Seafood Friday and BOB the cool cow

Did you think I forgot about Seafood Friday? No way!

But first you must meet Bob! Bob is a little shy.

Bob just wants you to know that grilled fish and vegetables tastes REALLY good. Bob really loves grilled vegetables - especially summer squash. You can meet him and other cute cows over at http://www.lavenderchick.blogspot.com/. I understand he's going through a little bit of the terrible two's and may even think he's a dog. How cute is that!

Grilled Fish Sammies with Garlic Tartar Sauce and Baked Waffle Fries with Spicy Bloody Ketchup and a Slaw Salad


Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray, 2007

1 pound store-bought waffle fries
4 (6-ounce) fillets white fish, such as halibut, skinless
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 crusty rolls, split 3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, grated
3 tablespoons capers
1/4 cup pitted chopped green olives
Handful flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
1 cup ketchup
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, eyeball it
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 or 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish, your preference
1 lemon Celery salt, to season fries
1/2 red onion, very thinly sliced
8 green or red leaf lettuce leaves

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F and bake fries 20 minutes, or according to package directions, turning once. Heat skillet or grill or grill pan over medium-high heat. Season the fish with salt and pepper and coat with about 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil. Toast rolls on grill or heat broiler and set them in the middle of the oven to brown, then reserve. Combine mayonnaise with grated garlic, capers, olives, parsley. Combine ketchup with Worcestershire, hot sauce, horseradish and lots of black pepper. Cook fish 3 to 4 minutes on each side until firm, opaque and cooked through. Squeeze lemon over cooked fish.
Remove fries from oven and season with celery salt and pepper.
Place fish on rolls with lettuce, red onion and tartar sauce. Serve fries alongside with bloody ketchup.

Slaw Salad:
1 bulb fennel with tops, thinly sliced plus 1/4 cup fennel tops
1/2 head red cabbage, shredded 1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons grill seasoning (recommended: McCormick's)
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1 1/2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

In a large bowl, combine the fennel, fennel tops and red cabbage. In a separate small bowl, combine the honey, cider vinegar, grill seasoning, poppy seeds, and sesame seeds. Slowly whisk in the olive oil. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss together.

Yield: 4 servings

Thanks for stopping by and have a fun weekend!

XOXO,
Penny

Four Girls That Rock

There are SO many great female musicians it's hard to select just four for this post. These aren't in any particular order, and I certainly love others just as much. I'll have to add more in the future. In the meantime, if you'd like to hear a song from them, I've added a song by each of them at the top of my music playlist. Sorry you have to scroll so far down to get to it.

You just never know where you're going to find music that inspires you. I picked up a Beth Orton CD at a yard sale in the north Georgia countryside and I have to say it was the best 50 cents I've ever spent. If you've got the music turned on you should be listening to her right now. She's got a unique, moody voice and I love listening to her on long road trips. She lives in England and doesn't get to the states much. I've got her on my ticketmaster alerts just in case!

What a voice! Could Janis Joplin belt out a song with some soul or what?! I think Tina Turner and her would have made good friends. :-) Janis Lyn Joplin was born January 19, 1943 and died October 4, 1970.

I first became aware of Aimee Mann while watching the movie Magnolia. I loved the song in it titled, "Save Me". I was so moved. The next day I was on a hunt to find out who did that song and I've been a fan ever since! I've seen her in concert twice, and I have tickets to an upcoming show. Due to not that people being familiar with her music, she always plays in small venues which makes her shows all the better.

Back when MTV actually played music videos I remember the day this cute chick Sheryl Crow came on the scene. It was instant admiration and I admire her to this day. She's got the one of the best guitar players in the whole world playing with her too. Peter Stroud. He lives right here in Atlanta and is married to Lynn, a friend of mine that you met on my blog about the Tom Petty concert.

Weekend Fun with Melanie, Hugh, Susan and Bob

FRIDAY NITE started off with Clay and I meeting up with Melanie and Hugh at a Persian restaurant. You may have met them before in a previous post. By the way, Melanie is a great decorator and she has students come from all of the country to attend her homestaging classes. Her two websites are http://www.interior-revivals.com and http://www.thehomestagersguild.com. I met her through another friend a few years ago. Not ready to go home we go around the corner to play a little pool. The music in the joint was really great. Lots of old stuff like Creedence Clearwater and bands like Aerosmith too. Here is Melanie playing air guitar rock woman with her pool stick. I don't want to hurt her feelings, but she's better at playing the guitar on the pool stick than she is at playing pool.

Above is Clay and Hugh laughing. They were probably laughing at how Melanie couldn't get a ball in a hole an inch away. Me? No, I don't play pool because I know there is no hope for me! Hugh and Melanie are lots of fun to hang with.

It's now Saturday morning and here is a pic of one of what may be hundreds of rabbits in our neighborhood. You have to look really, really hard to see him in the middle of the photo. He's eaten every single flower I planted. This is as close as I could get to him before hoppity hopped out of there. You're cute little rabbit, but please don't come back!

SATURDAY NITE~
Tiki time! Our hosts Bob & Susan had set up quite the rum bar which even included a book with ten recipes bookmarked to select from. This was fun. Clay picked out a drink called Shark's Tooth of course.



Susan and I decide on Blue Hawaii's. Susan has on a pretty top with Hawaii scenes. Remind me to keep a hawaiian shirt in my car for parties!


And here is a picture of our host Bob in his Hawaii shirt too! Bob and Susan eloped last month! She's a huge dog lover and gives many hours to rescue work. Bob has helped her a good bit with this too. They are so sweet and so cute together.


They prepared the most deelish stirfry with shrimp and chicken. After dinner we enjoyed more drinks in their lanai. There are lots of decor items from Hawaii because they love to go there. The conversation was fun as usual! Thanks for the great time!

Sunday we took naps, ran errands and cooked a burger on the grill. Not much. It was a great weekend!

XOXO,
Penny