Diving into Betty Crocker (who incidently was never a real person!)

Betty Crocker is about to become my new best friend in the kitchen, a la Julie and Julia … Although in this case, Betty Crocker never existed. Apparently – at least according to Wikipedia – she was made up. And I quote:

"The name was first developed by the Washburn Crosby Company in 1921 as a way to give a personalized response to consumer product questions. The name Betty was selected because it was viewed as a cheery, all-American name. It was paired with the last name Crocker, in honor of William Crocker, a Washburn Crosby Company director."

I'm a little disappointed to read she wasn't a real person. (But I still love her brownies.) However, I needed a guide that is something more than the random Internet searches I have been doing for recipes if I'm going to really learn how to cook. And the Betty Crocker cookbook, at least in my life, is classic. But in my house, it has been very rarely opened. We have the "new edition." My mom has the real classic, one that has been used so much that the pages are discolored and falling out of the book. I love it. So once a week, I'll make a recipe from the book.

Now for the disclaimer: This blog is not endorsed by General Mills, which owns the brand name Betty Crocker. I'll not reprint any recipes that I use from the cookbook in their entirety here, because I'm afraid if someone by absolute random chance happened across this blog they'd sue me for copyright. I'll link to them instead because most of them are indeed online.

Last night I dove right into the fish section of the cookbook, with the second recipe of that section: the pecan-crusted fish fillet. Here's the recipe.

Why start with fish when there are so many great casseroles in that book? Well, I already had the tilapia in the house. Last night was a good example of the low level of my cooking skills. I not only (slightly) burned my tilapia, I also (slightly) burned frozen vegetables. This was coming off my slider victory, so I was a little disappointed.

Anyway, here are a couple shots of the cooking process for this recipe.

The best part was grating this lemon for coating the fish. The citrus smell was amazing.

This is the coating for the fish: chopped pecans (bought that way), bread crumbs and grated lemon peel.

Then I salted and peppered the fillets, dipped them in egg and the coating, and fried them in olive oil in a pan. I probably put too much oil in there or I just cooked them for too long without flipping them, because the coating burned quickly.

Thankfully, it wasn't so burned that it was inedible. I paired the fish with frozen veggies and a microwaved yam, aka sweet potato.

I judge my cooking by my husband's reaction. When he says we should make something again, I know I've found a good recipe. He didn't say that time time around. The fish was the best part (and the only part I actually followed a recipe for) though it wasn't something I'd go out of my way to make again. The sides I chose weren't quite as good. The veggies needed more spice, and the sweet potato with just a little butter was good for me, but would probably be considered bland for others. I foresee experimenting with sweet potatoes to determine the best approach to cooking them. Sounds like another challenge.