Thursday, July 23, 2015

The Old Ballgame: V + T's First Giants Game!

A couple Saturdays ago we escaped the hot, crappy heat of our town and headed to the breezy, beautiful city by the bay for some wandering and Tony and Van's first Giants game!

We planted ourselves in the Haight for a few hours to walk among the hippie stores, make a stop at Amoeba Records and grab a snack.


Van and his homies
He recognized so much album art it was hilarious - "look, it's Tom Petty! I see Led Zeppelin! Look at all these Beatles ones!" Cracked me up.

  

After a yummy pizza lunch we headed to the park. Van was so excited because he could immediately recognize the signs and McCovey Cove from watching games on TV. 


Tony bought him a foam finger at the entrance, and since we were among the first 20,000 people through the gate, we also scored a cool SF GIANTS black and orange license plate. Woop! 

We treked up to our crappy seats (OMG we were sooooo high up), got V some popcorn and watched the Giants work the Phillies 5-8. It was a really great first game to attend.




Van hung in there for all nine innings! What a champ! We can't wait to go back. We're so lucky to root for such a badass team in the most beautiful park in the country in such an awesome city. Go Giants. We love you forever.
 

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Tacos Forever - Grilled Tilapia Tacos with Lemony Cabbage and Cilantro Pesto



Some days Van crawls into my spot in our bed and says, "Hi I'm Mama. I like The Band. I eat tacos and drink iced tea." He's pretty spot on. That's me in a nutshell. Classic rock + tacos.



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To make 8 of these delicious fish tacos, you'll need:

tacos:
3 tilapia filets
salt/pepper
smoked paprika
garlic powder
purple cabbage
lemon
8 corn tortillas
veg oil

cilantro pesto:
one bunch cilantro (about one cup packed real good)
3/4 cup sliced almonds
5+ garlic cloves
1 cup hard, peppery cheese (I use a dry, aged peppercorn jack but have used other cheeses in the past - I think many will work here, as long as they are hard)
olive oil
salt

Directions:
Heat your grill.

Finely, finely chop your cabbage. Add a good sprinkling of salt and a hearty squeeze of lemon. Let it hang out until it's time to assemble your tacos. The cabbage will get a bit softer and juicier and all around better.


For the pesto, throw everything except for the oil into your food processer. Make sure you help your processer out by grating or slicing your cheese before putting it in to blend. Pulse your ingredients while adding olive oil until you've reached a good pesto-y consistency. When your done, you should have about 10 ounces of pesto. Woop!



Sprinkle your tilapia with salt/pepper, garlic powder and smoked paprika on both sides. Cook on greased grill for a few minutes per side until done. You can also do this in a pan. Basically...you know...just cook your fish.



Brush your corn tortillas with oil and heat them on your grill for a couple minutes.

Fill warm tortillas with cabbage and tilapia, top with pesto. Go to town.



Sorry about these iPhone photos. I wish I had busted out my good camera. They're probably way better tasting than these pictures would lead you to believe.

Oh! And that pesto is literally good on anything. You'll have hella leftover. Freeze it in ice cube trays for later. Spread it on bread for sandwiches, top your tri tip with it, make little shrimp crostini with it, spoon it into your mouth from the jar....it's quite versatile.