I love me some fish stew

Lately, I've been mostly inspired to cook....from trying on new recipes to bringing out old memories of my mom's cooking. Last night I got a vivid image of her fish stew and just had to make it. Apparently fish stew is not popular with most Americans (my boyfriend refused to eat it but that just left more of it for me and our kitty!) but it's a staple in almost any other cultures' cuisine. (Thanks, Anthony Bourdain for the informative yet funny travel cook books you write!) So I decided to share the recipe for the more adventurous of you.

Ingredients:


About a pound of a fish of your choice. I use salmon cause I love the texture and it gives the stew a nice pinkish color
A small jar of kosher dill pickles. The crunchier, the better and definitely no sweet pickles!
Half a pack frozen peas
Half a pack frozen corn
A can of your favorite tomatoes 
Parsley
Black pepper
Salt to taste
Freshly squeezed lemon juice

As with pretty much everything my mom cooks that's not baking, it's all about eyeballing and you can do very little to ruin this stew. Bring a medium-sized pot of water to boil and put the cleaned fish in, cut to medium-size pieces. (Everything will fall apart later anyway.) Add the tomatoes, frozen veggies and all pickles chopped in little pieces. Since there is nothing in there that will expand, you can put as much veggies as you wish and make the stew as liquidy as you want it. Simmer everything for about 45 minutes, then add the chopped parsley and lemon juice. The fish will be falling apart, so fork it around to smaller pieces so that it blends with the liquid. Taste for salt and adjust; add black pepper. Simmer for a few more minutes. The liquid should thicken from the mixing with the fish but if it's too watery for your taste, add some tomato paste.

Serve hot or cold. There is nothing there that's bad for you, so help yourself with a second serving!

Things come and go

On the not so happy side of life, we woke up this past weekend to find out that one of our bikes was stolen from our fenced backyard. It was a little unsettling, since the bike was tucked in right under our living-room window and the idea of someone roaming so close to my home with bad intentions makes me nervous. We live in a good town that, unfortunately, borders a bad town and many people on the border get things stolen. I guess it is an eye opener - after all, we're too close to urban, not wise to leave doors open.

Our therapy? My love and I just cuddled and played with our kitty for an hour and we felt a little better.