Fishy Results

Steps involved in gutting a fish.



1. Watch video on youtube about topic.

2. Try really hard not to throw up.

3. Remove fish from refrigerator.

4. Try hard not to think to hard about the video.

5. Take a deep breath.

6. Try not to throw up.

7. Lay fish across a plastic bag so as not to have grossness on the kitchen counter.

8. Insert hand into a smaller plastic bag so as not to have to touch any grossness.

9. Select knife.

10. Turn fish over and prepare to cut.

11. Breathe a huge sigh of relief upon realizing Mr. Fishy has already been gutted.

12. Laugh hysterically at self for stressing out about this for the last two days.

13. Place Mr. Fishy in a baggy and back into refrigerator until time to prepare dinner.

14. Resume laughing at self.


Mr. Fishy did get cooked, and eaten. However, despite having already had the yuckiest part done for me, I was stressed the entire time I prepared dinner. I guess having him in his "whole" form was just too much for me. However, I pushed through and it was tasty!

Anyway, lessons learned here are:

I'm more of a filet kind of girl!
My kids actually will eat fish! Woot!
I do not wish to cook anything that still looks like an animal. Ick.
I actually hate wasting food enough to push through and do it anyway.
A one pound fish doesn't yield very much actual fish. Should have bought 2.

Not doing this again, but it was an interesting experience.

Me Vs. Fish

Awhile back I decided to try out a local fish market that claims to specialize in Fresh Fish. Not coincidentally, this was at the same time that I wanted to try a recipe for Ahi Tuna but did not really trust the fish departments at any of the grocery stores we frequent. Anyway, got the tuna, and looked over their list of fresh items for the day. On that list was whole yellow snapper and it was a really good price so I got one. They were even nice enough to descale the thing for me. So I brought home my whole fish and stuck it in the freezer. This probably negates the whole "fresh" idea, but that night Ahi was on the menu.

Since then, Mr. Fishy has taunted me every time I've opened the freezer. "You'll never cook me. You are scared of me because I still have my head on my body. You'll never do it! Hahahahaha!!" He's pretty mouthy for a dead fish.

Yesterday, I took Mr. Fishy out of the freezer and put him into the fridge. I found a recipe and stopped cold when I read the part about "gutting" the fish. This whole time I've been worried about the head and never even thought about the.. ahem... insides. Ewwww. WHY did I buy that fish? Oh yea, fresh... and inexpensive. Darn.

Would you believe that even after chilling out in the fridge all day (with occasional "you'll never eat me, you are too squeamish lady!") Mr Fishy was still frozen mostly solid. So, I put off the unpleasant task of beheading and de-gutting until today. I just checked and Mr. Fishy is thaw, and in the interest of not letting him spoil, I plan to cook him today. I even have a recipe picked out.

I'm not looking forward to this you all. I have a backup plan for pork chops on the grill just in case I chicken out.

I'm putting up a poll to see who you think will win in this woman vs. fish drama. Be sure to vote!!

Ben Loved the Cake Too

Ben's birthday cake was a bit of a fiasco. And not in the cute one year old dive into the cake with gusto sort of way. I had put these sprinkles on the cake. Cute little star sprinkles. He even had his own small cake to destroy and make a huge mess with. I have no doubt that he would have loved it. Except, those star sprinkles... he choked a little on one and wanted nothing to do with the cake after that. In fact he just cried. So we were done with the cake festivities. He made up for it with Zack's cake.

Yum!


Mom, this is SO good!


And then when his was all gone, he went to check out the brother's leftovers.


Everyone else enjoyed the cake too, but no one was as enthusiastic (or messy) as Ben.