Weekend in Review

John and I had a great weekend. The weather was beautiful, so we spent most of our Saturday afternoon at the lakes eating lunch, and watching people play with their dogs. The cutest part was when this ENORMOUS great dane decided to engage in a game of chase with a black labrador, who was dwarfed by the great dane's stature. Scratch that...the cutest part was when John and I went for a walk around the lakes, and a little dachshund puppy ran up to me and begged for tummy rubs!

Sunday, we went to John's grandmother's house. His aunt and uncle were there, as well as his second cousin and his wife--all the way from Arkansas. It was really good to see everyone, and most of all, to enjoy a grandmother cooked meal (ham baked with pineapple rings, eggplant AND apple stuffing, asparagus spears, garlic bread, rum cake, mm mm mm!).

Speaking of food (when am I not?), I've been continuing my cooking experiments with squash. We bought a gigantic butternut squash. I split it in half, and brushed both halves with butter. On one of the halves, I also sprinkled thyme, sage, and salt. I have to say that the savory side was my favorite, though I think I will be cubing it and tossing it with the butter/sage/thyme/salt mixture next time.

Also, I made baked "fried" fish for the second time. The recipe is from my Cooking Light cookbook, and is surprisingly satisfying and good. After I made it for the first time a few weeks ago, I found myself craving it again. I thought I'd post the recipe in case anyone else wanted to try it out!

Crisp-Crusted Catfish (From Cooking Light Weeknight)
2 tablespoons light ranch dressing
2 large egg whites
6 tablespoons yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup (1 oz.) grated fresh Parmesan cheese (I find that higher quality parmesan really makes a difference)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 (6-ounce) farm-raised catfish fillets (I used tilapia, and I'm sure whatever other flaky white fish you have on hand would work too)
Cooking Spray
Lemon wedges

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Combine dressing and egg whites in a small bowl, and stir well with a whisk. Combine cornmeal and next 4 ingredients in a shallow dish (I added different herbs to the cornmeal mixture, I'm sure you could be creative here). Dip fillets in egg white mixture; dredge in cornmeal mixture.
3. Place fillets on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray; bake at 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes on each side or until lightly browned and fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Serve with lemon wedges.

I served it with coucous tossed with cubed cucumber, halved grape tomatoes, chopped dill, lemon juice, and feta, but I'm sure it would be good with a multitude of things.