A Recipe from My Kitchen

The parents are out car shopping, as the BMW looks as if it has finally croaked. (At 210,000 miles, no less.) Which left the problem of dinner, as they went out at 3 PM, and aren't coming home until later tonight.

Tonight was the first time that I actually cooked a meal by myself, without my mom. (TV dinners don't count.) My mom suggested defrosting and a piece of the frozen tilapia (a white fish) that we have in the freezer in our garage. I also found some baby spinach in the fridge, and sauteed it in a pan. (Also out of my mom's playbook.)

What follows is an account of what happened over the past hour.

---

Get Dinner!
A recipe set from Matthew

Begin by placing one frozen filet in tilapia in a bowl of water in the sink. By the time it is needed, it will be completely thawed.

Over-Sauteed Spinach

Ingredients:
3 Handfulls of Baby Spinach
1 Clove Garlic
Salt and Pepper
1 Lemon
Extra Vergin Olive Oil

Place a large skillet over low-medium heat. Drizzle in extra vergin olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Chop the garlic into large pieces, and toss into pan. When the garlic starts to brown on the edges, remove it from the pan. Add three handfulls of baby spinach, but hesitate on the last one, such that it goes in when the rest of the spinach is already moderately cooked. Sprinkle with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Allow the spinach to overcook, so that it becomes one mass that is leaking liquid. Slice the lemon into two pieces, and squeeze one half over the spinach. Reserve that half to be used later; the other half can be returned to the fridge. Remove the spinach from the pan, place on a plastic plate, and cover with foil.


Tilapia. Yes, that's a fish.

Ingredients:
1 Filet of Tilapia
Salt and Pepper
Sage
Extra Vergin Olive Oil

Wipe down the pan that you used for the spinach to remove most of the extra lemon juice, oil, and spinach juice. Add a few more tablespoons of extra vergin olive oil to pan. Sprinkle both sides of the fish with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Try to shake sage out of container until you can actually see a little bit on the fish. Add fish to pan, and squeeze more lemon juice on it. Cook 3 minutes on each side, or until fear of burning the fish overcomes fear of undercooking the fish. Try to flip using two spatulas, one below the fish, and the other trying to hold it on from above. Remove from pan using same method, and clumsily move to plate.

Recipe notes: You will not be able to taste the garlic in the spinach or the sage on the fish. This is completely irrelevant.