And I'm Back!

Okay, it's only taken eight months, but I am finally back. My new baby is now six months old, and I am just getting back into the kitchen again. Of course, I've been cooking in those six months, but she and I are finally on a schedule that will allow me a little more time for playing in the kitchen. And, as she gets older and can amuse herself or play with her big sister, it should get even better.

Anyway, the new dynamic in our household means that I am looking for recipes that take as little time to cook as possible. I've become a more devoted devotee of Rachael Ray, I've been using recipes from Real Simple magazine, and looking for dishes that I can prep during the kids' nap times and cook quickly once they're awake.

For example, this week I cooked an oven-poached halibut Provençal. I found the recipe in Cooking Light magazine, and it was super. Even my picky three year old liked it -- now that's an endorsement!

Oven-Poached Halibut Provençale
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups chopped fennel bulb
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt, divided
4 cups diced tomato
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
1/3 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
6 (6-ounce) halibut fillets
1 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup dry breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons chopped pitted kalamata olives
1 teaspoon dried herbes de Provence
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
Fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs (optional)
Makes 6 servings

-- Preheat oven to 450°
-- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat
-- Add garlic and sauté 30 seconds
-- Add fennel, onion, and 1/2 teaspoon salt; sauté 8 minutes or until lightly browned
-- Stir in diced tomato and cook 2 minutes
-- Remove from heat and stir in fresh basil and fresh parsley.

-- Spoon half of tomato mixture into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish
-- Place fillets over tomato mixture
-- Pour wine into the dish and sprinkle fillets with 1/4 teaspoon salt
-- Spoon remaining tomato mixture over fillets
-- Bake at 450° for 15 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness.

-- Start the broiler
-- Combine the breadcrumbs, olives, herbes de Provence, 1 teaspoon oil, pepper, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small bowl.
--Sprinkle breadcrumb mixture over fillets
-- Broil 5 minutes or until lightly browned
-- Serve immediately. Garnish with parsley sprigs, if desired

I followed the recipe pretty much as Cooking Light published it. Next time, I might substitute matzo meal for breadcrumbs -- I find it to be a really good substitute if I don't have any breadcrumbs in the house. I normally have one or the other, and use them pretty much interchangeably. I also eliminated the parsley garnish as there was no way I could have gotten my daughter to eat it if she had seen it. I served it with red potatoes with butter and with asparagus drizzed with olive oil and salt. The whole meal was quick, yummy, and easy -- my kind of cooking these days!