I make tartar sauce similar to Country Sunshine's, but I put chopped stuffed green olives in mine. Here is my recipe for Shrimp Gumbo. I don't measure anything, but this is the basics. 2 ribs celery 1 bell pepper 1 onion Chop and set aside. In heavy skillet or stock pot, make roux of approximately equal parts flour and oil. Bacon grease is actually best...so if you have that...use that. I'd say about 1/3 cup each or a little more. Stir without stopping over medium heat until roux is very brown, but do not burn. Don't stop stirring either. Add chopped celery, onion and bell pepper. Stir it in and turn off the heat. Transfer if using a skillet to pot or if using a stock pot, add 3 to 4 cans chicken broth. Stir until the roux is dissolved, and on low heat, add a small can of tomato sauce. You can add more or chopped tomatoes. I don't like tomato pieces in mine....so I go with the sauce. I just want it to color the gumbo. The gumbo will not have a pretty color at this stage, but will as you finish it. Bring to a boil and when the celery, onion, bell peppers are cooked done, add a bag of frozen, chopped okra. When the okra is done, add shrimp. I use a lot of shrimp...and if I have crabmeat, I put that in too. You can put in any kind of seafood. Some people put in sausage, but I don't because it over powers the flavor of the gumbo. When I don't have seafood, I use chicken. Season to taste. I use Tony Chachere's creole seasoning and thyme. Tony's is flavored salt, and I use it like salt when cooking. Do not over cook the shrimp. As soon as it turns pink, or the liquid starts to boil, turn it off. Sprinkle a liberal amount of gumbo file and stir in well. That will also change the color a little bit. Stir it well so it doesn't kind of make strings in the liquid. A handful of minced green onions is good to add now too...or parsley. Serve over hot, cooked rice. (When you make the rice, put a big lump of butter in it to give it richer flavor.) My husband shrimped for 45 years...we still have couple of shrimp boats. I have cooked hundreds of pots of gumbo and this is recipe that I have worked on over the years. You could make stock from the shrimp shells, but I have found that chicken broth gives it more flavor. It doesn't taste like chicken...so no worry there. A lot of people don't like okra because they think it is slimy. Frozen okra has been blanched...so it isn't slimy. You can use fresh okra too, and it won't be slimy but I doubt any one who doesn't eat okra would believe me...so I say use frozen.

Tossing in a couple of ways I've been cooking fillets lately - simple, utilitarian, and you can prep it up then when everyone is at the table enjoying the appetizer, you can sneak away and do the cooking in 5 minutes. These are usually tilapia, halibut, cod, or other whitefish. Salmon doesn't taste right if cooked this way, to me. Miso-marinated and simmered - Make a miso soup, cool it to room temp - Marinate fish for 1 hour. Can be fillets or small steaks, less than 6 oz - Meanwhile, bring to boil 1 cup sake, 1 cup miso, 2 TBSP mirin, 1 TBSP soy sauce, 1 TBSP sugar. Turn down to a high simmer and reduce for the hour that the fish is marinating. Should reduce by appx 1/2 to 2/3. If desired, mix 1 TBSP cornstarch with a little water and add that to the sauce. Adjust taste with sugar and salt. - Remove fish from the miso marinade, bring the marinade to a full boil for a few minutes, then turn down to a high simmer and add the fish back. Simmer fish for 5 minutes only. Longer simmering will produce tougher fish. - Place each piece of fish in a small bowl. Add a little of the simmering liquid, to keep the bowl and fish warm, but not to cover the fish. Pour the sauce over the fish. Garnish with something pretty and serve. Milk simmered - Pat fillets dry and salt lightly - Melt two pats of butter to coat bottom of a pan - Optionally, sautee some minced garlic or onion in the butter - Raise heat, place the fillets in the pan and cook for 30 second per side on med-high heat - Pour 1/4" of half-and-half in the pan, turn down heat, simmer for 5 minutes for 1/2" fillets, a few minutes longer for a thick fillet - Remove fish to plate. If desired, thicken liquid with some flour and add another pat of butter plus salt to taste, to use as a pan sauce. Parsley or a little plop of bright green pesto looks nice with this. Wok fried - assumes fillets - coat fillets with cornstarch and salt, knock off excess - Mix up a sauce from 2 TBSP rice wine, 1 TBSP soy sauce, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp rice vinegar, 1 TBSP finely minced ginger, 1 TBSP finely minced garlic, 1 TBSP cornstarch, 1 TBSP chopped green onions, 1 TBSP fine diced red bell pepper (this last is just for color). I like some hot sauce too. - Place wok (a cast iron pan works too) on high flame, leave to heat for 4 minutes. Pour in enough veg oil to be 1/2" deep at center of wok (if using a flat-bottom pan, don't try for 1/2"), leave on high heat until oil starts to shimmer and then to smoke - Slide two fillets into the hot oil (slide, don't splash!), tilt the wok so that the hot oil gets to all parts of the fillets, after 30 seconds flip the fillets (flipping away from you!), after 30 seconds remove the fillets to blot on paper towels. Replenish oil if needed, heat to just smoking, cook two more fillets, etc. - When all fillets are cooked, place them on serving dish. Pour off the oil, return the wok to heat up, then pour in the sauce. Cook until liquid is bubbling and garlic is fragrant but not burned, pour sauce over fish, and serve. - If you want the fish more cooked or more thoroughly sauced - or if they are thicker fillets - lay each fillet in the wok with the sauce just long enough to cook to your desired doneness. I like my fish just barely cooked, personally, so for me this step would be 5 seconds.

I have seen them in Akumal as fish tacos. but for those health conscious âÂÂOnce stripped of its venomous spines, cleaned and filleted like any other fish, the lionfish becomes delectable seafood fare,â NOAA officials enthused. But another government agency, the Food and Drug Administration, now frowns on the âÂÂEat Lionfishâ campaign after tests of nearly 200 lionfish show that more than a quarter exceed federal levels for a toxin that can cause ciguatera, a potentially dangerous fish food poisoning. âÂÂWe certainly donâÂÂt promote any campaign like that since we have found levels above our guidance,â said Alison Robertson, the FDAâÂÂs lead ciguatera researcher for the chemical hazards branch of the Gulf Coast Seafood laboratory. âÂÂIt certainly wouldnâÂÂt be our recommendation at this time.â Robertson said she and other FDA scientists decided to test the lionfish in the summer of 2010 after hearing about NOAAâÂÂs gustatory effort. Of 194 fish tested, 42 percent showed detectable levels of ciguatoxin and 26 percent were above the FDAâÂÂs illness threshold of 0.1 parts per billion. Here is a link that might be useful: original article

Ellen, I'm just finishing up the estate anda final account, I signed her up for Medicaid when she went into the nursing home and now the state wants $9,000 or "they'll sue the estate". OK, the estate has $104.62, LOL, let 'em have it! LindaC, the jellyfish weren't on the beach, they were in the water. Bud did find ONE on the sand after Amanda and Makayla got stung, but I didn't see any. Apparently the warm summer is causing an "infestation", according to the child liftguards. http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/article93042812.html "Martina Jedlicka, spokeswoman for Lack’s Beach Lifeguards, said reports of jelly stings are “so many we don’t count.” “It’s been all day long,” Jedlicka said Monday. “We spray people in the morning until afternoon, but it’s really common for this time in August, that people get stung.” Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/article93042812.html#storylink=cpy It's too bad jellyfish aren't good to eat! The Princess is a "back spot". She was the flier last year, but had a growth spurt and now she's 4 inches taller than I am, she's the tallest on the team and the most athletic, so she lifts, she catches and she does the dance/gymnastic stuff, but she doesn't "fly", thankfully. She got dropped her share of times, LOL. Annie