Bacon Wrapped Tilapia with Grilled Corn

By Perry Washburn

Sunday, snoozy, not looking for much effort. Pulled some Tilapia out of the freezer, thinking of frying it. I am heading toward minimum effort.

Carolyn walks through and says "let's grill." Yikes. Me with no mojo, and Tilapia is not the best grilling fish. But, hey, I am game, and it's nice outside. So here is what I had in my fridge....good and easy. And I remembered I had 8 ears of corn leftover (still in husks) from Friday.

8 ears of fresh corn
Butter
Salt
Foil

4 Tilapia fillets
5 spice powder
8 slices of bacon
2 Tbs of sour cream
2 Tbs Salsa Verde
2 Tbs green onion diced fine
2 Tbs fresh Cilantro

I peeled the husks back on the corn and pulled off the silks. I squirted each ear with a little butter and salt, replaced the husks, and wrapped each in foil. I put those on the grill, turning frequently, for 20-25 minutes, until I could smell the husks steaming.

While those were grilling, I  sprinkled 5 spice powde (a Chinese staple) on the filets. Then I wrapped each filet with two strips of bacon, barber-pole-stripe style, so the bacon was touching. I tucked the ends of the bacon back under the next wrap, so I ended up the entire fish covered. This solved my worries about the fish flaking when turning, because it was totally encased in bacon.

When the corn was done, I pulled them to let them cool a bit, and put the fish on the grill. They took 4-5 minutes a side on a fairly slow grill, turning when the bacon was getting crispy.

While the fish was grilling, I whipped up a topping with the sour cream, Salsa Verde, onion and cilantro, saving 4 pinches of cilantro back to sprikle on top.

We were eating outside, so I pulled the hot fish off the grill onto plates, topped with a dollop of sauce and a sprinkle of cilantro, aside a steaming ear of grilled corn still in the husk.

Fresh, fun, good and fast!

Baked Pita Chips

By Kathryn Washburn Breighner

A friend left me with a large bag of pita bread so I decided to do something different with them: baked pita chips. I have tried the store bought ones and love them although they are a bit pricey--worth it, though.  These took about 15 minutes start to finish.

Cut pita bread into 8 pie shaped pieces. Place them on a baking sheet. One baking sheet will hold about 16 pita pieces.  For this recipe, I used 2 large pita bread loaves to make 16 pita chips.

In a small bowl, mix together:

1/4 c olive oil
salt and pepper
dash of cayenne
1/4 t thyme

With a pastry brush, brush the oil mixture on the pita pieces. Bake at 400 degrees F for 8-10 minutes or until the tops are browned.  Store in an airtight container--if there are any left to store!

Lemon Sorbet

By Kathryn Washburn Breighner


Wow. What a spectacular dessert. I had a taste in my mouth for lemon sorbet and I had not made this before. I picked up 4 lemons on the way home and juiced them. This gave me 1 1/4 c of lemon juice so to that I added equal parts of water and sugar.

I brought to a simmer:
1 1/4 c sugar
1 1/4 c water

While it was coming to a boil, I juiced the lemons and cut off 4 one-inch pieces of lemon zest and then zested another 1 1/4 T.  I added the one inch pieces of zest to the water/sugar mix as it was warming up. Note the proportions: 1 1/4 c water, juice, sugar and 1 1/4 T lemon zest. So if you have more or less juice, match it with these proportions.

I chilled the water/sugar/zest pieces mixture and also the freshly squeezed juice and zest. Once they were chilled, I blended them together, removing the 1" pieces, and put it into an ice cream machine. 20 minutes later, I had a thick sorbet which I put into a container and then into the freezer.

The flavor in this sorbet: spectacular! And easy, too.....

I chilled both the squeezed juice mixed with the zest.