Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

First off, I have to tell you something you may or may not already know.  I have a trouble-maker.  Yes; yes I do.  Do not let his cuteness factor fool you.  He is a bona fide trouble-maker.  He's either going to turn my hair gray, make me pull all my hair out, or possibly both.  We're talking about the Sprout here.

This shirt says it all. 

Now, you are probably wondering what this has to do with Parmesan tilapia, right?  Well I'll tell you.  Right when the dish was ready to come out of the oven, I walked over, camera in hand to take a picture as I was pulling it out.  And I discovered that someone had managed to turn the self-clean cycle of the oven on.  And that the door to the oven was locked.  And I couldn't get it unlocked.  And the fish was still in the oven.  I managed to cut the self-clean cycle off, but the oven door was still locked.  I had no idea you could even turn the self-clean cycle on while you were baking something.  Now I know.  Bad, bad design! 

So, yeah.  I had visions of much, much badness.  I even went to the garage and flipped the breaker for the oven to see if that would somehow reset it so the door would unlock.  Nope.  Luckily, the oven cooled off enough in a few minutes that it did actually unlock and I was able to rescue our dinner.  Sheesh.  That kid. 

The fish, despite the near disaster, received two thumbs up from my family.  The Munchkin ate half of his before asking for ketchup, then he finished it and ate half of another piece!  The Sprout ate his after we called it fish sticks (really?).  And D double-checked to make sure I had written down all my notes for the recipe, because he said he was going to request it often!

This was my first time to cook with tilapia from scratch.  And, um, I'm not 100% positive but it may have been my first time to cook with any fish from scratch.  I know, I know.  It was simple, delicious, easy, and inexpensive!  Tilapia was on sale this week, which was what prompted me to finally make the dish I'd been working on in my head.  I'm glad I did.  :)

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

1 lb tilapia fillets
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp Italian herb mix
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/8 tsp paprika

Preheat the oven to 400'F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a shallow dish or pie plate mix together the bread crumbs, cheese, and spices.  In a separate bowl or plate, drizzle the tilapia with the olive oil, coating well.  One piece at a time, place the tilapia in the bread crumb mixture, turning to coat.  Place on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes or until done (it will be white all the way through). 

Enjoy!  :)

Butter Junkie

I have a confession.  I love butter.  Since I also love to bake, I try to keep a hefty supply of butter on hand at all times.  However, over the last few days, I managed to run out of butter!  I was ready to declare a state of emergency.  Well, ok, technically I had half a stick left, but that's just not nearly enough.

When D sent me a text earlier this evening that he was about to head home, I asked if he would be willing to stop and pick up some butter.  Yes, I asked him to go to the store just for butter.  I wanted to make biscuits to go with supper!  Anyway, here is the text conversation that followed.  It amused me.

Me:  I don't supposed you'd want to stop & get me some butter, would you?

Him:  I could.  What type?

Me:  Unsalted sweet cream.  Land o lakes or challenge brand.

Him:  Ok.  How much?

Me:  2-3 lbs.

Me:  Just please make sure it's UNsalted.  :-)

Him:  Holy $#%@

Me:  What??

Him:  That's a lot of butter.

Me:  I can't function without a stash of butter.

Him:  Lol.  Butter junkie?

Me:  Duh.

Apparently I'm a butter junkie, and apparently my husband just figured this out...

Homeschool, Birthdays, and Cookies

No, this  is not some sort of weird April Fool's Day joke.  You really are viewing an actual blog post from me!  :)

I mentioned before that we've had a lot of changes hit recently, and that we are homeschooling our 9 year old Munchkin.  We've been on that adventure for a little over a month and it is going quite well!  It is definitely a work in progress and we are certainly learning as we go, but for the most part we are all enjoying it.

During the last month, the Sprout turned 3.  Three years old!!  Can you believe it?  We had his party at home, a Toy Story 3 theme of course. 

I had all these grand Martha Stewart-ish plans, but forgot that I'm me, and ran out of time to get them all done.  However, I did get some "3" cookies made and decorated and was pretty proud of myself.  It was something new for me -- I'd never decorated cookies like that before.  I'd always wanted to, I just never had!  They may not look perfect, but at least you can tell what they are supposed to be.  ;)

The Munchkin even got in on the act.  He should have been in bed asleep, but after I discovered him standing there asking if he could help decorate them, how could I turn him down?  (this photo was taken with the ipod; it was the closest camera I could find!)

I used the cookie and royal icing recipes from Bridget of Bake at 350.  She's got some absolutely amazing cookies on her blog if you haven't checked them out. 

We'll be celebrating Squirt's first birthday later this month, and I'm still trying to figure out what theme we'll do for his party. 

I've missed blogging, and even though I haven't been around much lately, I do promise that I'm not going anywhere.  As soon as we get more of a routine figured out, so I can get in some regularly scheduled baking and writing time, I hope to be back more often!  And that's no joke.  :)