. They came to visit me in Florida, and I had bought a box of his favorite Doe-Si-Doe Girl Scout cookies for him (those are the peanut butter sandwich ones, right?). I took my Exacto knife and carefully sliced through the glue holding the bottom of the box and slid out the two tubes of cookies, carefully tying a piece of red cloth around each before putting them back in the box and re-gluing it shut. The morning they left, I gave him the cookies to take to Myrtle Beach, knowing he wouldn't open them until they got there. I can only imagine the expression on his face when he opened the box, but I have been told it was quite funny.

In a little wooden box on my dresser, I keep my pieces of cloth. I have the pinking sheer Christmas tree:


A fish, or actually, it looks like the Binghamton Whaler mascot. If you look close, you can see that he drew on an eye, a fin and lines in the tail. He's clever, that one.:


A snowflake:


And some random bits:


I had another piece, but it is Father's Day, after all. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DICKIE!!! I LOVE YOU!!!

(The origins of the red cloth have never been known. At least no one has ever claimed responsibility for how it came to be in the laundry that day.)

Taco Kisses for my Chris...

Well, taco kisses for everyone. Fish tacos that is, courtesy of Martha.

Sorry. Whenever I make tacos, I think of the South Park episode where Cartman's hand was possessed by Jennifer Lopez. I don't have time to explain. Look it up.

So on to Martha's Fish Tacos made with tilapia.



First of all, I went to see The Proposal today. It was funny and sweet and well, hello.......



Enough said on that...

This trip to Publix, which bills itself as "Where shopping is a pleasure," but is, in reality, "where shopping is a big, fat pain in my ass," was actually less than painful. This trip. I was able to find everything I needed. Amazingly enough. Including the fish and the stuff I needed to make the red cabbage slaw.

(As an aside, cabbage always reminds me of a funny story about Jenny. When we still lived together, I emailed her during the day and asked what she wanted/needed from the grocery store, as I was going after work. She said lettuce, as the head of lettuce in the drawer tasted funny. Now, head lettuce is not something I buy often. There is really no health benefit to it at all, other than extra water. Then it hit me... I typed back, "If you mean the head of lettuce in the left hand drawer, that is cabbage." I had made the Weight Watcher vegetable soup the week before, which called for cabbage. She emailed back, "OH, no wonder it tasted funny."
"You ate it?
"Yeah, I made a salad with it, and put it on my sandwich."
"And it didn't strike you as thick or weird?"
"Well, it tasted weird."
This story wouldn't be as funny if Jenny hadn't been a hotel/restaurant management major in college who took more than a couple cooking classes.)

OK, back to the present. Fish tacos with a red cabbage slaw. Isn't it pretty, all chopped up?



OH, and, since it's a fun dish like tacos, that calls for a fun beverage. It's not Mexican or Spanish, but it's good, and that is what really matters.



Soooo, in addition to red cabbage, the slaw also includes scallions and a jalapeno pepper, cut in half length-wise. Half the pepper is diced for the slaw and the other half is left whole. I always use baggies on my hands when handling jalapenos, to keep the oils off my fingers.



I scooped out the pith and some of the seeds before dicing it up and tossing it in with the cabbage and scallions. The heat is in the seeds and, like I've said before, I like a bit of heat in my food. So with the veggies, I mix in the sauce, which is fat-free sour cream (Martha says low-fat, but I always use the fat-free) and lime juice. Looks tasty, and it does have a nice bite.



Then I slice up the fish, which is meant to be cooked in my skillet with some olive oil and the other half of the jalapeno. I made sure to rub the pepper all around, to spread the flavor, and I had left the pith and seeds in that side, so... yum...
In went the fish in two batches.



This is the second batch. Now, I don't know that kind of pixie dust and magic fairy farts Martha uses to make it all look super pretty in her pictures. I know she must have someone using Photoshop like nobody's business, because my fish didn't look like it did in the book, but it sure was tasty!!! Oh, and you drizzle a little of the extra sour cream/lime juice sauce on top, along with some chopped cilantro.



Ole!

The Taco Kisses for Everyone playlist (I must admit, not a shiny happy taco list):
Stay By Me Annie Lennox
Wuthering Heights Kate Bush (My favorite book, I must admit)
Someone Air Supply (I am not remotely embarrassed that I have the greatest hits of Air Supply on my iPod.)
I Know Him By Heart Vonda Shepard
This Land is Mine Dido
I've Changed (Alternate Version) Josh Joplin Group
Hideous Towns The Sundays
Goodnight, Goodnight Maroon 5
Vertigo U2
Sorry Madonna
New York Minute Don Henley
Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough Patty Smyth and Don Henley
Let's Go Crazy Prince and the Revolution (Dearly beloved... we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life...)
Love Song The Cure
Rhymin and Stealin Beastie Boys (Because mutiny on the bounty's what we're all about...)
Not An Addict K's Choice (We're so creative, we're so much more...)
The Flag Barenaked Ladies
You're Not the Only One That I Know The Sundays (What is the harm of talking out loud when I'm on my own....)
The Night is Still Young Billy Joel (You think his marriage splitting up has something to do with the fact that she's 27 and he's fucking 60?!?!?!)

My Personal Beatlemania

I set up one of those quizzes on Facebook, and one of the questions was "Who is my favorite band of all time?"

Everyone picked the Barenaked Ladies. Which is a very good guess. I do love them. But of all time?? No. That title goes to the greatest band of all time. I mean John, Paul, George and Ringo. THE BEATLES!!! So how did a girl who was not only born after the band broke up, but who was also raised by parents who favored Johnny Mathis, Elvis, Willie Nelson, The Platters and various other non-British Invasion musical artists??

For my love of The Beatles, I have to thank Peter Frampton, the Bee Gees and my aunt Sharon. An odd combination, I will admit, but bear with me.

I don't remember how old I was, but I went to visit my cousin Melissa outside of Buffalo one summer. And part of the Buffa-low down included watching a cheesy movie musical on HBO. The movie? Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Starring Peter Frampton, the Bee Gees, George Burns, Steve Martin, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith... I could go on (and there is probably a special circle in Dante's Inferno for each and every one of them for making this movie)... BUT, while the plot was, in a word, awful, the music was amazing!!! I loved every single song and sang them out loud!



My aunt sighed, and said, if you like the music, at least listen to the real thing. And placed in my hands her very own Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band record album. I was sucked in. We played it on her stereo. All the lyrics were right there to read along. All the songs from the movie weren't on it (the rest of the songs were pulled from Abbey Road) but it was a start.

Ever since then, it's been the Fab Four for me. I had their stuff on cassette, and then on CD. I've seen Paul in concert twice. The first time was in Toronto. He sang Michelle, and I knew that even though he was a speck on a far-away stage, he was singing right to me. Then I saw him again in Atlanta with Kara, a fellow Beatles lover, and her parents. Awesome show. He sang Something as a tribute to George, and Here Today for John.

(My mother has since admitted that when I was about 3 years old, I used to sing two songs at the top of my lungs to anyone who would listen: Delta Dawn by Helen Reddy, and Yellow Submarine by The Beatles.)

I have their music on CD, and I got the Anthology coffee table book from my parents on my 30th birthday. I know Paul's name is actually not Paul (It's James. Paul is his middle name). And I know that the last time they were all together was outside Abbey Road Studios in 1970. I used to know the exact date, but I lost that page from the 365-days of The Beatles calendar. I've also been to Abbey Road Studios. Well, outside on the sidewalk. I signed the wall through my tears.

So, when I still lived in Atlanta, and my aunt Sharon and uncle Joe were preparing to move from there to South Carolina, I went up to help them pack. Or just for cocktails and dinner... Any-who... she showed me some stuff she was planning on tossing. And in the "to go" pile was that original Sgt. Pepper album. Along with The White Album and Rubber Soul (which, by the way, features Michelle). Horrified, I grabbed them, along with a jacketless Beggar's Banquet by The Rolling Stones and that Christian band Stryper's album. Which was my cousin Marty's. And I did give it back to him. At Thanksgiving. In front of his girlfriend. I did it with love (Happy Birthday, Marty!!! It was yesterday).

Anyway, I have had those albums ever since. Jenny had to actually send them to me after I moved. And today, Two of them got some special treatment. Now, they are not in the greatest condition. My aunt actually played her albums. But I think they look nice in their new home.



Now I'll have to get a frame for the poster that came inside The White Album.

And I am waiting patiently until September 9th, when all of The Beatles' CD's will be re-issued in all of their remastered fabulous in-stereo glory!!! "Penny Lane is in my ears, and in my eyes......"



PS... I have that movie on VHS. I just discovered it's now on DVD.... My birthday is January 15th. I'm just saying....

Here's to good friends

In the days after 9-11, I had been laid off, so I was home all day. Nothing was on TV but the news, with horrible images of smoldering rubble and people holding up pictures of missing loved ones. It was heart wrenching, and I dreaded having to go to bed, only to lay there all night thinking of the horror and sadness.

(I swear this is about to get more upbeat.)

I started staying up super late to watch Designing Women on Lifetime. It came on at midnight, after The Golden Girls. Those two episodes each night would make me laugh and help me sleep with good thoughts in my head.

I've been having a rough time of it these past few weeks. Of course nothing compared to 9-11, not even close to that. No, this is more personal. But I've been having trouble going to sleep, my brain always clicking and my imagination monorail always bumps my logic train off the track. Luckily, in addition to the great real friends I have, I can now turn to my old friends Julia, Suzanne, Mary Jo and Charlene. Yep, today I found the first season of Designing Women on DVD!! Best Buy RULES!

Before there were the ladies of Sex and the City, there were the ladies of Sugarbaker's. Love them!! Plus, they were in Atlanta, and I lived there. I love hearing them talking about going places I knew. Phipps Plaza! Lenox Mall! Cobb County! I am still trying to figure out where Julia's house is. Probably Buckhead.

I have always identified more with Mary Jo. Probably because, for starters, we have the same hair. She wants to be brave and tough, and inside, she is. But that is underneath a layer of insecurity. I know that feeling.

I always wanted to be like Julia, who always went off on those great rants. I can do that too, but only on paper. Oh, I can whip off a doozy of a letter or monologue. Words are my weapons in print, but if it's face to face, I turn back in to Mary Jo.

Or Charlene, who is hilarious with her love of psychics and tabloids. And true love. Hopelessly romantic dreamer that I tend to be. Ah, well...

Then there is Suzanne. What girl hasn't been Suzanne? Every once and a while, you have to get that little sassy spring in your step when you're having a good hair day, or a dress you couldn't fit into last year zips up with a bit of breathing room to spare. Every girl likes to be pretty, even if they don't admit it.

And they had each other. Friends till the end. I like that I can watch them again. It puts happy thoughts in my head, and makes me think of the designing women in all of us girls. (And if you are a man and you feel a little Julia or Suzanne sometimes, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. You go with your Sugarbaker self!)

We stick together, too. I know I can count on my girls, and they can count on me. And maybe, someday, I'll get the shoulder pads to do a little something like this:




P.S. Best Buy also had the second season of Knots Landing on DVD. You know I had to have it, and don't even get me started on how much I love Knots Landing. Abby arrives!!! Sid DIES!!!! J.R. comes to visit!!! OH, it's too delicious!

The Other White Meat (and I am still not crazy about Publix)

So I knew I needed to whip up some supper, and I figured since I was going to Grease Burger Bar tomorrow for happy hour and Wednesday for lunch, I should pass on the red meet. I was really not in the mood for chicken or fish... So that lead me to pork, the other white meat. Again, I don't have a grill and want to keep it easy, so Roasted Pork and Black-Eyed Pea Salad it is, then!!



I set off for Publix, on foot, as it is right across the back parking lot from my apartment, and I am just getting the fixings for this. This time, the spices and veggie choices were easy to pick out. It was just the needed pork loin (2 loins, 10-12 oz. each). Being Publix, the only loins they had of that size are already "marinated" or covered in spice.. not what I needed. So I grabbed the man filling in the steak display to ask for "plain" pork loin. At first, he looked at me like I had lobsters coming out my eyes, but then I explained that I just needed pork loins that aren't "that," as I pointed to the pile of lemon pepper and and BBQ flavors of loin that are available.

"OH," he says. Apparently, I am in luck when it comes to plain pork loin. They are on sale! of course, they are not small. My choices end up being chops, loins as big as my thigh, or smaller bits of loin that are bigger than what I wanted but, as he pointed out, I could cut up and put half in the freezer. I picked the latter. I can use the other half for the pork quesadillas that are coming up later in Martha's book!

So, back at Ibis Reserve Circle, I preheated the oven and started to mix the spice rub. YUM.. paprika, salt and pepper, red pepper and thyme...



And this is what a yummy, fat pork loin looks like after said spice mixture is rubbed into it.



So into the oven that went, and it was on to the salad. Sounded interesting, as I have never had black-eyed peas outside of New Year's eve celebration. Here is the red pepper and my glass of Coppola Rosso, which we tried the other night at a wine tasting. It is a delicious blend of Zinfandel, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. Highly recommended, and very tasty.



So, I chop up the pepper and two scallions, and mix it with some defrosted frozen corn. The sauce is Dijon mustard (again, Martha? Really? I swear she loves the Dijon) cider vinegar and olive oil. Actually, it calls for vegetable oil, but aren't olives vegetables??



Oh, the pork is done...I pull it out and put my thermometer in. I miss the one I stole from Jenny (which I have returned). It worked better. But my new one actually photographs better.



Well that can't be right...Martha says the temperature should read 150 degrees, so the needle should be where the arrow is on the right side of the dial. I am not a fan of trichinosis, so OK... back in for 15 minutes. Surely that will do it.... I dance around to some more songs, and clean up the random dishes until the buzzer goes off again.



Still not ready... sigh.. OK.. 8 more minutes for the meat to cook while the salad "cooks" in the fridge... Jan used to cook the hell out of pork, until it was like an old boot. I know you don't have to do that before you eat it, so I went with Martha's 150 degrees, rather than the thermometer's 170. Better that we compromise...



160 on the thermometer. Good enough for me!!! And let me tell you, it was all perfect!



Here is the Roasted Pork and Black-Eyed Pea Salad playlist:
Ring of Fire Johnny Cash
Where the Streets Have No Name U2
Time Is Running Out Muse
Stay Lisa Loeb
Already Gone The Eagles
When I'm 64 The Beatles
Joey Concrete Blonde
Love on the Rocks Neil Diamond
Straw Hat & Old Dirty Hank Barenaked Ladies (oddly enough, written about a man who stalked Anne Murray)
She Edie Brickell and New Bohemians
Call Me Calmly Barenaked Ladies
Outrageous Mixology Will and Grace (a mix of dance music and clips from the show. AWESOME)
Make a Circuit With Me The Polecats
Keep it Together Madonna (Don't forget that your family is gold)
They Don't Know Tracy Ullman (the video has a cameo by PAUL MCCARTNEY!!!)
Falling Down Duran Duran
Crazy Pills Will Farrell
Erased Annie Lennox (the ULTIMATE break-up song)
Stupid Sarah McLaughlin
All Through The Night Cyndi Lauper
Human Human League
A Matter of Trust Billy Joel
Same Deep Water As You The Cure
I'm Alive Electric Light Orchestra (from the Xanadu soundtrack. Oh yeah.)

Why I hate Publix, a short essay (or, Making Herb-Crusted Snapper)

This is how I have to buy my vegetables at Publix. Already chosen for me, already wrapped in Styrofoam and plastic wrap. While I like to believe this is really where my meat comes from, it is not how I like to shop for veggies. I like to touch my veggies. I like to pick them up and examine them for defects or perfection (even if sometimes I have no idea really what I am looking for). But the Publix here in West Palm has decided they will choose our veggies for us. Well, not all of them. I can pick my own tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cucumbers; but when it comes to things you actually want to examine.... tough beans buddy (yeah, they're wrapped up, too).

Anyway, I am there to gather the ingredients for my next adventure in Marthaland——Herb-Crusted Snapper. Now, I had already had trouble with this recipe before I even entered the store. It calls for 1/2 cup of finely chopped assorted herbs. That's you ingredient Martha? ASSORTED HERBS. Helpful. Really. So that lead to last minute phone calls and emails to my two cooking gurus——Chris and Paige. Both said tarragon. Chris actually said tarragon, chives, Italian parsley. Paige said tarragon... then thyme and parsley. Since this is about trying new things, and I had never used tarragon before, I went with Chris and grabbed some tarragon and chives. Of course you have to buy the organic kind in the plastic bubble that costs three times as much as a loose bunch. Sigh.

Italian parsley... Italian parsley... Oh, here it is.... one limp, sad bunch of it. Again, wrapped in plastic and Styrofoam. Except this packet was already torn open. I snagged my weird neighbor (who also is a Publix employee and happened to be walking by) asking him, "Is this all there is??" He brought me the produce manager (NOT the fun little man that always sings as he restocks the lettuce), who went to "check in the back." Some other guy brought me out a tightly wrapped bunch of Italian parsley (he did specify what I wanted before he went to check) and I said, "Oh, I'll trade you this sad one." Which he promptly put right back on the shelf. Ah, Publix....

Right. Snapper. Off to the fish "area." I can't really call it a department. Snapper? Nope. No snapper. Well, three small, cloudy eyed whole snappers that the "fish guy" offered to fillet for me. OR, we have frozen fillets. My time in the produce department had already chapped my ass, so fine, I took his frozen fillets, and stalked off to get the rest of the random things I needed (yes, definitely wine).

Here are my sad little snapper fillets, defrosting in the sink. No skin side... Martha does mention a skin side...


And this is the voddy tonic I made to try and calm down from the whole Publix experience (I've been a little on edge lately). Made in a pint glass I stole from a sports bar in Myrtle Beach where Jan, Dick, my Aunt Kathy and I came in second in trivia.



So, obviously I by-passed Martha's idea of couscous, and chose zucchini squash as a side, which I chopped up and tossed it in my steamer with some dill and a quartered garlic clove in the flavor thing-a-ma-bob. This is my dill house. I got it at Boscov's. I used to have a whole set. Now I just have the dill.



The bonus of using fresh garlic in the flavor thing-a-ma-bob is that when all is steamed and done... you have chunks of soft, steamed yummy garlic!!

So I chopped all my zucchini and tossed it in the steamer, sprinkled with some more dill, to sit. I would turn it on when I put the fish in the oven. Then I tackled my ASSORTED HERBS.



I was pulling off tarragon leaves when a strange scent hit me...is that...licorice? Yes, Chris neglected to tell me that tarragon, which, again, I had never used, has the essence of black licorice. As an aside, there are a couple flavors I can't tolerate. Horseradish is the first one. Black licorice is the second one. BUT, this is about doing new things, and it wasn't like I was making fish with black jelly beans, so I pressed on. I coated my fish on one side with Dijon mustard and stuck it in my herb pile, to coat evenly, just like Martha says.



Then in the oven at 375 for 15 minutes, and POW! Herb-crusted Snapper. Now, there really isn't a "crust." And, again, like I said, tarragon/black licorice...still iffy. Plus, I do prefer a lighter fish——tilapia, flounder, halibut——BUT, this was good. The herbs and mustard gave it a nice flavor. I think I would like to try it on a lighter fish. One more down! Take that, Martha!!!



Now, lately, the shuffle option on my iPod has me convinced that Steve Jobs has a satellite somewhere that zones in to your brainwaves and makes your iPod play songs that you really don't want/need to hear. But tonight, it was OK. So here is the I Hate Publix, But Like Herb-Crusted Snapper playlist.


Jealousy Natalie Merchant (oh crap, damn you Steve Jobs!)
Summer of Love The B-52s (MUCH BETTER!!!!)
Hot Stuff Donna Summer (oh yeah, baby!)
This is Where it Ends Barenaked Ladies
Does Your Mother Know ABBA
Who Needs Sleep Barenaked Ladies (I think they take up the most iPod space)
Honky Tonk Woman The Rolling Stones
Homeward Bound Simon & Garfunkel
Pleasant Valley Sunday The Monkees (oh yeah)
Don't Let It Go Bryan Adams and Sarah McLaughlin (I honestly have no idea how this song ended up on my iPod, but it was so BAD, I had to fast forward it.)
All About Soul Billy Joel (love this song)
I Think I Love You The Partridge Family (If you are surprised I have this song on my iPod, then you don't know me as well as you thought you did.)
Mouth Bush (oooo..... Gavin........)
Witness Sarah McLaughlin
Never Gonna Get It En Vogue
Sandy John Travolta (again, come on. You know me...)
What if You Joshua Radin (ah, there you are Steve Jobs, you bastard.)