Monday, August 15, 2011

Porgie. It's What's for Dinner!

Porgie! Now that is just a fun word to say, admit it. At VBS (Vacation Bible School) this year at our church, I taught the 3-5 year old's class. In preparing for my night to teach, my lesson was on Jesus feeding of the 5,000 and the boy who gave his five loaves and two fishes.

In an effort to grab the kid's attention I decided to bring in 5 real loaves of bread and 2 real small fish-or porgies!! Working in the restaurant business has its perks. So, I asked our seafood salesman for, well, two small fish! He gave me two porgies. For free! Even better. I think the kids thought Porgie was neat at any rate as they poked at its eyeballs! I filleted one so they could see what part you eat and left the other one whole. It was a fun lesson to teach! I find that I personally always learn better with visuals so hopefully they might remember this when they are older.
Porgies are described as a "good eating fish". It's basically a white fish. I'd never had porgie before. Let alone gut and fillet one...or many other fish for that matter. But here I had these two porgies that needed to be eaten and there was only one way to do that!

Gutting and filleting is a messy business. And smelly. So, I wrapped my face with a dish towel, put my gloves on and placed Porgie inside a trash bag on my cutting board. I started by scaling the fish, which produces scales flying every which way on you and around the room! Hence, the trash bag. Next, I cut the head off. This is where it starts to get smellier...pulled out the guts. By now I can still smell it through my fabulous dish towel of a bandanna.(Gag.) I quickly discarded all the guts and head in a Ziploc which cut back on the smell. Then following the bones/backbone carefully and slowing filleted the first piece of porgie! The last piece is left with all the bones and tail. This one is slightly easier to fillet because now you can see the bones and just follow it all the way down to the tail.

I left the skin on the fillets just because it's easier. Skinning fish is no biggy but because they were so small it's a little harder to skin. This was my first solo gutting/filleting of a fish so I didn't want to push my luck!

Now to cook them! I made a Greek mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, oregano and fresh garlic and poured it all over the porgie and broiled them. It was quick, easy and very tasty! Hubby approved as well.

I'd definitely have porgie again!! Here's some pictures of Porgie before and after. Yum!
                                                          The before and after of Porgie.
Greek Style Porgie! Olive oil, lemon juice, fresh garlic and oregano!

Sunday, August 07, 2011

Tag Sale Loot!

My sister and I went out tag saling Saturday morning...and afternoon! It was a great time together, alota laughs and memories made! One of them being going to the same tag sale TWICE, thinking it was a completely different one! We ran back to the car laughing before they even knew we had been there...again! And then "Tag Sale Guy" who basically gave us a mini tour of his house and said he "could work something out" and sell us his house even though he was closing the sale Monday! He was a very nice gentleman though. (It was a very nice home though, complete with a pool that looked like a pond, deep enough to dive in!)
Also found some great deals! The double sided quilter's cutting mat(brand new) sells for $15-$20 in stores! I got it for $1! Can't beat that!
Here's the rest of the loot I found:

Thursday, August 04, 2011

Vietnamese Venture!

Recently my hubby and I ate at a teeny tiny Vietnamese restaurant a few miles from our apartment. It was soo good! I'd never really had Vietnamese before, but I figured it'd be close enough to Chinese that it couldn't be too scary.  We ordered the Crsipy Spring Rolls, Grilled Pork Vermicelli and Lemongrass Chicken. It really was ALL delicious but what we loved the most was the Pork Vermicelli. Which was angel hair rice noodles, lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, basil, crushed peanuts and served with a side of traditional Vietnamese home made sauce! It was all so WONDERFUL.
 The flavors all just joined hands together in your mouth and skipped around in circles! The cool rice noodles, the crisp carrots, lettuce and cucumbers, the nutty, crunchy peanuts, the tangy-sweet and crispy pork and the sauce was light, but had a little kick of heat(just a dab) and sweet undertones, without being too sweet. And there was fresh mint also, which I'm not usually a huge fan of but it worked so well with all these other flavors. 
So. I just HAD to try and duplicate this dish! I did a little research and found out I needed fish sauce for the meat.(I substituted chichen thighs for the pork. And I don't see why you couldn't try beef as well.)Well I didn't have fish sauce. So I used oyster sauce. Which, come to find out is completely different then fish sauce but, work with whatchya got, right? It worked very well. The traditional sauce is so easy to make might I add. A perfect meal for a hot summer day with the cool rice noodles and crispy veggies. I will have to try this again with the fish sauce next time! It came out wonderful! Best of all, hubby loved it!

Monday, August 01, 2011

Two Year Anniversary!

Wow! Can't believe it's been two whole years since we got married!! It really does not feel like that long. I wouldn't trade these last two years for anything with anyone else. The Lord has blessed me with a wonderful, loving husband! I love you Mike! xoxo  And now we're off to our anniversary get away!  See you soon!