Something Fishy - Fish with Chorizo Tomato Sauce and Smoked Paprika

Did you miss me? Sorry I've been really busy tearing up the t-ball field lately and to be honest, Mom hasn't really made anything worth writing home about. (Worth writing Grandma about is a different story).

The other night mom made this. I'm not sure exactly what is going on here, but I could tell just by looking at it that something wasn't right. Mom admitted she used the wrong fish since our grocery store was out of the right kind. I never really pay attention at the fish counter because in the back they have this swimming pool full of lobsters and sometimes they take one out for me to look at. The lobsters do NOT like that. But we never get to bring one home, even after I promised Mom that I would feed it and look after it and let it live in our bathtub.

I think Mom has finally picked up on my signals though because she gave me this nice piece of bread which I ate no handed!

And the watermelon on the table is what really got me to come sit down at all. So I had a delicious dinner of watermelon and bread. I think this was Mom's plan all along. She's so smart.

Yeah the girl is still living with us. But she didn't eat this either so don't ask.

If you want to try to make this click here for the link. I would recommend using the correct fish though. Maybe Mom should try again. I'm sure I'd eat it next time. Unless I don't want to. As it, it was NOT Pete approved.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Oh man, Mom's march to cozy comfort food continues. Hey, I'm all for comfort food. Ever heard of mac-n-cheese? That's comfort food. But for some reason, it keeps getting left off the menu, unless Daddy is out of town and then we get mac-n-cheese and Mommy's dinner comes in a glass with a long stem.

So I was super skeptical when Mom stuffed dinner into a squash. I did enjoy scraping out the seeds of this one. But when it was done, hmmm.... this looks interesting. And that means ultimately that I am NOT going to be eating it. I know I know I say I'm going to try it, but well, I don't know what any of this stuff is.

Even when mom took it out of the squash and just gave me the sausage and apple part. With a roll. I ate some of the roll and declared myself full.

The girl tried it. Mom called her brave and said she did a good job. That's laying it on a little thick mom. I wasn't scared of it, I just didn't want to try any of it because I was afraid it would kill me. Totally different thing.

Mom says the good thing about it is if you leave out the bread crumbs and cheese it becomes "Whole30" approved? Whatever, it's Whole Pete not approved.

Anyway, this is not Pete approved, which I guess is unfair since I didn't even try it. But honestly, it's too scary to contemplate trying.

If you want to make it, you can try it here: there's a fun video to watch of the food being made. And that's nice because any opportunity to watch TV that doesn't cost me a TV ticket is much appreciated.

Loaded Baked Potato Keesh

When is enough, enough? Probably when your mom keeps making keesh even though you don't eat it (see here and here). This time, my Mimi was in town and I thought we'd be safe with her because she makes excellent dinner choices evidenced by her bringing me a gift of matchbox cars and M&M's (this lady just gets me).

But no, mom made a keesh again. This time she said it was a "Loaded Baked Potato" keesh. I'm not sure why that makes it better since I'm certain I wouldn't like a baked potato anyway, although it is funny to listen to Mimi say "bodado".

 As you can see above, it also involved ham being inside. Mom put out some extra bacon bits for everyone to put on top, but I'm pretty sure those were just meant for me. At least after I ate them all no one seemed too upset that they were all gone, except maybe Daddy, but that guy eats just about everything so he'll probably get over it.

See, those are all my bacon bits transferred to my plate before anyone else could eat them. The trick is that if I put them on my plate and then eat those, my plate looks more empty than before and then Mom thinks I've eaten something and will allow me to have the M&Ms Mimi brought for me. Aren't I a genius!?

The girl hasn't figured this step out yet. So she actually ate some of her keesh. What. A. Chump. Plus, she got to sit next to Mimi so you know Mimi would have covered for her if she didn't want to eat anything. I try to teach her these things, but if she's not even willing to help herself then I can't really do anything for her.

Anyway, only the bacon part of this is approved. If you'd like to make it yourself, click here.

Double Dud - Garlic Fish and Garlic Honey Cauliflower

Folks, I've seen a lot of firsts in my day (not my first movie in a theater though... can someone bring this up subtly to my mom? Subtlety is not my strong suit). But this is a first for my blog. A double dud night. I'm not sure if Pinterest was having a two-fer, but Mom tried to make two entirely new things in one night.

I tried tipping her off when I tried some raw cauliflower and then declared that I didn't like it. Just because she put it in the oven and then poured a sauce over it, there was no way it was going to get better. And I think we've already discussed that fish - any kind of fish - is a poor substitute for chicken. But she keeps trying. At least I'll give her that.

Here's what it looked like. I think we're catching on that there is one color pallet in our house. Can you even see the fish? Looks like chicken right? You're living in a den of lies!! The baking fish sent a smell through our house that Mom seemed to like and kept calling "gar-lick". This is a very funny word to say and then try to lick your sister's face.

This is not a blank stare into oblivion. This is me finally realizing that my foreseeable future is filled with my mom experimenting with food and always trying to satisfy Dad's need for "trying something new." I did, eventually, eat some plain rice, but it was a slow road friends.

Even the girl protested. I'm not sure if she's trying to tell Mom to stop in the name of love, or because it's hammer time. But either way, she didn't like this either... Except the rice. She ate that with both hands.

So here is the link to the fish. And here is the link to the cauliflower.

Mom and Dad seemed to like it, but keep in mind folks that it is NOT approved.

Stuffed Peppers

Have I ever mentioned that I love peppers? Green, red, yellow? Doesn't matter. I like to eat them all. So Mom got this idea that if she took something I love and made it into something else, I'd love that too. She's silly isn't she?

The first thing she did to defile my precious peppers was drop them in boiling water. They still look normal but they weren't crunchy anymore. Don't worry, I squeezed them myself when I thought she wasn't looking. I have to be sure.

Then she filled them with meat, beans and keen-wah. WHAT IS GOING ON?! She wasn't picking up on my subtle hints that she was RUINING the peppers. The recipe even told her to use brown rice and she used keen-wah instead. I think I totally would have been on board with brown rice. After they cooked covered for a while, she took them out and put cheese on them.

And they went back in the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese. By this time the girl was getting really upset. She was tired and hungry. Who can blame that poor kid. She was waiting forever!

I ate a bunch of sliced up raw pepper and then gave mom all kinds of shade about her trying to make me eat a trumped up version of a pepper.

And even though the girl spent the first twenty minutes of dinner crying and thrashing in her high chair, she eventually sat on Mom's lap and ate her entire plate. She must have been delirious.

Anyway this is not Pete approved, but the girl and mom sure seemed to like it.

You can make it here, if you also like to ruin a perfectly good pepper.

Hamburger Enchiladas

Remember when we had chicken enchiladas? Yeah, me too. Those were delicious. I didn't have the same warm feeling about these, even though mom told me they had hamburger in them. If there is so much hamburger, what are those little green things? It suspiciously looks like a vegetable. Apparently the recipe said that no one would notice all that keeny, but I did notice. And when Mom pulls a fast one on me like that, I get real suspicious. Plus, I didn't even get to help make any of this so how do I know it's not tainted.

So despite liking hamburger and cheese, two main ingredients in this one, I didn't want to eat any of it.

The girl was going to eat hers but when she noticed I wasn't going to eat mine she stopped. And hey, she had a blueberry to eat. Why couldn't I have a blueberry? Yeah sure I found that on the floor and put it on her tray, but I want one too, from the refrigerator. I was told no.

Whoops Mom forgot to take a picture of the finished product but here you go, it's a photo of some eaten stuff. Dad ate all his but he didn't ask for seconds. Looks like Mom is the only one that liked this one, which she says is too bad because it means we won't likely have it again.

Click here if you want to experiment on your own family.

Not approved