Pistachio-Limon Pan Seared Sablefish

I can’t believe how busy life and work have been lately. With the arrival of spring always comes a wave of new activities and projects, and this year is no exception. Our son started soccer last month, so we’ve been juggling practices and games - fun, but definitely time-consuming. With two boys, I have a feeling this is just the beginning.

On top of that, we’ve been renovating the floors in our home, which has left the house in a constant state of chaos. Between the dust and the disorder, it’s been hard to find the motivation to cook or bake. I’m hoping to test a cake recipe this weekend (fingers crossed) and maybe squeeze in some grilling, but otherwise I’m keeping things simple.

Recently, a few coworkers brought up a recipe I created for the Great Sustainable Seafood Recipe Contest back in 2024. I ended up winning the grand prize, which included a trip to Napa and a tour of St. Supéry Estate Vineyards & Winery and Dollarhide Ranch - an unforgettable experience. My entry was a Pistachio-Limon Pan-Seared Sablefish, paired with their Sauvignon Blanc. The buttery, delicate fish with the bright, crisp wine made for a pretty perfect combination, if I do say so myself.

Sablefish (also known as black cod) is considered a sustainable seafood choice for several reasons. Fisheries are carefully managed to prevent overfishing and keep populations healthy. Ongoing monitoring helps maintain stable numbers by adjusting catch limits as needed. Plus, the methods used to catch sablefish tend to have minimal impact on marine habitats. There you go - the more you know!

Ironically, I haven’t been able to track down the original recipe anywhere - not online, and not in my own collection either. So is it lost forever? Maybe. But the good news is, it was never complicated to begin with, and it’s easy to recreate.

• Start by making a simple pistachio–lemon pesto: blend lemon juice, lemon zest, fresh basil, olive oil, salt, and pistachios in a food processor until you have a bright, slightly textured sauce. Set that aside.
• In a skillet, melt some butter and sauté sliced shallots until softened. Add sliced tomatoes and cook for another minute or two, seasoning with salt and pepper. Toss in a handful of Castelvetrano olives for a briny pop.
• Pat your sablefish dry and season lightly with salt and pepper. In another pan, melt a generous amount of butter over medium-high heat and sear the fish on both sides until just cooked through- this only takes a few minutes per side thanks to its rich texture.
• Once the fish is done, remove it from the pan and deglaze with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a splash of Sauvignon Blanc, letting everything come together into a light, flavorful sauce.
• To serve, spoon the tomato–olive mixture onto a plate, place the sablefish on top, and drizzle with the pan sauce. Finish with a generous spoonful of the pistachio–lemon pesto over the fish.

I may not have the official written recipe anymore, but honestly, this version is better - you can adjust it, play with it, and make it your own.  Cheers!

Quick Easy Sourdough Sandwich Bread Recipe

It dawned on me the other day that I've never shared the sourdough sandwich bread recipe that I use.  I use this bread for everything from BLTs to PB&Js.  It's light, fluffy, buttery, and slightly sweet.  The boys like this bread better than the rustic bread I bake because it's not so crusty and toothsome.  The little guy especially appreciates this since he is still growing all of his teeth!

I could bake this bread in my sleep, and so can you.  If you're intimidated by sourdough bread baking, you could start with this recipe to build your confidence.

First off, you do need an active bubbly starter.  I fed mine twice and felt like it was strong enough to bake with. 

Then, into the bowl of a stand mixer add:

• 1/4 cup salted butter, melted
• 3/4 cup lukewarm milk
• 3/4 cup lukewarm water
• 100 grams starter
• 20 grams honey
• 8 grams sea salt
• 550 grams flour

I microwave the butter, milk, water in a measuring cup.  Make sure you drink some good coffee while making this bread.

Mix the dough using a dough hook on medium speed for about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic.  Cover and place in a warm area to bulk ferment until doubled in volume.  For me, this takes about 4 hours.  

Then I scoop out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and stretch into a large rectangle.  I fold in each long side into the middle, then roll up horizontally.  Place in a buttered loaf pan and allow to rise 2 hours in a warm area.

Bake 45 minutes at 375 degrees F.

Voila, you have beautiful freshly baked bread!  See how easy and not complicated that was?

Bagel Update

 

I ended up choosing the Sourdough Sesame Montreal Bagels as my bagel recipe and spent a cozy little Sunday baking.  My three-year-old loved them!  Overall, I thought the recipe itself was great and I didn't run into any real issues with it. 

That said, the bagels did turn out a bit dense - but that was on me.  I didn’t use my starter at its peak activity, which I’m pretty sure was the main culprit.  I also wonder if they could have benefited from a longer proof.  Looking back, I think I rushed the process more than I should have.  I’d definitely make these again, but next time I’d slow it down and give the dough more time.

 Here they are after shaping - this is the stage where I’d likely extend the proof next time.

Then into the bath of honey water!  They boil a minute or two before being placed back on the sheet tray and brushed with egg wash and sprinkled with seasoning.

I made my own "Everything" seasoning with black garlic, onion powder, celery seed, black sesame seed, and salt.  I loved the addition of black garlic and celery seed; celery seed/salt isn't used enough, in my opinion. My only complaint is the black sesame seeds went everywhere when my my three year old was eating these.  I am still finding them almost two weeks later.

After baking.  I went longer on the baking time to get a nice golden color.

All in all, they were pretty tasty. I wonder if once you make homemade bagels you never go back to store bought? 

We shall see.  What should my next sourdough project be?

Brooding Over Bagels

One of my co-workers enjoys baking and keeps me up to date on what desserts are popular on TikTok.  Examples: Vietnamese Coffee Swirl Brownies and Ina Garten's Brownie Pudding.  How fabulous is that?  When I'm in a baking rut she inspires me to branch out and make something I wouldn't normally attempt.  Most recently, she's inspired me to make bagels and I think I'm going to go for it this weekend - naturally leavened, of course.  It's too difficult to bake during the week with having little ones and working full-time.  Although, I did manage to bake two loaves of sourdough on Monday night after they proofed all day.  They didn't turn out as well as the last batch and I think it's because I didn't let the dough bulk ferment enough.  

Which brings me to my question: What's the best bagel you've EVER had?  Have you even had a really, really good bagel?  I feel like truly good bagels are few and far between.  The best bagels I've ever had were from St-Viateur Bagel shop in Montreal, Canada.  Montreal-style bagels are smaller, thinner, hand-rolled, wood-fired, and a little crunchier than New-York Style bagels.  When I was a flight attendant I would always stop by St-Viateur in the airport for a delicious sesame bagel with salted butter.  Those bagels made layovers in cold, snowy Montreal a little more tolerable.  Paired with a hot Tim Horton's coffee?  Get out of here. 

I had to dig through my Instagram to find a picture of a Montreal bagel I had and this was the best I could find from 2016.  I mean, we are sharing photos from 2016, right?  Apparently I had a smoked meat bagel this particular time.  Not the most enticing picture, I admit.  I swear, they're good!  Side note - why did I post a picture of every Bloody Mary I drank and why did I drink so many?  Oh my gosh, my sodium levels must have been through the roof.

Another good bagel spot - Black Seed Bagels in Manhattan.  This one had sprouts and beautiful watermelon radish.  

What's your go-to bagel recipe?  I'm thinking maybe I'll try one of these:

Sourdough Montreal Style Bagels

Montreal Style Bagel Recipe
Sourdough Sesame Montreal Bagels

Meal Planning 911

Nobody warns you that the hardest part of motherhood isn’t the sleepless nights or the mountains of laundry - it’s figuring out what everyone is going to eat every single day. And let me tell you, it gets extra fun when you have a meat-loving husband, a picky toddler, and a baby with seven teeth who basically survives on soft carbs.

My husband is a great cook and actually enjoys it, but he gets home later than I do. So weeknight dinners? Yeah… those are my problem to figure out. I usually walk through the door with both kids sometime after 5:30 (later if we run errands), and by 6:00 they are acting like they haven’t eaten all day. Which leaves me very little time to make dinner - especially when bedtime is 7:30/8:00 and baths have to start around 7:00.

So what’s a busy working mom supposed to do? Live off fast food? Honestly, sometimes yes. But that gets expensive, and it’s not exactly the picture of health.

A casserole I made recently that nobody liked. Truly humbling.

So here’s my question for you: what meals are you making for your family? Weeknights, weekends - I want to know it all. Even if it’s microwave mac ’n’ cheese and chicken nuggets. I am in desperate need of quick, easy, affordable meal inspiration. No judgment here, and shortcuts are absolutely welcome.

Here are some of the meals we have on rotation:

• Cobb or Caesar chicken salad (usually with avocado, bacon, egg)
• Turkey club sandwiches + chips & dip
• Burgers & fries
• Chicken & cheese quesadillas
• “Pizzadillas”
• BBQ nachos
• Lettuce wraps + egg rolls
• Breakfast for dinner
• Lasagna + garlic bread
• Broccoli cheese or tomato soup + grilled cheese
• Pot roast with veggies
• Stir fry + rice + egg rolls
• Chipotle-inspired bowls
• Shrimp scampi + rice
• Chick-fil-A-inspired sandwiches + fries
• Charcuterie night
• BLTs + chips
• Indian + rice + naan
• And on especially exhausted nights… chicken tenders or nuggets

Now imagine cooking any of this with a baby strapped to your hip and a toddler screaming for Cheez-Its and Danny Go. That’s the vibe.

Cold Oven Baking

Am I the last person to discover cold-oven baking? I only heard about it a few months ago, even though the method has apparently been around forever. The idea of putting my carefully crafted artisan loaf into a cold Dutch oven felt completely backwards and totally against everything I’ve learned about baking bread at home.

Cold-oven baking basically means placing your food into an unheated oven, turning it on, and letting the bake happen as the oven warms. It cuts out preheating time, can save a bit of energy, and actually works well for certain breads, cookies, and cakes that benefit from a longer, gentler bake. It can also protect your bakeware from being heated empty. King Arthur even has a great comparison of sourdough baked in a cold oven versus a preheated one.

In theory, I love the idea. It sounds so much simpler: no half-hour preheat, no wrestling a blazing-hot Dutch oven out of the oven just to drop dough inside.

So on Sunday I baked two sourdough loaves—one cold-oven, one hot-oven. For the cold-oven test, I loaded the dough into my Aldi bread dome, covered it, slid it into the oven, and set the temperature to 450°F. I baked it about 30–40 minutes covered, then uncovered it for roughly another 20 because I wanted a deep brown crust.

Well…I definitely got a deep brown crust on the bottom. Burnt is probably the more accurate word. We literally had to cut the bottom off. The loaf did rise well and looked pretty good otherwise. For whatever reason, though, I think our oven just bakes oddly—uneven and painfully slow to heat.

The second loaf went into the same bread dome, but this time preheated in a 450°F oven for 30 minutes. It baked 30 minutes covered plus 20 uncovered, rose even better than the cold-oven loaf, had great color, and didn’t scorch on the bottom.

Brown, but not torched

So for now, I think I’m sticking with the method I know works. Still, I’m happy with how much my sourdough has improved over the past year. Next year’s goals: improving my pizza dough and finally nailing a really good focaccia.

Napa Food Part Three

We spent the latter part of the trip in Sonoma since I was competing in the Francis Ford Coppola Perfect Your Pizza competition.  Spoiler... I won.  

We stayed in Healdsburg, which was such a cute town.  I could have spent a few days there exploring all of the shops and restaurants.  One of my favorite activities we did was renting bicycles from our hotel and cruising through the town on a bike path.  

We stumbled upon this sushi spot called Otoro and had a great meal.  The food and company were great, and the atmosphere was more chill and relaxing than some of the other restaurants we went to.  

I only took one picture, but we had the Jalapeno Bomb, which was fried jalapenos stuffed with spicy tuna & crab.  These were delicious and the texture on the jalapenos was really interesting (in a good way).  They must have been blanched and then lightly breaded and quickly fried.  We also had Galbi, a tempura veggie roll, and another roll that my husband ordered... I think it was a Fire Rainbow roll but I honestly don't remember.  I was hesitant to eat anything raw since I had the competition.  

The next night we dined at Studio Barn Diva in Healdsburg - a Michelin Recommended casual fine dining restaurant.  The vibe in here was interesting; I'll say that.  The menu puzzled me a bit because it seems kind of all over the place, but I think that's what they're going for.  

I had the Crispy Chicken with green chermoula, tahini, garlic dressing, and naan bread.  This was delicious.  I feel like the sauce could have been on the bottom, though.  I wanted more sauce to dip my chicken and bread in!

My husband had the Roasted Mt. Lassen Trout with soubise, shaved fennel & pea shoot salad.  He said it was his favorite dish he had on the trip.  I tried it and it was very good - I especially loved the soubise.  Raise your hand if you've never made soubise before!

On the evening after the competition, we celebrated and went to Lo & Behold; they're known for their global comfort food and cultivated cocktails.

I ordered the beef brisket tacos with chile negra, refried white beans, asada onions, and consommé - Let’s just say a beef brisket taco hates to see me coming.

My husband had the Pollo a la Brasa - blackened chicken thighs with aji sauce and fries. I think I actually preferred his dish over mine. Honestly, I could have eaten both meals that night since I didn’t eat much the day of the competition.

And that just about sums up our culinary adventures. It was a delicious journey through wine country!