mmm-yoso!!! is the food blog, written by a few friends who like to eat. Continue reading.
Hi. Cathy here. It is Friday and I usually show you a meal for two for $5…but tomorrow is Valentine's Day and maybe you want to spend a little more and maybe have dessert. I am here to accommodate.
The Mister and I are strange. It does not take much to amuse either of us. We used to have this game we played…(continue reading, it is not dirty and is food related: I am focused).."pretend there was an earthquake". We still play it, actually.
The rules are simple: We each would have to run into the house, pull at most three cans out of a cupboard and maybe something from the fridge and run back out and make a meal.
Something that can be cooked on a stovetop or gas grill(all that might be available if we really did have an earthquake).
So anyhow, that is how these two recipes came about-I have made both of these "recipes", so I know they are good.
I do tend to buy stuff if I kow I like it and it is on sale. rarely do I have to go out and pay ful price for something because I don't have it in the house. So, this meal still is not expensive overall.
Part One: The ingredients are fresh mushrooms, a can of artichoke hearts and a can of garbanzo beans. The fish (cod) is on sale at Henry's this week for $5.99/lb. You should not need half a pound of fish per person.
Put olive oil into a HOT pan, then put a pat of salted butter into the oil.
Quarter the mushrooms and cook them in the olive oil/butter hot pan.
Add the drained, quartered artichoke hearts to heat through,
as well as the drained chickpeas.
Since there is salt added to the water, and I use oil and salted butter, I do not add any more seasonings. This all is a medley of textures.
Now, salt and pepper both sides of the cod.
A whole pound is a lot of fish.
Place into hot olive oil and resist the urge to flip the fillet.
Let it cook until kind of crispy brown on one side (about 4 long minutes- you can see the bottom part start to turn brown.
The flip, cook for about 2 minutes more (until the other side is crispy.
Serve the fillets on top of the vegetable mix.
Time to get three more ingredients!
Part Two: Jasmine green tea, crystallized ginger and pears.
Make a pot of strong tea.
I use about 3 Cups of water and 5 teabags. I let it brew and cool with the bags in the pot. Then I reheat, with some pieces of the ginger in the tea. There is sugar on the ginger and that is enough sweetness for me. 
Halve the pears, core and peel-or don't peel- and slowly submerge the pear halves into the lightly boiling tea until the pears are very soft when you pierce with a knife.
Let cool a bit and serve, drained, with plain (butter) cookies. If you leave the pears in the tea longer, the flavor is deeper. The skins absorb most of the tannins and I like that flavor more. That is why I leave the skins on for my serving.
I cool the jasmine green tea with the ginger in it and drink it iced.
I hope everyone is feeling healthy and has a nice three day weekend. Thanks for reading this little bit of my life and recipe 'secrets'. I hope you have/had a nice Valentine's Day.