Fish sticks 3 ways

I'm a lazy cook. There are strict limits on how much time I'll spend preparing meals & how much cleaning will follow. So using prepared foods is a must & good old Trader Joe's is a major resource. If you don't have Trader Joe's in your region, I can only say how sorry I am! While I eat mostly vegan and vegetarian, sometimes I break my code and enjoy some fish. Usually salmon or sushi, but when I miss fried food, I buy a box of TJ's Reduced-fat Fish Sticks and keep them in the freezer for the occasional fried fish splurge. Here are three tasty quick lunches I make with them.

Spicy arugula salad with crunchy fish and Trader Joe's Spicy Peanut Vinegraitte. Ingredients: Arugula + heirloom cherry tomatoes + spoonful of black beans + persian cucumbers + shredded red cabbage + sliced red onion. Add three crunchy fish sticks, cut into squares and tossed with 2 tablespoons Trader Joe's Spicy Peanut Vinaigrette.

Fried fish sandwich with fried Gruyere and schiracha mayo. Ingredients: Double fiber english muffin, toasted + sliced red onion + sliced persian cucumber + red cabbage, arugula and romaine + tomato + sriracha mayo (1 tbs canola mayo with a healthy squirt or two of sriracha) and one slice of gruyere melted directly in the lightly oiled skillet.

Japanese-style fried rice with crunchy fish. Ingredients: slivered collard greens + Trader Joe's Japanese-Style Fried Rice + 3 crunchy fish sticks cut in half. Not shown: crumble roasted seaweed on top.

Holiday movies you may have forgotten about

These are some less obvious holiday films that I will be watching between now and New Year's Eve. 

The Apartment (1960) with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. This sardonic, sometimes dark but ultimately heart-warming film takes place over Christmas and New Year's. Wintery Manhattan in wide-screen black & white at the dawn of the 1960's.

Bachelor Mother (1939) also takes place over the Christmas Holidays, beginning in the toy department of a department store on Christmas Eve --- just before Ginger Rogers receives her pink slip and finds herself mistaken for the mother of an abandoned baby. Again, plenty of snowy New York scenes. Funny and full of charm.

If you like starry-eyed nuns who believe they can get cynical rich guys to donate expensive land to charitable causes while speeding around in jeeps and competing in tennis matches (and lots of snowy scenes of Connecticut hillside locales) then Come to the Stable (1949) might be right up your alley.

Winter New Yorker covers

New Yorker cover Ilonka Karasz Main Street Christmas lights 12/9 1950

 

New Yorker cover Ilonka Karasz logging in winter 1/6 1945

 

New Yorker cover Karasz snowdraped branches 1/29 1966

New Yorker cover Charles Addams snow family trackside 1/14 1980

 

New Yorker cover Charles Addams snowman inside looks out at a storm 1/21 1985

Ready for the holidays

I can't say all of the gift shopping is done, but the tree is up and the holiday music is playing. Here's hoping everyone is enjoying the holidays!

The absolute best way to get through the long dark nights of December is a glowy Christmas Tree.  

Decorated with vintage ornaments.

An outing with my pal to a vegan Vietnamese restaurant for some steamy soup...

Followed by my killer Margaritas...

While watching a great holiday classic like "It's a Wonderful life"