Pan Grilled Tilapia and Roasted Veggies

Two posts in one day, and this post is a food post - considering I haven't posted about food on here for about two years makes this kind of a big deal... to no one in particular except me.

I still use my blog as a personal recipe book and often search and bake stuff from here. It's been quite convenient and this is a recipe I want to keep and make again, hence the pause in my posting hiatus.

The meal is pretty simple, quick and cheap which basically sums up my cooking endeavors since we moved here and I have no time to cook anymore. In an attempt to eat healthier I bought a bag of frozen tilapia at Costco and have loved adding it to our rotation of meals.

Pan Grilled Tilapia and Roasted Veggies

For the Tilapia

• 1-2 tilapia fillets, thawed if previously frozen
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• onion power to taste
• garlic powder to taste
• Ferry Building Spice Blend to taste (or any variety seasoning that has dill, dried shallot, lemon peel and celery seed) 
• side note, before I had this blend I would just use chili powder instead and it was great too, but I prefer this now.

For the Veggies

• handful of small fingerling potatoes, cut in half
• 3 cloves minces garlic
• handful of asparagus
• 3 TBS butter, melted
• 2 tsp olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to broil.
2. Place the potatoes and garlic on a foil lined cookie sheet, cover with butter, salt and pepper and stir to coat. Cook for 10- 15 minutes or until golden brown.
3. Cover the fish with the spices and rub it to coat. Let sit for several minutes while potatoes cook. Spray a grill pan with non-stick cooking spray. Once the potatoes have cooked for 10-15 minutes, turn the grill pan heat to medium and let it heat up while you prep the asparagus.
4. Once the potatoes have cooked for 10-15 minutes and are golden brown, add the asparagus to the cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil and salt, and cook for 5 additional minutes.
5. As soon as you put the asparagus in the oven, place the fish on the grill pan and turn heat to medium-high. Let cook on each side for 2-3 minutes. The fish should be opaque all the way through when done.

Hog Island Oyster Company

Last year for Andrew's birthday I planned a day trip to Hog Island for oysters. Andrew loved it so much that he requested we make it a tradition so to celebrate his 28th year of life, we journeyed back to this beautiful cove to stuff ourselves full of shell fish.

Hog Island is a bit tricky to navigate, since their set up is a bit confusing. You basically have to reserve a picnic table months in advance in order to get a bay-side view and shuck-your-own oyster service. With this route you can also BBQ, but we forego that option and choose to do a high class picnic assortment instead and have the oysters be the main event.

This is Andrew shucking our meal. I am not a huge oyster fan in general, since the texture kind of weirds me out. but when they're fresh like this (2 years old, harvested that morning, and still alive while you eat them), they are soft and delicious. I ate six by myself even though the whole drive there I swore to Andrew I was going to eat two max, because I just wasn't in the mood that day.

Here's the birthday boy!

Our spread. 12 raw oyster (that we dress in Hog Wash, lemon and Tabasco before eating), 4 BBQ oysters which were divine, Mt. Tam cheese, prosciutto, raspberries and french bread. Not pictured is my Magleby's chocolate cake that Andrew requests for his birthday cake each year.)

And Stanley and I were there too.

Then afterwards we went to Stinson Beach for a nice walk since I've been wanting to go here since we moved to SF, and we like to bask in the fact that we live in California and can go to the beach year round (in jackets and scarves, but that is a minor detail.)

Plus there is nothing happier than a dog at the beach.