Talapia and Greens Pan Steamed

•4 pieces of Talapia

•Greens to fill half of large fry pan

(Your favorite dark greens: mustard,

spinach, swiss chard, collards, ect.)

•1 tomato

•1/3 cup of white wine

•2 talblespoons balsamic vinegar

•2-3 leaves of fresh basil

•1 teaspoon of olive oil

•squeeze of lemon juice

This is a Very quick recipe. It is also very healthy and extremely low in fat. The olive oil is optional, if you want to stay Low fat.

Wash and rinse greens, fill 2/3 of a large skillet with greens. We sometimes mix various greens from the garden. This adds interesting variations to the texture and flavor. Spread talapia fillets on top of the greens (fresh or frozen).

Dice tomato and sprinkle atop fish and greens. Pour wine over all of this and add remaining ingredients.

Cover and cook at medium to high heat till the greens drop. Use a spatula to lift each piece of fish with greens and tomato out of pan to dish. Salt or pepper to taste.

Serve with a slice or two of your favorite breadmaker white bread recipe and a glass of Portugese Vinho Verde or German Reisling Kabinett.

Talapia is a fresh water fish and has the very mild flavor of say, catfish. As a child we most ly breaded and pan fried our lake fish in oil. This recipe has that fresh fish flavor without the heavy oil and breading. The steamed greens/tomato adds a great new dimension to the fish flavor. I've never had an issue with bones from the Talapia fillets I've purchased. Enjoy.

Last Mango in Paris...a recipe in sweet.

I want to share a Great, but simple recipe that a good friend gave me.



Buy a ripe mango

Barcardi’s frozen Pina Colada Mix (can)

small amount of berries (black, blue, rasp)



Peel the mango and slice it anyway you like. Arrange mango slices on small dishes. Spoon a tablespoon of pina colada mix onto each dish. Garnish with a few berries and maybe a sprig of mint. Viola! This is a simple but tasty palate cleansing dessert after a heavy meal. Refreshing in hot seasons. One average mango seems to serve 2-4 depending on serving size. I like it to be not too large a serving, so it works for four in our house.

Freezing basil for when it's freezing.

As I tink away at the keyboard I can smell the aroma of pasta sauce simmering for a few hours now. It’s January so the fresh ingredients are not always readily available. Lori and I usually try to have a basil plant growing in the house. This winter that didn’t happen, not yet anyway. And probably won’t since we have a trip planned to the “land of pasta, wine and tomatoes” (Italy) in less than three weeks. Not a good time to start a new plant.

Two years ago, I had mucho sweet basil plants in my garden and in planters. We love fresh herbs. I wanted to see if I could find a way to harvest and save the basil for future use. Internet searches brought a different results. I didn’t want a dried method. There seemed a schism on two methods of freezing. Put leaves in water and freeze or put them in olive oil. Some sites said olive oil would turn rancid. There were a lot of sites that swore by the oil method of freezing. I decided to try both.

Here’s what I did. I chopped the leaves in an electric chopper. You could use a mixer, cuisinart or whatever is handy for you. I put half the mixture in a water base, the other half in an olive oil base. We then put the mixtures in small muffin tins and ice cube trays. This gave us different size frozen basil globs. The basil easily popped right out of the tins and trays. Next I wrapped each green basil bunch in saran wrap. The saran wrapped groups were then put in two large freezer bags to distinguish the water from the oil version.

I have tried both versions and find no remarkable difference between the two. But the fruits of our toils are handy and marvelous, even two years later. Especially on a 20 degree New England day.