The Favorites Files: Baked Pecan Tilapia!

This is one of my favorite ways to make fish. I stole it out of a cookbook I borrowed from the library some time ago. It has earned the rare honor of making "The Book."

My mother gave me this divided little notebook for Christmas some years ago. It already contained some of her favorite recipes and several of the prize-winning recipes that I made for 4-H fair entries growing up. Needless to say, I treasure it.

Space is a premium in this book, so recipes don't get glued down willy-nilly. They have to be tried, tested, tried again, tested again, and (most of all) loved.

Hopefully, these are the recipes that my descendents will seek out.

This little fishy has earned his place.

As the card says, you can substitute other fish for tilapia, though I would like to note that Every New Dayna is not responsible for the outcome. I love tilapia, it's what the original recipe called for, and I've never made it any other way.

What to do: Preheat the oven to 450F. Put the bread crumbs and seasoning together in a shallow dish. Place the fish, one at a time, into the dish and gently shake and turn to coat.

Put the filets into a baking dish. Press the chopped pecans into the top to make a crust. You can be as picky or not picky about it as you want. As you can see from the photos, I'm on the not picky side of things.

Juice the lemon over the filets. Melt the butter and pour it over the fish as well. Toss it in the oven for 15 minutes. Delicious!

Simple Sweet and Spicy Seasoning!

Before we were married, my husband and I each lived pretty close to the San Diego/Tijuana border. His place was so close to the best straight-from-Tijuana tacos that we just ate out when we wanted Mexican. Plus, San Diego has this glorious thing known as the California Burrito. Simply delicious, but I digress.

So yeah, not a lot of need for me to keep taco seasoning around. Now, though, we live in the Northern part of San Diego and good Mexican is much, much harder to find. Once you know better, the Americanized Mexican that exists up here just isn't the same as those Tijuana "El Gordo's" Tacos. (San Diegans know what I'm talkin'bout when I say El Gordo's. Oh yeah.)

I'm not promising El Gordo's, but we love these tacos better than any shop up here, and a lot more than the 45 minute drive to the border. It's the closest we can get without a cow on a spit.

Not to mention it's as easy as dumping some seasonings together.
This recipe seasons 1lb of ground beef for tacos. Adjust accordingly.

Dump.

Shake.

Season.

I think we're done here. Enjoy!