17th engagement anniversary cake and fish fry:)

its our 17th anniversary of the day scott asked me to marry him...in the sierra nevada mountains, by a stream...he sang to me and the rest is history. on our first wedding anniversary, we went out to the lake in Texarkana, stayed in a trailer on the lake, with all the dogs and fished...trot-lined for catfish, specifically, with jerry, scott's daddy. he had all the lines strung and baited so all we had to do was go out and get the fish...so fun, then we had a huge fish fry with all of jerry's huge family...the baby of 11 kids...so tonight in honor of that trip, scott made fried catfish, hushpuppies, fries and a yellow cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting....and i really must go work out again tomorrow!

Cake:

Make a box yellow cake, duncan hines is my favorite and frost it with this:
8 oz cream cheese, softened

4oz butter (1/2 stick) softened

4 cups sifted powdered sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup cocoa powder (or a few oz melted, cooled dark chocolate, like ghirradelli)

whip first two ingredients, then slowly add sugar & cocoa, then adding salt and vanilla, frost cake!

Fish:

1 1/2lb of catfish fillets, cut on diagonal in thin strips

marinade of choice, we used Emeril's, recipe below

1/2 c buttermilk

2 tbs creole mustard (we used dijon)

1 tbs emerils essence seasoning

1 tbs minced garlic

2 tsp red hot sauce (Frank's)

1 cup flour

2/3 cups cornmeal

1 tbs salt

vegi oil for frying

mix first 5 ing. and pour over fish, marinate 1 hr, covered in fridge

preheat your oil to 350

combine flour, cornmeal, salt and bread marinated fish, fry in batches until golden brown, crispy, and cooked through, 3-4 min. transfer to a paper towel lined tray, serve hot with tarter sauce, ketchup, malt vinegar, lemon...whatever...

Hushpuppies: scott used a mix, which i loved and he thought was ok but not cornmealy enuf...look for a mix made by Bass Pro Shop and follow the directions, we added both jalepenos and corn and it was great

Oven fries:

3 russets, 8oz each, peeled, cut lenth wise into 10-12 fry wedges

5 tbs vegi oil...or lard..I won't judge! Use goose fat for all I care, but call me if you do so I can come over for dinner.

Salt & Pepper

preheat oven to 475

soak cut taters in hot tap water for 10 min

rinse and dry thouroughly on papertowput in clean bowl and toss w/1tbs oil

pour rest of oil on baking sheet, spreading evenly and sprinkling with 3/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper.

place potatoes in single layer on baking sheet, cover tightly w/foil and bake 5 min.

take off foil, bake 10-minutes more, then rotate baking sheet for even baking

bake 5-10 min more, then flip taters to brown other side, baking 5-15 min more till crispy brown...so good! Got this recipe from America's test kitchen which is why its so fussy, but it really works! I want to try it with sweet taters too...