Guess what's for supper tonight.

Mr. Hawthorne took Middle Hawthorne deep sea fishing this summer. This is Middle Hawthorne reeling in something big.

And here's Middle Hawthorne with his Mahi Mahi, locally known as dolphin, but not Flipper dolphin, so don't worry.



















This is Mr. Hawthorne painstakingly removing the bones from the Mahi Mahi with a pair of pliers.


















This is my batter of cake flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. I've just added Club Soda. Mr. Hawthorne said I should have used sparkling water because the batter would have been "crisper." But the batter was damn fine and quite crisp as it was.
See Thomas Keller's French Laundry Cookbook for his tempura batter recipe.

"Perfection," as Aunt Sandy would say, not that she would know perfection if it bit her on the ass.

Here are the pieces of Mahi sprinkled with salt, pepper, and Old Bay Seasoning, ready to go INto the batter.

Ahhh.... Frying fish is a beautiful thing.

In the meantime, I threw some buttah in my pan, sauteed some onions, added some frozen peas, salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar.

Then I added some iceberg lettuce pieces, and let them barely wilt.

Bon appetit, mes amis!

Just to let you know, this was faaaaabulous.

I don't know how the coating could have been any more crisp.

Delicious.

But the best part is yet to come........

And here it is:

Mr. Hawthorne proclaimed that he LOOOOOVES this stove. He loves the gas burners, he loves the look of it, he loves cooking with gas, he LURVES the stove. So now, he's very carefully cleaning the cooktop. He lifted all three grates up, cleaned underneath and replaced the grates. He wants this stove to stay looking like new. He's a Virgo, so he's very anal about these things. That stove will be like new when he finishes.

He looks so cute, holding his roll of paper towels.