On Saturday we had planned on trying to get out of the house, but when it came right down to it, we didn't feel like going anywhere, so I ran over to the store to get a few things and was trying to think of a nice dinner that would be reasonably priced. I remembered that I had a recipe I had torn out of my mom's Good Housekeeping magazine that she left when my parents stopped on their way to Florida. It was a recipe for couscous encrusted salmon. I felt like trying it out on halibut instead, since we have had salmon a few times recently.
I grabbed 2 nice fillets of halibut for $4.80, 2 small packs of portabella mushrooms for $5, and a nice big fresh baked roll for 60 cents. I already had the couscous and the pesto.
I fried up the 'shrooms in a little olive oil, parsley, seasoned salt and garlic powder. I wrapped the roll in aluminum foil and put it in the oven while the fish cooked.
And with the fish:
Preheat oven to 450
Heat 1 cup water in 1-qt saucepan to boiling on high. Remove from heat, stir in 3/4 c. couscous, 1/4 c. refrigerated pesto, 1/4 tsp red wine vinegar and 1/8 tsp pepper. Cover, let stand 5 min.
Place 4 fillets (it called for 4, I only had 2, so I just had leftover couscous) ~6 oz each on foil-lined cookie sheet. Season with 1/4 tsp salt.
Mound 1/2 c. couscous mixture on top of each fillet, pressing into even layer.
Bake in upper third of oven 12 to 15 min. or until fish is flaky.
Serves 4.
*As I was watching it cook, I was concerned it might be a little dry, so in the last maybe 8 minutes, I added 1/2 can of diced tomatoes and it was a nice bit of juiciness in the end.
It was scrumptous!!
We are off to Melbourne tonight. We get to see our great friends that live down there and we CANNOT wait! I thought I’d post this amazing pizza that we have been making before we head out. It has pear, Gorgonzola cheese and pine nuts. Matt scoffed at it initially, saying it sounded gross. After eating it, he swore that it was the best pizza I had ever made!
Ingredients for Dough:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
Combine flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in a large bowl. Mix in oil and warm water. Spread out on a large pizza pan.
This crust part of the recipe is not mine, found it here. Make sure you roll it out and use it pronto. We did the dough portion of the recipe the night before and when we cooked it, it expanded a LOT. It was still delish, but made our pan quite messy and a little more bready than we like.
Once you have the crust ready and rolled out, add a cheese sauce. I used store-bought béchamel sauce. I’ll try making my own once we get back home and I give it a try. Not enough dishes in this apartment to bother trying. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over sauce.
Cut up pears into thin slices, and layer over the cheese
Sprinkle a good amount of pine nuts over the pears and then add the gorgonzola cheese over the top of it all. I would prefer crumbled gorgy, but I could only find a chunk, so we just made due – squishing it, cutting it up etc.
Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes. (until brown)
Enjoy! We could both eat a whole one we like it so much!
