An Eighty Dinner

Confession: Since Jeremy came into my life and my kitchen, he does a LOT of the cooking. And I end up doing more dishes. I hate doing dishes. A couple of roommates ago, my roommate M and I created the perfect arrangement -- I would leave my dishes in the sink and she would load the dishwasher. She hated unloading the dishwasher, so that became my job. Perfectly balanced! Her fiance at the time (now husband) could not figure it out and warned us that it would never be that symbiotic again. In some ways that's true; I have more dishes to do now. In other ways, a new balance has been created: Jeremy cooks great food a lot!

We like to collaborate in the kitchen, but he really does take the lead there for cooking (especially when I've had a long day). Roles flipped the other week though and he was the one who had a long day -- so I made dinner. All by myself! Baking is my wheelhouse, but cooking? Let's just say when someone holds out a spoon with a taste and asks the question, "What do you think this needs?" you get wide-eyed paralysis on my part. I HAVE NO IDEA. Spices?

But, casting that fear aside, I danced my fingers over to the Eat Eighty Twenty blog. I can't remember when I discovered it -- it was in its early stages a couple of years ago -- and since then the recipe lists have grown even more and provided me with some solid dinner ideas. I especially like the thinking behind it -- 80% healthy, 20% indulgence. I can do that. After scoping out some recipes and determining what I was in the mood for (a process that takes longer than cooking the dinner itself), I landed on these two: A pistachio encrusted mahi-mahi and an arugula and pear salad.

See? I'm getting better at documenting while cooking! Although, I'm a little superstitious that if I am photographing AS I am cooking, the meal I am cooking is guaranteed not to turn out. (Although you'd think that all the food bloggers out there would make me realize my fear is totally irrational. Not yet.)  

Shelling pistachios is the pits! (See what I did there?) Actually, it's fine. I put on some music and it was done in a jiff. I used two filets instead of four, and gluten-free breadcrumbs (they exist!). I did venture out of my militant-baker mindset and added some salt, pepper, and other spices that weren't in the recipe. I'd probably add more next time, or maybe flavored breadcrumbs. I also ended up cooking the fish a little longer -- closer to what the fish market guy suggested at Whole Foods.

I also made the salad. I'm a huge fan of arugula and this was easy. Luckily, I had pinenuts in my fridge. They're like eating gold. Because they are so expensive. But I think they're great additions to salads.

I wanted some more greens, and I knew that one piece of fish and a salad wouldn't be enough so I added some potato wedges and green beans. I'm a big fan of "stick the whole bag in the microwave" technique. Yeah, I may pay a little extra, but I save with the ease of it. I was able to pull the meal together relatively quickly. Considering Jeremy stayed at work late and I did this one solo (what? you mean I have to taste and answer the "What does this need?" question on my own?!), I was pretty proud of this moment: 

 TA DA!