To Fry or Not to Fry

I've heard from so many friends and family about my blog! Thanks! My daughter, Misty, made me promise NEVER to give out my cinnamon roll recipe so I guess it will be stuck only in my head the rest of my days.
Bob is forever saying to other people that he just doesn't eat many sweets.......what a made up story that is! Its almost a ritual at night that he says, "What kind of pie do we have? Do we have any cake? What about cookies?"  Last night was the same.  I did have just two pieces of the banana cake left so that worked.  I am always looking ahead and decided at 9:00 last night to make a flan. The Mexicans have a grand idea to serve flan after a big Mexican meal.......its very refreshing.  It is also very easy to make, just involves a little time.

 Take a small heavy skillet and dump in 1/2 cup sugar, cook over med high heat til it starts to dissolve and turn light brown.  Turn the heat to med low and stir til all the lumps are gone and it is a beautiful amber color. This is not hard, just stand there and watch it for a couple of minutes. Pour this into a round glass bowl, pick  up the bowl and swirl it around and up the sides, thats it. Set aside.  In a blender dump 2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks, blend up a bit and then add 1 cup milk, 1 can sweetened condensed milk and I add 1 tsp instant coffee for a little flavor. You can just add vanilla if you prefer. Blend this all up big time, then pour into the prepared bowl. Set the bowl in a 9x13 pan that you have partially filled with HOT water. Carefully put in the oven at 325 and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Take out of the oven and cool for a bit then in frig for about 3 hours. Obviously mine was over night. Today, I ran a knife around the edge, held the bowl in a larger bowl of hot water til it started to loosen, then turned it over and dumped it on a plate.  Its beautiful, easy and delicious! Don't ever buy those pkg ones.........they are just milky jello!

So today Bob says he is really hungry for fish. After living in Mexico where we had lots of fish choices we have found Oklahoma with a very small choice of fish from the store. I know we can go to the lake and catch catfish but no time for that today. So I picked ocean perch. Now Bob, being born and raised in the south  knows two ways to cook, fry in grease and fry in more grease!  So, I decided long ago.......just go with it.........it IS good. Besides, his entire family on both sides have lived long lives and they all cook everything in lots of bacon grease!  I have to plead with him, if he is cooking, not to put bacon grease in my wonderful fresh vegetables!  So, he breaded the fish in cornmeal and fried it crispy golden.  I prepared pan fried potatoes and turnip greens with fresh cut up turnips.  We served this to ourselves, with malt vinegar and cut up fresh limes.  With the flan for dessert, who could ask for a better meal!  It must have been very satisfying as it was only about 3 to 4 minutes later that he was sound asleep in the recliner.