Fish Patties!

I DID IT! I actually made a  recipe from my Pinterest board!

My husband and I are veggie-tarians. Or for even more clarification, pescatarians. That means no poultry, no beef, no pork; only fish. His favorite is salmon, mine is starting to become ahi tuna.I never would have known the kabillion different varieties of fish there are until I met him.

Since we eat it everyday, I’m always on the lookout for new recipes. Pinterest has these perty pictures in which the food looks so delicious. Oh and of course they are super easy (sarcasm). I found a pin for some Tilapia burgers with avocado and watermelon salsa. I actually got past the picture and went to visit the accompanying website. Lovely blog by an amusing women.  Well, the recipe did seem kinda easy. (I would later discover that it is similar to a dish I learned from my mother.) There were pictures that also helped me visualize the process I would be starting. I repinned the picture, and kept the idea in mind.  The Mister actually went and got me some avocados once so I could make them. But eh, I wasn’t in the mood to tackle that project, and they eventually rotted on our kitchen counter.

For whatever reason, I decided that today was going to be the day. I was going to make those burgers, and they would be delicious! I skimmed through the recipe again, and texted my husband a few items I would need. My son wanted to help process the fish. I instructed him to hold down the top, and press the “Lo” button. He was amused for about ten seconds. When I turned around to get something from the pantry, he also turned around, and proceeded to turn the dial and crank it up to super speed. He pulled the blender forward a bit until it was teetering on the edge of the counter. He ended up wasting a good handful on the floor, counter, and his foot. Well, no more kitchen time for lil’ man 🙂

Once everything was ground up, I mixed it with my barbecue sauce concoction. I actually took this sauce from the BBQ Salmon Burgers she mentioned in the same blog. Everything was going well …until the grill. I molded some patties, and placed them into my warm pan. Upon first flip, each patty fell apart. They were way too soft! I didn’t know how to fix this one… I thought we would just end up eating sloppy joe-ish sandwiches for dinner. I should mention that while I was mixing my patties and sauce, I had french fries working in hot oil on the back burner. I mean what goes better with burgers?! I had taken out the fries and was keeping them warm in the oven until the rest of the meal was ready. My light bulb clicked on, and I proceeded to cut the back burner back on, and warm up that oil. I laid those patties in the oil the same way my mother taught me to make her famous salmon croquets. The first patty turned out great! It was still soft, but much more manageable. The others kind of fell apart. Eh, that’s fine. You know I served the good one to my husband 🙂 For mine I just molded some of the chunks together, than quickly threw on the top bun before it fell apart.

We sat down to our meal of hot burgers and cold fries.  His final verdict. 7 or 8 out of 10. I got points off for not cutting the burger in half for the presentation! AH I must say, he is a master at plating dishes. Despite that, he said they were very tasty!

I enjoyed making these, and will certainly be perfecting this recipe. I can’t wait until the summer barbecue invitations come rolling in!

BBQ Tilapia Burger

Fashion and Sexuality

Interesting debate in community corrections today. The topic got way off topic, and almost out of hand. We talked about hoochies, hoes, and sluts. Yeah, I think that summed it up LoL.

My professor had been keeping tabs on the ongoing Sandusky sexual abuse scandal. He was curious as to why most male victims remain silent, and why some women never confess to their victimization.  Various reasons were discussed, like the male ego, masculinity, and the responsibility and strength society has placed on our men. I mentioned that women sometimes don’t speak up because they may feel that in some way, they asked to be abused.  That maybe she was wearing a short skirt, maybe she has big boobs, or maybe she was actually flirting with him. All of the above could lead her to take the blame for the rape or abuse.  Let me first be clear before I continue this blog…

RAPE IS IN NO WAY JUSTIFIABLE. No form of sex can be  justified without consent.

All kinds of comments were thrown out by the men in our class. Some of them made sense, others were simply misguided. That being said, lets get to the part that intrigued me the most.

Does what a woman wears project a certain image of her?

Yes, yes it does.

That led us to discuss the reasons women dress a certain way. The men said that women are obsessed with impressing and upstaging other females. They said they want the men to look so that they can be chased. The men felt that women wanted to play that game.

To which we ladies responded, all of the above are correct. Women can be incredibly insecure, competitive, and well, in a word, bitches. We tried to explain that if a woman says no, move on to the next. Heck, the ratio of men to women is something like 7 to 1. Keep trying, because one of those girls is going to willingly give it up. And have fun doing it (LOL)!

Yes, we females should not have to be so concerned with dressing appropriately because some men cannot control their urges. My mom thinks its sad that we can’t all just walk around naked. To that I say, BLAH. That is not the world we live in. We can speak on a utopian society all day, but I choose to focus on our reality.

A middle age Caucasian student agreed with me, in that women need to dress the way they wish to be treated.Call me sexist, ignorant or whatever, I’m just dealing with the real. I don’t like it, but changing that image would be a complete societal reversal. You can’t fight fire with fire. (Or hoes with hoes LoL)

I think Mr. Dave Chappelle summed it up best.

“…just because they dress a certain way, doesn’t mean they are a certain way, don’t ever forget it. But ladies, you must understand that that is  f****** confusing. Now that would be like me, Dave Chappelle the comedian, walking around the streets in a cop uniform. Somebody might run up on me! ‘OH! Thank God. Officer, help us, come on, they are right over here. HELP US!’ I’m not gonna be like ‘Oh, just because I’m dressed this way, does not make me a police officer.’

You understand what I’m saying. It’s like alright ladies, fine, fine, you are not a whore. But you are wearing a whores uniform…”

Oh, but the same can be said for boys who wear their pants sagging off their butts. SO unattractive! If said boy went to a job interview, dressed in such a manner, he would be quickly dismissed. And for good reason! But when he becomes a victim of discrimination, he wants to call the Rev. Al Sharpton to grandstand on TV about the white man.

We also reminded the men that they have a CHOICE to act on that girl with the daisy dukes on. Again, if she isn’t turned on to your advances, move on.

As the last comment of the discussion, I briefly mentioned how middle Eastern and Muslim women dress. I interviewed a veiled Muslim woman once, and she said she wore her hijab (head scarf) because it allowed people to see the real her. That made me think …society places so much importance on superficial things. Once I cut a large amount of my hair off, just for convenience sake, and I was appalled at the opinions of people who I considered friends. I am not my hair. Just as I am not the skirt I am wearing.

If I was covered from head to toe in a burkah, what would I be. Still Jessica. I think the difference between my freak nasty girls, and those quiet covered women, is self-esteem. If you were to lose all those things that you think make you beautiful, what would you have left? Some women don’t have the personality to simply be themselves. To love themselves in all and every which way. That is the start. I hope to teach my daughters that.

You are beautiful, special, and unique. Know who you are, WHOSE you are, and thrive in it.