the joy of cooking (in a new apartment)

last night, inspired by my absolutely gluttonous (and sort of out-of-control disgusting) love affair with summer tomatoes and dave’s relationship with cilantro, i hit the farmer’s market (for the first time!) to gather the ingredients for fish tacos and corn salad. After sampling all kinds, shapes and colors of sliced heirloom tomatoes sprinkled with salt (I am truly beyond help), I paid for a pint of large cherry tomatoes, some gloves of garlic, 4 avocados, 2 ears of corn, 2 crisp jalapenos and 4 limes. i then picked up the extras (tilapia filets, corn torillas, cilantro, salsa and my favorite hot sauce — shout out to my texas amigas! — cholula).

to make the fish, marinate the filets in a bowl containing 2 cloves of garlic, a bunch of chopped cilantro, the juice of 1 lime, 2 chopped jalapenos, course salt, ground black pepper, and a dash of chili powder. let that sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes. toss a little olive oil on a pan, throw the fish on for about 10 minutes, flipping them and letting them get all flaky and delicious. stuff some in a warm corn tortilla (i heat them for 30 seconds each directly on the open flame of the stove, which dave found very “interesting”), add a sprinkle of cheddar cheese or queso blanco, a scoop of salsa and a dash of cholula, and you’re all set. yumyumyum. yum.

to make the salad, use this quick and easy trick from my mom: “instead of peeling and boiling the corn which takes wayyy too long, stick the corn in their husks into the microwave and cook on high for 2 minutes! it’s the same thing!”[ this must be how she does it all (work, cook amazing dinners, and be responsible for my dad, my brother and me in every single aspect of our lives.] then chop up the cherry tomatoes, avocados, and remove the corn with a knife, spilling it all into a large bowl. add a splash of red wine vinegar, a bit of lime juice, salt, pepper, and a couple dashes of hot sauce!

here’s a photo of the fish (everything else was gobbled up too quickly to be documented):