Beer Batter Fish Tacos

Mr.Perfect convinced me to try fish tacos once and I've been a big fan ever since. I've found this simple beer batter recipe is perfect for making my favorite tacos.

What you need:

• 1 cup beer
• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• oil for frying
• 2 pounds thin white fish fillets, cut into 1 inch wide strips (I use tilapia)
• corn tortillas

What you do:
Mix first 3 ingredients.

Heat about 1 inch of oil in frying pan over medium-high heat. Once the oil is in the neighborhood of 360 degrees (I use a pampered chef thermometer) you can begin to fry the fish. Dip fish in batter and then slide into hot oil. (This is where I turn into a sailor and start cursing the burning hot oil. You might want to remove your kids from the room so they don't pick up any new 'vocabulary'.)

Turn fish to brown on all sides. Try to maintain oil at 360 degrees. Each piece of fish should take 2-4 minutes to cook.

Once fish is cooked, drain on paper towels.

Serve in a warm corn tortilla with Cilantro Cole Slaw (mix together a bag of shredded cabbage, 1/4 cup cilantro, juice of a lime, salt and red pepper flakes to taste) and Chipotle Lime Mayo (combine 1/2 cup mayo, 1-2 tablespoons chipotle pepper sauce, 1 tablespoon lime juice).

Totally worth all that cussin'!

Teacher Appreciation Ideas

I love Teachers! They are some of the most important people on the planet. When Teacher Appreciation Week rolls around each year I always have fun little treats to give to Trouble's teacher. Here are a few easy gift ideas for the special teacher in your life.

 Oven Mitt With School Supplies

Bottled Water With Instant Tea

A Gourmet Cookie

Personal Watermelon

 Fortune Cookies

Pencils

Highlighters

Clips

Scissors

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.
-Henry Adams

Happy Mother's Day

Every year I give my mom a homemade Mother's Day card. (She loves homemade just like me.) This year I thought Trouble could give me a hand with our Mother's Day wish.

 Happy Mother's Day To My Mom...

 and all of the wonderful women out there

 that make the world go round!

Easy Pickled Jalapenos

Last year we had a fantastic crop of jalapeno peppers in our garden. We experienced a very mild winter. GUESS WHAT?! My jalapeno plant didn't die! That's right... I'm already getting tons of jalapenos and I still have peppers in the freezer from last year. So I've been pickling the picked peppers and I'm doing it the easy peasy no processing way.

What you need:

• about 9-13 jalapenos
• 2 cloves peeled garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• 1  1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon pickling salt

What you do:
Wash jalapenos and slice to desired thickness. Be careful when handling jalapenos! They will burn your skin and anything you touch including your eyes.

Pack the jalapenos, garlic and bay leaf in a clean pint size jar.

Heat vinegar and salt in a sauce pan until it is almost boiling. Pour the hot vinegar over the peppers.

Seal with the lid and allow to cool. Keep in fridge for several days before using.

The peppers should keep for several months if kept in the fridge.

Look at those beautiful little rings of mouth burning fire!